New book on Scientology: Going Clear

[Dubious Dick]

Finished Going Clear.
Lawrence Wright demolishes L Ron Hubbard and the C.O.S to the point there is not much left when he is through.
To me the biggest eye opener was the massively abusive practices of the CO$ started as early as the 1960's and were insitgated by Hubbard,and that Hubbard eventually bought into the crap his was pushing. I always thought that Hubbard was just a Con Man Milking the Suckers for every penny he could get,and the really scary abusive stuff started when Hubbard became a recluse and Misciviage took over. but I have changed my mind.
Among Hubbard's fun way of disciplining COS members: Tying the Hands and Feet of a 60 year old women, blind folding her, and throwing her overboard from a ship. If someone had not jumped in after her she would have drowned.
I cannot recommend this book enough.

Given the well established facts that Hubbard was a complete conman, and was responsible for instigating all the worst aspects (mind you, are there any good ones?) of scifiology, it is weird how the so called Independent scifiology movement lead by people like Rathburn and Rinder, still cling on to LRH and a supposed 'golden age' before Miscavige.

While Miscavige may have ratcheted things up, every single abuse he perpetrates is simply a continuation of policies and actions introduced by LRH.

There are suggestions that Rathburn is positioning himself to take over scifiology. Like so many other 'religious' breakaway movements, it seems he and others want to airbrush out the bad bits. The main problem is that there are no good bits anyway, with auditing etc simply being cod psychology.

Action by the U.S. Government to withdraw constitutional protection/tax breaks for scifiology (along with the wealth creations schemes/scams that are the mega churches) is long overdue!

 

[Rrose Selavy]

There's still a remarkable blindness to the "faults" of Hubbard, even in those who very publicly break away form the CoS.
There was a Tony Ortega post on the old Village Post blog where Ortega covered some of the obvious dishonesty/lies of Hubbard's earlier life and one of the high profile defectors (possibly Rathburn, can't remember, can find the link) just had to reply and make a defence. which Ortega published soon after.

extortion, slave labour, forced abortions, families broken up and disconnected, all fine to report, but don't you diss LRH.....

 

[kajata]

There are suggestions that Rathburn is positioning himself to take over scifiology.

I follow Marty's blog and you could really see his mindset at work in the past year. He embraces new philosophies or movements (last week he was discussing "The Secret" nonsense) but he's been taking a lot of flack over it from people who say LRH had laid out the only path to be followed.

So even the splinter groups are splintering.

As for The Church...I don't know how they're still operating. From all I've read from ex-Scientologist blogs to legitimate polling data the number of Scientologists are nose-diving, these huge, expensive, new Orgs are deserted, anyone who Googles them before taking a course would run in the opposite direction...how much cash do these guys have stockpiled?

 

[zooterkin]

As for The Church...I don't know how they're still operating. From all I've read from ex-Scientologist blogs to legitimate polling data the number of Scientologists are nose-diving, these huge, expensive, new Orgs are deserted, anyone who Googles them before taking a course would run in the opposite direction...how much cash do these guys have stockpiled?

Yes, that was the impression I got from John Sweeney's book. How did the Co$ get so much money in the first place? Did they have significant numbers of followers at one point, who they bled dry?

 

[dudalb]

Given the well established facts that Hubbard was a complete conman, and was responsible for instigating all the worst aspects (mind you, are there any good ones?) of scifiology, it is weird how the so called Independent scifiology movement lead by people like Rathburn and Rinder, still cling on to LRH and a supposed 'golden age' before Miscavige.

While Miscavige may have ratcheted things up, every single abuse he perpetrates is simply a continuation of policies and actions introduced by LRH.

There are suggestions that Rathburn is positioning himself to take over scifiology. Like so many other 'religious' breakaway movements, it seems he and others want to airbrush out the bad bits. The main problem is that there are no good bits anyway, with auditing etc simply being cod psychology.

Action by the U.S. Government to withdraw constitutional protection/tax breaks for scifiology (along with the wealth creations schemes/scams that are the mega churches) is long overdue!

Yeah,Wright blows to kingdom come the idea that the abuses in the COS started only after Misciviage took over.
Hubbard probably started Dianentics and the COS as a scam, but the evidence is overwhelming that he ended up actually believing most of the crap he was peddling.

 

[dudalb]

There's still a remarkable blindness to the "faults" of Hubbard, even in those who very publicly break away form the CoS.
There was a Tony Ortega post on the old Village Post blog where Ortega covered some of the obvious dishonesty/lies of Hubbard's earlier life and one of the high profile defectors (possibly Rathburn, can't remember, can find the link) just had to reply and make a defence. which Ortega published soon after.

extortion, slave labour, forced abortions, families broken up and disconnected, all fine to report, but don't you diss LRH.....

IMHO the most ridiculous whitewashing of L Ron by the Scienos are their insistence on L Ron having a wonderful war record, despite the actual US Navy Documents and records that prove otherwise.
His two greatest accomplishments..claiming to have sunk Two Japanese Submarines off the coast of Oregon despite the US Navy denying him credit since there was no evidence of a Japanese Submarine being sunk (and .after the war,captured Japanese Naval records confrimed the Navy's report;the Japanese documents showing there were no Japanese Subs operating off the West Coast at the time Hubbard claims to have sunk two of them)

ANd managing to get himself releived of command of a patrol boat for bombarding a Mexican Island,thereby attacking one of America's Allies.....

 

[hgc]

Yeah,Wright blows to kingdom come the idea that the abuses in the COS started only after Misciviage took over.
Hubbard probably started Dianentics and the COS as a scam, but the evidence is overwhelming that he ended up actually believing most of the crap he was peddling.

Hubbard was deeply nutty, from a young age and all through his life. I think he was both a scammer and a believer right from the beginning. Yes, he was that versatile.

Who, but a man like that, could audit a tomato?

 

[ddt]

Given the well established facts that Hubbard was a complete conman, and was responsible for instigating all the worst aspects (mind you, are there any good ones?) of scifiology, it is weird how the so called Independent scifiology movement lead by people like Rathburn and Rinder, still cling on to LRH and a supposed 'golden age' before Miscavige.

While Miscavige may have ratcheted things up, every single abuse he perpetrates is simply a continuation of policies and actions introduced by LRH.

There are suggestions that Rathburn is positioning himself to take over scifiology. Like so many other 'religious' breakaway movements, it seems he and others want to airbrush out the bad bits. The main problem is that there are no good bits anyway, with auditing etc simply being cod psychology.

Isn't this simply a psychological mechanism to try to take away the blame from the man whom they've trusted for so long and the ideology he promoted they invested so much of their lives in? If they'd acknowledge LRH was as evil as Miscavige, they'd acknowledge decades of adherence to an evil leader.

Like "it's not the King's fault, it's his bad advisors", or "it all went downhill with the USSR when Stalin took over, Trotzky would have done so much better" (yeah right).

As you note, Rathburn still promotes the ideology outside Scientology. It would be hard for him to acknowledge that the inventor of that ideology was as much a man who instigated ruthless policies.

 

[dudalb]

Hubbard was deeply nutty, from a young age and all through his life. I think he was both a scammer and a believer right from the beginning. Yes, he was that versatile.

Who, but a man like that, could audit a tomato?

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=7591&albumid=1041&dl=1364590014&thumb=1[/qimg]

That is one of the photos included in "Going Clear".
How anybody with an ounce of sense could take Hubbard seriously after seeing that photo is beyond me.
And that is what is puzzling;a lot of the converts to the CO$ were intelligent, well educated people. If they were a bunch of ignorant rubes it would be easy to explain but the reality is a lot more complex.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

That is one of the photos included in "Going Clear".
How anybody with an ounce of sense could take Hubbard seriously after seeing that photo is beyond me.
And that is what is puzzling;a lot of the converts to the CO$ were intelligent, well educated people. If they were a bunch of ignorant rubes it would be easy to explain but the reality is a lot more complex.

There's a detailed entry on the origins of that "tomato picture" here. Also a deeply disturbing photo of LRH down the page.
http://tonyortega.org/2013/02/02/scientology-mythbusting-with-jon-atack-the-tomato-photo/

 

[hgc]

There's a detailed entry on the origins of that "tomato picture" here. Also a deeply disturbing photo of LRH down the page.
http://tonyortega.org/2013/02/02/scientology-mythbusting-with-jon-atack-the-tomato-photo/

Yikes! Too bad he disdained doctors. A dermatologist could have taken away that giant cyst growing like a manitou from the top of his head.

 

[Chris L]

That is one of the photos included in "Going Clear".
How anybody with an ounce of sense could take Hubbard seriously after seeing that photo is beyond me.
And that is what is puzzling;a lot of the converts to the CO$ were intelligent, well educated people. If they were a bunch of ignorant rubes it would be easy to explain but the reality is a lot more complex.

It's not that hard to understand really. Intelligent people are used to thinking in the abstract. Hubbard was selling a very abstract process. He was also sparking their imaginations with the possibilities that they could be very special indeed, just by using the power of their minds. It's the kind of thing science fiction stories were selling (remember, John W. Campbell was one of LRon's earliest promoters) at that time. Smart people can be fooled just as easily as dumb people, it's just a matter of which buttons need to be pushed.

 

[angrysoba]

That is one of the photos included in "Going Clear".
How anybody with an ounce of sense could take Hubbard seriously after seeing that photo is beyond me.
And that is what is puzzling;a lot of the converts to the CO$ were intelligent, well educated people. If they were a bunch of ignorant rubes it would be easy to explain but the reality is a lot more complex.

The Aum Shinrikyo Cult that perpetrated the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway were mostly very highly educated people who went to the best universities in Japan - Tokyo University, Waseda, Keio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway#Main_perpetrators

I think it could be true that some ideas are so ridiculous and so obviously mental that ONLY an intellectual could believe them.

 

[kajata]

My brother was pre-med at Colombia University until he left to spend several years in COS.

Intelligence and wisdom are two different things. Hell, we all know smart people who smoke.

He also has an addictive personality which didn't help. When he jumps into something new he does it 100% until he burns out and loses interest. He even would have joined the Sea Org if not for prior drug use.

 

[Kage]

I think that the most interesting part for me, after reading the book, is that some of the scientology techniques probably work at some level. Imagine therapy sessions combined with a polygraph (all be it one with only one channel - monograph?). I think the effectiveness of scientology as a religion is that it takes these basic wins and uses them to attach credibility to further and further stretches - you don't do Xenu right off the bat, right? There is likely some deep entrainment, which when combined with the e-meter, makes people believe deeply in their past life experiences.

The second thing I came away with was that I am glad that scientology seems more concerned with making money than taking over the world. Enough new religions end up taking on the government or moving to terrorism. Scientology convinces people that their souls do not die. This could easily be applied to create something similar to Ibn Al Hassan's methods for indoctrination, which created some fanatical warriors.

I think as skeptics we miss the fact that scientologists don't just believe that they are immortal thetans--they experience past life events in auditing. Not that that is different than past life regression hypnotism or anything else, but the systematized, experiential basis of their faith. Just think of the crazy level of believe that Christians and Muslims have WITHOUT that experiential basis. Better yet, think of the people who believe in Sylvia Browne. You aren't going to argue someone out of their beliefs when those beliefs are based on experience.

I think that the best comment in the book is Wright's observation that Scientology is more a self-made map of Hubbard's mind than anything else.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

The second thing I came away with was that I am glad that scientology seems more concerned with making money than taking over the world. Enough new religions end up taking on the government or moving to terrorism.

But CoS has taken on the Govt (see Operation Snow White ) and eventually got a massive IRS concession unlike any other organisation.

Operation Snow White was the Church of Scientology's name for a conspiracy during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members, in more than 30 countries;[1] the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history[2] with up to 5,000 covert agents.[3] This was also the operation that exposed 'Operation Freakout', because this was the case that initiated the US government investigation of the Church.[3]
Under this program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. The case was United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., 493 F.Supp. 209 (D.D.C.

and in Operation Freakout they faked terrorist material in order to try to frame a journalist or get ther committed to a prision or mental institution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout

The forced abortions, the RPF, the "Hole"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_Project_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hole_(Scientology)

if only it were "just" about making money. It ruins lives.

 

[Kage]

But CoS has taken on the Govt (see Operation Snow White ) and eventually got a massive IRS concession unlike any other organisation. and in Operation Freakout they faked terrorist material in order to try to frame a journalist or get ther committed to a prision or mental institution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout

The forced abortions, the RPF, the "Hole"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_Project_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hole_(Scientology)

if only it were "just" about making money. It ruins lives.

Granted. I am familiar with this and Hubbard's activities when he was cavorting around the world with his own personal armada. I guess to be more specific I am glad that Scientologists aren't suicide bombers.

I'd say that the COS is as much about power over people as it is about money. Whatever is wrong with your life, it is nothing compared to the problems that you will get from Scientology.

 

[hgc]

I'd say that the COS is as much about power over people as it is about money. Whatever is wrong with your life, it is nothing compared to the problems that you will get from Scientology.

Yeah, let's see... I also think that it's more about control than money, but then again the pursuit of money is relentless, systematic and maniacal. It's giving the control freakery a contest for supremacy in the Scientology creed.

I agree that there's no situation in your life that will not get worse upon contact with Scientology.
- Your bank account will be drained.
- Your family will be alienated from you.
- Your children will be aggressively recruited into a life of misery.
- Against your will, you will cough up confessions of real or imagined transgressions, and pay for the privilege.
- Your recorded confessions will be used to blackmail you into continued compliance.
- You will find yourself in the employ of other Scientologists, who will allow the church to extend its control over you through your employment.
- You will be a participant in, or an unconscionably non-interfering witness to, blatant violations of human rights, such as purposeful breaking up of families, imprisonment of disfavored members and extreme exploitation of child labor.
- You will be indoctrinated to believe that objections to Scientology are the root of all evil.
- You will think that the word "ethics" means that the end justifies the means.

 

[tsig]

Yeah, let's see... I also think that it's more about control than money, but then again the pursuit of money is relentless, systematic and maniacal. It's giving the control freakery a contest for supremacy in the Scientology creed.

I agree that there's no situation in your life that will not get worse upon contact with Scientology.
- Your bank account will be drained.
- Your family will be alienated from you.
- Your children will be aggressively recruited into a life of misery.
- Against your will, you will cough up confessions of real or imagined transgressions, and pay for the privilege.
- Your recorded confessions will be used to blackmail you into continued compliance.
- You will find yourself in the employ of other Scientologists, who will allow the church to extend its control over you through your employment.
- You will be a participant in or an unconscionably non-interfering witness to blatant violations of human rights, such as purposeful breaking up of families, imprisonment of disfavored members and extreme exploitation of child labor.
- You will be indoctrinated to believe that objections to Scientology are the root of all evil.
- You will think that the word "ethics" means that the end justifies the means.

Well, you will get rid of your Thetans.

 

[hgc]

Well, you will get rid of your Thetans.

Thanks for reminding me of another thing.

- You will be expected to accept that you are infested with invisible alien beings, whose presence is sapping your vital essence.
- You will not discuss what you have learned about this infestation with other members, since talking about it is not allowed.
- You will commence an expensive process of high volume exorcisms of these aliens.

I happen to think that Scientology's processes, such as I have described above, are designed by L. Ron Hubbard for his followers to work out Hubbard's own psychological problems, using Hubbard's own useless methods. Consider the possibility that Hubbard suffered from Ekbom's Syndrome (delusional parasitosis), wherein a person imagines bugs under their skin. Combine that with a science fiction author's imagination, and you have OT3.