Generally speaking, most of us leaned towards liking the content of the book, if not the writing style. Some highlights:
- Gave a couple of us nightmares! powerlessness, being trapped
- Intriguing topic
- Interviews on youtube more interesting than Jenna’s personal story
- Tough to get through all the childhood torture and brainwashing
- Scientology is like multilevel marketing
- From book, it was hard to figure out why adults would get into scientology
- Many of us thought that the origin of the church’s teachings, e.g., the “mind over matter” idea in Dianetics, sounds interesting; could be useful if it hadn’t turned into a cult
- Book could have been condensed into a few articles
- Lack of real information about scientology was disappointing
- Why haven’t more deserters written books?
- Reading the book left us with more questions than answers
- Paul Haggis doesn’t regret being a scientologist – there are benefits, just like in any religion
- Would have been nice to hear from Jenna’s parents
- Her aunt has been MIA for years
- Jenna comes across as very immature; book reads like a 12-year-old’s diary
- Celebrity experience with scientology very different from “normal” people (I guess that applies to anything!)
- Took a long time for Jenna to realize that she was powerless
- Scientologists don’t seem to allow normal interviews – must control everything
- Dave went from nice uncle to evil, power-hungry man; was best man at Tom & Katy’s wedding
- Love-bombing
- Someone tried to sue the church after leaving when they published her sex secrets from auditing sessions
- How was the ranch not in violation of child labor laws?
- If you leave the Sea Org, they send you a big fat bill
- The church is constantly hounding people for money
- Out-2D hard on regular people, but not on celebrities or public scientologists
- You can’t cheat on your spouse, but they’ll keep your family apart
- Is Scientology a religion?
- Celebrities are often overly zealous in their denial of Xenu (Is it true?? See http://www.scientologymyths.info/aliens/what-is-zenu.php)
- Is scientology really any stranger than other religions?
- Similarities with mormonism?
- Naval theme kind of creepy, with uniforms & saluting
- What exactly do scientologists believe?? Is this the only religion where the beliefs are secret? (again, see link above for denial)
- Did LRH really write all of their policies himself?
- Do scientologists believe in God? (see http://www.scientologymyths.info/cult-or-religion/do-scientologists-believe-in-god.php – I got about halfway down the page and my eyes glazed over…I still don’t know the answer)
- LRH buried artifacts – like horcruxes from Harry Potter!
- Jenna & Mike Rinder still believed in scientology when they left the church – they just hated the organization itself
- Scientology’s object is to “save the world” – what does that mean??
- Is a religion in which you are encouraged to question your beliefs, and come to your own conclusions, more legitimate? What about transparency of the organization?
- Would you want your kid to accept a set of beliefs just because they’re yours? (my bumper sticker reads, “Teach kids HOW to think, not WHAT to think”)
- There was a time when intellectual discourse was all theological – do we accept current, traditional religious beliefs because they’ve been argued for centuries?
- Does it make sense for the Sea Org to deny its members the right to procreate? Wouldn’t they get more members if the current members were reproducing?
- If it takes 20 years to find a new body, is LRH coming back in 2016?
Books:
Harry Potter series
Twilight series
Judy Blume
Beverly Cleary
The Red Leather Diary
The Glass Castle
The Liars’ Club
The Shadow of the Wind
Middlesex
Rachel’s Holiday
House of Sand and Fog
Beautiful Ruins
TV:
Big Love
Teenage crushes/current hot guys:
Michael Jackson
Mickey Rourke (gross)
Tom Cruise (also gross)
Thom Yorke
Ezra Miller
Tom Hardy
Henry Cavill
Armie Hammer
OurShelves 