Going Clear
"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; its vindictive treatment of critics; its phenomenal wealth; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard"--From publisher description.
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- Going Clear is a wonderful book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_Clear_(book)
I loved the break down of how Scientology finds people. The simplicity is stunning.
People need connection, they need to feel important and that they have agency. Feeling "smart", better than, a member of... feels good.
Promises of a simple, easy, known path to getting what you want will always be appealing.
Figuring it out for yourself will always be harder.
It's no surprise that people take the easy route.
- In addition to the classics of cognitive psychology (Kahneman, Taleb, et al.), I would also recommend books on psychological manipulation, religious cults, and con men. The following books offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on psychological techniques to improve awareness and exploit other people, both of which are essential to enhance your perception and protect yourself against fraud and manipulation.
Cialdini, Robert (2006) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Guinn, Jeff (2017) Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
Ekman, Paul (2007) Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow
Mitnick, Kevin and William Simon (2002) Art of Deception
Navarro and Karlins (2008) What Every Body is Saying: Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1887) On the Genealogy of Morals
Rhodes, Richard (1986) Making of the Atomic Bomb
Sun Tzu (c. 400 BCE) Art of War
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005) Fooled by Randomness
Wright, Lawrence (2013) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief
- Going Clear is great. I've read several of Wright's books and really enjoy the depth of the research he does.
- The postwar Pasadena areospace scene was wild.
Scientology is basically Crowley’s Thelema but in 1950’s space opera clothing. Parsons didn’t have any role in developing beyond introducing Hubbard to Crowely, and most notably Sara Northrup. Sara Northrup, later L Ron’s wife, helped develop Dianetics, and Scientology.
I read J.W. Carter’s ”Sex and Rockets”, and Lawerence Wright’s “Going Clear” back to back, and together they paint a fascinating portrait of the time.
If you want to round out the Pasadena OTO scene, Spencer Kansa’s “Wormwood Star” about Marjorie Cameron is supposed to be good, but I haven’t read it yet.
- And because Parsons' life intersected in the late '40s with that of L. Ron Hubbard, he features prominently in Lawrence Wright's excellent history of Scientology Going Clear (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_Clear_(book)) as well.
Wikipedia summarizes Parsons' and Hubbard's sex-magic collaboration here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_(rocket_engineer)...
- A fascinating question, and as noted by others, may (and does) vary depending on the country.
Lawrence Wright's 'Going Clear' (more so the book than the HBO movie) goes into some detail about the apparent hand-wringing going on with the IRS as it suddenly had to come up with a definition of a religion.
Predictably it's a pretty fuzzy set of criteria -- though whether you want religion defined by your revenue collection branch of the government is a whole other question.
From http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/16/15-scientol... :
> In 1993, after a prolonged fight, the IRS settled with the church over its tax-exempt status. Miscavige was able to regain the status (after the government’s disastrous handling of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas) by paying only $12.5 million of the $1 billion (which would have bankrupted the church) in back taxes it owed.
