Tom Cruise defends Scientology: “It’s a beautiful religion”

At a glance, East Grinstead – nestled among the rolling green hills of Sussex about 30 miles south of London – is a perfectly normal place.

Quaint pubs, charming tearooms and England’s longest row of 14th-century half-timbered buildings make up this quiet market town. 

Spend a little time there, however, and you may notice stranger things. Some of the locals may bear a curious resemblance to waxwork extras from the Barbie movie – you might catch others dancing feverishly in the woods at dusk, naked.

For whereas tourists merely stop by and stare, the sects have long since moved in.

Long gone are the days when the familiar Anglican church held sway over this town of 26,000. Nowadays, if there’s one thing every religion you have and haven’t heard of agrees upon, it’s that this mysterious place is home.

READ MORE: Sexy fireworks show cancelled because people would watch for free

Those who didn’t get into sourdough breadmaking during lockdown were most likely too busy starting a podcast. Nick Hilton from East Grinstead was, thankfully, one of them.

Having grown up in nearby Turners Hill and gone to school there, in the six-part “The Town That Didn’t Stare”, he recalls: “I think the earliest whisperings I heard about East Grinstead were when I was playing rugby, as a boy, at the club which is right next to Saint Hill Manor, the home of the Scientologists.

“It was just offhand comments, the way you’d talk about very eccentric neighbours. But it’s led to a lifetime of curiosity about what was going on in there, behind those immaculately maintained gates.”

Just south of town, Saint Hill Manor was purchased by L. Ron Hubbard from an Indian maharajah back in 1959, and served as the religion-cum-cult’s Vatican for many years. It remains Scientology’s UK HQ to this day. 

Arguably the Church’s most famous disciple, actor Tom Cruise, reportedly stayed in a luxury wing of the estate over the pandemic, and John Travolta (perhaps its second-most famous member) outed himself as a guest there in 2011 after trying to book a table at the local KFC.

About 1,000 members live in East Grinstead, according to the Scientologists, blending seamlessly into town life, running some 50 local businesses.

Its fake-tanned California celebrity followers may be among the least striking of fringe followers you encounter.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Don’t miss…
‘Most beautiful village in England’ is a ‘must-see'[INSIGHT]
UK town named one of the best places to live with hardly any second homeowners[REPORT]
Risky Business star unrecognisable after shooting to fame alongside Tom Cruise[REVEAL]

Also in the late Fifties, Mormon leader David O. McKay set up shop in East Grinstead. 

The “London England Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” is to be found in Newchapel – three miles north yet still quite a trek from London – easy to spot with its 194-foot spire.

More obscure organisations lurking include Rosicrucians, an esoteric spiritual and cultural movement that dating back to the 17th century, and Opus Dei, the arcane faction of the Catholic church to which Dan Brown’s murdering albino monk belonged in the 2003 bestseller “The Da Vinci Code”.

Dowsers and geomancers are also said to believe the earth on which East Grinstead was built conceals a network of “ley lines” between the town’s varied historic structures emitting waves of spiritual energy, and druids have been rumoured to dance naked at night in a nearby forest.

Each episode of Nick Hilton’s podcast comes with theme music reminiscent of “Stranger Things” or, the perhaps more apt comparison, “Twin Peaks”.

By exploring all of East Grinstead’s obscurities, throughout the series he edges towards working out why all these fanatics had descended on the unsuspecting town.

For one the town happens to lie directly on the Prime Meridien, the invisible line that divides the Eastern and Western hemispheres and stretches right round the globe, from North Pole to South – a common photo op for tourists straddling either side. The real reason, he concludes, is in fact far less exciting. 

The collection of grandiose country estates in the High Weald were requisitioned by the Army during the war and sold-off in a fire-sale soon after. Conveniently close to London, and later Gatwick Airport, East Grinstead proved ideal for the wealth and globally ambitious Americans with a taste for old English aristocratic splendour.

Fancy a visit? It’s just an hour’s train ride away from central London – in whose West End the stellarly-reviewed “The Book of Mormon” has been on stage for a decade.

Source: Read Full Article