Scientology...?

Question

What exactly is it? What is the belief system?

Answer 1

This is what Scientologists ACTUALLY believe:

Xenu was an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecrafts resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. The alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans. L. Ron Hubbard (a science-fiction writer and the creator of Scientology) called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and the advanced levels in Scientology place considerable emphasis on isolating them and neutralizing their ill effects.

To rid ourselves of "Body Thetans", we have to go through "auditing" with a member of the “church” who uses an "e-meter" to measure our “reactive mind” in order to clear our mind of “engrams” (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind)...... and we have to pay lots and lots and lots of money to take courses on Scientology to advance to higher “levels” in the “church”.

Scientology is undeniably a cult.

Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:

1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds & recruit people.
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.

Are Cults Harmful?

To remain within the strict mental and social confines of a cult for even a short time can have the following disastrous effects:

Loss of choice and free will. Diminished intellectual ability, vocabulary and sense of humor. Reduced use of irony, abstractions and metaphors. Reduced capacity to form flexible and intimate relationships. Poor judgment. Physical deterioration. Malnutrition. Hallucinations, panic, dissociation, guilt, identity diffusion and paranoia. Neurotic, psychotic or suicidal tendencies.

Answer 2

Scientology is based on the theory that there are these clumps to spirits called "Thetans" that live in your body and accumulate bad experiences that happen to you. After that, these thetans cause you problems in dealing with new experiences.

All in all, not that completely wacky, right?

When you start in Scientology, they don't tell you about the thetans, but they start off with the general principles, and try to get you to "clear" by "auditing" ... that is, reliving bad/shameful experiences over and over and over with a mentor until they've lost the power to influence you.

Again, not totally off the wall. Then they bring in the thetan thing, and show how it "works" by using a pizoelectric device called an "e-Meter" which just measures electrical resistance in the skin. But the needle moves up and down as your skin moisture changes minutely and such, and it looks impressive.

After many months or years of you telling them about everything bad you've ever done, they start revealing more and more... in classes. Expensive classes. That you can pay for, or recruit more people for. People, say friends or family, who resist it, are labelled "Potential Trouble Sources," or if strongly enough, "Suppressive People." If they don't believe in Scientology, they're bad for you.

But you have all these new friends. And have dedicated a lot of energy, money, and/or time to the church.

Eventually, you move up into the higher eschelons. Then, things get weird.

According to court documents, near the top level of Scientology, you're taken out to a remote location, and during periods of isolation and indoctrination, given "the truth."

Billions of years ago, a galactic overlord named Xenu needed to control overpopulation. So he gathered up all his enemies and froze them. Then they were packed into spaceships that look exactly like gold DC-8s. The frozen aliens were then put in volcanoes in Hawaii and other places on Earth, where they were hit with nuclear bombs. Then, the spaceships vacuumed up all the dead alien souls and took them to a movie theater, forcing them to watch violent and confusing movies until they forgot who they were. These souls wandered off, clumped together, and landed in people. And these are thetans.

Now, imagine I gave you THAT sentence first. It sounds like bad science fiction. The guy who "discovered it" was... a pulp science fiction writer. Knowing that, you'd never have gotten down this far. Why do you think Scientology hides this part of their religion until you've committed your life to it and withdrawn from friends and family who aren't a part of the organization? And that they tell people that knowing this stuff too soon would literally drive them insane?

If you're interested, there's a lot of information out there on how they use all those bad things you told them about yourself while you were getting "clear" if and when you decide to try to leave the church.

And how they deal with critics.

Answer 3

The belief system was created by the penny-per-word Science Fiction author L. Ron Hubbard because he thought that owning a church would make him wealthy. (It did!)

Scientology is a 'Mystery Cult' because it requires you to 'donate' hundreds of thousands of dollars or thousands of hours of your time before their core tenets are revealed. However, ex-cult members have published this information.

The best information about the Cult of Scientology can be found at a website called, "Operation Clambake" (http://xenu.net/)

If you were to read just one thing about them, I would suggest the 1991 Time magazine article called, "The Cult of Greed and Power" at: http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/time910605.html

Time magazine was sued by Scientology for libel due to this article, and won the lawsuit. Then they won the appeal. Legally, there is no libel in this article, only truth.

Scientology is a very scary and greedy cult that 'dead agents' people for saying bad things about them.

Dead agenting means that they hunt you down, use Private Investigators to investigate your life, reveal all your secrets publicly to your friends, neighbors, employer and family (and make up 'secrets' too) and then sue you multiple times until you go broke and beg for peace.

John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Kristy Alley are members.

Answer 4

What are the Scientology beliefs?

Scientology teaches that man is an immortal, spiritual being composed of three parts: the first of these is the spirit, or thetan, (from the Greek letter theta, meaning “thought” or “spirit”), the mind, and the body. The body is not the person, and the most important of these three parts is the thetan.

The official Scientology website also states “In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything as belief or on faith. That which is true for you is what you have observed to be true. An individual discovers for himself that Scientology works by personally applying its principles and observing or experiencing results.”1

Scientologists believe that the basic command in life is to survive, and this command is broken into eight dynamics, meaning urges or impulses. All activities can be understood and harmonized with each other to increase survival. The dynamics are Infinity (God or Creator), Spiritual, Physical Universe, Life Forms, Mankind, Group Survival, Family, and Self.

“Through Scientology, a person realizes that his life and influence extend far beyond himself. By understanding each of these dynamics and their relationship, one to the other, he is able to do so, and thus increase survival on all of these dynamics.”2

A principle of great importance in Scientology is the Arc Triangle. Affinity, reality, and communication form an interdependent triangle that adds up to understanding and assists relationships. A Tone Scale in which things are given a number, or a “tone,” and as a person’s knowledge of the Tone Scale increases, so does his happiness, well-being, self-esteem, and other desirable qualities.

Scientology beliefs – Drugs, Reincarnation, Peace
Scientologists believe that all drugs are poisons that inhibit spiritual freedom. L. Ron Hubbard found that drugs and chemical residues are stored in the tissues of the body, and as long as they remain in the body a person’s abilities can remain suppressed. To dislodge the toxins, a person participates in a Purification Rundown which involves sweating in a sauna, mega-vitamin and mineral dosages, extra oil, good nutrition, and adequate rest.

Scientologists also believe in reincarnation and the “truths” that can be learned through past lives. These experiences can affect the thetan positively or negatively. The main way the principles of Scientology can be applied is through “auditing” where the auditor helps a person examine certain areas of their life and get rid of any unwanted influences to heighten ability and awareness. A device called an E-Meter is also used in this process. It measures a person’s mental state and it helps the auditor locate areas of distress.

The aims of Scientology are “A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights…

Answer 5

L. Ron Hubbard is the founder.

He believed that 95 million years ago, aliens dropped in and created human beings. They are taught that the thetans (a word made up by Hubbard as he was explaining it to his wife) make up the human body.

There are different levels of OT (Operating Thetans). The beginning steps is to begin seeing one of their counselors. Where you tell them all things (everything you've ever done). ((I think it's so they can use it against you at another time)). Then you can continue your growth in their "religion." The highest level is level 8 and only achieved after taking classes.

I had to stop reading about it, I was laughing too hard, tears rolling down my cheeks.

I don't mean to be disrespectful...I just found it very humorous.

Answer 6

I want to clarify that the story of Xeno is just a fable and no scientologist believe it to be true. In fact most scientologist I have meet haven't even heard the story. Scientology is much like Buddhism but instead of meditation the use auding with the same goal and better results.

Answer 7

Honestly it's a cult based on a writer . When he died people figured why not save millions of dollars and be tax exempt by calling ourselves a church!! they believe in a bunch of science fiction pshyco babble!! They say they believe that all religons are correct. Which if you really know about religon is incorrect

Answer 8

try www.xenu.net or wikipedia. It's all about aliens, volcanoes atom bombs and shite like that. The South Park episode is 100% accurate!