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

You should read Going Clear as a companion piece. Holy shit was LRH ever a crazy asshole...

scamming the navy because he was injured in the Pacific front (he never did shit)

dropping depth charges on a log he thought was a u-boat when he finally got a command

beating the shit out of all of his wives

stealing his infant daughter from his (bigamous marriage) wife and running off to Cuba to hide (basically keeping the child in a cage)

becoming convinced SMERSH (yeah from James Bond) was out to get him (also that SMERSH was run by psychiatrists)

locking kids in the anchor compartment of his boat for days on end when they pissed him off

I could keep going forever, I highly recommend the book. The Master was far too kind to him if Going Clear is any indication.

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309

Yes, http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309 .

"Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief" by Lawrence Wright. Here's an amazon link.

Great documentary but I also highly recommend the book

It's phenomenally well-written and a brilliant read

This is the best book I've read on Scientology: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309 — it gives you an overview of the history, the biography of L. Ron Hubbard, the beginnings, the big moments in Scientology, the core beliefs. Absolutely fascinating, and a pretty riveting read.

Anyone who has read Going Clear and Beyond Belief has been wondering where the FUCK have the Feds been on this? It's LONG overdue to raid their compounds. To hell with the Judicial nightmare that waits. Justice is supposed to be blind, not turning a blind eye ...

By all means, everyone should read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. It's incredibly well-researched and beautifully written by one of the greatest journalists of our time, and it is the most calmly, elegantly damning indictment of scientology (and all manipulative cult-like thinking) that I can imagine. The HBO documentary is great too, but the book is on another level.

Fortunately, works like this and others that are coming out are doing some serious damage to Scientology, and they seem to be kind of on the rout as an organization. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Going Clear is a great book. Good winter time reading.

My favorite was Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. I picked it up after reading The Looming Tower (Pulitzer winner), also by Wright.

I thought it was really interesting, there was quite a bit of material on belief systems, and why people look to join groups, that wasn't specific to scientology.

Read this book, HBO is making a documentary of it. IMO people can believe whatever they want, but this organization is run by thugs :

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309

Many of these questions are addressed in the amazing book Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. It's incredibly well-researched and well-written, and while it focuses on LRH, it gets into Miscavige's leadership and the modern church as well.

It's called Going Clear

https://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309

Or may have been this. https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Scientology-Americas-Secretive-Religion/dp/0547750358/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0547750358&pd_rd_r=4129GYJ9NWA64VTPTTRE&pd_rd_w=HXcXc&pd_rd_wg=NOaiJ&psc=1&refRID=4129GYJ9NWA64VTPTTRE

Well yes, Joseph Smith was hated as a con-man, and actually killed by an angry mob. Many religions started in very shady circumstances. It's an interesting field to read about. I recently finished Going Clear, about Scientology. The documentary is also fantastic, though the book of course has much more detail. Under the Banner of Heaven touches on the early history of Mormonism, and is a great book. I'm sure there are more authoritative books on Mormonism, but Krakauer is a great writer and that happens to be the book I read.

Good luck in getting religious believers to see the beginnings of their own religion in modern-day prophets. Generally they just don't look too closely at the beginnings of their religion, or if they do, they write off the weird or disreputable parts as people trying to slander the truth. Religion has ample coping mechanisms, and digging critically into the darker bits will get you shunned by your faith community.

There is a tell all book written by a former Scientologist called Going Clear.

Going Clear and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

Great write up. His books are excellent.

I'd like to hear them discuss belief in general. I also really liked Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

Read the book Going Clear. I cannot recommend it enough. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0307745309/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1481120292&sr=1-1

If you enjoyed that article -- and I agree that it is very good -- you should take the time to read the entire book that it inspired, Going Clear. As you might expect, a 500-page book has a lot more detail than an article does. (The movie is good as well, but the book is better. As is usually the case.)

I have 40 years of experience with the subject, and am fully aware of both its plusses and minuses. There's more to it than any single article can cover.

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309

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

This is a very good book about Scientology.

Ready Amy Scobee: Abuse at the Top

Watch Jason Beghe's video

Read Going Clear

Spend a while at xenu.net

Watch The Secrets of Scientology

Watch Inside Scientology

There is lots else, but that's off the top of my head.

A classmate of mine from LA whose parents were well-connected in the entertainment industry told me this fifteen years ago.

This book details the claims and there is a documentary of the same title as well:

(http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309)

I understand you're asking about Scientology as primarily, but you mentioned why the Catholic Church isn't being considered a cult because of actions they've committed in the past.

As for the FBI, there is some precedent to believe that Scientology are under investigation currently. That precedent being that there have been multiple investigations in the past, increased recent public scrutiny (Louis Theroux, Leah Remini) and a recent suspicious death of a Scientology member, it's kinda unlikely to believe that they aren't under investigation, albeit not publicly.

For the longest time they weren't classified as a religion until they wore down the IRS to give them the tax-exempt status of a religion. Until there is video evidence of SeaOrg members torturing and imprisoning members in which those same tortured members are willing to testify against Scientology in court and say they were held against their will, then it's going to take a domestic terror situation to make the government do something about this cult (as is the case in many countries that have their own unique cults).

Obviously you're curious for a real in depth look into Scientology and how it relates to organized religion and whatnot so here's a few book recommendations so you can go beyond Reddit where you definitely won't get the detailed look you might yearn for (BUT WITH BOOKS YOU CAN :D).


Going Clear

Bare-faced Messiah

Combatting Cult Mind Control

Going Clear Amazon link that helps support the TYT network

If you go through this link it won't cost any extra but a small percentage will be given to The Young Turks, who are trying to get money out of politics and create a new media that actually questions government power.

Win win.

Worth mentioning that the book goes into a lot more detail, especially with the history of the church and all of Mr. Hubbard's misadventures. Hubbard was a fascinating guy, flawed and fucked up, but he definitely makes for an interesting read.

Amazon link

If you're really interested, pick up a copy of Going Clear ...Hoffman's character is based on L. Ron Hubbard.

I'm reading 'Going Clear' right now. I have no idea why I find it so fascinating.

This book will explain it...it's fascinating!

What you have heard is a likely combination of misinformation, misunderstandings, and out of context information with a dash of truth thrown in for believability (plus some stuff that so weird you can't make it up). I suggest you start with one of these books (in order of objectivity):

• The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion by Dr. Hugh Urban. This one is by a religious studies professor and is by far the most objective. He covers the history of the church, its basic beliefs and practices, and controversies and does an amazing job of putting things into context.
  
  
• Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. This guy is a journalist and did a pretty good job of staying objective. He chose some of the more sensationalist topics I think but still covered them more-or-less fairly. I was actually surprised that this book was more objective than I was expecting.
  
  
• Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman. Another journalist's take on Scientology. Reitman was a bit heavier on the sensationalist stuff and didn't quite "get" the context for some aspects of Scientology but she still did a pretty good job.
  
  > allows it's members to attack critics
  
  The video you probably saw recently isn't attacking a "critic". While I don't believe he should be harassed at all, this is a guy who was a top executive that left, wrote some books that makes the rest of top management looks like total assholes, and basically wants to reform the whole movement from the outside. Normal critics, members, and ex-members don't get treated like this. No one is going to knock on your door for posting critical stuff on reddit, for example.
  
  > No one person's religion is "the right way"
  
  This is one of Scientology's core moral values - "Respect the Religious Beliefs of Others"
  
  > the rich are going to get more rich in this religion
  
  not really, not many people are making a lot of money from it even toward the top. It's mostly going into bank accounts, real estate, buildings, improvements of services, and other churchy things. The one guy at the very top lives a pretty CEO-like lifestyle but I doubt many others are getting rich other than the organization itself - and I'd argue that even it isn't super rich. Things like the setup ot Bridge Publications, the church's publishing arm, cost a huge amount of money.
  
  > put those funds back into the fucking community, instead of wasting it on new churches, make new homes and schools for the poor
  
  Then donate to organizations that build homes and schools instead of a church. The aims of a church are to further the spread the religion. Churches that build schools and houses are usually doing so with spreading their religion as their real agenda. There are plenty of secular non-profit organizations that build homes and schools for the poor as their primary concern that tend to be much better at it.
  
  Its also worth pointing out that donations to the Church of Scientology are typically not outright donations. They are almost always for some service or material good, such as a book or lecture series on CD. There isn't really a concept of 'tithing' in Scientology and indeed the idea of getting something directly back when you give someone money is kind of part of the culture of the church.