Is Scientology a religion or a cult?

Answer 1

Its a cult no doubt.

Answer 2

Cult. Do some research on Hubbard, and don't start with Scientology's site because that story is make-believe.

Answer 3

Hello bob146,

Scientology is a religion. It does all the things a religion should do. For the truth go to www.scientology.org.

I have practiced Scientology for 7 years, I am a Scientologist. My wife also uses the technology of Scientology, but does not call herself a Scientologist, she just see that it works.

Answer 4

its a money hungry cult no doubt

Answer 5

Another brain washing cult for sure.....

Answer 6

pseudo-religious cult. i was just reading about them and the absolute craziness they believe.

Answer 7

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 members (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 8

something inbetween I guess!!! No idea!
All I know is that Tom Cruise believes in it!

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