Is Scientology a Religion or a Cult?
L. Ron Hubbard
Imagine being forced to leave your home and life behind, having to run away to a life in the shadows of ignorance and mind control, entrapped in a web of ignorance. Many people of the Scientology organization live this dire reality daily. Some of these people strive through the organization, shelling out large sums of money towards the Church of Scientology in hopes of a spiritual and mental liberation of the constraints society has burdened people with for many ages. Generally though, what is Scientology and why is it always in a controversial light with people shouting it down as an evil cult? Though the course of this essay, the remnances of the argument of why Scientology will be discussed as well as the input of the explanations and ideals of Scientologists themselves.
So where did Scientology all come from? Well in fact it was invented in the 1950s by a science fiction writer by the named of L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard at the time was a science fiction writer, but his lust for money grew into an obsession, namable when he popularly claimed "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". And start a religion is just what Hubbard did. He started to introduce a new form of "science" he coined as "Dianetics". The goal of Dianetics was to counter all forces of psychology, disproving them and offering a real, usable mean of analyzing and treating people's mentality. At the time these ideas seemed very innovating as society entered the 1960s, when radical changes to how people perceived the world were brought into focus. In response to this Hubbard submitted his new "findings' to psychology centers, only to be laughed and mocked at. Hubbard grew angry and in retaliation he formed his Scientology group, using his properties of Dianetics to "cure" problems within the human psyche that people came to him having. This was all swell and good but Hubbard still wanted more money, raising his costs radically for his Dianetics procedures and even giving his Scientology group things like pulpits and "churches" so the government could finally recognize his organization as a religion, thus making him tax exempt.
The beliefs of the church were very eye appealing to the general outsider who wasn't aware of the critics of Scientology. The Church of Scientology paraded itself as an entity that could be incorporated into life by everyone from Christians to atheists. Members would learn in several levels within the organization about the organization and the "secrets" that were held away from them. Here listed below is a diagram provided by bible.ca which shows the levels within the Church of Scientology with the prices of how much they all cost to get to them.
========== ========== ========= =====
Processing Intensives Cost per Total
Step Required Intensive Cost
or Course (IAS)
========== ========== ========= =====
Life Repair 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Purification RD ----------- $2,560 $2,560
TRs & Objectives 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Scn Drug Rundown 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
ARC Straightwire 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Grade 0 3 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $16,800
Grade 1 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Grade 2 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Grade 3 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
Grade 4 2 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $11,200
New Era Dianetics 3 x 12.5 hr $5,600 $16,800
Clear Certainty RD 1 x 5 hr $2,800 $2,800
SUB-TOTAL TO CLEAR $128,560
*Solo Course Part 1 ----------- $3,200 $3,200
*OT Preparations 2 x 12.5 hr $3,300 $6,600
*Solo Course Part 2 ----------- $1,900 $1,900
*OT Eligibility 2 x 12.5 hr $3,300 $6,600
*OT I ----------- $2,000 $2,000
*OT II ----------- $3,800 $3,800
*OT III ----------- $6,500 $6,500
OT IV ?2 x 12.5 hr $6,500 $13,000
OT V 4 x 12.5 hr $7,400 $29,600
OT VI set-ups 2 x 12.5 hr $9,250 $18,500
OT VI ----------- $12,800 $12,800
Pledge Intensive 1 x 12.5 hr $9,250 $9,250
OT VII ----------- $3,500 $3,500
OT VII C/Sing
(per year) over 2 years $3,200 $6,400
OT VIII ----------- $10,000 $10,000
OT VIII auditing ?2 x 12.5 hr $7,400 $14,800
TOTAL BILL FROM RAW MEAT TO OT VIII $277,010
========
Clearly the prices are outrageous by most standards, but many Scientologists pay these high prices, considering when they do that most likely are already in a sense of mind control by the Scientologists. The members will be sat down and not given the freedom to walk out of the room until they are convinced to pay up the money to continue the Scientology courses. The initial goal of a member is to reach the status of "Clear" which in Dianetics, is when your mind frees itself from negativity. Dianetics explains that the brain works with two parts: A part that is analytical and a part that is reactionary. Through the "clearing" or "auditing" as Scientologists put it for the pre-OT process, people are to cancel out this negative part of the mind for good, forever being liberated to have a sharper clear mind. Many celebrity Scientologists like John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, Isaac Hayes (voice of Chef from South Park), and Chick Corea strongly defend the process of auditing as uplifting and liberating.
The process of auditing in particular leads many skeptics into the point of questioning if it really is a form of mind control. The concept of ones ethics is consistently used by the Scientology community to try to trap good people within the organization. Unfortunately over time through auditing the point of ethics is driven into the member gradually by leading them to believe that to be ethical really is to be loyal to whatever the Church of Scientology says, rather that the Judeo-Christian morals that are used within Western society. Initially this ethics issue is the bait which will draw people into the church and then the process of auditing occurs. At the beginning phases, newbies will sit down with another person with a crude device called an "E-meter". This E-meter uses very simple technology which consists of two metal probes which a user will hold. The device can detect the smallest of differentiations of electrical pulses which unscientifically can "detect lies". The new recruits here are submitted with their own faith to believe this works, intimidated by words which draw out fear and the truth of the person. Within these very initial points the Scientologists will ask a victim to spill out their most inner and disturbing secrets, making sure to keep them well documented. Of course, you may wonder why this may be, which actually reasons to the fact if and when a member of the Scientology organization wishes to leave, they will be subjected and harassed to and by the content which they secretly described. Many people have committed suicide at this point for the overwhelming pain endured upon the ex-members of the group.
With all of this auditing there is a strong sense of mind control and enforced control upon the Church of Scientology. The heads of the organization want members to stay ignorant of the outside world and all new recruits are escorted by Scientologists all over. Close tabs are kept on all members at all times with the church giving them software which will block out any anti-Scientology information, sort of like a "Net Nanny". Auditing itself strongly helps in the process of the control. People there are subjected to staring at other people for hours on end. Ridiculous physical exercises occur which aid to mind control like the popular exercise of taking a large quantity of vitamins, going out for a long run outdoors, only to come back and sit in a sauna alone for five hours and up. All of these things down to new Scientologists are as they are told to get out all of the impurities dosed upon them, when really they are having cases of hallucinations. The members at lower levels of the organization are kept ignorant of what happens and the rules of the upper levels. Most members will never see the upper levels since they don't have the money for it, but some do and get told some amazing and shocking things that any other person might gasp in horror or laugh at.
(Source provided by xenu.net)
In the response of growing criticism against L. Ron Hubbard in the 1960s, Hubbard started a "Fair Game" policy within the church to "deal" with the enemies of Scientology. Within the higher levels of the Church of Scientology as shown above, enemies "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist; may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed". Many cases of this policy in action have been reported all over the world from former Scientologists to people who portray Scientology in a critical light are all fair game. Scientologists will do whatever possible to dig dirt upon a person, sue them constantly on bogus charges till they are bankrupt, kidnap and lock them up in their own secret dungeons on their properties and so forth. It is no wonder why so many people who leave Scientology, who automatically are subjected to this "Fair Game" policy just for leaving for whatever reason commit suicide shortly there after to try to escape the insanity.
Many ex-Scientologists who have made it to or past the OT3 level in Scientology tell the tale of one of the most laughable and outrageous claims of Scientology. The OT3 level is the most popular since it contains the story of the character named Xenu. According to Hubbard, 75 million years ago there was this alien named Xenu who ruled our part of the galaxy. Back then Earth was called Teegeeack, unlike what those pesky scientists tell us. At some point Xenu had a massive problem with the consideration that 76 of the planets he controlled had a population problem of about 178 billion people per planet on average. Now, with such a large amount of people clogging these planets up, Xenu was faced with having to solve the population problem, and soon. So Xenu gathered all of the people up by using psychiatrists to collect people for their income tax inspections. When the people showed up they were given injections of both alcohol and glycol to suddenly paralyze them. After this all the billions of billions of people were loaded onto giant space craft that looked identical to DC8s, but with rockets instead of propellers. All of these space craft traveled from all the 76 planets to Earth where they paralyzed billions of billions of aliens were stacked into the bases of twelve volcanoes on Earth, half of which scientists say never existed 75 million years ago. Once all the aliens were loaded into the volcano bases, there were very powerful H-bombs that were detonated and all the aliens were killed. At this point, the souls of the aliens, or also known as thetans to Scientologists, were blown around in the atmosphere in nuclear winds. Xenu had electronic thetan traps then in the atmosphere where all the thetans would get stuck and then gathered into large boxes. These large boxes then were transported to large movie theaters where there were movies of the Christian depiction of God, Satan, and Jesus, which was coined as "implanting" by the Scientologists. Once the films on Christianity had ended, all the thetans were going crazy and wild and they clustered into groups of a few thousand each. These groups of thetans are what we know as souls today and the only way to get all these bad and crazy thetans out of you so there is only good ones is through Scientology, according to Hubbard.
In conclusion one must ask themselves if a group is a religion if it charges its members large sums of money so the full gospel of that religion could be explained? Christianity, Islam, Judaism and so forth all have religious books who allow anyone to come off the street into their holy buildings where they can learn of their gospel for free. Why does Scientology not follow these examples? Why is it the people who leave or even criticize the Church of Scientology are attacked so viciously without remorse? Many say that Scientology isn't a religion, but instead a cult with only motivations of making money, and that is all. Only you can decide if it is only a misunderstood religion that only bigots lie about for their own gain or it is a dangerous cult that has goals of making money and taking over the world. Germany has already banned Scientology, considering it is afraid of it's own past and never wants to repeat the mistakes it once had. Will other countries follow, and will people take up on the information war against Scientology? Only the future can tell us.