Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief Pdf Summary
A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack, the Looming Tower. 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; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard.
At the book’s center, two men whom Wright brings vividly to life, showing how they have made Scientology what it is today: The darkly brilliant L. Ron Hubbard–whose restless, expansive mind invented a new religion tailor-made to prosper in the spiritually troubled post-World War II era. And his successor, David Miscavige–tough and driven, with the unenviable task of preserving the church in the face of ongoing scandals and continual legal assaults.
We learn about Scientology’s esoteric cosmology; about the auditing process that determines an inductee’s state of being; about the Bridge to Total Freedom, through which members gain eternal life. We see the ways in which the church pursues celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and how young idealists who joined the Sea Org, the church’s clergy, whose members often enter as children, signing up with a billion-year contract and working with little pay in poor conditions. We meet men and women “disconnected” from friends and family by the church’s policy of shunning critical voices. And we discover, through many firsthand stories, the violence that has long permeated the inner sanctum of the church.
In Going Clear, Wright examines what fundamentally makes a religion a religion, and whether Scientology is, in fact, deserving of the constitutional protections achieved in its victory over the IRS. Employing all his exceptional journalistic skills of observations, understanding, and synthesis, and his ability to shape a story into a compelling narrative, Lawrence Wright has given us an evenhanded yet keenly incisive book that goes far beyond an immediate exposé and uncovers the very essence of what makes Scientology the institution it is.
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Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief Review
5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful and provocative read
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 21, 2013
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This was by far the most insightful and well researched book on L Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige and Scientology that I have ever read.
In researching the material for the book the author and his assistants spoke with an unprecedented number of people (some 250 or so) who studied, witnessed and/or were part of the history of Scientology and its leaders.
The bibliography of the Scientology sources, media, books, articles and manuscript collections that the author consulted in studying the subjects shows the great pain that was clearly taken not only to be thorough with the facts in the book but also to try to analyze the true story behind those facts and what it was that made both Hubbard and Miscavige (Scientology’s two main leaders over the years) what they were.
I believe Lawrence Wright has accomplished that well beyond anything ever published. And he did it in an objective, professional way while constantly striving to be fair.
There are also some 42 pages of detailed notes near the end of the book where the author gives his sources for what he wrote in the book, page by page. Simply amazing!
In my opinion this book could not even have been written had not Project Chanology Anonymous (acknowledged in the book) suddenly made it possible for thousands to come forward and speak out without being destroyed by Scientology’s intelligence and litigation machine designed to stop others from freely speaking out.
Where one or a few of us have managed to speak out before or even protest, suddenly thousands donned the mask and marched in unison and in protest starting on February 10, 2008. The beauty of that was how it opened the door to many others coming out, speaking and taking a stance. This had turned the tide. Organized Scientology could not stop them and they were joined by so many others who finally saw they could stand up and speak out.
Simply put, without the actions started by Anonymous in 2008 many of the sources for this book would not have felt safe to come out and tell the truth.Thus this book could not have been written.
A great deal (but not hardly all) of the facts covered in this book have been covered before. But the book lays out those facts in a clear, concise manner that helps the reader to understand not only the story of scientology but what it was that made its leaders what they became.
The author compassionately explores the life of L Ron Hubbard from his childhood, through his marriages, his time in the military, his friendships, his loves and his early writings. In countless writings and recordings about Hubbard in the past (if only on internet forum postings) writers often debated and tried to understand Hubbard as clearly one or the other: kind or cruel, a liar or a man of truth, sane or insane, a conman or an honest man, an abuser or a healer.
I think what the author tried to show was that Hubbard at different points was all of the above.
Combining Hubbard’s own Affirmations with how he actually led his life, in my opinion the author gives a highly insightful perspective of Hubbard. It can be found on page 54 of this book:
“If one looks behind the Affirmations to the condition they are meant to correct one sees a man who is ashamed of his tendency to fabricate personal stories, who is conflicted about his s*exual needs, and who worries about his mortality. He has a predatory view of women but at the same time fears their power to humiliate him”.
While we are each of us at times conflicted, even walking contradictions throughout our lives, the real problem with Hubbard’s own conflicts as well covered in this book is what they did to destroy the lives of so very many people over decades and indeed to this day some 27 years after Hubbard’s death.
Some of the very worst parts of Hubbard became the very fabric of Scientology and organized Scientology. Woven throughout the policies and practices of organized Scientology one can see Hubbard’s own paranoia and cruelty. Such things as the heartless internment camps known as “the Rehabilitation Project Force”, heavy ethics for counter and other intentions (to his own), the cruelty of disconnection and so much more was all to protect a technology Hubbard called priceless but was rather valueless to most who tried it.
As covered in the book, Hubbard’s conflicts are also reflected in his writings where he saw enemies everywhere and demanded the destruction of all who opposed his will.
His incessant demands for money combined with his disdain of those who thought differently than he destroyed perhaps thousands of families, even lives. And, like Hubbard before him, David Miscavige to this day continues to profit on the anguish of others while cowardly hiding behind organized Scientology’s myriad corporate veils so as not to be held liable for that of which he is completely liable.
As shown in this book, the stories of widespread abuse of children, beatings, forced incarcerations, financial scandals, greed, medical abuse and the like rampant within organized Scientology both through the times of Hubbard and continuing to this very day are as painful to see as they are numerous. The cruelty meted out on others in the name of “salvaging the planet” while profiting Hubbard and Miscavige is breathtaking in its scope.
One horrid example that has me in tears just to read it can be found page 157 of the book. It is about an abused, pregnant mother sneaking out of the scientology’s “Rehabilitation Project Force” without approval to see how her daughter was doing in the Scientology “Child Care Org”:
“Taylor managed to slip away to visit her ten-month-old daughter in the Child Care Org across the street. To her horror, she discovered that Venessa had contracted whopping cough, which is highly contagious and occasionally fatal. The baby’s eyes were welded shut with mucus, and her diaper was wet – in fact her whole crib was soaking. She was covered with fruit flies. Taylor recoiled. The prospect of losing both her unborn baby and her daughter seemed very likely”.
My God!!!!
So many misled people of good heart were and are a part of Scientology who themselves put it all on the line to dedicate themselves and their lives to the following of a man who would ultimately betray them. This book makes me feel a sadness for all the good souls who cared and who tried to follow a dream and were betrayed.
I love how insightful the author is when he analyzes the facts before him and tries to make it make sense. For example, as the book points out, Hubbard wrote a great deal of science fiction before he ever wrote anything about Scientology. And there are strong elements of science fiction in the hidden levels of Scientology. Reflecting on both, the author makes a simple yet in my opinion insightful statement on page 32 of the book:
“Certainly, the same mind that roamed so freely through imaginary universes might be inclined to look at the everyday world and suspect that there was something more behind the surface reality. The broad canvas of science fiction allowed Hubbard to think in large-scale terms about the human condition. He was bold. He was fanciful. He could easily invent an elaborate, plausible universe. But it is one thing to make that universe believable, and another to believe it. That is the difference between art and religion”.
I agree with the author that while one can argue that Scientology is a religion it must not be allowed to carry out such horrid abuses on countless others while hiding from prosecution behind the cloak of religion.
More than whether or not Scientology is indeed a religion I think the really important question is whether or not it is charitable or even spiritual. I see nothing spiritual at all about Hubbard’s and Miscavige’s abuse of others, the incessant demands for money and just hundreds and hundreds of things that make up the very fabric of organized Scientology and the policies it follows.
Perhaps even more importantly, as is clear in reading the book, there is nothing inherently charitable about Scientology. People have to either pay vast sums or give up their personal freedoms to “progress” in Scientology. Their benign-sounding front groups in the field of business, education, drug abuse and the like are not there to freely help the downtrodden or otherwise needy. They are there solely to themselves be a conduit of money and people into Scientology. They are “PR” to try to make organized Scientology look good to the public while in many cases are themselves a danger to the public.
In the book examples are given where others speak of Hubbard’s “research” and his “technology” that has helped them. And I am glad they were helped.
But Hubbard’s research has no scientific validity and in my opinion is often the product of a deranged mind thinking that somehow he has made these brilliant scientific discoveries when he has not.
An example from the book is Hubbard’s “research” resulting in “The Introspection Rundown” which, Hubbard says eliminates the last need for psychiatry. “Evidence” of its value is a story of a man who was crazed on a ship and a danger to others. Hubbard had him confined and treated gently and given healthy supplements. The man came out of it. I am so glad this happened to this man but my God that is hardly scientific study showing Hubbard’s procedure eliminates the last need of psychiatry.
Related to this, the book debunks Hubbard’s claims about psychology and medication in effect showing how Scientology not only may not help a person but it will often keep a person away from the very sources that can indeed help him.
Examples of this are given in the book including the death of a beautiful boy Kyle Brennan who died from an apparent suicide at Scientology’s “mecca” in Florida after his medically prescribed medication was taken away from him due to Scientology’s unfounded beliefs from Hubbard’s writings.
And, carrying on from what Hubbard preached, the book tells of a speech given by Scientology’s current abusive leader David Miscavige saying that he intends to obliterate psychiatry, wiping it from the face of the earth.
My God how dangerous a view is that?
People have had “wins” in Scientology therapy which the author feels is akin more to psychotherapy which perhaps is Scientology’s “more respectable cousin”. But I submit that some of the beautiful and well-meaning people who are trying to help others using this “therapy” are more helping those people because they are good and kind people who give the others someone to whom they can pour out their hearts and discuss their troubles.
And that is all well and good until someone really needs professional help and there is no one within Scientology who is trained to give that help.
Later in the book, on page 359, the author speaks of how Scientology wants to be understood as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment but concludes that it really has no basis in science at all. Perhaps, he says, it would be better understood as a philosophy of the human nature.
As usual organized Scientology denies everything in this book that is negative. I would like to believe them but I can’t. Although I was a small contributor of information to Lawrence Wright in his research, I know of so much of this book as being true from first hand observation.
I feel love and compassion for the many, many good souls who are Scientologists and who are trying to help others. I was once one of them. But I also feel a great sadness of just how these people were and are being betrayed by Hubbard, by Miscavige and indeed by a dream of a “heaven” which to many of them has turned out to be a “hell”.
I wish all of them the greatest of healing and of peace. And I want them to know there are many of us out here with open arms ready to welcome them to join us as imperfect but free sisters and brothers who will help them heal.
And I wish to express my great thanks to Lawrence Wright and all who assisted him for this magnificent work that I believe will end up helping many people.
Perhaps the real sadness of all this is best reflected in some of the final words from the book telling of a time that was a few weeks before Hubbard’s death when Hubbard summoned one he trusted at a ranch where he was hiding:
“Six weeks before the leader died, Pfauth hesitantly related, Hubbard called him into the bus. He was sitting in his little breakfast nook. `He told me he was dropping his body…….He told me he failed, he’s leaving.’ …………………………
I mentioned the legend in Scientology that Hubbard would return.
`That’s bull crap,’ Pfauth said. `He wanted to drop the body and leave. And he told me basically that he failed. All the work and everything, he’d failed'”.
brb sad
4.0 out of 5 stars Money, power, control, intimidation
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 27, 2015
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Powerful…Riveting…Frightening. They say a thin line exist between insanity and genius; clearly L Ron Hubbard qualifies for this classification of human existence. A prolific writer and forward thinker, with one hand he reaches out and discovers the breadth and depths of the human mind along with its short comings and its potential; then with the other hand he creates a house of mirrors, its foundation a form of delusional paranoia where it’s him against the world, constantly checking himself and those around him for problems, imperfections preventing advancement toward a concept he called clear. A world without turmoil, friction or struggle. His personnel life is full of contradictions. What you see is not always what you see. His church is no less immune to this word play. It’s like pulling back the curtain of the great oz in emerald city.
This organization he called a church became a prison via osmosis. Language was developed to build a wall between the learned and unlearned. Orwell described a concept called thought crime. Here we have it being applied without restraint against members of this community. Every creature exposed to it became fanatically infected with this mans ideology and expectations, whether they acknowledge it or not. Courses and reviews, they call it auditing (true definition: confession), all point the adherent toward a future of expected perfection. Religion is a term defined as a devotion to a person, idea or a thing. Jesus, communism and the environment all come to mind. Pursuit of complete freedom without human conditions (example: pain, sickness, death, doubt, controversy) became the dogma of L Ron Hubbards church. Who in his right mind could argue against such a laudable effort? The simple matter is those things do exist because humans are just that, humans. Life is not easy, but it is a journey. No matter how hard one tries you can not factor out those conditions of human life. The spirit inside man is not the super being of science fiction. It is subordinate to the created process and it has a place clearly defined and a parameter that confines and sets its boundaries. A creation is never greater than its creator. Period. This movement teaches something else.
People in Hubbards religion believed they could then and obviously they believe it now. Believe what? They could reach perfection. They could evolve into their true self. They could escape this mortality and move on to a higher existence. They could become powerful enough to help others by thought alone. They had been helped or cured by this program, actually or so they believed, surely they could now show others this great truth? Fear of failure, intimidation of being isolated or expelled from the group drives this congregation. Under it all is money. Money buys the course work that facilitates the path to freedom. In this regard, this place is not a church but an institution of higher learning. But what you buy is not commercially applicable. It’s narrowly focused on one thing, advancement in the church; the different levels are the stages of improvement of self, elimination of imperfections, and it cost a lot of money.
Reading this book is a look inside this institution. Their greatest fear is controversy and exposure. This work does both things very well, exposes a terrible mind control culture, the insane amounts of money, the power of people over people, the violence and imprisonment, the price of non conformity applied to those weighed and found wanting, the celebrity worship. We also see the power of institutional intimidation on a scale I’ve never read of outside the confines of a government. This church and its various departments are like medusa, reaching out in every direction at once, squeezing the voices of dissent into silence. It’s international and its in your face personal. Through exposure will come the much feared controversy. People hopefully will think for themselves and those on the inside will not submit to being told by others that what they read, has been and is being written by suppressive persons, enemies of freedom of religion.
Will this book change the church? Probably not. Will it change governmental views of the institution? Probably not. This organization has weathered worst storms than this and came out stronger. But hopefully it will give people a reason to pause and take a breath before walking through the door.
About Lawrence Wright Author of Going Clear Book
Lawrence Wright Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (born August 2, 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as the author of the 2006 nonfiction book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wright is also known for his work with documentarian Alex Gibney who directed film versions of Wright’s one man show My Trip to Al-Qaeda and his book Going Clear.
Going Clear pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Vintage; Illustrated edition (November 5, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 560 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0307745309
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307745309
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.21 x 1.09 x 8.01 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #72,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13 in Scientology
- #40 in Sociology & Religion
- #201 in History of Christianity (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,262 ratings
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