Can someone tell me some things about Scientology. It seems to be a popular thing in Hollywood these days but?

Question

I know very little about it. Real information please.

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_evaluation_and_criticisms
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”, stacking them around volcanoes & blowing them up by dropping “h-bombs” into the volcanoes. 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. It doesn’t recognize legitimate conditions like autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc, or any neurological disorder or chemical imbalance for that matter, and the “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from members (often with harmful & deadly results). The “Church” blames the psychiatry for the Holocaust, as well as school shootings and even September 11th. It’s been suggested that Hubbard’s vehement opposition was born of the psychiatric community’s rejection of his “tech” as a valid treatment method, but it’s also possible that Hubbard chose psychiatry as a scapegoat. Groups like Scientology are notorious for villainizing a specific out-group as it fosters cohesion within the group.
http://www.anti-scientologie.ch/usa-scientology.htm
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3137&IssueNum=136
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/index_np.html?pn=1
http://perkinstragedy.org

L. Ron Hubbard, the man behind the creation of Scientology, was & still is a controversial figure. Biographies and lists of personal accomplishments differ greatly between Scientology and non-Scientology publications as the “church” tends to exaggerate and outright lie about his early life, his education, , his travels, his achievements etc, preferring to paint a distorted, flattering picture. Several books and articles present facts which flatly contradict these church-published accounts (links to free online copies of these books are provided below). During autopsy, the sedative 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. It had also been said by many who knew Hubbard personally that at the end of his life he was “a psychopathic insane person screaming about BT's [Body Thetans]….”
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/Bare%20Faced%20Messiah.pdf
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/contents.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/mom/Messiah_or_Madman.txt
http://skull.piratehaven.org/~atman/factnet/lrhbare.txt

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.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html

Answer 2

Yes.... I can. I'm Scientologist . (for the past 36 years or so)

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.
It is also not a messianic religion. This means there is no worship of prophets or messiahs in Scientology. It is not faith based. A truth should be true 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 life.And to rehabilitate his native goodness, abilities and potential.
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.

But hopefully this gives you some idea.

Answer 3

REAL INFO

WOW !

Am I the first Scientologist to answere this thing ?

Here is the scoop.
So I read this book and instead of making more questions ( as all the other books on life i had read did ) it actually answered questions with answeres that I could try out and apply in real life and that would get results uniformly no matter who I was. That was something new.

So I went down to NYC and hung out and read some books and took some courses and learned some stuff and my life is soooo much easyer because I know who to deal with and who to stay away from and not be in business with and how to handle my boss and exgirlfriend and the guy who I used to work with and who I can realy trust and who I can't trust ( comes in handy some of the people I have to deal with at work ! ) and learned how to study and understand ANY subject easily ( public education realy screwed up on that one but I fixed all that now ) and can handle my family and friends sanely and even helped some of them with what I learned and it's been great and I havn't even got any of that Auditing they talk about yet except went through the purif ( the sauna thing 700 firefighters and police and rescue workers in NYC have done...didn't hear about that ? and it was GREAT ! sooo.....it's been great !

Also I have a genius IQ ( had that to begin with ) and am glad I have the opportunity to raise that, as Scientology does. I have spent more money fixing my cars than on scientology also.

Oh, the "culty stuff", have been to churches in NYC,LA,Chicago,Florida, washington DC and have met hundreds of scientologists and friends with a number of them for almost 20 years now and yet to see or experience any wierd culty behaviour.

Also you can walk in and out of any Scientology Church freely and meet them and ask questions and get real honest answeres and all that just like any other religious place. I had a harder time getting into Hindu, Buddist and Christian establishments. Once went walking into a Buddist Monastery and had to walk down the hall to find a person because there was a sign said gong and I saw none and it was a little bowl I didn't notice and was supposed to take off my shoes and hit the little bowl with this small wood thing. They were praying or studying or something and I almost got introuble for wandering around unescorted !

Well I just walk into any Church of Scientology and they say "Hi how can I help you ?", don't ask for money or anything. Free to come , free to go.

Well that's the short story, The lies you hear are from a few criminals that are akin to White Supremacists or Nazis, they hate Christians too, here is the truth about them in thier own words, and the courts of govt's around the world, it will explain alot about the lies and Hate speach you hear about Scientology. http://religiousfreedomwatch.org
What they don't tell you about are the thousands of awards and accomadations Scientology and it's people have gotten from govt's, cities and states from around the world for their humanitarian work and the such in education, religious freedom legislation, disaster relief, criminal rehabilitation, etc..
If you take an honest look into it they are realy wonderfull folks.
http://www.scientology.com
http://www.volunteerministers.org

Answer 4

read "Inside Scientology" by Robert Kaufman, or watch Tory Christman talk about it on youtube. It's a religion, a pyramid scheme (costs bizarre amounts of money), a cult, an attempt to get you off all regular medication, etc. etc. It's tricky, because they keep their materials secret. On every level they tell something different. And the celebrities are treated very differently from the rest and have no idea what's really going on. There are even some sort of slave labour camps... RPF or Rehabilitation Project Force. So, scary stuff. But please read or listen to the things in the links below, these people have been in Scientology for decades.

Answer 5

It costs too much money for non rich celebs. The teachings cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Eveidently when u are in the "clear zone" u are told things about aliens.
They don't believe in Pshcologists so that gives another reasson why it's a cult. One kid killed his own mother b/c she was part of that group and refused to give him the proper treatment that could have made him sane.
It makes me sad that John Trovota is part of it. I thought he had more sense. I see I misjudged him.

Answer 6

I don't know much about it, but it seems to be exclusive to the rich, famous and bored in the Hollywood high-class set.

You can easily find info on the web.