Scientology was invented by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard, allegedly as a get-rich-quick scheme. His most famous work was probably "Battlefield Earth." His books aren't very good, but they are all best sellers, because he required early scientologists to buy them. Over time, the religion of scientology evolved as more and more people "joined" and moved up in the hierarchy. The basic premise is that we have to purge ourselves of negative energy in order to live healthy, fruitful, lives, and this is accomplished through some sessions with a psychiatrist-like helper and some fake technology. At some point, though, as members started to reach the end of the process, he came up with a brilliant idea: We are all reincarnated many times from four billion year old aliens called "thetans," and we have to "clear" our past lives also. The church of scientology is considered a cult in some countries and has been banned in Germany. They specifically target celebrities in order to give themselves some P.R. I think the pianist Chick Corea is a scientologist, also. It's pretty fascinating stuff, from what-will-someone-think-of-next and what-anyone-will-believe standpoints.
