Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to
questions if they contained copyrighted materials. After a very short
while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and
started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I
removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's
also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg
Churilov" cultist was ejected from
askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.
Anonymous asked this question on 5/20/2000:
what is Scientology?
honorarykid gave this response on 5/22/2000:
First, let me say that Scientology is a lot of things, so any quick summary is
bound to miss things. But I'll try.
For one thing, Scientology is a set of beliefs. The beliefs basically center
around the idea that L. Ron Hubbard discovered a methodology to free
people from life's problems. The nature of these beliefs is wide ranging and
some are downright bizarre. One is first introduced to the belief that we all
have engrams (negative mental pictures) in our minds which inhibits our
happiness and progress in life. This belief comes out of the book Dianetics.
A later belief is that we are all infested with the spirits of dead space aliens
(Body Thetans), and that each of us is actually a reincarnated dead space
alien spirit, too. According to Hubbard, we have all been reincarnated many
times in meat bodies, here on Earth, because we're too stupid to know that
we are really Godlike spirit beings, with no need for meat bodies. The reason
we're so stupid and confused is because we've been brainwashed by other evil
space aliens who want us kept as meat body slaves, here on Earth (hey, what
recently released bad LRH story, just made into a major motion picture does
this remind you of?).
And finally, there is one underlying belief in Scientology, common to all these
previous cosmologies. That is, that a trained Scientology auditor can help you
rid yourselves of engrams (at first) and Body Thetans (later on) and that in
doing so, your health, intelligence and happiness will improve, and you will
also gain magical, mystical super powers, including the ability to astrally
travel, do remote viewing, move things through sheer force of will, and even
control space-time itself.
People can believe in these "discoveries" by Hubbard, and practice them
outside the purvey of the Church of Scientology, in what is called the "Free
Zone", or they can join the Church of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology is operated as a tightly bound, many would say a
cultic group (I am one of these, BTW, just so you know where I'm coming
from) of people, who share not only the belief that Hubbard discovered these
amazing truths, but that planetary dissemination is necessary, and that the
Church of Scientology is the only hope for mankind's betterment.
This ideal mirrors Hubbard's growing megalomania, as his organization
expanded and grew more powerful. The CoS takes this to the point where
nations and laws and other institutions are considered inferior and sometimes
even obstructions to mankind's improvement.
This part of Scientology demands money, loyalty, obedience, and behaves
generally like a totalitarian political movement. Members are wrung out of
their money and labor, controlled, indoctrinated, socially engineered into
believing Hubbard's and the CoS' paranoias. They are elitist, exclusive and at
the top levels, constitute a legitimate threat to democratic institutions.
Hubbard told his followers that he was not a God. But then he proceeded to
demand to be treated like one. His tech is infallible to many Scientologists,
only human error in the application can be faulted if it doesn't do what it
promises...
Both groups, the Free Zoners and the CoS Scientologists revere Hubbard to a
certain degree. But inside the CoS, the reverance approaches that of worship.
Scientologists clap and yell "hip hip hurrah" at portraits of LRH. They keep a
vacant office in every Scientology facility, complete with a pack of his favorite
brand of cigarettes, waiting for his return.
Does that sound like any other deity you've heard of?
Further facts
about this criminal empire may be found at
Operation Clambake and FACTNet.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
Subject: would like to know?
Answered by: honorarykid
Asked By: Anonymous
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