What's sceintology?

Question

ok. i used to be (um...like..a day ago) totally obsessed with John Travolta. Just cuz he is the hottest thing EVER in grease (it's true). But now i know he's fat, ugly, and married and he's a scientologist.
What exactly is scientology? i know it's a religous cult, but could someone please clarify? THanks!

I'm scared.
It's so weird!
Some guys just did it as a joke! (actually, i've wondered if other religions were like that, but i know they're not)
I just deleted all the john travolta pictures i have. it was painful. in the 70s he was on FIRE!

Omg, guys! i wasn't saying i wanted to be a scientologist!!omg no. i'm perfectly happy being a Christian, thank you very much!!

Answer 1

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 (and according to Scientology’s belief in Thetan immortality, they also attached to us during “past lives”) & 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://www.spaink.net/cos/essays/atack_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://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/index_np.html?pn=1
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

ok these people are not in Scientology but i am it is a practical religion. so lets say u have kids and you were having trouble with them you just get the book children by l. Ron Hubbard and read it this book helped me in baby siting! also there is the spiritual side called dianetics and that means what the mind is doing to the body. and to learn more about that i would read the book dianetics it has been on the best sellers list for... umm.... a very long time.


also remember the only way to know how it works is to try it ! i have it has help me and my friend a great deal so i hope you try it! it is awesome and the person right before me says it cost money to is true but they have book that tell you how to make money don;t worry it helps you in the long run

and also the weird alien thing is from south park and when has south park been right?

Answer 3

Yeah! That's what it is. A religious cult. Scientology is based on the premise that stored in our memory banks are all kinds of unpleasant experiences that block us from moving forward in life and being a productive and happy human being. It was started by a science fiction writer called L. Ron Hubbard who is now dead. They offer what they call "clearing" you from them and that can cost quite a bit of money. By the way, Tom Cruise is also a scientologist. Hope that enlightens you a bit.

Answer 4

It is a very dangerous cult. It looks like you have gotten some very thorough answers already. I would like to add that the "church" of Scientology has been known to "get rid" of people that have openly said anything negative against the "church" Someone sent you a link about Xena. It is an on line book I really recommend that you read it, it will really open your eyes. DO NOT get sucked into this cult just because some very famous movie stars are in it. They have been brainwashed.

Answer 5

You know, it's a really good thing for Christians to look up other religions and study them, so when someone from another religion asks us about our religion and their religion, we have a better chance of persuading them that we are right.

I researched scientology on google and check out this website.
P.S. Tom Cruise is the face of Scientology, and scary as it seems, it's becoming very popular among the celebrities.

Answer 6

Scientology is a path to find your own personal truth,
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.
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
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).

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 7

I think that scientology has a certain cult-like status (after all, it was begun in the 1950s by a writer of science fiction).

To quote: Scientology holds that an individual is basically an immortal spiritual being that has a body and a mind. Each individual is adversely affected by forgotten decisions or traumas in their past, and by stored mental energies.

Check out the link below:

Answer 8

A sci-fi writer invented scientology to see if it worked. It's a quasi-cult that worships some alien, forgot his name. You go up in rank according to how much money you give the cult. The key to scientologoy is apparently to be very superficial (helps to have an extremely low IQ too, so you don't actually think about how foolish it all is), and rich.

Answer 9

they believe that long ago there were these aleins that were brought to earth and executed. Their souls were full of hatred and all the bad things and they wondered the earth until humans came along and they filled the humans with the bad feelings. The only way to get rid of those feelings is through riches. The creator made a bet with a friend that if he wrote the book about this religion, they would follow. he was right. Craziness. Watch the south park, look it up online.

Answer 10

Hey, I think John Travolta went from ugly to good looking .

Answer 11

It was started in the 1950s by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard in fulfilment to his declared aim to start a religion to make money. It is an offshoot to a method of psychotherapy he concocted from various sources which he named "Dianetics". Dianetics is a form of regression therapy. It was then further expanded to appear more like a religion in order to enjoy tax benefits. He called it "Scientology".

On the "advanced" levels (called OT levels) above the state of "Clear" they encounter the story of Xenu. Xenu was supposed to have gathered up all the overpopulation in this sector of the galaxy, brought them to Earth and then exterminated them using hydrogen bombs. The souls of these murdered people are then supposed to infest the body of everyone. They are called "body thetans". On the advanced levels of Scientology a person "audits out" these body thetans telepathically by getting them to re-experience their being exterminated by hydrogen bombs. So people on these levels assume all their bad thoughts and faulty memories are due to these body thetans infesting every part of their body and influencing them mentally.

I found the story of Xenu here:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm