Reddit reviews Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

There's a great book on exactly this evolution into religion called Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the prison of belief
The first chapters describe Hubbard's self invention, depression, his propensity for tall tales about his life and invention of Dianetics as a way to cure what he saw as his personal problems (impotence, bad eyesight, writers block) without the use of psychology, which he hated and believed held a conspiracy against him. It also follows the rise of Dianetics and the shaping of the church. A lot of those upper levels after Hubbard's death came from power struggles within the church between the circle closest to Hubbard, especially between David Miscavige and Pat Broeker. Many of the "OT" (operating thetan) levels were created AFTER his death to keep control of the church, and convince his followers that Hubbard had not died but merely 'dropped his body' to explore even higher OT levels. Scientology not only brings people into the religion emotionally, but physically and monetarily, up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases, and is aimed at moving people forever upward into these invented higher echelons, no matter how hard Xenu, etc. are to believe

His book is amazing and terrifying.

Scientology is actually only afloat today because they started a massive litigation campaign against the IRS that lasted over 25 years, eventually they negotiated with the IRS for a tax exemption, in exchange for dropping their lawsuits, that prevented them from having to declare bankruptcy in 1993. Scientology's most powerful weapon is arguably their abuse of the U.S. court system. I've skimmed the comments on this thread and a lot of people are talking out of their ass, anyone who wants to know more about Scientology--and trust me, you do, because the more you read about it the crazier it gets--should read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307700666

Actually, check out Going Clear. It's meticulously researched and touches on the Travolta thing matter of factly. A process Scientologists go through is called "Auditing", it's like a confession but it's frequently taped. The (apparently homophobic) leader of the church would joke about Travolta's homosexuality to his friends within the church. You get the impression that this information was held to use as a weapon should Travolta step out of line and when his stardom really exploded, he was moving away from the Church. It's very sad and I think Travolta is a very tragic figure.

I agree. This macro is unfair and is Exhibit A on why I don't like image macros to begin with.

Some libertarians exhibit certain characteristics of cult behavior (cutting yourself off from family is the most extreme I've seen), but nothing like the psychopaths at Scientology. Most local chapters of any political organization/party require some kind of dues to provide basic communication and organization. Paying $25 per year is pretty damn low. Comparing it to joining SeaOrg is ridiculous.

Read Lawrence Wright's current book and tell me the Libertarian Party is the same.

It's actually more complicated than that, but your instinct is correct!

At one point after the war, he was trying to get help for certain "ailments" (not the ones he claimed he suffered during the war - just ulcers, and generally feeling bad etc.) and was denied disability several times by the Veteran's Administration. Then at one point pre-Dianetics, he requested psychotherapy (which was a new field then), and wrote a detailed letter requesting it and telling his symptoms. It was also denied. My understanding is that he was trying to get more money out of the disability department, it seems.

Then, when he wrote Dianetics, and some fans set up Dianetics groups and he went out doing demonstrations and lectures, he tried to get the American Psychiatric Association to pay attention and give him credibility. He wrote them letters, talked about his groundbreaking "research", and had hoped to become the new Freud or Jung or the rockstar of psychiatry. They investigated and denied him and most of them sort of called what he did pseudoscience and quackery.

THEN, he started coming out with ever-increasing tirades in writing and lectures that basically said that the "psyches" (psychologists and psychiatrists) were evil and out to get them, etc. He went on to say that Dianetics cured so many illnesses that it was taking business and credibility away from them, so they were out to destroy him. His writing and lectures got increasingly anti-psyche over time, leading to the current incarnation.

However, pretty much everyone was out to destroy him, if you ask him.

Those days (around when Scientology was formed, post-Dianetics), he was also on about the communists. He ghost-wrote what he claimed was a communist brainwashing manual and held it up as proof that they were awful - as well as wrote a plethora of letters to the FBI accusing his enemies of being communists (remember McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 50s/60s?). Many of those people had just wronged him in some way - it's obvious that he was trying to use the FBI and red scare to destroy people he didn't like.

Then the FBI didn't respond as he wanted (they called him something like "unstable" or "unhinged" in internal documents), so they became the enemy.

Of course, by that time, he'd had more accusations about money issues against him. He stole and ran away with and misappropriated money from people like Jack Parsons, some early donors/supporters, and the people running his Dianetics Foundation, among others. Some of those money issues became criminal-ish.

And he'd run afoul of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) by making claims about what Dianetics and the e-meter could do health-wise (curing cancer, making the blind see, none of it true, of course). So when the FBI didn't listen to him and he was under scrutiny for a bunch of other stuff, the FBI and the government became the enemy. That was part of the advent of the religious cloaking (going from a pop-psychology thing and making it a religion), to decrease government scrutiny in many ways (and avoid taxes).

Basically, this was a man who didn't suffer narcissistic wounds lightly. When someone dismissed him, didn't listen to or believe him, or made him feel "less than", he used his followers as pawns to insult and hurt them (always making himself the persecuted savior).

The "psyches" were only one of his many "I want to be acknowledged by you and be seen as important by you" targets who didn't give him what he craved - admiration and attention.

Go googling around for some of his letters to the FBI and Veteran's Administration and stuff like that, there's lots of very interesting reading.

His hubris also really comes across when the government of Rhodesia was trying to form a new government post-colonialism, and he went and wrote one (some would say badly) and approached some officials (mind you, as an unknown entity, swaggering about with his secretive group and being cagy about who he was) and was like "here, I wrote the constitution for you, you can thank me later". He was incredibly depressed when they were like "who is this guy?" and dismissed him.

There's a great story about him getting two bottles of pink champagne and walking up unannounced to the door of one of the government officials there and rang the doorbell, expecting to sit and have champagne with this official's wife and thereby get his "in" into the government... of course he was turned away there too.

I mean, he approached everyone in that manner - like he expected to have his ring kissed and be granted medals and seen as important. And then when he wasn't, well, that person or entity became his next target.

It's interesting stuff. If you're interested, some of the stories are researched, documented, and told in books like A Piece of Blue Sky, Bare-Faced Messiah - which was recently re-released and is incredibly documented and researched, Going Clear, Inside Scientology. And others, but I think those are the works that are informative, with incredibly researched documentation of claims.

EDIT: Oh, I also forgot that he wrote to the US Government offering his incredible knowledge and research and said that it could solve all their problems, etc. Then, when he didn't get any response after trying mightily hard, he wrote again and threatened to defect to the Soviet Union. He said they'd offered him a sweet sweet deal, with some kind of research position and budget and teaching positions or something, and if the US Government didn't take him up on it he was going to go to the communists with it instead. Of course, that was an empty threat...

He also claimed later, in lectures and stuff, to have worked on the Manhattan Project with the leading scientists, to develop the Atom Bomb. Which was, of course, not true. And he claimed at various times to have worked undercover for the CIA.

He was a pretty good Sci-Fi writer, but he was full-on crazy. I highly recommend reading "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" by Lawrence Wright. Hubbard had some real next-level shit going on.

EVERYONE SHOULD READ GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY, HOLLYWOOD, & THE PRISON OF BELIEF

By Lawrence Wright

Just came out this year!

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307700666

Lawrence Wright, in his new book "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" provides detail on the IRS infiltration and how it was so effective that the IRS immediately afterwards gave Scientology its tax-exempt status by recognizing it as a church.

The Wright book is a really good bit of journalism and a great read.

For anyone interested, the book Going Clear is a pretty good insight to Hubbard's life.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307700666/

If you're interested in following the origins of Scientology or all of the disturbing rumors that surround it - this book has been an eye opener: [Going Clear] (http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307700666)

I recommend this book to learn more.

Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" is the most-recent must read book on this pernicious organization.

It's a good complement to Janet Reitman's "Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion" which was published just a couple of years ago.

For anyone who hasn't read, I recommend reading "Going Clear" by Lawrence Wright: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307700666

It can be very confusing. If you are really curious read a book on it, like this one, this one, or this one. It's honestly a fascinating subject. The things they have done and do are pretty crazy.

lawrence's wright book isn't called 'going clear: scientology, hollywood, and the prison of belief' just because they couldn't come up with a catchier title.

It's true...except for the famous litigation the Church of Scientology is responsible for. They have teams of lawyers to sue the shit out of people whenever they publicly say anything negative about the church. Furthermore, they are responsible for harassing the US government to bully their way to getting tax-exempt status as a religion.

Also, they abuse their followers. Documented in many places, lately in the fascinating book Going Clear by Lawrence Wright.

Hopping on the top comment to suggest the book Going Clear. It's a phenomenal piece of journalism that looks at the church's completely insane history (Scientologists made a fake navy and tried to conquer Morocco) and the even more insane present (they have internment camps!).

Oh, want to know why they have religious status? Because they literally sued the IRS so much that the IRS ran out of money.

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. Engaging read, couldnt put it down. Not depressing, just slightly bewildering

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307700666