Counterfeit Dreams - Jefferson Hawkins

Another day and another Scientology memoir. The number of memoirs out there has exploded over the last few years and you'd think there wasn't much more to say. You'd be very wrong.

Jeff Hawkins' "Counterfeit Dreams " is to Scientology memoirs what Going Clear was to Scientology history. It is extremely well-written and deeply engaging. Hawkins was in the church for 35 years. He sailed aboard the Apollo with L. Ron Hubbard himself. He ran the successful 1980s campaign to promote Dianetics. And he served out his last years in the church on the now infamous Int Base near Hemet, California. 

Thus the depth and range of his experience within Scientology makes his an interesting perspective and he certainly provides some fascinating insights into previously unknown events. But also, as with the other memoirs I've read, his testimony corroborates tales of the traumatic and hideous existence that many have been, and still are being, forced to live. He confirms Amy Scobee's description of an unprovoked physical attack that happened to Hawkins himself. And his version of the events of the New Years ceremony in 2000 tally up with Marc Headley's. For those of us who are concerned, yet fascinated, by the history of Scientology this is quite simply a must read.