Felicia
26th September 2006, 03:11
If there is already a thread discussing scientology, forgive me.
**Disclaimer: I am not a Scientologist!**
For those of you who don't know (and that would be everyone because I haven't told anyone, lol) I filled out an online personality test with the Church of Scientology upon receiving a link from a friend. This led to the local Scientology Centre calling me, wanting to set up an appointment to 'discuss' my results. So, hesitantly I agreed, along with said friend, to go to the church to 'discuss' our results, we went together so she could keep me from getting brainwashed (jokingly). Unfortunately, according to this test, I'm in the 'normal' range according to their beliefs (i don't know how 'normal' is good in this case- jk), but I'm slightly on the irresponsible side. This is what I've learned...
Dianetics, taken from the official Church of Scientology Website (http://www.scientology.org/)
Dianetics comes from the Greek words dia (through) and nous (soul). Dianetics could be said to be what the soul is doing to the body. It provides answers to the fundamental riddles of the mind with a thoroughly validated method that increases sanity, intelligence, confidence and well-being. It gets rid of the unwanted sensations, unpleasant emotions and psychosomatic ills that block one's life and happiness. Dianetics rests on basic principles that can be easily learned and applied by any reasonably intelligent person—as millions have. It is the route to a well, happy, high IQ human being.
Dianetics addresses the part of the mind that operates below the conscious level, exerting a hidden influence that causes you to react irrationally, say and do things that "aren't you," and have inexplicable emotions and ills that hold back intelligence and ability. It all resolves with Dianetics.
Dianetics is the book, written by L. Ron Hubbard, that more-or-less kick started the Scientology 'religion'. I use quotes because it doesn't seem to be a religious institution but more a self-help organization. Scientology, meaning 'the study of truth' focuses on a few fundimental truths (their fundimental truths are not absolute truths in the grand scheme of things, so don't confuse their meanings :P). That 'man' is an immortal, spiritual being. The experience of 'man' is not limited to our lifetime, but extends well beyond (so basicly the idea of reincarnation). One's capabilities are unlimited and can be realized if not so already. 'Man' is capable of solving his own problems and attaining a higher state of awareness, ability and happyness. Personally I don't like how they use 'man' when speaking of individual persons, I'd much rather them use some kind of gender neutral term.
The focus of this religion seems to be primarily based on self-help, self awareness and accepting of differences. Scientology does not preach that their religion is the right way, nor that all their beliefs are truths for everyone in the 'religion'. They preach learning the methods of dianetics and self improvement and deciding for yourself whether these methods are truths for yourself. Also, there is no 'god' in this belief system, no heaven or hell.
The Church of Scientology also contributes to literacy projects all aroun the world and are apart of many organizations doing good. I watched an hour long video while I was there, the man doing the talking had a funny little smile... note the cameras darted to celebrities in the audience, one being Tom Cruise. Here is a page detailing their activities (http://www.scientology.org/en_US/world/index.html) (I admit, I was quite impressed!). They also offer a lot of self-help programs (with a cost, no doubt).
Now here comes my issues with their system set-up. A big thing they emphasize is that they are not a religion that is followed by their members blindly. Now, the way their heirarcy is set up (to my understanding) is that one must take classes to advance in the religion, not only to advance but to discover more of the 'religions' secrets. One is sworn to protect the secrets of the religion, there have been 'leaks' in the past, of people who have taken the courses, claiming the religion belives that some of us are inhabited by extraterrestrial souls. How can they believe that a person is not following 'blindly' when they begin, they are unaware of much of the religion's beliefs, then discover these other beliefs later on? This is deceptive! These people who released this information were not sued for liable, but for releasing private information, things like that, nothing to indicate that the information was false.
bah, any thoughts on Scientology? I want a reasonable discussion, not shit like 'all religion is stupid' thanks.
**Disclaimer: I am not a Scientologist!**
For those of you who don't know (and that would be everyone because I haven't told anyone, lol) I filled out an online personality test with the Church of Scientology upon receiving a link from a friend. This led to the local Scientology Centre calling me, wanting to set up an appointment to 'discuss' my results. So, hesitantly I agreed, along with said friend, to go to the church to 'discuss' our results, we went together so she could keep me from getting brainwashed (jokingly). Unfortunately, according to this test, I'm in the 'normal' range according to their beliefs (i don't know how 'normal' is good in this case- jk), but I'm slightly on the irresponsible side. This is what I've learned...
Dianetics, taken from the official Church of Scientology Website (http://www.scientology.org/)
Dianetics comes from the Greek words dia (through) and nous (soul). Dianetics could be said to be what the soul is doing to the body. It provides answers to the fundamental riddles of the mind with a thoroughly validated method that increases sanity, intelligence, confidence and well-being. It gets rid of the unwanted sensations, unpleasant emotions and psychosomatic ills that block one's life and happiness. Dianetics rests on basic principles that can be easily learned and applied by any reasonably intelligent person—as millions have. It is the route to a well, happy, high IQ human being.
Dianetics addresses the part of the mind that operates below the conscious level, exerting a hidden influence that causes you to react irrationally, say and do things that "aren't you," and have inexplicable emotions and ills that hold back intelligence and ability. It all resolves with Dianetics.
Dianetics is the book, written by L. Ron Hubbard, that more-or-less kick started the Scientology 'religion'. I use quotes because it doesn't seem to be a religious institution but more a self-help organization. Scientology, meaning 'the study of truth' focuses on a few fundimental truths (their fundimental truths are not absolute truths in the grand scheme of things, so don't confuse their meanings :P). That 'man' is an immortal, spiritual being. The experience of 'man' is not limited to our lifetime, but extends well beyond (so basicly the idea of reincarnation). One's capabilities are unlimited and can be realized if not so already. 'Man' is capable of solving his own problems and attaining a higher state of awareness, ability and happyness. Personally I don't like how they use 'man' when speaking of individual persons, I'd much rather them use some kind of gender neutral term.
The focus of this religion seems to be primarily based on self-help, self awareness and accepting of differences. Scientology does not preach that their religion is the right way, nor that all their beliefs are truths for everyone in the 'religion'. They preach learning the methods of dianetics and self improvement and deciding for yourself whether these methods are truths for yourself. Also, there is no 'god' in this belief system, no heaven or hell.
The Church of Scientology also contributes to literacy projects all aroun the world and are apart of many organizations doing good. I watched an hour long video while I was there, the man doing the talking had a funny little smile... note the cameras darted to celebrities in the audience, one being Tom Cruise. Here is a page detailing their activities (http://www.scientology.org/en_US/world/index.html) (I admit, I was quite impressed!). They also offer a lot of self-help programs (with a cost, no doubt).
Now here comes my issues with their system set-up. A big thing they emphasize is that they are not a religion that is followed by their members blindly. Now, the way their heirarcy is set up (to my understanding) is that one must take classes to advance in the religion, not only to advance but to discover more of the 'religions' secrets. One is sworn to protect the secrets of the religion, there have been 'leaks' in the past, of people who have taken the courses, claiming the religion belives that some of us are inhabited by extraterrestrial souls. How can they believe that a person is not following 'blindly' when they begin, they are unaware of much of the religion's beliefs, then discover these other beliefs later on? This is deceptive! These people who released this information were not sued for liable, but for releasing private information, things like that, nothing to indicate that the information was false.
bah, any thoughts on Scientology? I want a reasonable discussion, not shit like 'all religion is stupid' thanks.