Title: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Author: Lawrence Wright
Genre: Journalism/Religion
Trigger Warnings: Physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, abuse of children, neglect of children, unreality, homophobia, imprisonment/confinement, starvation, emotional manipulation, death, suicide, suicidal ideation, rape (mention), torture, infidelity, mental illness
Back Cover:
Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists 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.
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.
Review:
I didn’t know a whole lot about Scientology going into this book. I knew it targeted the rich and famous because it wanted money, it liked solving its problems with lawsuits, a little bit about its attempts to infiltrate the government, and that its belief system involved some completely ridiculous stuff about aliens. That’s about it. This book is thorough and very intense. Anything you want to know about Scientology is here.
It starts with an extremely deep dive into L. Ron Hubbard himself – his family, his military service, and the contrast between what he and Scientology say about him and what non-church sources say – and give a well-researched portrait of the man himself. He may have just been a really good con man whose con got bigger than he planned, but Lawrence Wright shows a man who may very well have been a paranoid schizophrenic who truly believed everything he was teaching through Scientology.
This book is hard to read in many places. It doesn’t shy away from the many awful things done by the church. Anything you told any church member could and would be reported to superiors and held against you. Thought crimes could earn you years in the Rehabilitation Project Force, a program of abuses and forced labor that differed from literal slavery only in that it technically wasn’t against your will. Children taken away from their parents and working ten- or twelve-hour days. A method of treating mental breakdowns involving complete and total isolation that led to at least one death. It’s hard to read straight through due to all the many ways Scientology has hurt so many people.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was learning about Scientology’s cosmology, what the aliens are actually about, and why Scientology needs so much of your money to advance through the ranks. There was some of that in this book, but not as much as I’d expected. Lawrence focuses less on the “woo” bits of belief and cosmology and more on facts – people who actually existed, what they did and what was done to them, discrepancies between the church’s official story and what outside records show. I would have liked to know a little more about Scientology beliefs, but that’s not really what this book is trying to be about. It’s trying to be more of a history.
I learned a lot about Scientology, the people behind it, and the people affected by it from this book. It’s a lot more thorough than is probably necessary for a casual interest (at over 400 pages, it’s highly engaging but definitely more in-depth than passing curiosity would warrant), but if you need a deep dive into Scientology’s history for any reason, this is a fantasic place to start.
Bluejay Reads 