Why am I passionate about this?
I began reading about religion, cults, and “high demand” groups to help me understand the group I was writing about in The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune. In my book, the central question was how could so many smart, highly educated people allow their lives to be taken over by a group of psychotherapists. As a result, it was crucial for me to understand what draws people into new religions and holds them in groups that others may consider extreme or bizarre.
Alexander's book list on cults and “high demand” groups
Why did Alexander love this book?
Going Clear is the best account of the bizarre phenomenon that is Scientology.
Thoroughly reported, researched, and written, Wright works hard to be fair to L. Ron Hubbard and the movement he spawned – he always refers to it as a church – and yet the accumulation of facts reveals Hubbard to be a pathological liar, a sociopath, and a brilliant, visionary huckster. Wright also details the brutal tactics that Scientology adopted to win itself tax-exempt status as a church and to discourage and punish those who dissent or defect, labelled “suppressive persons” by the group.
Wright uses the term “prison of belief” in his subtitle which reflects his interest in the way that cult-like group create closed systems of belief, which, however outlandish they may seem to outsiders, are internally consistent and all-encompassing.
2 authors picked Going Clear as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower comes “an utterly necessary story” (The Wall Street Journal) that pulls back the curtain on the church of Scientology: one of the most secretive organizations at work today. • The Basis for the HBO Documentary.
Scientology presents itself as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment, but its practices have long been shrouded in mystery. Now Lawrence Wright—armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—uncovers…