There are often strange characters roaming around the entrances to underground public transportation systems, and BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, is no exception. There are the guys begging for your spare quarters or trying to lift you of your 10¢ ticket; there are the buskers filling the concrete underground with steel drum beats or guitar ditties, and after midnight, there are more than a few people over the legal limit.
But one day, as I was exiting in downtown San Francisco, I saw something I had never seen before. Three young, professional looking people were sitting at a red and white checkered table. From a distance, I could read their sign, advertising “Free Stress Tests!” On the table were books and what looked to be a blood pressure reader. It was rush hour and I thought a local health team was out showing the masses just how stressed out they are. But that didn’t explain the five policemen standing around the table, nor the large man shouting, to no one in particular and everyone at once, “This is bullshit; it’s all lies, they’re liars!” As I walked closer to the table, intrigued like the rest of the commuters around me, it all became clear. Next to a pile of pamphlets were the nicely stacked books, and on the cover: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard. These weren’t health workers; these were Scientologists.
Though scientology is currently enjoying a heightened state of fame—or notoriety, depending on how you see it—due to its high profile celebrity endorsements, it has been around since well before Tom Cruise was old enough to preach about it. L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific science fiction writer, wrote the best selling self-help book Dianetics in 1950, and from these teachings, the Church of Scientology was born. The first church was built in downtown Los Angeles in 1954, and although the main headquarters are in Clearwater, Florida, Hollywood is what most people associate with Scientology. The church has propagated this notion, founding eleven “Celebrity Centres” around the world, the most famous a stone’s throw from Hollywood. Here you might find Tom Cruise, John Travolta, or Kirstie Alley cavorting under the eight-cornered cross.
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