As of late, influencers across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media apps have been entering, or “raiding,” scientology buildings across the United States.
The reason? To map out the buildings.
It is commonly known as the most secretive religion in the United States, and now people are trying to figure out what they are hiding. The infiltrators of the buildings commonly wear costumes, masks, or some way to mask their true identity. The deepest recorded “run” is believed to have occurred in Los Angeles on April 25, 2026, when a group of approximately eight people, with one dressed as Jesus Christ, an alien, Sonic the Hedgehog, a construction worker, and four other people in ski masks rushed into the building and reached the second floor of the building. The perpetrators would be kicked out by building security. The Church of Scientology has responded to these raids by removing the door handles to their buildings on Hollywood Boulevard, making raiders unable to breach the building.
Founded by American author L. Ron Hubbard in 1950, Scientology is a “religion” (definition varies across countries) that was founded on the belief that core traumatic experiences in a past life can access “recordings” of past lives in your mind, which can only be relieved by an experience called “auditing.” Auditing is believed to be the first step of a three step progression process, followed by “The Bridge to Total Freedom” and ending with the final level titled “Operating Thetan.” As of 2014, the church has approximately 30,000 members, with famous members including actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Elisabeth Moss.
Scientology has famously been very secretive about their practices and what goes on behind closed doors. The church has been involved in numerous scandals since its 1950 inception. These incidents include “Operation Freakout,” a covert operation by the church to land U.S. author and journalist Paulette Cooper in jail or a mental hospital by harassing her and her neighbors, forging bomb and death threats against the church, then president Gerald Ford, and acting Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. After faking those threats, the church would then report Cooper to the FBI.
The church would end up filing over 19 lawsuits across at least three countries (United States, United Kingdom, and Australia) against Cooper, and the operation fell through. The church of Scientology has also been entangled with various documented instances of harassment against their critics, forcing and coercing abortions amongst their female staff in March 2010, human trafficking, sexual assault, forced labor, and child abuse in 2009, along other criminal behavior and corruption from members inside the U.S. government.
