There have been several reviews lodged at Amazon Books about Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior since an earlier post here on reviews.
The first half was very good and quite engaging. The second half spent far too much time on details in the the mid-80’s and seemed a bit self congratulatory over the authors actions that led to his rise in the church.
What we as outsiders really wanted to know was how people can get sucked into this cult and how those lucky few escape. I would find for instance, Katie Holmes’ story fascinating- though I’m guessing she’s not willing to take on Miscavige by opening up.
We can only hope that those within this “church” see the true Light.
– Joanne M. Greene (New York)
I found Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior a great read. Although I had read the general history of LRH and Scientology in other books, this book had a lot of info I had not read before and it was surprising, touching, shocking, dismaying and thought-provoking through the twists and turns of the story.
It made me understand a lot more about how an intelligent person could get so deeply involved in Scientology, then Corporate Scientology. In this memoir you point out the traps, the rationalizations, and the cognitive dissonances as they occurred throughout your experiences within the church. It must have taken a lot to rebuild yourself after you left Scientology. Your insightful writing in the book and this blog shows that you did.
– Kasey Briggs (Charleston, SC)
For those who either were involved in the corporate Church of Scientology or knew someone who was, this book catches and keeps your attention like good summer fiction while carrying with it important facts about the management and conduct of the church that were heretofore unrevealed.
Mr. Rathbun explains his own personal entrance and involvement in scientology while tracing his rise to the number 2 position in the church. To me, this was the most fascinating part of the read and helps explain how one could become so immersed in a cult with such a horrible reputation, and stay there despite inhumane treatment. Fascinating.
– NoTeacherLeftStanding (Chesapeake Bay, USA)
The key to understanding this book is that its title is truthful: the author, while no longer a top official of the Church of Scientology, is — still — a Scientology Warrior. This is not of the “I-was-a-Scientologist-until-I-realized-it-is-phony” genre.
Rathbun is a true believer. He compares L. Ron Hubbard to the Buddha. His descriptions of Scientology’s teachings are supportive and sympathetic. He even seems to accept the Xenu story, suggesting that it is in essence consistent with Gnostic philosophy (which is true, though the same can be said more convincingly of Mormonism; in any event, Rathbun does not explain why the fact that it echoes a recurrently-popular idea over two thousand years old proves that it was a cosmic insight of L. Ron Hubbard). The books’ theme is that David Miscavige has perverted and largely destroyed a religion that could have brought wisdom and health to the world, mostly by defeating psychiatrists. Rathbun’s animus against them stems from his dislike of the psychiatrist who treated his brother, who was apparently psychotic; this is a principal subject of the book’s five introductory biographical chapters, which is, with all due respect, about three too many. They do explain, though, that like so many of the people who have joined and left Scientology Rathbun was a rootless child from a dysfunctional family who lacked education beyond High School.
Much of the book deals with Rathbun’s involvement in coordinating legal matters, mostly lawsuits against Hubbard and Scientology. Although he has no legal training his experience gave him a good understanding of litigation. His descriptions of law, procedure, and strategy, as well as of the kinds of debates and discussions that go on behind the scenes before and during trials, are accurate.
The book discusses a few of Scientology’s embarrassing episodes and acknowledges that they occurred with Hubbard’s knowledge and approval, and generally at his inspiration. But it presents them as unfortunate excesses committed as overreactions to nefarious acts of Scientology’s vicious and unprincipled “enemies,” including psychiatrists, law enforcement, and various state and federal government agencies. Rathbun tells us that he has seen documents proving that the psychiatrists, etc., did lots of bad things but that the documents couldn’t actually be revealed, you see, because even though they were stolen by Scientologists (one of those unfortunate excesses) to prove these things, revealing them would harm Scientology.
The book’s editors are Scientologist friends of Rathbun; his prose is clear and easily-read but a professional might have pointed out that it does not always recognize where real English stops and Scientology jargon begins. The proofreading is not perfect; there are, at least at the moment, a few typos and places where information is repeated, clearly inadvertently, but not enough to be bothersome.
– Steve Harrison (Tuscon, Az)
An overall interesting book which started a little slow but picked up steam quickly and then maintained my interest until the end.
– J.K. Kerlin (Durant, Ok)
It’s been roughly 3 weeks since I finished Marty’s latest book. I started on a Friday evening and finished the following morning. I made myself unavailable and unreachable until I reached the back cover.
The book answered all the nagging questions I had regarding what went wrong. Ironically, Hubbard said in an early lecture that every living thing carries the germ of its own demise. I believe Marty spots the germs Hubbard himself implanted – no pun intended.
But it also gave Marty’s very personal experience with how very right many core aspects of the subject are; and which kept him fighting the good fight. The parallels with my Scn-staff experience were many.
I had personally believed Hubbard missed or under-evaluated one axiom: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” . But its never just one datum that derails a subject.
Thanks Marty. And as I keep an eye on your blog – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mosey. As tough as Marty is I have my doubts he could of weathered these last several years without you.
– Dean J. Detheridge (Sydney, Australia)
This book is a must read for any looking for the inside story from one who was there.
The time line covered is one mans journey into and up to the upper management ranks, telling the story as it occurred for him.
It is an amazing account of what was going on behind the scenes in his personal, managerial and legal fields.
I have spent years digging into many areas covered in this book and find Marty’s telling of events to align with what I had independently found. It provides, fill in the blank pieces otherwise unavailable to any who were simply not there.
This is a valuable book to add to ones knowledge of the inner workings of Scientology’s management and legal arms and some of the real story of Ron Hubbard’s final days.
This is recommended reading for all who were there during those troubled times.
– “Ann Howe” (USA)
Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior is a MUST READ for any current or former members of Scientology. Marty Rathbun goes into detail concerning the major legal situations that confronted Scientology in the 70s and 80s. Many of us in Scientology were told to ignore what was going on and were fed a public relations line about what we should think about the dirty and dark activities of Scientology. In this book we get the facts from a key player. The book is also an honest reflection on Marty’s many years in Scientology and, after time for examination, a clearer sense about L.Ron Hubbard, his life and technology. The information about LRH in his later years including his interview with one of the last people to live with LRH is page turning and enlightening.
– Mark Fisher (Las Vegas)
For me, reading this book was a matter of stepping into a magical, parallel dimension. No other story I could compare it to as the writer’s life was so completely unique. Which has made the book unforgettable. To become aware of places or lives or situations I have never been or seen before, or conditions one is wholly unfamiliar with, is an expansion of livingness. The writer conveys this experience to the reader like a gentle wind. I found myself wanting to read it all over again.
– Catherine (Las Vegas)
It takes Rathbun almost 50 pages to get to his first encounter with Scientology. On the one hand it is interesting to read about his background, so we know where he is coming from. But he does go into much unnecessary detail about his teenage basketball exploits and some other things as well. Rathbun spent his preteen/teen years in Laguna Beach California in the late 1960s to early 1970s and the area in that era is described far better in Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World. Rathbun is at times a good writer, but for a project such as this–a real book–as opposed to blog writing–I think he would have greatly benefited from a co-writer or editor experienced with the memoir/autobiography genre.
The experience of joining the Sea Org and what life is like there is described far better, far more compellingly, and much more interestingly in books like Marc Headley’s Blown for Good, Jefferson Hawkins’ Counterfeit Dreams, and John Duignan’s The Complex.
What “Memoirs” ends up being is a sort of (perhaps unintentional) attempt at a legal thriller. Much of the book is a fairly dull recounting of Rathbun’s role as organizer and coordinator of defending the COS against lawsuits. While not an attorney himself, Rathbun is put in charge of overseeing it all. But this is no “A Civil Action” or John Grisham novel. Much of it, as I said, makes for fairly dull reading.
Rathbun also spends a bit too much time trying to explain Scientology, and there is in my opinion too much space devoted to quotes from Hubbard, whether musings or Scientology “scripture”. That is not what I bought the book for.
But there are more than a few interesting passages, enough for me to give the book 3 stars. However I feel the book is a missed opportunity to get a really compelling behind-the-scenes look at the people and personalities that made up the top of the COS hierarchy. From the book: “I did not witness the Mission Holder’s conference first-hand, nor the Mayo-Nelson takedown. It would be years later before [I heard about it]…I was too busy fighting in the trenches, fighting the war…” Well, from reading the book, it seems that what Rathbun did in this war was deathly dull legal work, filing endless motions, that sort of thing. The COS spent millions defending lawsuits that they could have settled for a song, and Rathbun knows it. But he is powerless to change the strategy.
I was also expecting the book to be about Rathbun’s complete career in Scientology (the title suggests as much), yet the book ends upon the death of Hubbard. There is a short epilogue and Rathbun mentions that he has mostly written about his post-Hubbard Sea Org career elsewhere. I found this a bit odd; I suppose readers of Rathbun’s other two books won’t mind, but as I have not read them, I was left wanting less about his early, pre-Scientology life, less about the lawsuits, and more about the COS under Miscavige.
Rathbun himself is an interesting figure, no doubt. He comes across in interviews as soft-spoken, intelligent, and insightful. Yet he was a right-hand-man to the evil David Miscavige, and is pretty unapologetic about it all (only very recently, when he pretty much had to move away from his Texas apartment because he was being spied upon by the COS, did he say that it was sort of Karma what was being done to him).
– Nytc7 (New York)
Moving On Up a Little Higher 
I have seen balanced documentaries on Scientology and even read some of Dianetics a long time ago. Both experiences left me thinking that the methodology can bring forth some real psychological insights. What I find alarming are the cultist behaviours ‘and writings’ of L. Ron which seem to be overly protectionist – even terrified, of penetrating questions. As a former member Marty do you still believe in L. Ron’s view that those opposed to Scientology are evil and should be treated with contempt? If so, it becomes nothing more than any other fanatical, tyrannical ideolgy.
I would have to agree, as little is revealed of that evidence by Rathbrun.
Having been in Scientology during the years covered in this book, it was such interesting reading to me, and so interestingly written as well, that I read it a little too fast and missed some of the more nuanced aspects, which I realized after reading many of the chapters over again. Some of them I re-read so as to better understand what took place in those years, and others just because I love autobiographical accounts where the writer allows a genuine glimpse of himself as a person, which can be quite enlightening in itself. In fact, I think “Memoirs” has all the elements of a great movie.
Marty, you were the first one to begin opening my eyes about the CoS when I saw your interview on “Nightline” in 2009, regarding what was actually going on at the top level of church management. Eventually, I decided that for myself the negative experiences I had in Scientology as an organization were actually invaluable lessons to have learned, along with all the positive ones with the subject of Scientology itself.
On one of your blog threads one time I asked you a hypothetical question as to whether, if you could do it all again, you would invest yourself in the years-long study of the tech and have it as your current profession. You answered with an unequivocal yes. Now I wonder if, in retrospect, there were aspects of your experience as a staff member, or as a Scientologist in general, that you would choose to undergo again if you had the chance – simply because they turned out to be invaluable life lessons to have learned first hand, and because such lessons may not be possible to fully learn in any other way than first hand.
Thanks, Marty, for taking the time to give us readers a great deal of details from various echelons of the Scientology organization. Opposite to some review authors, I didn’t find a single page boring or dull. The pages before Marty’s encounter with that church serve as an explanation about his desire for improvement. The book was spiced up further by Marty’s virtuoso handling of the English language.
I feel that the negative criticisms of this book were for the most part, a result of the fact that the person writing the critique had certain expectations for himself or herself of what the critic wanted to find out from the book, rather than the critic’s willingness to expand his or her own viewpoint by exploring the viewpoint of the author of the book.
Ditto what Han Solo said. I read Marty’s book and couldn’t put it down. I was in the church during the years he wrote of, and I swallowed all the lies from our leader about what was going on. I see the Portland Crusade differently now. At the time I was young, naive, a true believer, and felt I was saving the world by going to Portland to protest. Now I see it as just more bullying and attacking of anyone who was critical of the church or brought suit against it. I cringe now to think that I protested there and at the LA Courthouse for the Wallersheim case and really didn’t know the truth about what each of these cases was about. I loved getting the behind the scenes and truth about each of the cases and about what went down in those years. I also loved reading how DM did his hostile takeover. This book and others should be required reading in colleges or high schools to show how psychotics and sociopaths and SP’s operate and come to power and how they abuse that power and hurt people. And I loved Marty’s writing style. He is a very good writer. I hope they make a movie out of it.
The book is a ‘must read’ for any serious study of later Scientology history.
It comes across as well balanced and is certainly not a ‘Hubbard did no wrong’ or ‘Scientology is it’ type of book. It covers the mind set, the events and the cast of characters in this very interesting time period. A wealth of detail and back story fills in gaps that have not been covered in any other materials. It’s a look behind the curtain, specially giving an understanding of what Hubbard was involved with and what he wasn’t. Some of it very surprising. It also gives rare insight into Miscavige’s thought processes and blind spots. I highly recommend it.
I think we have to look at who the book was meant to target when written. I myself was involved in scientology and found the book enlightening on many levels. I am sure a non scientologist would view the book differently. I have read alot of the other books on scietology and they all give a different and interesting perspective on the subject. It has been very validating for me to realize that things I felt intuitively about the church were not just all my crazy thinking and had some validity. I am eagerly awaiting your next book Marty.
This might answer your question to some degree. The subject of a need for an enemy has been and continues to be discussed at length at this blog.
https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/the-enemy/
To reviewer Nytc7–There’s no way you can understand why someone joins Scientology in the first place if you are too lazy to learn a little bit about it when they write about it, even nice and carefully like Marty did so you can understand it. I’m sooooo tired of people apparently seeming caring and interested in why this or that and they can’t even take the time to LISTEN or READ just a couple chapters of what the deal really is.
IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHY SOMEONE EVER GOT INTO SCIENTOLOGY IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU WILL ACTUALLY NEED TO READ AND UNDERSTAND A LITTLE ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU MERRILY CRITICIZE WHAT YOU KNOW NOTHING OF. THAT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS.
I read the book a few days after its publication. Having had an outsider’s view during the years covered by Marty, I appreciated now getting the true facts – data that I have not found anywhere else. Very enlightening indeed. I also enjoyed reading about Marty’s early years – it helped me understand how those experiences helped shape his later viewpoints. A fascinating book, very well written.
I think Marty is accomplishing precisely what he sets out to do in these books, written as they are. Major targets are being achieved. If Marty seeks to polish his writing skills, maybe some day win a pulitzer, there is no doubt something to be gained by analyzing the book reviews in a detached way. They all seemed to be well-intentioned. One becomes a better writer over time. These reviews may contribute to that. But I am sure that the more Marty writes, the better he will get.
Congratulations, good show Sir, carry on.
http://tonyortega.org/2013/05/29/marty-rathbun-builds-his-warrior-legend-in-new-memoir/
I like the fact that Marty is consistently peeling off layers of the onion. This blog and his books are a written record, in a gradient scale, of de-hypnotizing oneself from being a mental prisoner of false and dangerous beliefs.
We all applaud each layer being stripped back, revealing more truth, as one by one each fanatical mindset is set ablaze, by finally being able to see without fear of being “ruined utterly.”
Marty has more peeling to do. As do we all.
Marty,
I’ve enjoyed and been enlightened, and sometimes shocked, by each of your books.
Keep’em coming.
The book is the viewpoint of someone that used to belong to the Church of Scientology and no longer sees things from that point of view. It makes perfect sense to me. The church believes it creates havoc for its dissenters by causing havoc between the dissenters themselves. That’s wrong. If it had not been for the Church of Scientology (corrupt RCS) in the first place, no one in the world would have ever even heard of Anonymous, the Independent movement or the LIsa McPherson Trust to name a few names. I have never considered the Church of Scientology a respectful group of people. I have met cows that have more morals and ethics than church members. 🙂
One of the main things I got out of Warriers was a jarring loose from black and white thought patters that I’d inadvertently locked myself into. Each person who engaged in the subject of scientology came in with his own unique perspective, lived it through his own eyes and left it for his own reasons.
No one in the game was utterly bad, completely good or thoroughly mediocre.
It also became clear how LRH’s own actions and policies left the door wide open for a sociopath to take over the reins.
I tend to not really notice writing style much. All I know is, I stayed up till
5 am and couldn’t put it down until I was done.
Can you still listen to him ?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9f5_1257197129
I found the chapters on basketball and the descriptions of his role and his joy in the game to be relevant to understanding the role that he later takes on as right hand man,rescuer, defender and facilatator to the top exec of COS, Inc. It helped me understand that his ease in this role, his talent for it, was one factor that primrosed the path up the ranks and kept him there, second in command, endlessly rescuing. One factor, among others. (as a ps – there are others who played this second in command, defender, facilatator, rescuing role for the leaders of COS, Inc., for example: Shelley Miscaivage. Annie Tidman. I have noted that it is still a normal and unchallenged social tendancy to take a softer view on women, to see them as victims, and to take a harsher view of men. But we should want to know better and to be even and fair when characterizing the history of others. And also take into consideration the ages of persons when involved. Many many people in their twenties currently staff the do harm to others trans national criminal we are people too corporations that are circumscribing the rights of people that actually breath, bleed and die… just like COS, Inc. These youth are just going along because “this is how it is, isn’t it?” In most cases, you really have to live awhile to know better and to recognize and to make distinctions.)
I think Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior indicates most to people
who were actually in Scientology through those years. I was on staff
from 1972 to 1982 – and before and after that doing courses.
I just couldn’t put the book down till I had finished it, I understood
so many things better after reading it too. In fact I have started reading it
again.
+1
It is a signature of the OSA Internet Unit posters to deliberately misspell the names of Church enemies so as to avoid having search engines return the comment in question as a result when their right names are searched.
Michael A. Hobson
Independent Scientologist
Bless you
Proud of you
Morals and Ethics are neutral of content, Are you a writer ? Than you should have known that unless you took a short cut on purpose.
Stop screaming at me allready
Why are you always laying it down harder than I do
As an ex-Scientologist and a supporter of the many exploratory branches of independent Scientology, I found Memoirs to be especially appealing. I understand the criticism, and can agree with many points considering commentators’ backgrounds. What I believe to be most important is Marty’s conviction to relate his experiences and knowledge in an open and honest manner.
I also appreciate Marty’s exploration of writing styles. Marty has a gift for writing and a personal goal to explore this path. Like any professional writer, he would benefit from the professional services of an editor. That is true for all writers who are honest about their work. That is an understood process and relationship in the writing trade.
Clearly, I support Marty Rathbun and I support his pursuit of his goals as a writer.
Sweet
Never read any book of him, I just like his soul
I disagree with the last reviewer of the bunch – I thought your intro was exciting and it plunged me into the book just as smoothly as any professional writer.
I could not put the book down. From there, the revelations were jaw-dropping suspense – even for a former OSA staff who’s also read all the unauthorized bios.
It is a must read.
Just shootin from the hip pardner:-)
Pretty much exactly what I wanted to say. I guess you can’t be all things to all men, especially with such a personal book, and I can somewhat sympathize with those reviewers who wanted a bit more of a “bullet-point” approach regarding the current Church and DM’s activities. But I loved the book, and the previous two, and together with a bunch or articles from Steve Hall’s site it should definitely be in the recovering Scientologist’s “Hat Pack”!
On an entirely different note, please tell Mosey to keep filing those baby pics on her FB. We’re all so thrilled, and can’t get enough of all that stuff!
I don’t know weather to laugh or cry. It’s nice to have you here posting now and then again. I saw your story of being shot when you were 4. I can see that insight you gained at that time reflected in the care you share.
Well poohy – the key pad has built in commands and posted for me pre-mature. At least I’m getting to a condition I can again start reading instructions so it won’t keep happening. I guess I was waiting for Incomm to show me how to use my new laptop with windows 8 🙂
I loved reading Memoirs. I had a hard time finishing it because I did not want it to end… the detail. So many things happened at my level while on staff (AOLA 77-96) that were the result of what you were talking about. I more understand some of the personnel changes, demands for income, and why my many reports were ignored and why I was sent for so many sec checks, roll-backs and had to m9 so many issues. I more understand – not fully. Your book puts more light in the dark tunnel vision as developed in the CofS. It is much appreciated and I think your writing style is perfect. Yes, there was some typos and I could e-mail a list because I always circle them.
Since reading your books and your blog, I am again becoming me. That may not make a lot of sense but that is true for me. My ‘wog’ friends all notice a difference enough to mention it. I know it’s true. Thank you. I would have put that review on Amazon if I thought it would have made sense to anyone but it probably would not unless they had been through it themselves. In fact at this point, I truly don’t know where I would be without Amy’s book then your blog and books and recommended readings…. I don’t think it would be a very happy place.
(Re prior post) Just posted on TED 1 Dec – Want to be happy be grateful:
Personally, I liked the book. To me it was simply an account of one man’s journey into the subject. Like many of us, we had very personal reasons to approach the subject and to use what we had found or thought we found in the subject to pursue what we thought was right or wanted to make right for ourselves, and dare I say, others. The subject begins to get rapidly perverted as one heads up the line into higher echelons of management, as well as our own perceptions of the rightness or wrongness of our actions.
I have made it quite a study to read the personal accounts of so many key players from the late 60’s through the 00’s; Robertson, Prince, Young, Franks, De la Carriere, Rinder, Rathbun, et al. So much seemed to go off the rails circa mid-70s with the GO and into the rise of Miscaviage. There are so many threads that are common to each of them. From being in for over 20 years myself, it becomes very hard to miss how the church really began contracting circa the early 80’s and probably was only saved through the efforts of Hawkins and the Diantetics campaign of that period with the number of new people coming in from that campaign. But there had already been a steady dismantling of effective action and personnel since 81 apparently. The only glue that would have saved that was Hubbard and “new tech”. As he was effectively pulled from that line at that time, apparently through his and others mechanizations, steady contraction has ensued.
At this time, the church survives through the assets of the hard and true-believers, converting those assets into its own through the control mechanisms of sec checking and such, through the real estate game, the legal slush fund called the IAS, and resale of every service as repackaged, reverified, “100% accurate tech” and as Marty eloquently put it, nothing new to move onwards to. Such a precarious balance. I pity so many who try to continue to keep this balance and continue to breathe life into this – the sleepless nights of constant worry of how to keep the stats up, bring in new members, the constant “white lies”, the continunous false information easily disprovable by so many sources, managing in the insanity of this road to nowhere.
Now comes the falsehood of “Super Power”, the repackaged training, the cash cow meter, ad infinitum and ad naseum.
The Emperor’s new clothes.
It really is sad. Interestingly, I think this was probably the most salient point I got from Marty’s book and a point I hold in common with him, probably. The fact of one man’s honest, yet misguided efforts to improve the world, to ultimately discover he wasn’t.
🙂
Why thank you! 🙂
Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior kept me fascinated from the early chapters about the author’s origins to the final shocking chapters about Hubbard’s last days. I read Warrior, in just a few sittings and was gobsmacked to find out what was really happening behind the Church of Scientology curtain back when I was a member of the cult.
For five and a half years, Marty Rathbun’s online presence at http://www.markrathbun.wordpress.com has been a beacon for thousands leaving the Church of Scientology. He has educated journalists and millions of their readers about Scientology’s history, leaders, appeals and dangers. Marty was the guy who dared to shake his tailfeathers at Scientology’s longtime leader, David Miscavige.
In Warrior Marty speaks from his heart. He does not present himself as a hero, but “merely” does the job of all memoirists – he tells his story. In doing so, he bears testimony to the crimes and evil influences of Miscavige and the cult he controls and the blind obeisance he demands of other Scientologists.
This important book should be read by all Scientology watchers.
I read Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior a while back, when it first came out on Kindle. Because I prefer reading books on Kindle where possible, I did not read the hard cop(ies) which I also purchased.
I am seeing a few complaints here and there about editing style, etc. Let me just say that I read maybe between 250-270 books a year on Kindle. A common experience is that a Kindle book tends to be not as carefully edited as its physical universe copy, usually because the author or publisher is rushing it into Kindle format for the benefit of readers who are clamoring for the convenience, and reduced expense of an e-book.
That being said, Memoirs is, in my opinion, one of the better edited e-books out there, especially considering how fast it went to copy.
Yes, the editor(s) is/are Marty’s friend(s). But do you have an idea of how expensive it is to hire a professional editor, especially when you are breaking into the market? The main things that a copy-editor looks for in a manuscript were all there:
Clarity, Correctness, Comprehensibility, Consistency, and Concise.
In fact, if Marty had gone ahead and detailed all the history that took place after LRH died, then we would have lost # 5, Concise. And I, for one, would not have willingly traded that information for all the detail of Marty’s early pre-Scientology life. That information IS available elsewhere. But nowhere else was I going to get an insight into the young pre-Scientology Mark Rathbun. If you don’t like that part, skim over it.
I am now re-reading the new edition of Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear. I recommend it, even if you’ve read the old version. When I am finished I plan to re-read Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. When I first read it I kind of rushed through it, knowing that I would come back and re-read it one day to pick up details I may have missed.
I used to see Marty Rathbun occasionally walking around escorting COB as part of his entourage. He looked like the bodyguard, literally.
I can tell you that there was actually one occasion when I had made up my mind to confront DM and demand answers to certain questions I had about tech revisions….I was not a happy camper and planned to confront him rather aggressively in front of a group. What stopped me was the presence of Marty Rathbun, looking very much like a bodyguard who would pounce on you and subdue you in a hot New York minute. So of course I lost nerve.
I could see that Mark Yager would pose no issue to a confrontation.
I guess that IS the reason that DM surrounds himself with an entourage always. He knows that he can’t handle people by himself.
Anyway, when studying the entourage I became interested in Marty. What was his story? How did he get such good TRs? The book Memoirs answered nearly all of my questions. Plus, more that I didn’t realize that I had. What more could one ask? I look forward to future books by Mr. Rathbun.
I am of the mind that to understand Hubbard one needs to take into consideration what influence the occult might have had on him and his work. Also, the sheer volume of writing that seems sound may have something to say about his madness or genious. It took three years of reseach to write “Going Clear” but it took Ron 30 days or so to write Dianetics. It took about as much to write SOS. It took him a few hours on a train ride to write “Fear.” I am greateful for Rathbun’s writings. Just when I though the road was cleared to travel, I come to realize that it may all have been nothing but a scam and filled with lies. It it taking some time to put myself all together again but I can do it. Thank you Marty!
Mostly positive reviews Marty. Its a testament to your writing, and to the story itself, that you have evoked a discussion. As one reviewer said – a truly unique story. And that’s the truth!
Looking forward to the next one.
Agreed. (No-one can please everyone – not even Santa Claus. The Great Middle Path seems to be the most most auspicious route to land on.)
Good point I must say.
I witnessed similar tales . In my opinion their should have been
more people in large numbers actual challenging the behavior of DM when the mishandling started , application or being frightened , or ignorance played a part.
D m’s witch hut on The Franchise Mission Holders started the whole shit
that resulting in either fear / or just plain scared in fear over a dictator ruling their life and many to follow a lot succumbed to DM to stay quiet
and watch what he and his Hench men do, in form of abuse orders against policy.
Some didn’t let that happen to them. Thank god.
But world wide the majority in my opinion lacked to in force questions to the Dictator on verbal and physical abuse, The shouting ,The threats torture Brain washing / mental scar’s , the list can go on ,the outpoints are major.
We are sorry perhaps some couldn’t film and given to authorities.
even at this day and age with all the high tech to gather evidence , its just outpoint after outpoint/
One has to ask those that got out during then and after, even now
haven’t told enough to authorities and a campaign for action
Debbie Cooks scenario was a major chance for world wide campaign ,
instead that got swashed under the carpet , connections to it hauled and the hole and evidence removed.
The result is the Dictator was allowed to get away with blue bloody murder
then and time and time again…
Yes
I thought this was a great book. Very honest and I believe the story is told seemingly told in an accurate blow by blow account of the past.
I am not sure why anyone should expect Marty to apologize for defending Scientology against so many poorly motivated and aggressive attacks. It’s not like the church has clean hands either but this stuff still needs to be sorted out along the lines of what is right and just.
As a “wog” and a voracious reader, I have read “All” the books by corporate Scientology survivors. I’m really glad that Mr. Rathbun shared his story but am equally glad that I didn’t start with this memoir as it was really a “slog” to read. While thoroughness is a good quality, it can also really mire things down. At some point you lose the forest for the trees and getting bored while reading a book on such a highly charged subject just shouldn’t happen. For wogs to understand all this, I think the best book to start with is “A Piece of Blue Sky” by Jon Atack, followed by Marc Headley’s
“Blown for Good”.
Reading these books “almost” makes me understand how grown adults can allow themselves to be beaten down, humiliated and oppressed by choice for years on end in the name of religion. I commend all those like Jenna Hill and Amy Scobee and Marc Headley, who gave us their more personal stories than Mr. Rathbub has been able to share. Maybe in time he can take us on his thought journey now that he has all of the minutia documents… I would look forward to it!