What does Scientology supposedly practice (or teach)?

Question

You always hear about celebrities practicing it. What is scientology?

Answer 1

Here's a pretty good description for you:

Scientology is an applied religious philosophy. When I say "applied" I mean you actually use it in your life to change or improve existing conditions. This is different from a religious practice. All religions if you learn about them have a basic philosphy, but they also have certain dogma, rituals and observances, and a certain faith or belief is required. There is nothing wrong with this, but Scientology is not that kind of religion. It does not intrude on anyones faiths of beliefs particularly in the area of God , the Supreme Being, or the Infinite. This area is left totally up to the indivdual, which is why you can be a practicing Jew,for example and still use and apply the priniciples of Scientology in your life. It does not conflict. If anything it will enhance your understanding of your chosen religious practice.
You can have no specific religious beliefs and still benefit from using it.
And it is only true for you according to your own observation and experience with it.
It is a non denominational religion . The dictionary definition that applies:
Religion: The spiritual or emotional attitude of one who recognises the existence of superhuman power or powers.

The most basic principle of Scientology is that YOU are your own immortal soul, that this is not a "thing" you HAVE but what YOU actually are.
The whole purpose of Scientology is to increase an individual's understanding and awareness of himself. And thereby his native abilities .
When you do this the sphere and zone of his positive influence increases and moves outward into his life, his family ,his friends, his groups and mankind which he is part of.

How this result is achieved is the "technology" of Scientology, which was developed by L.Ron Hubbard after his extensive research and the discoveries he made, about the human spirit. The basic religious philosophy and knowledge of Scientology is very old, going back 10,000 years at least to the Veda or Vedic Hymns from the East. The developement of the technology is new.
He completed his research before his death in 1986 and left all of his results and copyrights
to the Church of Scientology along with most of his considerable personal estate, when he died.

He published a book in 1951 to communicate the basic principles he discovered called: " Scientology The Fundementals of Thought"
There are currently over 8 million Scientologists in more that 150 countries world wide. However we are a new religion, only 53 years old.
The true story of Scientology as a religion goes like this:
1. A philosopher developes a philosophy about life and death.
2. People find it interesting.
3. People find it works.
4. People pass it along to others.
5. It grows.

The teachings are contained in the writings and recorded spoken words of L.Ron Hubbard. He laid out the theology and technologies in over 500,000 pages of writings, including dozens of books and over 2,000 tape-recorded public lectures.
It is therefore not possible to answer your question fully on this forum, but I hope this helps.

Answer 2

The book "Dianetics", by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology, proposed that we have memories that are Mental Blocks. Like someone calling us "stupid", will bring out one of these bad memories and we can't function properly. Get mad, or
go "braindead," and can't defend ourselves.
I think this is highly likely.
Scientology claims to be able to CLEAR one of these negative
memories. But I hear people fall in love with their therapists,
and then there's the old Bible saying. If the evil leaves a man,
and you don't put anything GOOD in its place, the evil returns
sevenfold. Like thinking Scientology is the ONE and ONLY
Whatever it has turned into today, is probably other peoples
interpretations of what the man originally taught. And a lot of playing on others for money and such things.
I like to think for myself.

Answer 3

First 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 isn't a faith system but a series of proceses that a person uses to find his own truth. Here are some of the principles.

1. What is true for you is what you your self observe to be true.

2. Man is his spirit not his mind or his body.

3. The spirit creates his own mind. Please do not confuse the mind with the brain that is a physical thing. The mind is composed of mental image pictures as explained in Dianetics. These pictures serve the spirit to give him knowlege and experiance. These pictures are composed of energy. The energy in the picture can affect the spirit. You can feel better by remembering something that you like or angry by remembering something else. These emotions are actually energy waves emanated by the picture. You can actually feel pain by remembering a pain memory. Sometimes this pictures are acompanied by ideas or considerations. Lets suposed that you father beat you mom up in front of you. Your father was the dominating figure so you might conclude that you have to act like your father in some situacions. This is what we call in Scientology an aberation (a conclusion that is impose to you by a mental picture). This picture is what we call a engram; A pain memory that affects your judgement and free will.

4. A spirit is capable of considerations and ideas and this ideas are solely based on uglyness and beautyfullness. The spirit reject ugly things and intends on making everything beautyfull. Do you like your car, you house, your job, your friends? Are you friends nice with you? Can you improve things in your life? All these are ideas based on uglyness and beautyfullness. This is why the spirits rejects the ugly memories and by rejecting the ugly memories (not confronting them) he is unknowingly affected by them.

5. You can discharge the energy in this pictures true communication. This is Auditing, the Auditor directs your attention to this pictures regardless of how ugly they are and you confront the picture and discharge the energy of the picture true the communication line. Is like if you have battery, in order to discharge the battery you need to discharged against something. If you try to discharge it against your self is just going to chock you.

Scientology is a very interesting religion that takes years of study to master. I just mentioned a few fundamentals. Scientology is so advance and so different that people can't understand it. People think that they know everything there is to know about life. And when they see Scientology they jump to conclusions when in reality they don't have a clue what are they talking about. The reality is that man attacks what he can't understand. That's why Scientology gets so much bad press.
http://www.chaplaincare.navy.mil/Scientology.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol.htm
http://www.beliefnet.com/sem/scientology-religion.asp?source=YAHSCT&campaign=096&medium=PPC&nopop=1&WT.mc_id=YAHSCT&WT.srch=1

Answer 4

This is what Scientologists ACTUALLY believe:

Xenu (no, Xenu is not a "fable" when it comes to Scientology, see link below showing that Hubbard himself wrote about 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" and also “engrams” (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind) so that we can become “clear”, we have to go through "auditing" with a member of the “church” who uses an "e-meter" to measure our “reactive mind”...... and we have to pay lots and lots and lots of money for “auditing” (purchased in 12.5-hour blocks, costing anywhere from $750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 and $9,000 for advanced sessions) and to take courses on Scientology to advance to higher “levels” in the “church”. The “church” has also taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry and psychiatric drugs irrespective of the fact that some people require medication to remain adequately functional in everyday life and has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (with deadly results).

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.

Cults are extremely 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 5

It's a religion created by L. Ron Hubbard in the '50s. Supposed to be about removing negative thoughts by auditing, or being asked a lot of questions. There's plenty of info in the net, most of it BAD!

Answer 6

Scientology is a dangerous cult. Spend some time reading: http://www.xenu.net/ .

Answer 7

Its a bogas take on one part of the Vedic literature. I would avoid it altogether. Any spiritual organization who asks for a lot of money in exchange for spiritual knowledge are cheaters. Spiritual knowledge is free except to buy the books. But to get a mantra and have to pay is cheating religion. My cousins where into it after thousands and thousands of dollars later they got out of it.

Answer 8

Its hard to find any information on scientology and their beliefs. Unless you are one or know one it is nearly impossible to know the truth. I just know they do not believe in psychology and think exercise is the key to happiness.

Answer 9

Why supposedly, it teaches what it teaches. It is as much a cult as any religion with its own combination of homilies and weirdness.

Answer 10

Well --Knowing the fullest sence of the word.

My question is who's word ?

Try believing in yourself!

Put your ambitions toward yourself! not others!!!!!