Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know...But Didn't Ask...About Scientology!

Che’s Disclaimer & Note:
This post was scheduled several months ago. The untimely death of John Travolta's son, Jett, did not prompt this writing.

As a service to all my readers, I try to be as objective and positive as I possibly can with each teaching or religion I profile in this blog. The same is true with the following posting on Scientology. But I would be remiss in bringing you the information below, without also directing you to the voluminous number of voices that criticize the teachings and practices of Scientology. The most fascinating of these is an interview with Village Voice Writer, Mark Bunker, and actor Jason Beghe, a Scientologist for 12 years until 2007. If you wish to see this interview go to: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runningscared/archive. Also go to: http://whatstharm.net/scientology.html.

In early November 2008, there was a news report about two monks, one Greek and one Armenian, getting into a fist fight in Jerusalem and being thrown in jail. The courts can debate all they want about why this incident happened and who started the fight. As bystanders, we also can ponder how two men of the "cloth" could get to such a low state that they took to settling an argument in the way of "lesser men."

If you're a follower of Lafayette (L) Ron Hubbard, and of Scientology, you'd know what happened! The real culprit is the "reactive mind" of both monks that took over.

A true Scientologist would tell you that they need to get “Clear!”

According to Scientology beliefs, the single source of all your problems, "stress, unappiness and self-doubt," is the reactive mind. If you get “Clear,” a Scientologist would say, you would serve your problem.

Dianetics is a powerful book written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. This book preceded the founding of the religion in 1952. When I was in graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, I remember someone knocking on my apartment door to introduce me to Dianetics.

I was too busy with my studies then to even give the person a hearing. I declined the invitation to explore Dianetics. Now, so many years later, I wish I'd taken up the invitation, as I may have understood the fascination that millions of people around the world, including many Hollywood celebrities, have with Scientology. Indeed, today, I might be "CLEAR!" and not CONSTANTLY falling into the traps of my "reactive mind!"

Scientology seems to be growing at one of the fastest rates of any religion or teaching. According to the religion's official Website (http://scientology.com), it is the only new religion introduced in the 20th century.


According to research, in 2005 Scientology stated it had approximately eight million members worldwide. In the United States alone, the Church claimed 3.5 million members. Critics have said the numbers are significantly less and that the number is under 500 thousand people.
Whatever the number and the truth about membership, Scientology more than any other teaching has the ability to attract those who are at the top of their game!

Tom Cruise’s strong support for Scientology cannot be underestimated. As a matter of fact, his enthusiasm and outspokenness about his religious beliefs in recent years have given his previously untarnished image a major hit! John Travolta*, less vocal and public in his support, has been an avid Scientologist for many, many years. On the current volume of Dianetics, there's this quote from him:


"Dianetics put me into the big time. I always had the ability to be somewhat successful, but Dianetics freed me up to the point where something really big could happen, without interference."

The late Isaac Hayes was a Scientologist from 1995 until his death in August 2008. More recently, I've heard that Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, reportedly are practicing Scientology. As is Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise's wife.


There are other star followers as well, including Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Jason Lee and Kirstie Allie, among them.
What is it about Scientology that attracts so many stars and other highly successful people?

Why are so many successful people called to the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, a former science fiction author?


BELIEFS
Scientologists believe that Mind, Spirit and Body compose three distinguishable parts of all humans. The belief of the teaching is that the basic principle of existence is to SURVIVE, and that humans survive within a classification, referred to as the “Eight Dynamics.”

These are: Self, Family & Sex, Group, Humanity, Life, The Universe, Spirituality and the Supreme Being (or Infinity.) If a person, in his or her survival, promotes all eight dynamics, he or she is considered “good.”

The Scientology cross represents these eight dynamics of life, as practiced by the teaching’s followers.

Where most of us would define ethics as “the morals of a specific course of action," Scientology defines ethics as "the actions an individual takes on himself to ensure his continued survival across the dynamics." According to Scientology, various ethical states, or "conditions," represent the degree of a person’s success and the sequence of steps that can improve that individual's "condition." Scientology uses statistical measurement to assess a person’s "survival potential," with a downward trend identifying negative effects and an upward trend used to identify positive ones.



Scientology materials are called "Technology" or "Tech." These are structured in sequential levels, or "gradients,” so that easier steps are taken first and greater complexities are handled at the appropriate time. Progression in the study of Scientology materials is often noted as moving along "the Bridge to Total Freedom," or simply "the Bridge." Scientologists believe that every step on the "bridge" works towards more personal freedom.

The Church of Scientology is one of a number of groups involved in the anti-psychiatry movement, and one of the few organizations that publicly oppose the study and application of psychology in addition to psychiatry. The Church reportedly claims that psychiatry was responsible for World War I, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, the decline in education standards in the United States, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the September 11 attacks.

The Church's point of view on these issues is documented mainly by Church groups and magazines such as those published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and Freedom Magazine.

TEACHING
The word "Scientology" means "the study of knowledge or truth."

Scientology holds that man is basically good, not evil. The religion teaches that it is people's experiences in life that cause them to commit evil deeds; it is not in their basic nature to do so. People can mistakenly solve their problems by thinking only of their own personal interests and overlook or ignore how their acts affect others. This creates interpersonal strife and problems.

Scientology also teaches that individuals advance to the degree that they preserve their spiritual integrity and values, and remain honest and decent. Indeed, individuals deteriorate to the degree they abandon these qualities.

Some religions try to help humanity by solving people's problems for them. Scientology believes in increasing the ability and intelligence of the individual, so he or she can improve his own life, overcome those factors that hold him down, and solve his or her own problems.


Once a person is able to do that, he or she is considered
“CLEAR,” meaning that all the past input or disturbances from the past have no power to hurt his current path. What's more, once a person has accomplished this he or she naturally starts to reach out to help his family, friends and society.

MIND-BODY-SPIRIT
According to Scientology, the individual is not a body but a spirit. But because Hubbard believed there have been so many different concepts of the term “Soul” through the ages, he developed a new term, "thetan," from the Greek letter theta, the traditional symbol for thought and life. The thetan is the person himself, not his body, his name, the physical universe or anything else. It is that part of him which is aware of being aware; the identity that IS the individual.

One phenomenon of the Spirit, or Thetan, researched by Hubbard, is exteriorization. Exteriorization is the ability of the thetan to leave the body and exist independent of the flesh.

Exteriorized, the individual can see without the body's eyes, hear without the body's ears and feel without the body's hands. Man previously had little understanding of this detachment from his mind and body. With the act of exteriorization, attainable in Scientology, the individual gains the certainty that he is himself, an immortal spiritual being, and not a body.

THE EIGHT DYNAMICS OF EXISTENCE
A "dynamic" is an urge, drive or impulse towards survival. With an understanding of the eight dynamics in Scientology, a person gains insight and can bring all aspects of his life into alignment. The first four dynamics were initially described by Hubbard in his texts on Dianetics in 1950. He expanded this to encompass four additional zones of existence the following year when he began research into the spiritual nature of man. These dynamic urges are best viewed as a series of concentric circles moving out from the first to the eighth.

Scientology teaches that by simply delineating these dynamics, a person is able to clarify and and brings order into his or her life by becoming “CLEAR.” A person can observe the dynamics in his or her own life, note what needs improvement and work to do so.

Scientology advocates that people have lived many lifetimes.

THE BEGINNING
In Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard is profiled as a man who had a thirst for knowledge and truth about life. He searched for it, according to Dianetics, “From the open ranges of his home state of Montana to the hills of China, from the frigid coast of Alaska to the jungles of South Packfic islands, whether working with men on explorations or teaching inexperienced naval crews to survive the ravages of a world war, L. Ron Hubbard truly leanred what man and life are all about.”

Hubbard is said to have studied Far East philosophies but rejected it as “truth,” when he “observed widespread suffering and poverty” THERE. When he returned to the United States in 1929, Hubbard set about utilizing his Nuclear Physics background and “set out to find the basic principle of existence...something other philosophers had attempted but never found.”

Through a series of expeditions Hubbard undertook to the Caribbean and West Indies, in Haiti, where he studied voodoo, and Puerto Rico, where he studied the “hill people,” he discovered that there was a common denominator in all life: SURVIVAL. In 1938, he wrote his first philosophical work, “Excalibur.”

In developing his philosophies, Hubbard gives credit to Painter Francis Bacon and Philosopher Herbert Spencer and also credits a meeting with Cmdr. Joseph Cressman Thompson, a U.S. Navy officer who studied with Sigmund Freud. Hubbard also acknowledged the influence of Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics.

Scientology itself also reflects the influence of the Hindu concept of karma and dharma as well as the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and William Sargant. Hubbard called the Vedas Scientology’s earliest ancestor. In addition, Hubbard also gave recognition to the Tao Te Ching, the Dharma and Gautama Buddha as forerunners to Scientology.

PRACTICES
The Church of Scientology provides Sunday services as well as social ceremonies for marriage, birth, and death that are performed by an ordained Scientology minister. Most, if not all, of the actual ceremonies used were written by L. Ron Hubbard and are collected in the book, Ceremonies of the Church of Scientology. At a funeral service, the minister speaks directly to the departing spirit and grants forgiveness for anything the deceased has done so he can begin life anew.

Scientology promotes a belief that people have hidden abilities that have not yet been fully realized. The Church of Scientology claims its tenets are not a matter of faith but of testable practice. Further spiritual awareness and physical benefits are accomplished through counseling sessions, referred to as "auditing".

AUDITING
Through auditing, Scientology believes people can solve their problems and free themselves of ethical transgressions and bad decisions.
Those who study Scientology materials and receive auditing sessions advance from a status of "preclear" to "Operating Thetan (OT)".

"Auditing" is a one-on-one session with a Scientology counselor or "auditor." Most auditing requires an E-meter, a device that measures minute changes in electrical resistance through the body when a person holds electrodes (metal "cans"), and a small current is passed through them; Scientology states that it helps locate an area of concern.


In the auditing process, the recipient, or "preclear," discloses specific traumatic incidents, prior transgressions and bad decisions to the person auditing. In one form of auditing, the auditor asks the recipient to respond to a list of questions in strict order.

During the auditing process, the auditor may collect personal information from the person being audited. Auditing records are referred to within Scientology as "preclear folders." In Scientology it is considered a high crime to audit people who are: terminally ill;have an extensive history of psychiatric treatment or have been denied processing on the grounds that it might affect the safety and security of the organization and people who are members or ex-members.

Scientologists who have advanced to a state of "Clear" may continue onto the higher OT (or "Operating Thetan") Levels.

The high-ranking OT levels are made available to Scientologists only by invitation, after a review of the candidate's character and contribution to the aims of Scientology. Individuals who have read these materials may not disclose what they contain without jeopardizing their standing in the Church. Excerpts and descriptions of OT materials were published online by a former member in 1995 and then circulated in mainstream media. This occurred after the teachings were submitted as evidence in court cases involving Scientology, thus becoming a matter of public record.

There are eight publicly-known OT levels, OT I to VIII. The OT VIII designation is only granted at sea, on the Freewinds, a Scientology ship.


THE ORGANIZATION
There are a large number of organizations overseeing the application of Scientology as separate legal entities. Most notable of these organizations is the Church of Scientology, whose primary role is to uphold the beliefs of the teaching.


The Church of Scientology upholds the notion that individuals can discover for themselves whether Scientology works through personal observation and experience rather than blind faith. The Church promotes "auditing" as a means of spiritual rehabilitation. Scientology runs several promotion campaigns through closely related organizations and in the form of a set of moral standards, an anti-drug program, an education methodology, a volunteer organization and a business management method.

Fascination of Celebrities with Scientology

From its official Website, the religion states that Scientologists are "construction workers and corporate executives. They are plumbers, dentists and doctors. They are school teachers and policemen. They are newscasters, politicians, musicians and actors."

The attraction of celebrities with Scientology is not an accident. Hubbard saw to the formation of a special church that would cater to artists, politicians, leaders of industry, sports figures and anyone with the power and vision "to create a better world." As such, there are eight ”Celebrity Centres,” with Hollywood’s being the largest.

Former Scientologists say that celebrity practitioners get more attention than non-celebrity practitioners, like "Sea Org" members. Those who are “Sea Org” level scientologists, have been involved for decades, are at the highest level and typically devote their entire lives to the organization, wanting only to serve HUMANITY.


L. Ron Hubbard's aim in forming Scientology was to see manifest, "A civiilization without insanity, without criminals, without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights and where man is free to rise to greater heights."

A Truly Noble Cause!

Namaste’,

Che’

NOTE: We extend our deep sympathy to the Travolta family whose son, Jett, died on January 2, 2009 in the Bahamas.
In February, we will feature Star Edge's Avatar teachings, a derivative of Scientology.