A Piece of Blue Sky#Jon Atack

{{Infobox book

| name = A Piece of Blue Sky

| image = File:A Piece of Blue Sky.jpg

| caption =

| author = Jon Atack

| illustrator =

| genre = Non-fiction

| cover_artist =

| country = United Kingdom, United States

| language = English

| series =

| subject = Scientology

| publisher = Lyle Stuart Books, Carol Publishing Group

| release_date = August 19, 1990; 2013{{nbsp}}(republished)

| media_type = Print (Hardcover)

| pages = 448

| isbn = 081840499X

| dewey = 299/.936/092 20

| oclc = 20934706

| website =

}}

A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed is a 1990 book about L.{{nbsp}}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".{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/pieceofblueskysc00atac/ |title=A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed |first=Jon |last=Atack |date=1990 |publisher=Lyle Stuart Books |isbn=081840499X |ol=9429654M |page=iii |quote=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.}}

The work has been reviewed favourably by academics in sociology and he history 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/27/us/publisher-victorious-on-hubbard-biography.html |title=Publisher Victorious on Hubbard Biography |work=The New York Times |date=May 27, 1990 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525203827/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/27/us/publisher-victorious-on-hubbard-biography.html |archive-date=May 25, 2015}}

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."{{cite journal |last=Frenschkowski |first=Marco |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/3760 |title=L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology: An annotated bibliographical survey of primary and selected secondary literature |journal=Marburg Journal of Religion |volume=4 |issue=1 |date=July 1999 |page=7 |archive-date=10 November 2024 |access-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241110110012/https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/3760 |url-status=live }} It has been widely used as a source in scholarship, and is cited in several academic publications.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. 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.

When republished in 2013, the sociologist Stephen A. Kent called the book "an unrivalled piece of superb scholarship...All future scholarship on Scientology will build upon his contribution."{{cite web |last=Ortega |first=Tony |author-link=Tony Ortega |title=More Scientology News in Thursday Roundup |url=https://tonyortega.org/2013/02/07/jenna-miscavige-hill-continues-her-media-blitz-more-scientology-news-in-thursday-roundup/|date=7 February 2013|website=The Underground Bunker |access-date=19 August 2020 |language=English}}{{cite web |url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lets-sell-these-people-a-piece-of-blue-sky-jon-atack/1115682441 |title=Let's sell these people A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (overview section) |website=Barnes & Noble |access-date=January 14, 2023}}

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.{{r|apieceofbluesky|page=34}}

He left the organisation in 1983, disillusioned with the new leadership of David Miscavige who had taken over in the early 1980s.Shinkle, Kevin. "The religion that sells the sky," The Tampa Tribune-Times, October 20, 1991. 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.{{r|apieceofbluesky|page=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.{{Cite book|title=Scientology|editor-last=Lewis|editor-first=James R.|editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar)|location=New York/Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|pages=54, 75, 89, 91, 100, 259, 262, 369, 371|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331493.001.0001/acprof-9780195331493|isbn=9780195331493|archive-date=4 July 2022|access-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704204721/https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331493.001.0001/acprof-9780195331493|url-status=live}} Atack is the author of:

{{cite book |title=A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed |year=1990 |isbn=9780818404993 |last1=Atack |first1=Jon |publisher=Carol Publishing }}
{{cite book |title=The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard |year=1992 |oclc=34443736}}
{{cite book |title=Let's Sell These People A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology |year=2013 |isbn=9781482023039 |last1=Atack |first1=Jon |publisher=Richard Woods }}
{{cite book |title=Scientology: The Cult of Greed |year=2014 |isbn=9781505490121 |last1=Atack |first1=Jon |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}
{{cite book |title=Opening Minds: The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence and Brainwashing |date=2016 |isbn=9780997109634 |last1=Atack |first1=Jon |publisher=Trentvalley Limited }}
{{cite book |title=Opening Our Minds: Avoiding Abusive Relationships and Authoritarian Groups |year=2021 |isbn=9781919625805 |last1=Atack |first1=Jon |publisher=Trentvalley Limited }}

Legal action

{{Main|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.{{cite news|title=Scientology's best seller|last=Harris|first=Daniel|date=July 2, 1989|work=New York Post|pages=39}} 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.{{cite journal|last=Hurowitz|first=Richard|year=1997|title=Surviving Copyright Infringement: Fair Use of Protected Works in "Biopics" |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/cjla22&div=21&id=&page= |journal=The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts|publisher=Columbia Law School|volume=22|issue=2|pages=247–268|issn=1544-4848}} 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. After publication, Scientologists picketed Atack's East Grinstead home for six days and spread defamatory leaflets around his neighbourhood.{{cite news| work=The Sunday Times|last=Palmer|first=Richard|title=Cult Accused of Intimidation |date=April 3, 1994}}; {{cite news| work=Evening Argus|location=Brighton (UK)|title=Victims who are 'fair game'|date=April 12, 1994 |pages=2–3}}

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.{{cite news |last=Bracchi|first=Paul|work=Evening Argus|location=Brighton, UK|date=June 10, 1994|title=The Missing Word|pages=1, 4–5}}. The decision was upheld by the High Court in London in May 1995.[https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/holmes/bluesky3.txt Court Injunction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927050046/http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/holmes/bluesky3.txt |date=27 September 2019 }}, Hodkin v. Atack, May 18, 1995, 1993 H. No.2412. 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-23148485.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104091615/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-23148485.html |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |title=Amazon.com Backs Off Book Ban |publisher=Associated Press |date=May 21, 1999 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,19869,00.html |title=Scientology Book an Open Issue |first=Polly |last=Sprenger |website=Wired News |date=May 5, 1999 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000412032548/http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0%2C1283%2C19869%2C00.html |archive-date=April 12, 2000}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/pieceofblueskysc00atac/ |title=A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed |first=Jon |last=Atack |date=1990 |publisher=Lyle Stuart Books |isbn=081840499X |ol=9429654M}}

}}

External links

[https://archive.org/details/pieceofblueskysc00atac/ A Piece of Blue Sky] at Open Library
[http://www.jonatack.com/ jonatack.com], Jon Atack's art website
[https://www.youtube.com/@jonatackfamilyfriends6176 Jon Atack's YouTube Channel on Scientology, cults, disinformation]

Category:1990 non-fiction books

Category:Books about Scientology

Category:Books critical of Scientology

Category:English-language non-fiction books