The Mind Benders

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**The Mind Benders**

Book Cover, 1971 Edition, hard cover
Author	Cyril Vosper
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Subject(s)	Scientology
Genre(s)	non-fiction
Publisher	Neville Spearman Limited
Released	1971
Media Type	Hard Cover
Pages	188
ISBN	ISBN 0-85435-061-6

The Mind Benders written by Cyril Vosper and published in 1971 (hardback, Neville Spearman, ISBN 0-85435-061-6) and reprinted in 1973 (softcover, Mayflower, ISBN 0-583-12249-3) was the first book on Scientology to be written by an ex-member and the first critical book on Scientology to be published (narrowly beating Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman). It describes the lower levels of Scientology and its philosophy in detail (it does not go into the Operating Thetan level) and also includes the story of Vosper's expulsion from the Church.

The book was released as an electronic edition on the internet with the approval of Vosper by the old Cult Awareness Network, in April 1996 and then again in August 1997.

[edit] Hubbard v. Vosper

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The hardback edition was rushed to print owing to legal action from the Church; Vosper regarded the paperback — which was properly proofread and had an extra chapter on the litigation — as the authoritative edition. (To this day, the case Hubbard v. Vosper is a staple in many classes studying copyright law)^[1].

Vosper referenced the legal troubles that the 1971 edition of the book encountered, by titling the 1973 edition: The Mind Benders: The Book They Tried to Ban.