A Piece of Blue Sky

A Piece of Blue Sky
AuthorJon Atack
LanguageEnglish
SubjectScientology
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherLyle Stuart Books, Carol Publishing Group
Publication date
August 19, 1990; 2013 (republished)
Publication placeUnited Kingdom, United States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages448
ISBN081840499X
OCLC20934706
299/.936/092 20

A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed is a 1990 book about L. Ron Hubbard and the development of Dianetics and Scientology, authored by British former Scientologist Jon Atack. It was republished in 2013 with the title Let's sell these people A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology. The title originates from a quote of Hubbard from 1950: an associate of Hubbard's noted him saying that he wanted to sell potential members "a piece of blue sky".[1]

The work has been reviewed favourably by scholars in the field of new religious movements. A review in the Marburg Journal of Religion called it "the most thorough general history of Hubbard and Scientology". Stephen A. Kent, a professor of sociology who researches new religious movements, described the work as "an unrivalled piece of superb scholarship".

The Scientology organisation's publishing arm, New Era Publications, unsuccessfully tried to prevent the book's publication, having argued that it infringed on its copyright of Hubbard's works. The US district court in New York ruled against publication of the version of the book that included excerpts from Hubbard's writings, but the decision was overturned by the federal US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New Era Publications International ApS v. Carol Publishing Group and Jonathan Caven-Atack.[2]

Synopsis

The book is arranged into nine parts, plus introductory material. In part 1, Atack describes his personal experience in the Scientology organisation. Parts 2 – 8 provide a chronological history of L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology, researched from paper sources and interviews. The final part draws conclusions about the belief system of Scientology and its founder. The book also contains a preface by Russell Miller, author of Bare-faced Messiah.

Reception

Marco Frenschkowski, writing in the Marburg Journal of Religion in 1999, describes A Piece of Blue Sky as "the most thorough general history of Hubbard and Scientology, very bitter, but always well-researched."[3] It has been widely used as a source in scholarship, and is cited in several academic publications.[4] The Tampa Tribune-Times said that Atack's provision of extensive detail and source notes for each claim sometimes gets in the way of the story, but prevents the book from being just another bitter diatribe against Scientology.[5]

When republished in 2013, the scholar of new religious movements Stephen A. Kent called the book "an unrivalled piece of superb scholarship...All future scholarship on Scientology will build upon his contribution."[6][7]

Jon Atack

Jon Atack (born Jonathan Caven-Atack in 1955) is a British author and artist who is widely recognized as one of the most informed critics of the Church of Scientology. He joined Scientology at the age of nineteen in 1974, and was based largely in the Church of Scientology's British headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in England. During his training, he said he progressed to Scientology's Operating Thetan level 5 (OT5), completing 24 of the 27 levels of progress within Scientology.[8]: 34 

He left the organisation in 1983, disillusioned with the new leadership of David Miscavige who had taken over in the early 1980s.[5] He wrote that he saw the new management as tough and ruthless, and objected particularly to the 15-fold increase in training fees. He also objected to being told not to have relationships with so-called "suppressive persons", meaning those whom the Scientology organisation had declared enemies with whom members should not communicate.[8]: 35ff 

Works

Jon Atack's work has frequently been cited as a source in academic publications. A notable example is the 2009 volume Scientology, in which Atack's scholarship is cited by several contributors.[9] Atack is the author of:

  • Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Carol Publishing. ISBN 9780818404993.
  • The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard. 1992. OCLC 34443736.
  • Atack, Jon (2013). Let's Sell These People A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology. Richard Woods. ISBN 9781482023039.
  • Atack, Jon (2014). Scientology: The Cult of Greed. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781505490121.
  • Atack, Jon (2016). Opening Minds: The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence and Brainwashing. Trentvalley Limited. ISBN 9780997109634.
  • Atack, Jon (2021). Opening Our Minds: Avoiding Abusive Relationships and Authoritarian Groups. Trentvalley Limited. ISBN 9781919625805.
Main article: New Era Publications International ApS v. Carol Publishing Group and Jonathan Caven-Atack

In 1990, Scientology's publishing arm, New Era Publications, attempted to prevent publication by arguing that the manuscript's inclusion of material by Hubbard infringed on their copyright of Hubbard's work, and would harm sales of the original texts.[10] The court ruled that the manuscript might discourage people from buying Hubbard's books by convincing them he was a swindler, and that copyright law protects rather than forbids this kind of criticism.[11] Before the outcome of the case was known, the publisher prepared two versions of the book: one with and one without Hubbard's quoted material.[2] After publication, Scientologists picketed Atack's East Grinstead home for six days and spread defamatory leaflets around his neighbourhood.[12]

In April 1995, a court in England held that Atack had libelled Margaret Hodkin, the headmistress of Scientology's Greenfields School in England, and issued an injunction forbidding publication of an offending paragraph.[13] The decision was upheld by the High Court in London in May 1995.[14] The case led Amazon to remove the book from its listings in February 1999, but it reversed its decision a few months later after customers complained.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ^ Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart Books. p. iii. ISBN 081840499X. OL 9429654M. It was 1950, in the early, heady days of Dianetics, soon after L. Ron Hubbard opened the doors of his first organization to the clamoring crowd. Up until then, Hubbard was known only to readers of pulp fiction, but now he had an instant best-seller with a book that promised to solve every problem of the human mind, and the cash was pouring in. Hubbard found it easy to create schemes to part his new following from their money. One of the first tasks was to arrange "grades" of membership, offering supposedly greater rewards, at increasingly higher prices. Over thirty years later, an associate wryly remembered Hubbard turning to him and confiding, no doubt with a smile, "Let's sell these people a piece of blue sky.
  2. ^ a b "Publisher Victorious on Hubbard Biography". The New York Times. 27 May 1990. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015.
  3. ^ Frenschkowski, Marco (July 1999). "L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology: An annotated bibliographical survey of primary and selected secondary literature". Marburg Journal of Religion. 4 (1): 7.
  4. ^ For examples, see Kent, Stephen A. "Scientology: Is this a Religion?", Marburg Journal of Religion, Volume 4, issue 1, July 1999; Kent, Stephen A. "The Globalization of Scientology: Influence, Control and Opposition in Transnational Markets", Religion, Volume 29, issue 2, pp. 147–169; West, Louis Jolyon. "Psychiatry and Scientology," American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., May 6, 1992.
  5. ^ a b Shinkle, Kevin. "The religion that sells the sky," The Tampa Tribune-Times, October 20, 1991.
  6. ^ Ortega, Tony (7 February 2013). "More Scientology News in Thursday Roundup". The Underground Bunker. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Let's sell these people A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (overview section)". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  8. ^ a b Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart Books. ISBN 081840499X. OL 9429654M.
  9. ^ Lewis, James R., ed. (2009). Scientology. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 54, 75, 89, 91, 100, 259, 262, 369, 371. ISBN 9780195331493.
  10. ^ Harris, Daniel (2 July 1989). "Scientology's best seller". New York Post. p. 39.
  11. ^ Hurowitz, Richard (1997). "Surviving Copyright Infringement: Fair Use of Protected Works in "Biopics"". The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts. 22 (2). Columbia Law School: 247–268. ISSN 1544-4848.
  12. ^ Palmer, Richard (3 April 1994). "Cult Accused of Intimidation". The Sunday Times.; "Victims who are 'fair game'". Evening Argus. Brighton (UK). 12 April 1994. pp. 2–3.
  13. ^ Bracchi, Paul (10 June 1994). "The Missing Word". Evening Argus. Brighton, UK. pp. 1, 4–5..
  14. ^ Court Injunction, Hodkin v. Atack, May 18, 1995, 1993 H. No.2412.
  15. ^ "Amazon.com Backs Off Book Ban". Associated Press. 21 May 1999. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
  16. ^ Sprenger, Polly (5 May 1999). "Scientology Book an Open Issue". Wired News. Archived from the original on 12 April 2000.