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brian 's Reviews > Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
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This is a vile viscous book which is a pack of lies!!!! And lawrence writght hates the first amendmant and free speech and religous freedom and -- heh heh heh. not really. lawrence wright is the living badass who's written all about religion & the 'prison of belief', most notable for his truly great pulitzer prize winning study of radical islam, the looming tower.
i've written elsewhere in these hallowed halls of goodreads about the will to believe -- about how, atheist grouch and PTS/SP* that i am, on some level i'm deeply envious of tom cruise (OT VIII**) and some of those seriously fucked-to-the-core radical islamists. while video of tom cruise was nearly universally mocked (and it is very funny), i found something very compelling about it. lemme take it a bit further: pure evil, yes, but the conviction it must've taken to pilot an airplane straight into a goddamn building requires something i just don't have. insanity? sure. but, also a level of faith and belief which, if i'm honest with myself, is something i find somewhat attractive. do i have that kind of conviction about anything? i'd like to think so. in the deepest recesses of my rusted out ol' heart, at the core of what i'm made of, i'd like to believe that there are a few things i'd die for. but the certainty & conviction about those questions which have plagued mankind since day one, those questions unsuccessfully tackled by poets & philosophers�? (who am i? do i have a soul? is death the end? is there a god?)
the one truism i've arrived at is the obvious one: the smartest, the most religious, the most inquisitive can only come to the same conclusions arrived at by an inanimate object: zilch. zero. nada.
faith, indifference, or stupidity. in my opinion, these are the three options in coming to terms with this stuff. in other words, 1) you believe in something for no reason other than that some holy dude or text tells you so, 2) you just don't care, or 3) you're an idiot. the option for the rest of us can be reduced to that phrase much beloved by the left: if you're not scared, you're not paying attention.
enough of all that grim stuff. read the book. it's great. and seriously demented. and wildly entertaining. and LRH is a very interesting guy. surely some kind of genius, but also a crank and liar of gargantuan proportions, an adventurer, a writer, a filmmaker, fake war hero, father, husband, wife-beater, savior to many, devil to many others, etc.
wright describes LRH writing some 500 pulp novels (!!!) under these conditions: he'd buy rolls of the paper that butchers use to wrap meats, lock himself in a tiny room, black out the windows, plug in a single light with a blue lightbulb (!!) and sip from a bottle of rum while banging out yardage of pulp on the meat-paper scroll. when he finished a novel (in a matter of days), he'd tear it off and keep plowing ahead onto another one. i love this. and so ordered a few of his pulpy '40s novels -- the covers are so great:
* Potential Trouble Source/Suppressed Person
* Operating Thetan level 8
i've written elsewhere in these hallowed halls of goodreads about the will to believe -- about how, atheist grouch and PTS/SP* that i am, on some level i'm deeply envious of tom cruise (OT VIII**) and some of those seriously fucked-to-the-core radical islamists. while video of tom cruise was nearly universally mocked (and it is very funny), i found something very compelling about it. lemme take it a bit further: pure evil, yes, but the conviction it must've taken to pilot an airplane straight into a goddamn building requires something i just don't have. insanity? sure. but, also a level of faith and belief which, if i'm honest with myself, is something i find somewhat attractive. do i have that kind of conviction about anything? i'd like to think so. in the deepest recesses of my rusted out ol' heart, at the core of what i'm made of, i'd like to believe that there are a few things i'd die for. but the certainty & conviction about those questions which have plagued mankind since day one, those questions unsuccessfully tackled by poets & philosophers�? (who am i? do i have a soul? is death the end? is there a god?)
the one truism i've arrived at is the obvious one: the smartest, the most religious, the most inquisitive can only come to the same conclusions arrived at by an inanimate object: zilch. zero. nada.
faith, indifference, or stupidity. in my opinion, these are the three options in coming to terms with this stuff. in other words, 1) you believe in something for no reason other than that some holy dude or text tells you so, 2) you just don't care, or 3) you're an idiot. the option for the rest of us can be reduced to that phrase much beloved by the left: if you're not scared, you're not paying attention.
enough of all that grim stuff. read the book. it's great. and seriously demented. and wildly entertaining. and LRH is a very interesting guy. surely some kind of genius, but also a crank and liar of gargantuan proportions, an adventurer, a writer, a filmmaker, fake war hero, father, husband, wife-beater, savior to many, devil to many others, etc.
wright describes LRH writing some 500 pulp novels (!!!) under these conditions: he'd buy rolls of the paper that butchers use to wrap meats, lock himself in a tiny room, black out the windows, plug in a single light with a blue lightbulb (!!) and sip from a bottle of rum while banging out yardage of pulp on the meat-paper scroll. when he finished a novel (in a matter of days), he'd tear it off and keep plowing ahead onto another one. i love this. and so ordered a few of his pulpy '40s novels -- the covers are so great:
* Potential Trouble Source/Suppressed Person
* Operating Thetan level 8
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Finished Reading
January 22, 2013
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 64 (64 new)
nice one, eh! did you wikisearch 'viscosity' or are you naturally such a smartypants that 'coefficient of friction' is at the tip of your pen (finger)? definitely the latter. i'm jealous.
She's an engineer, dummy. They have nothing better to do than know stuff like that.
This reminds me of that one movie with Demi Moore, where her unborn child is soulless and its birth would signal the end of the world. At the end, (view spoiler) You're right, that sort of conviction, whatever its focus or result, is compelling.
i didn't know eh! was an engineer. now i'm really jealous. :-(
But you did! I reviewed the exam study book a couple years ago. Porous brain? :)But being an engineer isn't all that amazing. It's all pocket protectors and camel toes.
If she were a choochoo engineer then I'd be impressed.
pocket protectors and camel toesand that is why eh remains my all-time favorite goodreader.
(and, yes, i guess i did know. sorry eh!)
choochoo engineer is cooler than smartypants engineer, i agree.
camel toesUnfortunately, it's not just for women.
If I were a choochoo driver, I'd leave the car doors open so hobos could jump on!
brian wrote: "(and, yes, i guess i did know. sorry eh!)"Not a problem at all. Not everyone keeps a spreadsheet like me and Morais. :)
Eh?Eh! wrote: "It's all pocket protectors and camel toes.".
camel toesUnfortunately, it's not just for women.
They're called moose knuckles when they're men. You'd think a smartypants engineer would know that.
Hahah! I didn't know that! But I guess I could've asked those men for the correct term. That would've been more engineering-like.
for david: 
there's something very wonder showzen about this. i love it.
SLAVES! BUILT THE PYRAMIDS!SLAVES! BUILT THE PARTHENON!
SLAVES! BUILT AMERICA!
SLAVES! THIS IS YOUR SONG! THANK YOU, SLAVES!
Hey. That choochoo kid has a moose knuckle.
I have missed you, you cakefarting Jew!Nice review!
Books Ring a Ling My Ding a Ling wrote: "I have missed you, you cakefarting Jew!Nice review!"
He just wrote a (stupid) review a few days ago.
Skimmer.
couldn't read it.Snow.
Books Ring a Ling My Ding a Ling wrote: "couldn't read it.Snow."
>:(
i am a cakefarting jew & i love you bellsy.
You are the best cakefarting jew EVER, Brian. Go take care of your crunchy socks.and David...
:)
Brian, I read Spy Killer a while back when I got it as a giveaway. Depending on your state of mind at the time it could be wildly entertaining...but probably not as LRH intended, if you get my drift. One thing I did learn from LRH: disguising oneself as a Chinese person is easily accomplished with some skin dye and tape around the eyes (!!!). It was a hoot.
krycek - that just sounds amazing. i ordered the great secret b/c it's dirt cheap and looks fun; will be sure to check out spy killer as well. skin dye and taped eyes! amazing! - mulder
i just checked and it sounds like my people are too chicken to publish this in canada so it looks like i have to buy it next time i'm south of the border (i know: to you that means tijuana. :P)
Maureen wrote: "i just checked and it sounds like my people are too chicken to publish this in canada so it looks like i have to buy it next time i'm south of the border (i know: to you that means tijuana. :P)"Please stop dicking around, Mo. You have a scrabble game to attend to.
whaaat?that's nuts, maureen.
can't you buy it from amazon US?
i can send you my copy if not.
Krycek wrote: "disguising oneself as a Chinese person is easily accomplished with some skin dye and tape around the eyes (!!!)"This is true! Also, lacist.
yeah. totally nuts. my country used to be a LOT cooler.although it sounds like england's also got its tail between its legs:
i just checked amazon, and it looks like they might ship to me now -- i'll order it on friday. back when they were getting the .ca version up they wouldn't let us join in your reindeer games. but you're a peach for offering that back-up plan, brian! :)
fyi: jason just wanted me to play my scrabble move so i could see that he's taken the lead in our game. oh qi, you are the bane of my existence! :P
It's a fascinating book on many levels. I enjoyed the first part of the book when it deals with LRH's start in the Southern California spiritual/magic movement - and then he sort of lost it. This is not a happy narrative. And I don't think anyone involve in the higher reaches of the church is a happy pup. Very self-destructive bunch of ....people.
tosh -- there's a route i take when walking the hound which curls through a strange little set of apartment buildings at the foot of the hollywood hills. a large psychedelic sign reads: 'KROTONA. est. 1913'... always wondered what it was all about. in the bit on 20th century SoCal religions and cults, wright briefly touches on Krotona and the theosophists. guess i could've just googled it at any point, but by the time i'm home my brain's already about 3,000 subject matters past this:
Fascinating! You know my parents were very close to Cameron, who is mentioned in the book, and was Jack Parson's widow. I think Hubbard based a lot of his material on Parson's study of the Occult. And they didn't mention it in the book, but he died from an explosion in his home lab in Pasadena. My mom told me that she went to one of his parties. She told me he was movie-star handsome - Parsons that is, not Hubbard.
One of the most compelling elements to me, Tosh and B, was that it really didn't seem to be about the money for LRH. As Wright points out, once he had all that money, he just kept going and going with his "research." I mean, as charlatans go, I expect most of them don't really believe their own hype (i.e., Joseph Smith or Joel Osteen, though I know the latter didn't create his own religion), but LRH was so whacked out that I think he honestly believed a good portion of the shit he was doling. Per your review, Brian, I don't think guys like Cruise or the crazed Muslims who fly planes into buildings are full of faith. I think just the opposite. I think they're so riddled with fear that they have to cling to this shit all the more tightly in the hopes that it's true and will subsequently clear them of whatever ails them deep down.
great points, erik. 1 - yes, it is very interesting that it wasn't all about the $$ for LRH. he had gobs of it and could've run off and lived a life of luxury at any time. but, no. LRH, on some level, believed in the stuff he preached. did he truly believe in xenu and all of that? maybe, maybe not. but, i genuinely believe that he believed his program (dianetics, scientology, auditing, etc) worked. and, as wright points out, hubbard developed his anti-psychiatry philosophy at a time in which electric shock therapy and secret CIA psychotropic (and psychedelic!) drug programs were in full effect. there's no doubt LRH believed his approach the better one.
2 - yes. they are full of fear. but, what does that have to do with faith? aren't most (all) of us full of fear? part of life, of course, is to face and conquer one's fears, and i'm not so sure suicide bombers and cruise don't do that. blowing up one's self in an effort to murder as many infidels as possible is pure fucking evil, but one must admit - assuming the bomber is within some reasonable limits of what we would consider 'sane' - that it requires one to face one's fears. and the belief that xenu holds the secrets to the universe and happiness and salvation is bonkers... but is it necessarily fear-based in a way that a belief in the invisible & omnipotent sky god of christianity isn't? i don't know. yes, cruise and a suicide bomber are all full of fear, but i don't know how that invalidates or nullifies faith.
1. One area where I do agree with Scientology more than the rest of society is psychiatry and such. You know, we still do electric shock on some folks, and we are waaaaaaaaay overmedicated as a society, and even the former editor of New England Journal of Medicine said that when it comes to meds, the system is so corrupt that you really can't trust anyone on anything. Pharma is paying off universities to write favorable test studies and then docs get paid to prescribe. I know some meds are needed, but we've gone too far, and Scientology has a point there.
2. Faith teaches us, I think, to learn, truly learn, who we are and to be comfortable with who that person is and to know that God loves that person that we are no matter what, dark secrets and faults and all. Guys like Cruise and the crazy Muslims and the Hasidim and the Religious Right--they're so distrustful of who they are that they look for rules and restrictions in the hopes that that will prevent the real them from emerging. So at no point is it really about faith for those guys, even though it looks like faith. It's about rules and restrictions. When a Scientologist erred, he was punished in RPF or whatever, which is prison. In other words, rules and punishment were being used to make it all better when, in fact, there was usually nothing wrong, it was just how that person was. Of course, I can't pretend to know what anyone believes or what runs through anyone's head, but I do see a pattern that the most restrictive and punishing religions rely on fear far more than faith, rely on you being scared that you're bad rather than hoping to be good.
2. Faith teaches us, I think, to learn, truly learn, who we are and to be comfortable with who that person is and to know that God loves that person that we are no matter what, dark secrets and faults and all. Guys like Cruise and the crazy Muslims and the Hasidim and the Religious Right--they're so distrustful of who they are that they look for rules and restrictions in the hopes that that will prevent the real them from emerging. So at no point is it really about faith for those guys, even though it looks like faith. It's about rules and restrictions. When a Scientologist erred, he was punished in RPF or whatever, which is prison. In other words, rules and punishment were being used to make it all better when, in fact, there was usually nothing wrong, it was just how that person was. Of course, I can't pretend to know what anyone believes or what runs through anyone's head, but I do see a pattern that the most restrictive and punishing religions rely on fear far more than faith, rely on you being scared that you're bad rather than hoping to be good.
Erik Simon... have I told you lately that I love you? I do.
No, you haven't told me in some while, Bells, and it's frankly good to hear again. I never trust when a New Yorker professes love, but from a Michigander I know it to be the God's honest truth.
I get what you're saying, Brian, and I suspect my defense is flimsy. After all, for guys like Cruise and the Hasidim and Scientologists, etc., it is about faith, but a rather warped faith is my point. I never judge all faiths on particular faiths at their worst.
I get what you're saying, Brian, and I suspect my defense is flimsy. After all, for guys like Cruise and the Hasidim and Scientologists, etc., it is about faith, but a rather warped faith is my point. I never judge all faiths on particular faiths at their worst.
my real problem, erik, is that faith in the supernatural seems so irrational to me in general that i find it hard to distinguish between a 'good' or 'rational' faith - say, the faith which guided MLK - and the deranged faith which tells a jew and an arab they've gotta butcher the other for the slightest possible difference. (amazing how most people at hate with one another are the most similar... jews v. arabs, pakistan v. india, etc) which is not to say, of course, i equate martin luther king with osama bin laden -- just that i have a hard time differentiating when/if a 'good' guy or a 'bad' guy believes he has ... so, i admit i'm not the guy to debate this with as i start from a place of... well, i guess a place of bad faith. y'know?bellsy is the coolest.
I absolutely hear you, Brian. I spend a lot of time thinking about these very issues largely because I'm obsessed with all faith, good and bad (maybe part of being a preacher's kid). But I do think it gets pretty easy sometimes to differentiate between good and bad faiths, such as when a faith includes PIs who hunt you down if you try to leave, and I do think not distinguising between faiths can be irresponsible and intellectually lazy. I live in a county heavily populated with Hasidim, and last spring, one of them set another one on fire because he was praying in the wrong place. That one's easy.
bellsy is the coolest. Oh, I love you too, you little cakefarter.
I never tire of thinking about/reading about faith. I am with you, Brian, that it seems so irrational to me.. "there's this dude in the sky that watches me and judges me and I can send prayers to him which he may or may not answer" on and on and on... it's strange to me.
I wish I could believe... something, but it's a tough one for me.
absolutely, erik.that's what i meant by the UBL vs. MLK thing -- we must differentiate by action.
who the hell am i to say that cruise's faith in xenu is any less valid than someone else's in a christian or jewish or islamic god? i might believe that xenu is a dumber concept than allah (i don't - they seem equally as dumb), but how can i attack cruise's faith regarding his belief in xenu as compared to the faith that my wife's mom might have regarding a christian god? i don't think i can. i can attack RPF treatment and pedophile priests, but i feel it's a losing proposition to say that those who do bad have less, or even a perverted version of, faith.
maybe it's a semantical argument we're having.
regardless, sorry for going in circles.
Well, I think it's nearly impossible to have a discussion like this and not go around in circles. Hell, I felt like I ended up arguing both sides of the issue in two different posts, so fuck it, what do I know? Guess it all comes down to what Rabbi Hillel said while standing on one foot: what is hateful to you do not do to others. All the rest is commentary. Go forth and study.
Brian wrote: "terrible review...."terrible comment....
hell yeah!david always rushes to his bitchboy's defense.
It has a high coefficient of friction?