Scientology: religion, cult, or bank?

Question

What do you think?

No other religion requires money to advance to the "next level". Others have offering plates and donations and the like but in Scientology you must pay (up to several thousands) to advance.

Scientology also has a history of attacking the attacker and Fair Game, which have been documented as official policies. Critics of the Church are somehow weak, and church members will harass them and accuse them of other crimes like child molestation. Other religions may criticize their opponents, but most preach loving your neighbor, officially, and the like.

Also, do you have love for Lord Xenu?

Answer 1

Cult. No doubt.

What you've said is very true. They do structure their "religion" in such a way that one must purchase virtually every service crucial to advancement directly from the "church" & at staggering prices. By the way, how DARE they withhold the key to all happiness and enlightenment if they have it; how DARE they make people PAY for religious redemption, for saving their lives and their "souls"? How dare ANYONE do that for a cost?

Also, yes, Scientology does have a long and well documented history of "attacking the attacker". Not just Fair Game... did you know that nearly a dozen members of Scientology, under their official program called "Operation Snow White", orchestrated THE largest government infiltration in US history?

And I've seen the videos in which Scientologists spew out specious and vitriolic accusations at critics, circling them, asking them over and over "What are your crimes?" and "How have you plotted against Scientology today?" and "I heard you're a prostitute and a child molester. Why can't you just confess??" It's downright frightening! You can view just a few examples of this kind of behavior here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSUeSMphLsY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocw90W44Boc

Just in case you haven't heard about the rest of their misdeeds, I'll post short summaries of several (though this list is far from exhaustive):

• Operation Snow White – Under this official program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, & theft of documents in government offices. This program constituted the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history. Among the 11 prominent Scientologists convicted of this conspiracy was Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of Scientology’s “prophet”.
http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/snow-white/index.html
http://en.allexperts.com/e/o/op/operation_snow_white.htm

• Operation Freakout - Their campaign of sabotage & violence against Paulette Cooper, the writer who published her research & findings on several cults, including Scientology. Scientology’s official plan: to frame Paulette, ruin her career & reputation & get her either incarcerated or locked up in psychiatric confinement.
The official plan: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Krasel/cooper/frk1.html
Her book: http://holysmoke.org/cos/books/scandal-of-scientology-cooper.pdf

• Fair Game - the Scientology policy detailing how the organization may confront & handle critics & perceived enemies. Here is a direct quote: "Enemies may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
http://www.xenu.net/archive/disk/fairgame.htm
http://www.planetkc.com/sloth/sci/Fair_game_ord.html

• Physical & psychological punishment: Scientologists who "break the rules" while members of the "Sea Org" must subject themselves to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which includes regimes of harsh physical punishment, forced self-confessions, social isolation, hard labor and intensive ideological indoctrination.
http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/rpf.html
http://www.lermanet2.com/scientology/gulags/BrainwashinginScientology'sRehabilitationProjectForce.htm
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rpf/escape_2.htm

• Brainwashing & mind control: Scientology exerts control over its members by means of typical cult tactics, including but not limited to controlling information about internal doctrine & criticism of the organization, severely restricting social contact outside the cult (including the practice of “disconnecting” with any family who question the credibility & trustworthiness of the cult), creating an “us against them” mentality by villainizing a specific out-group (for Scientology, it’s psychiatrists), & claiming all those outside the cult are unenlightened.
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/
http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/faq.html#cult

• Violent Kidnapping - Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist, was involved in a car accident & resultantly became mentally unstable. She was kidnapped from the hospital by agents of Scientology, held against her will, refused proper psychiatric treatment & allowed to STARVE TO DEATH.
Video: http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/
News Coverage: http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/Lisa_McPherson_Scientology_Deaths.html
Website: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

• Tragic Murder - A CBS “48 Hours” special on Jeremy Perkins, the mentally disturbed son of Scientologist parents who, because of the Scientology doctrine of opposing psychiatry, refused to put him on the anti-psychotic drugs that would have stabilized him & prevented him from killing his own mother.
Video: http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php
CBS article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/25/48hours/main2124568.shtml
Website: http://perkinstragedy.org

Answer 2

I think that cults are groups and that religions are belief systems. Cults (and churches) may offer belief systems, but belief systems themselves are not groups and therefore cannot be cults or churches. There are lots of Christians, for example, who believe what they believe but are not part of organized religion. And, yes, there are Scientologists like that, too. The Church of Scientology is the very controversial organization that many say is a cult. I agree with them. I used to be a member. I left there and remained a Scientologist. So someone like me wouldn't be in a cult, you see, since I'm not in any group at all. And I'm not the only one who has done this. If you google Free Zone Scientology or Independent Scientology, you will see what I mean. Plus the term I coined which people have started using to an extent: "indie Scientology/indie Scientologist". I think that Scientology as an "ology" is a religion for *some*. Some people consider it to be a religion and for them, it is. For others, it's more a self help thing. Church of Scientology members feel that Scientology is a religion and that the Church of Scientology is a church. Having been a member, I'd say it's a cult but I will also point out that something can be more than one thing at the same time.

Answer 3

You left out: bait and switch scam!

Yep- the intial "self help" courses don't mention body thetans, exploding volcanoes, magnetised souls being reprogrammed, Lord Xenu or space craft that look like DC3s. That you only get told at OT III level, after you have spent in excess of $180,000!

And all this created by a SF writer who lied about his qualifications (he was never a nuclear scientist- he flunked out in second year), his war record, his health, the origin of his ideas (auditing via e-meter to get rid of ingrained engrams originated with a Russian psychologist. it was not discovered by Hubbard as he claimed), and who died on the run from federal authorities as an unindicted co-conspirator (the seniour members of his church were all jailed for bugging government offices and stealing government documents.)

Answer 4

It is a cult and a bank.

Geezah-While Baptism and sacrements cost money, and that comes from tithes, you are not REQUIRED to pay anything before being baptized or taking The Lord's Supper. I had 4 of my children dedicated in my step-mother's church (to placate her) and was never required to pay anything. When we do The Lord's Supper at our Church there is no cover charge. So that is not a fair comparison.

Answer 5

It was devised by a Science Fiction writer, so what does that tell you! L. Ron Hubbard was a weirdo, with a powerful imagination, and in this world, there are always people around who will accept just about anything! But hey, it's a rich religion/cult, so I guess it's a BANK!

Answer 6

Scientology= are you serious? Religion should not require a money order; at least not constantly. Xenu? 0_0 I'm all for diversity...as long as its not coming out of my pocketbook.
*Bank

Answer 7

It is a cult.

Also Lord Xenu and his civilization does not have any physical or tangible existence from science and archeology.

Scientology must exist in a dream and in fantasy. Much the same as waterworld.

Answer 8

ITS ALL BO11OCKS! i could do the same make up a cult and say that rabbits had powers to transform in to humans then aliens crashed landed on earth and but there brains in to the humans, HAHA its all a joke and its filled with very nasty people, what kind of a person attacks a personal life and background of a person cause they wouldn't do what they want etc. very sick and disturbing people.

Answer 9

It's wrong to say that no other religion requires fees for advancement. Very few churches for example have baptisms or sacraments for absolutely free. Most of them have tithes too.

I really don't see Scientology being all that fundamentally different from other religions. They're just more efficient at what they do.

Answer 10

Do you mind paying tuition fee for your education? Anyway... read the following:

I happen to know Scientology for many years now and I can tell you frankly that it is the best thing that has happened to my life.

Scientology began with L Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics in 1949. It is the only book to have become a New York Times best-seller in 2 different decades-1950s and 1980s, in addition to being a perennial best-seller. This book is basically about Auditing, the fundamental Scientology technique for handling incidents of emotional and physical pain in a person’s past (technically called engrams). As L. Ron Hubbard audited more and more people, he noticed that as these incidents of physical and emotional pain in a person’s past are effectively handled and erased through auditing process, the person:
1. Becomes more intelligent
2. Becomes saner
3. Becomes better able to handle his environment.
4. The amnesia on time-track becomes to diminish, i.e., the person is able to recall earlier incidents in his life. The earliest incident you are able to recall in your life is, may be, 1.5-2 years. Few people are able to recall earlier. Yet, you were alive earlier!

As people were thus audited, they were able to recall their pre-natal life. This led LRH to hypothise that memory is a property of the cells, since in intra-uterine life brain is not fully formed.

As the process went ahead, people were eventually able to recall their past lives. That was the birth of Scientology, because it indicated that there must be something that survives death and carries on to next life. This something is called soul in traditional religion and theta body in Scientology.

Scientology brings to humanities the exactitude of science (as LRH put it). By actual demographic studies, it has become the fastest growing religion in the history of mankind. It has come a long way sine its early beginning. Today you can actually go to an advanced Scientology organization and walk on the “bridge” to freedom. The decision is yours. The choice is yours.


“I do not sing what I believe, I only give them fact.
If they believe quite otherwise, it still will have impact.
For truth is truth and if they then decide to live with lies,
It’s their choice not mine, my friend, they are free to fantasize.”
--- L. Ron Hubbard

“Get on the road to freedom,
Help us fee all mankind,
The pain and all the sorrow,
Are only in your mind.”
---L. Ron Hubbard

Good luck and best wishes!