Church of Scientology

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Warning: Extreme Wingnuttery
This topic may or may not be bullshit, and is either nonsensical or idiotic.
May damage the mind and lead to drinking of the Kool-Aid.

Scientology is a bad joke foisted upon the gullible public by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. As a student of various sciences, and a creative writer, he wrote a book called "Dianetics" to, essentially, start an experiment in human psychology on the founding and growth of religions. The joke, of course, is on the "believers", who don't even realize they have been manipulated by someone who simply took their understanding of the human mind and created an interesting quasi-scientific experiment on how people come to believe things and follow "teachings". His experiment was well enough formed that his "religion" actually survives to this day, to the embarrassment of the human race.

End of reality check.

[edit] Ok, fine, I got that much...

Scientology is an exploitative and coercive loony cult founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, based on crackpot psychology, and populated by a mixture of the gullible, the insane, and the power-mad, as well as numerous people who combine all three. It is also a satanic cult according to Dan Kennedy,^[1] which is not strictly true; Hubbard was, however, a follower of Aleister Crowley whose Thelema faith was a forerunner of Laveyan Satanism.

It has been widely criticized on teh internets for legal threats and strongarm tactics, treating members abusively, bilking believers out of huge sums of money, and believing humans evolved from clams.^[2].

Scientology claims you are under the influence of negative traumatic incidents that you need to become "clear" of. This is done with "auditing" sessions using a quack lie detector-like device called an E-Meter. Auditing sessions cost thousands of dollars and suck the gullible convert into a cycle of needing ever more expensive auditing as the sessions uncover more traumatic incidents from past lives that they need to be "clear" of. Spending your adult life in Scientology and going through all the levels, auditing sessions, and other courses will cost you between $300,000 and $500,000, which you would be much better off putting into a good mutual fund to save for retirement.

Scientology successfully "clears" money from the bank accounts of vulnerable practitioners.

[edit] History

[edit] The early days

Scientology is the brain-child of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. After serving not very well in World War II, Hubbard published the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950.^[3] Dianetics described how all a person's problems were actually caused by "engrams" -- subconsciously remembered experiences from former lives. These engrams could be removed through a kind of therapy called "auditing". Once free of such engrams, a person would be a "Clear", and in full control of their mind and psyche. As such they would have special abilities, such as perfect memory and analytical powers. When Hubbard presented an alleged Clear to an audience in August 1950, those claims were shown to be slightly optimistic.

Predictably, Dianetics got the thumbs down from the scientific community, and Hubbard soon faced investigations by the Federal authorities for practising quack medicine. However, as Dianetics had gotten a positive response from lots of gullible people with too much money, Hubbard decided to turn it into a religion instead.

The first Church of Scientology was founded in 1953, hiding Hubbard's con scheme behind a screen of respectability and also avoiding lots of laws that didn't apply to churches. But the Church's biggest treasure was tax exemption, which was granted to it in the US in 1957.

[edit] Expansion & Sea Org

Hubbard moved to the United Kingdom in 1959 and bought an old manor in Sussex called Saint Hill. At that time Scientology was beginning to expand outside the US and the manor was turned into the headquarters for this expansion and, eventually, for most international activities.

In the following years Hubbard consolidated Scientology, establishing many of the organization's fundamental policies and practices. However, Scientology also attracted increased negative attention as it grew, so in 1966 Hubbard resigned as the formal head of the Church and instead bought a ship to use as his base; he began calling himself "Commodore" and established the Sea Org to act as his agents and assistants in Scientology. During this time Hubbard and his followers travelled around the Mediterranean as Hubbard carried out his "research" on the OT levels. He is known to have been strongly alcoholic and abusing drugs at the time.

Meanwhile, Scientology continued to expand in the US and abroad. It founded several front groups, such as Narconon in 1966. Also in 1966, the infamous Guardian's Office was established to counter threats to Scientology, both internal and external.

Government interest in the group was increasing. In 1963, the FDA had seized a number of E-meters and charged the Church with making false claims about their ability to diagnose and treat illness and in 1967 the IRS revoked tax exemption from all Scientology-related entities in the US. When the courts upheld this revocation in 1969, Scientology simply decided to withhold their owed taxes anyway, beginning a long war with the IRS that only ended in 1993.

While this was happening, Hubbard's flagship Apollo was established as the first "Advanced Org" and began offering Operating Thetan level III (the Xenu story) to members. Hubbard continued his "research in the upper levels of OT", regularly releasing new courses and OT levels in his search for more ways to help the Scientologists get rid of their money problems. He also introduced a new strategy to Scientology in the late 60s when he realized that Hollywood celebrities would be obvious and useful targets for Scientology. The first Scientology "Celebrity Center" opened in Los Angeles in 1970.

[edit] Operation Snow White

In the early 70s, US government investigations were becoming a serious problem for Scientology. In response Hubbard launched "Operation Snow White", a large scale infiltration of several US government agencies that were believed to have taken an interest in Scientology. Under the direction of the Guardian's Office, an estimated 5,000 agents infiltrated hundreds of government offices, stealing or destroying documents, tapping telephones, planting false information, and gathering material on officials to be used to blackmail them.

Sometime by the mid-70s Hubbard returned to the US where he went into hiding to avoid the authorities. He remained on the run for the rest of his life, but always maintained contact with the Scientology organization through a group of people known as "Messengers".

The organization suffered a severe blow in 1977 when the FBI raided several of its offices and found evidence of Operation Snow White and other illegal activities. Two years later, eleven top ranking members of the Guardian's Office, including Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard, were convicted and sent to jail. Ron Hubbard himself was listed as a "un-indicted co-conspirator" at the trial.

[edit] Captain Davie takes the wheel

The upheaval of the organization and Hubbard's absence (and likely worsening illness) allowed one of Hubbard's Messengers, David Miscavige to gradually assume control of Scientology. As a Messenger, Miscavige spoke with Hubbard's authority, and he instigated a thorough reorganization of Scientology, with himself at the top. Significantly, he closed the Guardian's Office and established the Office of Special Affairs in its place. He also created the Religious Technology Center to license the all-important copyrights of Hubbard's works, and effectively run the entire Scientology organization. As chairman of the RTC, Miscavige became the de-facto head of Scientology. It is unknown whether this was according to Hubbard's wishes.

In 1986, Hubbard suffered a stroke "completed all of his research" and died "discarded the body he had used in this lifetime".^[4] As the now undisputed head of Scientology, David Miscavige started a large-scale publication program of new versions of Scientology's books and courses.^[5] The Sea Org also acquired a new ship at this time, the Failwinds Freewinds. Sea Org had been land-locked ever since its last ships had been sold in the mid-70's, but now it retuned to the waves, cruising the Caribbean and offering OT VIII levels to happy members.^[6]

[edit] Wins! (And not so much wins)

Scientology, and especially David Miscavige, scored an epic win in 1993 when they reached a settlement with the IRS over the taxes Scientology had been withholding ever since their tax exempt status was revoked in 1967. In return for a payment of $12.5 million in back taxes the IRS relented and agreed to restore tax exempt status to Scientology and all related entities. This new agreement extended the exemption to areas of Scientology that would not normally have been covered by normal charitable status, such as religious education.^[7] It is believed that the agreement may have come about due to blackmail of top officials in the IRS. Besides the obvious advantages of now effectively never having to pay taxes on any of their business, the agreement also made it easier for Scientology to push for similar recognition in other countries. This allowed them to expand even further outside the US, especially in Europe.

The early and mid-90s also marked the first skirmishes in a long war between Scientology and the Internet. The newsgroup alt.religion.scientology was created in 1991 and became a regular hang-out for critics of Scientology. Most interestingly, several of the "Church"'s highly confidential top secret OT documents were leaked on a.r.s. Having failed epically to shut the newsgroup down in 1995, Scientology switched tactics and instead started flooding the group with trolls and apologists from the Sea Org and OSA. All things considered, a.r.s is easily one of the more entertaining newsgroups around, even if not very much is actually accomplished there.

Meanwhile, in Real Life, Scientology continued business as usual: expanding, clearing the planet, and screwing its rank-and-file members over so Miscavige could indulge in his love for expensive motorcycles and underwater photography. Numerous law suits were filed against critics in attempts to shut them up. Members such as Lisa Mc Pherson (1995) and Stacey Myers (2000) died under mysterious circumstances. Hilarious documents continued to leak to the public through court cases and ex-members. But generally life was good.^[8]

In 1996-97 Miscavige launched the "Golden Age of Tech" program which was supposedly "based on" Hubbard's works. The program made significant changes to the way Scientology's "auditors" were trained, essentially forcing a lot of members to pay again for courses they had already taken... or else. In 2004, Miscavige built further on this success through the "Golden Age of Knowledge". This is meant to be a complete re-release of all works by Hubbard, but as corrected, annotated and improved versions! (OMG!) In other words, members could now buy books that they had already bought... or else.

But not all has been well for Scientology recently, particularly in Europe. The Greek authorities shut down the Church in 1997 after they "found it to be a profitmaking group that endangers the mental and physical well-being of its members."^[9] The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution started monitoring Scientology activities in Germany in the mid-90s, considering them to present a potential danger to the democratic society. In Belgium Scientology may be facing criminal charges after a 10 year long government investigation has uncovered evidence of fraud, organized crime, illegal medical practices and several other transgressions.

[edit] Don't worry, ma'am, the Internet is here

2008 kicked off with an even worse mess for Scientology when they fired probably their most epic footbullet to date. Around January 14, an internal Scientology propaganda video was leaked on the Internet. The video showcases failed actor and Scientology front-person Tom Cruise rambling incoherently for ten minutes about how awesome Scientology is, punctuated by random crazy laughter.^[10] Great lulz were had by all.

But then, in a move that showed their complete lack of comprehension of how the Internet works, Scientology filed a copyright complaint and had the video removed. This attack on free speech roused the ire of the unwashed masses of Anonymous, who were moved to action in the way they knew best. DDoS attacks were made, black faxes were sent, prank calls were made, and further lulz were had.

Following a YouTube appeal by Wise Beard Man (AKA critic Mark Bunker) to stop failing and start doing it right^[11], over 9000 at least 7000 Anonymous took his words to heart, put on Guy Fawkes masks^[12] and flooded into the streets of cities all over the world on February 10 to protest in front of Scientology Orgs. The protests continued in the following months. Anonymous has pledged to continue the fight for as long as it takes, making these protests probably the greatest threat to Scientology since the 70s.

[edit] Beliefs and practices

[edit] Science fiction by Hubbard

Main page: Xenu and Friends

[edit] Birth and baby care

Hubbard was very opinionated about birth and infant nutrition.

Hubbard thought that talking in a delivery room could cause trauma for the baby and therefore delivery rooms should be as quiet as possible.^[13] He also thought that the mother should use as little anesthetic as possible^[14] - somehow a mother giving birth in pain doesn’t cause trauma for the mother or baby. But who expects Hubbard to be rational?

Hubbard further disapproved of breast milk in situations where the mother's health was compromised - but he also rejected the baby milk formulas developed by experts in nutrition. As usual, Hubbard thought he was a better expert than anyone else. He surmised that since Roman soldiers ate a lot of barley, and that made them fit and strong, it had to be good for babies too. Scientologist mothers still use the Hubbard baby formula. Actual health care experts think the Hubbard formula is low in vitamins (vitamin C in particular) and can put the baby at risk.^[15]

[edit] Damaging "therapy"

[edit] Organization

[edit] Religious Technology Center

[edit] Guardian's Office

[edit] Office of Special Affairs

[edit] Sea Org

The "Sea Org" is Scientology's "advanced religious retreat" at sea. Promoted to members as some sort of utopian cruise ship in which the most advanced levels of Scientology are taught, those who have joined Sea Org instead found themselves required to sign a "billion year contract" with Sea Org, surrender their passports upon boarding, live in squalid group quarters with no privacy, perform menial chores as assigned, and suffer punishments such as being locked in the chain locker for petty offenses. Sea Org makes it deliberately hard to leave by issuing those who leave a "freeloaders bill", billing them for all the auditing and services received on the ship.

[edit] Front groups and recruiting

Scientology is particularly opposed to the psychiatric community and operates a front group, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), to engage in anti-psychiatry campaigns. Scientology practise has a great deal in common with bad psychiatry.

Another front group is Narconon, a purported drug rehabilitation program (note the deceptively similar name to the legitimate 12-step program Narcotics Anonymous, and the support group for those living with alcoholics, Al-Anon). Sterling Management Systems is a large group awareness training run by the Church of Scientology and promoted to doctors and dentists.

The Cult Awareness Network, originally a mainstream anti-cult organization founded 1978 in response to the mass suicide of Jim Jones followers, fell on hard times (due to aggressive litigation against it by Scientology and by Landmark Education and the Pentecostal "Life Tabernacle Church"), and its assets purchased from bankruptcy court in 1996 by the Church of Scientology, and now functions as a Scientology front group as well.

Scientology recruits heavily from celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes, and John Travolta.

[edit] Splinter groups

Re-evaluation Counseling, although steeped in Marxism, is essentially an off-shoot of Dianetics. Avatar, a large group awareness training seminar, is run by Harry Palmer, a former Scientologist. More directly related to Scientology are the small groups collectively referred to as the Free Zone, consisting mostly of former Scientologists who continue to practice Scientology, but do so outside the official Church of Scientology. Scientology refers to all these as "squirrel organizations", a Hubbard term for anyone who appropriates Scientology doctrines outside the Co$. Participation in anything labeled "squirrel" by the Co$ is automatic grounds for being declared a "suppressive person" (persona non grata) and cut off from any further involvement in the "church" - and often actively harassed by them.

[edit] Is Scientology a religion?

There is some debate about whether Scientology is, in fact, a religion.

[edit] Legal tests

Although one test could be whether it is recognised as such by the states in which it operates, this is not, in practice, very helpful. For instance it is not recognised as a religion in Belgium, Denmark, France, Switzerland and the UK; however it is recognised as a religion in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA. In other countries such as Austria and Germany the legal position is unclear.

[edit] Scientology's opinion of itself

On the Scientology main page it refers to itself as a religion ^[17]. saying, The religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths. However, it could well be argued that the fact that it self-identifies as a religion does not necessarily mean that it is, in fact, a religion.

In its own description it also includes phrases such as: "Man is an immortal, spiritual being." and "Through Scientology, people all over the world are achieving the long-sought goal of true spiritual release and freedom." which certainly sound religious in nature.

However it must be remembered that what Scientology says openly to the world, and what Scientology says secretly to its "advanced" members are two different things - and consequently it is not necessarily wise to take at face value anything which may appear on their public webshite.

[edit] Spiritual beings

It could be maintained that one mark of a religion would be the belief in a God, Gods or other spiritual entities. (Unfortunately, this would not seem to be a perfect definition as it would appear to exclude Buddhism.) Does Scientology have such a belief? Apparently at the higher levels they have "thetans" - dead space aliens - though it would probably be stretching the matter to call them "spiritual entities".

[edit] Faith

Another element usually common in religions is the question of faith. However on their front page they say: "In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything as belief or on faith." which would seem to exclude them from the religious world.

On the other hand, as we noted above, what Scientology says - and what is the actual truth - are two different things.

[edit] Does it match other accepted definitions of religion?

On the face of it, Scientology would seem to match many of the definitions included in our religion article.

[edit] Bad movie night!

Scientology has a free movie they show called Orientation. You can only watch it at your local Church of Scientology. Actually, that's not true. Somebody posted a bootleg copy to YouTube and Google Video, but the Church of Scientology forced it down due to copyright threats. Somehow it still keeps popping up on the Internet though. Watch it here while you can. That way you can watch it without having to give them your name and address and being pestered by them. It concludes, "if you walk out of here and never mention Scientology again, that is fine with us. You can also jump off a bridge or blow your brains out."

There is another leaked Scientology video at the Tom Cruise article.

[edit] Teh Internets vs Scientology

There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on "Wikipedia" about Church of Scientology

Scientology has been at odds with many on the Internet since 1995, when the "church" attempted to cancel the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup using forged cancel messages. In 1996 a popular anonymous remailer in Finland chose to shut down after Scientology demanded the identities of two users. Several people who posted what the "church" considered their proprietary material have been sued and their homes and computers raided. A partial timeline of these early events can be found here.

A Google bomb had the official Scientology website coming up #1 when a search for "dangerous cult" was done, but it no longer appears in the top 100 hits on Google, Yahoo, or any of the search engines which rely on those two such as AltaVista. Smells like "somebody" coerced them into manually censoring it. Scientology.org is still the #1 hit on Ask.com, Gigablast, Lycos, and MSN. Scientology has also been pressuring Amazon.com to remove any bad reviews of Dianetics and other Scientology books, leaving them with improbable 5-star average ratings.

In 2008 in response to Scientology forcing a leaked Tom Cruise video off the Net, some unruly Anonymous 1337 hax0rz types have been holding regular protests at Scientology "churches" around the world, posting their communiques on teh YouTubes, campaigning for revocation of Scientology's tax-exempt status and generally making merry pranksters out of themselves (while enjoying delicious cake). This movement, known as Project Chanology, is spiraling out of control and running circles around the Church of Scientology. Since the first protest in February 2008, monthly protests have been held all over the world, including L. Ron Hubbard's joyous birthday celebration in March, the infamous Operation: Sea ARRGGHHH! in June and the insidious Operation: Spy vs. Sci in July. Outside of the monthly protest schedule, miniraids and surprise enturbulations are happening regularly. Operations are carried out according to plan across all fronts and will continue as needed until the objectives are reached or something more interesting turns up.

The unofficial central website of this conspiracy by suppressive persons to bring down this great work of LRH is the forums at Enturbulation.org, but Project Chanology is decentralized and its goings on all over teh Internets can be seen on any search engine.

[edit] See also

• Church of Latter Day Saints — Scientology, plus 125 years!
• Intervention theory

[edit] Plus!

Everyone hates Scientologists! Though Steve Napierski, creator of Dueling Analogs and The Outer Circle, drew this comic, he did not create the text for this version. This is a fan modified comic. For the original visit "Dueling Analogs: Hello, I'm Linux".

Copyright Steve Napierski, used with permission

Visit "Dueling Analogs" for more.

[edit] External links

Much has been written about Scientology by people who have been in the skeptic business for far longer than we have at RationalWiki. Here are a few choice examples:

• Operation Clambake -- Norwegian writer and atheism activist Andreas Heldal-Lund collects numerous articles describing the utter ugliness and insanity of the inner workings of Scientology.
• Dave Touretzky is a computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and a major voice in the online civil rights world. He has numerous pages dissecting the whys and wherefores of Scientologist science and technology:
  • Secrets of Scientology, including a dissection of the E-Meter
  • The Secret Library, a repository of some open-content material critical of the church
  • Stop Narconon, a dissection of the church's controversial (and probably worthless) substance abuse program
• "War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology" - Wired article on Project Chanology
• Wikileaks publishes the "Bible"' & is threatened.
• The animated TV series South Park created a very succinct portrayal of the belief system.
• FactNet archive of celebrity criticisms. Not particularly useful, just lulz.
• Mark Bunker explains why Scientology is not just the same as any other religion.
• After years of swearing not to pay 'one thin dime', Scientology paid 8 million dollars--why'd they finally cave?
• Time Magazine's Archive from 1950 → 1997
• For balance, the Scientology website. Please note that RationalWiki does not endorse any of the contents of this website and recommends viewing with extreme care.

[edit] References and notes

1. ↑ http://www.skeptictank.org/gen3/gen01852.htm
2. ↑ The Clam FAQ at Operation Clambake.
3. ↑ It seems possible that Hubbard borrowed from an earlier writer. http://forums.enturbulation.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4829 1934 German book.
4. ↑ Miscavige announces Hubbard's death to a jubilant crowd of Scientologists.
5. ↑ That Miscavige could do this unopposed shows how completely he controlled Scientology at this point. Hubbard's writings were otherwise considered perfect, and to alter ("squirrel") the perfect "tech" was a serious crime. Yet no one seems to have lifted an eyebrow when Davie rewrote the books and required the members to fork out even more money for the "new and improved" courses.
6. ↑ Freewinds later turned out to have an epic blue asbestos problem. Thank Xenu that OT VIIIs can cure cancer, eh!?
7. ↑ Hello, First Amendment! Can we say "establishment of religion", everyone?
8. ↑ Except for the rank-and-file members, of course.
9. ↑ Saint Petersburg Times, March 29, 1999
10. ↑ Video on YouTube. The whole video is hilarious, but check esp. 4:21-4:54 and 8:38-8:54 for superior lulz.
11. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-bRE1NZ0vg
12. ↑
13. ↑ Scientology Newsroom, accessed 2006-08-07
14. ↑ Hubbard, Dianetics, quoted in SilentBirth.org. Accessed 2007-06-15
15. ↑ Wikipedia on Hubbard & baby care. There are several "original" cites for this at the Wikipedia article, but they are all print rather these easy links to grab.
16. ↑ What is Scientology?
17. ↑ Scientology main page

[edit] Other links

• Deaths