scientology:
THE NOW RELIGION
by George Malko
$
$5.95
7873
[front flap]
What was I investigating? A genuine religion, which Scientology quite legally claims to be, or something much simpler yet at the same time more insidious, some subtle union of THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING, a Dale Carnegie course, some kind of self-hypnosis, and a liberal spicing of a most refined science fiction? It was a long time before I found out....
After an extensive investigation of this comparatively new and startling philosophical "religion," George Malko has written the first full-length objective analysis of The Founding Church of Scientology and of its founder and guiding spirit, L. Ron Hubbard. He has interviewed numerous officials of the movement as well as ordinary members. He visited branches of the organization, attended a mammoth Scientology Congress and a number of small gatherings. He has also mastered the voluminous outpouring of Scientology literature, almost all written by the organization's extraordinarily prolific founder and head, one-time science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
The result is a revealing work that explains what Scientology is - the theories (*continued on back flap*)
JACKET DESIGN BY *Paul Bacon Studio*
[title page]
SCIENTOLOGY
THE NOW RELIGION
SCIENTOLOGY
THE NOW RELIGION
*by George Malko*
DELACORTE PRESS / NEW YORK
I would like to thank Michaela Williams, articles editor
of the now defunct *eye* Magazine,
who invited me to write an article
about Scientology. Research into the subject
led to this book, which contains most
of the material from that original
article, but in much different form.
G.M.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to quote
from the following copyrighted material:
*Nine Chains to the Moon* by Buckminster Fuller:
Used by permission of Southern Illinois University Press.
Extracts from *Scientologie 34* by A. Nordenholz,
translated by W.R. McPheeters:
Used by permission of W.R. McPheeters,
P.O. Box 641, Lucerne Valley, California 92356.
"The Polygraph" by Burke M. Smith:
Copyright c 1967 by Scientific American, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Copyright c 1970 by George Malko
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior
written permission of the Publisher, excepting brief
quotes used in connection with reviews written specifically
for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-108660
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing
*To the memory of
my father*
"...miracles don't happen.
It's always the apparatus
and the spiel which have to
do the work. The clergy
have the same sad experience.
God is silent and people chatter."
INGMAR BERGMAN
in *The Magician*
[end flap]
(dp)
THIS BOOK WAS SET IN
CALEDONIA, FRANKLIN GOTHIC, AND PRISMA TYPES.
IT WAS PRINTED AND BOUND BY
AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS, INC.
DESIGNED BY JULIAN HAMER
(*continued from front flap*) and beliefs, the operating techniques, what it offers to disciples ("Total Freedom of the soul through wisdom"), how much it costs. The author discusses the legal difficulties that the organization has encountered in Australia, in England, and in this country, where the government has sought to challenge Scientology's claim to tax-exempt status as a religion. Throughout, Mr. Malko presents a balanced account of a sometimes praised, sometimes maligned movement whose astonishing and continuing success is a bewildering facet of the contemporary scene.
I don't really know what L. Ron Hubbard believes. When all of [his] theories and mouthings are reduced to their essentials, one tiny, nagging suspicion lingers on: It is possible that all of us are simply involved in yet another of this man's vivid flights of fantastic fiction, and it is all nothing less than a superbly evoked living nightmare manipulated somewhere by a giant typewriter in the sky?
(dp)
DELACORTE PRESS
NEW YORK, N.Y.
0770 PRINTED IN U.S.A.
[rear cover]
(picture of Malko here)
ELIZABETH MALKO
GEORGE MALKO was born in Denmark of Russian parents and educated at Haverford College and the Sorbonne. He has written, produced and directed television shows and documentary films and has written articles for *Saturday Review*, *Glamour*, *Mademoiselle*, *Holiday* and *Esquire*. He lives in New York City.