Lisa Marie Presley has reportedly returned to the Scientology religion in a last ditch effort to get her life back in order and put a lingering drug addiction behind her.
Radar Online reports Elvis Presley’s only daughter was persuaded to return to the church by daughter Riley as a way of finally regaining control of her life.
Since then, word is Scientology leaders have begun monitoring her every move and having someone from the church with her around the clock. Presley first walked away from the church that also serves as a base to such Hollywood heavyweights as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Giovanni Ribisi about five years ago.
While reps for Presley have denied the reports, others close to her admit her life has been on a downward spiral for some time now as her pill-popping habits have only grown more severe.
The 49-year-old singer is reported to have continued to struggle with drugs despite spending a recent three-month stay at a ritzy Malibu-based rehab facility.
Part of Presley’s return to Scientology now also has her seeking treatment at the church’s notorious “Narconon International” clinic, which has previously been blamed in the deaths of several of patients related to its brutal detoxification methods.
“Scientology brainwashed her to think she can’t manage her life on her own,” a source told Radar . “Lisa needs to be babysat. She’s vulnerable and believes only the Church can save her.”
It’s been reported Presley’s estranged husband Michael Lockwood talked her into giving the Malibu facility a try, but once Riley and mom Priscilla Presley got word of it they reportedly steered her back to the church.
“Priscilla and Riley were instrumental in talking her around and persuading her to do this,” a source added. “As avowed Scientologists, they don’t believe in psychiatric treatment, which everyone knows Michael was desperate for her to have, so the other alternatives the church has to offer were a perfect solution.”
Priscilla Presley now also has legal custody of her daughter’s twin daughters and is said to have a live-in Scientologist that runs errands for the family.
A source has described the situation as a “win-win for the church,” in the wake of its publicly messy battle with former church member and Hollywood star Leah Remini.
The former Kings of Queens actress has written two books about the church and recently starred in the A&E network docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermatch, where she blasted the church over its “self-brainwashing” of members.
More recently she claimed Cruise and Travolta could both get away with murder in the eyes of fellow church members.
“It’s called ethics protection,” she said during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience show. “There’s another policy called the responsibility of leaders, which he says that what you gotta do to protect the leader you gotta do it. If you see a body, you gotta clean it up.”
In her 2006 novel memoir Troublemaker , Remini claimed she first started to have issues with the church around the time Cruise was planning to wed actress Katie Holmes.
According to the actress, after she dared to ask why the wife of church founder David Miscavige was not attending the ceremony she was reprimanded by church leaders and essentially told not to ask questions. Shelly Miscaviage still has not been seen in public for years.
Remini later claimed the leaders are notorious for isolating people, particularly away from those who have questioned the church and its dealings in some way or another. She insists the “disconnection” is aimed at maintaining all control.
For their part, church leaders have patently denied all Remini’s charges and routinely dismiss her as a “has-been actress now a decade removed from the peak of her career” and an “obnoxious, spiteful ex-Scientologist” who “stage managed her departure from the Church of Scientology.”
[Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]