Scientology - what is it?

[und]

As a Londoner who often travels to the central regions, I often see Scientology protests, which a number of people in masks. What is scientology? Who are its followers and where has it come from? What do scientologists believe?

[gorillafuck]

Scientology is a religion designed by a sci-fi writer in the 1960's to make money (they charge you to enter their churches if you don't belong to it and they charge you to join, etc). It has to do with aliens and really weird shit and is even more ridiculous than other religions.

This isn't a question about leftist politics, though....

[shadowmare]

Scientology in a nutshell is a Capitalist cult
But to save time, just check it out in Wikipedia. The information is (Suprisingly) accurate from when I last checked two days ago
According to Scientology founder and Science Fiction writer L, Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Scientology holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story
I personally don't know too much about it, the above was taken from the wikipedia entry "Xenu" However I do know that they are opposed to Psychology (Considering it harmful) and choose regular favorites among the cult. Preferring those with wealth over anyone else.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful :blushing:

[Agrippa]

Scientology is the brainchild of L. Ron Hubbard, a hack sci-fi author and apprentice of ameteur occultist and NASA engineer Jack Parsons (himself an apprentice of Aleister Crowley) who observed in the late 1950s, while at a sci-fi convention, that the sci-fi fan sub-culture was ripe with empty, desperate, and lonely psyches, and that he could exploit an empty niche by creating a sci-fi themed religion. So he did create one, based around the cosmology of his pulp sci-fi world.

The modern day CoS, however, is known less for catering to sci-fi nerds (they actually try to keep under wraps the absurd and embarassing claims of Hubbard's original religious cosmology, such as that the planet Earth is filled with the ghosts of aliens called Thetans that were sent here by Xenu, a galactic overlord, in ancient spacecraft that coincidentally looked identical to Douglas D-7s, and exterminated them by imprisoning them in volcano and blowing the volcano up with atom bombs, but not before subliminally brainwashing them in giant 1950s cineplexes, the subconscious origin of all religions other than Scientology) and more for catering to the petit-bourgeoisie, (especially B Hollywood actors such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and the voice-actor who portrays Bart Simpson) and just generally gullible people.

However, they do genuinely abuse and enslave their members, one woman (whose name I forget) being killed in an extraordinarily gruesome way. It's even more of a blatant money-making scam than other heirarchical religions, resembling more of a pyramid scheme than a religious community. Another central part of Scientology practice is "auditing", a process of mandatory verbal harassment and psychological torture sessions (a little bit like a more extreme version of confession) where subjects are forced to confess their most sordid secrets. (as well as answering sci-fi themed questions about their past lives, such as whether they ever zapped a planet or dismantled an android) This also involves devices that the Church calls "e-meters", which allegedly detect thetans (the ghost-aliens that Scientologists claim are the cause of all physical and psyhological disorders, hence why Scientologists don't believe in either Western or traditional, herbal medicine) but which are really just lie detectors.

Now the anti-Scientology movement really only became prominant when the CoS enraged various Internet communities (such as 4chan) by pressuring YouTube to take down leaked, confidential, unflattering recruitment videos featuring a derranged Tom Cruise. (who had recently embarassed himself on the television talk-show Oprah by jumping up and down on a couch) There was a significant overlap between the anarchist and anti-Scientology movements, but I think that's just because a good percentage of the random hipsters hanging out on the Internet happen to be anarchists.

Scientologists are best known to the general public as those annoying people who hand out creepy personality tests on the street.

[Manifesto]

This. Go to about 11:30 minutes. http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103804/?autoplay=false.
(http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103804/?autoplay=false)

[shadowmare]

Actually thats probably the best discription I've ever seen of Scientology :laugh:

On a sidenote, I hear the person that played Chef quit after that (They killed his character off shortly after that episode) because he was Scientologist

[Manifesto]

Yeah thats true. Sucks too I loved Chef.

[shadowmare]

"Hello there children!"
"Hey Chef"
"How are things?"
"Bad"
"Why bad?"
Aaaah good stuff... RIP Chef

[Rjevan]

However, they do genuinely abuse and enslave their members... it's even more of a blatant money-making scam than other heirarchical religions, resembling more of a pyramid scheme than a religious community.
This. I remember a documentation in which members had to pay about 800$ for a special "cleaning ritual" before they can get into a higher rank; this ritual turned out to be a sauna session which -in contrast to an ordinary sauna, of course- cleans their spirit, soul and body... :rolleyes:

They are controling of the everyday live of their members in an alarming way, exploit them wherever possible and all this out of the ideas of Ron Hubbard, a third class author of trashy science-fiction novels and friend of one of Aleister Crowley's pupils. Hubbard claimed that he understands how the world works, developed his "dianetics" theory (the basis for the Church of Scientology) and told ridiculous stories about the alien emperor Xenu, which must have been out of one of his worst sci-fi novels.

http://www.scientomogy.com/scientology_kills.jpg

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

Scientology is a religion designed by a sci-fi writer in the 1960's to make money (they charge you to enter their churches if you don't belong to it and they charge you to join, etc). It has to do with aliens and really weird shit and is even more ridiculous than other religions.

This isn't a question about leftist politics, though....

I'm not sure other religions are any less ridiculous. We're just used to them and they seem less abnormal.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

It's something that definitely isn't a religion and it definitely isn't real. Even its creator L. Ron Hubbard (sci-fi writer :rolleyes:) said that it was a load of crap, but the followers refuse to believe him. It has something to do with the fact that we're aliens or something, descendants of aliens or something and we have special powers (or something).

It's also known as 'psuedoscientology' and it's interesting because people go into a church with loads of money and leave with none. Isn't that funny?

[Agrippa]

I'm not sure other religions are any less ridiculous. We're just used to them and they seem less abnormal.

At the very least, classical religious literature has infinitely more aesthetic value. I'd even go beyond that, but I'm not a member of RevLeft's atheist majority...

It is true that Scientology is as worthless as the modern-day Catholic and Orthodx church bureaucracy, the protestant/evangelical establishment, Islamist, Hindu-fascist, and Judeo-fascist doctrines, most brands of liberal Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, most contemporary Buddhists, the Mormon Church, New-Age hippies etc. The reason for this is because all of these "spiritualities" are products of capitalism and other economically exploitative heirarchies.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

How is Buddhism a product of capitalism? I'm not disagreeing with you, I just don't see where that opinion comes from at all. Didn't buddhism start off with Theravada monks of equal status living off people's offerings and abandoning material possessions? And the buddha himself didn't ask to be worshipped or for people's money or for any sort of power - it was all about a personal journey. I wouldn't call that economically exploitative.

[x359594]

Scientology is the brainchild of L. Ron Hubbard, a hack sci-fi author and apprentice of ameteur occultist and NASA engineer Jack Parsons (himself an apprentice of Aleister Crowley) who observed in the late 1950s, while at a sci-fi convention, that the sci-fi fan sub-culture was ripe with empty, desperate, and lonely psyches, and that he could exploit an empty niche by creating a sci-fi themed religion. So he did create one, based around the cosmology of his pulp sci-fi world.

That's right, but it was the late 1940s. Originally, Hubbard called his racket Dianetics and marketed it through sci-fi magazines, especially Analog who's editor John W. Campbell was a sucker for human potential pseudo-science. It wasn't until the early 1960s that Hubbard re-invented Dianetics as Scientology and registered it as a religion with the Internal Revenue Service. Until then, Dianetics was advertised as a kind of psychotherapy that would un-lock one's hidden powers of mind. The problem was that a number of people completed the training without experiencing the advertised effect, so Hubbard invented past life obstacles and the fantastic science fiction scenario you described


...catering to the petit-bourgeoisie, (especially B Hollywood actors such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and the voice-actor who portrays Bart Simpson) and just generally gullible people...

In the interests of accuracy, Tom Cruise and John Travolta are A list actors; they're entitled to profit shares on their pictures and commnad salaries in in the 8 to 10 million dollar range. Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson) is a successful voice actor, and in her field she's also an A list performer. That said, there are more than a few B list actors who belong to Scientology as a way of advancing their careers in Hollywood, given the clout Cruise and Travolta exercise.


...the anti-Scientology movement really only became prominant when the CoS enraged various Internet communities (such as 4chan) by pressuring YouTube to take down leaked, confidential, unflattering recruitment videos featuring a derranged Tom Cruise. (who had recently embarassed himself on the television talk-show Oprah by jumping up and down on a couch)...

The anti-Scientology movement has been around for a long time. In the middle 1960s William Burroughs infiltrated Scientology's London branch and then wrote a series of scathing denunciations published in the alternative press of that era. He and his publishers were threatened with lawsuits. Mainstream publications such Life magazine also ran anti-Scientology articles and were also threatened with lawsuits. Scientology is noted for its ruthlessness in going after its critics. Over the years criticism of Scientology has waxed and waned, and now it seems to have entered a new internet phase.

[Agrippa]

How is Buddhism a product of capitalism? I'm not disagreeing with you, I just don't see where that opinion comes from at all. Didn't buddhism start off with Theravada monks of equal status living off people's offerings and abandoning material possessions? And the buddha himself didn't ask to be worshipped or for people's money or for any sort of power - it was all about a personal journey. I wouldn't call that economically exploitative.

Please observee that I said "most modern forms of Buddhism". Obviously, Buddhism doesn't exist in a political vacuum. Modern Buddhism is either capitalist or anti-capitalist.


The anti-Scientology movement has been around for a long time. In the middle 1960s William Burroughs infiltrated Scientology's London branch and then wrote a series of scathing denunciations published in the alternative press of that era. He and his publishers were threatened with lawsuits.

I've read them, they're quite good. But I was specifically referring to the recent wave of public protests, bomb threats, vandalism, malicious computer hacks, black-faxes, etc. that the OP inquired about.

[Dimentio]

At the very least, classical religious literature has infinitely more aesthetic value. I'd even go beyond that, but I'm not a member of RevLeft's atheist majority...

It is true that Scientology is as worthless as the modern-day Catholic and Orthodx church bureaucracy, the protestant/evangelical establishment, Islamist, Hindu-fascist, and Judeo-fascist doctrines, most brands of liberal Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, most contemporary Buddhists, the Mormon Church, New-Age hippies etc. The reason for this is because all of these "spiritualities" are products of capitalism and other economically exploitative heirarchies.

Christianity originated in the Mediterranean slave-production-based society, and I think it originally served as some sort of class-movement contradicting the strict class norms of Roman society.

[x359594]

How is Buddhism a product of capitalism?...

I think it's a mistake to view religion as a product of capitalism. This judgement is ahistorical. The classic religions, both in Asia and the West, developed during the bronze age and the following 1,000 years, ante-dating capitalism by 1,500 years.

Vulger Marxists make a one-to-one casual relationship between the economic base and the cultural supestructure. According to this view, the economic relationships of human society are the "base" upon which society is founded, and all other social relationships (sexual, familial, racial, national) are merely a "superstructure" which is built upon this economic base. Prevailing economic conditions, these "economic determinists" assert, directly determine the form of religious, familial, legal, ethical and other social relationships, and these non-economic structures can only be altered through changes in the underlying economic base. As Stalin put it, "Every base has a superstructure corresponding to it. . . If the base changes or is eliminated, then following this its superstructure changes or is eliminated; if a new base arises, then following this a superstructure arises corresponding to it."

These determinists thus tend to view each succeeding social mode of production in solely economic terms--merely as methods whereby humans produce their physical needs. In reality, however, no human society can exist unless it reproduces, alongside its physical needs, the whole array of ideas, attitudes and social relationships which allow it to exist. All social modes of production must determine, not only how the physical necessities of life are produced and distributed (economics), but also how the different members of that society relate to each other (nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion) and how these social structures are maintained, enforced and indoctrinated (law, education, the state).

Marx never made the mistake of asserting that economic relationships were the determining factor in capitalist society. The economic and non-economic spheres, Marx pointed out, exist in a dialectical relationship, with each influencing and reproducing the other.

Engels wrote, "According to the materialist conception of history, the determining moment in history is ultimately the production and reproduction of real life. More than this neither Marx nor I have ever asserted. If therefore somebody twists this into the statement that the economic moment is the only determining one, he transforms it into a meaningless, abstract and absurd phrase."

[Agrippa]

Christianity originated in the Mediterranean slave-production-based society, and I think it originally served as some sort of class-movement contradicting the strict class norms of Roman society.

Reread what I said. I referenced Protestantism (the first religious ideology to emerge from capitalism, IMHO) and the modern Catholic and Orthodox bureaucracies, (which were institutions of fuedal exploitation, hence why I included the line "and other economically exploitative hierarchies", but are now fully integrated into modern capitalism) not early Christianity, general Catholic/Orthodox culture, other Christian sects such as Anabaptism, etc.

[Revy]

Scientology's official site (http://www.scientology.org/)
Anti-Scientology website (http://www.xenu.net/)
Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology)

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

''Please observee that I said "most modern forms of Buddhism". Obviously, Buddhism doesn't exist in a political vacuum. Modern Buddhism is either capitalist or anti-capitalist.''

OK, I didn't see the 'modern' part. I thought you were referring to the origins of Buddhism.

[NoMore]

I think it's funny when people who believe in a religion criticize Scientology and call it crazy when in fact Scientologists have just as much proof as any other religion, that being a book written by some guy.

[n0thing]

I almost expect to see people defending Scientology in this thread.

[NoMore]

I almost expect to see people defending Scientology in this thread.
I wasn't I was pointing out that Scientology is just as "silly" as any other religion.

[Pogue]

As a Londoner who often travels to the central regions, I often see Scientology protests, which a number of people in masks. What is scientology? Who are its followers and where has it come from? What do scientologists believe?

Your a Londoner. Now I like you.

[Il Medico]

It is the crazy shit Tom Cruise believes in. Enough said.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

Speaking of Tom Cruise, has anybody seen the video where he's talking about his beliefs...I think it could have been a leaked video. I Youtubed it a while ago and it was genuinely scary. He might as well have had a sign above his head saying 'brainwashed by cult'.

[n0thing]

I wasn't I was pointing out that Scientology is just as "silly" as any other religion.
I know. I just wouldn't be too surprised if I did see some genuine support for it here.

"Scientology is a worker's religion and should be so regarded." I can definitely see it.

[x359594]

I think it's funny when people who believe in a religion criticize Scientology and call it crazy when in fact Scientologists have just as much proof as any other religion, that being a book written by some guy.

Only Scientology and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints base their religion on books written by a single author. In the case of the other world religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, the canonical texts were written ex-post facto by groups of authors writing over a period of decades to hundreds of years, and reflect the changing conditions under which they were written. Further, these religions are intimately bound to the culture complexes in which they arose, so that even secular life is beholden to them down to the use of such expressions as "good-bye" (a contraction of "god be with you.") Scientology cannot make that claim.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

I think it's funny when people who believe in a religion criticize Scientology and call it crazy when in fact Scientologists have just as much proof as any other religion, that being a book written by some guy.

Even as an atheist I have to disagree with this view.

Religions developed over time, incorporating various people's views and opinions - almost 'collecting' them as they went along. Religion has played a part in shaping society and the hierarchies that still exist today (e.g. India's caste system). Religious texts can be respected for other reasons as well; they are important as historical documents even if the actual teachings are disregarded. Furthermore, religions include genuine pieces of wisdom and philosophy. Yes, there is a load of rubbish which seems comparable to Scientology's rubbish, but every religion has it's deep, spiritual and philosophical side. Not everybody takes a religious doctrine to be literal truth either; part of what makes older religions interesting is the variety of interpretations and metaphors that you can get from a religious text - way more than just the superficial, unbelievable stuff that is on the surface.

The point is, religion has some depth to it whereas Scientology was based on the science fiction writing of a mediocre writer, and he actually admitted it was all made up. With Scientology you can't look for spiritual depth or complexities which lie behind the 'you're an alien' messages, because that's all there is.

[x359594]

...The point is, religion has some depth to it whereas Scientology was based on the science fiction writing of a mediocre writer, and he actually admitted it was all made up. With Scientology you can't look for spiritual depth or complexities which lie behind the 'you're an alien' messages, because that's all there is.

Precisely. Moreover, Hubbard transformed Dianetics into Scientology and then claimed Scientology as a religion entirely for reasons of expediency; he wanted to shelter the organization's income from being taxed, so Scientology is not really a religion in any meaningful sense of the word.

[SHEHATEME]

I'm not sure other religions are any less ridiculous. We're just used to them and they seem less abnormal.

I totally agree. If you look into any relgion it has it's bases in fancyful stories. Christianity asks it's folowers to believe that a man can rise from the dead. Personally I find all relgions equally as irrational.

[Revy]

Um, I don't think Scientology is bad because of its wacky beliefs, they rarely advertise that anyway! It is because it thrives on money and sets itself on a path of powerful domination.

Look, THIS is how they advertise themselves:

h1RaKWS6jb4
Pvku53FL3T8
B2BHOEG7Oy0

one of the comments on YouTube (as Scientology released these new commercials they seem to have allowed people to comment on their videos)


When people ask me WHAT Scientology is, I normally keep it very simple.

It's about 'Improving Conditions in Life'. While it's not for everyone, those that seem to benefit most from it are those that are truly curious about what makes man 'tick'.
It takes a VERY big spirit to look at what he or she doesn't like about him or herself, and an even bigger person to want to correct these things.

Scientology is a true hope for man. I'd be dead or in jail had I not found it.

So it's not like people become Scientologists because they believe there was an evil alien warlord named Xenu. C'mon now. Let's get real here.

[Verix]

one the main reasons i hate Scientology is the fact they sue anybody who trys to Criticizes them,

[shadowmare]

If they start going on about a glorious civilization behind a comet... I think it would be time to get physical on the Scientologist nutties before they pull a Hitler and make a big scene before ending themselves.

Unrelated, But I actually do have respect for the Native American Religion and Folklore. Worship of known Ancestors, Utmost respect for Nature, Equality between the sexes, And a real connection with animals. Not to mention being the greatest damned recyclers in history.
I'm aware I left out the part about being born on the back of a Giant Turtle

I'm an Atheist by choice, but if I had to follow any religion, Native American would be my top decision:)

[LeninKobaMao]

Thom Cruise...

[What Would Durruti Do?]

Scientology is essentially every 8 year old's ridiculous money making scheme perpetuated by a somewhat insane science fiction writer that was actually pretty successful.

An embarrassment for humanity no doubt.

[Agrippa]

I totally agree. If you look into any relgion it has it's bases in fancyful stories. Christianity asks it's folowers to believe that a man can rise from the dead. Personally I find all relgions equally as irrational.


I think it's funny when people who believe in a religion criticize Scientology and call it crazy when in fact Scientologists have just as much proof as any other religion, that being a book written by some guy.

Although x35 and Viva have rebuked these claims very well, they can also be dispelled by even the briefest investigations into various traditional religious philosophies such as qabala, vedic science, Taoism, etc. followed by a comparison of those philosophies to the "teachings" of dianetics.