Going Clear
Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
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4.1 • 274 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower comes “an utterly necessary story” (The Wall Street Journal) that pulls back the curtain on the church of Scientology: one of the most secretive organizations at work today. • The Basis for the HBO Documentary.
Scientology presents itself as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment, but its practices have long been shrouded in mystery. Now Lawrence Wright—armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—uncovers the inner workings of the church. We meet founder L. Ron Hubbard, the highly imaginative but mentally troubled science-fiction writer, and his tough, driven successor, David Miscavige. We go inside their specialized cosmology and language. We learn about the church’s legal attacks on the IRS, its vindictive treatment of critics, and its phenomenal wealth. We see the church court celebrities such as Tom Cruise while consigning its clergy to hard labor under billion-year contracts. Through it all, Wright asks what fundamentally comprises a religion, and if Scientology in fact merits this Constitutionally-protected label.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pulitzer winner Wright (The Looming Tower) expands and carefully footnotes his investigation of Scientology, which began as a 2011 New Yorker article examining the defection of acclaimed screenwriter-director Paul Haggis from the church. The book-length version offers in persuasive, albeit sometimes mind-numbing, detail an eye-opening short biography of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and a long-form journalism presentation of the creature Hubbard birthed: a self-help system complete with bizarre cosmology, celebrity sex appeal, lawyers, consistent allegations of physical abuse, and expensive answers for spiritual consumers. Wright capably sows his thorough reportage into ground broken by Janet Reitman (Inside Scientology, 2011). He poses larger questions about the nature of belief, but can only lay groundwork because he has to fight to establish facts, given the secrecy and controversy surrounding Scientology, and his eyewitnesses are necessarily disenchanted and therefore adversarial. While Wright's brave reporting offers an essential reality test, an analysis of why this sci-fi and faith brew quenches a quasi-religious thirst in its followers is still needed. First printing 150,000.
Customer Reviews
Going clear
This is a very informative book and I believe every word of it...Scientology is set up so that you don't question the things within the religion that don't feel right...I know, I was in it for 10 years...What a waste of my time and money! There are so many self help books out there that would help in the same ways...
My question, how is it that Travolta and Cruise be so naive?
Not what you expect
If your looking for another run of the mill anti-religion, Scientology bashing "tell all" then your in for a disappointment. This is an unbiased look into the good and the bad of the church. It explores how the church actually does deserve its title as a religion.
A page turner
I almost didn't buy this one because I was so saturated with ex Scientologists stories. I'm glad I did. The enhanced version is wonderful and he doesn't take sides. Such a pleasant change. It is a shame that the Scientologists who are forced to review this book are not allowed to read it.