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"Going Clear" by Larry Wright - Book Reviews

Boomima

Patron with Honors
Denise, I think you are amazing for being so kind-hearted towards Marty despite what you went through. You are an amazing lady. Also, I will say it again, the fact that you, Panda, Face, JohnAnchovie, Smurf, and others have made public, sincere apologies for what you did while in Scientology while Marty can't even say that he was personally responsible for terrible things (without blaming DM or suggesting that nothing wrong was done - see the kidnapping of Annie Tidman) demonstrates who has character and who is desperately trying to hold on to a ghost.


I don't personally care if he's a Scientologist or not. I do care that he's never said "I am sorry for any role I had in the death of Lisa McPherson and cover-up afterwards" or "I am sorry I ever was responsible for sending anyone to the RPF."


I know that comes from your heart and, as always, I greatly respect your views.

Now let me explain FWIW. I suspect many will disagree with this which of course is fine.

In my final days posting as Larry I tried to make what I felt were several important posts before my final thread where I pretty much imploded on here taking off my mask of "Larry" and trying to introduce the real me. In the few days before that I made final postings as Larry trying to really show how it is the truth that will take down scientology in its present form, introducing everyone to my beautiful granddaughter and then giving my views on Marty.

What I had say about Marty was this post:


http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...Y-HOSTILE-thread-by-Marty&p=674031#post674031


I am no better than any of us including Marty, I do not wish to hurt anyone and post more from my heart than my mind. I could be wrong but I feel Marty is in a deep, dark place and he doesn't even know it. It saddens me to think of what he has yet to go through.

But I felt it was important to review his two books for the reasons I gave in the reviews. I tried to be kind and validate him for the "good parts" and for trying.

I often reflect on what I feel is one of the most beautiful Anon vids prepared by L Ron Hu88ard called "The Lighthouse Letter".

The whole poem gets to me and often brings me to tears as it so gently shows the awful pain of disconnection in scientology. The below bit from the the beginning of that poem gets to me the most. It makes me think of those lost in the deep, dark cavern of scientology yet there is still hope for them and we should help them out and give them a hand to find their way out to the dazzing light of freedom. We can even be their eyes to get out of the darkness. It went something like this:

Deep within a cavern dark
A spring of truth abides
How I hope your find this bottle
My kisses are inside

The light outside is dazzling
Escape's a costly prize
But gentle reader grasp my hand
And I shall be your eyes.


This may never happen and Marty may hate me, and never ever reach out to me for help. He probably thinks I am crazy if he thinks of me at all. My reviews probably annoy him as they are sitting there as the first reviews to see when anyone wants to check out his books on Amazon. But my hand is out there for him to help him get out too. And while my reviews showed some major disagreements with what he wrote, they also showed where I agreed with him.

Anyway all of the above is why I gave the reviews three stars out of five. I did not try to review the books for their lack of literary quality. I would probably do no better.
 

NoName

A Girl Has No Name
I've seen people dying from comparable conditions. Death from decease is not an on/off process, the body start to shut down the less important parts as the systems start to falter. You die from the toes up so to speak. And yes, those in that situation are usually very aware their days are up.

Well, I'm not sure what Paul's original point was. I don't think it was particularly OT for Ron to know he was dying. But if a Kool Aid drinker wants to tell himself that to minimize the cognitive dissonance of Pfauth's statement, I suppose they could. But I personally don't think there is anything magical about Ron knowing he was dying.

In fact, if you believe, as I do, that he had his bucket kicked, his OT powers of reading the future should have allowed him to hang on for a bit longer. More bluntly stated, if he knew Annie and Pat would do him, mebbe he coulda seen to Annie getting RPF'ed and Pat getting his PI a bit sooner.

That way he coulda kept waddling winded around that trailer and screaming at the BT's a wee bit longer.
 

Random guy

Patron with Honors
In fact, if you believe, as I do, that he had his bucket kicked, his OT powers of reading the future should have allowed him to hang on for a bit longer.

If he had his bucket kicked for him, it would at best have shortened his life by a small bit, I don't think it really matters. My only point is it is possible he knew he was dying, but as was pointed out, some people think they are dying no matter what. Also, thinking you are about to die is also symptomatic of several mental conditions, and as we know, Old Liverlipps wasn't exactly a paragon of sanity at that point (if ever).
 

Stat

Gold Meritorious Patron
Past 100 pages now, here's a visual review:

358dkhz.jpg
 

Teanntás

Silver Meritorious Patron
Amazon Best sellers
#11.
13 days in the top 100
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by Lawrence Wright
4.4 out of 5 stars (23)
Hardcover
List Price: $28.95
Price: $15.92
You Save: $13.03 (45%)
41 used & new from $14.00

Kindle Version #50

Not too shabby ! I'm expecting my copy any day.
 

Purple Rain

Crusader
Amazon Best sellers
#11.
13 days in the top 100
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by Lawrence Wright
4.4 out of 5 stars (23)
Hardcover
List Price: $28.95
Price: $15.92
You Save: $13.03 (45%)
41 used & new from $14.00

Kindle Version #50

Not too shabby ! I'm expecting my copy any day.

I wish it was going up instead of down, though. I want it to be #1.

Wish faiiiiiiryyyy...!

wish+fairy.jpg
 

Jump

Operating teatime
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

It's working - keep it up !

#9 now with a up-arrow :)

Amazon Best sellers
#9.
25 days in the top 100
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by Lawrence Wright
 

Stat

Gold Meritorious Patron
My wife is almost half-way through the book,
even though she is not big on reading books.

Also, English is her second language. No joke.

I just showed her that by putting finger on the word
in Kindle - brigs up a definition pop-up.

So yeah. :)


P.S. As a side note, it might be a good idea to start
working on some Italian and Russian translations of the book.
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
.....

REPOSTED FROM THE STUPID THREAD



There is something incredibly stupid about Hubbard's statement to the world that: "We shall not speculate here on how I came to rise above the bank." I feel certain there must be a "tech" in how that was made possible. . .

From JustMe, excerpted from a review of Larry Wright's book "Going Clear..." on another thread and Amazon:



Tracking the "rise" of L. Ron Hubbard as he "rose above" the reactive mind-driven mediocrities and pathetic inadequacies of the species known as Homo sapiens, one is soon reminded of the extraordinary separation Hubbard was able to place between himself and the humans, far below. These ever-increasing altitudes and distances are, not surprisingly, to be expected from a soaring Homo Novus with godlike powers.

However, on closer inspection, quite surprisingly, one realizes that Hubbard achieved these extraordinary distances to the mortals below not by ascending to greater deified heights--but instead by forcefully crushing downward and submerging the natural buoyancy of normal people.

This is one of Hubbard's greatest discoveries, in fact, that is is far easier to "rise above" others not by climbing upscale to OT, but by simply oppressing others downward.


Excellent point about the method used to supposedly rise above others and their societies - just crush and submerge others and their societies and automatically one sees himself as rising above it! That actually does seems to be the tech which he did not wish to speculate about.

On a topic brought up earlier by Veda and others, Hubbard's admission of failure just prior to his death - an old timer who is a friend of mine conjectured that what Hubbard meant when he said that he failed is that he failed to handled his case. If you think about it, this point of view has a lot a merit. Hubbard's research consisted mostly of running his own case and when it did not resolve he went deeper into it, ultimately culminating with OT III and later with NOTs. When he could not run it out himself, he put his public to work running this stuff as well, perhaps hoping that through this means the rest of us could run out his case for him. That did not work out at all to such an extent that in his last few weeks of life, he declared that he had failed.....to handle his case!!.
Lakey
 

Krautfag

Patron Meritorious

Stat

Gold Meritorious Patron
Scientology author talks of church's presence in D.C.

Scientology is infamous for tracking down those who speak out against it -- including journalists and former Church members -- something Wright has experienced.
The threat of guaranteed intimidation was too much for Wright's British publisher, who backed out at the last minute.

"I've had innumerable legal letters [from Scientology lawyers] but I'm not intimidated.
My last book was about al Qaeda, and they don't have lawyers. If they did, they'd be a very dangerous organization," Wright quipped.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/scien...presence-in-d.c./article/2519834#.UQZL-md5WQo

2udwaib.jpg


This is a perfect storm.

Scientology has nothing on Lawrence Wright and he has everything.

Truth Revealed, at last.
 
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CommunicatorIC

@IndieScieNews on Twitter
Spectator books of the year: Thomas W. Hodgkinson on a hair-raising account of Scientology.

Spectator: Spectator books of the year: Thomas W. Hodgkinson on a hair-raising account of Scientology

http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/20...son-on-a-hair-raising-account-of-scientology/

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright (Vintage). Originally published in the US, this history of scientology isn’t available in UK bookshops. Buy it online. Hilarious, hair-raising and amazingly evenhanded, given the subject matter, it describes how the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard turned his toxic neuroses into the basis for an utterly bogus belief system designed to extract money from dupes. This is the guy who punched his wife for smiling in her sleep. This is the guy Tom Cruise refers to, with reverential affection, as ‘LRH’.

* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * *
 

Armadildo

New Member
Al Qaida and Scientology have a lot in common. Both are organized religious criminal organizations. ISIS is different in that it actually has the "Bulgravia" L. Ron Hubbard so desperately wanted.
 

Jump

Operating teatime
Al Qaida and Scientology have a lot in common. Both are organized religious criminal organizations. ISIS is different in that it actually has the "Bulgravia" L. Ron Hubbard so desperately wanted.




And all he ever got was the grav y.

Or the grav e.


He certainly got the grav itas .. on this planet.
 

ILove2Lurk

Lisbeth Salander
. . .
New Oscar season Alex Gibney & Lawrence Wright
video interview . . . entertaining and worth it.

[video=youtube;ndKjDUX0_7o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndKjDUX0_7o[/video]
 
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