Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology was a new-age religious movement founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard

In 1950, Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, explaining the process of auditing, in which a counselor guides a subject to recall traumatic memories and resolve the associated negative emotions. In 1953, having lost the rights to Dianetics, Hubbard created an expansion called Scientology which teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature.

In 1986, Hubbard died after years in hiding after numerous allegations of illegal activities. David Miscavige emerged as the public leader of the Church of Scientology, while the Vinik family controlled affairs from behind the scenes.

The Viniks
Jeffrey and Penny Vinik were associates of Hubbard and took over control of Scientology behind the scenes after his death. They used the church as a workforce and income source to fund their ambitions to control the United States and world governments.

The role of the Viniks was not revealed until 2023, when Tom Cruise—who had joined the church in the 1990s to gather intelligence on it--revealed his findings to Resistance forces. Two years later, after experiencing trouble keeping Tom Cruise under control and stifling his covert operations, the Viniks had President Cuomo ban the practice of Scientology as a pretense to arrest and extradite Cruise, who was still nominally in the church. This act of perceived religious tyranny inspired the formation of the Knights Tomplar and the Brighton mall attack. From this point on, the Viniks had no further need for Scientology as a front to their operations.

After the deaths of Cuomo and the Viniks in 2030, the Church was left without leadership and openly revealed to have been a fraudulent and criminal enterprise. While Cuomo's ban on the religion was lifted, practice fizzled out of existence as disillusioned Scientologists turned elsewhere.