Fair Game: Secrecy, Security and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America (original) (raw)

''The Third Wall of Fire'' Scientology and the Study of Religious Secrecy

This article examines the role of secrecy in the Church of Scientology, focusing on one of the most confidential and least studied aspects of the Church's advanced auditing levels—Operating Thetan VIII. I use this example as a way of highlighting the complex ethical and epistemological problems in the study of secrecy in new religions. Here, I suggest an alternative approach to the study of secrecy by shifting our gaze away from the attempt to uncover the content of the secret and instead focusing on the more visible forms and strategies through which secrets are maintained, transmitted, revealed and concealed. I trace the ''history of a secret'' by examining five periods and five key strategies in the Operating Thetan materials from the late 1960s to the present: the advertisement of the secret; secrecy as an adorning possession; the litigation of the secret; the liability of the secret; and the irrelevance of the secret. Finally, I conclude with reflections on the comparative implications of this example for the study of new religions more broadly.

The Journal of CESNUR - Scientology and the New CultWars

The Journal of CESNUR Volume 2, Issue 2 March-April 2018, 2018

Introduction: Scientology and the New CultWars ABSTRACT: Russian efforts aimed at “liquidating” the Church of Scientology confirm that the “cult wars,” often described as long dead in the West, continue in countries such as Russia, China, or Hungary. Media remain largely hostile to Scientology even in the West. This issue of The Journal of CESNUR explores developments in the Church of Scientology in the 21st century and the reasons of this persistent hostility, which appears somewhat paradoxical as both scholars and courts of law throughout the world increasingly recognize Scientology as a religion. NOTE: I am not an author of this Journal, I am simply a promoter of this work. Unfortunately the current Academia program doesn't allow one to be removed from the author's box. The work is made available as is with the links to the exact reference source where it was found. Director-in-Charge | Direttore responsabile Marco Respinti Editor-in-Chief | Direttore Massimo Introvigne Center for Studies on New Religions, Turin, Italy Associate Editor | Vicedirettore PierLuigi Zoccatelli Pontifical Salesian University, Turin, Italy Editorial Board / International Consultants Milda Ališauskienė Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania Eileen Barker London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom Luigi Berzano University of Turin, Turin, Italy Antoine Faivre École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France Holly Folk Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, USA Liselotte Frisk Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden J. Gordon Melton Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA Susan Palmer McGill University, Montreal, Canada Stefania Palmisano University of Turin, Turin, Italy Bernadette Rigal-Cellard Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Bordeaux, France Instructions for Authors and submission guidelines can be found on our website at www.cesnur.net. ISSN: 2532-2990 The Journal of CESNUR is published bi-monthly by CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), Via Confienza 19, 10121 Torino, Italy. The Journal of CESNUR Volume 2, Issue 2, March—April 2018 Contents Articles 3 Introduction: Scientology and the New Cult Wars The Journal of CESNUR 11 Is Scientology a Religion? Luigi Berzano 21 A Contemporary Ordered Religious Community: The Sea Organization J. Gordon Melton 60 “The Most Misunderstood Human Endeavor”: L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and Fine Arts Massimo Introvigne Research Notes / Scientology, Anti-Cultists, and the State in Russia and Hungary 93 The Social Construction of “Extremism” in Russia: From the Jehovah’s Witnesses to Scientology and Beyond Massimo Introvigne 101 The Provisions Against Religious Extremism and Illegal Business Activity as Instruments for Outlawing Religious Minorities in Russia: The Case of the Church of Scientology Boris Falikov Volume 2, Issue 2, March—April 2018 111 What Is Really Happening in Russia? A Response to Prof. Introvigne and Prof. Falikov PierLuigi Zoccatelli 118 Religious Discrimination and State Neutrality: The Case of Scientology in Hungary Patricia Duval BookReviews 124 Kent, Stephen A., and Susan Raine, eds. Scientology and Popular Culture: Influences and Struggles for Legitimacy Reviewed by Massimo Introvigne 129 Aldo Natale Terrin, Scientology. Libertà e immortalità Reviewed by Luigi Berzano

Apostate Memoirs and the Study of Scientology in the Twenty-First Century

Implicit Religion: Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2020, pp. 143-150.

In more than six decades since Scientology’s origin in 1954 only four scholarly monographs have been published in English on this most controversial new religion (Wallis 1977 [1976]; Whitehead 1987; Urban 2011; Westbrook 2019). Prior to 2008, the Church of Scientology (CoS) sought to protect its intellectual property (religious texts authored by L. Ron Hubbard) and defend its reputation via an aggressive strategy instigated by the founder, “Fair Game,” in which critics were silenced by threatened or actual litigation. This had an impact on both scholarly and popular research on Scientology. Yet 2008 proved a “hinge” year, in that the Internet had become a repository of material about CoS, and traditional law covering copyright, intellectual property, and the reproduction of embargoed material was largely irrelevant in the online context. Prior to 2008 one important ex-member book, Jon Atack’s A Piece of Blue Sky (1990) had appeared; its target was the reputation of Hubbard as a spiritually advanced religious leader.