Tom Cruise Scientology Video Surfaces and Scares

there are never quite enough idling white vans to stop the rapid proliferation of mouth-foaming, glassy-eyed, Scientological diatribes on the internets, and so [Gawker] has reposted the footage. Don't let the Mission Impossible-theme loop or the shutter-effect edits throw you: The United Artists co-figurehead has never sounded more focused or enlightened about his true mission--ridding the world of spectatorism, by never hesitating to put his ethics into someone else.

A biography and 4-year-old video of Tom Cruise are calling attention to the actor's belief in Scientology.

Andrew Morton, author of "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography," published Tuesday by St. Martin's Press, alleges that the 45-year-old actor ranks second in command in the Church of Scientology.

"This is a fair, evenhanded treatment of Tom Cruise's life," Morton said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "He's a man who deserves attention."

The church responded with a 15-page statement, calling the book "a bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies" and saying Cruise "is a Scientology parishioner and holds no official or unofficial position in the Church hierarchy."

The public affairs office for the Church of Scientology didn't respond to a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Rogers & Cowan, the publicity firm that represents Cruise, issued a statement criticizing Morton for not interviewing "one person who has known or worked with Tom" in the past 25 years. The statement also derides Morton for writing "outlandish and malicious lies to sell books."

The book's publication comes as a 2004 video of Cruise extolling Scientology's virtues made its way to the Internet. The video was still on gossip Web site Gawker.com on Tuesday.

Hubbard describes key Incidents said to have occurred to thetans during the past few trillion years. Generally speaking, these followed a consistent pattern. A hostile alien civilization would capture free thetans and brainwash them with implants designed to confuse them or otherwise render them more amenable to control.

Usually, instances of implantation are termed Incidents, while the subject of the implants are often termed Goals, but this is not a set-in-stone rule. Not all Incidents deal with implants; some are simply unusual events that have traumatized thetans over the millenia.

This trauma is said to linger for trillions of years and causes unresolved psychological problems in the present day. According to Hubbard, only Scientology methods can resolve the burdens left by such traumas.