Scientology, which questionably calls itself a new "religion", is the brainchild of science fiction writer & occult enthusiast L. Ron Hubbard. The organization claims to be able to help rid members of any & all mental constraints including but not limited to emotional scarring (from this & "past" lives) due to "engrams" (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind), psychological disorders & chemical imbalances (the solution is to convince members that these things don't actually exist) & drug dependence (including legally prescribed psychopharmaceuticals which counteract the effects of psychological disorders Scientologists believe to be nonexistent).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics#Scientific_evaluations
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812852,00.html
The official Scientology organization is composed of a number of “levels”. One begins as a “preclear” & works their way up. One must purchase virtually every service crucial to advancement directly from the "church" & at staggering prices. "Auditing", for example, is purchased in 12½ hour blocks, costing anywhere from $750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions. 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
These are the total costs for auditing alone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#Costs
Here’s an explanation of what “auditing” is: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061224182319AA2nnd6
At level OT III (Operating Thetan 3), some very strange & fiercely guarded secrets are imparted upon worthy members who have paid enough money to advance to such a level (and no, this isn't a joke): the evil alien ruler Xenu killed a lot of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by kidnapping them, bringing them to earth in golden DC-8 “space-planes” & blowing them up inside volcanoes with hydrogen bombs. Scientologists believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") were captured, brainwashed & released; they then attached themselves to our ancestors (who passed them all the way down to us) & cause many of our mental & physical ills to this day. Auditing is said to “clear” us of these Body Thetans as well as the “mental implants” they supposedly impose on our minds. http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/spaink-ot3.html http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/Xenu-Letter.pdf
Scientology has 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. The “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (with deadly results). Suspiciously, it was discovered upon Hubbard’s 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. http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/16.gif
(visit this link to read about the uses of hydroxyzine: http://www.drugs.com/mtm/v/vistaril.html )
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/index_np.html?pn=1
To be blunt, Scientology is a cult. It employs semi-legitimate psychotherapy & self-help methods to keep people loyal & convinced of its merit while it simultaneously sucks them dry financially & attempts to keep them far away from ANYONE, even friends & family, who would dissuade them from remaining in such a harmful situation. It’s a particularly greedy as well as manipulative & dangerous cult that takes its anti-psychiatry fanaticism to deadly limits. See this link for more information: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/
2007-03-13 09:17:22
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answer #1
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answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7
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Well here's a factual description for you, but if you want to understand it you are going to have to get off the internet and actaully read a basic book on the subject by the author, that was written for that purpose and with that intention. (Same for any subject really)
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. It is a very practical religion.
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 in the area of God , the Supreme Being, or the Infinite. This area is left totally up to the indivdual as pasrt of his life. It does not conflict.
You can have no specific religious beliefs and still benefit from it.
And it is only true for you according to your own observation and experience with it.
It is also not a messianic religion. This means there is no worship of messiahs in Scientology. There are no “beliefs” as such because a truth should be according to ones own observation and experience.
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 lifeAnd 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. L. Ron Hubbard researched and made new discoveries about the human spirit. He developed technology from these discoveries to apply to increase spiritual awareness and ability.
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 give you some idea.
2007-03-13 17:22:47
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answer #2
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answered by thetaalways 6
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Simply put, Scientology teaches that YOU are the center of YOUR universe. (Isn't it easy to see how that appeals to celebrities? Well, actually, it appeals to everyone!)
I don't even know where to begin, it's so messed up. But check out the link I've linked to below. There's some great information out there about Scientology, what Scientologists believe, and why it's a crock of $#!t.
2007-03-13 09:19:43
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answer #3
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answered by Scotty Doesnt Know 7
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Scientology. Scio-knowledge + ology-study of.
I am a Scientologist. I see Scientology as tools and techniques to improve myself and handle my environment.
Some people use insults to protect themselves, some people will lie and attack, others pretend there is nothing wrong and there are even people who actively keep others in a lowered condition.
Through the study of Scientology I have been able to help myself and others improve their existence.
When I see a problem I want to give that person tools to solve it! I don't want to solve everybodys problems, I want them to be able to sort it out themselves.
Scientology is not about believing it is about experiencing and knowing life.
2007-03-13 15:16:18
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answer #4
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answered by michaeljripley 3
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Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard because he made a bar-bet with Robert Heinlein that he could make a fortune selling fake religion, just like the christians do.
Hubbard wrote great satire and humor and had no regard for the gullible.
2007-03-13 09:18:12
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answer #5
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answered by kappalokka 3
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Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques developed by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. It began in 1952 as a self-help philosophy, an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics, and was later described as a new religion. It is said 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 organizations 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."
2007-03-13 09:18:08
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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The short answer is: it's a kind of mafia cult. Oh dear, that makes me a suppressive person. Please go to the web site: xenu.net for a detailed explanation and where you can find out what a suppressive person is. Also, xenutv.com is a good site where you can see the brilliant South Park episode on Scientology.
2007-03-13 09:25:53
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answer #7
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answered by jeffrcal 7
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Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques developed by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. It began in 1952 as a self-help philosophy, an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics, and was later described as a new religion. It is said 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 organizations 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."
Meaning of the word 'Scientology'
Although today associated almost exclusively with Hubbard's work, the word "Scientology" predates Hubbard's creation by several decades. Philologist Allen Upward used the word "scientology" in his 1901 book The New Word as a synonym for "pseudoscience",[24] and this is sometimes cited as the first coining of the word.[25] In 1934, the Argentine-German writer Anastasius Nordenholz published a book using the word positively: Scientologie, Wissenschaft von der Beschaffenheit und der Tauglichkeit des Wissens ("Scientology, Science of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge").[26] Nordenholz's book is a study of consciousness, and its usage of the word is not greatly different from Hubbard's definition, "knowing how to know".[27] However, it is not clear to what extent Hubbard was aware of these earlier uses. The word itself is a pairing of the Latin word scientia ("knowledge", "skill"), which comes from the verb scire ("to know"), and the Greek Î»Î¿Î³Î¿Ï lógos ("reason" or "inward thought" or "logic" or "an account of").
"Scientology would be a study of knowledge," Hubbard stated in 1952.[28] In the 1965 edition of Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, he added, "Scientology is that branch of psychology which treats or (embraces) human ability. It is an extension of Dianetics which is in itself an extension of old-time faculty-psychology of 400 years ago." In 1960 L. Ron Hubbard redefined Scientology as: "a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word “religion” itself."[29] In 1969 he wrote that "It is fundamentally an applied religious philosophy.".[30]
In a lecture given on July 19, 1962 entitled "The E-meter", Hubbard said:
“ So Suzie and I went down to the library, and we started hauling books out and looking for words. And we finally found 'scio' and we find 'ology'. And there was the founding of that word. Now, that word had been used to some degree before. There had been some thought of this. Actually the earliest studies on these didn't have any name to them until a little bit along the line and then I called it anything you could think of. But we found that this word Scientology, you see—and it could have been any other word that had also been used—was the best-fitted word for exactly what we wanted. ”
The current Church of Scientology writes, "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'.
2007-03-13 09:19:59
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answer #8
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answered by prinzessoflove2 2
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http://www.xenu.net/
contains all the information you need.
It's an evil cult designed to make money and nothing else . Its effects on believers are destructive.
Read "the road to xenu" - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/ - an account of a girl who escaped scientology after 12 years!
The cult's core belief - no, I am not kidding here!
"The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 5,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".
His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.
When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.
One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.
In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.
One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.
One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.
Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck."
2007-03-13 09:19:56
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answer #9
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answered by eldad9 6
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Only those who believe in it and have an "inside view" claim to understand it... outside of labeling it as a cult. I'll be of no help since I don't understand it at all myself... except as being watched as a cult.
_()_
2007-03-13 09:19:18
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answer #10
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answered by vinslave 7
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It claims to be Christian, it's not. It's just another religious cult and nothing more. Once you understand the Bible (AV1611) to the point were no one can play you for a fool with it, you will know for yourself they are at best nothing more than a joke.
2007-03-13 09:21:36
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answer #11
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answered by Anonymous
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