"GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF" is a Documentary that Buries The Audit Needle in Psychological Chills and Then Some.

"GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF" the nieuw HBO Documentary is not quite the Tour De Force Expose about Scientology we've all been waiting for {ALL OF US!} but it comes so bitingly CLOSE to it that I must give a recommendation of the highest order. This is a chilling cautionary tale told by ex-members of the biggest cult on the planet. It is riveting to watch if only to see each of these interviews of the once brain-washed. Now they speak to us as broken people who endured a most complex form of denial wherein they were made to do bad things only to experience the utter humiliation upon readmitting themselves into society {some of them after over twenty years logged}. If that were all- it would be worth it but it adroitly explains this phenomenon through the analysis of it's founder and his equally disturbed successor. It chronicles an eery rise to power using secrecy and intimidation like no other agency before or after. And then there are touches upon the stories of Travolta and then Cruise. I dare say this film has most of the goods but there isn't too much here that isn't already known. We are after all {and to the detriment of this super secretive organization} in the age of the internet and now- social media. What keeps me watching is how it poses classic questions and answers them with its own stranger-than-fiction examples. How does an intelligent person get scooped up by such blatant trickery and then what does it take for them to finally leave? Or DO they leave?There is heartbreak to be sure as well as righteous indignation and strangely some utterly befuddling moments to which I had no other reaction but to laugh myself silly. Not because they were funny moments but because...Life can be so absurd. Two words: Bohemian. Rhapsody. ...And yet... as I left the apartment for my nightly walk to reflect and passed the local Scientologists Dwelling not two blocks from me- I felt a shiver.