Secure Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, And The Prison Of Belief Created By Lawrence Wright Displayed In Manuscript

Clear is a hard book to rate, It is undoubtedly meticulously researched the author undertook a massive investigation into its subject matter and spoke to over two hundred Scientologists, and received countless letters threatening legal action from lawyers representing the Church and its members and contains much valuable facts and historical data regarding what is arguably the world's richest and most reclusive religion, but at the same time shies away from being a definite book on the subject by narrowing down its focus to what can be best described as celebrity gossip.


The book opens with a biography of L, Ron Hubbard, a prolific pulp author and creator of Dianetics a series of weird, metaphysical selfhelp practices which he eventually developed into Scientology, now officially recognized as a religion with tax exemption incountries.
Besides many pulp mysteries, westerns and adventure stories Hubbard was a prolific writer of science fiction.
His most famous work of fiction is the thousand page long sitelinkBattlefield Earth, concisely described by my GR friend sitelinkBill as a big, rollicking saga set in the the yearwhere the Earth has been taken over by nine foot tall hairy aliens who have enslaved the surviving population.

Hubbard also wrote about Xenu an alien dictator of the Galactic Confederacy, whomillion years ago brought billions of people to Earth then known as "Teegeeack", deposited them around volcanoes and for whatever reason killed them all with hydrogen bombs.
The spirits of these poor aliens somehow survived nuclear explosion and have subsequently attached themselves to unsuspecting humans, continuing to cause spiritual harm to this day.
The only difference between the two is that Battlefield Earth the long story of Jonnie Goodboy Tyler fighting the evil Psychlos is fiction, and the story of Xenu and his nuclear holocaust is not at least according to Hubbard who also tried turning it into a film, but failed to secure enough funding.


Much of Going Clear is a character study of various individuals who were at one point or still are associated with Scientology, with most focus put on three people the director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and the current leader of the Church, David Miscavige.
Wright also presents horrifying, true stories of abuse done by Scientologists at the command of Hubbard and Miscavige people being separated from the outside world, living in communal housing and workinghour weeks in poor conditions for symbolic allowance young children would often be employed for forced labor in inhumane conditions at Sea Org, the Church's paramilitary wing comprising its most devoted members.
In his heyday, Hubbard would command a small fleet and among other things order his crew to throw overboard anyone who displeased him from the height of one story after four was deemed to dangerous to his credit he did order them to be pulled back later.


The book meanders in the sections regarding Travolta and Cruise, two famous actors and possibly two most famous Scientologists.
Tom Cruise is well known for this sitelinkminute long video, in which he speaks at lenght but without much sense about Scientology to the theme music of Mission Impossible.
John Travolta's best known Scientologic endeavor is trying to make a film adaptation of Battlefield Earth, which was critical and commercial failure of if you'll pardon the pun cosmic proportions.
Of the two, Travolta comes off as much more sympathetic an actor who was introduced to Scientology as a mean to boost his career, and who now seems trapped in it and might not be able to leave even if he wanted to, because of fear of having his personal information revealed in a libelous way.
While Wright has done considerable research regarding both Cruise and Travolta's personal lives and acquaintances and even tried to profile David Miscavige, who by all accounts comes off as a maniacal, selfobsessed despot he can only have as much perspective as an outsider does, and the book does not contain a complete account of the lives of these men and is not their biography.
It also doesn't completely answer the question why do they believe in Scientology

Why did L.
Ron Hubbard succeed in creating a religion Wright answers by comparing him to another American prophet, Joseph Smith, who claimed to have been visited by an angel and transcribed ancient gospels, preaching them in western New York a century before.
Like Smith, Hubbard seems to have appeared at the right place at the right time in Southern California, where disenfranchised people were looking for spiritual fulfillment and he was able to give it to them.
I wish Wright would spend more attention on Hubbard's work especially regarding his writing and its eventual impact on the religion.


How did a man who had a driver's license, served in the army and wrote science fiction novels by the dozens managed to convince a legion of wealthy people that one of his outlandish stories was true, and amass influence, power and wealth of incredible proportions I would much prefer to read this kind of analysis, instead of minutiae from the lives of Hollywood celebrities involved in Scientology but this would call for another book.
For what it sets out to do introduce the inner workings of the church, and present stories of individuals associated with it it does its job well enough.


For those interested: sitelinkMike has kindly shared a link to a hourlong interview with the author who talks about the book and Scientology check it out sitelinkhere.



I have really mixed feelings about this book, On the one hand, I don't want to give it a bad rating, because I don't think it's a bad book, and I really appreciate all the time and effort Wright and hundreds of other people seriously: read the acknowledgements put into investigating Scientology.
He is almost painfully evenhanded, even if the rainontheroof effect of the constant footnotes cementing the Wall of Denial "the church" is trying to put up around his findings "Tom Cruise has never met that person, the church would never pimp for Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise has never had a motorcycle, Tom Cruise may in fact be a holographic projection" is annoying.


But . his main informant is Paul Haggis, who was a top celebrity member for nearly four decades, and who practiced an amazing level of denial and compartmentalization, until his love for his daughters punched through it.
To be fair, everyone at the higher levels of Scientology practiced this kind of extreme dissociation.
"But this is insane, and I'm not seeing anything like healing the sick, and people are actually being beaten and imprisoned.
but my whole family and society is here, and I'm clearly the only one who feels this way, so I'll just keep quiet and pretend and buy the audit courses bundled so I don't have to deal with it.
" It is an amazing if probably unintended portrait of the powerful role denial has in keeping people places they realize they shouldn't be in but desperately want or need to be in.


I find Paul Haggis personally annoying because he honestly seems like just the kind of guy who would never think about racism until his Porsche got carjacked on Wiltshire there is a loving, fourpageslong, detailed description of Crash, surely one of the most selfindulgent movies ever made.
If you've read Wright's New Yorker profile of Haggis or the Maureen Orth piece about the Courtship of Katie Holmes, that's the basic structure for this book.
There is much, much more about Tom Cruise's highflying lifestyle than I ever wanted to know.
Tom Cruise wanted a nickelplated motorcycle! Tom Cruise got a Montblanc fountain pen carved out of a eucalyptus burl! Tom Cruise closed down Rockefeller Center so he could arrange a skating date! I DON'T CARE.


I'm not sorry I bought this book, because I want to support critiques of Scientology, but it's just not very informative or enlightening.
In a way it's a blessing some of the atrocities are so sketchily reported the breakup of families, forced abortions, spouses informing on each other, slave labour that would rival Communist prison camps because just realizing how terrible Scientology is for everyone but a few hundred people on top is upsetting.
I wanted less dwelling on the psyche of the rich white privileged man who felt really bad about being in denial for nearly four decades, and more of the actual stories about people like Paulette Cooper and Lisa McPherson, or even just more from Haggis' own daughters.
You can read about what it was like to be brought up inside Scientology here: sitelink com/

Not quite recommended, but I didn't dislike it, exactly, I can't lie I fell in love with Jesus at a young age,

I was aboutyears old and my parents took me to see Jesus Christ Superstar.
That was about the extent of my religious education,

I was conflicted to who was more dreamy, . . Jesus or Judas





In the end Jesus won out not because of his morals.
. . as ayear old I was attracted to both but I am afraid I was just more attracted to Jesus.
. . I mean seriously do you want to align yourself with the troubled man who hung himself from a tree or the guy that at the end was resurrected and had a cute flock of sheep following him about

I picked the sheep guy.
. . with the dreamy eyes and the one that sung Hosanna Hey Sanna Sanna Hosanna, It was uplifting even though really if I was to look at it now Judas had a far superior voice and presence.


Because today as an adult I look at things logically rather than emotionally, I look at fact vs, fiction And factually Judas kicked Jesus's ass in that movie as far as talent,

Today as an adult I am also an agnostic, A stance that most people see to be rather wishy washy, I am not so far reaching to say I am an atheist, . . I will never be one to call myself a GOD believer, I am on the fence, I like to call myself openminded and as an open minded person I must admit that I think of myself as far superior than those who think of themselves as superior for picking a side.


I surround myself with believers and nonbelievers but the one thing all of them have in common is they question.
. . and they treat people with kindness, . . for the most part. I really don't care what you believe as long as your core belief is that you respect our lands.
. . and try to follow some kind of belief system that isn't harmful of others or future generations.


Yup I am a dirty nonbelieving, nonGod fearing environmentalist,

My beliefs are that most religions are stemmed from crazy people and if you are a radical believer who takes logic out of the equation then I don't really have any respect for you.
. . as I am sure you have no respect for me,



Scientology is at the tippity top of my list, Those who have gone off in their own direction and practice their own form of Scientology need not fear my hatred.
I have so much respect for those that can't abide by the fundamental aspects of their religions that made them horrid in the first place.




but I have no respect for those who cling to their belief system when it is harmful, and clueless, and dangerous.
. . when it splits apart families, when it ignores logic and when when bullies or men are only in the top tier.


In fact. . for the most part I don't really acknowledge Scientology as a real religion, I think that they pushed their way into the mainstream by blackmail tactics and have no place in modern society.
The fact that they get tax breaks I think of as a joke, I think of them as a cult, Branches that have cut off ties with mainstream Scientology I have respect for, . . the ones that stick to a core base that believes in what is good and pure regardless of the fact that its founder was a crazy person.
The Ron Miscaviges of the bunch that benefit financially and carry it beyond reason, . . not so much.

There is good and bad for every religion, . . There are judgmental hypocrites that say they believe in good, . . but live their lives anything but, . .



and there are the ones that regardless of what they believe live their lives with dignity and goodness that you can stand behind and respect even if you don't actually believe in the same things.




After reading GOING CLEAR you will see how the Church of Scientology is full of hypocrites and corruption and evil doers just like allllllllllllllll "religions" are.
. . it is no different but the dangers of believing in something so much that you lose the ability to think for yourself and form logical conclusions of the world as a whole are exactly the same.
.