Aftermath Book Club: The Basics

[Maelstrom]

Discussion for any of the books mentioned in or related to Scientology and the Aftermath, such as Troublemaker by Leah Remini, Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, and so forth. For a full list of Scientology-related books, check out the Resources thread.

Having one dedicated thread for book-related posts will hopefully encourage more discussion than having them scattered across the forum!

And because Scientologists do love their jargon, here is a list of for clarity's sake (reading about Scientology is hard enough on the brain without having to remember their alphabet soup of abbreviations). I can update to include/correct anything left out.

• Auditing - thought control therapy sessions
• COB - Chairman of the Board (chief psycho head of Scientology)
• Dead Agenting - shutting down criticism by disproving the veracity of the critic
• Disconnection - policy of cutting all contact with SPs and critics, regardless of ties of family or friendship
• EPF - Estate Project Force (boot camp for Sea Org)
• Fair Game - policy which allows for the complete financial, emotional, mental and psychological destruction of SPs and critics
• KR - Knowledge Report (systemized tattling)
• IAS - International Association of Scientologists (fundraising branch)
• OT - Operating Thetan (level on The Bridge coursework)
• PTS - Potential Trouble Source (precursor to SP)
• RPF - Rehabilitation Project Force (punishment for disgraced Sea Org members)
• Sea Org - Sea Organization (Scientology slave labor staff)
• Sec Check - Security Check (intensive auditing)
• SP - Suppressive Person (enemy or shunned former member)
• TRs - Training Routines (foundational brainwashing training courses)
• TR - Truth Rundown (interrogation process typically reserved for Sea Org)

[AZChristian]

I read Troublemaker last week.  Laughed almost all the way through it, when I wasn't crying.  The Leah Remini we see on the A&E series appears to be the same Leah Remini that wrote the book.  Irreverant, foul-mouthed, and with bigger cojones than David Miscavage can even dream of.

[Maelstrom]

I checked out Going Clear from my local library a year or so ago, but didn't get very far into it - the sheer batshit craziness of Hubbard was too much for me to handle, and I had only a casual interest in it at best. Then this past spring I got ahold of Leah's book Troublemaker, and read the entire thing in about a day and half. I'd always thought Scientology was nuts, in a "ha ha, this is such BS" kind of way, but reading sheer scope of just how twisted CO$ truly is was a real eye-opener for me. I really had no idea just how damaging it was and is, and just how tragic its effects on people's lives could be.

Last month I read Jenna Miscavige Hill's Beyond Belief, and I realized that, as fucked up as public Scientology was for someone like Leah, the Sea Org takes that fucked-up-edness to an entirely new level. My mind is still spinning from trying to process everything that she went through, from signing her billion-year contract at age seven to being driven nearly to suicide to save her marriage. And she's one of the lucky ones who made it out.

I've just started Going Clear again, and after learning what I have from the other books, as well as watching Leah's show, I don't think I'll lose interest this time the way I did before.

[LilWharveyGal]

15 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I read Troublemaker last week.  Laughed almost all the way through it, when I wasn't crying.  The Leah Remini we see on the A&E series appears to be the same Leah Remini that wrote the book.  Irreverant, foul-mouthed, and with bigger cojones than David Miscavage can even dream of.

I read it last week too and had the exact same experience!  Co$ really shot itself in the foot when it refused to placate her so many times.

I read Going Clear after the mini-series came out and it provided a great overview.  The Miscavige books (Ron and Jenna) are next on my library list.

[Whimsy]

I've read Troublemaker and Beyond Belief.  I had a hard time reading Beyond Belief. To me, it read like a teenager wrote it. I had a hard time keeping sympathy sometimes because she sounded a bit petulant. But, then I'd remind myself of everything she'd been through and I'd give her a pass. But it wasn't my favorite read overall. I'll get around to others but I needed to give my brain a break. 

[AZChristian]

3 minutes ago, GenL said:

I'll get around to others but I needed to give my brain a break. 

I know exactly how you feel.  Kudos to Leah, though, to getting the ball rolling on exposing this ridiculousness.

[veronicamers]

I've been on a tear since the show premiered reading Troublemaker, Beyond Belief, and The Unbreakable Miss Lovely in the last month. All were enlightening in different ways. I read Going Clear when it first came out and before that, Inside Scientology. I think I may be ready for a bit of a break, but I am intrigued by Marc Headley's book. And I really want to read some of Steven Hassan's books on mind control after seeing him on the show! I was riveted by him. I've read a ton on various cults and extreme religions over the years (even have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to the subject). I find it a fascinating topic. 

[bubbls]

I really enjoyed Troublemaker. It was a quick and easy read for me. I was bored reading Going Clear and Beyond Belief, but I think that's mostly due to my being fairly bored with the subject rather than the writing. I was also horrified by Jenna's abandonment by her parents. I didn't finish the book, so I do hope they've apologized to her. 

[spiderpig]

Just started the audio version of "Fair Game - The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia".  Despite having read most of the CO$ stuff cited on this forum, my jaw dropped during the first half hour of this edition.

For Mike Rindah fans, the Aussie author reads his own words in his charming accent.  But he takes no prisoners when it comes to the harassment of the media and abuse of "church" members.

And I still have 14 hours to go. 

Edited January 21, 2017 by spiderpig
spelling

[trow125]

When I saw the name of this thread, I thought for a second that it was a forum to discuss "The Basics," i.e. the horrendously expensive set of LRH books that every Scientologist had to buy and re-buy a few years ago. 

Quote

Church-assigned quotas drove sales. Scrambling to meet their individual, daily targets, harried staffers hounded parishioners, imploring them to pay for 10, 16, even 20 sets. Many gave in. Crates of Basics sat on wooden pallets in driveways, garages and basements.

[ZoloftBlob]

I feel so weird in that one of the first hard back adult books I was ever given as a gift from someone outside my family was Battlefield Earth, when I was 11. I still have it, I still actually kinda love it because it's actually a fun, silly romp of a story....

<sigh>

So I also adored Troublemaker and if you read between the lines, Scientology basically made their own problem with Leah because she was actually pretty compliant with them. She believed them.

Leah is the Jonnie Goodboy Tyler of this tale. That's the irony.

[Maelstrom]

2 hours ago, trow125 said:

When I saw the name of this thread, I thought for a second that it was a forum to discuss "The Basics," i.e. the horrendously expensive set of LRH books that every Scientologist had to buy and re-buy a few years ago. 

I was trying for a punny thread title, but this was the best I could come up with, lol.

 

1 hour ago, ZoloftBlob said:

So I also adored Troublemaker and if you read between the lines, Scientology basically made their own problem with Leah because she was actually pretty compliant with them. She believed them.

This. I don't think CO$ had a more fierce defender than Remini until they antagonized and alienated her. Now they have no one to blame but themselves that she has turned that fierceness back against them. Poetic justice IMO.

[Lugal]

This seems like as good a place to put this as any.  Has anyone read One Nation Under Gods by Peter Manseau?  It's not about Scientology per se (it's a history of religion in the US, which is fascinating in its own right)  But one chapter, "The Immortality Racket" talks about the counterculture movements in the 60s and mentions a bit about Hubbard and the early days of Scientology.

[Wings]

17 hours ago, ZoloftBlob said:

I feel so weird in that one of the first hard back adult books I was ever given as a gift from someone outside my family was Battlefield Earth, when I was 11. I still have it, I still actually kinda love it because it's actually a fun, silly romp of a story....

<sigh>

So I also adored Troublemaker and if you read between the lines, Scientology basically made their own problem with Leah because she was actually pretty compliant with them. She believed them.

Leah is the Jonnie Goodboy Tyler of this tale. That's the irony.

They missed a golden opportunity to move her to their celebrity center/group to be 'stroked.'   Yes, she was a devout believer.  

Her bold personality and edgy wit angered the humorless Cruise and DM.   Leah was at Tom and Katie's home a social gathering.  Tom and Katie were over the top affectionate so Leah said, "get a room", a common and much used phrase.  Katie wrote a knowledge report and she was punished.   They must have had suspicions about her, I can think of no other reason to react so strongly.  I can see Kirsty saying something like that, she has an edge to her humor.  

[hypnotoad]

I am reading Going Clear right now. I watched the documentary last week. The doc was great and am enjoying the book.

I remember the Dianetics commercials from when I was kid. As far as I know, no on in my family ever bought or read the book. But I was curious and downloaded a copy today and I wanted to share something from the synopsis:

Quote

The creation of dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and
superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch.

WTF!!!! I seriously cannot with this stuff.

[WInterfalls]

On 1/20/2017 at 6:04 PM, AZChristian said:

I read Troublemaker last week.  Laughed almost all the way through it, when I wasn't crying.  The Leah Remini we see on the A&E series appears to be the same Leah Remini that wrote the book.  Irreverant, foul-mouthed, and with bigger cojones than David Miscavage can even dream of.

If you really want to laugh and cry with Troublemaker get the audiobook read by Leah.  She is so funny and likable.  

I tell people all the time that they should read Going Clear but also that it is just tirelessly researched so it's good but a little dry.  

On 1/20/2017 at 8:13 PM, GenL said:

I had a hard time reading Beyond Belief. To me, it read like a teenager wrote it. I had a hard time keeping sympathy sometimes because she sounded a bit petulant. But, then I'd remind myself of everything she'd been through and I'd give her a pass. But it wasn't my favorite read overall. 

I know what you mean here.  I really liked Beyond Belief but I also felt she seemed like a petulant teenager at times but then I thought yeah she was one and no one allowed her to be that child.  I also think she must have some arrested development from all that mental abuse.  Lots of people who suffer physical or psychological abuses get kind of stuck at that age so I can see it. Mostly though I just couldn't believe what she's been through.  

 

I'm trying to decide what to read next either Ron Miscavige's book or the Unbreakable Miss Lovely one.  

[AZChristian]

I liked Ron's book.  It's a good primer on Co$ mindset.

[spiderpig]

I'm halfway through the Aussie version of Fair Game and, man, it takes no prisoners.  LRH is called out for exactly what he was - a sleazy, brutal, unhygienic, amoral, lying bigamist conman.  The tales of Sea Org are bone-chilling.  And I haven't even gotten into Miscavige territory yet.

For Rindah fans, he's introduced at the age of 19 when LRH's ship abandoned him in Portugal during a political uprising.

I thought the book might be a rehash of what we already know, but it is very compelling.

[Indy]

On 1/24/2017 at 3:24 PM, WInterfalls said:

If you really want to laugh and cry with Troublemaker get the audiobook read by Leah.  She is so funny and likable.  

YES! I just finished listening to Troublemaker and it was fantastic. I'm sure it was a good read as a book, but listening to her tell her story was so great. Her tone, her attitude, it just came across better through her voice than I think it would have just reading the words on paper. It was like listening to a wonderful, six hour interview. 

[LegalParrot81]

On 1/24/2017 at 1:24 PM, WInterfalls said:

If you really want to laugh and cry with Troublemaker get the audiobook read by Leah.  She is so funny and likable.  

I'm on chapter 5 of the audio book.  I have little doubt drivers around me think I'm nuts when they see me laughing out loud.  

[laurakaye]

I pre-ordered Troublemaker from my library as soon as I heard about it and read it last November.  And even though I currently have 461 books on my Goodreads "To-Read" list, I think I might re-read Leah's book, now that I know so much more about the CO$.

I recently read Going Clear and watched the documentary.  I continue to be both amused and disturbed by that darn CO$ music video.  The cheese factor is so high, it almost makes the SNL skit look normal in comparison.

Beyond Belief is next for me.

[MamaMax]

IF anyone would like my copy of Troublemaker, PM me. I am done with it, and hate to have it sitting around gathering dust.

 

P.S. Promise I'm not a CoS nutjob who will follow you around with picket signs.

[WInterfalls]

Ok so I'm half way through The Unbreakable Ms. Lovely.  Holly Cow! I knew it was bad but the level of harassment and nefarious activity boogles the mind. I can't even imagine how difficult that must have been for Paulette Cooper. 

[Maelstrom]

I finished Going Clear last week. Despite a relatively dry tone it is a fascinating read, in a disturbing sort of way. Having first gotten caught up in this CO$ craziness through Leah's book, I already knew DM is a psychotic nutbar - but somehow I had no real clue until this book that DM is simply going by Hubbard's own playbook. Seriously, everyone, Hubbard was as psychotic as DM is. Every no-no on the CO$ list (drinking, drugging, cheating, promiscuity, lying, etc etc) Hubbard committed in spades.

Lawrence Wright quotes a few people who say Hubbard was likely a paranoid schizhophrenic, and I would add (in my entirely inexpert opinion) that he could well have been bipolar to some degree as well - spending one month pounding out 100,000 words and the next month pounding booze and whichever of his three wives he was with at the moment definitely speaks of someone unbalanced to me.

If anyone's interested in this but put off by the dry tone and seemingly random opening about Paul Haggis' hippie days, I urge you to give it another go. Once it gets rolling it's truly eye-opening, even for us Degraded Beings.

Random WTFery: (not making thus stuff up, I swear)

• In his youth, Hubbard orchestrated a sailing expedition (that his crew members had to pay to join!) which ended with his crew lynching an effigy of him.
• Hubbard kidnapped his daughter Alexis as an infant and told her mother (whom he'd married while still legally married to wife number one) that he'd killed Alexis and chopped her into little pieces.
• Sea Org members have to salute DM's dogs when they pass by (and the dogs have their own special little uniforms complete with captain's bars).

After Troublemaker, Beyond Belief and now Going Clear, I think I'm ready for a little break to let my brain recover, if that's even possible. Any suggestions which book I should go for next when I'm ready?

[Atlanta]

Beyond Belief broke my heart. I read it a year or so ago after borrowing it from the library. What those Sea Org people go through is nuts. I actually had a nightmare last night that I was kidnapped by DM, snuck out of the compound and they came for me. 

[Baltimore Betty]

I started reading Going Clear, (what little I have read so far was written poorly) it has been interesting like the fact that LRH left from Baltimore for that horrible sailing trip, yeah, now we can be know for that too!

[AndreaK1041]

According to Goodreads I also read Going Clear last year, though I don't remember it. My review also mentions the writing is poor. 

I read Leah's book on Saturday. I'm not the type to read a whole book in one day, but it was easy to read and told a great story. 

[Guest]

I'm still working my way through Jenna Miscaviage's book. It's a slow read for me. I hope it picks up.  It's terrible what those kids were/are put through!  

[mattie0808]

I'm with the others who zipped right through Leah's book in just over a day. Very easy read. And fascinating. As soon as I read the first page, I knew it'd be a winner. She (and her family) just continue to impress me by how they absolutely refuse to let the church intimidate, shame, or divide them. Yes, this was a series of huge mistakes by the church -- think about all that time she submitted herself to in Florida being brainwashed and mentally beatdown, all the money she paid for the privilege, and how very long she stayed with the church after the TomKat wedding and her writing up DM. If at any point, maybe from a year before the wedding on, they had made ANY attempt to placate her or smooth things over with her, I think she'd still be in today (even with major reservations). Instead, they created what seems to be the perfect weapon at the perfect time against them.

I've also recently read Beyond Belief. I just can't wrap my mind around how parents allow this kind of thing to happen to their children -- where the parents all but abandon them, where the children are doing hard/physical labor six days a week, are not receiving a real education, and are responsible for things they are dangerously unprepared to handle (just the story of Jenna being a seven-year-old medic freaked me the living hell out), and on, and on...there were many, many points while reading that I had to back up and re-figure out exactly how old she was. And she was always, always WAY younger than I thought, and that would make me feel worse for her, and the other kids raised in the Sea Org. Kids/Teens/Young Adults her age often are whiny, petulant, naive, foolish, and much, much worse without being raised in such an insane, neglectful, and abusive way. I'm honestly amazed that she did make it out, without leaving her husband behind, and seems to be relatively normal and happy. It's kind of a miracle.

(On a shallow note, her book really reads like a Scientology All Stars hit parade for those who have watched Leah's series and/or have been following Scientology for some time. Hey, her family rooms with the Rinders! There's Claire Headley being nice to her! LOL.)

Edited March 31, 2017 by mattie0808

[Guest]

On 3/31/2017 at 11:42 AM, mattie0808 said:

I'm with the others who zipped right through Leah's book in just over a day. Very easy read. And fascinating. As soon as I read the first page, I knew it'd be a winner. She (and her family) just continue to impress me by how they absolutely refuse to let the church intimidate, shame, or divide them. Yes, this was a series of huge mistakes by the church -- think about all that time she submitted herself to in Florida being brainwashed and mentally beatdown, all the money she paid for the privilege, and how very long she stayed with the church after the TomKat wedding and her writing up DM. If at any point, maybe from a year before the wedding on, they had made ANY attempt to placate her or smooth things over with her, I think she'd still be in today (even with major reservations). Instead, they created what seems to be the perfect weapon at the perfect time against them.

I've also recently read Beyond Belief. I just can't wrap my mind around how parents allow this kind of thing to happen to their children -- where the parents all but abandon them, where the children are doing hard/physical labor six days a week, are not receiving a real education, and are responsible for things they are dangerously unprepared to handle (just the story of Jenna being a seven-year-old medic freaked me the living hell out), and on, and on...there were many, many points while reading that I had to back up and re-figure out exactly how old she was. And she was always, always WAY younger than I thought, and that would make me feel worse for her, and the other kids raised in the Sea Org. Kids/Teens/Young Adults her age often are whiny, petulant, naive, foolish, and much, much worse without being raised in such an insane, neglectful, and abusive way. I'm honestly amazed that she did make it out, without leaving her husband behind, and seems to be relatively normal and happy. It's kind of a miracle.

(On a shallow note, her book really reads like a Scientology All Stars hit parade for those who have watched Leah's series and/or have been following Scientology for some time. Hey, her family rooms with the Rinders! There's Claire Headley being nice to her! LOL.)

I'm still reading Jenna's book, @mattie0808 and I'm having trouble feeling sympathy for the adults.  At all.  I am trying to tell myself they are brainwashed, but that only goes so far to me.  There is no way I could ever see my kids being treated like these babies are being treated and being okay with it. :)

[laurakaye]

Not sure if this belongs here, but I just started watching The Path on Hulu.  I am only a couple of episodes in, but there's a lot of similarity between the show's fictional cult and Scientology.  A husband supposedly cheats on his wife, the wife has to turn him in, and the husband subsequently has to report for a 14-day lockdown and interrogation.  There is a handsome, charismatic and short-in-stature leader, reminiscent of Miscavige.  The cult's founder and author of "The Ladder" (the book on which the cult is based) lays dying in a secret location.  The leader feeds his followers lies about the things the founder supposedly asked of his followers, and the founder is not "dying," he is "moving on."  This might be my new binge-watch until I can get more Leah and Rindah on my tv screen.

Edited April 4, 2017 by laurakaye

[TaraS1]

I just started the introduction of Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I'm already put off by her spelling errors.  "Elizabeth" Moss, "Lauren" Prepon and That "Seventies" Show instead of That 70's Show.  I guess it's nitpicking, but those seem like easy errors to spot and correct in editing.

[Wings]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:07 AM, deaja said:

I'm still working my way through Jenna Miscaviage's book. It's a slow read for me. I hope it picks up.  It's terrible what those kids were/are put through!  

I didn't pick up for me and I didn't finish it.  She needed a ghost writer to work along with her.  

[luvmylabs]

On 6/22/2017 at 10:47 AM, TaraS1 said:

I just started the introduction of Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I'm already put off by her spelling errors.  "Elizabeth" Moss, "Lauren" Prepon and That "Seventies" Show instead of That 70's Show.  I guess it's nitpicking, but those seem like easy errors to spot and correct in editing.

I just finished her book.  It was slow going in the beginning with all the LRH background, but I think it was necessary to understand what happened next and how CO$ morphed into what it is today.  Still, spelling errors or not, it was fascinating and really good background information about the cult.  One thing...CO$ has more acronyms than there are grains of sand on the beach in Clearwater!  Thanks for the guide at the top of the page!

Loved Troublemaker.  Leah is like Bill O'Reilly in that the way the book is written is very much like the way they talk, making it an easy read.   I breezed through it.  It was my first introduction into what CO$ is really all about.

[Maelstrom]

6 hours ago, luvmylabs said:

CO$ has more acronyms than there are grains of sand on the beach in Clearwater!  Thanks for the guide at the top of the page!

You're welcome! I'm glad it helped :) And if anyone wants to me add something that I left out or forgot to include, just let me know and I'll update that first post. Delving into CO$ is like learning a new language sometimes, isn't it?

[Slovenly Muse]

22 hours ago, wings707 said:

On 2017-03-27 at 11:07 AM, deaja said:

I'm still working my way through Jenna Miscaviage's book. It's a slow read for me. I hope it picks up.  It's terrible what those kids were/are put through!  

I didn't pick up for me and I didn't finish it.  She needed a ghost writer to work along with her.  

I listened to the audiobook, read by Jenna herself, and yes, it comes across quite amateurish. But I actually enjoyed it once I got used to it. It really sounds and feels like a kid explaining what happened to her, sincerely and in her own words and voice. I also found the story a bit slowgoing at the beginning, but it did pick up for me in about the last third or so. Maybe a ghostwriter could have polished it up a bit, but I don't find anything egregiously wrong with the way Jenna tells her own story. It must have been very empowering, after leaving the church, to be able to use her own voice to tell her own story for the first time, without the "church" or ANYONE telling her she wasn't good enough or trying to silence her.

[Wings]

I have no criticism for Jenna or her book.  Personally, I tend to like books to move a little faster, that is all.  This is about me, not Jenna.  I already knew a lot about COS so I was not hearing this for the first time, so there is that.  

[Guest]

On 6/25/2017 at 5:51 PM, Slovenly Muse said:

I listened to the audiobook, read by Jenna herself, and yes, it comes across quite amateurish. But I actually enjoyed it once I got used to it. It really sounds and feels like a kid explaining what happened to her, sincerely and in her own words and voice. I also found the story a bit slowgoing at the beginning, but it did pick up for me in about the last third or so. Maybe a ghostwriter could have polished it up a bit, but I don't find anything egregiously wrong with the way Jenna tells her own story. It must have been very empowering, after leaving the church, to be able to use her own voice to tell her own story for the first time, without the "church" or ANYONE telling her she wasn't good enough or trying to silence her.

I think it's important to remember that Jenna had such little education because she was being used as child labor in the time she should have been learning to read and playing with friends.  

One thing that really struck me about her book - it's so easy to lose track of just how young she was for most of it.  She would walk you through her thought process and decisions she was asked to make, and then suddenly I'd remember "She was 14 when that happened!"  etc.  Heartbreaking to think of all she and so many others were put through.

[smorbie]

On 1/20/2017 at 8:07 PM, Maelstrom said:

I checked out Going Clear from my local library a year or so ago, but didn't get very far into it - the sheer batshit craziness of Hubbard was too much for me to handle, and I had only a casual interest in it at best. Then this past spring I got ahold of Leah's book Troublemaker, and read the entire thing in about a day and half. I'd always thought Scientology was nuts, in a "ha ha, this is such BS" kind of way, but reading sheer scope of just how twisted CO$ truly is was a real eye-opener for me. I really had no idea just how damaging it was and is, and just how tragic its effects on people's lives could be.

Last month I read Jenna Miscavige Hill's Beyond Belief, and I realized that, as fucked up as public Scientology was for someone like Leah, the Sea Org takes that fucked-up-edness to an entirely new level. My mind is still spinning from trying to process everything that she went through, from signing her billion-year contract at age seven to being driven nearly to suicide to save her marriage. And she's one of the lucky ones who made it out.

I've just started Going Clear again, and after learning what I have from the other books, as well as watching Leah's show, I don't think I'll lose interest this time the way I did before.

When I read it the first time, I made myself understand that the importance of LRH's story would become more apparent when they actually got into the scientology part of the story.  It does, but I understand your disappointment with the first part of the book.  It reads almost like just a biography with a few tidbits to keep you reading.

[LegalParrot81]

I'm listening to Going Clear at the moment, and besides the guy who's reading it having zero vocal inflection, it's damn interesting.  LRH was crazy and Miss Cabbage is carrying on the abusive traditions.  I do think Miss Cabbage enjoys assaulting people, LRH was more into various forms of torture.  With the hole, Miss Cabbage is carrying on LRH's tradition of basically imprisoning people who don't agree with him and refuse to follow without question.  They are both narcissistic, paranoid brutal dictators.

Edited September 27, 2017 by LegalParrot81

[italianguy626]

Thanks all for the suggestion to listen to Leah's book. I just checked out and downloaded it from my library.

[LegalParrot81]

21 minutes ago, italianguy626 said:

Thanks all for the suggestion to listen to Leah's book. I just checked out and downloaded it from my library.

You'll like it.  It's one that I'll probably listen to again.

[Waterlilly]

Commodores Messenger is very good. I have read a ton of scieno books and this was one of my favorites. Blown for Good is good too. 

[Josette]

I saw a few copies of Going Clear at Dollar Tree yesterday.  Anyone interested in owning a copy might want to check their local stores. 

[Rlb8031]

I just finished Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein. She is most well-known currently for being a trans friend of Cait, but she also was a long-time Co$ member who actually served on the Freewind under LRH. Most of her talk about her life in the cult is through the lens of "Ron" and its actually pretty interesting to hear her impressions of him. She left before Miss Cabbage took over, and while she doesn't come out and say it, her contempt for him reads loud and clear. She's also very open about the fact that she was attracted to Scientology because she was trying to deal with her gender issues, and she liked the thought that her gender was not fixed in the billion year world.

[FairyDusted]

I had some free audio books piled up and downloaded Leah's last night. I listened for over 5 hours. Sooooo good. Very cool to hear her read it. Sounded just like her having a conversation rather than reading a thing. I'm almost done but wanted to thank the poster(sorry I can't recall who) who suggested an audio version. I'm glad I finally gave in to trying it! 

She lays allllll that shit out. That wedding sounds horrific. How sad to be in that beautiful city and feel so used and abused. Rightly so! 

I'm going to finish up and come right back to comment on the content.

[juliet73]

This woman was the headline on People.com this morning and she has a book coming out about her life in the Co$ and finally leaving.  The "church's" retaliation on her was really f***ed up!  I'll probably check out her book when it hits the library.

 

https://people.com/books/michelle-leclair-scientology-humiliated-came-out-gay/

[DrSparkles]

On 9/27/2017 at 3:59 PM, LegalParrot81 said:

I'm listening to Going Clear at the moment, and besides the guy who's reading it having zero vocal inflection, it's damn interesting.  LRH was crazy and Miss Cabbage is carrying on the abusive traditions.  I do think Miss Cabbage enjoys assaulting people, LRH was more into various forms of torture.  With the hole, Miss Cabbage is carrying on LRH's tradition of basically imprisoning people who don't agree with him and refuse to follow without question.  They are both narcissistic, paranoid brutal dictators.

STOP! I'm sitting here, out of the lingo for a while now :(, & thinking 'who the hell is Miss Cabbage???' Then I said it out loud!!!! 

Made my Monday!!!

[italianguy626]

Listened to Leah's book a couple months ago. What a treat! Love that she was the one that read it.

Just finished listening to Ruthless. I found it interesting but Ron had a tendency to jump around a lot and rehash points that he had covered in previous chapters.  Also found it interesting that he doesn't really blame LRH for the issues in Scamatology, but puts more of the blame on David.

I'm now listening to Beyond Belief. I think that listening to Ruthless first is beneficial as many of the people in the Miscavaige family she refers to you have a better understanding about if you listen to Ron's book first. The version I'm listening to is not read by Jenna. I'm only into chapter 2, so I don't have an opinion either way on it yet. I got it through Hoopla at my public library and something seems to be off with the recording as it sounds very tinny. Don't know if it is just this version or if it affects the book on CD too.

If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to read Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller. It came out in 1987 in the UK. It is the thoroughly researched biography of LRH.

Scamatology was able to quash publication of the book in the United States in 1988 after a bunch of copies had already been published and shipped (only 14,000 copies made it into the wild) but as this was the beginning of the Internet, a copy was put online and quickly proliferated. That is how I read the book in the mid-90s. Here it is as a PDF.

[Skycatcher]

On 6/25/2017 at 3:30 PM, Maelstrom said:

Delving into CO$ is like learning a new language sometimes, isn't it?

Having a dictionary is always good.

 I worked for years in aerospace. They only speak in jargon and acronyms! Maybe that's why some engineers are so socially inept - lol.   I changed jobs moving from aerospace to telecommunications. Now the same acronyms meant different things. THAT? was mind-bending for a while since  I had to mentally transcribe from aerospace acronym to English to telecommunications acronym. I'm sure people thought I was "slow" while I was doing my mental gymnastics.