Means of Demolishing Thetans

JonJ in Philadelphia writes, responding to J. C. Hallman’s recent essay, “Killing the Thetan,” a critique of Lawrence Wright’s widely-discussed story on Scientology:

Yes, Wright’s piece in the New Yorker is straight journalism, but just because it follows the canons of that branch of literature, I think it is all the more convincing a demolition of Scientology. It may be true that people who might be vulnerable to its charms, whatever they are, would not necessarily be dissuaded from joining up by Wright’s reporting, but I don’t think that was his aim. What he did accomplish, it seems to me, is demonstrate that even if one does an “even-handed,” conventional journalistic investigation of the group, it is clearly revealed as a group of wackos.

The attempts that the Scientology officials make to defend themselves appear as the usual slippery evasions that any deluded cult members produce, and no one who was not already half off of his/her rocker would buy the story about ancient leagues of extraterrestrials for a minute. It’s not even particularly entertaining science fiction (which was Hubbard’s actual metier).

The moral of the whole story, as far as I’m concerned: don’t buy your worldview (or method of “getting clear”) from Hollywood types. That’s always a good way of getting into big trouble.

We take offense on behalf of our many friends in Hollywood.