Going Clear

Journalist Lawrence Wright draws on interviews with some two hundred current and former Scientologists and years of archival research to show how the Church of Scientology operates from within. He traces the histories of its founder, the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and of his successor David Miscavige, and looks at how Tom Cruise and John Travolta relate to the church. Wright also covers its struggle to be accepted as a religion, its legal attacks on the IRS, its great wealth, its treatment of critics and a covert effort to infiltrate the American government. The title refers to Clear, a stage of spiritual development pursued partly in auditing sessions. Alex Gibney's 2015 HBO documentary was based on the book.

Joe Rogan called it one of the weirdest books he had ever read, a bizarre look at madness and what it leaves behind.