Scientology... What do they believe and why?

Question

I'm trying to get to know other religions and cultures. Can you tell me about this Scientology?

Answer 1

The Church of Scientology was a cult created by L Ron Hubbard from the 1950's after he released a book called "Dianetics". This was a book which reported to overhaul mental health & the way medical practioners look at and heal the body. Needless to say the book didn't do this, and its methods don't work any more than a placebo would if at all. It is constantly referred to as a pseudo-science and sometimes just pure quackery!

Wikipedia has a good introduction to their beliefs
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/scientology
And doesn't just get caught up in Chuch propaganda but actually tells the truth based on the evidence available being a neutral site.

You have to understand that it is a cult and it uses mind/social control techniques to gain, keep & manipulate its members into doing whatever 'the group' wants them to. The also outright lie to new members to get them to join the group, before telling them the more wierd stuff of scientology.

Essentially though, if you didn't read wikipedia, they believe man has an immortal soul (a thetan), that reincarnates. They believe you get engrams when your unconscious (a sound or feeling lodged in your 'reactive' mind) that cloud your judgements and can even cause physical pain. Getting rid of your engrams by auditing will alleviate all your problems, and alongside learning all the Scientology Tech they tell you, you will become better at pratically everything in your life - but this has never been substantiated in 50+ years. The one study done said it did not benefit people.

Here is a small article on the methods used:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/techniques/

Here is the study done near the release of dianetics, it concludes that it doesn't work.
http://www.clambake.org/archive/fischer/

You do not learn about Xenu (the alien part) until you are fully indoctrinated into the Church, and by this point you will pretty much believe anything they tell you after repeated exposure to mind and social control techniques.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/xenu...

Xenu was a intergalatic space lord who had an overpopulation problem, so took many aliens from various planets and blew them up in various volcanoes over the earth. However the souls were all travelling upward and would have escaped and returned. Therefore Xenu took them all to implant stations and brainwashed them till they forgot who they were and filled them with issues, problems and contradictions. At this point the R6 Implant was also introduced which hubbards explanation for all religions, esp. Jesus - that it is an implant by Xenu and not real at all (despite telling new members it is compatible with their faith!).

The alien thetans were so confused they could no longer leave earth and were trapped, and came and attached themselves to mankind. So according to scientology we are literally covered in these Body Thetans as they are called. So the higher levels of scientology concentrate on this knowledge and removing the Body Thetans by auditing them. (if you think about this, that means they audit themselves, and talk to themselves the whole time, while believing they are talking to a little alien soul inside their body - now does that sound a healthy practise to you!)

Or here watch it South Park style:
http://www.xenutv.com/cruise/sp-closet.htm

It takes many years and a lot of money to reach this level, so people have to believe its true or admit they have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars, admit they have been wrong for decades, and admit that all their friends are also duped in the same way. This is a massive realisation and is very hard to achieve for people who have been so thoroughly brainwashed. Lots still manage it, and this is why we know about the 'secrets' of scientology including Xenu...

You can see the secret library of scientology here or where it has been removed by scientology lawyers they normally post links where it can be obtained or at least summaries by courts or ex-members. http://www.clambake.org/archive/secret.html

You can find much information out on the web, including even whole books written by ex-members:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/apobs/
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/isd/isd.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/xenu.html

Clambake.org is a great resource for critical information on the web, although there are many others as well... Here are just some.
http://www.lermanet.com/
http://www.suppressiveperson.org/
http://www.scientology-lies.com/
http://www.lisamcpherson.org

This is a website by a cult expert who is aware of the dangers of scientology:
http://www.freedomofmind.com/

For comparison, and in fairness, here is the link to the official Church of Scientology www.scientology.org

I always like posting this... It is what one critic thinks of scientology:
" The Church of Scientology is a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion. Its purpose is to make money. It practices a variety of mind-control techniques on people lured into its midst to gain control over their money and their lives. Its aim is to take from them every penny that they have and can ever borrow and to also enslave them to further its wicked ends.

It was started in the 1950s by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard in fulfilment to his declared aim to start a religion to make money. It is an offshoot to a method of psychotherapy he concocted from various sources which he named "Dianetics". Dianetics is a form of regression therapy. It was then further expanded to appear more like a religion in order to enjoy tax benefits. He called it "Scientology".

Scientology is a confused concoction of crackpot, dangerously applied psychotherapy, oversimplified, idiotic and inapplicable rules and ideas and science-fiction drivel that is presented to its members (at the "advanced" levels) as profound spiritual truth. "
http://www.clambake.org/roland-intro.html

They also hound critics trying to discredit and ruin them in any way (even if illegally), pressuring with lawyers, etc in order to stop any criticism rather than tackling the points raised by the critic. The campaign against critics is a well documented one.
http://www.suppressiveperson.org/

But don't let me sway you follow the links, watch some videos, make up your mind...

Source(s):
http://www.clambake.org
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.xenutv.com

Answer 2

Ron L Hubbard, a science fiction writer, formed this cult. He believed aliens (Operating Thetans) inhabit people's bodies. For a lot of money, you can progress through the various levels of scientology. For the first few thousand, you get to know what Thetans are and what they do. For many thousands more, you get to know how to control your Thetans. And you can purchase a machine to measure them in your body.

The copyright secrets of Scientology were revealed during a fraud trial by Steven Fishman. Search Google for the "Fishman Papers" that were presented during that trial and became public record. Although Scientologists keep sueing websites that publish these public documents, they cannot keep the content off the net. As soon as one site is sued into submission, another publishes them.

Note that these websites are not doing anything illegal, but the Scientologists have a full time army of lawyers, and very deep pockets. In the US, law is not about right, but about money; so they win regardless of the facts.

Answer 3

Start at Wikipedia. There are links there to other sites. I learned about them myself just the other day.

In their defense, they do not all believe in that stupid alien. It is indeed a part of the religion, but it really doesn't become a big deal until you're really far in.

On the surface, some of their beliefs make good sense. The problems start the further along you go, and especially the fact that they're really just a moneymaker.

Answer 4

Taoism Shittt happens.
Buddhism If shittt happens, it's not really shittt.
Islam If shittt happens, it's the will of Allah.
Protestantism Shittt happens because you don't work hard enough.
Judaism Why does this shittt always happen to us?
Hinduism This shittt happened before.
Catholicism Shittt happens because you're bad.
Hare Krishna Shittt happens rama rama.
T.V. Evangelism Send more shittt.
Atheism No shittt.
Jehova's Witness Knock knock, shittt happens.
Hedonism There's nothing like a good shittt happening.
Christian Science Shittt happens in your mind.
Agnosticism Maybe shittt happens, maybe it doesn't.
Existentialism What is shittt anyway?
Stoicism This shittt doesn't bother me.
Rastafarianism Let's smoke this shittt.

Answer 5

Try searching on Google with 'insane wackos'

Answer 6

They don't want you to know this, but here is a pretty good description of what they believe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

Pretty wacky. You'd have to be pretty stupid to believe this.

Answer 7

http://www.scientology.org/