I just finished the new HBO documentary Going Clear, and all I can say is: my, oh my. This terrifying documentary exposes more about Scientology than I ever knew. What is most clear to me is that Scientology, as a whole, is a product of narcissistic abuse. If I were to hypothesize anything about its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, it’s that he most likely qualified as someone suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder of the cerebral variety. Hubbard, who started as a pulp fiction writer, eventually wrote Dianetics, which would become the basis of Scientology and an exploration of what Hubbard called “the modern science of mental health”. This man made the presumption that his book could overturn centuries of development in the arena of mental health. When that did not happen, he invented his own religion.
In the last year or so I have been in deep research mode of Narcissistic personality disorder. The reason for this is because I was in a romantic relationship with someone who I very much believe to be a narcissist. Within the first few minutes of this documentary, we hear excerpts of letters written about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology by his second wife, Sara Northrup. Sara asserted that she only married Hubbard because he had threatened suicide. This is a very common manipulation tactic for narcissists to use in order to get their way. She also detailed an account about how Hubbard awoke her from her sleep because she had been smiling, setting him off into a rage because he took it to mean she was thinking about another man. After they had a daughter, Hubbard took the little girl with him and called Sara to tell her that he had chopped their daughter into tiny pieces and thrown her into a river. It doesn’t get much more abusive than that.
Going Clear also touches on how the church’s two most famous members – John Travolta and Tom Cruise, became so involved with Scientology. John Travolta was extremely young when he became involved, and he linked his success in acting with his involvement in Scientology. The use of “auditing” also becomes very important in the case of Travolta, as it appears that the Church of Scientology threatens members with the release of their deepest secrets collected in such sessions. Obviously the Church of Scientology has something pretty big on Travolta that keeps him there.
Scientology’s biggest star and supporter is Tom Cruise. Cruise’s marriage to Nicole Kidman is a major focal point of his story in Scientology. The documentary mentions that Nicole Kidman’s father was a prominent psychologist in Australia, which David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology, viewed as a threat. Any psychologist or mental health professional, or any person associated with a mental health professional is deemed to be a “suppressive person” by Scientology. Scientologists therefore aim to “disconnect” from these suppressive people, of course at almost any cost. Nicole, therefore, was deemed a suppressive person, and her divorce from Cruise was apparently orchestrated by the Church of Scientology. I have heard further rumors that Cruise’s marriage to Katie Holmes was staged and under contract, but the documentary goes no further than discussing an arranged relationship between Cruise and an actress named Nazanin Boniadi. There were also rumors that one of the reasons why Holmes divorced Cruise was her fear of their daughter Suri becoming involved in Scientology. Going Clear also notes that Cruise was not really involved in Scientology during his marriage to Kidman, but in recent years, he has been the absolute most treasured asset of the Church. Cruise is one of the biggest movie stars of all time, if not the biggest, and Scientology depends on him in many ways.
Going Clear is a truly terrifying look at how Scientology is essentially the result of an egomaniac’s own desire to control others. This documentary is one of the first looks at some of the extreme abuses allegedly committed by David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology. Perhaps what is most revealing about the Church of Scientology is its financial value (over one billion dollars) and its real estate investment prowess. I have driven by the Church of Scientology on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and it is a menacing sight. A few people I know have gone inside to take the prerequisite personality tests “as a joke”. After watching Going Clear, I can say with certainty that there is nothing funny about Scientology and its abuses of its members.
