And in other news (and more trivial news, in the context of the unfolding catastrophe in Louisiana) Tom Cruise seems to have gone completely nuts, claiming tht he's led past lives (this one apparently sucks in comparison). And he's just asking for a libel suit from Brooke Shields:

...at his news conference, a Scientology-themed event with selected reporters from his fan club's newsletter, he claimed that Brooke was the lover of the founder of modern psychiatry, Sigmund Freud, in a previous life.

He said: "I could tell you stories about Brooke.

"She was the mistress of Sigmund Freud, you know. Is it any wonder she promotes his discredited theories? She's so confused."

[Update on Wednesday morning]

There seems to be a consensus in comments that this story is a hoax. And it's a good one, because it's not all that unbelievable, based on his past behavior.

Scientology is a loony philosophy. Just perfect for a bunch of loons.

"I was much happier in previous existences when I wrote plays, composed music, conquered nations, discovered continents and developed cures for diseases"

Oh, Tom, don't be coy. Who were you?

Talk about your degenerates... It seems he certainly has declined with each (re)generation. At least Brooke went from mistress to actress not the other way around.

Alas, it seems to be a hoax.

...it seems to be a hoax.

Not that I have trouble believing that (with Tom Cruise, unfortunately, almost anything is believable these days) but what's your basis for that?

Sounds like a drug related psychosis. I have a sister that destroyed her brain on meth. She's outwardly normal (and a good cook) but sincerely believes and sees things that you can't imagine, but in a strangly consistant way.

Developing technology even begins to support her bizarre notions (she says she has a chip behind her eyeball so that 'they' can see everything she does.) In her view, we've all been copied and replaced (by lazer!) and there is no longer any evil in the world. It goes on. I'd been away from my family for many years and it brings me to tears, truly braking my heart, to see my sister like this. She was smart, normal woman before the drugs.

I heard Shirley MacLaine once comment that she's no longer weird because the world has caught up with her. I think she may be right.

It's not like Squirrely Shirley didn't help to get the world that way.

Here's a debunking link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005390498,00.html

It really isn't a very good hoax either. For one thing, the quotes don't sound like Tom Cruise.

For another, "I was much happier in previous existences..." Anyone who has watched TV this summer can see that Cruise is already the happiest man on the planet.

Rand,

This quote is the one that says hoax more clearly than anything:

I only took my present form because Bingodulla, whom all Scientologists worship as the Supreme Thetan, selected me to spread the gospel of Scientology to the glib, uninformed masses.

A devoted Scientologist like Tom Cruise would never, under any circumstances, divulge any of the secret dogma of the cult. This stuff about Thetans from another world invading the planet Earth is held very, very closely within a small circle of high-level initiates.

They keep these stories secret, not just because the stories are so crazy, but because they wait to release more details of their "theology" to a believer until after the believer pays ever-increasing amounts of dues.