Inside John Travolta’s friendship with the Presleys that goes back decades

Priscilla joined Scientology shortly after meeting John at her daughter Lisa’s 10th birthday. In her memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa revealed that when she turned ten, her mom arranged for her to meet the actor.

Scientology is a belief system and organization founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950s. It teaches that people are spiritual beings called ‘thetans’ who have lived through past lives and possess unlimited potential. Scientology offers practices and courses, sometimes called ‘auditing’, that are meant to help individuals overcome mental or spiritual barriers and achieve a state called ‘Clear’, which is said to free a person from negative influences and emotional limitations.

“He was having a hot moment with Welcome Back, Kotter. He talked to her about Scientology, and a few days later, she joined,” Lisa Marie wrote, adding her mom described Scientology as something that “can help you become really powerful”.

Lisa shared that Scientology “helped” her feel like she belonged somewhere. “It became my tribe,” she explained. “My mom would drop me off after school at their building in Hollywood. I felt like she was dumping me there so they could handle me, and she didn’t have to.”

After dropping out of school, Priscilla made her daughter move into the Scientology Celebrity Centre. “They made me take care of somebody who came in legitimately addicted to drugs,” she wrote. “I became really close with that girl, really took her under my wing. … I really thrived taking care of her, helping somebody else,” she explained.

However Lisa distanced herself from the church in 2013 and called it “too much”. “Uncovering the fact that I was surrounded by people who were not well-intended, for one,” she told USA Weekend at the time. “Confidants [who were] very, very intimately and closely involved with me and my life. And had been for years. Basically, it was a big sinister situation, where there was like, kind of intel and covert ops going on, and a whole effort to control me that I didn’t know about.”