What are "tools" in the Scientology religious philosophy?

Question

I have heard a few celebrities speak of what their life was like prior to learning the "tools" of Scientology and then what their life was like after. Basically, after learning them, seemingly, they could walk on water. JJ! I understand that "the tools" are individualized for each person, but since I'm already skeptical, I feel like it is a bunch of hooey! Can anyone talk about these "tools" in detail and how long does it take to learn them? Is Scientology as expensive as some people say?

Answer 1

Well you should be skeptical, since personal observation and experience is the only real source of certainty about anything.
But you do have a few misconceptions.
Firstly what you learn or discover in Scientology are really just fundemental principles of life. The "tools" are just a practical application of these priciples to life situations and conditions inorder to resolve or solve the various "problems" or barriers
in life. They are definitely not individualized for each person because they are universal.
As for walking on water.... not sure what purpose that would serve unless you wanted to freak out the neighbors!

I could talk about these tools in detail but they can be easily acquired by simply reading a basic book (Average price about $10 - $15 ) If cash is a barrier, most libraries have copies.

For example there's a chapter in the basic book "A New Slant on Life" called ,You Can be Right, which gives you an exact tool to use that can defuse any argument or disagreement and really smooths out human relationships.
I use it all the time , along with many basic concepts, and I've studied Scientology for over 35 years and have completed many "Levels".
The key to any of these tools is that when you understand the principle of life it addresses and use it or apply it
you get a standard result. That's what is meant by the phrase you may have heard... Scientology works.

Answer 2

That would be something called "Dianetics"... and you're right, it's a bunch of hooey. It may work for some people. I admit that right now. It may prove to be an effective "life tool"... but joining the cult makes the cost of attaining such tools and learning to employ them far too great.

Oh, and yes, the financial costs are astronomical. Here is a run-down of all the costs involved with Scientology membership: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#Costs
Visit this link to see how $380,000 is a conservative estimate for the total cost of moving all the way up the Scientology hierarchal ladder: http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html

Answer 3

What Bali Lu said above is true, but it is as you say "a bunch of hooey!"

It is extremely expensive! I was in that stupid cult for 3 years a long time ago and the basic communication course was $500 then and it's probably gone up since then. It ranges from that up to thousands of dollars for each course level along with "auditing."(counseling) It depends on the person on how long it takes to "get up the ladder." It may take several years and a lot of your money to get where they want you to go.

I wouldn't take what they say with a grain of salt, because they are dangerous. Brainwashing is a part of their plan and I can say that truthfully since I've been there.

I see RED every time I see or hear the word Scientology. It leeches so much life out of you and all your money of course. Please be wary of them!

Answer 4

"Simple tools one can use immediately to help such things as improving relationships, getting your career on track, working out and accomplishing goals, helping family and children, handling drug dependency, and gaining greater self-esteem. These and other vital Know-How are covered in the Scientology Handbook"

http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/

I bet the basics are all there! ;-)

Answer 5

THE TOOLS
1) The Tone Scale:
Emotional Scale used to understad behavior. People go up and down through this scale.
4.0 EXHILARATION
3.5 STRONG INTEREST
3.0 CONSERVATISM
2.5 BOREDOM
1.5 ANGER
1.0 FEAR
0.5 GRIEF
0.2 APATHY
0.0 DEATH

2) AFFINITY, REALITY AND COMMUNICATION = UNDERSTANDING
Used to reach agreements and undrstanding.
"Another tool of considerable importance in Scientology, and one that greatly assists interpersonal relationships, is the principle of affinity, reality and communication. These three interdependent factors may be expressed in a triangle. The first corner of the triangle is affinity, which is the degree of liking or affection or lack of it. It is the feeling of love or liking for something or someone."

For more tools check
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/description/scientology/index.html

THIS IS SCIENTOLOGY
Scientology is a path to find your own personal truth. These are the principles:

1. What is true for you is what you yourself observe to be true. (Because of this rule you can believe in anything you want: Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad or Dharma. Your own believes are your own business. It is a high crime in Scientology for anyone to tell you what to think or believe. You are expected to question anything in Scientology.)

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 Psychiatric abuses, http://www.cchr.org/ dangerous and harmful drugs, 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 help others. 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 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