Backstreet Boy AJ McLean Thinks Scientology Tried to ‘Brainwash’ Him
One question that I don’t think there’s a good answer for is “Is Scientology any different from any other religion?” I don’t really think it is. Even if you believe all of the worst allegations against the church are true, did they really do anything that, say, the Catholic Church hasn’t?
AJ McLean of The Backstreet Boys said that he thinks Scientology tried to “brainwash” him during a visit to the church’s Celebrity Center on his podcast when Leah Remini was a guest.
‘I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know anything about it. But I wanted to not go alone, so I took a friend with me.’
‘We got a tour of the facility and they brought us to this media room and they sat us down and they said “Would you mind watching this short film?”‘
‘And we watched this short film, it was about 15 minutes long, and then I said “OK, well, that was interesting” and we went to leave and the door was locked.
‘They wouldn’t let us out and they replayed the same film again,’ he said. ‘We didn’t get out of that room for about 15 minutes [or longer.] They played it three times until someone heard me knocking.’
AJ said he was ‘freaked out,’ sure that they were using some sort of ‘brainwashing technique’ which did not ‘seem normal.’
That is a little out of the ordinary, but what religion doesn’t try to convert you to it?
Okay, they usually don’t lock you in a room with a video, but still.
I would bet money that Tom Cruise was in that recruitment video. I can’t imagine any Scientology video doesn’t have him in it.