What is Scientology? Is it a religion, or just a weird cult?

Question

I'm serious about learning about Scientology. I have no interest in joining, but I have heard many conflicting views on the subject, and I am curious to know if it is considered a "real" religion or just a weird cult. I read a bit about the Xenu story online, but is that a real explanation, or just a sci-fi story?

Thank you so much for your answers guys! You have been very informative and helpful so far. Scientologists don't really believe the Xenu story do they, because that is the -worst- sci fi story that I have ever read!

Answer 1

Ok, I have provided quite a lengthy answer to get you started.

To answer part of your question immediately, while the US gives the Church tax exemption status, the US denied charitable status in 1999, France & Germany think it a totalitarian cult, and a dangerous organisation (no German Official or any govt. employee can be a scientologist as an extreme example), it is banned in greece, it was denied in Russia, to name a few...

Aside from Govt's, few people consider it a religion outside of the Church. Hubbard himself didn't think so, but liked the status, for defensive reasons, and tax exemption.

"Scientology...is not a religion."
- L. Ron Hubbard, CREATION OF HUMAN ABILITY, 1954, p. 251

This link gives a good overview into the dark side of scientology:
http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

Personally I think scientology is a destructive cult. I think that while some minor benefits can be found on the lower levels, just from the social aspect of belonging to a group and having your days more or less worked out for you. Additionally the starting auditing sessions is just talking about your problems, no biggy that will likely help. However this is mainly an illusion (delusion) and it soon takes a turn as you progress in scientology, the starting levels are merely the trap.

Scientology tends to take over a person's life, devoting all their time, effort and money to it, and normally to the expense of their families, friends, work or education, etc. My main bug with scientology comes from the following things.

They lie to people, they use bait and switch. This means that what they begin telling you is not the final story, and you are expected to pay a lot of money for this without knowing what you are buying. Scientology presents itself as scientifically tested and researched, and in LRH's writings you will see grandeous claim after another, about how something is fact, or beyond doubt, or scientifically proved, or demonstrable, etc, etc, etc. The truth is that this is all lies, there was no research, testing, facts, doubt, proof or demonstrations. Hubbard on the whole plagarised almost every 'idea' he had. He was a prolific writer and a very intelligent and charismatic man. He was not as he and scientology claim a scientist, a graduate, an explorer or a war hero, he did not study extensively into the human condition, nor did he travel learning of wise men in the east. He did not heal himself of war wounds, and he did create dianetics and scientology to help mankind. Hubbard was a constant liar, an amoral man & only ever seeked to entrap people for money, control & his ego. And yes scientology he died of natural causes, while having vistaril, a pyschiatric drug in his system - he did not leave the body for the next level of training, duh.

Hubbard taught that we have a reactive mind where some traumatic memories normally when unconscious, pre-natel, or past lives present themselves as a jumble of sounds, visions, smells, feelings, etc. When you see something that is similar to one of the memories it restimulates that particular memory, or as scientology calls it, Engram. This can lead to distressing feelings, or incorrect behaviour, or even your illnesses and disabilities, etc. Once you have cleared all your ‘Engrams’ by ‘auditing’, you are then told that you are clear… So what does this mean? Well most scientologists will struggle to tell you. Hubbard first claimed that a clear would be without illness, have a perfect memory, have a higher IQ, and do massive computations. These have never, ever been demonstrated. In fact Hubbard’s first clear showed quite the opposite, when she couldn’t remember what she had to eat on a particular morning, or then even the colour of Hubbard’s tie that he was wearing. She wasn’t any smarter, or better adjusted than before she spent all that money on scientology, Hubbard, a hypnotist, had just told her she was. His methods induce very suggestible states, unnoticed or explained away, and I don’t think this is any coincidence. His claims are not true, it doesn’t do what he says it does.

It prepares one for the latter levels, where you are led to believe the absurd, and pay lots & lots of money for it. This is the infamous Xenu story, and how the reactive mind is really generated by Body Thetans, of which you still have them all… (so why do you pay to become clear again?) These thetans were implanted with all sorts of images, and effectively brainwashed, thus they cause their host, you the thetan & your body the whole host of problems and more that becoming clear was meant to solve. Thus you then spend time, effort and money solo-auditing (talking to oneself) the ancient alien souls out of your body. To pay for this humiliation is bizarre, but something happens in learning scientology where you accept everything LRH said as source, that he couldn’t possibly be wrong, after all he researched it right? (well no…) To make matters worse the current leader has been butchering the ‘tech’, teachings and policies of Hubbard ever since he died – so people aren’t even getting what they paid for, being conned on a con.

Sources or Links for above
Wiki Entries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/scientology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/xenu
Scientology & Xenu South Park Style:
http://www.xenutv.com/cruise/sp-closet.htm
Proof of OTIII Story, Xenu and the Body Thetans:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/index.html
http://www.spaink.net/fishman/ot3.html
Coroner Report
http://www.clambake.org/archive/hubbardcoroner/
Biography
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm
Stolen Ideas
http://www.clambake.org/archive/lrhbare/
His war record
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/warhero/
All evidenced documents concerning LRH's life.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/LRH-bio/
Secrets of Scientology:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/
http://www.clambake.org/archive/secret.html
Ex-member Testimonials/Stories:
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/krasel/
http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/index.php?f=3&sid=62c9287e6962fbbb53c51af3e1f3c730
Ex-Member videos:
http://www.xenutv.com/interviews/index.html

So IMO Scientology is a collection of denounced or poorly re-written set of stolen ideas and theories created by LRH, that is not only a waste of time, and a happy delusion in the very best of circumstances (freezone), but can be physically, mentally and fiscally damaging to people even to the point of death. http://www.whyaretheydead.net

They even lie about its membership, there are 8 nor 10 million scientologists, that claim is absolute rubbish.
http://www.clambake.org/archive/COS_members.html

I think its practices, theories, and design uses mind and social control techniques, along with suggestion and trance like states as do many others, ex-members and experts alike.
http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/documents/scientology/pignotti
http://www.clambake.org/archive/infopack/7.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/1984/

Basic techniques looked at:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/techniques/
How someone can be trapped into scientology:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html

Hubbard wrote some terrifying policies and made lots of claims that are quite frankly dangerous to a person's wellbeing and possibly their life. Firstly is his claim that dianetics and scientology can cure illnesses and correct disabilities, let's see it from the man himself:

"Leukaemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukaemia had been treated successfully by Dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukaemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase ‘It turns my blood to water.’"
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Journal of Scientology," Issue 15-G, 1953
"Arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalogue of illnesses goes away and stays away."
L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH, 1987 Ed., p. 72

"Scientology is the only specific (cure) for radiation (atomic bomb) burns."
- L. Ron Hubbard, ALL ABOUT RADIATION, p. 109

"You are only three or four hours from taking your glasses off for keeps."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Eyesight and glasses," "Dianetic Auditor’s Bulletin," Vol. 2, No. 7, January 1952

"The alleviation of the condition of insanity has also been accomplished now…"
-L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, November 1970, "Psychosis"

Of course, Scientology does none of these, and because people believe everything Hubbard said, and it must be them not doing the ‘tech’ right, rather than it not working, they sometimes don’t seek assistance and pay the price as the website, http://www.whyaretheydead.net clearly shows.

Some more choice quotes:
"Somebody some day will say ‘this is illegal.’ By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, "LRH Relationship to Orgs"

"MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MORE MONEY."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384

"ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."
-L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967

http://www.clambake.org/archive/infopack/5.htm

Here look at what some judges thought of scientology:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/judge_quotes.html

This is but the tip of the iceberg, I could start talking about Hubbard’s prosecution for fraud, the way they hound and harass critics, govt. investigations, crimes, the hard sell recruitment tactics, the 11 scientologists jailed for stealing documents, information, bugging, etc, numerous amounts of government agencies at all levels, the horrible conditions and pay for staff, or their ethics system, or their slave labour/punishment camp called the RPF. So No I don’t like scientology one little bit, but I hope I showed you why. Did I mention it costs a lot of money, it breaks up families, hurts lives and even kills people? Oh I did, good.

Oh what the hell here are some of the links:
http://www.suppressiveperson.org/
http://www.clambake.org/archive/go/gohist.htm#go_ops
http://www.lermanet2.com/cos/brainwashing.html
http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

Some Main Sites to look at critical of scientology:
http://www.clambake.org
http://www.lermanet.com
http://www.xenutv.com

And this for fun:
http://www.zipperfish.com/free/yaafm11.php

Answer 2

the Xenu mythos was started by the sci fi writer L.Ron Hubbard.
some people took the book dianetics very seriously.

scientology is recognised as a religion in the us by the federal government. however to most it is regarded as a cult.

their inner workings are secret and they require money to progress through the levels to attain the inner secrets of the religion.

Answer 3

The difference between a "weird cult" and a "real religion" is one of perspective. All religions are pretty weird, that's the nature of religion. Is it any crazier to believe in Scientology than it is to believe in a God who impregnates a virgin with his son who will later die for your sins? They're all stories to either make people more powerful or less fearful of death.

Answer 4

Ya see folks,All religions are cults. They all want us to believe that God became flesh came down to earth impregnated his muda, Then climbed on a cross and committed suicde then three days later jumped up and went back to heaven and has been watching our sorry asses suffer ever since. Sounds just as goofy as scientology doesn't it?

Answer 5

It's a cult. Check out the Operation Clambake site for more information about how Scientology operates. A lot of the information about Scientology comes from people who've managed to escape its clutches, and their stories are truly weird and truly frightening.

http://www.xenu.net/

JMB

Answer 6

just a cult...but actually a fairly dangerous one....several people have actually died in their custody. They have pit bull lawyers who go after former members and anyone who says anything derogatory about them with agressive lawsuits, destruction of credit ratings, slander...all kinds of dirty tricks (kind of like a platoon of Karl Roves). Also, they are brazenly a money making cult, it costs a reported $400,000 to take all the levels of training, which is why Hollywood idiots are recruited.

Theres lots of dirt coming out on them by former disillusioned members, and the Sciento's are PISSED. There's lots of cool videos in the first link

I also agree with all the others, that all mainstream religions were cults in the beginning.

Answer 7

Ron L Hubbard was a BAD science fiction writer, and then he came up with Scientology. When his followers started reaching the upper levels, Ron had to come up with more levels to keep them interested.

It's one great big sci-fi story, and right now Tom and Katie are playing the leads.

Answer 8

Fork over your life savings to the Church of Scientology, and you will know the "truth":

75 million years ago, extraterrestrial beings were sent to planet Earth by intergalactic ruler, Xenu, who then blew up the aliens with hydrogen bombs in a volcano (because molten lava just isn't enough to kill those pesky aliens).

The resulting explosion caused millions of alien spirits to be released into the air. The spirits were then trapped and brainwashed into believing in God and religion, Christ, Moses, Mohamed, Willy Wonka, and Sade.

Today on Earth, all the spirits of these aliens have attached themselves to our bodies, and are the root cause of all the false reality. These attached spirits are called Body-Thetans (or BT's).

In order to become cleared and get rid of those nasty BT's that are keeping you down, you have to be audited with a tool called an E-meter. To use it, you have to hold two metal rods in your hands, not in your mouth like Tom Cruise and John Travolta did during their first audit.

Sounds simply adorable, doesn't it? No wonder Tom Cruise loves them.

Answer 9

Tom Cruise or John Travolta would be the best people to ask about this but my understanding is this is a religion made up by a bunch of hollywood egotists with the main purpose of using the religions theories in order to insult brooke shields. I'm all for it.

Answer 10

Ask Tom Cruise and is`nt John Travolta a member of that church too...Its a religion called Scientology. It must cost plenty as Elvis Presleys daughter Priscilla joined it too. We don`t have enough money to join mostly rich people.....

Answer 11

It all depends on who you ask. If it is not your religion then it is a cult. Scientology followers will claim that it is a religion. Non followers will say differently. Then again if you go and ask an athiest then he will say that all religions are cults.