The young people burst through doors, duck security guards and sprint past shocked employees, navigating winding hallways as they try to make their way deeper into the buildings. They are wearing masks, costumes or their backpacks, alone or in large groups.
At least one person is recording on a phone as they sprint. The video will find its way to social media, where it may be viewed by millions of people, some of whom might be inspired to try their own stunt.
Since a Los Angeles teenager posted a video this spring that showed him running into a Scientology building in Hollywood, young people in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Vancouver, London and beyond have been inspired to enter Scientology churches and facilities as part of the TikTok trend now known as the Scientology speedrun.
Local police departments have made some arrests, but with more and more copycats popping up in recent weeks, the churches have been left scrambling to stop the trespassers, many of whom appear to be teenagers.
“The Church welcomes lawful visitors,” David Bloomberg, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology International, wrote in an email. “It does not welcome individuals forcing entry, damaging property, threatening or injuring people, or targeting religious facilities for online attention.”
Scientology, with its science-fiction author founder and high-profile members (including Tom Cruise), has long sparked intrigue among outsiders. It has faced scrutiny in recent years as some former members have accused it of abusive practices and financial improprieties. Its followers believe that people are weighed down by negative beliefs from past lives, which they can release to achieve spiritual enlightenment and a state known as clear, associated with happiness and self-confidence.
Because some Scientology facilities invite potential new parishioners in, offering personality tests and handing out fliers, some have tried to organize pranks or enter the buildings without the intention of joining.
A group of young people this month broke a locked door at a church in Midtown Manhattan that is sandwiched between Broadway theaters and hotels. They damaged property, threw objects and injured a staff member, according to the church and the New York Police Department. The church also said that a “staff member was subjected to a racial slur” and that it had provided video footage of the incident to law enforcement.
In recent weeks, cities around the world have seen similar incidents. This month, two teenage boys were arrested after running through a church in Sydney, Australia, a spokesman for the New South Wales Police wrote in an email. And the police in Vancouver last weekend dispersed several hundred people gathering at a church and trying to enter by kicking a gate; they later arrested one minor who had returned to the church, according to a police spokeswoman. In San Francisco, two recent incidents involving minors at a Scientology church also led to arrests, a police spokeswoman said in an email. Last weekend in Seattle, officers detained three teenagers who were part of a group that broke into a church and shut off the electricity, the police said. They are facing hate crime charges.
On Friday afternoon at the Scientology church in Midtown Manhattan, things were quiet. The two police cruisers parked out front and over a half-dozen officers at the revolving front door were the only indications that just a week earlier, a group of people had speedrun into the building, like a video game come to life. (In gamer parlance, a speedrun is when a player tries to complete a game as quickly as possible.)
There have not been arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, the police in New York said.
Employees at a pizza shop and a hotel nearby who were present during the incident described the scene as loud, chaotic and over almost as soon as it began. When the police arrived, the group quickly scattered.
Hanna Eskew, who was visiting New York City from Akron, Ohio, explained the social media trend to her friend as they stood on the sidewalk a few doors down from the Manhattan church. “Kids film themselves running inside and try to see how far into the building they can get,” Eskew, 34, said.
The social media trend picked up in Los Angeles this spring after a social media user with the username Swhileyy filmed himself running through the lobby of a Scientology building in Hollywood, dodging staff and ignoring a request to leave. (The video has since been removed from his TikTok account, but not before getting millions of views.) Soon after, others began posting similar videos.
A person who is associated with the account has since distanced himself from the trend, telling The Hollywood Reporter that copycats were going too far. (The user responded to a DM and text message from The Times, but would not answer questions. The number he provided is registered to an 18-year-old in Laguna Beach.)
Some have raised security concerns about where the trend may lead. Michael Masters, the director of the Secure Community Network, an organization that oversees security for many American Jewish institutions, said it was dangerous to have a “broader pattern where meme culture can blur the line between online performance and real-world targeting.”
“Even when intent is framed as humor or a challenge, it can still contribute to escalation dynamics that are difficult to predict or contain,” he wrote in an email.
Critics of the religion online have said that the acts could be viewed as a protest against the religion, but it’s not clear whether the youth involved have such a goal.
The actress Leah Remini, who left the religion in 2013, wrote on X that the trend was “unwittingly helping Scientology.”
“I spent decades on the other side of this,” Remini, who could not be reached for comment, said in the post, “and if I had been confronted by people running through Scientology buildings and harassing me or staff, it would have pushed me further into Scientology.”
Chris Shelton, who left the church in 2012 and appeared in Remini’s 2016 docuseries about Scientology, echoed her sentiments.
“There’s no effort in this to try to help the people who are inside,” Shelton, who is 56 and lives in Denver, said in an interview.
Not all former Scientologists were against the trend, however.
Jenna Miscavige, an outspoken former Scientologist and niece of the church’s current leader, David Miscavige, posted a video on Instagram thanking speedrunners for drawing “attention to Scientology’s abuses.”
In a phone interview, Jenna Miscavige, 42, described some of the spaces shown of a Los Angeles facility posted online, including a film room where she said would-be Scientologists were shown recruitment films and another room where personality tests were administered.
Miscavige said that locked doors at some facilities felt at odds with the religion’s ethos.
“You can’t have signs that say all are welcome and then say that people can’t come in,” she said.
At that Los Angeles Scientology building, on a busy stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, passing tourists peered up at the ornate facade on Thursday afternoon; the blinds were closed, and the handles had been removed from the front doors. A firm knock went unanswered.
Two men stopped outside, one crouching to film the other as he danced beneath the block-lettered “SCIENTOLOGY” sign. Milano Allison, 21, said he planned to post the clip of him dancing, hoping he could capitalize on the speedrunning craze.
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Leo Sands from London. Sheelagh McNeill and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
