Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

[Ian Townsend]

Anyone else here watch this? Totally compelling documentary....

[Slim Jim]

Seen it and it's an uncomfortable watch. If I was Marty Rathbun's neighbour, I'd have helped him kick their arses.

Religious zealotry of whatever stripe is never a good look!!

They used to have an office on South Bridge in Edinburgh when I lived there and they always used to stand outside inviting people in for a "personality evaluation". They deliberately targeted anyone on their own who looked a bit down. Innit always the way...?

[Tom B]

Yes, grimly fascinating. The Wikipedia page on Scientology in the UK is well worth a read...

[pencilface]

Really interesting - especially to see the changes between how Hubbard and Miscavige run things - less wacky and more like a money/property-hoarding, super-litigious business these days

[jakartajive]

Where did you manage to watch it?
Was it on TV?

[Tom B]

Where did you manage to watch it?
Was it on TV?

It's on Netflix

[jakartajive]

It's on Netflix

Ha. OK. I no do.

[Brass Monkey]

I've always suspected it was a tax dodge. The manchester branch is opposite my office. Shall I go and join up now and give you an update?

R

[Slim Jim]

Here's a sample from the film of their harassment techniques:

[peretti]

A friend's father wrote a brilliant expose of Hubbard. I think he still gets occasional attention from the Church 30 years on but in the years around the book's publication they really went to town on him. From Wiki:

"Journalist Russell Miller wrote a biography of L. Ron Hubbard entitled Bare-faced Messiah, which was published in 1987. He was spied on while researching the book in the USA, and his friends and business associates received visits from Scientologists and private detectives. Attempts were made to frame him for the murder of a London private detective, the murder of singer Dean Reedin East Berlin and a fire in an aircraft factory. Senior executives at publishers Michael Joseph, and at The Sunday Times, which serialised the book, received threatening phone calls and also a visit from private investigator Eugene Ingram, who worked for the Church. Another private investigator, Jarl Grieve Einar Cynewulf, told Sunday Times journalists that he had been offered "large sums of money" to find a link between Miller and the CIA.The Church unsuccessfully tried for an injunction against Miller and Penguin Books to stop the book being published; a move that the judge described as "both mischievous and misconceived".