Get Rich! Start Your Own Religion!

Sara Lawrence asks her guide to the Church of Scientology's headquarters if the cult

is a drug rehabilitation programme or a religion and he can't give me a straight answer: "It's different things for different people, you know," he says. I don't. "Well, people have all different kinds of problems and Scientology can help anyone through anything. It makes you a better person."

Quite what Scientology does for the individual has been a matter of debate since Hubbard set it up in 1954. Tellingly, four years earlier, he had announced at an authors' convention: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars he should start his own religion."

It's not just religions. So many people seem to want to get rid of their money in so many foolish ways.