Questions
Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology
skyview1 asked this question on 9/27/2000:
Are we taking about the beliefs of Scientology or the actions of
their church? There has often been a vast difference between
the religious beliefs of a faith and the actions of it's church.
What are the basic beliefs?
honorarykid gave this response on 9/28/2000:
Here on AskMe.com, critics are more prone to talking about
behaviors and politics of the church, than about the beliefs
of Scientologists.
The beliefs of Scientologists are amorphous, taking lots of
different shapes as one progresses up the bridge.
When one is introduced to Scientology, it's mainly a self-help,
therapy cult. Practice Dianetics auditing techniques, and you
will allegedly become a more able person, with a higher IQ,
more heathy. These increased abilities are used as
psychological "collateral," used to justify the extremely high
monetary costs of the training. People are told they'll earn it
all back, and more.
Of course, Dianetics auditing focuses on the removal of
happiness-restricting "engrams." Engrams are negative mental
pictures we all (allegedly) have stored in our memory banks,
created at times when we were traumatized while not
conscious. When all your engrams are gone, you're said to be
"Clear." Before your engrams are gone, you are a Pre-clear,
or simply a 'PC.' Clear Scientologists are told they will be
perfectly healthy, extremely intelligent, have perfect
eyesight, and more.
Also, notice above that I said "memory bank," not brain.
Newbie members might presume their memory banks are
actually located in the brain. Scientology let's them believe
this, even though they will be disabused of this belief at a
later time.
As adherants' loyalty and obsequiousness grow, they are
introduced to the beliefs in an immortal spirit (called
Thetans). These Thetans are not a part of our bodies. They
are separate, immortal beings, Godlike in their true abilities.
Thetans only borrow human meat bodies and use them to get
around, like we use our cars.
I've seen many Scientologists say their bodies are just a
vehicle to get around in. Now some will admit that the brain
helps the body to run and breathe and function. But the brain
does not house the consciousness. The consciousness is
separate, and could leave the body and still function just
fine, according to Hubbard. Scientologist often claim to "go
exterior" or leave their bodies to astrally travel around.
Now these beliefs are very similar to the fatal (body-wise)
beliefs of the Heaven's Gate cultists, who killed themselves in
order to free their spirits to float up and meet the
mothership, which was allegedly trailing in the Hale-Bop
comet wake. In fact, Christianity also went through similar
periods of relative contempt for the body, with respect to
the soul. In Europe, this dangerous belief justified the killing
of 100s of thousands of innocents during the Inquisition. Kill
the body to save the soul.
I digress. According to Scientology, there is one main
impediment to freeing ourselves from our delusions that we
are made up of meat. We are brainwashed. And we have
other brainwashed Thetans stuck to us.
How did this come to be? Well, according to Hubbard, about
75 million years ago, we were cooking right along, behaving
however immortal spirit Godlike beings behave, when an evil
ruler by the name of Xenu (a ruler of Gods, whats up with
that?) rounded us up and froze us in ice cubes made of
glycol! He kidnapped us! Then he brought us to Earth in
space ships that looked just like DC-8 aircraft. He put us in
volcanoes, blew up hydrogen bombs, vaporizing our bodies,
thereby freeing our Thetans (question: if we were free,
unfettered Thetans back then, why did we have bodies?).
Then he caught us Thetans with electronic rainbows in the
sky. He held us captive in these electronic fields, and forced
us to watch movies for three days, in order to brainwash us
(just like in the book "A Clockwork Orange").
Through this intentional, evil brainwashing, Xenu confused us
so badly, that we started clumping together in groups, in
what Scientology calls "clusters" and "masses." According to
Hubbard, it was these brainwashing sessions which cause us
to be sympathetic to ideas which form the basis of
Christianity and Islam, and other world religions, to this very
day. Hubbard actually taught that Christians are sympathetic
toward the images of a crucified person, because Xenu
brainwashed them to be that way, millions of years ago.
Anyway, Scientology advanced training claims to teach the
Thetan how to regain the lost, immortal, Godlike abilities.
They can astrally travel around the universe, travel forward
or backward in time, move matter with a thought, create new
universes, whatever they want.
In short, we're all God! Question: if Scientologists are working
toward becoming Gods, why do they all act like obedient
sheep?
Anyway, these are really and truly the fundamental beliefs
that Scientologists hold. Be aware that the lower level
members don't know about the Xenu story, as this is kept as
a big secret from them. Indeed, they are told they will get
sick and die if they hear these "truths" before they are
adequately prepared. But if you're immortal, how can you die?
If being inside a body is a bad thing, why is the bodily death
a bad thing? These are paradoxes for which Scientology
offers no explanation.
By the way, it would cost about $350,000.00 US to take the
training required to learn about the Xenu story. I may have
just saved some people a lot of money. ;-)
Of course, SOME PEOPLE might say the huge amounts of
money and the ability to control people are really the main
belief, and the rest of this stuff is just fluff and window
dressing in order to fool people into believing they were
getting something of value in exchange for their money, their
labor, and in some cases, a lifetime of zealous obedience.
What do you think?
skyview1 rated this answer:
Un-bee-leev-able!!
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