What's "Scientology" (made famous by Tom Cruise)and whom they worship to?? Science?

Answer 1

It is a CULT. Despite what a few fanatical members may say, it IS a cult. The church harrasses and bullies anyone who they deem an "enemy" (basically anyone who has anything negative to say about the "church"). They will RUIN YOUR LIFE if you speak out against them long enough.

The founder is L. Ron Hubbard, the science FICTION writer who once told a friend that the best way to make lots of money is to start your own religion. Though being a very outspoken critic of psychiatric drugs, it was discovered upon Hubbards death that the anti-anxiety drug hydroxyzine (Vistaril) was present in his body, which several of his assistants would later attest was only one of many psychiatric and pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years.

Scientologists believe the evil alien ruler Xenu killed a lot of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by bringing them to earth and blowing them up inside volcanoes. They believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") have attached themselves to us and cause many of our mental and physical ills. Even members of the Church of Scientology who know of Xenu will publicly deny the existence of Xenu and Body Thetans, or attempt to minimize their importance. Scientology has many graduated levels through which one can progress. Many who remain at lower levels in the church are unaware of much of the these doctrines, which mostly begin at Operating Thetan level three, or "OT III". Because the information imparted to members is to be kept secret from others who have not attained that level, the member must publicly deny its existence when asked. OT III recipients must sign a waiver promising never to reveal its secrets before they are given the manila envelope containing the Xenu knowledge.

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. They deny the reality of chemical imbalance and profound mental disturbance and accordingly do NOTHING to effectively stabilize the dangerously unstable. The “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (with deadly results).

Scientology is undeniably a cult. For more information on what a cult is and what their damaging effects are, please visit the link provided at the bottom of the sources. Just know that Scientology DOES qualify by meeting these 5 criteria:

(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.

Answer 2

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 10 million Scientologists in more than 163 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.

This is just an overview.
L. Ron Hubbard explained fully the theology and technologies of Scientology in more than 500,000 pages of writings, including dozens of books and over 2,000 tape-recorded public lectures. So it's not possible to fully answer your question on this forum.
But I hope this helps.

By the way, I have been a Scientologist for longer than Tom Cruise and nobody worships me...... or Tom Cruise .... or anyone for that matter. It's just that Scientology doesn't involve worship.

Answer 3

Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques developed by American author L. Ron Hubbard over some thirty years beginning in 1952 as a self-help philosophy, an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. It claims to offer an exact methodology to help humans achieve awareness of their spiritual existence across many lifetimes and, simultaneously, to become more effective in the physical world. The name "Scientology" is also used to refer to the often controversial Church of Scientology, the largest organization promoting the practice of Scientology, which is itself part of a network of affiliated corporations that claim ownership and sole authority to disseminate Dianetics and Scientology.

A stated goal of Scientology is to "rehabilitate" the thetan (roughly equivalent to the soul) to regain its native state of "total freedom." Church spokesmen and practitioners attest that Hubbard's teachings (called "Technology" or "Tech" in Scientology terminology) have saved them from a plethora of problems and enabled them to better realize their highest potential in business and their personal lives.[1][2] However, outside observers—including journalists, lawmakers, and national governing bodies of several countries—have reached conclusions about Scientology that are sharply at odds with the Church's self-representations. These include allegations that the church is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members.[3][4]

Although some scholars and many world governments [5] accept Scientology as a bona fide religion,[6][7] it has also been characterized as a pseudoreligion, a cult[8] or a transnational corporation.[7]

///

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
What - Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques developed by American author L. Ron Hubbard over some thirty years beginning in 1952 as a self-help philosophy, an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. It claims to offer an exact methodology to help humans achieve awareness of their spiritual existence across many lifetimes and, simultaneously, to become more effective in the physical world. The name "Scientology" is also used to refer to the often controversial Church of Scientology, the largest organization promoting the practice of Scientology, which is itself part of a network of affiliated corporations that claim ownership and sole authority to disseminate Dianetics and Scientology.

Worship - Among these advanced teachings, one episode revealed to those who reach OT level III has been much remarked upon: the story of Xenu and his Galactic Confederacy. Xenu (sometimes Xemu) is introduced as an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft 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. Hubbard called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and the advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating them and neutralizing their ill effects.[17]

Answer 5

Let me be the first here to say that Scientology has absolutely NOTHING to do with science. It is not scientific any any way, shape, or form. Period.

Answer 6

scientologists believe that they can cure themselves. and they can by shooting themselves in the head and drowning tom cruise so we can all stop hearing his whining, in order to promote his next lame movie.

Answer 7

Apparently...space aliens.

Answer 8

There are 10 million of Scientologist in the planet living happy and fruitfull lives.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/10/24/2003333176
Last years Scientology opened 1,300 missions including missions in Nepal, India and Japan. http://www.scientology.org/html/opencms/cos/scientology/en_US/news-media/briefing/2005/vm/seindia/050406.html
http://www.scientology.org/html/opencms/cos/scientology/en_US/world/news/missionary/pg000.html
Over 40 academic schoolars have found that Scientology is a bonafide religion.
http://www.neuereligion.de/ENG/index.html
Scientology is composed of 58 organized and self evident Axioms.
http://www.bonafidescientology.org/Append/01/page09.htm
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.

6. Unethical behavior and wrong doings are the #1 reason a spirit diminishes it power. In order to stop your self from hurting others, you hinder your own abilities and force. The rehabilition of your own abilities and force is dependent on you taking full resposability for your actions.

7. You are fully resposible for your condition. Blaming others for your condition will never solve that condition. It doesn't matter what that condition is, blamming other will never help. Only by fully taking ownership of you condition can you solve that contidition.

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

Zero Cool is a self proclaim Atheist that searches Yahoo awnsers in order to bash God or Religion in any way possible, just look at her awnser's: "No, I don't believe in the power of prayer. Prayer does nothing but allow the praying person to feel like they're doing something supernatural about their problem".
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnEHOS.N3ngJHqHpVQ7sOFXsy6IX?qid=20061013101308AAiH013
This is another of her awnsers: "Jesus DOESN'T exist."
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al2XkpL1T3m2SkZ17VyLAG3sy6IX?qid=20061031092325AA7aMW5
Now about Zero Cool anti-Scientology propaganda I have this to say:

1. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but Scientologist don't believe in Aliens. The story of Xenu is just a fable like the story Jonah in the Whale in the bible. Fables are not intended to be taken seriosly. The story of Xeno doesn't have any significance on Scientology beliefs. It is up to each Scientologist to identify what is true for him.

2.What the heck is a "Body Thetan"?. A thetan is the Scientology term for the human spirit, there is no such thing as body thetans. I have been in Scientology for over 10 years and I have never heard the term "Body Thetan". I challenge anyone to produce a LRH lecture or document that mentions the term "Body Thetan".

3. "The reality of chemical imbalance"? What reality of chemical imbalance? Blood test, cat scans, x-rays or any medical test can't determine if a person is crazy. Depression is a state of mind, not a disease. Psychiatrists deny the God, the soul and believe that self awareness, love and faith is merely cellular activity. Many experts agree that Psychiatry is solely based on opinion and long term use of Psychiatric drugs are highly harmfull not to mention many side effects including addiction. Anti-drepresants should only be used in emergencies as a short term solution to calm your nerves during a highly stressfull situacion like a family death. Please don't confuse Psychiatry with Psychology. Psychology is a practice to help people true communication. Scientologist don't have anything against Psychology only Psychiatry.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=Psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8443414209115892468&q=scientology&hl=en

http://www.canucklinks.com/psychiatricabuse.htm
http://www.sntp.net/main.htm
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/survivors.htm
4. What coersive to recruit methods? Scientology has in your face solutions for in your face problems. This seems very strait foward to me.

5. We label everyone who disagrees or questions Scientology a Supresive? That's not true, we only label those that try to harm or attack Scientology or Scientologist. If someone tries to harm you or your family, you would say that they are bad.

6. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma? So was Jesus Christ, Bhuda and Mahomma what's your point?

7. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds & recruit people? Scientologist are very Ethical people and base their conduct on a code of conduct.
http://twth.org/eb/?id=16664j

8. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society? Scientologist are highly involved in their comunities and run many comunity help programs.
Do you know that the campain "Say no to drugs and yes to life" was started by scientologists?
http://www.notodrugs-yestolife.org/index.htm
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/11/emw468494.htm
Do you know that Scientologist fight for Human Rights?
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org
Do you know that Scientologist run the biggest criminal rehabilitation organisation there is?
http://www.criminon.org/
Do you know run the most sucessful drug rehab program there is, with a 75% long term sucess rate.
http://www.narconon.org/narconon_results.htm
Do you know that Scientologist provide for free a very basic, easy to understand and to apply "moral code".
http://twth.org/eb/?id=16664j
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/30/Tampabay/Spiritual_symbiosis__.shtml

9. "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."

Anwser: Scientologist are some of the more inteligent, able and sucessfull people in this planet. Including Jenna Elfman, Kelly Preston, John Travolta, Priscilla Presley, Sofia Milos and Leah Remini. Even Danny Masterson from the that's That '70s Show is a Scientologist and he is freaking funny. Also Bryan Zwan CEO of Digital Lightwave and Craig Jensen CEO of Executive Software International are scientologist too.

10. Those sites that she mentions are no more credible than the sites that say that 9/11 was a plot from the goverment and that the hollocaust never happened.

For example the site"http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/" alleges that Lisa McPherson died of neglect when in fact it was determined by several forensic examiners that "Lisa McPherson, died suddenly and unpredictably of a blood clot in her left lung that originated from a knee bruise she suffered in a minor auto accident 17 days earlier." The forensic examiner that originaly said that Lisa died of dehidration and bed rest (Dr Joan Woods) admited that she didn't perfom the autopsy and afther examining the facts she changed the cause of death of Lisa to be natural.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/57230113.html?dids=57230113:57230113&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+13%2C+2000&author=CRAIG+PITTMAN&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.A&desc=McPherson+case+expected+to+haunt+medical+examiner+Series%3A+STATE+DROPS+CHARGES+AGAINST+SCIENTOLOGY

Also that site alleges that Lisa McPherson was held against her will when in fact Lisa was taken to the Scientology resort by her own request. In Judge Quesada's own words "Based on the undisputed facts of this case, plaintiff has not made and cannot make a showing that Lisa McPherson was unlawfully restrained 'against her will' by the defendants. In fact, all of the evidence indicates the opposite. Lisa McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital; she expressly stated her desire to receive the religious care and assistance from her fellow congregants"
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/74470672.html?dids=74470672:74470672&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+22%2C+2001&author=ROBERT+FARLEY&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=3.B&desc=Church+scores+round+in+death+suit
I can challenge the information in those sites and "PROVE" that the information in those sites are not only false but absurd.
The reason that Scientology is here and growing despite the press is simple: "Because it works".