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A Scientology Center on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California

Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals, originally established as an alternative psychotherapy in 1951 by science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, then recharacterized by him in 1953 as an "applied religious philosophy."

The term Scientology is a trademark of the Religious Technology Center, which licenses its use and the copyrighted works of Hubbard to the controversial Church of Scientology. The Church presents itself as a religious non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging development of the human spirit, and providing counseling and rehabilitation programs as an alternative to psychiatry, which Scientologists believe to be a barbaric and corrupt profession [1]. Church spokespeople attest Hubbard's teachings (called "technology" or "tech") has freed them from addictions, depression, learning disabilities, mental disorders and other problems.

However, the Church has attracted much controversy and criticism, and claims about Scientology are sharply contradicted. Critics — including government officials of various countries — have characterized the Church as an unscrupulous commercial organization, and it is often described as a cult that harasses critics and exploits its members. Critics also argue many of the Church's most controversial actions are a direct reflection of Hubbard's Scientology teachings.

Despite the similarity of names, there is no connection between Scientology and the Church of Christ, Scientist, better known as "Christian Science".

Beliefs and practices

Main article: Scientology beliefs and practices

Scientology's doctrines were established by Hubbard over some 33 years from 1952 until his death in January 1986. Most of the basic principles were set out during the 1950s and 1960s.

File:L Ron Hubbard.jpg
L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970

Scientology was expanded and reworked from Dianetics [2], an earlier system of self-improvement techniques set out by Hubbard in the 1950 book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. By the mid-1950s, Hubbard had relegated Dianetics to a sub-study of Scientology. The chief difference between the two is that Dianetics is focused on the individual's present life and dealing with physical and mental or emotional problems. Dianetics teaches that most problems in a person's life are caused by reactions to past trauma. Scientology adopts a more overtly religious approach [3] dealing with spiritual issues spanning from multiple past lives as well as the present day. Scientology also covers topics such as ethics and morality (The Way to Happiness), physical health as it relates to spiritual well being (Purification Rundown), communication, marriage, raising children, dealing with work-related problems, study technology, and the very nature of life (The Dynamics of existence).

Scientology beliefs are structured in a series of levels leading to the more advanced strata of esoteric knowledge. This is described as the passage up "the Bridge to Total Freedom," or simply "the Bridge." The more advanced teachings are kept strictly confidential from new initiates, who are not sufficiently "spiritually prepared" to learn about them. The model is similar to that of the degrees of Freemasonry.

Central beliefs

The central beliefs of Scientology are:

  • a person is an immortal spiritual being (termed a thetan) who possesses a mind and a body, accompanied by a lesser "genetic entity";
  • the thetan has lived through many past lives, stored memories of which can cause problems in the present day;
  • a person is basically good, but is "aberrated" by the memories of traumas.
  • What is true for you is true. No beliefs should be enforced as "true" on anyone. Rather, the tenets of Scientology are expected to be tested and seen to be true, or not, by its parishoners.
  • Scientology works and can help the world at a large scale with drug, criminal, illiteracy, and other problems.

Scientology claims to offer an exact methodology to help a person achieve spiritual and ethical education, awareness, and improvement, so that he or she may achieve a level of spiritual awareness as well as greater effectiveness in the physical world. Exact methods of spiritual counseling are proposed to enable this change. The ultimate goal of Scientology is to "rehabilitate" the thetan, restoring its superhuman abilities to control "matter, energy, space and time" (MEST).

The structure of the mind

Scientology holds that the human mind consists of two parts: the "analytical mind" and the "reactive mind". Hubbard described the analytical mind as the positive, rational, computing portion, while the "reactive mind" operates on a stimulus-response basis based on pain. Scientologists believe that the reactive mind has a malignant effect, causing irrational behavior and creating individual weaknesses as well as undermining efforts to create lasting, prosperous, and sane societies. Past painful incidents are seen as acting as templates for future actions and events, which are often acted out with destructive results. The "analytical mind" and the "reactive mind" have been compared to Freud's superego and id, respectively, although the functionality is not the same.

Auditing

A Scientology recruiter demonstrates an E-meter.

The central practice of Scientology is called "auditing" (from the Latin audire,"to listen"), which is one-on-one communication with a Scientology-trained counselor or "auditor" and can be considered a kind of neurofeedback. The auditor follows an exact sequence of instructions, as set out by Hubbard, to "clear" the reactive mind. Auditing utilizes a biofeedback device known in Scientology as the E-meter (a galvanic skin response measuring device), which reportedly monitors the neural pathways and the nerves of the brain and body of the auditee as influenced by the thetan.

The auditing process is intended to help a person to unburden themselves of specific traumatic incidents, prior ethical transgressions and bad decisions that are said to collectively restrict the person from achieving his goals (the product of which is called the "reactive mind" in Scientology terminology). The auditor asks the auditee to respond to a list of questions which are pre-defined for specific purposes and given to the preclear in a strictly defined manner. As per Church policy, auditors are trained not to "evaluate" their auditees- they are forbidden from suggesting, degrading or invalidating the auditee's answers, however whenever an auditor might have reason to believe that any given answer might be somehow incompatible with the auditing process, the auditor is instructed to repeat the question until a compatible answer is received.

The Church of Scientology has claimed that auditing can raise IQ, improve memory, alleviate dyslexia and attention deficit problems, and entrain relaxation; however, no widely accepted scientific studies have yet been accomplished which have yet verified any of these claims. Licensed psychotherapists have alleged that the Church of Scientology's auditing sessions amount to the practice of mental health treatment without a license, but the Church of Scientology vehemently disagrees that it is offering mental health treatment and insists instead that it is merely conducting spiritual healing.

In a manner that is in some ways similar to a psychotherapy session, during the auditing process the auditor may collect personal or confidential material from the person being audited. Unlike the professions of psychology and psychiatry, the Church of Scientology is under little or no legal obligation to strictly retain the confidentiality of any such information. In some instances, former members of the Church of Scientology have made claims that the Church has used information obtained in auditing sessions against them in various ways, but their complaints are generally legally unenforceable.

The Church has its own unique system of confidentiality practices and policies, which while affording some certain level of confidentiality as defined by the Church, in contrast to the confidentialities of psychology and psychiatry, are not especially mandated by law. Thus legally speaking, the Church has a far wider range of options as to how it may or may not choose to use whatever information it may gain from its members via the auditing process.

For more details about auditing, see Scientology beliefs and practices#Auditing

The ARC triangle

Another basic tenet of Scientology is that there are three interrelated (and intrinsically spiritual) components that make up successful "livingness": affinity (emotional response), reality (an agreement on what is real), and communication (exchange of ideas). Hubbard called this the "ARC triangle" (pronounced A. R. C.). Scientologists utilize ARC as a central organizing principle in their lives, primarily based upon the belief that raising one aspect of the triangle increases the level of the other two.

For details, see ARC (Scientology)

The Tone Scale

The tone scale in Scientology is a characterization of human mood and behaviour by various positions on a scale. Positions on the tone scale are usually designated by an emotion, but Hubbard also describes many more characteristics of the tone scale levels, e.g. health aspects, dealing with truth, survival potential, or sexual behavior.

The tone scale is used by Scientologists in everyday life to evaluate people. For Scientologists, the level of the tone scale determines also the value of the person for society. According to Hubbard, one who is sufficiently low on the tone scale "should not have ... any civil rights of any kind" and should be "dispose[d] of ... quietly and without sorrow."

For details, see Tone scale

Past lives

In Dianetics, Hubbard proposed that the cause of "aberrations" in the human mind was the accumulated unconscious memories of traumatic incidents and guilty feelings. These memories would date back, in some cases, to before the moment of birth. He extended this view further in Scientology, declaring that thetans have existed for tens of trillions of years. During that time, they have been exposed to vast numbers of traumatic incidents, and have made a great many decisions that influence their present state. According to Scientologists, it is practically impossible and undesirable to recall each and every such event and the streamlining of the process to address only key items was the subject of Hubbard's research for over 30 years.

Some of the past traumas may have been deliberately inflicted in the form of "implants" used by extraterrestrial dictatorships to brainwash and control people. Scientology doctrine includes a wide variety of beliefs in extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described by Hubbard as "space opera".

For a detailed overview, see Space opera in Scientology doctrine.

Operating Thetan levels and the Xenu incident

The "Hidden Truth" about the nature of the universe is taught to the most advanced Scientologists in a series of courses known as the Advanced Levels. These are the levels above "Clear," and their contents are held in strict confidence within Scientology. The most advanced of all are the eight Operating Thetan levels, for which the initiate needs to be thoroughly prepared. The highest level, OT VIII, is only disclosed at sea, on the Scientology cruise ship Freewinds. Since being entered into evidence in several court cases beginning in the 1980s, synopses and excerpts of these secret teachings have appeared in innumerable publications.

File:Xenu-space-plane-2.jpg
Artist's recreation of one of Xenu's space-planes, as described by Hubbard.

In the OT levels, Hubbard describes a variety of traumas commonly experienced in past lives. He explains how to reverse the effects of such traumas by "running" various Scientology processes. Among these advanced teachings, one episode that is revealed to those who reach OT level III has been widely remarked upon in the press: the story of Xenu, the galactic tyrant who first kidnapped certain individuals who were deemed as 'excess population' and loaded these individuals into space planes for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). These space planes were supposedly exact copies of Douglas DC-8s. He then stacked hundreds of billions of these frozen victims around Earth's volcanoes 75 million years ago before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs and brainwashing them with a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days. The traumatised thetans subsequently clustered around human bodies, in effect acting as invisible spiritual parasites known as "Body Thetans" that can only be removed using advanced Scientology techniques. Xenu is allegedly imprisoned in a mountain and kept in by a force-field powered by an eternal battery.

Scientologists argue that published accounts of the Xenu story and other colorful teachings are pulled out of context for the purpose of ridiculing their religion. Journalists and critics of Scientology counter that Xenu is part of a much wider Scientology belief in past lives on other planets, some of which has been public knowledge for decades. For instance, Hubbard's 1958 book Have You Lived Before This Life documents past lives described by individual Scientologists during auditing sessions. These included memories of being "deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl", being run over by a Martian bishop driving a steamroller, being transformed into an intergalactic walrus that perished after falling out of a flying saucer, and recalling life as "a very happy being who strayed to the planet Nostra 23,064,000,000 years ago."

Although reliable statistics are not available, it is fair to say that most Scientologists are not at a sufficiently high level on "the bridge" to learn about Xenu. Therefore, while knowledge of Xenu and Body Thetans is crucial to the highest level church teachings, it cannot be regarded as a core belief of rank and file Scientologists. On the other hand, Scientology literature does include many references to extraterrestrial past lives, and internal Scientology publications are often illustrated with pictures of spaceships and oblique references to catastrophic events that happened "75 million years ago" (e.g. the Xenu incident).

Scientology and other religions

Scientology teaches entry-level recruits it is fully compatible with all existing major religions. Publicly the Church of Scientology states:

"Scientology respects all religions. Scientology does not conflict with other religions or other religious practices." (What is Scientology? 1992, p.544)

This teaching about religious compatibility for entry level Scientologists is soon augmented with the further teaching that the various levels of spiritual prowess which can be reached through Scientology are far advanced above and beyond the levels of spiritual ability which can be reached by any, and all, traditional religions. (Within Scientology, spiritual abilities tends to be more synonymous with mystical powers than with inner peace.)

Because Scientology is a mystery religion, its more esoteric teachings—which are only available to the most advanced practitioners and the Church attempts to retain in secrecy—may not always be entirely consistent with its entry level teachings.

Should a practitioner succeed in advancing to a certain level of access to the more esoteric teachings of Scientology (which only a minority do), then they will learn a variety of secret doctrines, which may not be compatible with that taught at entry level. As a sort of a confirmation of the Church's position that it is superior to other religions, in its application for tax exempt status in the United States, the Church of Scientology International states:

"Although there is no policy or Scriptural mandate expressly requiring Scientologists to renounce other religious beliefs or membership in other churches, as a practical matter Scientologists are expected to and do become fully devoted to Scientology to the exclusion of other faiths. As Scientologists, they are required to look only to Scientology Scriptures for the answers to the fundamental questions of their existence and to seek enlightenment only from Scientology." (Response to Final Series of IRS Questions Prior to Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) As a Church, October 1 1993)

A select group of advanced practitioners eventually discovers Hubbard left little doubt in his writings and lectures about the dim view he took towards existing major religions. In some of Hubbard's teachings intended only for this select group, he claimed Christ never existed, but was implanted in collective memory by an extraterrestrial tyrant 75 million years ago (see Xenu), and Christianity was an "entheta [evil] operation" mounted by beings called Targs (Hubbard, "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes", April 1952). Thus, Hubbard makes clear his belief advanced Scientologists are to identify Jesus and Christianity more as a force of evil (entheta) than as a force for good (theta). Again, it should be emphasized only a minority have been taught this advanced teaching.

Hubbard believed himself to be a reincarnation of Buddha based on a dubious interpretation of Buddhist writings (Hubbard, Hymn of Asia, 1952). He claimed Islam was also the result of an extraterrestrial memory implant, called the Emanator, of which the Ka'aba is supposedly an artifact. Mainstream religions, in his view, had failed to realise their objectives: "It is all very well to idealise poverty and associate wisdom with begging bowls, or virtue with low estate. However, those who have done this (Buddhists, Christians, Communists and other fanatics) have dead ended or are dead ending" (Hubbard, HCOPL of 21 January 1965).

The Church of Scientology has clashed with other religious groups, such as the Church of England, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Lutheran Church, all of which have criticised Scientology's activities and doctrines occasionally. That said, it has also worked closely with other religious groups on community outreach projects and campaigns against perceived persecution by governments around the world.

Origins of Scientology

Immediately prior to his first Dianetics publications, Hubbard was involved with the occultist Jack Parsons in performing rites developed by Aleister Crowley. Some investigators have noted similarities in Hubbard's writings to the doctrines of Crowley [4], though the Church of Scientology denies any such connection. An influence that Hubbard did acknowledge is the system of General Semantics developed by Alfred Korzybski in the 1930s. [5] Scientology also reflects the influence of the Hindu concept of karma, as well as the less metaphysical theories of Sigmund Freud and William Sargant.

Hubbard was repeatedly accused of adopting a religious facade for Scientology in order for the organization to maintain tax-exempt status and avoid prosecution for false medical claims. These accusations have dogged the Church of Scientology to the present day, bolstered by numerous accounts from Hubbard's fellow science-fiction authors that on various occasions he stated that the way to get rich was to start a religion [6].

The word scientology has a history of its own. Although nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hubbard's work, it was coined by the philologist Alan Upward in 1907 as a synonym for "pseudoscience". [7] In 1934, the Argentine-German writer Anastasius Nordenholz published a book using the word positively: Scientologie, Wissenschaft von der Beschaffenheit und der Tauglichkeit des Wissens, or Scientology, Science of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge. [8] Nordenholz's book is a study of consciousness, and its usage of the word is not greatly different from Hubbard's definition, "knowing how to know". However, it is not clear to what extent Hubbard was aware of these earlier usages. The word itself is a pairing of the Latin word scientia ("knowledge of"), which comes from "scio" ("to know or understand"), and the Greek λογος lógos ("reason" or "inward thought"). Hubbard said, in a lecture given on 19 July 1962 entitled "The E-meter":

"So Suzie and I went down to the library, and we started hauling books out and looking for words. And we finally found 'scio' and we find 'ology'. And there was the founding of that word. Now, that word had been used to some degree before. There had been some thought of this. Actually the earliest studies on these didn't have any name to them until a little bit along the line and then I called it anything you could think of. But we found that this word Scientology, you see—and it could have been any other word that had also been used—was the best-fitted word for exactly what we wanted."

There are also claims that Scientology was started as a result of a wager between science fiction authors. In some versions, the other participant was Kurt Vonnegut, while other versions name R.A. Heinlein.

The Church of Scientology

Main article: Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology was first incorporated in Camden, New Jersey as a nonprofit organization in 1953. Today it forms the center of a complex worldwide network of corporations dedicated to the promotion of L. Ron Hubbard's philosophies in all areas of life. This includes:

  • drug treatment centers (Narconon);
  • criminal rehab programs (Criminon);
  • activities to reform the field of mental health (Citizens Commission on Human Rights);
  • projects to implement workable and effective educational methods in schools (Applied Scholastics);
  • a campaign to return moral values to living (The Way to Happiness);
  • an organization to educate and assist businesses in the use of Scientology management techniques (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, or WISE);
  • a consulting firm based on Hubbard's management techniques (Sterling Management Systems);
  • a publishing company, e-Republic, which publishes Government Technology and Converge magazines and coordinates the Center for Digital Government;
  • and a campaign directed to world leaders as well as the general public to implement the 1948 United Nations document, "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (with particular emphasis on the religious freedom elements).

The Church of Scientology has been, and remains, a controversial organization. Countries have taken markedly different approaches to Scientology. In the United States, Scientology declares itself to be a religion and regularly cites religious protection under the First Amendment. In Canada the Church of Scientology is legal but has the unique distinction of being criminally convicted as a corporation of two counts of breach of the public trust (for an organized conspiracy to break into government offices) following a trial by jury.

Other countries, notably in Europe, have regarded Scientology as a potentially dangerous cult and have significantly restricted its activities at various times, or at least have not considered that the branches of the Church of Scientology met the legal criteria for being considered religion-supporting organizations. In Germany, for instance, Scientology is not seen as a religion by the government but as a commercial business with potentially anti-democratic tendencies, and has been subjected to state surveillance as a result. The United Kingdom government does not recognize Scientology as a bona fide religion, and it has been subjected to considerable pressure from the state in Russia.

Scientology has also been the focus of criticism by anti-cult campaigners and has aroused controversy for its high-profile campaigns against psychiatry and psychiatric medication (see opposition to psychiatry, below).

The many legal battles fought by the Church of Scientology since its inception have given it a reputation as an extremely litigious organization. (See also: Scientology and the legal system)

Independent Scientology groups

Main article: Free Zone

Although "Scientology" is most often used as shorthand for the Church of Scientology, a number of groups practice Scientology and Dianetics outside of the fold of the official Church. Such groups are invariably breakaways from the official Church and usually argue that it has corrupted L. Ron Hubbard's principles or has otherwise become overly domineering. The Church takes an extremely hard line on breakaway groups, labeling them "apostates" (or "squirrels" in Scientology jargon) and often subjecting them to considerable legal and social pressure. Breakaway groups avoid the name "Scientology" so as to keep from being sued, instead referring to themselves collectively as the Free Zone.

Free Zone groups are extremely heterogeneous in terms of doctrine—very unlike the official Church. Some Free Zoners practice a form of Scientology that adheres to Hubbard's original (Church-published) texts and principles, but without the supervision or fee system of the official Church. Others have developed Hubbard's ideas into radically new forms, some of which are barely recognizable as being related to Scientology.

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Scientology controversy

Of the many new religious movements to appear during the 20th century, Scientology has been one of the most controversial almost since its inception. The Church of Scientology has come into conflict with the governments and police of several countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany) numerous times over the years, though supporters point out that many major world religions have found themselves in conflict with civil government while in their early years.

The ongoing controversies involving the Church of Scientology and its critics include:

  • Scientology's harassing and litigious actions against its critics and "enemies."
  • Differing accounts of L. Ron Hubbard's life. Critics charge Scientology with being a cult of personality, with much emphasis placed on the alleged accomplishments of its founder. Scientologists claim that government files, such as those from the FBI, are loaded with forgeries and other false documents detrimental to Scientology, but have never substantiated this claim.
  • Deaths of Scientologists, most notably Lisa McPherson, due to mistreatment by other members.
  • Scientology's disconnection policy, in which members are encouraged to cut off all contact with friends or family members critical of the Church.
  • Criminal activities by Scientologists, both those committed for personal gain (Reed Slatkin, others) and those committed on behalf of the Church and directed by Church officials (Operation Snow White, Operation Freakout and others).
  • Claims of brainwashing and mind control.
  • Use of high-pressure sales tactics to obtain money from members.
  • Accounts of L. Ron Hubbard discussing his intent to start a religion for profit.

This last criticism of Scientology is referenced, among other places, in a May 1980 Reader's Digest article, which quotes Hubbard, "If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion".

The nature of Scientology is hotly debated in many countries. Scientology is considered a religion in the United States and Australia, and thus it enjoys the constitutional protections afforded to religious practice (First Amendment to the United States Constitution; Australian Constitution, s 116). In the United States, the church obtained "public charity" status (IRS Code 501(c)(3)) and the associated preferential tax treatment after extended litigation. Some European governments (including Germany) do not consider the Church of Scientology to be a bona fide religious organization, but instead a commercial enterprise, or a totalitarian cult (see the list of alleged cults).

The Church of Scientology pursues an extensive public relations campaign arguing that Scientology is a bona fide religion. The organization cites numerous scholarly sources supporting its position, many of which can be found on a website the Church has established for this purpose. [9]

Scientology critics

Critics dismiss many of these studies as biased, contending the studies were commissioned by Scientology to produce the results that Scientology desired. Academic papers that conclude Scientology is a not a legitimate religion have also been published (some are available online in the Marburg Journal of Religion). [10]

In the U.S., in October of 1993 the Internal Revenue Service, after reviewing voluminous information on the Church's financial and other operations, recognized the Church as an "organization operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes." [11] The Church offers this tax exemption as proof it is a religion.

There is wide belief among critics and some evidence (NYT article) Scientology paid private investigators (named in the article) to obtain compromising material on the IRS commissioner and blackmailed the IRS into submission [12] costing taxpayers 1-2 billion dollars.

Six levels of indents down in the eventually leaked "closing agreement" [13] the IRS is contractually required to discriminate in their treatment of Scientology to the exclusion of all other groups:

The following actions will be considered to be a material breach by the Service: ...The issuance of a Regulation, Revenue Ruling or other pronouncement of general applicability providing that fixed donations to a religious organization other than a church of Scientology are fully deductible.

The Sklars, in the case MICHAEL SKLAR; MARLA SKLAR v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL No. 00-70753, attempted to obtain the same deduction for their payments to a Jewish school. On January 29 2002 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the IRS's opposition. Judge Silverman concurring [14] said:

An IRS closing agreement cannot overrule Congress and the Supreme Court.
If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members of the Church of Scientology—allowing them a special right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else—then the proper course of action is a lawsuit to put a stop to that policy.

To date, such a suit is not known to have been filed.

Another point of controversy from 1979 is Scientology's infiltration of the United States Internal Revenue Service in what Scientology termed "Operation Snow White". Eleven high-ranking Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard, served time in federal prison for their involvement in this infiltration.

In Australia, critics point to a certain passage in a 1982 ruling by the High Court of Australia. They claim that in the course of litigation between the Church of Scientology and the government of of Victoria that even though the government of the state found that the Church of Scientology practiced charlatanism (see: Church of the New Faith v. Commissioner Of Pay-roll Tax), still, due to certain legal technicalities, the government of Victoria could not deny the Church of Scientology the right to operate in Victoria under the legal status of 'religion'.

Also in Australia the Church of Scientology has received criticisms concerning the manner in which auditing is conducted. The Australian Report stated that auditing involved a kind of command hypnosis that could lead to potentially damaging delusional dissociative states. The claimed unethical use of general semantics and hypnosis is common to both neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and Scientology, which both hold many New Age similarities, such as the belief in past life regression and super-human potential.

Scientology and psychiatry

Scientologists regularly hold anti-psychiatry demonstrations they call "Psychbusts"

Main Article: Scientology and psychiatry

Scientology is publicly, and often vehemently, opposed to psychiatry and psychology. According to the Church, this is focused on psychiatry's practices.

This theme also appears in some of Hubbard's literary works. In Hubbard's Mission Earth series, various characters praise and criticize these methods; and the antagonists in his novel Battlefield Earth are called Psychlos, a similar allusion.

What the Church opposes are brutal, inhumane psychiatric treatments. It does so for three principal reasons: 1) procedures such as electro-shock, drugs and lobotomy injure, maim and destroy people in the guise of help; 2) psychiatry is not a science and has no proven methods to justify the billions of dollars of government funds that are poured into it; and 3) psychiatric theories that man is a mere animal have been used to rationalize, for example, the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II. [15]

L. Ron Hubbard was bitterly critical of psychiatry's citation of physical causes for mental disorders, for instance chemical imbalances in the brain. Although there are many questions remaining, the statements by Hubbard deny that psychiatry through the scientific method has shown some psychiatric disorders are related to anatomical and chemical cerebral anomalies. Furthermore, it is evident much of his criticism is based upon old and flawed information regarding psychiatry [16]. He regarded psychiatrists as denying human spirituality and peddling fake cures. He was also convinced psychiatrists were themselves deeply unethical individuals, committing "extortion, mayhem and murder. Our files are full of evidence on them." [17] The Church of Scientology claims that psychiatry was responsible for World War I [18], the rise of Hitler and Stalin [19], the decline in education standards in the United States [20], the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo [21], and even the September 11th attacks [22]. However, for all these statements, Hubbard has failed to present any evidence supporting his view of psychiatry.

Scientology's opposition to psychiatry has also undoubtedly been influenced by the fact that a number of psychiatrists have strongly spoken out against the Church of Scientology, resulting in pressure from the media and governments. Additionally, after Hubbard's book on Dianetics was published, in which he tried to present a new form of psychotherapy, the American Psychological Association advised its members against using Hubbard's techniques with their patients until its effectiveness could be proven. Because of this critique Hubbard came to believe psychiatrists were behind a worldwide conspiracy to attack Scientology and create a "world government" run by psychiatrists on behalf of Soviet Russia:

Our enemies are less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they, oddly enough, run all the mental health groups in the world that had sprung up ...
Their apparent programme was to use mental health, which is to say psychiatric electric shock and pre-frontal lobotomy, to remove from their path any political dissenters ... These fellows have gotten nearly every government in the world to owe them considerable quantities of money through various chicaneries and they control, of course, income tax, government finance — (Harold) Wilson, for instance, the current Premier of England, is totally involved with these fellows and talks about nothing else actually. (Hubbard, Ron's Journal 67 [23])

In 1966, Hubbard declared war on psychiatry, telling Scientologists "We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one." He committed the Church of Scientology to eradicating psychiatry in 1969, announcing "Our war has been forced to become 'To take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms.'" [24] Not coincidentally, the Church of Scientology founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights that same year as its primary vehicle for attacking psychiatry.

Around the same time, Hubbard decided psychiatrists were an ancient evil that had been a problem for billions of years. He cast them in the role of assisting Xenu's genocide of 75 million years ago. In a 1982 bulletin entitled "Pain and Sex", Hubbard declares that "pain and sex were the INVENTED TOOLS of degradation", having been devised eons ago by psychiatrists "who have been on the [time] track a long time and are the sole cause of decline in this universe." (Hubbard, HCO Bulletin of 26 August 1982)

Celebrity Scientologists, notably Tom Cruise, have been extremely vocal in attacking the use of psychiatric medication.[25] Their position has attracted considerable criticism from psychiatrists, physicians, and mentally ill individuals who cite numerous scientific studies showing benefit from psychiatry and detrimental effects from Scientology. Also, there is evidence Scientology adherents destroyed scientific data in a lengthy campaign to discredit research [26]. Nevertheless, it is still being defended and promoted by Scientologists. [27]

Scientology vs. the Internet

Main Article: Scientology vs. the Internet

Leaders of Scientology have undertaken extensive operations on the Internet to deal with growing allegations of fraud and exposure of unscrupulousness within Scientology. The organization states that it is taking actions to prevent distribution of copyrighted Scientology documents and publications online by people whom it has called "copyright terrorists". Critics claim the organization's true motive is an attempt to suppress free speech and legitimate criticism.

In January 1995, Church lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to shut down the Usenet discussion group alt.religion.scientology by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group on the grounds that

(1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices. [28]

In practice, this rmgroup message had little effect, since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when applied to groups that receive substantial traffic, and newgroup messages were quickly issued for those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message led to a great deal of public criticism of Scientology by free-speech advocates.

The Church also started suing people for posting copies of its copyrighted scriptures on the newsgroup and the World Wide Web, and pressed for tighter restrictions on copyrights in general. This effort was spearheaded by Sonny Bono, a Scientologist, who introduced the controversial Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. The even more controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act was also strongly promoted by the Church and some of its provisions (notably the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act) were heavily influenced by Church litigation against US Internet service providers over copyrighted Scientology materials that had been posted or uploaded through their servers.

Beginning in the middle of 1996 and for several years after, the newsgroup was attacked by anonymous parties using a tactic dubbed "sporgery" by some, in the form of hundreds of thousands of forged spam messages posted on the group. Although the Church neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the spam, some investigators claimed that some of the spam had been traced to Church members.

Celebrity practitioners

The Church of Scientology has concertedly attempted to convert artists and entertainers -- they have special recruitment facilities for public figures designated "celebrity centers." They can be found in Hollywood, New York, Nashville, Las Vegas, London, Paris, and Vienna, though Hollywood is the largest and most important. Publicity has been generated by Scientologists in the entertainment industry such as John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Tom Cruise, and his converted fiancée Katie Holmes. Cruise became known as an outspoken Scientologist in 2005, publicly criticizing Brooke Shields on national television for her use of anti-depressants in recovering from postpartum depression.

On June 24 2005, Cruise spoke to Today Show host Matt Lauer on the dangers of psychiatry and antidepressants during a promotional interview for his film War of the Worlds. His intent may have backfired as late night comedians and morning radio programs frequently commented about Cruise's passionate frustration at Lauer's perceived lack of knowledge and respect for the topic's severity and mocked him as a radical celebrity. Despite the public backlash received, Cruise certainly rallied the faithful and exposed Scientology in a way that would have been difficult to attain otherwise.

See List of famous Scientologists.

See also

References

  • http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/frenschkowski.html. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |PublishYear= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help)
  • Template:Web reference author Includes details of some of Scientology's high-level "Operating Thetan" teachings.
  • . ISBN 0-8050-0654-0 http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)
  • . ISBN 081840499X http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/apobs/. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help) A critical history of Scientology, by a Scientology archivist and former Scientologist
  • http://www.ami.com.au/~bradw/cos/Theology/Theology/eastern.htm. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |PublishYear= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help)

Official Scientology sites

Unofficial and critical sites

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