Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief [B2193]

2013 HCDJ in nice clean condition. National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • The Basis for the HBO Documentary • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century. 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. 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.

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.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Whew. This is a deep dive but it's SO GOOD. And insane. I have always given some side-eye to super famous celebrity Scientologists but it's going to be a straight-on glare from now on. Fantastic reporting; it's dark and long but it's a great book."; "Wow - helps to understand how you can isolate your thinking to such a degree as to suspend reality and believe something that on the surface seems so remarkably illogical when you're able to take a step back. But the whole point is you have no ability to step back once you are consumed by hive behavior. Interesting take on adopting a cult like belief system given our current state of political affairs."; "That was a wild read. Such evil...."