What exactly is Scientology?

Question

someone told me but i still do not have a clue....thanks

Answer 1

It is a CULT. Despite what a few fanatical members may say, it IS a cult. The “church” harasses & 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. However, the truth deserves to be told, so here is the REAL truth:

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 & pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years. (visit this link to read about the uses of hydoxyzine: http://www.drugs.com/mtm/v/vistaril.html )

Scientologists believe the evil alien ruler Xenu killed a lot of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by bringing them to earth & blowing them up inside volcanoes. They believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") have attached themselves to us & cause many of our mental & physical ills. Members who know about Xenu will attempt to deny it or pretend like it doesn’t matter. They are required to sign a contract binding them to silence on the matter. Lower level members don’t know about Xenu & accordingly deny everything because they honestly don’t know.

To rid ourselves of "Body Thetans" & 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”...... & we have to pay lots & lots of money for “auditing” (purchased in 12.5-hour blocks, costing anywhere from $750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions) & to take courses on Scientology to advance to higher “levels” in the “church”. The “church” has also taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry & 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 & profound mental disturbance & 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 & 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 & retain its members. (2) It forms an elitist totalitarian society. (3) Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable & 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

Back in the '70s when I was a dumb college kid I was approached by somebody from Scientology and talked into taking something called a Communication Course. It was supposed to make my relationships better etc etc. I paid the $50 and bought Hubbard's book. The Comm course was one of the weirdest things I ever saw. People were divided up into pairs and I was seated opposite my partner and we were told to look at each other and not talk. For hours I stared into that other guys eyes and remained silent. I didn't understand how this would improve communication but none of the staff people were allowed to answer questions. If asked a question they would read verbatim from Hubbard's book but they could not answer anything in their own words. Well, Hubbard's book is a confused muddle so that didn't teach me anything.

I was repeatedly called into a little office where I was pressured to sign up for more advanced, and way expen$ive, courses and something called auditing. Of course they wouldn't show or tell me what auditing is except that to read verbatim from Hubbard's book which tells you nothing. I also remember that all the Scientology staff were chain smokers -- you could smoke indoors in those days. I soon got the idea that Scientology had nothing I needed and was an obvious money grab so I quit.

Answer 3

I attempted it. I took the primary 2 trainings. Better speaking, and greater finding out. I didnt get into the extra highly-priced ones on clearing medications or escaping peer strain because (A) they have been extra highly-priced and (B) I didnt think I wanted them. The direction charges have been not up to tuition publications and I felt they have been a lot more valuable. I had no drawback leaving (I had extra drawback leaving the baptists and so they desired extra of my cash than the Scientologists did) :) I did study a few ache dealing with procedures while I was once there. They exhibit them to any person who bangs their knee or will get a headache. Works good. I nonetheless use them with myself and my children. Everybody I noticed there appeared very open and completely happy. But of direction thats sufficient to scare a few folks.

Answer 4

Zero-Cool hit this answer on the head! I was a staff member in the San Francisco Org.! What he said is true about them. I left after 4 months when I realized it was not a church but was a sham standing behind the veil of being a church. I have since been black listed by them. I will have nothing to do with them. They say their e-meter can not be fooled. That's BS I fooled it more than once. Spirit over mind and body does work!
Larry T

Answer 5

Scientology though intended to be 'the study of the truth' by its founder proponent L. Ron Hubbard, yet it is nothing more than a cult around Hubbard who started his career as a fiction writer on science subjects. He entered into a bet with his friend to earn much more as a pioneer of a new religion. Since he had no spiritual merit, he borrowed certain ideas from ancient Hindu philosophy and tried to sell those in a distorted form as a new religion to attain salvation. Some groups and followers were managed to be formed in 1950s but they became so rigid that it became a cult with vindictive schemes to revenge against those who went against their avowed objective. They earned lot of money from those who could be trapped as believers.

Answer 6

Don't listen to the answer above by "Zero Cool." He is an anti-religious extremist just trying to create religious hatred. He hates God, Scientology and any other forms of religious belief. What he says is filled with misleading information which could easily be shown as such. Before listening to him, listen to Scientologists and what they have to say for themselves. Not others' knowledge-less opinions. Listen to the successes Scientologists have had.

Scientology is an applied religious philosophy. It is all about helping people in life and helping people achieve a higher level of spiritual freedom. Scientology provides many tools which can be applied to all aspects of life.

The word Scientology literally means "the study of truth." It comes from the Latin word "scio" meaning "knowing in the fullest sense of the word" and the Greek word "logos" meaning "study of."

Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths.

You can find out more here:
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/presentation/pg006.html

The parts of man are Body-Mind-Spirit. By addressing the spirit, you increase your potentialities as a being and gain a greater level of spiritual freedom.
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/presentation/pg008.html

Answer 7

It is a cult started by a science-fiction writer which has threatened the orthodox Christians and obsessed Americans.

Answer 8

A religion that says it's mind over matter but give us your money anyways to help you get to heaven, I saw the South Park version was pretty enlighting ? see it if you can. I use to see them all the time at computer shows, they obiously looking for the nerd types.
They asked me to hold a volt meter and think good thoughts and then think bad thoughts to see how meter changes wow. Positive and negitive vibs, with this religion they will teach you to think Good thoughts to heal yourself both physically and spiritually

Answer 9

THIS IS SCIENTOLOGY

1. What is true for you is what you yourself 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 knowledge and experience. 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 these pictures are accompanied by ideas or considerations. Lets suppose 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 situations. This is what we call on Scientology an aberration (a conclusion that is imposed to you by a mental picture). This picture is what we call a engram (a pain memory that affects your judgment and free will).

4. You can discharge the energy in these pictures through communication. This is Dianetics Auditing and is the oldest of hundreds of Scientology techniques used to improve the individual.

5. The Spirit creates his own emotions. Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you depress? Maybe you think that something external of you is creating your emotions. Maybe you believe that you are sad because you had a bad day or maybe you believe that you are happy because you had a great day. And this might be true. But who made the decision that you had a good or bad day? You did. You decided if life was good or bad, and adjusted your emotions to respond to your own consideration. You created your own emotion.
Some people are born with everything they want and are still unhappy. And others are born into humble means and are happy. What's the difference? The only real difference is each person's ideas and considerations.
Scientology uses hundreds of processes in order to help a person get a better understanding and a better outlook in life by using his own observations.

6. Scientology Ethics. Ethical people take full responsibility for their actions. Un-ethical people blame others for their actions. "Wrong doings" diminish and deteriorate the freedom of the spirit because the need to justify the "wrong doing". So the spirit is enslaved into repeating the "wrong doing" in order to justify the original "wrong doing". The road to freedom lies within taking full responsibility for your personal condition and actions, past, present and future. Scientology provides the tools to help the person able to be fully responsible over his life thus rehabilitating his ability to be good and self determined.
Also Scientologist base their conduct on a non-denominational code of conduct. http://twth.org/eb/?id=16664j

7. Scientology and God. Scientology acknowledges the supreme being and promotes the individual search for closeness to God trough religion.

8. Scientology vs Psychiatry. Psychiatry believes that self awareness, feelings, love and faith is merely cellular activity. Basically they think that you are your brain and you are not in charge of your behavior but your cells are.This is a totally materialistic point of view that denies the spirit and God. Psychiatrist is a pseudo science because it is based in principles that are false. Psychiatry have never proven that any "mental illnesses" (like they call it) has any connection with a physical illness. Any Neurologist will tell you there are no medical test to identify a "mental illness". All Psychiatrists base their diagnosis on opinion and opinion alone.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=Psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8443414209115892468&q=scientology&hl=en
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?p=cchr&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&b=1&oid=12085d1e6c58d04e&rurl=video.yahoo.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fvideo%3Fp%3Dcchr%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8
Happiness, exhilaration, depression and psychosis are states of mind, not diseases. All what you have to do to stop being depress is change your state of mind. How you do that? By changing your ideas and considerations. Scientology provides the tools to achieve a better state of mind in accordance with your own point of view.
Also Psychiatrist excuse the most horrendous crimes as mental illnesses. This is actually creates a sense of irresponsibility in society because it tells people that they are not responsible for their actions. Second they promote that drugs are the answer for your problems. This message promotes the use of drugs to find release from life and creates the current drug addiction problem in society. Drugs will only give you temporary false release but will never solve the source of your problems.And actually drugs will keep you away from finding a true spiritual release.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4437051883726295326&q=psychiatry&hl=en
Note: Scientology doesn't have anything against Psychology or Neurology. Also the mere awareness that you are a spiritual being and not a body makes you better person.

9. Scientology is a force for good in society. Scientologist fights Psychiatry, http://www.cchr.org/ the drug companies, criminality, http://www.criminon.org and drug addiction. http://www.narconon.org Also Scientology fought and won against the FDA and the IRS. And Scientologist initiated the social reform group "Youth for Human Rights" http://www.youthforhumanrights.org and the movement "Say no to drugs and yes to life". http://www.notodrugs-yestolife.org
Scientologist are some of the more intelligent, able and successful 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.

10. Scientology is the only church that doesn't ask for donations from their parishioners during their Sunday Services. All chapel services are 100% free (marriages, naming ceremonies, ect). Scientology earns it's money by delivering courses and auditing. Courses and auditing are optional. You do not need to take courses and auditing to be in Scientology. All you need to do to be a Scientologist is to read the books and apply Scientology to your life (like I do). But if you want auditing there are many alternative and economical ways to achieve this.
a. You can do volunteer work in your local church and get your services for free.
b. You can study to be an auditor and perform all your auditing with a fellow student. This way you can also provide free services to your friends and family. This is actually the preferred way to become clear because you learn how to helps other. Scientology isn't about you going clear but taking responsibility across all your dynamics (self, family, group, humanity, life, ect).

11. Scientology and aliens. The story of Xenu is just a fable like the story of "Jonah in the Whale" in the bible. Fables are not intended to be taken seriously. The story of Xenu doesn't have any significance on Scientology beliefs.

12. Anti-Scientology propaganda is just that, propaganda. If you wanna know about this propaganda machine see my blog: http://www.myspace.com/129727315

References
http://www.neuereligion.de/ENG/index.html
http://www.bonafidescientology.org/
http://www.chaplaincare.navy.mil/Scientology.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol.htm
http://www.scientology.org/
http://www.beliefnet.com/sem/scientology-religion.asp?source=YAHSCT&campaign=096&medium=PPC&nopop=1&WT.mc_id=YAHSCT&WT.srch=1

Answer 10

A clever scam designed to get all your money and more. (You will be enticed to get credit in order to donate more than you have).