Scientologists played sinister musical chairs to decide chief

A new book has claimed that Scientologists were forced to play a sinister game of musical chairs to decide who should be in the cult's inner circle.

Members of the church of Scientology, followed by Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise, danced frantically to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody until 4am.

The mad ritual in a "punishment cell" dubbed The Hole climaxed in violent scenes, says John Sweeney in his book 'The Church of Fear'.

Ex-sect member Tom DeVocht said that competitors faced rejection by leader David Miscavige, a friend of Cruise, if they lost a chair place, reported Sun online.

"Everybody played the game with this mental anguish. People were breaking down. It was a very eerie, strange thing," said DeVocht, a builder.

A chair was smashed in two as a winner was decided in the cell - built from two trailer homes at the sect's California HQ, Gold Base, at Gilman Hot Springs.

DeVocht claims he was a long-time friend of Miscavige, 52, until he left the weird sect in 2005. He said Miscavige, Cruise's best man at his 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes, hit him twice.

The Church and Miscavige deny all claims of abuse and violence. They say Sweeney, who erupted in fury at a Scientology member in a BBC programme in 2007, is psychotic, a liar and a bigot.

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