“CSI” actor and active Scientologist for thirteen years Jason Beghe posted a swear-riddled diatribe against the Church of Scientology on YouTube yesterday. Beghe — who was featured in a promotional video for the church in ‘05 — dropped a lot of dough over the years to achieve the Tom Cruise and John Travolta level of “Operating Thetan 5,” but finally came to the conclusion that the whole thing was all a big pile of horse shit. According to Page Six

In the video, Beghe [says], “Scientology is destructive and a rip-off. It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. Something’s [fucked] up… The further up the bridge, the worse you get…”

“I don’t have an agenda. I’m just trying to help. I have the luxury of having gotten into Scientology and after having been in it, been out. And that’s a perspective that people who are still in and not out do not have.”

Frankly, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often once people achieve the higher OT levels, because it’s not until you hit OT1 that the church reveals that the source of your personal hang-ups and personality flaws is actually false-memory-planted alien souls clinging to your body. And of course, by the time you’ve actually reached OT1, you’ve already dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to get there. It’s not like they start babbling about a galactic overlord dropping hydrogen bombs in volcanoes the first time you walk in for your free e-reading. And to someone who didn’t know any better, the term “Scientology” sounds like it must be a religion based on scientific reasoning because it has the word “science” in the name. But much like how my “Women on Women: The Literature of Liberation” course turned out to be less of a unfettered lesbian orgy and more of a foray into social consequence of 21st century feminist writers, Scientology has about as much science in it as an episode of “Homeboys in Outer Space.” That is to say, none.