So, I've read a few of the popular books about the history and inner workings of the cult, watched every leaked internal video I could find, watched every documentary I could find, listened to all of the surviving scientology podcast, and consumed about enough online material to start worrying my friends and family. I swung by a church and picked up all the free materials they had available, but I haven't actually read much written by LRH yet. Since it's my understanding that he wrote several books, I'm looking for a good place to start.
It seems like a lot of scientology literature (correct me if I'm off base) is split into two general categories. The practical "self help" type stuff, and the propaganda/paranoia/strategies for maintaining a cult category.
Most of my interest stems from being raised in a cult-shaped Baptist church, because a lot of the tactics employed and mindsets created by scientology are very remonicent of the attitudes and opinions I held and heard throughout my years in fundamentalist christianity, and it's fun to connect the dots and find similarities.
That being said, I'm mostly interested in the propaganda/tactics side of things. dianetics seems like the obvious book to start with, but I get the impression that's it's long, dry, and mostly relates to the self help end of things. I'm not sure it's worth taking the time to read when I think I already have a general understanding of the important concepts in it.
I was thinking Id start with "the cause of suppression", because I'm interested in the whole concept of SP's. Is this a decent one to start with? The sensationalized news lover in me wants more of the excessively dramatic feel that the internal videos have, but I'm really open to anything. I definitely want to make it to some OT materials too.
"Top" LRH books to read?
It seems like a lot of scientology literature (correct me if I'm off base) is split into two general categories. The practical "self help" type stuff, and the propaganda/paranoia/strategies for maintaining a cult category.
Most of my interest stems from being raised in a cult-shaped Baptist church, because a lot of the tactics employed and mindsets created by scientology are very remonicent of the attitudes and opinions I held and heard throughout my years in fundamentalist christianity, and it's fun to connect the dots and find similarities.
That being said, I'm mostly interested in the propaganda/tactics side of things. dianetics seems like the obvious book to start with, but I get the impression that's it's long, dry, and mostly relates to the self help end of things. I'm not sure it's worth taking the time to read when I think I already have a general understanding of the important concepts in it.
I was thinking Id start with "the cause of suppression", because I'm interested in the whole concept of SP's. Is this a decent one to start with? The sensationalized news lover in me wants more of the excessively dramatic feel that the internal videos have, but I'm really open to anything. I definitely want to make it to some OT materials too.
