Post your Review of the BFG Book

14 Comments

1. Okay, I’m obviously a bit biased, but really, just WOW! If you liked the BFG posts on the forums, you’ll love the expanded versions in the book and the new stuff that has never been posted. As horrific as some of Marc’s experiences were, you have to ask how many others went through even more horrific scenarios. I will be forever thankful Marc had the courage and good fortune to be able to leave when he did and that Claire was able to follow. For those who still have loved ones trapped in this cult, maybe your thankful day is coming soon. This book sheds the light needed to make that happen!

2. Hi Marc,
   I just finished reading your book, and WOW…it’s incredible! I am just a concerned citizen that started following the goings on in CO$ a couple years ago and have always been enthralled with your posts. Now, seeing your story from beginning to end to new beginning, it is amazing that you managed to maintain even a thread of your sanity! I couldn’t put the book down, a real page turner! Thank god you and Claire are out together and have your 2 beautiful sons. You two will slay these evil beings as we all know that good always triumphs in the end. You’re good people Marc Headlley, as well as a very talented writer. I look forward to the 2nd part with you and Claire as you adjust to being the all american couple with 2 little boys! God bless you both for your bravery and willingness to unmask the real ugliness behind the “most ethical people on the planet”.
   Thank-You and all the best,
   Leslie in Ohio

3. This book should be included in a “Just Escaped” care kit. A good beginning primer for untangling the mind-warping, multi-layered web of lies. “Everything you always wanted to know about Scientology, but were afraid to ask” (and you were right to be afraid).

   Reassembling sanity is amazing on its own; retaining any sense of humor is just astonishing. Many gems like this one:

   Page 37
   “I remember seeing the Course Supervisor at the Sandcastle one day when we were jet skiing in the bay next to the building. I waved at her, knowing that she probably had her blood boiling while believing that the planet, or the entire universe, was busy being flushed down the toilet. In hindsight, a jet ski would have been highly valuable if the world was, in fact, being flushed away. I would have surely outlasted the bulk of the people clinging to soup cans attached to E-Meters or books written by Hubbard.”

   Thank you for your work, and I mean All your work. Rosy

4. Congrats on the book! Well done Sir!
   Finished the book this morning.
   I read it and enjoyed it. It was hard to put down.
   Great beginning! You had the reader from the start.
   And the last chapter …… I can only hope the sequal will be about your and Claire’s journey from the dark side. Waiting for the next one!
   (And then the third one about your victory in civil court.)

   It was fasinating, intense and readable! (Sorry, but I was worried it would be filled with too much scion language for the common WOG!)
   I wish every public $cion would read it! I wish every $cion would buy it!

   I’d recommend it and give it as a gift!
   And I have!

   You’re making a difference! Thanks for your contributions to revealing the truth! Your efforts will be rewarded!

   Be free! And happy!
   Twin

5. I could not put this book down. Marc has written an engrossing and often humorous (in a deadly serious situation) account of his imprisonment by the Sea Org cult. Anyone who is interested in Scientology or the Sea Org MUST read this book!

   Marc is not afraid to tell it like it is, and name names, because it is the TRUTH!

   Well done for escaping, Marc and Claire. I am so glad you are out and doing well.

6. Read your book, Marc-or more accurately, I couldn’t stop reading your book, Marc!

   Marc Headley’s account of his life in the Sea Org at Scientology’s International Base is a riveting story of desperation, dedication, abuse, and freedom. In it, one is saddened to see how desperate the circumstances of an average Sea Org member actually are.

   You work for a pittance, and therefore are financially unable to leave. You lose much of your freedom, and are unable to take time for yourself, even if for sleep. Most Sea Org members do not have driver’s licenses. Few live in their own houses, and are required to live in cramped quarters with wall-to-wall Sea Org members about. It cannot even be called a “spartan” existence, as Spartans were free men!

   It is a slave’s existence, but the chains used are your own family.

   The fact that a “church” that bills itself as “The most Ethical organization on the Planet” can keep its own members locked on post, unable to leave, and threaten them with disconnection from their loved ones, is simply unacceptable for a free society.

   I hope that this book puts more pressure on the Church of Scientology to stop these abuses, the government to punish those responsible for them, and for the Scientology public to recognize the damage that has been done in their name.

   When Catholics found out that priests were abusing little boys, it was the Catholics that protested outside of Churches. When are Scientologists going to step up to the plate?

7. (Writing under a nom de plume!)

   This book was fanstastic. It’s had me up reading well into the night and not answering phonecalls so I could read what’s happening next.
   My only regret is the book isn’t longer! The last chapter had me in tears. It was breathtaking right to the end.

   I’m amazed that the cult of Scientology can have such a hold on people, but this book opened my eyes as to how and why you can get involved in mind-control cults by gradual degrees. Some of the stories were truly shocking and chilled me to the core. Quite how someone as evil as David Miscavige is still being allowed to get away with these abuses is beyond me. This man has to be stopped and brought to trial without hiding behind the veil of religion.

   Thank you, Marc, for writing such an important account of Scientology and the truth behind what really goes on. Any public member of Scientology should read this, and certainly anyone thinking about joining Scientology should read this book for balance.

   I hope your new life out of the cult is rewarding and that you are living and experiencing all those things that were denied you while you were in. You’re free!

8. I anxiously awaited my autographed copy of Marc’s book checking my mailbox twice a day. When it did arrive, I tore open the box and sat down to read it (which I managed to do in two nights of no sleep) Marc’s tale of his escape from Int Base, his years of “adventures”..everything from the many detailed accounts of the “drills”(Blow Drill, Power Drill, Intruder Drill, etc) to the constant “event mode” antics had me in stitches laughing one moment and the next moment teary eyed by the shear audacity and cruelness of David Miscavige. Marc has a way of communicating a concept with humor and candid language that I’ve found in few writers for this genre of work.

   Sherry Katz

9. Dear Marc,

   I just finished your book. OMG!!! You write beautifully. I was there in each scene with you.

   I appreciate you writing your story. I’m sure it was difficult to relive those years.

   I am so happy your wife, Claire, was able to join you.

   I’m actually at a loss for words. I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all. I actually got thru the book in 3 days. I couldn’t put it down.

   Kathy (ImOut – ESMB)

10. I posted this review on Amazon, but thought I would go ahead and share this here.

    One might think that this book would be most compelling to ex-Scientologists. But to this non-Scientologist (I guess that makes me a “wog”?), this book was an absolutely fascinating read.

    I have had a passing interest in Scientology ever since the late 70’s when a college boyfriend dabbled in it, quickly realized it was a bunch of hooey, and was subsequently harassed for months when he tried to drop out. I’ve followed the various happenings in the news over the years, rolled my eyes at the Celebrity devotees, and laughed along with the jokes made about it by Conan O’Brien and others in the media…but I always knew there was a much darker side to it. This book peels away the layers and exposes the scary truth behind the criminal conglomerate…which, in the end, is what Scientology is.

    One can only hope that this book will have some impact in both reducing new recruits, and helping those still trapped inside to find the courage to get out.

    What I learned the most from Marc Headley’s often gripping and sometimes humorous account is that Scientology is really nothing more than a for-profit corporation – and if you are an adherent you are either an overpaying customer, or an underpaid employee. Those who sign the “billion year contract” and join Sea Org are employees, and their entire lives are solely dedicated to producing and/or selling more product (primarily books, videos and useless “auditing” services). And the “public Scientologists” are simply customers who spend the rest of their lives getting skillfully pressured and manipulated into the worst corporate fleecing since Enron…worse, actually.

    It’s unfortunate that Scientology’s corporate lawyers were able to terrorize our government into granting religious status to what is, in every sense, nothing more than an unregulated company (which happens to be headed by a violent megalomaniac with the worst management skills in the history of business). There isn’t another corporation in America that could get away with the employee abuses that this one does. Can you imagine AT&T or IBM being allowed to enforce 100 hour work weeks, pay wages of pennies per hour, or exact punitive measures like denial of sleep, food, and days off – not to mention creepy games of musical chairs, pool dousings and actual in-house imprisonments? OSHA should have been called out decades ago!

    There are flaws to the book – it could use a good editing, as its occasional grammar and punctuation errors (mostly quotation mark problems) serve to pull you out of the story and remind you that this was a self-published book. The narrative gets bogged down at certain points with inconsequential details of the author’s work in video production. And throughout, you can’t help but keep asking yourself WHY! Why did he put up with it, when from his earliest years he questioned the legitimacy of their bizarre beliefs? Why did any of them? While their living situation was undeniably horrific, it was essentially optional. Those of us who haven’t been in it have a hard time understanding why anyone wouldn’t just walk away at the abuses…not to mention the laughable absurdities of their engram-and-alien dogma. But when you think about the fact that so many of these people were raised with this, knew nothing else, and had no concept of how to live outside of the confines of the corporation, it becomes easier to grasp. And let’s also not forget that man has a long, dramatic history of unquestioning belief in silly supernatural fictions to help them deal with the vagaries of human existence

    Mr. Headley does an excellent job of detailing his own journey to reality, and the steps he went through to begin to see it, force himself to face it, come to accept it, and ultimately act on it.

    One thing I would have liked to see was an epilogue…a telling of the author’s discovery of what life really IS like out in the real world. All we really get is a quick description of how it felt to sleep more than a few hours at a time, and to eat a meal in less than 5 minutes. Did he eventually discover what it’s like to live in a world in which pleasure is allowed, even encouraged? What did it feel like to realize that, in a healthy work environment, people do their best when motivated with positivity, rather than torture and punishment? In freeing himself of those chains, what did he learn about humanity, and about himself? Is he happier? Perhaps sharing how his life has changed might have helped some Scientologists to want to make the same journey.

    I do hope that some current Scientologists manage to find the inner resources to actually read this book. Sadly, it’s clear that too many of them are too deeply under the influence of the terroristic mind-control tactics of this cult. But I’d be willing to guess that at least a few copies have made their way onto Int Base.

    In these days of such easy access to information, it is inevitable that Scientology is going to founder. It’s just a matter of time before those who continue to be subjected to such inhumane treatment will learn that this is not all there is…that life can and SHOULD involve joy and free will, that they have been spoon-fed a huge pile of steaming horse manure, and have allowed themselves to be put through years of misery in the process. After reading this book, I personally feel inspired to help this process, to add my own voice to the outcry to STOP this nonsense, and save the victims of this criminal enterprise. So in that regard, Marc Headley has done a great service, and I applaud him.

    I will also never be able to watch a Tom Cruise movie again. SHAME on him.

11. What at amazing book! I didn’t know much about Scientology before I read this except about the celebrities who are famous for belonging. After reading this, I should think they would be ashamed to be part of any organization that behaves this way. This is absolutely un-American. I heard Marc on Coast to Coast a couple weeks ago and couldn’t wait to read it. I was on the edge of my seat for days and every time that Dave guy was mentioned, I wanted to punch him! What a jerk he is. If anyone starts a rescue program for these folks, that’s something I’d want to help with. I just cannot imagine what it would be like to live in their reality.

12. Myself, I was in the Sea Org about three months before I figured out that most of the staff were insane. It was obvious they had no interest in Scientology, they were not reading about it, practicing it or experiencing it. They were experiencing and creating some form of culture that seemed quite bizarre to me. In all my years I can count the OT’s I knew on two hands between thousands of public and staff. When I left I was glad to be gone and puzzled about how culture could surpass science. I just moved on without regret, I learned a lot about them and myself that was highly beneficial.

    When I opened the book and began to read I was surprised to find myself reading a story by someone who seemed to be, a male me with a similar past in uncanny ways. It was like we lived the same childhood. That shocked me at first, to know someone else had had a similar life growing up. As I read I began to laugh, and I laughed and laughed and at page 178 I have had to put the book down as my ribs hurt. This is the funniest book I have ever read in my life. I never laughed so hard before. He has this ability to focus in on what has bypassed charge on me about it all, the stupidity.

    I have come to see the comedy dimension in all of this. He has made me laugh about it all. I put the book down and I am still laughing. What I have been supressing all this time, is how damned funny this whole thing is and the people in it too. It was politically incorrect to laugh about such tragedy. He really pulls you up above that issue. I have been able to laugh at myself for being there and doing that. But some form of sympathy prevented me from laughing at the others. I could not read one page of this book without laughing so hard I cried. What a talented writer! What a gifted story teller! What an amazing genious! If you have been in the Sea Org you must read this book. This book is a royal treasure. I don’t think I have ever derived so much pleasure from a book before. Thanks. Best of luck in your future books.

    I’m a fan.

    You’ve got an incredible gift.

13. I am a Catholic raised girl, who only knows as much about Scientology as she has heard on tv. I remember as a kid, the commercials for promoting LRH’s Dianetics, but at that time I had no idea what it “was”. To me, this Scientology, is cult sounding and bizarre… and I got your book as a Christmas gift because it was reviewed in my US magazine… I HAD to read it!
    Honestly, it makes me more confussed about what goes on in this org, but it was an awesome read for an ordinary person like me. I have no idea how a person falls for this idea of living, and I truely feel sorry for children who are raised this way and know nothing else.

    Thank you Marc! I loved it and now your book is going to make a journey around to some of my family & friends. peace

14. This saga was a real page turner.

    This brought back a lot of memories and confirmed for me many times over how most Sci’s follow LRH’s lead in showing no compassion for others in need or suffering, but rather work to cause that suffering. This memoir was simultaneously sad and hilarious.

    Everyone who stands up to any cult is courageous. To stand up to this one, you deserve a ticker tape parade, a knighthood, a feather bed with silk sheets and a free lifetime ticket to an all you can eat buffet.

    Sue

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