Any ex members interested in the views of intellectuals about Scientology, ..

[chuckbeatty77 @aol.com]

In my quest to find out what intellectuals thought and think about
Scientology, I finally broke down and bought the subscription for a
year of the online version of the New York Review of Books, and then
searched their online archives, and found lots of great comments about
Scientology.

Here is a great comment regarding William Burroughs participation in
Scientology, to me this shows the value of reading really good outside
writers and smart people.

It's from Volume 31, Number 8 · May 10, 1984, New York Review of
Books,
article entitled "The Invisible Man", by Luc Sante. It's an article of
books related to William Burroughs.

"Burroughs's fixations have led him down the garden path on numerous
occasions. He flirted with Scientology, enthralled with its promised
vacuuming of infantile traumas and acquired prejudices, until he found
it to be precisely the kind of malign authoritarian system he sought to
escape."

The last phrase particularly, seems to be a common conclusion of many
ex members:

"....until he found it to be precisely the kind of malign authoritarian
system he sought to escape."

There are dozens of mentions of Scientology in the New York Review of
Books archives, if anyone wants to find out what English speaking
intellectuals have commented over the decades on Scientology.

Chuck Beatty

[antisectes]

Excellent, could you get them all and make a page with this? That's
really great.

roger

[Lermanet.com]

chuckbeatty77 @aol.com wrote:
> In my quest to find out what intellectuals thought and think about
> Scientology, I finally broke down and bought the subscription for a
> year of the online version of the New York Review of Books, and then
> searched their online archives, and found lots of great comments about
> Scientology.
>
>
> Here is a great comment regarding William Burroughs participation in
> Scientology, to me this shows the value of reading really good outside
> writers and smart people.
>
> It's from Volume 31, Number 8 · May 10, 1984, New York Review of
> Books,
> article entitled "The Invisible Man", by Luc Sante. It's an article of
> books related to William Burroughs.
>
> "Burroughs's fixations have led him down the garden path on numerous
> occasions. He flirted with Scientology, enthralled with its promised
> vacuuming of infantile traumas and acquired prejudices, until he found
> it to be precisely the kind of malign authoritarian system he sought to
> escape."
>
> The last phrase particularly, seems to be a common conclusion of many
> ex members:
>
> "....until he found it to be precisely the kind of malign authoritarian
> system he sought to escape."

This sounds like the typical ex-member page
Perhaps Mr Burroughs should get his own ex-member page?

[moontaco]

That might be a good idea.

Speaking of Luc Sante, he's an excellent writer. I loved his books Low
Life and Evidence. :)

moontaco

[Eldon]

I second that. As I recall, Gore Vidal once made a comment about the
vacant TR-0 stare of Scientologists as an aside somewhere. So Chuck, if
you can find these snippets and maybe even roughly categorize them by
genre or time, it would be neat.
>
> roger