Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

gayleloveland ----It always shocks me (almost physically) when listening to individuals explain the allures a certain cult had for them..."Going Clear" contains dozens of such interviews of individuals who had been ardent supporters of Scientology---many of them, quite successful in their particular fields of endeavour....---The truly "shocking" aspect for me is in realising the almost limitless number of the truly gullible and credulous who are living among us....WHAT makes a person so weak? WHAT causes an otherwise intelligent individual to suspend all rational disbelief---and buy into whatever claptrap a smooth-talking confidence man (such as L. Ron Hubbard) is selling?----I confess to being totally at a loss as to why anyone would be attracted to such a cult--- not being (at all) a "follower-type," and a born sceptic, to boot....It is fascinating, however, to hear the various stories of those who succumbed to Hubbard's siren song (the type of "fascination" one experiences when viewing an accident in slow-motion, in order to discover where the driver went terribly wrong).....

elizrug This is a great documentary, especially if you are also currently watching Leah Remini's series on A&E. It goes a little bit more in depth about certain aspects, namely the celebrities. I wish there had been more from Mike Rinder but luckily we see him with Leah Remini. He's interesting and well-spoken, and has seen quite a bit more of the inside than others.

rabbitmoon I haven't seen a documentary that crosses so many levels as this one - brainwashing, capitalism, religion, IRS wranglings, celebrity, psychopathy, abuse, deception and conspiracy - its all here in abundance. You can barely process the magnitude and implications of a moment when its taking into another equally as disturbing but about another angle entirely. I'm so glad that HBO and all involved had the balls and legal representation to produce this - and that Miscavige et al couldn't do a thing about it. The disturbing underlying implication is just how exploitable the human mind is. Once someone enters into a narrow tunnel of awareness, the installed belief systems can be engineered precisely to protect themselves - shutting out all interference and counter- evidence. That people like John Travolta ignore entirely the negative/thought-supressive aspects of Scientology in favor of their petty positives shows just how obtuse they are. The intrinsic need for power and status (Hubbard, Cruise, Miscavige) that some people have borders on psychotic in how it manifests.

Volvican I finished this movie with more disappointment than revelation. Maybe it's because I live in the UK - where several other programmes about Scientology have aired throughout the years. But this film didn't really tell me anything new. Some of the Hubbard stuff at the beginning was interesting, (struck me as a sociopath) but it never really seemed to get to the nub of the issue. And at the end of the day, despite perhaps the intentions of it's leader, Scientology sure does seem to behave like most other religions in the world. I mean the Catholic church introduced confession as means of collecting more money. What in the world is different between that and Scientology fleecing it's participants for audits and larger levels? Yes, it does have that niggling problem with what exactly it's about - but if your stated goal is making individuals better, one at a time, through what is basically a psychoanalyses process, that must suffice. And that's the part that no one seems to point out - that essentially this is a religion at this point. A deeply screwed up, hypocritical, often abusive, religion - just like the rest of them. The other bit that was missing is asking the various interviewees just what it was that they either WERE getting or thought they were getting out of it. Because these people were in it for decades - they obvious did think they were getting something out of it. AND - a truly unbiased mind would have to ask if perhaps they actually DID get something out of it. Despite some pretty horrific stories of manipulation and abuse at the Gold Camp, these people are not crying wrecks of humanity. Quite the opposite - they seem like quite centered and clear individuals. Rathbun actually left and set up an independent auditing service (which is why the church hounded him so harshly and for so long) and yet the film actually left that bit out. Rathbun still believes in the efficacy of the auditing process. So it wasn't unbiased enough for me and nor did it delve deeply enough into the motivations of people involved. I would have liked to see a section on what we know of brain-washing and how it compares to the auditing and general Scientology processes. I would have liked to have seen more background on Miscavige - another raving sociopathic loon. Perhaps it's too difficult to get this information still - but at this point it feels necessary in understanding what's going on with this organisation.