If you’ve spent more than five minutes on TikTok lately, you might think there’s a nationwide movement of people sprinting into Scientology centers. People are artfully dodging and weaving around the strangely lackadaisical and rather stiff security, juking around stuffy staff members, and trying their hardest to plunge the depths of a pseudo-holy house of religion to rack up as many social media validation points as they can.
I’ve seen talk about it spread to a few publications now, so before it gets too big, I think we should clarify that the clips circulating make it seem like it’s a much bigger trend than it actually is. From the look of it, it seems like it’s actually built off a handful of clips that are endlessly recycled, stitched together in compilations, and reacted to by others, all to the point that it now feels on the verge of omnipresence.
It’s not. Like many trends, it’s just the handiwork of a handful of people that’s now being extrapolated to many more than are actually participating.
Deepest recorded run in scientology #hollywood #la #scientology
Gen Z Is Weirdly Obsessed With ‘Scientology Runs.’ Here’s Why.
In case you’re still lost as to what the heck is going on, a Scientology Run is when people film themselves charging into a Church of Scientology building to see how far they can get before being caught and booted out. It’s a notoriously secretive religion, so it turns the whole place into an action-movie set piece where the protagonist is trying to infiltrate a compound while fending off its legion of foot soldiers, clad in terrifying white button-ups with black vests. Because I guess the deeper you go into a Scientology center, the more everyone looks like the valet attendants that should be greeting you on the outside of it?
On the one hand, this is very funny. On the other hand, however, it’s still very funny, but also maybe we shouldn’t turn running full speed into a house of religion, no matter how hokey that religion may be, into a trend? Yes, the whole enterprise is shady at best, and they believe in some weird space alien magic. They also have a history of harassing former members and anyone who dares to pull back the veil on the secretive organization’s scare tactics. But maybe a better use of Scientology infiltration tactics would be an investigative piece rather than a viral speed run.
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