TV actor Jason Beghe's revealing video has been pulled from youtube but he's still talking openly about how the cult separated him from about $1 million of his money, and how he came to discover Scientology was just so much alien bullshit. It was the time he was almost killed in a car accident and thought how wrong it was because he, like fellow Operating Thetan V Tom Cruise, is “supposed to be practically immortal.”
Beghe left Scientology seven months ago, after he had spent 12 years in the organization. The actor has appeared in 'Criminal Minds', 'Everwood', 'JAG' and 'Numb3rs'. Since he came out of the Scientology dark woods on March 14, he’s becoming much better known for being the cult's first celebrity defector.
Originally from New York, Beghe turned a modeling career into television acting with relative ease. “I’m one of those guys who works. I never had a problem getting a job,” he told the Village Voice. “I never became a huge star, but I never stopped working.”
When he was first hooked on Scientology brainwashing, he began paying huge sums of money to the cult to reach higher "levels". He remembers thinking, “Let me do this 'clear' thing,” figuring that it might cost as much as $10,000. Instead, he was asked for $50,000 to start his progress on the Bridge [to higher levels]. “I probably had $60,000 to my name. But I plunked it down.”
Over the next year, Beghe says he rocketed through Scientology’s expensive levels like no one else. Along the way, he got plenty of special treatment. “Celebrity Center. My own private sauna. Everybody kissing my ass, which I was uncomfortable with. But nice people. Couldn’t be nicer,” he says.
“I was (leader) David Miscavige’s favorite boy, so they were doing all kinds of things to keep me happy,” he says. “I moved up the Bridge faster than anyone in history. I went at it 24/7 for about a year. I went clear. Got to OT V. I was a trained auditor.” (OT stands for “operating thetan,” and the highest level in the church is said to be OT VIII.)
“I’m farther up the Bridge than John Travolta, and he’s been in there a thousand years. He’s not a trained auditor.” To Beghe, some of the celebrities “seemed like dilettantes,” enjoying the perks but not really working hard at being Scientologists.
“I was on a spiritual journey. I wasn’t trying to make money, or influence people. I just wanted to try it.”
His wife also trained as a Scientologist and, like Beghe, reached OT V. Over his twelve years in the church, Beghe estimates that he gave Scientology about a million dollars.
“Being a celebrity, I got the greatest fucking auditors, case supervisors, all the best trained people. And they fucked me up this bad—and they admitted they did—but what about the poor schmoe at Orange County org? They don’t know what they’re doing. It certainly doesn’t deliver what’s promised.”
Aske if he was worried about what going public will do to his career, he responded: “I’m probably not going to be doing any movies for United Artists any time soon." (Referring to the Cruise-owned studio.)
“I don’t want to get bitter, and I don’t want to hurt anybody,” he says. But he’s determined to help others by telling them what he’s learned. “Scientology seduces you into thinking that it’s a process through which you can truly become yourself. But ultimately, what it turns you into is a Scientologist—a brainwashed version of yourself.”
Looking back on the cult, Beghe says, "...The church is scary. These are bad motherf**kers.”
Read the full article at The Village Voice.
