PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: The elite Scientology recruitment school where Suri Cruise was headed - and how it feeds children scraps, forces sick students into isolation rooms and inflicts humiliating punishments

  • Former The Delphian School student reveals exclusively to MailOnline that he lost 25 pounds in the first three months and that ‘I’d just live off toast’
  • Aerial photos show a campus where students were not allowed to email anyone outside the campus; it is‘an isolated community in a scary castle’ 
  • Ill students are forced into, basement ‘isolation rooms’ for days and denied any medication
  • There were four shower stalls for the boys but only one had hot water 
  • Katie asserted that she divorced Tom to ‘protect Suri from Scientology’ 

By Chris White

PUBLISHED: 12:22 EST, 17 March 2014 | UPDATED: 21:25 EST, 17 March 2014


This is the Scientology School where Tom Cruise would love to send daughter Suri - and it is a breeding ground for its Sea Org sect.

The Delphian is an exclusive $42,000-a-year school, which teaches pupils about the principles of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s teaching.

Although the school educates on traditional subjects like Mathematics and English, it also has an different side from the norm where there’s ‘isolation rooms’ and an ‘ethics room’.

The private school, which is based just outside the town of Sheridan, in Oregon, teaches children from first to twelfth grade, and Tom probably envisages Suri going there now that she’s about to turn eight years old in April, which enables her to become a full-time boarder.

Scientology central: These aerial shots of The Delphian School near Sheridan, Oregon, reveal where Tom Cruise educated his children Connor and Isabella. The pictures show the main school building along with its living facilities and dreaded isolation cells and ethhics room

Scientology central: These aerial shots of The Delphian School near Sheridan, Oregon, reveal where Tom Cruise educated his children Connor and Isabella. The pictures show the main school building along with its living facilities and dreaded isolation cells and ethhics room

Tom Cruise wanted his daughter Suri to be raised as a Scientologist but Katie Holmes was against it. Daddy's girl: If Scientologist Tom had his way, Suri would be going to The Delphian. Preventing her daughter from becoming a Scientologist was one of the reasons Katie Holmes divorced Tom.

But he’d face fierce resistance from ex-wife Katie Holmes, who’s a staunch Catholic. Tom’s daughter Isabella, adopted with Nicole Kidman, attended the school at the insistence of the Tom Gun star.

‘There’s no question Suri would have ended there if he was still with Katie. Celebrity Scientologists think of The Delphian like they’re at Eton, You’re a wealthy gung-ho Scientologist, so you want to be able to say my kid went to The Delphian. It’s a prestigious thing,’ says Tony Ortega, who runs the Scientology website The Underground Bunker.

On the school’s website, it claims ‘the school community is made up of people of different religious backgrounds and heritages - Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Taoists and Muslims have all been or still are part of our diverse international community.’

Yet it does admit to using L. Ron Hubbard’s controversial Study Tech, which requires pupils to keep repeating word after word until they understand it, no matter how long it takes or what subject it is. It claims that misunderstanding a word is the root of all learning.

Tom Cruise even spoke at Isabella's graduation praising Hubbard's Study Tech and railing against psychiatry and medication, which the school nor Scientology believe in.


EXCLUSIVE. This exclusive aerial photo of The Delphian School, in Sheridan, Oregon, which costs over $40,000 a year illustrates how isolated the campus is. Students are not allowed to make contact with anyone outside.

Isolation: The Delphian does not allow any communication with the outside. Students are not allowed cars.

Experts claim that many go onto become part of the Sea Org, a hardcore Scientology group who have to sign a one billion year contract to the Church.

‘The pupils are more than likely under a lot pressure to join the Sea Orgs. It’s definitely a Sea Org recruitment zone. These kids are second generation Scientologists and born into the Church; recruitment would start at The Delphian.

‘The school seems like a weird, elaborate facility and incredibly expensive. Who would spend all that money on a school when it's not one of the best in the country? The pictures prove that it’s a strange set up.

‘The people sending their kids there are more interested in Scientology rather than going to college. Talented, smart pupils are probably going to turn out okay from it, but it could ruin other kids. They make some noise that anyone can go to school there, but this is a Scientology school, no doubt.’

Past pupils shed even more light on the school with one former member saying that there was a separate ‘Ethics Room’ for pupils who had done wrong.
Day and night: Katie Holmes chose the exclusive Avenues school in the Chelsea area of Manhattan for Suri. With its emphasis on learning foreign languages and the arts, it's a far cry from The Dephian.

Day and night: Katie Holmes chose the exclusive Avenues school in the Chelsea area of Manhattan for Suri. With its emphasis on learning foreign languages and the arts, it's a far cry from The Dephian.

Non-Scientologist Paul Csige, 32, struggled with traditional schools and was sent to The Delphian by his parents in 1996, who thought Study Tech might be a good way for him to learn, but it ended up with Paul spending most of his time in the the ‘Ethics Room’.

To Scientologists, being grilled regarding Ethics, is not uncommon or strange and is a key component of their faith.

The school says: ‘Ethics and integrity orient every aspect of one's activities and relationships. In education, they have a particularly pivotal role. Even the best of programs can fail if these fundamentals receive little attention.

'Having vast amounts of information at one's fingertips doesn't ensure one has been well educated; much less that one will be successful in life.

‘A successful life demands integrity, along with the use of logic and reason, in determining right and wrong. That's why you will see courses, activities and projects interwoven throughout the curriculum that strengthen honesty, accountability and character. We call it developing backbone, and it is central to the success of the Delphi Program.’

But for non-believers, it can be a frightening experience, says Paul.

‘It was presented to me really nice. You could learn at your own pace, teachers act like supervisors, they just guide you. They weren’t supposed to teach, just answer questions if you had any.
Tom at Los Angeles Galaxy football match

Followers: Boith  Isabella and Connor (center), adopted by Tom and Nicole Kidman, attended The Delphian.

‘I felt it was all a bit odd even down to the books we were reading which were all set in the distant past like The Hobbit and Black Beauty. We had to learn every single word. It didn’t matter if it was Maths, English, Biology, whatever,’ says Paul, who’s now a videographer living in Dallas, Oregon. 

‘In the first month, I had real difficulty, as I didn’t believe it, so was sent to the Ethics Room, which is the equivalent of a Principle’s Office, but had no windows. It’s one little room on the second floor.

'Basically I was sat down with the ethics person, a scary lady. You’d have to sit there for 30 minutes without talking.

‘Then I said I didn’t believe it, and I was basically given no choice. There was no alternative option. This was how we learn. Eventually, I had to give the appearance that I believed.

'You’d be in the Ethics Room for all sorts of misdemeanors like if you had an altercation with a student or not done well at your courses.’

Punishment was something to be feared at the school. ‘Incorrect behavior’ wasn’t tolerated and the consequences were much more severe than the average school detention, according to Paul.

‘We had The Golden Rod, which was a post all the infractions committed by students, like if you didn’t do your assignments or if you’d hit a student.
The Delphian

The Delphian campus consist of isolation cells, dorms, a chapel and the kitchen and some outer buildings, presumably for faculty who reside on the property.

‘The school actively encourages students to tell on each other. If you did something wrong, those who reported it were actually praised. It was fear-based with everyone looking over their shoulder. The advice was: “Don’t tell anyone, anything,”’ says Paul.

‘I remember one time when this kid had somehow downloaded porn and told everyone in his class about it, but they all kept quiet. This caused a big scandal. Because no one in the middle school had reported him, they were all sent to ethics and punished.

‘The punishments were mostly chores. There were no janitors, and we did our own cooking and cleaning. We pretty much looked after the school. I once skipped reading a book at a particular level, which was a big problem, as you can’t miss levels. I then had to clean the courtyard for five days in a row.’

For other pupils, they’ve had a far different experience from Paul and have credited The Delphian for having such a strong and supportive network.

Take the example of Jacob, only known by his first name, who says: ‘Since coming to Delphian, what I notice has changed the most about me are my work ethic, my will and interest to learn and my sense of ethics.
Labor intensive: Students are expected

Study tech: L Ron Hubbard's approach to learning was not for ex-student Paul Csige. But was was worse was the food. "I went from 165 to 145" in three months. All he ate was toast.

‘My sense of ethics has also really changed since coming here. I understand, through the academic courses and the school's incredible literature program, that man is basically good and tries to stop himself from committing harmful - sometimes in elaborate, even unknowing, ways.

'I can no longer spot trash in the hallway without having to stop to pick it up. That is the amount of responsibility I now feel for this place. I have realized truly that one must be good and comply with the morals of the group to be able to survive well. I wouldn't have gained any of this in public school.’

But for others, like Paul, who don’t have the same sort of connection to the school like a Scientologist would naturally have, it can feel like a prison and after a year he asked his parents to withdraw him completely.

He says: ‘The school is so isolated from everywhere else. We never mixed with the local people, hardly ever saw other school pupils, weren’t allowed cars, weren’t allowed to leave.

'There was no communication with the outside world. The only time we had email was internally. We were an isolated community in a scary castle.

‘We all lived on campus and had dorms on the third floor with two or three people per room. One side for the boys and another for the girls. The wing had no carpet. There was one communal bathroom for all the boys, I had to go at odd times, as there were only four shower stalls and just one had hot water.
Artsy

Streetwise: Suri's school, is in the heart of Manhattan. Tuition is $42,000 a year, the same as The Delphian

‘There was a morning call and you had to be outside your room for a checklist. Only one person ever tried to run away - but we never saw him again!

‘It was extremely regimented. There was one hour a day when you had freedom. You had morning classes, lunch, afternoon classes, dinner, then work detail. We all had a job, I worked in the kitchen.

‘You’d finish the night in the study hall doing more work and then had about an hour to relax. We’d go to the recreation room where you could buy soda or chips; that is if you’d saved up enough allowance.

‘The food was otherwise pretty bad, I lost about 25lbs in the first 3 months, I went down from 165 to 140lbs. I’d just live off toast. As I worked in the kitchen, I knew exactly what happened to the food and not one bit was ever wasted. All the food was used, scraps kept being reused and reused until it was boiled down to a broth.

‘The closest it was to prison was the isolation ward when you got a cold, which was down in the basement. There were no windows down there; it was pretty horrible.
Day and night: Katie Holmes chose the exclusive Avenues school in the Chelsea area of Manhattan for Suri. With its emphasis on the arts, it's a far cry from The Dephian.

Homeward bound: Katie is often seen picking Suri up from school in their SUV. They live nearby

'Scientologists said they didn’t believe in medicine, the body should heal itself, so they’d put you in isolation. That was extremely unpleasant, it was awful. And there was no such thing as depression or any mental illness, we were always told: “We don’t believe in mental health, we don’t believe in medication.”

‘I didn’t really understand about it all until later when I read up on it. I refused to go back after a year, I said no way!’

But to The Delphian, that’s the school’s way of life and is character building for young people. As it says in the pupil’s handbook: ‘More than three-quarters of our students are boarders, and they do more than live here - they own the school.

'Our students take responsibility for everything from keeping their dormitories clean to caring for the grounds to managing the snack bar and planning and organizing weekend trips.’

Comments (148)

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Creepy cult.

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This is hilarious!!! I'm what they consider a "non believer" and I went to this school for 4 years. Surprise! I'm normal. :) I went to college. got a good job. got married. advanced at said job. had a baby WITHOUT two heads. Super normal. NONE of the horrible things stated as fact in this article are true for me or my classmates (which he may be one of them - we're about the same age). If you lost weight, it's because you didn't eat the food served in the dining room for each and every meal. Which, in my opinion, was pretty good most of the time. We couldn't leave? Yes we could - we just couldn't do it on our own because WE WERE KIDS! We did all the cooking and cleaning? That's a complete lie. The word you're looking for is we had "chores." For one hour a day we did a chore. I could go on, but I won't. This kid just wants attention. This school was awesome for me and everyone I know.

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This religion is only slightly more insane than any other religion. They all make incredible claims that cannot be verified. They all want people to believe the unbelievable to gain control over them (and their money). The bible has multi-headed monsters, calls bats birds, and says only 144,000 men will make it in the rapture. But those incredible claims of fact are conveniently ignored by almost everyone. Sure, some history is accurate, but fiction until further notice it remains, i.e. The Illiad. Wow. These folks imho are all mentally weak and in denial... and all because we fear death so much. Silly, really, we should realize we are all just a part of the beautiful circle of life and live our lives accordingly. That much I know is true.

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Unlike the majority of cults, Scientology is extremely wealthy and has an almost endless cash flow and a legion of followers from all walks of life with a vast arrays of expertise. From the man (or woman) who collects the rubbish in your bin to the Solicitor who helps you with that legal problem and even the doctor you see when you need emergency care at a hospital.

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I went to and graduated the Delphian School. I loved it!!! And still love it. I had gone for a 2 summers (in 93 and 94) and had a great time on field trips while getting help with subjects that I had been struggling with, like Algebra and Geometry, subjects I now love. When I was 16 and a sophomore in public school, I was really struggling. I wanted a new start and a good education. I wasn't sure my parents would be able to afford Delphi, but when I told them I wanted to go during the full year, they pulled it off. My life became so much better when I started going there. I made good friends, still some of my best friends. I got a stellar education, and enjoyed subjects I never liked before. I left Delphi feeling far more confident about my education & myself. I still feel in debt to Delphi and its staff for the experience I had there. This article contains so many things that are untrue, and its sad that people will read this and think badly about such an amazing place.

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I read the book by one if the miscavage family, I'm fascinated by it all, and the stupidity of the adults for believing in it all...

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Religion is bad for you. Fact.

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sorry I don't believe it, sounds like a smear campaign everyone knows Europe is afraid of them. I really don't understand why they would rather worship their corrupt government leaders

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This religion is only slightly more insane than any other religion. They all make incredible claims that cannot be verified. They all want people to believe the unbelievable to gain control over them (and their money). The bible has multi-headed monsters, calls bats birds, and says only 144,000 men will make it in the rapture. But those incredible claims of fact are conveniently ignored by almost everyone. Sure, some history is accurate, but fiction until further notice it remains, i.e. The Illiad. Wow. These folks imho are all mentally weak and in denial... and all because we fear death so much. Silly, really, we should realize we are all just a part of the beautiful circle of life and live our lives accordingly. That much I know is true.

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Poor children :(

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