Source: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/…
Evening Standard (London), Oct 23, 2006, by DAVID COHEN

But suddenly, Rodriguez and the rest of the 2,000 devotees begin whooping as, a few seats to our left, the blue-eyed American leader of the Scientologists, David Miscavige, ascends the red-carpeted dais to cut the ribbon and mark, amid an explosion of confetti, the opening of their flagship centre.

[…]

I expect the evening to have something a spiritual dimension - after all, Scientology calls itself a religion - but what happens next is truly eye-opening.

Up front, David Miscavige is dramatically - and somewhat bizarrely - attacking psychiatrists, his words backed by clips from a Scientology-produced DVD are broadcast on four giant high- definition TV screens and sensationally called: Psychiatry - an industry of death.”

“A woman is safer in a park at midnight than on a psychiatrist’s couch,” booms Miscavige, backed by savage graphics of psychiatrists - or “psychs” as he calls them - being machine-gunned out of existence.

Tom Cruise once publicly criticised a postnatally-depressed Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants, for which he later apologised, but I am now witnessing the raw dogma that lies behind his outburst.

As Miscavige begins to crescendo “our next step is eradicating psychiatry from this planet, we will triumph!” the audience rise as one, wildly clapping and cheering.

I look around, half expecting people to be rolling their eyes at this ridiculous, over-the-top message, but instead they’re staring at the screens with a rapturous gaze, almost as if they are hypnotised. A few minutes later, Miscavige crescendos again, and, on cue, the audience rise to hail the chief.

Occasionally, they shout:

“To LRH”, toasting the American science-fiction author who 54 years ago published a self-help philosophy called “dianetics” and kick-started a religion.

I feel as if I have been parachuted into a tent inhabited by 6,000 aliens.

God help anyone in the audience who happens to be a psychiatrist! For three hours, a succession of speakers - all with the same automaton-like delivery - assail the audience with the “unprecedented worldwide achievements” of Scientology’s anti-drugs and anti-recidivist outreach programmes, Narconon and Criminon, portraying themselves as a vigilante force spreading peace to mankind.

I suddenly grasp why Germany has taken such a hard line against Scientologists, virtually hounding them out of the country. Such gatherings must feel too close to home, uncomfortably reminding them of Nazis rallies at Nuremberg.

[…]

Back on Queen Victoria Street, what is striking is how different David Miscavige sounds from the way he’d spoken on Friday night. Here, in the presence of guests from the outside world, including City of London Police Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley, he makes no mention about “eliminating psychs”.