Be Silent And Make All Physical Movements Slow And Understandable

Reportedly, signs bearing the legend "Be silent and make all physical movements slow and understandable" were seen being carried into the mansion of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on Monday. They are, apparently, to be placed around the home, as reminders to Katie on how she should behave during childbirth." I'd have thought, when the time comes, the poor girl would better spend her energies on worrying about what she was doing rather than listening out for dropping pins.

In Dianetics, the key scientology text by cult founder L. Ron Hubbard, he urges his followers to "Maintain silence in the presence of birth to save both the sanity of the mother and child and safeguard the home to which they will go. The maintaining of silence does not mean a volley of 'Sh's', for those make stammerers."

Pretty soon after the birth, however, much less care is going to be taken over the wrinkly-pink one - scientology states that children are simply "small adults", and are capable of looking after themeselves from a very young age. Followers of the cult are not permitted to comfort or nurture their children, expected instead to let the offspring pretty much fend for themselves. Don't they remember how helpless they were at two, three, four - or even ten or twelve years old?

It's a sad, silly story, but what strikes me most is that the signs had to be bought in, that Tom or Katie couldn't just print some up on a little Epson. I guess they just want to make sure that every last details was right - the spelling and grammar, a scientology-friendly font, wipe-clean surfaces...