Dressed in jeans and a T- shirt, perched

 

Dressed in jeans and a T- shirt, perched on the sofa of her father's modest Californian home, there is little to link Astra Wood-craft with Nicole Kidman.

The British-born single mother has never been to a showbiz party, but shares something far more fundamental with the soon-to-be-ex Mrs Tom Cruise.

According to Kidman's friends, the actress, who was raised a Roman Catholic in Australia, has become disillusioned with Scientology - in which Cruise is so active - and her desire to distance the couple's two adopted children from the church's teachings is cited as one of the main reasons behind their marriage break-up.

It is a view Astra, 22, understands only too well. She is adamant her two-year- old daughter Kate will not be raised according to the doctrines of Scientology's founder, the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

'I want Kate to have a normal childhood and make her own decisions in life,' she says.

After 19 years as a Scientologist, Astra knows what she is talking about. She spent much of her childhood in the church's strictest order - the Sea Organisation - and her story provides a rare insight into the workings of Scientology, which numbers some of Hollywood's biggest names among its adherents.

Her views are shared by Teresa Summers, 42, who works for the Florida-based Lisa McPherson Trust, an organisation which vehemently opposes Scientology.

Theresa was a Scientologist for 20 years, working for the Sea Organisation in a Scientology school, though she did not have a degree or formal teacher training.

'I didn't teach. The children had worksheets and I just checked them and helped them look up a word if they had difficulty with something,' she says.

If her pupils still had difficulties, they would be sent to attend 'ethics' sessions at

which they would be hooked up to a machine called a 'learning accelerator', similar to a type of lie detector.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-24182/Nicoles-Scientology-nightmare.html#ixzz3FdDC5GS4
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