DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is the film all Scientologists don’t want you see. Forget Panama and the Cayman Islands. You want to stash those bns from the taxman, come up with a looney story about an alien overlord, pitch it as a self-help guide and call it a religion. If you were ever curious as to how a racket perpetuated by a paranoid sci-fi author grew to be a multi-bn USD enterprise, got tax-exempt status from the U.S. government, and commanded megastars the likes of Tom Cruise and John Travolta, then you’ve come to the right place. But this masterpiece by Alex Gibney, who brought us such greats as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, goes beyond a mere expose into a cult. Over the course of two hours and interviews with eight former members and high ranking officials of Scientology, the film is a journey into the state of mind at every level of the brainwashing chain. It’s both a mirror suggesting what any one of us could be — and an attempt to answer fundamental questions about religion and human nature. Why are we so willing to give up our individuality and pay so much for the privilege? And how can perfectly rational human beings allow themselves to be imprisoned in such a way? The HBO-produced documentary is available on Netflix and can be found on Youtube (runtime: 2:00:01).

…Oh and if you are curious to get in touch with your inner Thetan (and kick a few naughty habits to boot), the Scientology sponsored drug rehab program Narconon is operating in Egypt. We won’t tell Awqaf if you don’t.