what is scientology exactly?

Question

i heard its very weird...

Answer 1

It's a cult. Here's a detailed overview I wrote (yes, I wrote it... I didn't take it from Wiki or some random blog):



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, often dangerous doses of vitamins and unhealthy 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



Scientology is most certainly NOT a religion. In fact, one of the only reasons they enjoy "tax exempt status" on religious ground in the United States is because they bullied the IRS into a "deal" through extremely aggressive barratry (which is the offense of persistently instigating groundless lawsuits) against said government agency & its officials, & arranged to drop all 2,500 frivolous lawsuits only when an "agreement" was reached. In addition, Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig up any "dirt" on IRS agents which was then used to blackmail or publicly smear all "vulnerable" agents. It was an all-out WAR that Scientology had waged against the IRS, & was even described as such by Scientology's "CEO", David Miscavige, in his 1993 speech to the International Association of Scientologists.

http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/fedtax-l/msg00445.html

http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/nytimes/nyt-irs-030997.htm

http://www.factnet.org/headlines/give-away.htm

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs.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 $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:

https://answersrip.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

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/



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.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/s/scientology/pignotti/

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml

http://www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html

Answer 2

Scientology is a religious applied philosophy.



THIS IS SCIENTOLOGY



“It is possible to know about the mind, the spirit and life”



Scientology states that man is a Spiritual being that controls a body through a mind. To represent this life force, the Greek symbol for though “Theta” was selected to avoid confusion with any prior practice.



The mind (we are not talking about the brain that is just the center of the nervous system) is a bank of mental image pictures. This bank is what the spirit uses to make decisions; it is composed of the analytical mind and the reactive mind. The analytical is clear; it doesn’t have any hidden influences and is fully accessible by the Thetan. The reactive mind is a collection of bad mental image picture that include pain, unconsciousness and command value. The reactive mind is the hidden influence that aberrates reason. The reactive mind is the cause for all human aberration, insanity or evil purpose.



Scientology’s approach to solve human aberration: Auditing.

- “Communication is the Universal Solvent.”

- “All problems of the mind are created by the mind.”

- “The mind can solve all the problems of the mind”



When dealing with the reactive mind we are dealing with the problem that individual is trying to confront that which he thinks he can’t confront so he is stuck. To solve this problem Hubbard developed Auditing. A verbal therapy that uses questions to help the individual address what is bothering him. So the person by his own volition can solve his own problems. The big difference between Auditing and Psychoanalysis is that the Psychoanalyst evaluates for the person and tells him what to think. In Auditing you just ask and listen and let the person make his own mind about things. If you give a person a fish you can feed him one time but if you teach him to fish you can feed him for a life time. That’s Scientology’s approach.



There are no suggestions involved in Auditing, all conclusion are done by you by your own intelligence. Auditors are bound the Auditor’s Code to never evaluate for the preclear (preclear is a person receiving Scientology processing). Never get in a relationship with the preclear. All information released during auditing is protected by law and not even the police can gain access to that information. Enforcing this code of conduct is the Scientology Ethics Officer and Scientology law. Any violation to the Auditors code is considered a high crime in Scientology and will result removal of any Auditing Certificates and/or expulsion from the church. I have seen this happen and am a very serious matter.



Any friend or family member can audit you for free. Or you can take the courses and get your Auditing with other students. But if you want to hire a professional auditing team of course it will cost you. An auditing team is composed of the Auditor, Ethics Officer, Quality Assurance (the person that tells the Auditor what to do), Corrections (the people that constantly train the Auditor on how to do the process) and the rest of the administration of a Church of Scientology. These are not one on one services, these are a whole team working to better you. That’s why it gets expensive but it is worth it.



How Scientology evolved?



Scientology evolved from Dianetics when it was discovered that man is a spiritual being. Scientology differs from Dianetics in that Dianetics deals with the mind and the rehabilitation of mental image pictures and Scientology deals with the rehabilitation of the human spirit.



http://www.bonafidescientology.org/

http://www.chaplaincare.navy.mil/Scientology.htm

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

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/80/story_8057_1.html

Answer 3

scientology is nothing more that an excuse or a scam, custom made to get you to willingly had over most of your money to them. Seriously, it is all made up by a sci-fi writer.



If you have money they find a way to take it. If you don't have money they will talk you into working for them. If you work for them you get your scieno courses and work up the "bridge to total freedom" for free. Unfortunately, you end up paying dearly for it....like with your soul. You work for them in slave-labor conditions - working 16 hr days and making $50 a week. They give you a place to live; but you don't find out until after you've joined that you live with many other people in horrible, bug-infested conditions. If you have kids, you don't get to see them very often and most likely they get sent somewhere else to live.



And God forbid you want to leave.....I'm not even going to get started on that. Instead go to:



http://www.xenu.net

http://www.xenutv.com



and see what former members have to say about their experiences with the cult.

Answer 4

Yes, indeed. Even though I have tried to figure out what the heck it is, it is hard to do so. I once tried reading Dianetics but the book was just horrible. You would understand each word but find the whole sentence to be nonsense. It is the most weird and bizzare organization that I've known so far.

Answer 5

It was a joke. Ron Hubbard, sci-fi author, bet a friend he could start a church, religion , whatever based on a bunch of mumbojumbo nonsense.



It still is a joke but Hubbard won the bet.

Answer 6

Well since others have gone into great detail to tell you, all I'll say is Scientology = GARBAGE.

Answer 7

Basically its a belief that all human beings are essentially posessed by aliens.



People who buy into this belief end up shelling out all kinds of money to cleanse themselves of these aliens and usually end up broke.



There's more to it, but thats it in a nutshell.

Answer 8

it's not that weird relative to other religions



"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."



see, no more ridiculous than any other religion

Answer 9

It is a cult that dupes people into believing that they will be saved by giving money to the church. Kind of like Christianity, but more evil.

Answer 10

A kooky but very real religion based on the science fiction writing of L. Ron Hubbard. Lots of strange principles and ideals but hey eating the body of Christ is pretty strange too.

Answer 11

A cult founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. There core beliefs are as follows:



This area of the galaxy was once ruled by an alien warlord named Xenu. 65 million years ago his empire was overpopulated horribly, so to combat the overpopulation he had trillions of citizens called in for psychiatric evalutations and tax audits, where they were given paralytic drugs, loaded onto space planes, and flown to Planet Teegeeack. Once on this planet, their bodies were stacked in huge piles around volcanoes, while atom bombs were dropped into these volcanos, instantly killing trillions of galactic citizens.



To keep these people from reincarnating in the rest of the galaxy, Xenu set up a special trap. Powerful force-fields kept their souls (called "Thetans" in Scientology jargon) from escaping, and these thetans were then shown special holographic movies about the various lies they are supposed to believe, with characters like Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha. Over time, these thetans began to believe Xenu's lies about false gods, and began to reincarnate on Teegeeack (but the thetans called this world "Earth"). When intelligent life appeared on Teegeeack, thousands or millions of "Thetans" cling to every native soul (er, "thetan") and fill it's head with nonsensical thoughs and irrational beliefs.



The key idea of Scientology is to avoid tax officials and psychiatrists at all costs, while paying the church a large amount of money for special "counseling" (called "auditing" in their jargon) to help you reach a special enlightened state called "Clear" where you telepathically communicate with these "thetans" clinging to you and force them out of your body, and rid yourself of evil Xenu's influence.



(By the way, most Scientologists don't know this, like the Mystery Cults of the Greco-Roman world, Scientology doles it's doctrine out in tiny doses to it's new recruits, and tells the public next to nothing about what it believes. You don't hear that whole story until you reach a special rank in their group called "OT3" for "Operating Thetan 3". Their doctrine holds that if this got out, the Thetans in people would revolt at hearing the truth and people would get sick and die possibly just by hearing this story, which of course leads people who aren't Scientologists who hear this story to tell it to others and watch them not die or get ill from it.)

Answer 12

a cult that that improperly says it uses science to make its faith based beliefs (religion) accepted as real science



just a bunch a fantatical hooey



GL

Answer 13

It's an evil cult designed to make money and nothing else . Its effects on believers are destructive - Check out a partial list of victims: http://whatstheharm.net/scientology.html

Also read about:



● Its blatantly illegal and immoral activities, as illustrated by Operation Snow White and Operation Freakout.

● Its fair game" policy of harassing and destroying critics, as illustrated by the stories of Keith Henson, Frank Oliver and Paulette Cooper

● Its fatal abuse of its members, including Lisa McPherson, Heribert Pfaff, Josephus Havenith, and others

● Its brutal, illegal treatment of members who the Church considers in need of rehabilitation or punishment

● Its tax-exempt status in the United States, which was gained by blackmailing the IRS

● Its practice of breaking up families.





Read "the road to xenu" - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/ - an account of a girl who escaped scientology after 12 years!





The cult's core belief - no, I am not kidding here! - in the words of the founder:



"The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 5,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".



His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.



When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.



One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.



In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.



One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.



One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.



Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck."

Answer 14

NONE OF THE ABOVE.



Here’s a factual description for you (From an actual Scientologist):



Scientology is a new religion. It is an applied religious philosophy. By “applied” is meant that it is for use in life and living. You actually use it in your day to day life to change and improve existing conditions. It is a practical religion.

All religions if you study them have a basic philosophy, 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 acknowledges the principle of God or the Supreme Being 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. It is not belief or faith based. In Scientology a truth is true for you according to your 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.

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 there sphere and zones of his positive influence increases and moves 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.

Some of this knowledge was already existing in the sacred lore of ancient texts like the Veda or Vedic Hymns going back 10,000 years. New and additional discoveries were made about the nature of the human spirit and fully recorded and codified .

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.



L.Ron Hubbard published 18 basic books from 1950 to 1953 to fully communicate the basic principles of Scientology, the path of his research and the technology that he developed from this.

He completed all his research before his death in 1986 and left all his materials and copyrights to the Church of Scientology’s Religious Technology Centre along with most of his personal estate when he died.



The Church of Scientology is currently established iand operating internationally in over 160 countries world wide. However it is still a new religion, less than 55 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 3,000 tape recorded public lectures. So it’s not possible to fully answer your question on this forum, but I hope this helps.



Also here is our Creed written by L.Ron Hubbard and adopted by the first Church that was formed in Los Angeles ( Feb 18th 1954 .) After Mr Hubbard issued this creed from his office in Pheonix , the Church of Scientology adopted it as it's creed because it succinctly states what Scientologists believe.



Here it is in it's entirety, hopefully it answers your question:



We of the Church believe :



That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights;



That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance;



That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives;



That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity ;



That all men have inalienable rights to their own defence;



That all men have inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations, churches and governments;



That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others;



That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind;



That the souls of men have the rights of men;



That the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in nonreligios fields;



And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly;



And we of the Church believe that the laws of God forbid man;



To destroy his own kind;



To destroy the sanity of another;



To destroy or enslave another's soul;



To destroy or reduce the survival of one's companions or one's group.



And we of the Church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body.

Answer 15

I couldn't say it better then theta or affinity

Answer 16

It's yet another ridiculous fairy tale guised as religion

Answer 17

Germany is right in banning it from their country.

Answer 18

isn't that the study of science? :\