What Is Scientology

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Summary: Read the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology
Review: "What is Scientology?" is an interesting book to read, if you like your books presented in "infomercial" format. That's all this book is: a commercial for Scientology that doesn't even bother to provide any details whatsoever about the organization, the true religious beliefs of L. Ron Hubbard (especially when members reach the "secret" level of OT III and learn about Xenu the ruler of the Galactic Confederation), and nothing whatsoever is mentioned of the titanic battle taking place on the Usenet newsgroup.

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Summary: This book contains the true secrets os L.Ron Hubbard
Review: Despite attacks and slants against his works L.Ron Hubbard still remains one of the best selling authors of the century. One must ask why, well contained in this book are all the top secret answers. If you had questions about the religion or the author then read this book. Many people will say its a PR book to blur peoples vision. If that was the case turn to the chapter that gives you allthe details about the IRS investigations on the church. Try the pages that give you copies of all the declarations to the church, or thew question and answer pages. Don't believe anyone until you look for yourself

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Summary: Unwieldy but intriguing insight into controversial religion
Review: Guidebook hardly seems the right word for it - it is over 800 pages long - but "What Is Scientology" provides an intriguing view of how Scientology sees itself. The book covers some of the controversial religion's basic tenets. For the most part, though, it spends its time singing the praises of Scientology (chapter names such as "The Victories of Scientology" and "The Successes of Scientology" give the game away).

The book is also revealing for what it does not mention. Its potted biography of Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard has been comprehensively shown to be false; it does not mention Scientology's preoccupation with past lives and alien implantation; and the picture painted of Scientology's inexorable advances is eerily akin to the high-flown claims which used to be made by Communist governments.

In short, read if you're interested in Scientology - but take it with a big pinch of salt and make sure you read an independent view (such as Jon Atack's "A Piece of Blue Sky" or Russell Miller's "Bare-Faced Messiah").