The Complex: An Insider Exposes The Covert World of The Church of Scientology - Author

Author

Both of Duignan's parents died when he was very young, and he and his brother were sent to live with his aunt and her husband. As a result of these childhood experiences he had a difficult time as a teenager and felt like an outsider. He lived in County Cork from age 11 to 17, and later moved to Germany. Duignan was recruited into Scientology in 1985 at age 22 when an attractive woman on the street in Stuttgart, Germany offered him a free personality test. After the personality test Duignan was told he had a result of "Urgent Action Required". He left his job and his girlfriend to become active in the organization. After spending time learning Scientology techniques, officials from Scientology Missions International in Los Angeles contacted Duignan and asked him to join the organization's elite paramilitary group called the Sea Org. He spent some time training in Los Angeles, and later was posted to the Scientology headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, West Sussex. Duignan states he received weapons training while in the organization. At one point he was responsible for working on the organization's global finance computer system. While in the organization Duignan and his friends who were also Scientologists felt the organization was not a religion but rather a political movement. Duignan devoted twenty years to the organization, eventually leaving in July 2006.

He began to question his devotion to the organization in 2004, after an encounter with actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise at the annual International Association of Scientologists Gala Ball where Cruise was honored as "Most Dedicated Follower". Duignan felt hurt that he was working for between five to fifteen pounds per week under difficult conditions, but was not seen to be as dedicated to the organization as Cruise. Duignan then began to research Scientology on the Internet, which he had been forbidden to do inside the organization. He told Scientology management officials that he had to leave for a week to visit his dying uncle, in order to get permission to go back to Ireland. He left and later traveled to Dublin and then returned to his native County Cork, where he is studying for an arts degree. He currently regards Scientology as "unlicensed and unmonitored psychotherapy". In an interview on Phantom FM radio, Duignan said that "the readjustment after it has been tremendously difficult".