Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief / Lawrence Wright

I heard the author of Going Clear being interviewed on NPR and was captivated. What I knew about Scientology wasn’t much—its Hollywood adherents including Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, John Travolta; its science fiction writer founder L. Ron Hubbard; and the fact that Scientology seems to be a near constant magnet for controversy. This book filled in some of the gaps for me, including the foundation of their beliefs:

…Teegeeack [Earth] was a dumping ground for thetans, it became known as the Prison Planet, “the planet of ill repute.” The Galactic Confederacy abandoned the area, although various invaders have appeared throughout the millennia. But these free-floating thetans remain behind. They are the souls of people who have been dead for seventy-five million years. They attached themselves to living people because they no longer have free will. There can be millions of them clustered inside a single person’s body. Auditing for Scientologists [focuses] on eliminating the “body thetans” – or BTs—that stand in the way of spiritual progress. p123

There is a lot of fascinating and often shocking information in this book, though at times it reads a little rough. There are so many names, and sometimes the narrative shifts abruptly. I really think it could have been edited a bit more. Nonetheless, it’s an eye-opening treatment of one of today's recently minted religions that frequently is in the headlines.

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