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Russell Miller

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Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard Kindle Edition

by Russell Miller (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 1,420 ratings

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New and updated edition of the classic exposé of the life of the founder of Scientology

About the Author

Russell Miller is a prize-winning journalist and the author of several books, including Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, The House of Getty, and VE Day: The People's Story.

Jonathan Cowley, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a British actor hailing from Eastbourne, East Sussex, but he currently calls Los Angeles home. He has narrated many audiobooks and can also be heard on both sides of the Atlantic narrating film trailers and documentaries. He is also an active television and film actor who has appeared in Grey's Anatomy, Veep, and WestWorld.

--This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Review

'A brilliant exposé of Scientology's conman king' John Sweeney 'Unfolds like an epic and ultimately tragic film' Tony Ortega 'Russell Miller did the groundbreaking work on Hubbard and the Church of Scientology that every future biographer relies upon' Lawrence Wright --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Print length

454 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Silvertail Books
Publication date

March 4, 2014
File size

824 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00IF9B4OO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Silvertail Books (March 4, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 4, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 824 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 454 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.4 1,420 ratings

About the author

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Russell Miller

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Russell Miller is an award-winning journalist, scriptwriter and author based in the United Kingdom. The movie "Lorenzo's Oil", starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon, was based on a feature he wrote for the Sunday Times Magazine. His first book, "Bunny, The Real Story of Playboy", was voted the best non-fiction book of the year and his biography of L.Ron Hubbard, exposing the lies promoted by the Church of Scientology about its founder, was the subject of ferocious litigation around the world and was eventually withdrawn from publication in the United States. Russell is currently working on a biography of Field Marshal Slim, the hero of the Burma campaign in the Second World War.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

1,420 global ratings

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George Servais

Now I get it.

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023

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Once a member myself, I was struck by the complete lack of empathy shown by Sea Org members. This makes it clear as to why. Oh how I wanted his works to be true. Alas, the goals he claimed and the greed exhibited just didn't add up. The goal of "Clearing the planet" was actually to clear out all the bank accounts that they could. He suckered in so many good people with his promises of spiritual freedom and to make this a better world. Sadly their cognitive dissonance keeps them in bondage to a long deceased con man

6 people found this helpful

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Michael G.

Much stranger than fiction.

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2017

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Edition being reviewed: Silvertail Books (UK) 2014, hardcover.
Warning: The size of the typeface in this edition is quite small. Some readers, particularly older ones, may find it challenging to see clearly.

Bare-Faced Messiah is the biography of a man. A very dishonest man named L. Ron Hubbard. It starts with Hubbard's birth in 1911 and pretty
much gives a blow by blow description of his life ending with his death some 74 years later. His signature accomplishment, founding and nurturing The Church of Scientology is examined in shocking detail starting just after Bare-Faced Messiah's halfway point.
America has known many charismatic charlatans over the years but Hubbard was a case completely unique unto himself. The book alludes to the presence of severe mental illness.....paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar illness are both put forth as possibilities, even though no definitive diagnosis was ever made. What separates Hubbard from others of his ilk is that his behavior indicates there is a chance he may have actually come to believe the undeniably preposterous Scientology cosmology he himself had cynically invented out of whole cloth.
Unlike most of the recent spate of books exposing the sinister nature of Scientology, Russell Miller's Bare-Faced Messiah is at its essence the biography of one highly unusual and dangerous individual. It does not go into great detail about how unwitting members of The Church of Scientology are devastated financially and in many cases experience their families being torn apart.
This is a fascinating biography, well documented and highly detailed. It was put together at great personal risk to the author, who, for that reason alone, deserves praise and recognition.

36 people found this helpful

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Thomas T. Verga

Pulls back the curtain on the leader of a cult.

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2023

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One of the best books describing the truth about L. Ron Hubbard. Gives a lot of details on his life that the "church" of Scientology doesn't want you to know. A must read for anyone who has friends or family members that are in or considering joining.

4 people found this helpful

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Paul Cramer

Wow!

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023

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What an exposé! A meticulously researched accounting of the life of Scientology’s creator and greatest salesman, The True Story of LRH, details his incredible, fast paced life, and his ability to bamboozle even the most intelligent of people. Reads like fiction, but it is all true. Probably.

One person found this helpful

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FredZarguna

Decent

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2014

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A very interesting account of the life of the founder of the cult of Scientology, which suffers from a few defects:

1) While I don't doubt the overall veracity of the account, it's not as well-sourced as I would have hoped. There are lots of named sources for the material, but there are also a lot of anonymous ones. Given how dangerous Scientology has made itself to its detractors, this probably isn't surprising.

2) As is often the case in works of this type, the author projects thoughts into the minds of his subjects that, while reasonable enough, cannot possibly be verified. As Evander Holyfield's manager said when asked if he thought Mike Tyson _intended_ to bite his fighter's ear: "You can never really know what is in the mind of another person." Good advice for biographers who aren't writing in the Michael Shaara style.

3) The author's understanding of American law and American history is not sound. He should not have ventured opinions in these areas if he wasn't willing to do research into them, which makes one question the soundness of some of his other research. This distraction needn't have happened. For example, the author indulges in the trope that America of the 1950's was an hysterical lunatic asylum of anti-communism. Yet within the pages of his own study he subsequently demolishes his own contention, since none of the many people that LRH falsely accused of being communists were ever threatened -- nor as far as we can even tell given so much as a second look -- by the FBI, and indeed, the FBI came to the (almost certainly correct) conclusion that Hubbard's accusations originated in the mind of a paranoid head-case.

4) Despite the claims by some reviewers, I don't really think was a very even-handed treatment. If the author had dispensed with his snarky remarks about Hubbard and his cult and simply let the facts speak for themselves, the evidence of history presented is enough to indict and convict LRH and his following. His editorializing, while admittedly infrequent, is frankly juvenile and unprofessional, and detracts from the quality of the book overall. It need not have done.

All that said: it's well written, presents the facts and is an easy biographical read in crisp style with plenty of detail. With these cautionary notes, a worthwhile and informative purchase.

34 people found this helpful

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Pamela J.

A comprehensive look

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2023

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This author certainly did his due diligence in researching this book. It is a deep dive into the life of LRH. I had seen the TV series with Leah Remini about Scientology and was interested to.find out more about its founder. He was certainly a piece of work.if

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Jack

Lots of information, not a page-turner

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2014

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Soooooooo much information is in this book. There is so much detail that you wonder how the author could have collected all of it. Assuming that all the information is correct (and it has to be more accurate than the church's version), this is the most complete (real) biography of Hubbard that exists. I enjoyed reading it because it is interesting, however, I did not find it to be a true page turner. I agree with the author, the true story of his life is just as interesting or more interesting than the fake story pushed by the church. I'm glad I read it, and I recommend it to anyone that is interested or who has left the church.

12 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Patty McNamara

Eye opener!

Reviewed in Canada on October 27, 2023

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I've developed an interest in the cult of Scientology. To understand the current version of this cult you need some history. Absolutely astounding how this science fiction author, chronic liar and criminal could end up with so many followers.

Raymond Pembroke

Exposing the pros and mostly cons of L. Ron Hubbard

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2023

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Even though a prolific writer of science fiction, Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard's so called genius included lies, deceit, cover ups, corruption, human trafficking, fair game tactics and other anti social traits. Russel Miller the writer of this book 'The Bare Faced Messiah' carried out a tremendous amount of research and interviews to arrive at these truths. The last approx. 2/3rds of this book are so revealing, intriguing, surprising and shocking at times in respect of Hubbard's many macabre type antics that it is hard to put the book down. I recommend this revealing read to glean the truths of the cult leader Hubbard. By the way any Scientologist will, whilst reading this book, realise how they have been told lies, cover ups, part truths and so on re much of Hubbard's life!

Runner

Interesting insight into the evolution of a cult leader

Reviewed in Germany on December 1, 2022

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You always wonder what needs to happen in people's life to become cult leaders. Though the book does not answer that question, it does a very good job of illustrating the path L. Ron Hubbard took. I know it won't happen, but everyone thinking about joining Scientology should read this book first.

Michael

All you need to know is here!

Reviewed in France on November 25, 2015

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Everything you need to know to know about L.R Hubbard and Scientology is in this book. However, the number of misprints in the E-version is quite surprising and must even be confusing for readers whose first language is not English.

Jack Mechielsen

Bare Faced Messiah indeed

Reviewed in Australia on November 1, 2015

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Having read 'bits and pieces' about the Scientology cult over the years, it was helpful to have a chronological discussion about its founder L Ron Hubbard. There is nothing about the behaviour of Scientology and its key people at present, many years after the death of its founder, that is not traceable to the stories in "The Bare Faced Messiah". It is immeasurably sad that people are still taken in. I found the book interesting, well written, supported by evidence and immensely informative.