Reviews and Media on HBO Documentary Going Clear

O rly? They must have had a good advertising team :confused2:

 

It was a word-of-mouth campaign.

 

Including a whole lot of shooting their mouths off.

 

Marty Rathbun Is Scientology's Public Enemy No. 1. And He's Okay with That

Esquire Magazine: Marty Rathbun Is Scientology's Public Enemy No. 1. And He's Okay with That

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/interviews/a34259/scientology-marty-rathbun-interview/

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The ex-member of the Church and Going Clear subject talks about the enemies who ambush him, and how he encourages people to speak out about Scientology's abuses.

Though it made its HBO premiere nearly two weeks ago, people are still talking about Going Clear, Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney's enlightening (and frightening) expose on the Church of Scientology and its members. Which says a lot about the public's fascination with L. Ron Hubbard's widely known but little understood philosophy. And the movie has also put the Church itself on the defensive (or into attack mode, depending on your perspective). It's a position that Mark "Marty" Rathbun understands all too well.

As a former senior executive within the Church, Rathbun—who appears as one of Gibney's talking heads in Going Clear—has spent the past decade attempting to reconcile the 27 years he spent in the Church of Scientology (he joined in 1977), including time at the top of its ranks. In addition to a popular blog, Rathbun has connected with and counseled other former Church members, whom he has also encouraged to speak out. Which has made him Scientology's public enemy number one. Which suits Rathbun just fine, as he explained in his recent interview with Esquire.

ESQUIRE: What was it that most appealed to you about the concept of Scientology when you became involved?

MARK "MARTY" RATHBUN:


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ABC Australia: CJ Johnson reviews Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison Of Belief

http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/stories/4225205.htm

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If you've read Lawrence Wright's book, the film version, by doco maestro Alex Gibney, may not jolt your mind, but it will entertainingly place images of into it of all the folks you've read about, especially David Miscavige and L. Ron Hubbard.

If you haven't read the book, this film will jot your mind.

How can one even "review" an expose this important? Scientology is a cult that should never have been allowed to grow, but grow it has, and now, despite having less than 50,000 members, owns assets all over the world totaling billions of dollars with tax exemption in the United States because it claims to be a "religion".

Gibney, the pre-eminent documentarian right now, presents the facts cleanly: this is an abusive cult, and here's the proof. It's relentlessly fascinating viewing.

Wright did the hard yards, but that doesn't mean this isn't awesome. It's a must-see.

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An very good article by John Sweeney. Read it.

The Guardian: Going Clear: the film Scientologists don’t want you to see

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/28/going-clear-the-film-scientologists-dont-want-you-to-see

 

Oh, this is good.

This is how it starts out.

............

The most mesmerising moment in Going Clear, Alex Gibney’s wrecking-ball job on Scientology, watched so far by 5.5 million Americans, is a clip of leading church executives singing along to a clunking 1980s rock anthem, We Stand Tall. Disciples wave candles and sway in bad knitwear but, by this point in the HBO documentary, we know that the church allegedly blackmails adherents over their sex lives; that it is thuggish to those who question its conduct; that founder L Ron Hubbard was a conman who switched from writing bad science fiction to bad space religion; that his successor “Pope” David Miscavige is portrayed as a psychopath who has repeatedly hit and tortured his staff.


So, the clip of Scientologists singing along with Miscavige is sinister, an eerie negative of thousands of North Koreans weeping at the death of mass murderer Kim Jong Il. It feels like brainwashing in action. The North Koreans have an excuse for going along with thought control lest they end up in the gulag; Scientology’s extraordinary achievement, perhaps, is to pull off brainwashing in Florida, in California. But the church’s aggressive lawyers deny all that, and are working hard to prevent the film ever being broadcast in the UK.

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I know I am late to this party but I just saw the Going Clear.

It was better than I thought.

They had one great story of disconnection but I would have liked more in that because you don’t have to be Sea Org or staff to be affected by disconnection.

It would have been great if they talked to many people who lost jobs or were fired or disconnected by friends or de-friended on Facebook etc due to the “church”

I loved how after the “Musical Chairs” story Mike Rinder said that these people where fighting to STAY IN!!!.

But I think they should have talked to Mike Rinder and Rathburn and asked them to what extent they practice Scientology independently (if at all) and what they think is still useful or if to them anything is useful in terms of auditing, administration ethics etc.

Do they think that Scientology (or parts of it) could work at all of if the whole thing is pure junk?

I am pretty sure that Jason Bigeue did independent auditing after leaving and I would like to know his status now. I just think that would have given a broader viewpoint on the subject.

I would have like then to talk to "indies" like Trey Lotz, Pierre or Ray Noble and ask them about Xenu and did they believe in him or is it a metaphor or why do they believe that they get results or why people return.

I know that is too much for a 2 hour movie but I would like to have seen it if it were possible.

But if the purpose was to get people to stay out of the cult then is was right on.

 

Thew great thing about this film is ...

... all the places it could go ...

... next.


Maybe Gibney will give us more.

But he doesn't have to.


It was so successful, other journalists/filmmakers can pick up the torch and carry it.


The thing about the Scientology experience is, no matter how much a film carries....

...It's never even the half of it.

 

Spoken often with Pierre and had L-11 with Trey.

I did OT 2&3 twice and never believed the Xenu story. However like many
others got good gains.

Why???

My view is that OT 3 and to some extent OT 2 is a reworking of PAB 12.

 

What is PAB 12?

I still like auditing even the OT levels but even at the time didn't believe the Xenu story. I look at it as a visualization process.

I do wonder if there could be other beings attached to us? Many religions and cultures seem to think there could be, so maybe you could talk to a spirit? I don't know. If there are I doubt that there are thousands of them.

I do seem to do well when I am auditing. But I also do well meditating and praying for that matter.

I think that the people who tend to go "insane" while auditing are people who have guilt feelings to begin with, people who feel that they are bad and need redemption. These people tend to imagine BT's who have knives and guns and want to kill you and chop off your head.

If you audit things like over and over day after day it could make you crazy.

My BT's were never that malicious, I think because we are making them up in the first place and I don't really have a self loathing attitude to begin with.

I know this was a little bit rambling ....Still wondering what PAB 12 is?

 

I'm inclined to see it as a visualization process, and I think much auditing works
that way. PAB 12 [ Professional Auditing Bulletin I believe] was once the most
powerful process.

You can find it in here.


http://www.truelrh.com/7608_TBDS/TBDS_toc.pdf

 

https://twitter.com/nicoleremini/status/593633357562413056

 

Thanks but it wasn't there. If you ever find it please let me know.

 

I assumed the PDF included the titles listed. I'll look again.
Hwever they are in red vols if you can acdcess a copy.

 

Great article. Has some quotes from Gibney I haven't heard before.

http://www.vancouversun.com/enterta...ar+finally+crosses+border/11036878/story.html


(Excerpts. I bolded parts I found interesting.)

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While "Going Clear" aired in the U.S. on HBO in March, it's only finding a Canadian release this Friday — in select theatres, on VOD and iTunes.

The film was based on a detailed tome by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright, which was never available for sale in Canada over lawsuit concerns.

Certainly, the film caused a stir south of the border. HBO reported that 6.8 million people watched "Going Clear," making it the network's second-most watched documentary of all time.


...........

CP: The abuse you allege took place in the church — would big celebrity followers like Tom Cruise know about that happening?

Gibney: He knows about it. Cruise claims to have read (Wright)'s book and says he found it "boring."

But we know he knows because Cruise's lawyer received a very detailed breakdown of the abuses inside the church, and Cruise's lawyer has an obligation to pass that onto him.

........

CP: You've spoken out against the church's tax-exempt status in the United States. Can you realistically expect change?

Gibney: There's a possibility. But somebody in the IRS would have to grow some balls, because it'll be a fight. The church will take them on hammer and tong. And it'll be expensive.

But it seems wrong for them not to take it. I'm told that a lot of people inside the IRS were deeply embarrassed by what was revealed in the film.

 

Excellent article with lots of links:

http://www.macleans.ca/society/what-going-clear-means-for-the-decline-of-scientology/

 

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Rachel Browne
While Rachel Browne has no religious beliefs of her own, she's fascinated by those who do. Aside from religion, she writes on human trafficking and human rights. She has also written for the National Post, VICE, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.


Yes. The media is really starting to get this.

Hubbard had hoped that the practices of Scientology would be so bizarre, so audacious and outlandish that people would not be able to confront them until it was too late. Until Scientology as the one that made the rules.

It's not too late.

 

Really good. It showed me how intensely interested journo's are now, in scientology and how Gibney's film has made the penny drop a lot further on why they should be interested. They seem hungry. Ortega's book is going to fly off the shelves.

 

All $ciloons now hav targets on their back, there is no escape....ask T. C., J. T. and the assorted sillybrities still hanging on.