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

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Call Number: 299.936 Wr, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Religion & Spirituality / General / Wright, Lawrence
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	299.936 Wr	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Religion & Spirituality / General / Wright, Lawrence	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Introduction -- Part I: Scientology. The convert ; Source ; Going overboard -- Part II: Hollywood. The faith factory ; Dropping the body ; In service to the stars ; The future is ours ; Bohemian rhapsody ; TC and COB -- Part III: The prison of belief. The investigation ; Tommy -- Epilogue.
"Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a legitimate (and legally acknowledged) religion; its vast, secret campaign to infiltrate the U.S. government; its vindictive treatment of critics; its phenomenal wealth; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard"--From publisher description.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

L. Ron Hubbard & the History of Scientology submitted by sdunav on June 16, 2014, 1:36pm This was fascinating but slow going sometimes - Wright is a better researcher than writer, I believe.

Still, I knew very little about Scientology or L.Ron Hubbard, and this told me more than I ever wanted to know. So very, very bizarre, LRH's life, his successors, what people will believe, etc. And yes, there is plenty in here about Travolta and Cruise, not so much about Will Smith.

The abuse - physical and psychological - that is rampant in parts of this organization - was what shocked me the most.

Informative submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 26, 2014, 10:05am While I probably didn't (personally) need to know *quite* this many details about Scientology, this was a fascinating, deep, mostly even-handed look at a prominent and powerful force in the United States today. It's deeply frightening to read about just how much power this group has over its members, and how little anyone external to the group seems to be able to do about it.

Highly informative, and well worth the time to read.

Detailed, but a little too supportive submitted by GCFB SHOP666 on September 9, 2019, 2:54pm This book is very detailed about Scientology's history, L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, famous Scientologists, and other related topics.

However, it is too supportive of recognizing Scientology as a religion, even though it describes actions such as the killing of Lisa McPherson and how LRH was treated (for example, he ordered people to be thrown overboard from boats, and every "church" has an office prepared for his supposed reincarnation).

David Miscavige, the leader of the cult, has a practically endless supply of money, but members of the Sea Org are paid only about $75/week for very hard work (but they actually earn much less because they are charged fines for violating rules and they have to pay for some other things).

This book provides basic knowledge of Scientology, including things mentioned in secret documents, such as the Xenu story: 75 million years ago, there was a place called the Galactic Confederacy, a group of 76 planets and 26 stars ruled by a dictator called Xenu. The Confederacy included the planet Earth, which was then called Teegeeack. Life there was almost identical to life in the United States in the 1950s/1960s. The planets were very overpopulated (they each had about 178 billion people). In order to fix the problem of overpopulation, Xenu had the people go for "income tax audits", where alcohol and glycol were injected into their lungs in order to paralyze them. They were then put into spaceships that were identical to DC-8 airplanes except for having rocket engines instead of propellers. The spaceships took the people to Teegeeack, where they were put into volcanoes and bombed, and therefore killed. Their souls (thetans) were trapped, put into boxes, and taken somewhere where they were forced to watch 36 days of 3D motion pictures depicting many kinds of violence, as well as some religious images. The thetans then went back to Teegeeack and started attaching themselves to people, causing many kinds of disease. Xenu is still alive today. He was overthrown and imprisoned after the described story. Every person is possessed by thousands or millions of the souls of people who died 75 million years ago. Those souls can be removed only through large payments to the "church" of Scientology.

What do you think about that story? It is important to point out that L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction author before he started the cult.

Pretty detailed and strongly researched submitted by clk.9123 on August 22, 2022, 7:52pm If you’re looking for more information on Scientology, this is a good place to either start or expand your research past the documentary of the same name or similar documentaries. The author clearly spent a lot of time on his research and spending time writing this book, it might be the most comprehensive book out there on Scientology from someone who has not been part of it.