What is Scientology?

Question

I keep hearing about celebrity's with the religion of Scientology.
I just need to know what it is because it is driving me crazy.

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). Their “treatment” of substance abuse includes little more than massive doses of vitamins and extended sessions in a sauna.
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
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/detox.htm
http://www.nypress.com/20/22/news&columns/feature.cfm

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 $200-$750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions. Basically, Scientology claims to possess exclusive knowledge of the path to religious redemption & then charges obscene amounts of money for every tiny incremental step towards this end. 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 Level 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://www.spaink.net/cos/essays/atack_ot3.html
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. It doesn’t recognize legitimate conditions like autism, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or ANY neurological disorder / chemical imbalance at all, & the “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from members (often with harmful & deadly results). The “Church” blames psychiatry for the Holocaust, as well as school shootings & 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. Organizations like Scientology are notorious for villainizing a specific out-group because their “stand against the enemy” fosters cohesion within said organization, & psychiatry was an effective rallying point considering many people already distrust & oppose the mental health profession.
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 & lists of personal accomplishments differ greatly between Scientology & non-Scientology publications as the “church” tends to exaggerate & outright lie about his early life, his education, his travels, his achievements etc, preferring to paint a distorted, flattering picture. Several books & articles present facts which flatly contradict these church-published accounts (links to free online copies of these books & articles are provided below), showing conclusively that he was NOT the brilliant, accomplished figure revered by Scientologists. During his 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://lisatrust.bogie.nl/scientology/essays/jeff-hubbard.htm

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 bullies all known critics, opponents, “enemies”, etc, often through malicious litigation & character assassination. It’s a particularly greedy as well as manipulative & dangerous cult that takes its anti-psychiatry fanaticism to deadly limits.
http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/harass.htm#start
http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml
http://www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html

Answer 2

Scientology started as a therapy called 'Dianetics' started by L Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer. The person undergoing the therapy relates traumatic events that took place in their lives while an auditor listens whie watching a meter similar to a lie detector. If the person's conductivity remains constant it is judged that they have overcome the traumatic event that they are talking about.

They will be expected to talk about being abused as babies, which has lead to allegations of the cult breaking up families, and of suffering injury while in the womb, which will include accounts of being squashed while the parents were having sex. If you think I'm making this up, it's in their book 'Dianetics'...

After Dianetics was exposed as a fraud Hubbard relaunched it as a religion rather than a medical practice and called it Scientology. He also extended the therapy to relate to 'past lives', meaning previous reincarnations.

Scientologists will insist that they're not making these events up in order to get social status among their peers by rising through the levels of the cult. They are mistaken.

This all costs thousands of dollars by the way, although you can work off debts by contracting yourself to the adminsistrative wing of the church (slave labour) for a billion years. (I would like to restate that I am not making any of this up.)

Scientology is a cult because it uses coercion to keep its members in line, and also because if a member's family disapprove, they are encouraged to break contact with the family.

Scientology does attract some evil people who like to have control over other Scientologists, but most members are good. They deserve our pity - and, where possible, our help.

Answer 3

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially developed by L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.[1] Hubbard later characterized Scientology as an "applied religious philosophy" and the basis for a new religion] Scientology encompasses a spiritual rehabilitation philosophy and techniques, and covers topics such as morals, ethics, detoxification, education and management. The first Church of Scientology was founded in 1953.

Today the total body of beliefs and practices of Dianetics and Scientology are the sole intellectual property of the Church of Spiritual Technology that forms part of a network of churches and organizations that promote the use of Dianetics, Scientology and related techniques. Other organizations that promote the use of Scientology’s related techniques are the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises and the Association for Better Living and Education.

Scientology and the organizations that promote it have remained highly controversial since their inception. Journalists, courts and the governing bodies of several countries have stated that the Church of Scientology is a cult and an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and abuses the trust of its members. Scientology officials argue that most negative press has been motivated by interest groups, that most of the controversy is past history and that opposition by some governments sums up to nothing more than religious persecution. The U.S. State Department has commented negatively in their annual International Religious Freedom Reports on countries that discriminate against Scientologists and their religious freedoms.[

Answer 4

Im an ex-scientologist. So unlike most people here, my answers arent gathered from internet hate sites. :)

Its mostly a bunch of well-researched self-help courses. Things like personal communication, better studying, fighting peer pressure, getting off drugs, counseling on wearing down "buttons" that set you off or make you walk away from things. Basically getting control of your own life.

I hung around a scientology center for a couple of years. I took a few of the cheaper courses. Great stuff. I still use it all the time. I didnt see or hear any of the stuff posted here in those years. Mostly I see it over and over posted by people who have never checked it out.

As for the celebs.. check out that list of courses again. Doesnt it seem perfect for the hollywood crowd? And check out the celeb list. To me they seem happy, focused, successful. Very different than other hollywood people that are in the news as much as they are.

Oh and scientology isnt just the Church of Scientology anymore. Its been split off and used by many organizations. Narconon, Criminon, literacy programs, FreeZone scientologists.

Answer 5

The religious movement known as Scientology originated in the United States with the 1950 publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The book's author, L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), was a popular science fiction writer who envisioned Dianetics as an alternative to traditional therapy. Like other human potential systems, Dianetics promised its followers both enhanced survival mechanisms and new modes of self-expression. Drawing heavily on modern psychology, Hubbard claimed that detailed memory records of past traumatic experiences, called Engrams, are the cause of irrational and aberrant behavior. Subjects could uncover and eliminate their Engrams to become Clear through a process of Auditing, overseen by a practitioner of Dianetics using a device called an E-meter.

The more explicitly religious dimensions of Scientology evolved from Dianetic theory, as Hubbard and his followers began to make wider claims about the nature and meaning of human life. Hubbard posited that in addition to a body and a mind, each person is also an immortal spiritual entity called a Thetan, which spans lifetimes and has the power to create the basic elements of existence: matter, energy, space, and time. With the help of Scientology, church members move along a path to spiritual enlightenment known as the Bridge to Total Freedom. The aim of this spiritual pilgrimage is to attain higher states of consciousness, marked by successive levels of Operating Thetan status.

Since its founding in Los Angeles in 1954, the Church of Scientology has grown steadily, enjoying a high profile due to its appeal among well-known entertainers. Membership estimates range from fifty thousand to several million. The church operates in more than one hundred countries and maintains an elaborate and well-funded network of institutions dedicated to promoting religious practice, the training of practitioners, and moral and political reform. Scientology has tirelessly sought legal status as a religion and has consistently assumed an aggressive posture toward its critics.

To read more, go to this link: http://www.answers.com/scientology?initiator=IE7:SearchBox

Answer 6

I gave up trying to figure out what the big deal was when I found out they believe humans came from aliens and that people can become immortal and be able to command anyone at your will.

I found this:
"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. Scientologists believe the alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans."

what. the. hell.

Answer 7

I suggets find out for yourself. Buy dianetics and read it, but read a psychology book along with it so you see the similarities.
Most anti scientologist just repeat what they see on the internet, and most scientologist will spit out things they have learned to say.
It is a bunch of information on spirituality and the mind mixed in with lies.
If you join them and then try to get out they will make your life miserable.

Answer 8

“Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths.”

Answer 9

If you believe in aliens and that dead alien sports are what makes sick, then you believe what they do. You should do some research on it, pretty amazing that they believe this. Oh, and the creator of scientology was a science fiction writer...how convenient...

Answer 10

it is kind of like the show "Drawn Together" but even more funny and made up. Wiki it man, some bizarre BS made up by a science fiction writer that somehow people ate into and it became a religion.....weird.

Answer 11

I live in California and they are everywhere here. They all seem happy and nice to talk to. But way too focused for my tastes. I can see why the Hollywoodies like it for getting their **** together and getting all career minded.

Personally I like the church of slackers and underachievers.
The Church of the SubGenius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius