Sunday Review: Going Clear

An exposé

By Morris Dean

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015 documentary directed by Alex Gibney) aired on HBO on March 29, and my wife and I watched our recording of it this week. Wow was my reaction – and I'm not alone: according to Wikipedia, when the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the audience gave it a standing ovation ("unusual for a Sundance presentation").
    The "going clear" of the title is a reference to a stage of spiritual development in the "church" of Scientology, which is a religion in the legal sense that it was given tax-exempt status as such by the Internal Revenue Service, in 1993. "Going clear" in that context means to have been freed from subconscious memories of past trauma by undergoing therapy sessions called "auditing," which is treated in scary depth by Gibney. (The "Hubbard Electrometer," shown in the movie poster and named after Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), is used in auditing sessions to help elicit subconscious material from the person being audited.)
    But what "going clear" seems to mean for the documentary – which can justly be labeled an exposé – is to become free of any notion that Scientology is a worthy, well-intentioned organization.

    The documentary method for this is to interview (or audit) several former Scientologists who defected from the organization after coming to see it for the destructive, power & wealth-accumulating sham it is. These include Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning director; Mark Rathbun, the church's former second-in-command; Mike Rinder, the former head of the church's Office of Special Affairs; the actor Jason Beghe; and Sylvia "Spanky" Taylor, former liaison to John Travolta. Two or three of these (I seem to remember its being Haggis, Rathbun, and Rinder) confessed on camera to being ashamed that they could have been so self-deluded for so long.
    Rather than writing an unnecessary review of Going Clear, I refer you to the following reviews, should you wish to investigate further before taking the time to watch it yourself:

• Christy Lemire. Synopsis: "While [Gibney] doesn't really uncover much that's new in Going Clear, the way he's collected and assembled testimonials, documents and archival footage creates a cumulative effect that's chilling."
• Joanne Ostrow. Synopsis: "There is little breaking news in Going Clear, but the film is eye-opening for those who haven't seen past reports."
• Other reviews are identified by the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Iranian-born beauty Nazanin Boniadi,
a former Scientologist

About Scientology's legal status as a religion: How that came about – largely a result of Scientology Chairman David Miscavige's carefully orchestrated campaign of harassment and intimidation – is covered by the documentary. Like other stories it relates, the story of Scientology's tax-exempt status is fascinating and, in my opinion, not to be missed. It's not as juicy a story, though, as Tom Cruise's, especially the lengths to which Miscavige went to satisfy Cruise's off-hand remark that he needed a new girlfriend....

Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean