what is scientology?

Answer 1

A cult.

Scientology, which questionably calls itself a new "religion", is the brainchild of science fiction writer & occult enthusiast L. Ron Hubbard. The organization, by means of Hubbard’s self created psychotherapy technique called “Dianetics”, 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
Dianetics review: http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2005/06/28/dianetics/index.html
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 millions 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 during everyday life. They don’t recognize legitimate conditions like autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc, and the “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (often with harmful & 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 )

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 these links for more information: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml
http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/s/scientology/pignotti/

Answer 2

Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Created in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics, Hubbard later characterized Scientology as an "applied religious philosophy" and the basis for a new religion. 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.

Answer 3

Here's a factual 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. 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 gives you some idea.

Answer 4

You can call it either:

- An intelligently designed religion invented by a Science Fiction writer.

- A, efficient scam designed by a Science Fiction writer.

The purpose, with the help of paid famous actors from Hollywood, is to get as much money out of you as possible.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

Scientology is something that should be avoided!

Answer 7

A Cult

Answer 8

Scientist who discover they have no brains cells left..

Answer 9

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

1. Man as we know him has three parts: Body, Mind and Spirit but the spirit is man’s true form. Man’s individuality, purpose and self determinism are originated in the spirit.
The second part of man is the mind, the mind is a bank of mental image pictures were all his experiences are stored. The spirit uses these memories to estimate future action effort and make decisions. We call these decisions ‘postulates’. A ‘postulate’ is a conclusion, decision or resolution made by the individual himself on his own self-determinism on data of the past to resolve problems on the past decide on present problems and observations and sets a pattern for the future.
The parts of the mind:
a. The analytical mind is the conscious and aware mind which thinks, observes data, remembers it and resolves problems. It would be essentially the conscious mind as opposed to the unconscious mind.
b. The reactive mind is the portion of the mind that was created during moments of unconsciousness or severe pain. This part of the mind that is occluded to the spirit but still impinges upon the spirit in a stimulus response sequence. This mind is the source of irrational fears and inexplicable emotions, pains and psychosomatic illnesses.
The third part of man is the body this part of man is the specialty of medicine and NOT Scientology. But I will tell you a little secret; the brain is not the mind. Man’s mind is far superior than the brain or any computer. First the brain doesn’t have the capacity to store not even a fraction of the mind’s memories. Secondly the amount data required to recreate man’s thinkingness is far beyond the abilities of the brain. We are talking about millions of gigabytes of data being instantly transferred from the memories banks to man’s consciences for analysis. Just think about it, brain cells are not even a good conductor of electricity. It is physically impossible for brain cells to transfers such high amount of data. All what the brain is the center of the nervous systems, the brain controls movement, glands and receives information from it’s sensor but all thinkingness of man is done by the spirit. You are not a biological machine, you are a spiritual being that has a mind and controls a body through a brain.

2. Dianetics rehabilitation technology assists the individual in exploring his own mind on a self determined basis in order to eradicate the reactive or unconscious mind. In order for the reactive mind to exist it needs to be occluded from the spirit but once the spirit have look and examined the reactive mind, the reactive mind disappears and its data becomes part of the analytical mind.

3. Scientology spiritual rehabilitation technology addresses the rehabilitation of the individuals or groups ability and ethics. Dianetics is an important part of Scientology but it only addresses the reactive mind whereas Scientology addresses all parts of life including communication, learning and morals.

4. Scientology doctrine as a religion holds as its most important axiom “What is true for you is what you your self observe to be true.” This axiom promotes individual thinkingness and independence. In fact it is a high crime in Scientology for anyone to tell anyone what to think or what to believe in. In Scientology it is YOU that do the exploring, YOU that do the observations and YOU come up with your own conclusion.

5. Scientology has highly trained experts to assist you in this journey. We call these experts auditors, auditors are not counselors because they don’t give counsel or opinion. The role of the auditor is to listen and ask a question or command, these questions or commands are geared towards calling your attention to observe a part of life and YOU, by making these observations you gain new data and you reach new conclusions.
The Auditor follows this code:
http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/auditing/pg004a.html
“1. I promise not to evaluate for the preclear or tell him what he should think about his case in session.”, “11. I promise never to get angry with a preclear in session.”, “24. I promise to see that any donation received for processing is refunded, following the policies of the Claims Verification Board, if the preclear is dissatisfied and demands it within three months after the processing, the only condition being that he may not again be processed or trained.”

6. This link has 28 different religious studies papers on Scientology made by religious scholars: http://www.neuereligion.de/ENG/index.html Also see this link: http://www.bonafidescientology.org/Append/09/index.htm

7. Scientology vs. Psychiatry. Psychiatry is a dogma that 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. But contrary to their beliefs Psychiatry bases it’s diagnosis on opinion and opinion alone. There aren’t any pathological tests that can determine if a person is mentally ill.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=Psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8443414209115892468&q=scientology&hl=en
In the following video two college professors explain that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=
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 and you CAN do that.
Note: Scientology doesn't have anything against Psychology or Neurology.

8. Scientology is a force for good in society and fights dangerous and harmful drugs and Psychiatric abuses, http://www.cchr.org/ criminality, http://www.criminon.org and drug addiction. http://www.narconon.org. And Scientologists 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
Scientologists are some of the more intelligent, able, successful and happy people in this planet; including Jenna Elfman, Kelly Preston, John Travolta, Priscilla Presley, Sofia Milos and Leah Remini.
Scientology is composed more than 6,000 churches, missions and groups, employing over 10,000 members, over 10 million people have taken Scientology services WW.

9. Scientology doesn't ask for donations from their parishioners during their Sunday Services. All chapel services are 100% free (marriages, naming ceremonies, ect). Scientology uses an exchange system to finance its organizations, basically earns its money by delivering services. You do not need to buy services to be in Scientology. All you need to do to be a Scientologist is to read the books and apply Scientology to your life. 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 become an auditor and perform all auditing with a fellow student. This way you also become a trained auditor and you can provide free services to friends and family.

10. Scientology means “knowing how to know” and follows a tradition of 10,000 years in the study of life and the spirit. Scientology earliest ancestor is the Veda (the Veda means knowingness or sacred lore) continued with the Tao-The-king (also known as Taoism and it means “the way to solving the mystery which underlines all mysteries”) continued by the Dhyana (that means knowingness or lookingness), continued by the works of Gautama Sakyamuni also know as Gautama Buddha (a Buddha or Bodhi is one that has attained intellectual and ethical perfection by human means).
“The words of Christ of were a lesson of compassion and they set a very fine example” The Phoenix Lectures by LRH

11. L Ron Hubbard (13 March 1911 – 24 January 1986), was a literary genius that published more than two hundred stories and novels between 1927 and 1941. As a Hollywood screenwriter during this same period he wrote the screen plays for films such as The Mysterious Pilot and The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, while his The Secret of Treasure Island stands as one of the most profitable serials of all time. With a regular production of one hundred thousand words a month LRH was the undisputed king of high-speed production writers. In fact he had the ability to produce a whole story in a couple days of work by only using a manual type writer (believe it or not). Amazingly in the 1980ties he did a come back as a writer by producing the best sellers ‘Battlefield Earth’ and the decaology (ten volume series) Mission Earth. LRH had 21 consecutive international bestsellers, a feat unmatched in publishing history.

LRH could have lived a very profitable and idle life as a writer but he chose to use his earnings and industry to research the human spirit and human mind. This research later became Dianetics and Scientology. LRH produced 5,000 writings and 3,000 tape-recorded lectures on the subject of Dianetics and Scientology. Contrary to popular belief L Ron Hubbard never profited from Dianetics and Scientology but it actually cost him many millions. Dianetics and Scientology are LRH’s gift to humanity. LRH also developed drug rehabilitation, educational and management programs. Humanity will always be indebted for the contributions of LRH.
For more questions see my blog:
http://www.myspace.com/129727315

References
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/story/80/story_8057_1.html

Answer 10

Founder: Lafayette Ron Hubbard

Founding Date: 1953

Publications:
Scientology produces scores of publications. A short list includes Source, The Delphian, Advance!, The Auditor, and the main textbook, Dianetics.
Organization Structure:
All authority resides in the top leadership. While there are numerous organizations throughout the world, all are directed and controlled by the few men at the top. U.S. headquarters are in Los Angeles and Clearwater, Florida.
Unique Terms:
The theology of Scientology contains hundreds of unique terms which were either coined by Hubbard (e.g. Thetan) or are acrostics (e.g. MEST: Matter, Energy, Space, Time). Those which are most important will be discussed under the Doctrinal section in this Profile.
Other Names:
There are numerous sub-organizations in the Church of Scientology. Some of the more prominent would include Advanced Organization of Los Angeles, Religious Technology Center and FLAG. Some of the more clandestine vehicles for recruitment and dissemination of Scientology are its affiliated agencies most of which are part of W.I.S.E. (Worldwide Institute of Scientology Enterprises). They are groups like Sterling Management, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Citizens Against Taxes, The Way to Happiness Campaign, Hollander Consultants; Irons, Marcus & Valko, Uptrends.1
History
Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, the history of Scientology actually begins much earlier. Hubbard had become a well known science fiction writer in the 1930's. In fact, some of his ideas which are "common to Scientology" first appeared in his 1938 manuscript titled Excalibur.2 Dianetics came out in 1950 and the religion of Scientology was established by 1953. Wild claims have been made about Hubbard's earlier life by Scientology publications. For example, they have claimed that he,

...graduated in civil engineering from George Washington University as a nuclear physicist, although the university records show that he attended for two short years, during the second of which he was on academic probation, and failed physics. Hubbard's Ph.D. was said to be from a Sequoia University in California, although there is no proof of the existence of any accredited institution in California by that name that grants doctorates.3
Gerry Armstrong, a devout Scientologist assigned by the Church to write an authorized biography of Hubbard, discovered other inconsistencies in Hubbard's history. Armstrong, who has now left Scientology, states: "Nor was Hubbard a World War II hero who miraculously cured himself of nearly fatal combat wounds, as he claimed. Hubbard never saw combat. After his discharge from the Navy in 1946, he was granted 40% disability pay for arthritis, bursitis and conjunctivitis. He continued to collect this pay long after he claimed to have discovered the secret of how to cure such ailments."4

Biographers have also uncovered Hubbard's involvement with the Occult, which probably influenced his writings. Hubbard claimed to have had a near-death experience where he learned everything that ever puzzled the mind of man. The notorious Satanist, Aleister Crowley, was Hubbard's mentor and he lived with Crowley protege John Parsons, engaging in sex magic at their black magic mansion hospice.5

Despite the inconsistencies in his history, Hubbard would become one of the wealthiest and most well known leaders of a religious movement in only a few years. As of 1986 over eight million copies of his book Dianetics had been sold.6 Scientology's methodology and beliefs have led them into a long history of criminal and civil actions and convictions. Both the U.S. Federal and Canadian courts have found top Scientology officials, and the church, guilty of charges such as burglarizing, wiretapping, and conspiracy against government agencies.7

Doctrine
Because of the hundreds of unique terms in Scientology, the theology is often confusing to those who are new to the subject, and to those who have studied it for many years! According to Scientology, Man is, at the core of his being, a Thetan. Hubbard's Dianetics and Scientology: Technical Dictionary explains,

The Thetan is immortal and is possessed of capabilities well in excess of those hitherto predicted for man. In the final analysis what is this thing called Thetan? It is simply you before you mocked yourself up and that is the handiest definition I know of.8
The Thetan is thus that part of each individual which is immortal and which has become contaminated or debased by the influences of MEST.

As another of Hubbard's books states, "By MEST is meant the physical universe of matter, energy, space, and time, as we know them in the physical sciences."9 Not only is the Thetan immortal, but also, "Hubbard discovered the means of separating the human personality from the body and mind. The Thetan has the power to create MEST, that is, matter, energy, space and time, or the basic stuff of existence."10

Hence, Hubbard and Scientology would have America and the World believe that Man is an immortal Thetan, able to create MEST. However, not all MEST is good MEST. Sometimes MEST comes into conflict with the Thetan, resulting in an engram.

As Scientology endeavors to render this MEST mess intelligible they write, "An engram comes about when the individual organism suffers an intense impact with MEST. Every moment of physical pain contains with it a partial or major shutdown of the analytical function of the mind."11 Thus, an engram is a memory which is caused when any accidental event (be it major or minor) is experienced. However, at the instant that the engram is formed, often the person is unaware of the event. How is this possible?

In a series of lectures given during August and September 1950, Hubbard explained the process.

An engram is a moment of pain and unconsciousness which contains perceptics. Actually there are thousands of moments of pain with just a little unconsciousness. Even a little thing such as someone burning his finger still causes a flick of attenuation of the analytical mind. The engram has one common denominator above all else, unconsciousness. But unconsciousness is common to every single engram, because unconsciousness does just one thing; it closes down the analytical mind. So, we have coined the word anaten. It is a contraction of the two words analytical attenuation (Attenuation means shutting or closing down).12
This engram is thus that "mental picture" which "contains, as part of its content, unconsciousness and physical pain" and is stored in the individual's mind.13 But which mind?

As Hubbard explained, every person has two minds - the analytical mind and the reactive mind. Both having very specific functions, though not necessarily beneficial functions. In the booklet, Basic Dictionary of Dianetics and Scientology, the two minds are defined in the following ways: "analytical mind: In Dianetics and Scientology the analytical mind is the one which is alert and aware and the reactive mind simply reacts without analysis." It continues with, "reactive mind: the portion of the mind which works on a stimulus-response basis. It consists of locks, secondaries, engrams and chains of them and is the single source of human aberrations and psychosomatic ills."14

Thus, Man in his true nature is an immortal thetan. However, the thetan is responsible for the creation of MEST. Though the thetan created the MEST, sometimes the MEST collides with the thetan resulting in the acquisition of an engram. Because every engram is accompanied by unconsciousness to a greater or lesser degree, not all engrams are known to exist by the thetan's analytical mind. As a result of the build-up of thousands of known and unknown engrams, stored in his reactive mind, man seems to experience problems throughout his life. These engrams have accumulated not only in this life but in many past lives as well through reincarnation. Thus, it is Scientology's purpose to rid the thetan of these unwanted engrams. How is this accomplished? By becoming Clear.

In defining Clear, Hubbard used an interesting analogy. Clear is "The name of a button on an adding machine. When you push it, all the hidden answers in the machine clear and the machine can be used for a proper computation. So long as the button is not pressed the machine adds all old answers to all new efforts to compute and wrong answers result. Really, that's all a Clear is. Clears are beings who have been Cleared of wrong answers or useless answers which keep them from living or thinking." The Clear " can create energy at will, and can handle and control, erase or re-create an analytical mind or reactive mind. The Clear has no engrams which can be restimulated to throw out the correctness of computations by entering hidden and false data in it."15

Hence the thetan who has reached the desired state of Clear has, in actuality, become a blank slate simply waiting for new data to be entered. As Hubbard explained in a lecture series, " you have to have a new education if you are going to change a clear's viewpoint."16 Thus, the new data, given by Scientology is not merely a rearrangement of already existing beliefs and ideas. Rather, it is completely "new" material, which is precisely what is needed for the "new education." Without this new education it is impossible to reach the state of Clear. But if Clear is a higher state of being to which all should desire to evolve, then how is this to be accomplished? By the Scientology practice of Auditing.

Remember, the reactive mind consists of "locks" and chains of engrams. In order for the thetan to be declared Clear, the reactive mind with its engrams must be removed by auditing. "The reactive mind is removed by `returning' the pre-clear to the engram, and laying its contents before the scrutiny of the analytical mind."17

Once the engram is openly expressed by the pre-clear (Scientology student), then "Auditing gets rid of unwanted barriers that inhibit, stop or blunt a person's natural abilities as well as gradiently increasing the abilities a person has so that he becomes more able and his survival, happiness and intelligence increase enormously. An activity of an auditor taking over the control of and shepherding the attention of a pc [pre-clear] so as to bring about a higher level of confront ability."18 After the thetan has remembered the engram, it is then removed from the reactive mind during the auditing session with the aid of the Scientology E-Meter. This device, similar in function to a lie-detector, is said to be "An electronic instrument for measuring mental state and change of state in individuals, as an aid to precision and speed in auditing."19

It has been correctly observed that to summarize the basic theology of Scientology in a few words is indeed a difficult task. However, in the beginning were the thetans. These were to eventually create the MEST, which in actuality would not be the best thing they could have done. For when the thetan, who inhabits the MEST comes into conflict with other MEST, an engram is recorded in the reactive mind. This engram, whether it be remembered or not, due to unconsciousness which accompanies every engram, is stored in the reactive mind and causes the thetan to believe false data [erroneous ideas]. It is the purpose of Scientology, through its auditing efforts to rid the thetan of all engrams so that in turn that thetan, who now possesses a new educational perspective on reality, as a result of the auditing, may advance to a higher state of being or Clear.

Despite claims that its doctrines do not conflict with other religions including Christianity, Scientology theology is alien and hostile to Christianity blending Occultism, Eastern mysticism and science fiction. "Hubbard attacked Christianity as an `implant' and said Christ was fiction."20 Hubbard wrote, "neither Lord Buddha nor Jesus Christ were OT's [Operating Thetans] according to the evidences, they were just a shade above clear."21