Parents' Guide to Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF offers a series of interviews with long-time Scientology members who quit the "church" and now feel compelled, despite harassment from the organization, to reveal the unhinged inner workings of what they retrospectively categorize as a cult. Many say they were brainwashed, were milked for cash, and were broken down psychologically in order to get them to submit to irrational and sometimes demanding rituals and practices. Many of the interviewees, including screenwriter Paul Haggis and actor Jason Beghe, admit to being extremely ambitious young people who wanted to do well for themselves. They took at face value promises that their dreams would come true if they became Scientologists. Founder L. Ron Hubbard's philosophy, encapsulated in his best-selling book Dianetics, is a weird sci-fi story woven by the prolific writer. At the basis of Scientology is a creation story describing aliens embedded in earthlings' bodies. Scientology methods rid the highest-achieving members of the cult from those marauders, at great monetary cost. John Travolta and Tom Cruise, two of the organization's most famous members and donors, are discussed. One former member says he and his cohorts embrace a "crushing certainty that eliminates all doubt," and keeps them from questioning insane policies and beliefs. Hubbard's ex-wife recounts hearing him say that "the only way to make money is to start a religion" because religions don't have to pay taxes.