It's as nutty as you think it is, but what should we expect from a religion founded by a Sci-Fi author?
The St. Petersburg Times is running a three-part series about the inner working of the cult-like, celebrity-heavy religious group.
It starts like this:
The leader of the Church of Scientology strode into the room with a boom box and an announcement: Time for a game of musical chairs.David Miscavige had kept more than 30 members of his church's executive staff cooped up for weeks in a small office building outside Los Angeles, not letting them leave except to grab a shower. They slept on the floor, their food carted in.
Their assignment was to develop strategic plans for the church. But the leader trashed their every idea and berated them as incompetents and enemies, of him and the church.
Prove your devotion, Miscavige told them, by winning at musical chairs. Everyone else losers, all of you will be banished to Scientology outposts around the world. If families are split up, too bad.
To the music of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody they played through the night, parading around a conference room in their Navy-style uniforms, grown men and women wrestling over chairs.
Here's a clip from a video called "Scientology: Inside the Cult" from the U.K.: