Ex-Scientologist Reveals List of How Church Targeted A-List Celebrities

An ex-Scientologist has come forward to reveal a list of celebrities she claims the church was [...]

An ex-Scientologist has come forward to reveal a list of celebrities she claims the church was actively pursuing to turn into converts.

Karen Schless Pressley recently spoke with reporters and divulged that when she was the Commanding Officer of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre Network, she witnessed "down and dirty" tactics by the church to get celebrities to join them.

"We were always on the hunt for 'raw meat.' Our goal was to use existing celebrities to be the recruiters and we would teach them how to go out and contact people and bring them to understanding," Pressley said. "That is the process of being on the hunt for raw meat: contact, handling, salvage, bring to understanding."

Pressley also revealed that Scientology recruiters would find out where celebrities were filming and attempt to get onto the studio lots or sets, and would also ask celebrities who were already "stable" to provide lists of their celebrity friends who they think would benefit from the church, according to The Daily Mail.

She claims the list of celebrities included Brad Pitt, Demi Moore, Sean Penn and Juliette Lewis, among others. Pressley recently published Escaping Scientology, An Insider's True Story, a memoir of her time in Scientology.

Pressley also partnered with actress Leah Remini for an episode of Leah Remini's Scientology the Aftermath. Remini famously exited from Scientology and has taken up a personal crusade to take on the religion.

Earlier this year, Remini took on Scientology's most well-known proponent, Tom Cruise, going so far as calling Cruise "diabolical." During a Reddit AMA to promote the second season of Kevin Can Wait, Remini was asked if she thought Cruise was a "good person."

"No! Just going to get straight to it, no! There is a public persona of the guy who looks at you directly in the eye and shakes your hand and hugs you and is an attentive person to you and there's the person behind the mask who is a completely different person," she bluntly responded.

"Someone could say we all have that — what we are to the public and who we are behind the scenes, but the people who are around Tom and work for Tom, not even people who are Scientologists, they will say he is diabolical," she added.

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