I think its more of a cult to be honest.
Not the scientologist who are random members but more the Sea Org branch of it...its complicated to explain but many of them are born into it so its not like random people joining..even the leader of it was someone whose parents were members and when he was 15 he went to go live with L Ron Hubbard on a 'boat'...the boat was to keep them on international waters free from law supervision.
but basically Tom Cruise takes a lot of free labor and 'toys' that Scientology...Hes helped to promote an organization that in my opinion is like a cult at least many parts of it.
An average person spends $250,000 to the church, the wealthy spend millions on the church...the Sea Org who work for scientology get paid i forgot the amount but it was ridiculous like $17 a day...where they live on a compound the internet is fixed so they can not look up anything that is about scientology, they are abused both physically and mentally.
A woman was sexually abused when she was a teenager by an adult man and they told her it was her fault and they never reported it to police but sent her away from her family....when she was an adult she 'woke' or snapped out of it and left the religion and her whole family banished her--she did not speak to her Mother again until her Mother was dying and she 'woke' up...They emotionally black mail people who have families...because lets say you are in scientology and you have a whole family--husband/wife children mother father--If one member of the family leaves the rest are not supposed to talk to you...IF one of the talks to you the others will stop talking to that person as well...So for some it can become like Sophies Choice...
People who just freely join as adults its stupid...but children born into it they are warping their minds at such a young age.
It is actually really fascinating i forgot what channel it is on I think History channel its like 6 hours of it.