What exactly is Scientology?

Question

I have looked it up and have gotten mixed answers. I asked my mom and she gave me a Dianetics book by John L Hubbard (the supposed founder of Scientology), and i'm not sure how that ties into the Scientology I've heard about. Its very difficult to read/focus on. People make fun of this "religion" all the time and I'm always hearing about alien overlords and all kinds of nonsense. Why are people so compelled to follow it? Why is it considered a cult? Can someone explain to me *exactly* what Scientology is?

Answer 1

Here’s a factual description of the Scientology religion for you:



Definition:

The term Scientology is taken from the Latin word "SCIO" : which means, in the fullest sense of the word, "knowing", and the Greek word "LOGOS" which simply means "study of".



The subject of Scientology is further defined as :



"the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life. "



Scientology is a new religion. Less than 60 years old.It is an applied religious philosophy. By “applied” is meant that it is for use in life and living to improve the conditions of existence.. It is a practical religion.



Scientology is not belief or faith based. In Scientology a truth is only true if it’s true for you, according to your own observation and experience .

It does acknowledge the principle of God or the Infinite but does not try to define or describe this principle, leaving it up to the individual.

It is also not a messianic religion. This means there is no worship of prophets or messiahs or gods.



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.

Scientology believes or considers that Man is basically good. This is different from many religions that promote that he his natively evil or bad unless “made” good.



The whole purpose of Scientology knowledge application and procedure is to increase an individual’s understanding and awareness of himself as a spiritual being and to rehabilitate his native abilities and potential.

When you do this the sphere and zones of his positive influence increase and move outward into his life , his family and friends, his groups and Mankind of which he is part .



How this result is achieved is the “technology” of Scientology, which was developed by L Ron Hubbard from discoveries he made after extensive research into the field of the mind and the human spirit.

Scientology’s closest spiritual ties with any other religion are with Orthodox (Hinayana ) Buddhism with which it shares an historical lineage. But even here the relationship is based mainly on friendship and the recognition of the being as a spirit rather than any organizational ties.



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 4,000 tape recorded public lectures.



You can also go to www.scientology.org for a much more detailed description of this religion.

Or go to your local library Self Help section for books on Scientology

( Recommend “Scientology: A New Slant on Life” )

Answer 2

It is a belief system introduced in 1952 by its "founder", pulp and science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

I have NO idea why some people seem to feel so compelled to follow it. Perhaps that compulsion and how it's expressed is what causes some to refer to the "Church of Scientology" as a cult.

If you want more information, you could start with the Hubbard book Dianetics which was a spring board for Hubbard's belief system. If you want a concrete explanation, you'll need to contact a scientologist which I am most certainly not.

Since your mother gave you the book, I don't see why you don't start with her.

Answer 3

First, it was created by L. Ron Hubbard, a fairly poor science fiction writer. Dianetics is a set of supposed principles he came up with, (most of it either plagiarized, obvious, or false). There is much more to $cientology than that, though. At the Operating Thetan 3 Level, members are exposed to the story of Xenu. This is where Xenu is an alien overlord who blows up the earth with hydrogen bombs. This explains why it is ridiculed so much. People follow it because they are baited in by reading Dianetics and seeing that many celebrities are $cientologists. It's a for-profit religion, costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to gain salvation. There are also numerous stories of abuse within the cult including beatings, human trafficking, and sexual abuse. The sites below explain it much better than I can.

Answer 4

Scientology is a cult, or religion, pick the word you like because in reality all religions are cults. They claim to operate under the power and direction of aliens, which is possible because aliens are real although nearly all witness accounts of aliens prove them to be enourmously hostile. They also claim to be able to remove bad feelings from people and make people perfect, which is nearly impossible, let us just say impossible. Scientology is more than anything else a moneymaking scam: people have investigated them using actors and they in fact only accept members who are well off financially because they later drain those people of their assets. If you try to join scientology and admit you have little money you will absolutely be turned away. In this they are unlike most other religions because membership is based more on means than beliefs. It is considered a cult because most people recognize it as a lie, where as many other religions are not considered cults because many people are fooled by their less obvious I suppose lies.

Answer 5

We've already answered this question here thousands of times. In short, you're really not going to get an unbiased answer here. Try this article:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol.htm



"Why are people so compelled to follow it?"



Same reason people are compelled to follow any other ideology: they feel that it gives them what they're looking for.





"Why is it considered a cult?"



Mainly because it's a religion that's been around for less than 100 years.





"That is not true that it has been answered "thousands of times"



Let's see. 691 people have already asked "What is scientology": http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=AkwEffYNmFldMlpnaQ65VD7j1KIX;_ylv=3?p=%22what+is+scientology%22

127 have already asked "What do scientologists beleive": http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?scope=all&category=0&fltr=_en&question_status=all&answer_count=any&date_submitted=all&crumb=qjlytSMNU.d&p=%22what+do+scientologists+believe%22

And 129 have worded the question in the same way you did: http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?scope=all&category=0&fltr=_en&question_status=all&answer_count=any&date_submitted=all&crumb=qjlytSMNU.d&p=%22what+exactly+is+scientology%22

That's close to 1000 times, and I'm not even counting people who've made spelling mistakes or used some vague description for the headline.





"clearly none of you actually know what it is"



No, it's just that some of us are tired of answering this again.

Answer 6

A science fiction author realised people were taking his fiction seriously.



He looked at how much money people make out of religion and thought... I could do that.



"Why are people so compelled to follow it?"

Why are people compelled to follow 'any' religion?



In case you think I am making this up...



"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion" - L. Ron Hubbard

Answer 7

It's a scam. It a religion that was evolved off of the founder's series of self help books, and you literally have to pay for EVERYTHING. You say Christianity's a scam? Look at Scientology.

Answer 8

I tried it. I took the first two trainings. Better communicating, and better studying. I didnt get into the more expensive ones on clearing drugs or escaping peer pressure since (A) they were more expensive and (B) I didnt feel I needed them. The course prices were less than college courses and I felt they were much more useful. I had no problem leaving (I had more problem leaving the baptists and they wanted more of my money than the Scientologists did) :) I did learn some pain handling techniques when I was there. They show them to anyone who bangs their knee or gets a headache. Works well. I still use them with myself and my kids. Everybody I saw there seemed very open and happy. But of course thats enough to scare some people.

Answer 9

religioustolerance.org is a Scientology front-group.



Dude, you have to pay about $350,000 to find out what Scientology's about, then later on you'll learned you "mocked that up".

Answer 10

A cult that Anon hates lol.

Answer 11

A religion that looks batshit insane until you look at all other religions.

Answer 12

You..really don't want to know.