Hundreds of teenagers have quickly racked up millions of views on TikTok by entering several buildings belonging to the Church of Scientology while recording what they found inside.
Scientology has long been considered many things: an otherworldly religious philosophy, a hierarchical corporate structure and a cult. The religion centers on the immortality of the soul, though the concept itself lacks simplicity.
Outside of the beliefs and values of the church, Scientology is notoriously known and heavily criticized for allegedly being an authoritarian cult that exploits its members financially.
Junior Bug Velasquez comments on their otherworldly interactions with this cult.
“I’ve seen buildings and heard stories of how predatory they are towards people in crisis,” Velasquez said. “One of my closest friends was also in a cult for a few years, and it still affects him to this day. It’s wrong to take advantage of people for money and power.”
Recently, however, hundreds of high schoolers have taken on the mission of breaking into these buildings and participating in what the internet has called a “speed run”, where individuals run through the halls of the church and record as much as possible. These recent attempts have prompted church security guards to undertake upgrades and make significant arrests of these “intruders.”
These attempts at breaking in, however, have significant hidden benefits.
This mass TikTok trend has acted as a disruptive, viral form of protest that forces open a notoriously secretive organization, maps its buildings and challenges its authority directly through public mockery.
Junior Nathaniel Pielak elaborates on the particular benefits of Scientology speed running. “I think that it is an important part of a broader movement to uncover truth and shed light on an important issue of corruption,” Pielak said.
The church has also faced multiple high-profile lawsuits and public allegations of child trafficking and forced labor. These speedruns fostered the quick reveal of the harsh reality and reckless behaviors of Scientology.
“It brings these wrongdoings into a more public setting. The speedruns are a way of combining modern culture movements with a legacy of investigative journalism,” Pielak added.
Attorney Neil L. Glazer shares his opinion on Scientology’s infamy with child trafficking. “For years, Scientology has exploited defenseless children and groomed them for a lifetime of servitude. Our clients were subjected to systematic indoctrination and manipulation that normalizes extremely abusive treatment,” Glazer said. “Throughout their formative years and into adulthood, they were forced to perform labor under unimaginable conditions.”
Scientology, in turn, due to recent TikTok trends, has become more transparent to the public eye. However, there are many looming secrets that are yet to be revealed, and could potentially be discovered through further trespassing action.
