“Belief and faith are great, but very few people have been led astray by thinking for themselves.” I finished this book at one AM on a work night, when I had to be up at 6 AM the next morning. I did this even though I knew I would feel like shit the next morning, because I just couldn’t help myself. I was thinking, boy, I should go to bed! I’m going to regret this tomorrow (and probably the days after)! And then I just […]
An Attempt to Clear the Air about Scientology
Going Clear is about the enigma that is Scientology, a religion marketed to the wealthy and famous who can afford undergoing years of auditing sessions. It’s a secretive religion that unfolds information in stages, making the stranger tenets of Scientology more palatable after acclimating one’s mind to less shocking, but priming “truths.” As a newer religion (founded by L. Ron Hubbard in the mid 1950’s), Scientology has recent history to its detriment. And it is this with which Wright begins…the story of L. Ron Hubbard, […]
A Bridge Too Far
This may be the first time I read a book about something and at the end, feel like I have learned absolutely nothing about the subject. Not because Going Clear is not a good book, but because so little is known about the organisation it discusses, the Church of Scientology, that it’s hard to know what to make of it. A quick google search doesn’t reveal anything more: the book says X, the church says Y. In fact, there is an entire website – run […]
Scientology: somehow worse than I thought
Whoa nelly. Before this read I had what I would describe as a cursory understanding of Scientology. I knew about L. Ron Hubbard and the foundation of this “religion” (note the purposeful quotation marks), its science fiction roots, its adoption by many celebrities, and the weight of the church that fell upon members who chose to leave. What I didn’t know could fill a book, this book apparently. Jenna Miscavige Hill is the niece of David Miscavige, the current head of the Church of […]