What is Scientology?
We hear about it on the news occasionally, see headlines about something crazy Tom Cruise has said or done, we may drive by a building with "Scientology" out front ... but is Scientology a religion, and is it good or bad? What's it all about?
Once again, we look first at the founder of the "religion" - L. Ron Hubbard, who was born in Nebraska. While LRH, as insiders refer to him, is most known for Scientology, he got his start as a science fiction writer.
Hubbard was married three times, and those marriages overlapped-that is to say, he married again without divorcing his current wife. He admittedly struggled with sanity. He wrote Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health and spun Scientology, as a religion from that in the 1950s. (biographical information from public records and documents is different than what Hubbard and scientology claim) To date, it is reported than more than 20 million copies have been sold, having sold a lot of copies right out of the gate. Yet, Hubbard said at a science fiction gathering in NewJersey, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start a religion!"1
So, what is Scientology? The word Scientology is taken from the Latin scio, which means "knowing in the fullest sense of the word," and the Greek wordlogos, meaning "study of." It literally means "knowing how to know."2
Drawing on ideas from Buddhist and Hindu religious philosophy, science fiction, and Western concepts in psychology and science, L. Ron Hubbard produced a religion that sees all human beings as immortal spirits (thetans) who have forgotten their identity and become deceived by the very universe they mentally emanated in order to amuse themselves. Scientology claims it can free the thetan to realize his or her true nature and powers primarily through the practice of auditing.3 According to church literature, "Auditing is a central practice in Scientology through which a practitioner is cleared of negative influences known as engrams in order to heighten spiritual awareness and access currently untapped potential. Engrams are bad memories stored in the mind, which cause emotional and other kinds of pain as well as inappropriate behavior.
Auditing (which means listening) sessions involve two people: the person being audited and an auditor, for the purpose of moving the scientologist along on a lifelong process called "The Bridge to Total Freedom". An e-meteror electro meter is used to measure sensory impressions or reactions in a person, which indicate a past pain or bad memory-an engram-person is brought back to it again and again, until the auditor sees less reaction, and sometimes the individual has a bodily response, which could include yawning, sweating, urinating, crying or something else.
Though a new convert to Scientology does not know it for some time, (as it takes a long while to rise up the 'Bridge to Total Freedom'), the big answers to life questions, such as 'How did we get here? Is there life after death? Do we have a purpose?' are not answered for a long while, much further along in one's study of the 'religion'. Not until reaching Operating Thetan III level. It takes a long time to get to the nuts and bolts of the belief system. This information is given to the person in hand-written notes within a locking briefcase-the information including fantastical notions of a creation story. There was a similar world, very much like our world but the world was over-populated by Xenu (/ˈziːnuː/), according to L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who 75 million years ago brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as "space opera" by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetanlevel III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the "R6 implant" (past trauma) was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it".
Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church's secret "Advanced Technology",considered a sacred and esoteric teaching,which is normally only revealed to members who have completed a lengthy sequence of courses costing large amounts of money.The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story's confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright andtrade secrecy.Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard's notes, and the Internet. 4
As for a Supreme Being, scientologists are free to believe in any, although the most lauded individuals within the church are first LRH, and then David Miscavige, and anyone who has been deemed to be "Clear".
There is no reading about the church anywhere
or questioning of the church's practices without punishment, after being written up on a knowledge report. Punishment may include reindoctrination by the Rehabilitation Force, including many hours of auditing a day, plus hard labor, and being labeled a suppressive person. Other church members are warned to disconnect from SPs-even if the person is one's mother or father, daughter or son. Scientology has divided many families.
As for afterlife - "The thetan reports to an implant station (one is on Mars) before being shot down to earth. He/she reports in, is given a strong forgetter implant, and is then shot down to a body just before it is born."
1 - various sources, including Wikipedia
2 - Scientology.org
4 - wikipedia
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Comment by Tammy on February 12, 2016 at 11:55pm
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