January 17, 2013<\/span><\/em> \u00a0| \u00a0<\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n Several years ago, for a series of Salon articles about Scientology, I was asked to review the founding text of the church, \u201cDianetics\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by L.Ron Hubbard, first published in 1950. The book seemed so clearly the work of a man suffering from particular and pronounced mental health issues that I became, for the first time, curious about its author. Like most self-help books, \u201cDianetics\u201d frequently invokes case histories or hypothetical scenarios, but unlike most self-help books, Hubbard\u2019s stories featured an alarming amount of violence, specifically domestic violence.<\/p>\n Over and over, when imagining a childhood source for an individual\u2019s problems, Hubbard spins tales of unfaithful wives and husbands who beat and verbally abuse them, sometimes kicking their pregnant bellies. Perhaps we can attribute some of this to a preoccupation with prenatal trauma; \u201cDianetics\u201d insists that fetuses can understand damaging statements made to the women carrying them. Nevertheless, to me, the most striking thing about the book \u2013 besides Hubbard\u2019s belief that it is \u201cnot uncommon\u201d for women to make \u201ctwenty or thirty\u201d attempts at a self-induced abortion with orange sticks and other implements \u2013 is its author\u2019s assumption that such beatings are a commonplace aspect of most people\u2019s home lives.<\/p>\n I wanted to find out if Hubbard had grown up amid such abuse, or had experience of it in his adult life, so I went online to poke around. What I found, on assorted anti-Scientology websites and discussion forums, seemed so outlandish and extreme that I decided not to refer to those charges at all in my review. I couldn\u2019t be sure they were substantiated.<\/p>\n Scientology has involved preposterous claims from the very start \u2013 from before the very start, actually, since \u201cDianetics\u201d (published two years before the foundation of the church) promises that a \u201cclear\u201d (an individual who has succeeded in using the Dianetic \u201ctechnology\u201d to free him- or herself of all impairing \u201cengrams\u201d) will attain assorted superpowers. These include healing his or her own disabilities and illnesses, as well as perfect recall, the capacity to perform \u201cmental computations\u201d at lightning speeds and various forms of mind reading and control. Scientology\u2019s critics, on the other hand, accused Hubbard of \u2013 yes \u2013 domestic violence (including an incident in which he demanded that his second wife kill herself to prove she really loved him), to bigamy, lying about his service in World War II, engaging in black magic rituals and throwing followers who displeased him off the high deck of his ship. The church has countered such attacks by flinging accusations at its critics, from public drunkenness to adultery and homosexuality.<\/p>\n The whole mess seemed like a seething farrago of bizarre fantasies, vendettas and nightmares, indistinguishable from whatever grains of truth lingered here and there. A phenomenally diligent and rigorous investigator could probably sort it all out, but the Church of Scientology is notorious for using nuisance litigation to hound skeptical journalists to the brink of destitution and despair. Who\u2019d be up for that?<\/p>\n Lawrence Wright was, and my long preamble is all by way of explaining why his new book, \u201cGoing Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is so invaluable. There have been other expos\u00c3\u00a9s of the church \u2013 including last year\u2019s fine \u201cInside Scientology: The Story of America\u2019s Most Secretive Religion\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Janet Reitman, a book Wright praises in his own \u2013 but this one carries the imprimatur of both Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, and the New Yorker magazine, where Wright first wrote about the church in a story on its cultivation of celebrity members, as exemplified by movie director Paul Haggis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lawrence Wright’s enthralling, meticulously fact-checked account of the insular church and its celebrity members.<\/p>\n January 17, 2013<\/span><\/em> | <\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n Several years ago, for a series of Salon articles about Scientology, I was asked to review the founding text of the church, “Dianetics”<\/a> by L.Ron Hubbard, first published in 1950. The book seemed so clearly the work of a man suffering from particular and pronounced mental health issues that I became, for the first time, curious about its author. Like most self-help books, “Dianetics” frequently invokes case histories or hypothetical scenarios, but unlike most self-help books, Hubbard’s stories featured an alarming amount of violence, specifically domestic violence.<\/p>\n Over and over, when imagining a childhood source for an individual’s problems, Hubbard spins tales of unfaithful wives and husbands who beat and verbally abuse them, sometimes kicking their pregnant bellies. Perhaps we can attribute some of this to a preoccupation with prenatal trauma; “Dianetics” insists that fetuses can understand damaging statements made to the women carrying them. Nevertheless, to me, the most striking thing about the book — besides Hubbard’s belief that it is “not uncommon” for women to make “twenty or thirty” attempts at a self-induced abortion with orange sticks and other implements — is its author’s assumption that such beatings are a commonplace aspect of most people’s home lives.<\/p>\n I wanted to find out if Hubbard had grown up amid such abuse, or had experience of it in his adult life, so I went online to poke around. What I found, on assorted anti-Scientology websites and discussion forums, seemed so outlandish and extreme that I decided not to refer to those charges at all in my review. I couldn’t be sure they were substantiated.<\/p>\n Scientology has involved preposterous claims from the very start — from before the very start, actually, since “Dianetics” (published two years before the foundation of the church) promises that a “clear” (an individual who has succeeded in using the Dianetic “technology” to free him- or herself of all impairing “engrams”) will attain assorted superpowers. These include healing his or her own disabilities and illnesses, as well as perfect recall, the capacity to perform “mental computations” at lightning speeds and various forms of mind reading and control. Scientology’s critics, on the other hand, accused Hubbard of — yes — domestic violence (including an incident in which he demanded that his second wife kill herself to prove she really loved him), to bigamy, lying about his service in World War II, engaging in black magic rituals and throwing followers who displeased him off the high deck of his ship. The church has countered such attacks by flinging accusations at its critics, from public drunkenness to adultery and homosexuality.<\/p>\n The whole mess seemed like a seething farrago of bizarre fantasies, vendettas and nightmares, indistinguishable from whatever grains of truth lingered here and there. A phenomenally diligent and rigorous investigator could probably sort it all out, but the Church of Scientology is notorious for using nuisance litigation to hound skeptical journalists to the brink of destitution and despair. Who’d be up for that?<\/p>\n Lawrence Wright was, and my long preamble is all by way of explaining why his new book, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief,”<\/a> is so invaluable. There have been other exposés of the church — including last year’s fine “Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion”<\/a> by Janet Reitman, a book Wright praises in his own — but this one carries the imprimatur of both Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, and the New Yorker magazine, where Wright first wrote about the church in a story on its cultivation of celebrity members, as exemplified by movie director Paul Haggis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nStay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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