What Keith's Watching: Going Clear (2015)

Going Clear is a fascinating, well-done documentary about Scientology that actually explores the real problems with the "religion" and not the strange beliefs that they supposedly have. It's a documentary that everyone needs to see, if their only knowledge of Scientology comes from that episode of South Park.

Going Clear has real people, former members, talking openly about what they went through in their time with the church. Real people who were there from the beginning and how they got hooked into the idea of this religion and then how things started to transform into what we know and openly mock today. It turns out that Scientology didn't start as a religion based on space planes, aliens, and volcano ghosts. It started more or less as a self-help.

But then, Scientology transformed and morphed into a organization of corruption, control and abuse of its members. I knew that they were very secretive and protective of their organization and what their members said. I always assumed that a lot of the stories of their threats were just tabloid bullshit. Apparently, this isn't true. Apparently, the Church of Scientology is a fucking terrible organization run by a crazy person. And the proof, what stands out most in Going Clear, is that a number of the people interviewed were at the top level. They were the right and left hands of David Miscavige.

Going Clear is so well-done, that it's impossible to find any fault with it. It only brushes over the superficial silly beliefs, that no one really seems to believe, and gets to the heart of what's truly wrong with that organiation. Going Clear shows us why we should all be worried that Scientology continues to exist.

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