The first critical treatment of Scientology that seeks to identify and correct what is wrong with it rather than to merely expose or advocate against the subject. A handbook for former, current and prospective members. The book can help to heal any damage done by misuse while rehabilitating any positives derived from Scientology. The book also serves to proof up an individual against being harmed by misapplication of Scientology in the future. As the first simple, accurate description of the philosophy from its introductory to its most advanced levels, the book will inform those interested in Scientology as no other available work has.
What Is Wrong With Scientology?
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About the Author
Mark ‘Marty’ Rathbun was Inspector General of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), the organization that controls the copyrights and trademarks of the materials relating to Dianetics and Scientology. His role was to head the Inspector General Network, described by the Church of Scientology as "an independent investigatory and policing body whose function is to keep Scientology working by ensuring the pure and ethical use of Dianetics and Scientology technology." The post is one of the most senior management functions in the Church and its related organizations. Rathbun left the Church of Scientology in 2004. He is now an independent Scientologist. As such he and his wife, Monique, provide counseling and auditing services for other Scientologists that have cut their ties with the Church of Scientology. He emerged as a critical source in a 2009 Tampa Bay Times expose on the organization, revealing that physical violence is a common occurrence within Scientology management, and that Scientology head David Miscavige regularly beats his staff, and orders staff to administer beatings to designated individuals. The series by the Times titled "Inside Scientology: The Truth Rundown" (http://tinyurl.com/mjcnfv) was recognized with honors including the 2010 Gold Medal for Public Service award from the Florida Society of News Editors, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Headliner Awards in the category of investigative reporting. Rathbun has also been profiled by the following publications: The UK Independent weekly magazine: http://tinyurl.com/cwahwzy Texas Monthly magazine: http://tinyurl.com/758rb75 The Village Voice: http://tinyurl.com/5tjnhuc Rathbun operates a blog called Moving On Up a Little Higher: markrathbun.wordpress.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
106 of 127 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If this book is aimed at the public at large who have as yet not gotten involved with scientology and it is trying to convince them that scientology is good, I believe it will not be effective.
It is literately riddled with scientology jargon and references and unfounded statements of fact about scientology and Hubbard that I believe will not interest this public on any scale.
However, I believe this book is going to have great appeal to scientologists who have left organized scientology, fleeing its abuses but are still true believers in Hubbard. And why not? Marty rightly points out many horrid abuses within the organized scientology and purports to offer a kinder and gentler scientology where people are not beaten, screamed at, hard sold beyond ability to bear and the like. Who would not like that?
I liked that the book told of some horrid abuses in organized scientology. There are many horrid abuses within organized scientology that go far beyond the examples given by Marty.
I also really liked reading that Marty to a degree seems to promote a non-fundamentalist approach to scientology, saying people should be able to leave it, take breaks from it, not have to believe everything Hubbard says, etc. I think that is a good start.
I especially liked reading the last chapter or two of the book and really, really wanted to believe that Marty reaches out to and seems to embrace good parts of other practices that foster human rights and decency. I like that he seemed to be preaching that scientologists should not think they have this superior technology and be arrogant as if they were somehow above all others, when they certainly are not.
I really, really wanted to like Marty especially as I believe that he is being honest about what he has written in this book being his actual beliefs. I also am a big believer of freedom of speech and expression and that most certainly includes Marty and those who believe in scientology like Marty does. I also knew Marty before he went directly under Miscavige and abused others and I knew him then not to be an abusive person.
However, the parts that I did not like about this book outweigh in importance what I liked.
Marty makes countless references to Hubbard's "technology" and "research" and speaks of all that as if it is somehow true. Hubbard had absolutely no qualifications in the field of mental health and in fact falsified his credentials many times.
Of the countless "levels" and "auditing processes" Hubbard supposedly researched, none to my knowledge were ever peer reviewed nor subjected to any scientific analysis. People have died following Hubbard policies, committed suicide and otherwise were harmed in many cases yet Marty does not discuss that and instead seems to sweep it aside.
Hubbard constantly made these sweeping statements proclaiming the brilliance of his "discoveries" and then demanded that people pay large sums for them without ever proving that his discoveries were valid. For example, Hubbard released the highly dangerous "Introspection Rundown" proclaiming it was one of the great discoveries of the 20th century and saying that the last need for psychiatry was now gone.
Yet he had no qualifications whatsoever to make such proclamations and what he released was a highly dangerous "rundown", in effect practicing medicine/psychology without a license but being protected under the cloak of religion.
In this book Marty will often compare scientology to other practices in an effort to make it somehow seem normal or harmless. For example he says that Hubbard's dictates about removing undesirables from society and taking away their civil rights is much like the view of the mental health community now. I disagree. Marty does not list the types of people Hubbard felt should be removed from society and have civil rights taken away. For example Hubbard felt that applied to people who were gay. That is not the view of the mental health field. Nor does the mental health field say that these people should be disposed of quietly and without sorrow like Hubbard says.
And, in my opinion Marty does the readers a disservice by discounting the abuses of Hubbard himself. Marty tends to justify Hubbard's crazy policies to destroy others and the like as having come from a time when organized scientology was fighting for its life from huge enemies.
But who are these imagined "enemies" if not individuals or government departments trying to help people who themselves were harmed by the standard practice of Hubbard's scientology.
Marty, for example, talks of a decade and a half of the "unfettered" guardians office's operations that had come back to haunt Hubbard. The guardians office was not unfettered, that was a line put out by Miscavige and bought by many. In actual fact the guardians office was run by Hubbard himself.
The crimes the guardians office committed were pursuant to Hubbard's own programs and orders. Or they were to clean up messes caused by people harmed by the standard practice of scientology as written by Hubbard.
When the FBI conducted a massive raid on scientology offices in the USA in 1977, immediate actions were taken by their guardian office bosses in the UK to remove evidence of Hubbard running the guardians office from their files. It took well over 100 people weeks to get that evidence out of the files, there was so much of it.
Much of the real cruelty within organized scientology was in fact carried out either by Hubbard himself or ordered by or condoned by Hubbard. Hubbard was known to demand heads on pikes and the brutal treatment of many who supported him for the crazy crimes and the like that Hubbard in his madness imagined they committed.
It was Hubbard who wrote the horrid policies of disconnection, rehabilitation colonies and so many other things abusive in nature. Hubbard in his madness imagined many enemies of scientology such as the world bank, basically all of the mental health field, the Rockefellers and so many more that could have cared less about organized scientology.
And all the while Hubbard was getting millions of dollars of scientology money, much through threats and abuse, while lying to the greater scientology community that he never took any money from scientology.
I could be wrong but I believe that Marty does believe what he wrote and I believe that Marty really wants a better world. But in my humble opinion, he himself is doing some of the very people he wishes to help a great disservice with this book by trying to imply that parts of scientology are less dangerous than they really are or that somehow Hubbard was not the abusive madman that countless people have testified him to be.
I think that the real good or bad in scientology lies in the heart of the scientologist and how and why she uses it. I agree with Marty that you can't kill an idea and that people have a right to believe in what they want. But, again, I feel this book can mislead people into believing scientology is more than it is and that Hubbard was more qualified or a better person than he was.
Anyway this all is my opinion. I actually wish all the scientologists great healing and recovery. And this includes the author.
It is literately riddled with scientology jargon and references and unfounded statements of fact about scientology and Hubbard that I believe will not interest this public on any scale.
However, I believe this book is going to have great appeal to scientologists who have left organized scientology, fleeing its abuses but are still true believers in Hubbard. And why not? Marty rightly points out many horrid abuses within the organized scientology and purports to offer a kinder and gentler scientology where people are not beaten, screamed at, hard sold beyond ability to bear and the like. Who would not like that?
I liked that the book told of some horrid abuses in organized scientology. There are many horrid abuses within organized scientology that go far beyond the examples given by Marty.
I also really liked reading that Marty to a degree seems to promote a non-fundamentalist approach to scientology, saying people should be able to leave it, take breaks from it, not have to believe everything Hubbard says, etc. I think that is a good start.
I especially liked reading the last chapter or two of the book and really, really wanted to believe that Marty reaches out to and seems to embrace good parts of other practices that foster human rights and decency. I like that he seemed to be preaching that scientologists should not think they have this superior technology and be arrogant as if they were somehow above all others, when they certainly are not.
I really, really wanted to like Marty especially as I believe that he is being honest about what he has written in this book being his actual beliefs. I also am a big believer of freedom of speech and expression and that most certainly includes Marty and those who believe in scientology like Marty does. I also knew Marty before he went directly under Miscavige and abused others and I knew him then not to be an abusive person.
However, the parts that I did not like about this book outweigh in importance what I liked.
Marty makes countless references to Hubbard's "technology" and "research" and speaks of all that as if it is somehow true. Hubbard had absolutely no qualifications in the field of mental health and in fact falsified his credentials many times.
Of the countless "levels" and "auditing processes" Hubbard supposedly researched, none to my knowledge were ever peer reviewed nor subjected to any scientific analysis. People have died following Hubbard policies, committed suicide and otherwise were harmed in many cases yet Marty does not discuss that and instead seems to sweep it aside.
Hubbard constantly made these sweeping statements proclaiming the brilliance of his "discoveries" and then demanded that people pay large sums for them without ever proving that his discoveries were valid. For example, Hubbard released the highly dangerous "Introspection Rundown" proclaiming it was one of the great discoveries of the 20th century and saying that the last need for psychiatry was now gone.
Yet he had no qualifications whatsoever to make such proclamations and what he released was a highly dangerous "rundown", in effect practicing medicine/psychology without a license but being protected under the cloak of religion.
In this book Marty will often compare scientology to other practices in an effort to make it somehow seem normal or harmless. For example he says that Hubbard's dictates about removing undesirables from society and taking away their civil rights is much like the view of the mental health community now. I disagree. Marty does not list the types of people Hubbard felt should be removed from society and have civil rights taken away. For example Hubbard felt that applied to people who were gay. That is not the view of the mental health field. Nor does the mental health field say that these people should be disposed of quietly and without sorrow like Hubbard says.
And, in my opinion Marty does the readers a disservice by discounting the abuses of Hubbard himself. Marty tends to justify Hubbard's crazy policies to destroy others and the like as having come from a time when organized scientology was fighting for its life from huge enemies.
But who are these imagined "enemies" if not individuals or government departments trying to help people who themselves were harmed by the standard practice of Hubbard's scientology.
Marty, for example, talks of a decade and a half of the "unfettered" guardians office's operations that had come back to haunt Hubbard. The guardians office was not unfettered, that was a line put out by Miscavige and bought by many. In actual fact the guardians office was run by Hubbard himself.
The crimes the guardians office committed were pursuant to Hubbard's own programs and orders. Or they were to clean up messes caused by people harmed by the standard practice of scientology as written by Hubbard.
When the FBI conducted a massive raid on scientology offices in the USA in 1977, immediate actions were taken by their guardian office bosses in the UK to remove evidence of Hubbard running the guardians office from their files. It took well over 100 people weeks to get that evidence out of the files, there was so much of it.
Much of the real cruelty within organized scientology was in fact carried out either by Hubbard himself or ordered by or condoned by Hubbard. Hubbard was known to demand heads on pikes and the brutal treatment of many who supported him for the crazy crimes and the like that Hubbard in his madness imagined they committed.
It was Hubbard who wrote the horrid policies of disconnection, rehabilitation colonies and so many other things abusive in nature. Hubbard in his madness imagined many enemies of scientology such as the world bank, basically all of the mental health field, the Rockefellers and so many more that could have cared less about organized scientology.
And all the while Hubbard was getting millions of dollars of scientology money, much through threats and abuse, while lying to the greater scientology community that he never took any money from scientology.
I could be wrong but I believe that Marty does believe what he wrote and I believe that Marty really wants a better world. But in my humble opinion, he himself is doing some of the very people he wishes to help a great disservice with this book by trying to imply that parts of scientology are less dangerous than they really are or that somehow Hubbard was not the abusive madman that countless people have testified him to be.
I think that the real good or bad in scientology lies in the heart of the scientologist and how and why she uses it. I agree with Marty that you can't kill an idea and that people have a right to believe in what they want. But, again, I feel this book can mislead people into believing scientology is more than it is and that Hubbard was more qualified or a better person than he was.
Anyway this all is my opinion. I actually wish all the scientologists great healing and recovery. And this includes the author.
46 of 57 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
What many severe critics of Scientology will not like about this book is that it describes not only what is terribly wrong with $cientology, it also describes what is useful about it.
Why is Scientology still here? You would think that with over 60 years of some of the most horrible press attacking it incessently, that the organization and the philosophy would have vanished from the face of the earth. So how the heck does it continue to make headlines and continue to be controversial or continue to be accepted by anyone in his right mind?
The unfortunate truth for detractors is that Hubbard did in fact come up with workable spiritual technology which can and does (in the right hands) help people live a happier, more fullfilling life. Sorry. Works for me.
The reason that membership in the "church" of $cientology is declining is because the organization is so corrupt and its leadership is completely out of touch with reality. And, because its self-appointed "leader" is a sociopath.
Mr. Rathbun does an excellent job of clarifying many of the issues embroiling the current cult of $cientology as well as describing some of the things that really are the reason that scientology is still around.
An excellent read.
Les
Why is Scientology still here? You would think that with over 60 years of some of the most horrible press attacking it incessently, that the organization and the philosophy would have vanished from the face of the earth. So how the heck does it continue to make headlines and continue to be controversial or continue to be accepted by anyone in his right mind?
The unfortunate truth for detractors is that Hubbard did in fact come up with workable spiritual technology which can and does (in the right hands) help people live a happier, more fullfilling life. Sorry. Works for me.
The reason that membership in the "church" of $cientology is declining is because the organization is so corrupt and its leadership is completely out of touch with reality. And, because its self-appointed "leader" is a sociopath.
Mr. Rathbun does an excellent job of clarifying many of the issues embroiling the current cult of $cientology as well as describing some of the things that really are the reason that scientology is still around.
An excellent read.
Les
34 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By Cent
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I just finished this book and particularly liked the author's writing style with factual information and detailed timeline on occurrences within the walls of the Church. Corporate Scientology has truly become a fanatical cult and this book details how this occurred. As a former member of long duration, now out for over two years, I had to put the book down more than once to take a deep breath and groove on my new understandings. The Church has betrayed it's own members, it's staff and it's public (parishioners) who are lied to daily and threatened with "severe ethics actions" if they so much look at a news story online. An enlightening read, for sure!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book
Well researched and well written book. Helped me understand what went wrong inside Scientology and aided me in moving on.
Published 5 days ago by L Horn
1.0 out of 5 stars
Rathbun is part of the problem...not the solution
After spending a lifetime as a senior level Scientologist who was a trusted aide to David Miscaviage, Marty Rathbun now makes a claim for his own piece of the Scientology $$$ pie... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Gregg Somers
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good read, well written
Another good book by a talented author. Only drawback is there are too many unanswered questions. However, for anyone curious about the world's most controversial religion, it's... Read more
Published 23 days ago by TheSeaWolf
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great for Current Scientologists
If you're an independent Scientologist or someone who is still in the church but having doubts about the madness you see around you, you owe it to yourself to read Marty's book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mark Bunker
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Story
This is good reading for one that knows about Scientology. to the Lay person, I doubt you would understand much of it.
Published 2 months ago by Demo Woman
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book will answer all 500 questions you have about scientology!
If you read "Dianetics: The modern science of metal health" you probably have 500 questions about whether or not Scientology/ Dianetics therapy works and if the modern day "church"... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bookreader G
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but ...
This book give you some inside in THE science of Scientology, but not THE hole thing .
Is there realy sombody out there who have write about THE higher levels of THE... Read more
Is there realy sombody out there who have write about THE higher levels of THE... Read more
Published 4 months ago by H. Roder
5.0 out of 5 stars
Healing Book
This book does a service for all Scientologists of any stripe. It answers the question behind why the Church of Scientology's crisis has reached a point of critical mass in 2012.
Published 8 months ago by Jill R
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW!
Honestly written, to the point, and well worth reading his point of view! Not for the squeamish! Great to own it on my Kindle!
Published 8 months ago by Amazon Sales
5.0 out of 5 stars
All I wanted to know and more...
When I ordered this book, I was going back and forth about a lot of things concerning the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jefft6886
