Reddit mentions: The best scientology books

I agree that it becomes difficult to say one studies a subject when they have not read any of the texts directly related to it. Too many people read a little xenu.com and decide they know more about Scientology than every Scientologist on the planet.

Two books I recommend if you don't have them are Self Analysis and Creation of Human Ability.

Self Analysis basically is a big book of memory recall exercises like "remember your body position the last time you ate chocolate" or "remeber the feel of the weight of your body tha last time you heard a dog barking".

Creation of Human Ability is a bunch of exercises about developing "exteriorization" (basically out of body experiences for those not familiar with the term) and actually a lot of the exercises in there are not unlike the original OT levels.

BTW for an academic take on Scientology I frequently recommend to people Scientology: History of a New Religion by Dr. Hugh Urban which covers all of the main points and controversies in a very professional and objective way.

I do not recommend The Church of Scientology by Gordon Melton though. Its academic-ish (but claims to be academic) but it glosses over the controversies so badly you would almost think that it was written by the Church of Scientology itself.

One of these missions is described in a book entitled Mission Into Time. But I will warn you that none of these Source Missions mean anything. L. Ron Hubbard was simply using his position as cult leader to play games and pretend that he was doing something meaningful when he was just screwing around.

The Gospel According to L. Ron Hubbard

If you picture Jon Atack in priestly robes, standing at an altar, preaching with his arms waving in the air at a Big Tent Anti-Scientology Hootenanny, you will have an accurate picture of who he really is.

He is not a legitimate critic of Scientology because he is not capable of telling the truth about it.

What is the truth about Scientology?

BOTH the good and the bad.

Jon Atack can only preach the bad. He is not capable of presenting the good.

His book, where it sticks to the facts, is very valuable for a person just getting out of the Church. It gives you vital information that they withheld from you as a Scientologist.

But beyond that, his preaching about Scientology leads to a dead end if you never move beyond it and start thinking for yourself again.

Jon Atack's preaching on Tony Ortega's blog is not valuable for anyone seeking to live with the truth about Scientology.

Alanzo

John Sweeney.
He da man!
He also wrote a very funny book about the experience.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Church-Fear-Inside-Scientology/dp/1909269034

Oh, and TonyOrtega.Org blogs the latest every single day.

Yea. Pretty scary.

Welcome to the rabbit hole that is Scientology watching.

Yes all the stories are real. Many of them have been documented for years. I don't know what you mean by dramatized. It is people sitting on a couch telling their stories.

It helps when all of your members sue and stalk IRS agents.

It is against the rules for a Scientologist to contact the police about a crime that another Scientologist has committed. If you do you will be kicked out and declared a suppressive person.

L Ron Hubbard targeted celebrities and opinion makers in communities to enable the "rapid dissemination" of Scientology. Wiki page on "Project Celebrity". They self shelter so that they aren't exposed to entheta (upsetting stuff).

The LAPD and the Hollywood station have been "safe pointed" for years. So when something bad happens with Scientology, the cops are on the side of Scientology. They even sent an officer that is familiar with Scientology to check on her.

I can't talk about what people think when someone dies. What I can tell you is when someone dies there is no memorial service. And the church tries to rug sweep when someone dies as much as possible.

More Reading:

Your daily dose of Scientology Tony Ortega's The Underground Bunker

2 hour interview with actor Jason Beghe. His story of how he got in is very common for a generation of Scientologists.

Mark Headley's Blown For Good

Tony Ortega's The Unbreakable Miss Lovely If you want to see how off the rails Scientology can get, the story of Paulette Cooper is truly scary.

>AMA Thread is now live! https://www.reddit.com/r/scientology/comments/40ju0x/i_am_chris_shelton_a_scientology_for_27_years_now/
>
>---
>
>Please join us tonight at 8 PM EST, at /r/Scientology, for an AMA with one of Scientology's most knowledgeable and insightful critics.
>
>In his newly published first book, Scientology: A to Xenu: An Insider’s Guide to What Scientology is All About, Chris Shelton gives an insider account of the secretive and controversial Church of Scientology, drawn from his 27 year career in the Church. After joining as a teenager, Shelton rose through the ranks of Scientology’s paramilitary monastic order, the Sea Org, to eventually oversee the delivery of L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology” for the entire Western region of the United States.
>
>Since leaving in 2013, Shelton has become an incisive critic of the Church of Scientology and high demand religious groups, and a forceful advocate for the virtue of Critical Thinking. His video logs and podcasts can be found at his website Chris Shelton – Critical Thinker at Large and on his YouTube channel.

Lots more facts here son. Knock yourself out.

Actually, I was thinking the first chapter of Marc Headley's Blown for Good where the Scn goons literally run him off the road. It's quite a first chapter.

http://www.amazon.com/Blown-Good-Behind-Curtain-Scientology-ebook/dp/B002WYJQG6/

I looked what he's been up to lately and he published a book about them just a few months ago. I'd imagine if they had got bored of winding him up, that probably renewed their vigour.

SECTION | CONTENT

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Title | Jon Atack on the Church of Scientology - Part I
Description | Jon Atack, author Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky, one of the definitive books on Scientology, discusses L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Jon Atack is also the author of "opening minds: the secret world of manipulation, undue influence and brainwashing." Links: https://www.amazon.com/opening-minds-manipulation-influence-brainwashing-ebook/dp/B01LYWEPJV/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 https://www.amazon.com/Lets-sell-these-people-Piece-ebook/dp/B00BF385HG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Length | 1:13:03






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^(I am a bot, this is an auto-generated reply | )^Info ^| ^Feedback ^| ^(Reply STOP to opt out permanently)

To protect her daughter. And her divorce agreement may have some sort of non-disclosure clause.

Scientology's history of ruthlessly attacking it's critics, going so far as to set a journalist named Paulette Cooper up for federal crimes in the 1970's because she dared to write a critical book about them. She was likely going to prison, but the feds raiding Scientology's office during Snow White investigations uncovered evidence that they'd set her up.

Scientology has set up hate/smear websites against Leah Remini, Mike Rinder and every guest they've had on the Aftermath series. They go after people with court cases, hire private investigators to follow people 24/7, go through people's trash, get people fired from their jobs, call child protective services and file false claims in order to get people's children taken from them, etc.

And they do ALL of this with TAX FREE DOLLARS!

On an up note, notice the Tags Customers Associate with This Product

"cult(463) fraud(430) junk science(369) avoid at all costs(348) evil(345) insane(334) crazy(327) snake oil(313) quackery(203) scientology(148) dangerous(104)"

You should do some research.

The Church of Scientology is a dangerous cult.

Check out scientology-lies.com or xenu.net or whatstheharm.net


In addition:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White
   
   > Operation Snow White was the Church of Scientology's name for a conspiracy during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members, in more than 30 countries...
   
   > Under this program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property.
   
   
   
2. http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/scientology-defectors-describe-violence-humiliation-in-the-hole/1270047
   
   The church (allegedly) locked people up, held them against their will, and abused them.
   
   2a) http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/12905379/australias-child-labour-camp/
   
   >Working 35 hours a week when he was eight-years-old, by the time he was fourteen, the work changed to kitchen duty.A military muster every morning required marching and saluting to the cause of saving mankind from the intergalactic ravages, described by the Church’s science fiction founder L Ron Hubbard.The kids wore all black uniforms, and were always required to run, never walk.So-called home schooling was provided in fits and starts, taking a back seat to hard labour and brainwashing.“As soon as you turn fifteen, anyone, you're straight out of school. It doesn't matter what grade you're in, what level of maths, what level of anything, you're straight out," Shane said.The mess hall served food priced at 30 cents per meal, mostly beans and rice. The adults ate first.“They would all come in and eat whatever they wanted, and then we went after them to take what's there - sometimes there wouldn't be much, so you'd get little bits of food, and it wasn't really sufficient,” Shane said.Those who dared question the brutality of this place were dealt with swiftly and severely.“They used to live under our squash courts - it's a mud, dirt floor,” Shane recalled.“We put people in there and they live in there, when they're on the RPF they'd sleep down there, and they'd study down there.”Why would you put people in a dank, mouldy, sinking foundation underneath a squash court? According to Shane it’s “because you're a bad person, you have to be segregated from everyone.
   
   
3. The church can require people to break off contact with family members and friends who are not supportive.
   
   From scientology's website:
   >A Scientologist can have trouble making spiritual progress in his auditing or training if he is connected to someone who is suppressive or who is antagonistic to Scientology or its tenets. All spiritual advancement gained from Scientology may well be lost because one is continually invalidated by an antagonistic person who wants nothing more than to do harm to the person. In order to resolve this situation, one either “handles” the other person’s antagonism with true data about Scientology and the Church or, as a last resort, when all attempts to handle have failed, one “disconnects” from or stops communicating with the person.
   
   Accounts of ex-scientologists:
   http://www.exposescientology.com/scientologydisconnection.com/index.html
   
   
4. Read about Scientology's SeaOrg
   
   >Sea Org members make a lifetime commitment to Scientology by signing a billion-year contract that is officially described as a symbolic pledge. In exchange, members are given free room and board, and a small weekly allowance. Sea Org members agree to strict codes of discipline, such as disavowing premarital sex, working long hours (on average at least 100 hours per week or more)
   
   >Sea Org members may marry one another, but are not permitted to marry outside the organization; extra-marital sex is also prohibited. According to Melton, couples with children must leave the Sea Org and return to other staff positions within the church until the child is six years old; thereafter the children are raised communally and allowed to visit their parents in the Sea Org at weekends. Children of members have themselves joined the Sea Org when they came of age
   
   It's not just a few bad apples, a lot of people have similar stories. Some examples: http://exscientologykids.com/ , http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Scientology-Harrowing-ebook/dp/B008XOJ7C2/ref=zg_bs_12773_1 , http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-ebook/dp/B00A9ET54E/ref=zg_bs_12773_2 and the three websites I linked at the beginning.
   
   

I’m from Clearwater and I don’t know a lot of documentaries, but we have a very reliable newspaper that isn’t owned by the church and is very critical of them called the Tampa Bay Times. Here’s their archive on recent Scientology articles, but they posted a scathing expose in 2009 about the church. It’s three parts and I remember being in 9th grade reading them as they came out, but it’s impossible to access them online on the newspaper website now for some reason. I found the available on Amazon for purchase for $3 and I can 100% it’s worth the cost of a newspaper to read these articles. They were written by ex-members who had intimate knowledge of the working of the church and how it’s effected the Clearwater area

Mark "Marty" Rathbun (righthand man) and Jenna Miscavige (leader's niece) have both written books. Miscavige's was recently a NY Times Bestseller, and isn't bad at all. It's really kind of a sad book. I haven't read Rathbun's book.

[What is wrong with Scientology - Rathbun] (http://www.amazon.com/What-Wrong-With-Scientology-ebook/dp/B008EMF628)

[Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape - Miscavige] (http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Scientology-Harrowing-ebook/dp/B008XOJ7C2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368198556&sr=1-1&keywords=miscavige)

Marty provided a lot of info for [this Tampa Bay Times Time Scientology series] (http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/).

Yes, copyright law forced us to delete the text of what was apparently OT III.

But we didn't leave the space blank. In its place, I wrote several pages describing Scientology, debunking E-Meters, detailing its alleged human-rights abuses, talking about Lisa McPherson, and reviewing A Piece of Blue Sky (which I'd recently read).

Oh, and I provided multiple links to webpages, hosted in countries that didn't acknowledge Scientology's copyright, which displayed the same OT III text that we were forced to delete.

It's actually more complicated than that, but your instinct is correct!

At one point after the war, he was trying to get help for certain "ailments" (not the ones he claimed he suffered during the war - just ulcers, and generally feeling bad etc.) and was denied disability several times by the Veteran's Administration. Then at one point pre-Dianetics, he requested psychotherapy (which was a new field then), and wrote a detailed letter requesting it and telling his symptoms. It was also denied. My understanding is that he was trying to get more money out of the disability department, it seems.

Then, when he wrote Dianetics, and some fans set up Dianetics groups and he went out doing demonstrations and lectures, he tried to get the American Psychiatric Association to pay attention and give him credibility. He wrote them letters, talked about his groundbreaking "research", and had hoped to become the new Freud or Jung or the rockstar of psychiatry. They investigated and denied him and most of them sort of called what he did pseudoscience and quackery.

THEN, he started coming out with ever-increasing tirades in writing and lectures that basically said that the "psyches" (psychologists and psychiatrists) were evil and out to get them, etc. He went on to say that Dianetics cured so many illnesses that it was taking business and credibility away from them, so they were out to destroy him. His writing and lectures got increasingly anti-psyche over time, leading to the current incarnation.

However, pretty much everyone was out to destroy him, if you ask him.

Those days (around when Scientology was formed, post-Dianetics), he was also on about the communists. He ghost-wrote what he claimed was a communist brainwashing manual and held it up as proof that they were awful - as well as wrote a plethora of letters to the FBI accusing his enemies of being communists (remember McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 50s/60s?). Many of those people had just wronged him in some way - it's obvious that he was trying to use the FBI and red scare to destroy people he didn't like.

Then the FBI didn't respond as he wanted (they called him something like "unstable" or "unhinged" in internal documents), so they became the enemy.

Of course, by that time, he'd had more accusations about money issues against him. He stole and ran away with and misappropriated money from people like Jack Parsons, some early donors/supporters, and the people running his Dianetics Foundation, among others. Some of those money issues became criminal-ish.

And he'd run afoul of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) by making claims about what Dianetics and the e-meter could do health-wise (curing cancer, making the blind see, none of it true, of course). So when the FBI didn't listen to him and he was under scrutiny for a bunch of other stuff, the FBI and the government became the enemy. That was part of the advent of the religious cloaking (going from a pop-psychology thing and making it a religion), to decrease government scrutiny in many ways (and avoid taxes).

Basically, this was a man who didn't suffer narcissistic wounds lightly. When someone dismissed him, didn't listen to or believe him, or made him feel "less than", he used his followers as pawns to insult and hurt them (always making himself the persecuted savior).

The "psyches" were only one of his many "I want to be acknowledged by you and be seen as important by you" targets who didn't give him what he craved - admiration and attention.

Go googling around for some of his letters to the FBI and Veteran's Administration and stuff like that, there's lots of very interesting reading.

His hubris also really comes across when the government of Rhodesia was trying to form a new government post-colonialism, and he went and wrote one (some would say badly) and approached some officials (mind you, as an unknown entity, swaggering about with his secretive group and being cagy about who he was) and was like "here, I wrote the constitution for you, you can thank me later". He was incredibly depressed when they were like "who is this guy?" and dismissed him.

There's a great story about him getting two bottles of pink champagne and walking up unannounced to the door of one of the government officials there and rang the doorbell, expecting to sit and have champagne with this official's wife and thereby get his "in" into the government... of course he was turned away there too.

I mean, he approached everyone in that manner - like he expected to have his ring kissed and be granted medals and seen as important. And then when he wasn't, well, that person or entity became his next target.

It's interesting stuff. If you're interested, some of the stories are researched, documented, and told in books like A Piece of Blue Sky, Bare-Faced Messiah - which was recently re-released and is incredibly documented and researched, Going Clear, Inside Scientology. And others, but I think those are the works that are informative, with incredibly researched documentation of claims.

EDIT: Oh, I also forgot that he wrote to the US Government offering his incredible knowledge and research and said that it could solve all their problems, etc. Then, when he didn't get any response after trying mightily hard, he wrote again and threatened to defect to the Soviet Union. He said they'd offered him a sweet sweet deal, with some kind of research position and budget and teaching positions or something, and if the US Government didn't take him up on it he was going to go to the communists with it instead. Of course, that was an empty threat...

He also claimed later, in lectures and stuff, to have worked on the Manhattan Project with the leading scientists, to develop the Atom Bomb. Which was, of course, not true. And he claimed at various times to have worked undercover for the CIA.