Welcome to the Church of Scientology of Twin Cities. Since 1965, we have served a growing congregation in Minneapolis and St. It is with great pride today we extend our help to communities across Minnesota from our new home in downtown St. The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954. Hubbard’s early life and beliefs. Hubbard attended George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (1930–32), but left to pursue other interests without completing his degree. He married in 1933 and settled down to a career as a writer. His writing spanned various genres—from westerns to.
Formation | December 1953 |
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Headquarters | Gold Base |
Location |
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David Miscavige | |
Website | www.scientology.org |
The Church of Scientology is a multinational network and hierarchy of numerous ostensibly independent but interconnected[1] corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, a new religious movement. Although in some countries it has attained legal recognition as a religion,[2] the movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and has been accused by critics of being both a cult and a commercial enterprise.[3]
The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for guiding local Scientology churches.[4][5][6] Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California. The location at Gilman Hot Springs is private property and not accessible by the public.[7]Scientology Missions International is under CSI and oversees Scientology missions, which are local Scientology organizations smaller than churches.[8][9] The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.[1]
All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org, which is a legally nonexistent paramilitary organization for the 'elite, innermost dedicated core of Scientologists'.[1][8] David Miscavige is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, holding the rank of captain.
Germany classifies Scientology as an 'anti-constitutional sect'.[10][11] In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult by some parliamentary reports.[12][13]
- 3Headquarters, bases, and central orgs
- 4Production facilities
- 5Affiliated organizations
- 7Controversy
- 10Government opinions of Scientology
History
The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey[5][6] by L. Ron Hubbard, his wife Mary Sue Hubbard, and John Galusha. By that time, the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI) had already been operating since 1952[14][15] and Hubbard himself had already been selling Scientology books and technologies. In 1953 he wrote to Helen O'Brien, who was managing the organization, asking her to investigate the 'religion angle'.[16]p. 213 Soon after, despite O'Brien's misgivings and resignation, he announced the religious nature of Scientology in a bulletin to all Scientologists,[17] stressing its relation to the concept of Dharma. The first Church of Scientology opened in 1954 in Los Angeles.[18]
Hubbard stated, 'A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.'[19] After the formation of the Church of Scientology, Hubbard composed its creed. The Scientology creed emphasizes three key points: being free to enjoy religious expression, the idea that mental healing is inherently religious, and that healing of the physical body is in the spiritual domain.[20]
Hubbard had official control of the organization until 1966 when this function was transferred to a group of executives.[21] Although Hubbard maintained no formal relationship with Scientology's management, he remained firmly in control of the organization and its affiliated organizations.[22]
In May 1986, subsequent to the sudden death of L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, who was at that time the Commanding Officer of the Commodore's Messenger Organisation, assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a non-profit corporation that administers the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Although RTC is a separate corporation from the Church of Scientology International, whose president and chief spokesperson is Heber Jentzsch, Miscavige is the effective leader of the movement.[23]
In 1996, the Church of Scientology implemented the 'Golden Age of Tech' (tech pertaining to the entire body of Scientology religious techniques) releasing a training program for Scientology auditors, while precisely following Hubbard's teachings. It was followed by the launch of 'The Golden Age of Knowledge' in 2005, where Hubbard's announcements of milestones in the research and development of Dianetics and Scientology were released. Between 2005 and 2010, the church would complete its 25-year program to restore and verify the church's 'scriptures'. The church released the second phase of the Golden Age of Tech on November 2013, based on the original work of Hubbard. The Super Power Rundown a new component of auditing, was released in Clearwater, Florida.[24]
Beliefs
The Church of Scientology promotes Scientology, a body of beliefs and related practices created by Hubbard, starting in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.[25]
Scientology teaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. Scientology's central mythology developed around the original notion of the thetan. In Scientology, the thetan is the individual expression of 'theta', described by Neusner as 'the cosmic source and life force'. The thetan is the true human identity, rendering humans as 'pure spirit and godlike'. The religion's mythology holds the belief that 'in the primordial past, thetans applied their creative abilities to form the physical universe'. Contrary to the biblical narrative that shows that the universe was created by a divine, sole creator, Scientology holds that 'the universe was created by theta in the form of individualized expressions'.[26]
The story of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard.[27] Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as 'auditing', in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.[28] Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations.[29] Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States[30] and other countries,[31][32][33] and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion.
Scientology describes itself as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others, and all of life. According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions, it is 'concerned with the isolation, description, handling and rehabilitation of the human spirit'.[34] One purpose of Scientology, as stated by the Church of Scientology, is to become certain of one's spiritual existence and one's relationship to God, or the 'Supreme Being.'[35]
One of the major tenets of Scientology is that a human is an immortal alien spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is presently trapped on planet Earth in a physical 'meat body.' Hubbard described these thetans in 'The Space Opera' cosmogony. The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives preceding the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Descriptions of space opera incidents are seen as true events by Scientologists.[36]
Scientology claims that its practices provide methods by which a person can achieve greater spiritual awareness.[37] Within Scientology, progression from level to level is often called The Bridge to Total Freedom. Scientologists progress from 'Preclear', to 'Clear', and ultimately 'Operating Thetan'.
Scientologists are taught that a series of events, or incidents, occurred before life on earth.[38] Scientologists also believe that humans have hidden abilities which can be unlocked.[39][40]
Hubbard's image and writing are ubiquitous in Scientology churches. Churches built after Hubbard's death include a corporate-style office set aside for Hubbard's reincarnation, with a plaque on the desk bearing his name, and a pad of paper with a pen for him to continue writing novels.[41][42] A large bust of Hubbard is placed in the chapel for Sunday services, and most sermons reference him and his writing.[43]
Headquarters, bases, and central orgs
1. Saint Hill Manor 2. Flag Land Base 3. PAC Base 4. Gold Base 5. Trementina Base 6. Flag ship, Freewinds
The highest authority in the Church of Scientology is the Religious Technology Center (RTC). The RTC claims to only be the 'holder of Scientology and Dianetics trademarks', but is in fact the main Scientology executive organization.[1] RTC chairman David Miscavige is widely seen as the effective head of Scientology.[1] CSI provides a visible point of unity and guides the individual churches, especially in the area of applying Hubbard's teaching and technology in a uniform fashion.}}</ref>[44][45] At a local level, every church is a separate corporate entity set up as a licensed franchise and has its own board of directors and executives.[46][47][48][49]
Scientology organizations and missions exist in many communities around the world.[50] Scientologists call their larger centers orgs, short for 'organizations.' The major Scientology organization of a region is known as a central org. The legal address of the Church of Scientology International is in Los Angeles, California, 6331 Hollywood Blvd, in the Hollywood Guaranty Building. The Church of Scientology also has several major headquarters, including:
Saint Hill, West Sussex, England
Hubbard moved to England shortly after founding Scientology, where he oversaw its worldwide development from an office in London for most of the 1950s. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor, a Georgian manor house near the Sussex town of East Grinstead. During Hubbard's years at Saint Hill, he traveled extensively, providing lectures and training in Australia, South Africa in the United States, and developing materials that would eventually become Scientology's 'core systematic theology and praxis'.[51] While in Saint Hill, Hubbard worked with a staff of nineteen and urged others to join. In September 14, 1959, he wrote: 'Here, on half a hundred acres of lovely grounds in a mansion where we have not yet found all the bedrooms, we are handling the problems of administration and service for the world of Scientology. We are not very many here and as the sun never sets on Scientology we are very busy thetans.'[51]
The most important achievement of the Saint Hill period was Hubbard's execution of the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course (SHBC). It was delivered by Hubbard from March 1951 to December 1966 and 'is considered the single most comprehensive and rigorous training course for budding auditors in the church'. Scientology groups called 'Saint Hill Organizations' located in Los Angeles, Clearwater (Florida), Copenhagen and Sydney still teach this course.[51]
This became the worldwide headquarters of Scientology through the 1960s and 1970s. Hubbard declared Saint Hill to be the organization by which all other organizations would be measured, and he issued a general order (still followed today) for all organizations around the world to expand and reach 'Saint Hill size'. The Church of Scientology has announced that the next two levels of Scientology teaching, OT 9 and OT 10, will be released and made available to church members when all the major organizations in the world have reached Saint Hill size.[52][53]
Flag Land Base, Clearwater, Florida, United States
The 'worldwide spiritual headquarters' of the Church of Scientology is known as 'Flag Land Base,' located in Clearwater, Florida. It is operated by the FloridiancorporationChurch of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc..
The organization was founded in 1975 when a Scientology-founded group called 'Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp' purchased the Fort Harrison Hotel for $2.3 million. Because the reported tenant was the 'United Churches of Florida' the citizens and City Council of Clearwater did not realize that the building's owners were actually the Church of Scientology until after the building's purchase. Clearwater citizens' groups, headed by Mayor Gabriel Cazares, rallied strongly against Scientology establishing a base in the city (repeatedly referring to the organization as a cult), but Flag Base was established nonetheless.[54]
In the years since its foundation, the Flag Land Base has expanded as the Church of Scientology has gradually purchased large amounts of additional property in the downtown and waterfront Clearwater area. Scientology's largest project in Clearwater has been the construction of a high-rise complex called the 'Super Power Building', or Flag Building, which 'is the centerpiece of a 160-million construction campaign.'[55]
The Church of Scientology's CST Chairman of the Board, David Miscavige, led the opening and dedication of the 377,000-square-foot Flag Building on November 17, 2013. The multi-million cathedral is the new spiritual headquarters of Scientology. The fifth and sixth floor contain the 'Super Power Program', which includes specially designed machines that Scientologists believe allow users to develop new abilities and experience enlightenment. The building also includes a dining facility, course rooms, offices and small rooms for 'auditing' purposes.[56][57][58]
Organizations in Hollywood, California
Los Angeles, California, has the largest concentration of Scientologists and Scientology-related organizations in the world, with the church's most visible presence being in the Hollywood district of the city. The organization owns a former hospital on Fountain Avenue which houses Scientology's West Coast headquarters, the Pacific Area Command Base — often referred to as 'PAC Base' or 'Big Blue', after its blue paint job. Adjacent buildings include headquarters of several internal Scientology divisions, including the American Saint Hill Organization, the Advanced Organization of Los Angeles, and the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles. All these organizations are integrated within the corporation Church of Scientology Western United States.
The Church of Scientology successfully campaigned to have the city of Los Angeles rename one block of a street running through this complex 'L. Ron Hubbard Way'. The street has been paved in brick.[59]
Scientology's Celebrity Center International is located on Franklin Avenue, while the Association for Better Living and Education, Author Services and the official headquarters of the Church of Scientology International (in the Hollywood Guaranty Building) are all located on Hollywood Boulevard. The ground floor of the Guaranty Building also features the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, a museum detailing his life that is open to the general public. The Celebrity Centre was acquired by the church as the Chateau Elysee in 1973, built to accommodate members in the arts, sports and government.[60]
Another museum in the area is the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, located on Sunset Boulevard, which is operated by the church-affiliated Citizens Commission on Human Rights.
Gold Base, Riverside County, California
The headquarters of the Religious Technology Center, the entity that oversees Scientology operations worldwide, is located in unincorporatedRiverside County, California, near Gilman Hot Springs and north of Hemet. The facility, known as Gold Base or 'Int', is owned by Golden Era Productions and is the home of Scientology's media production studio, Golden Era Studios. Several Scientology executives, including David Miscavige, live and work at the base.[61] Therefore, Gold Base is Scientology's international administrative headquarters.[62][63][64][65]
The Church of Scientology bought the former Gilman Hot Springs resort, which had been popular with Hollywood figures, in 1978; the resort became Gold Base.[66] The facilities at Gold Base have been toured by journalists several times. They are surrounded by floodlights and video observation cameras,[61][67][68][69] and the compound is protected by razor wire.[70]Gold Base also has recreational facilities, including basketball, volleyball, and soccer facilities, an exercise building, a waterslide, a small lake with two beaches, and a golf course.[71]
Trementina Base
The Church of Scientology maintains a large base on the outskirts of Trementina, New Mexico, for the purpose of storing their archiving project: engraving Hubbard's writings on stainless steel tablets and encasing them in titanium capsules underground. An aerial photograph showing the base's enormous Church of Spiritual Technology symbols on the ground caused media interest and a local TV station broke the story in November 2005. According to a report in The Washington Post, the organization unsuccessfully attempted to coerce the station not to air the story.[72]
Freewinds
The cruise shipFreewinds was the only place the highest level of Scientology training (OT VIII) was offered. It cruised the Caribbean Sea, under the auspices of the Flag Ship Service Organization. The Freewinds was also used for other courses and auditing for those willing to spend extra money to get services on the ship. In April 2008, the Freewinds was sealed, and work stopped on refurbishments, due to 'extensive contamination' with blue asbestos.[73]According to a public announcement in 2017, the Church subsequently purchased another vessel on which to administer high-level Scientology training.
Ideal Orgs
Starting in 2003 Miscavige began encouraging local groups to purchase larger facilities to use as churches. These building are known within the Church of Scientology as 'Ideal Orgs'.[74] This push has included the acquisition of many historic buildings by the Church.[75] The Church has relied on parishioners to provide manual labor in renovations, such as through the Church's Rehabilitation Project Force.[75] The Church's investment in expensive property at a time when church membership is dwindling has been described by former members and critics of the church as a money making tactic.[76]
Ideal Org opening events have been held in Johannesburg, South Africa;[77] Rome, Italy; Malmo, Sweden; Dallas, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Washington D.C.;[74] Phoenix, Arizona,[78] Inglewood, California;[79] Santa Ana, California;[80] Las Vegas, Nevada; Brussels, Belgium;[81] Florence, Kentucky; Clearwater, Florida; Sacramento, California; Melbourne, Australia; Mexico City, London, Quebec; Seattle, Washington;[82] Pretoria, South Africa; Padova, Italy; Los Gatos, California; Hamburg, Germany;[24] Milan, Italy;[83] Atlanta, Georgia;,[84], Dublin, Ireland.[85] and Detroit, Michigan.[86]
The church has also purchased buildings for the purposes of setting up Ideal Orgs, but which have been delayed or canceled. In the UK, delayed Ideal Orgs have included Birmingham (purchased in 2007),[87]Gateshead (purchased 2007),[88]Manchester (purchased 2006),[88][89] and Plymouth (purchased 2009).[90] The delays have prompted calls from locals for a compulsory purchase of the historically significant buildings, which remained largely vacant and undeveloped since purchase.[91] The Birmingham org was opened in 2017.[92]
Production facilities
Golden Era Productions
The Golden Era Productions facility is located in the Hollywood Guaranty Building. It produces promotional materials for the Church of Scientology, as well as lectures, training films and other materials related to Hubbard.[93]
International Dissemination and Distribution Center
Occupying 185,000 square feet, the dissemination center prints Church magazines and other Scientology materials in 15 languages. The center has a custom-built web press with a 55 thousand pages per hour capacity. According to a Church press release, the center's warehousing and shipping department is fully automated, with the capability to address and handle half a million items per week.[94] This system is connected 'directly into the US Postal Service, with a postal representative on site.'[95] The center also produces Scientology materials in various other languages as well as promotional materials and uniforms.[94]
Scientology Media Productions
The Scientology Media Productions media center was inaugurated on May 28, 2016. The five-acre complex, on the intersection of Sunset and Hollywood in Hollywood, California, has a 150 foot communications tower marked with a Scientology symbol. Originally built in 1912, it was restored by the church for content creation and delivery in print, broadcast and online media.[96][97][98][99][100] On 12 March 2018, Scientology Network started broadcasting on DirecTV as well as online at the Scientology Network website, and through AppleTV, Roku, fireTV, Chromecast, iTunes and Google Play.[101]
Affiliated organizations
There are many independently chartered organizations and groups which are staffed by Scientologists, and pay license fees for the use of Scientology technology and trademarks under the control of Scientology management. In some cases, these organizations do not publicize their affiliation with Scientology.[102][103]
The Church of Scientology denies the legitimacy of any splinter groups and factions outside the official organization, and has tried to prevent independent Scientologists from using officially trademarked Scientology materials. Independent Scientologists, also known collectively as the 'Free Zone' are referred to as squirrels within the Church. They are also classified by the Church of Scientology as suppressive persons ('SPs')—opponents or enemies of Scientology.Hubbard himself stated in Ron's Journal '67 'That there were only seven or eight Suppressive Persons on the planet...'
In 2010, an exception to the rule was made specifically for the Nation of Islam, which is the only officially sanctioned external Dianetics organization and the first official non-Scientology Dianetics org since 1953. Minister Louis Farrakhan publicly announced his embracement of Dianetics, and has been actively promoting Dianetics, while stating he has not become a Scientologist. He has courted a relationship with the Church, and materials and certifications are still required to be purchased from the Church of Scientology, and are not independently produced.[104][105][106]
Scientology Missions International
The Scientology Missions International, the branch of the Church of Scientology devoted to Missions, was set up in 1981. According to the church's official website, the SMI is the 'mother church' for all missions, with headquarters in Los Angeles. In 1983, there were forty missions. Currently, the church has grown to an estimated 3,200 missions, churches and groups.[107]
Sea Org
The Sea Organization (often simply referred to as the 'Sea Org') was incorporated under the name 'Operational Transport Committee' in the United Kingdom in 1966 for legal maritime registration purposes. The Sea Org is an unincorporated fraternal religious order founded in 1967 by Hubbard as he embarked on a series of voyages around the Mediterranean Sea in a small fleet of ships staffed by Scientologists and hired professional seamen. Hubbard—formerly a lieutenant junior grade in the US Navy—bestowed the rank of 'commodore' of the vessels upon himself. The crew who accompanied him on these voyages became the foundation of the Sea Organisation. The very first members of 'The Sea Project' (1966–67) were high-level trained staff and OTIII completions personally chosen by L. Ron Hubbard from Saint Hill Manor and overseas church missions. The purpose was to establish an effective base of operations for the OTC research voyages to assist LRH to verify his discoveries and research into past-lives. Hubbard was also keen to see if he could recover any deposits of treasure that he believed that he had hidden in dozens of locations around the Mediterranean region. Teams of divers and metal-detectorists were dispatched to remote locations to dig for these alleged deposits. There is evidence of some success in locating identified targets, but only two probable eye-witness testimonies of any artifacts being recovered. One from under a temple complex on Sicily and another from an underwater temple at Carthage. Witnesses have claimed to have seen small craft unloading gold bullion onto the 'Athena' vessel and later seen in Hubbard's personal hold aboard The Apollo Flag ship in 1968 by staff members. (Sources: 'Mission Into Time' and 'Source' magazine. (Issue 9).
The Sea Org is described by the church as forming an elite group of the most dedicated Scientologists, who are entrusted with the international management of Scientology and upper level churches such as the Advanced Organization Los Angeles, American Saint Hill Organization, Flag Service Organization and Celebrity Center International. Sea Org members are also in charge of the upper levels of Operating Thetan (OT) training. The organization is known as the 'monastic wing of Scientology.'[108]
Scientologists who are qualified to do so are often encouraged to join the Sea Org, which involves a lifetime commitment to Scientology organizations in exchange for room and board, training and auditing, and a small weekly allowance. Members sign an agreement pledging their loyalty and allegiance to Scientology for 'the next billion years,' committing their future lifetimes to the Sea Org. The Sea Org's motto is 'Revenimus' (or 'We Come Back').
Critics of Scientology have spoken out against the disciplinary procedures and policies of the Sea Org, which have been a source of controversy since its inception and variously described as abusive and illegal. Former Sea Org members have stated that punishments in the late 1960s and early 1970s included confinement in hazardous conditions such as the ship's chain locker.[109]
In 1974, Hubbard established the Rehabilitation Project Force (or RPF) as a subunit of the Sea Org, in order to provide a 'second chance' to members whose offenses were considered severe enough to warrant expulsion. RPF members are paired up and help one another for five hours each day with spiritual counseling to resolve the issues for which they were assigned to the program. They also spend 8 hours per day doing physical labor that will benefit the church facility where they are located. On verification of their having completed the program they are then given a Sea Org job again.[110]
In practice, there have even been reports of child labor and for considerably longer than eight hours a day.[111] For example, Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of David Miscavige and author of Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, has stated that as a child she often worked 14 hours a day and only got to see her parents once a week, and sometimes even more seldom.[112]
Volunteer Ministers
The Church of Scientology began its 'Volunteer Ministers' program as a way to participate in community outreach projects. Volunteer Ministers travel to the scenes of major disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by Hubbard entitled The Way to Happiness, and engaging in a method said to calm panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a 'touch assist.' Accounts of the Volunteer Ministers' effectiveness have been mixed, and touch assists are not supported by scientific evidence.[113][114][115]
Religious Technology Center (RTC)
Around 1982 all of the Hubbard's intellectual property was transferred to a newly formed entity called the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) and then licensed to the Religious Technology Center (RTC) which, according to its own publicity, exists to safeguard and control the use of the Church of Scientology's copyrights and trademarks.
The RTC employs lawyers and has pursued individuals and groups who have legally attacked Scientology or who are deemed to be a legal threat to Scientology. This has included breakaway Scientologists who practice Scientology outside the central church and critics, as well as numerous government and media organizations. This has helped to maintain Scientology's reputation for litigiousness (see Scientology and the legal system).
ABLE
Founded in 1989, the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) is an umbrella organization that administers six of Scientology's social programs:
- Applied Scholastics, educational programs based on Hubbard's 'Study Tech.'
- Criminon prisoner rehabilitation programs.
- International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, which has a particular interest in religious freedom.
- Narconondrug rehabilitation centers.
- The Way to Happiness Foundation, dedicated to disseminating Hubbard's non-religious moral code.
- Youth for Human Rights International, the youth branch of the above.
CCHR
The Citizens' Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), co-founded with Thomas Szasz in 1969, is an activist group whose stated mission is to 'eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections.'[116] It has been described by critics as a Scientology front group.[117][118][119]
WISE
Many other Scientologist-run businesses and organizations belong to the umbrella organization World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE), which licenses the use of Hubbard's management doctrines, and circulates directories of WISE-affiliated businesses. WISE requires those who wish to become Hubbard management consults to complete training in Hubbard's administrative systems; this training can be undertaken at any Church of Scientology, or at one of the campuses of the Hubbard College of Administration, which offers an Associate of Applied Science Degree.
- One of the best-known WISE-affiliated businesses is Sterling Management Systems, which offers Hubbard's management 'technology' to professionals such as dentists and chiropractors.
- Another well-known WISE-affiliated business is e.Republic, a publishing company based in Folsom, California.[120] e.Republic publications include Government Technology and Converge magazines. The Center for Digital Government is a division of e. Republic that was founded in 1999.
- Internet ISP EarthLink was founded by Scientologists Sky Dayton and Reed Slatkin as a Scientology enterprise. The company now distances itself from the views of its founder, who moved on to become CEO of Helio (wireless carrier), formerly known as SK-EarthLink.
Celebrities
In order to facilitate the continued expansion of Scientology, the Church has made efforts to win allies in the form of powerful or respected people.[121] The first Celebrity Center in Hollywood was founded by a Sea Org member in 1969 by the name of Yvonne Gillham Jentzsch. She served with L. Ron Hubbard on the Apollo ship that served as the headquarters of international Scientology operations from the 1960s to the 1970s.According to Donald A. Westbrook, “Jentzsch envisioned the Celebrity Centre as a bohemian and countercultural environment rather than a gateway or “front group” for actors and professionals.” Hubbard’s writings support the existence of the celebrity centre. “The artist has an enormous role in the enhancement of today’s and the creation of tomorrow’s reality,” the founder wrote in 1951.“He operates in a rank in advance of science as to the necessities and requirements of Man… The artist, day by day, by postulating the new realities of the future, accomplishes peaceful revolution.” [122]
Controversy
Though it has attained some credibility as a religion in many countries, Scientology has also been described as both a cult and a commercial enterprise.[3] Some of the Church's actions also brought scrutiny from the press and law enforcement. For example, it has been noted to engage in harassment and abuse of civil courts to silence its critics, by identifying as Fair Game people it perceives as its enemies.[123][124]
In 1979, several Scientology members were convicted for their involvement in the church's Operation Snow White, the largest theft of government documents in U.S. history.[125][126] Scientologists were also convicted of fraud, manslaughter and tampering with witnesses in French cases,[127][128] malicious libel against lawyer Casey Hill and espionage in Canada.[129][130]
In his book World Religions in America, religious scholar Jacob Neusner states that Scientology's 'high level of visibility' may be perceived as 'threatening to established social institutions'.[131]
The film Going Clear, based on the book by the same name, also documents the controversies surrounding the organization.
Classification as church or business
From 1952 until 1966, Scientology was administered by an organization called the Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS), established in Arizona on September 10, 1952. In 1954, the HAS became the HASI (HAS International). The Church of Scientology was incorporated in California on February 18, 1954, changing its name to 'The Church of Scientology of California' (CSC) in 1956. In 1966, Hubbard transferred all HASI assets to CSC, thus gathering Scientology under one tax-exempt roof. In 1967, the IRS stripped all US-based Scientology entities of their tax exemption, declaring Scientology's activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard. Controversy followed the church on those years, but its growth continued in the 1960s. New churches were formed in Paris (1959), Denmark (1968), Sweden (1969), and Germany (1970). In the 1970s the religion spread through Europe: in Austria (1971), Holland (1972), Italy (1978), and Switzerland (1978). Centers of Scientology were in 52 countries by the time the 80s came in and grew to 74 by 1992.[132] The church sued and lost repeatedly for 26 years trying to regain its tax-exempt status. The case was eventually settled in 1993, at which time the church paid $12.5 million to the IRS—greatly less than IRS had initially demanded—and the IRS recognized the church as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.[133] In addition, Scientology also dropped more than fifty lawsuits against the IRS when this settlement was reached. Scientology cites its tax exemption as proof the United States government accepts it as a religion.[134] In January 2009, removal of the tax exemption was rated as number 9 in items for the incoming Barack Obama administration to investigate, as determined in an internet poll run by the presidential transition team soliciting public input for the incoming administration.[135] The U.S. State Department has criticized Western European nations for discrimination against Scientologists in its published annual International Religious Freedom report, based on the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.[136][137][138]
In some countries Scientology is treated legally as a commercial enterprise, and not as a religion or charitable organization.[citation needed] In early 2003, in Germany, The Church of Scientology was granted a tax-exemption for the 10% license fees sent to the US. This exemption, however, is related to a German-American double-taxation agreement, and is unrelated to tax-exemption in the context of charities law. In several countries, public proselytizing undergoes the same restrictions as commercial advertising,[citation needed] which is interpreted as persecution by Scientology.
Although the religious nature of Scientology has been questioned both in the United States and around the world, Scientology has been acknowledged as a new religion as manifested in the Church's court victories and the gain of religious rights and privileges that are exclusive to legally established religious bodies.[139]
Unlike many well-established religious organizations, Scientology maintains strict control over its names, symbols, religious works and other writings. The word Scientology (and many related terms, including L. Ron Hubbard) is a registered trademark. Religious Technology Center, the owner of the trademarks and copyrights, takes a hard line on people and groups who attempt to use it in ways unaffiliated with the official Church (see Scientology and the legal system).
Illegal activities
L. Ron Hubbard appointed Mary Sue Hubbard to take control of certain aspects of legal protection for the CoS in 1968 and the Office of The Guardian was created with its head office situated at Saint Hill Manor. Under The Guardian's Office (later renamed the Office of Special Affairs or OSA), Church members and contracted staff from Bureau One later organized and committed one of the largest penetration of United States federal agencies ever perpetrated by an organization not affiliated with a foreign government (that is, one such as the KGB). This operation was named Operation Snow White by Hubbard.[140] In the trial which followed the discovery of these activities the prosecution described their actions thus:
The crime committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of. No building, office, desk, or file was safe from their snooping and prying. No individual or organization was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds. The tools of their trade were miniature transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials and any other device they found necessary to carry out their conspiratorial schemes.[140]
The Church has also in the past made use of aggressive tactics in addressing those it sees as trying to suppress them, known as Suppressive Persons (SPs) first outlined by Hubbard as part of a policy called fair game. It was under this policy that Paulette Cooper was targeted for having authored The Scandal of Scientology, a 1970 exposé book about the Church and its founder. This action was known as Operation Freakout. Using blank paper known to have been handled by Cooper, Scientologists forged bomb threats in her name.[140] When fingerprints on them matched hers, the Justice Department began prosecution, which could have sent Cooper to prison for a lengthy term. The Church's plan was discovered at the same time as its Operation Snow White actions were revealed. All charges against Cooper were dismissed, though she had spent more than $20,000 on legal fees for her defense.[140]
On January 22, 2013, attorneys for the organization, as well as some of its members, reacted toward the CNN News Group for its airing of a story covering the release of a book published by a former member, entitled 'Going Clear', published earlier the same year. CNN News Group then chose to publish the reactionary correspondence, with confidential information redacted, on its web site.
Of these activities the current Church laments:
...how long a time is the church going to have to continue to pay the price for what the (Guardian Office) did... Unfortunately, the church continues to be confronted with it. And the ironic thing is that the people being confronted with it are the people who wiped it out. And to the church, that's a very frustrating thing.[140]
According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article, in the 1980s the Los Angeles branch largely switched from using church members in harassment campaigns to using private investigators, including former and current Los Angeles police officers. The reason seemed to be that this gave the church a layer of protection.[141]
The Scientology organization has continued to aggressively target people it deems suppressive. In 1998, regarding its announcement that it had hired a private investigator to look into the background of a Boston Herald writer who had written a series on the church, Robert W. Thornburg, dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, said, 'No one I know goes so far as to hire outsiders to harass or try to get intimidating data on critics. Scientology is the only crowd that does that.'[142] It has apparently continued as recently as 2010. In 2007 when BBC journalist John Sweeney was making Scientology and Me, an investigative report about the Church and was the subject of harassment:
In LA, the moment our hire car left the airport we realised we were being followed by two cars. In our hotel a weird stranger spent every breakfast listening to us.[143]
Sweeny subsequently made a follow up documentary, The Secrets of Scientology, in 2010 during which he was followed and filmed on multiple occasions and one of his interviewees was followed back to his home.[144]
Members' health and safety
Some key activities of the Church of Scientology carry risks for members, and the deaths of some Scientologists have brought attention to the Church both due to the circumstances of their demises and their relationship with Scientology possibly being a factor.[145] In 1995, Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor automobile accident while driving on a Clearwater, Florida street. Following the collision, she exited her vehicle, stripped naked and showed further signs of mental instability, as noted by a nearby ambulance crew that subsequently transported her to a nearby hospital. Hospital staff decided that she had not been injured in the accident, but recommended keeping her overnight for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out against medical advice after a short evaluation. She was taken to the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology retreat, to receive a Church sanctioned treatment called Introspection Rundown. She had previously received the Introspection Rundown in June of that year. She was locked in a room for 17 days, where she died. Her appearance after death was that of someone who had been denied water and food for quite some time, being both underweight and severely dehydrated. Additionally, her skin was covered with over one hundred insect bites, presumably from cockroaches. The state of Florida pursued criminal charges against the Church. The Church has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and now makes members sign a waiver before Introspection Rundown specifically stating that they (or anyone on their behalf) will not bring any legal action against the organization over injury or death.[146] These charges attracted press coverage and sparked lawsuits. Eight years later, Elli Perkins, another adherent to Scientology's beliefs regarding psychiatry, was stabbed to death by her mentally disturbed son. Though Elli Perkins's son had begun to show symptoms of schizophrenia as early as 2001, the Perkins family chose not to seek psychiatric help for him and opted instead for alternative remedies sanctioned by Scientology. The death of Elli Perkins at the hands of a disturbed family member, one whose disease could have been treated by methods and medications banned by Scientology, again raised questions in the media about the Church's methods.[147]
In addition, the Church has been implicated in kidnapping members who have recently left the church. In 2007, Martine Boublil was kidnapped and held for several weeks against her will in Sardinia by four Scientologists. She was found on January 22, 2008, clothed only in a shirt. The room she was imprisoned in contained refuse and an insect infested mattress.[148][149]
On Friday March 28, 2008, Kaja Bordevich Ballo, daughter of Olav Gunnar Ballo, Norwegian parliament member and vice president of the Norwegian Odelsting, took a Church of Scientology personality test while studying in Nice. Her friends and co-inhabitants claim she was in good spirits and showed no signs of a mental breakdown, but the report from the Church of Scientology said she was 'depressed, irresponsible, hyper-critical and lacking in harmony'. A few hours later she committed suicide by jumping from her balcony at her dorm room leaving a note telling her family she was sorry for not 'being good for anything'. The incident has brought forward heavy criticism against the Church of Scientology from friends, family and prominent Norwegian politicians.[150]Inga Marte Thorkildsen, parliament member, went as far as to say 'Everything points to the scientology cult having played a direct role in making Kaja choose to take her own life'.[150]
Missionary activities
Members of the public entering a Scientology center or mission are offered a 'free personality test' called the Oxford Capacity Analysis by Scientology literature. The test, despite its name and the claims of Scientology literature, has no connection to Oxford University or any other research body. Scientific research into three test results came to the conclusion that 'we are forced to a position of skepticism about the test's status as a reliable psychometric device' and called its scientific value 'negligible'.[151]
Further proselytization practices - commonly called 'dissemination' of Scientology[152] - include information booths, flyers and advertisement for free seminars, Sunday Services in regular newspapers and magazines, personal contacts[153][154] and sales of books.[155]
Legal waivers
Recent legal actions involving Scientology's relationship with its members (see Scientology controversy) have caused the organization to publish extensive legal documents that cover the rights granted to followers. It has become standard practice within the organization for members to sign lengthy legal contracts and waivers before engaging in Scientology services, a practice that contrasts greatly with almost every mainstream religious organization. In 2003, a series of media reports examined the legal contracts required by Scientology, which state, among other things, that followers deny any psychiatric care their doctors may prescribe to them.[156]
I do not believe in or subscribe to psychiatric labels for individuals. It is my strongly held religious belief that all mental problems are spiritual in nature and that there is no such thing as a mentally incompetent person—only those suffering from spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by an individual. I reject all psychiatric labels and intend for this Contract to clearly memorialize my desire to be helped exclusively through religious, spiritual means and not through any form of psychiatric treatment, specifically including involuntary commitment based on so-called lack of competence. Under no circumstances, at any time, do I wish to be denied my right to care from members of my religion to the exclusion of psychiatric care or psychiatric directed care, regardless of what any psychiatrist, medical person, designated member of the state or family member may assert supposedly on my behalf.
Membership statistics
It is difficult to obtain reliable membership statistics. The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the official Church membership system since 1984, has never released figures.[157] Church spokespersons either give numbers for their countries or a worldwide figure.[158] Some national censuses have recently included questions about religious affiliations, though the United States Census Bureau states that it is not the source for information on religion.[159]
In 2007, the German national magazine Der Spiegel reported about 8 million members worldwide, about 6,000 of them in Germany, with only 150-200 members in Berlin.[160] In 1993, a spokesperson of Scientology Frankfurt had mentioned slightly more than 30,000 members nationwide.[161]
The organization has said that it has anywhere from eight million to fifteen million members worldwide.[162][163][164][165][166] Derek Davis[167] stated in 2004 that the Church organization has around 15 million members worldwide.[168] Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton has said that the church's estimates of its membership numbers are exaggerated: 'You're talking about anyone who ever bought a Scientology book or took a basic course. Ninety-nine percent of them don't ever darken the door of the church again.' Melton has stated that if the claimed figure of 4 million American Scientologists were correct, 'they would be like the Lutherans and would show up on a national survey'.[169]
The 'Scientologists Online' website presents 'over 16,000 Scientologists On-Line'.[170]
Statistics from other sources:
- In 2001, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reported that there were 55,000 adults in the United States who consider themselves Scientologists.[171] A 2008 survey of American religious affiliations by the US Census Bureau estimated there to be 25,000 Americans identifying as Scientologists.[172][173]
- The 2001 United Kingdom census contained a voluntary question on religion, to which approximately 48,000,000 chose to respond. Of those living in England and Wales who responded, a total of 1,781 said they were Scientologists.[174]
- In 2001, Statistics Canada, the national census agency, reported a total of 1,525 Scientologists nationwide,[174] up from 1,220 in 1991.[175] In 2011 census the number of scientologist raised to 1,745.[176]
- In 2005, the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimated a total of 5,000 – 6,000 Scientologists in that country, and mentioned a count of 12,000 according to Scientology Germany.[177]
- In the 2006 New Zealand census, 357 people identified themselves as Scientologists, although a Church spokesperson estimated there were between 5,000 and 6,000 Scientologists in the country.[178] Earlier census figures were 207 in the 1991 census, 219 in 1996, and 282 in 2001.[174]
- In 2006, Australia's national census recorded 2,507 Scientologists nationwide, up from 1,488 in 1996, and 2,032 in 2001.[174][179] The 2011 census however found a decrease of 13.7 per cent from the 2006 census.[180]
- In 2011 support for Scientology in Switzerland was said to have experience a steady decline from 3,000 registered members in 1990 to 1,000 members and the organization was said to be facing extinction in the country. A Church of Scientology spokeswoman rejected the figures insisting that the organization had 5,000 'passive and active members in Switzerland'.[181]
Finances
The Church of Scientology and its large network of corporations, non-profits and other legal entities are estimated to make around 500 million US dollars in annual revenue.[182]
Scientologists can attend classes, exercises or counseling sessions for a set range of 'fixed donations'; however, membership without courses or auditing is possible. According to a sociological report entitled 'Scientology: To Be Perfectly Clear', progression between levels above 'clear' status cost $15,760.03 in 1980 (equivalent to $47,923 in 2018) (without including additional special treatments).[183] Scientologists can choose to be audited by a fellow Scientologist rather than by a staff member.[184]
Critics say it is improper to fix a donation for religious service; therefore the activity is non-religious. Scientology points out many classes, exercises and counseling may also be traded for 'in kind' or performed cooperatively by students for no cost, and members of its most devoted orders can make use of services without any donations bar that of their time. A central tenet of Scientology is its Doctrine of Exchange, which dictates that each time a person receives something, he or she must give something back. By doing so, a Scientologist maintains 'inflow' and 'outflow', avoiding spiritual decline.[185]
Government opinions of Scientology
While a number of governments now give the Church of Scientology protections and tax relief as an officially recognized religion,[187][188][189] other sources describe the Church as a pseudoreligion or a cult.[190] Sociologist Stephen Kent published at a Lutheran convention in Germany that he likes to call it a transnational corporation.[191]
Early official reports in countries such as the United Kingdom (1971), South Africa (1972), Australia (1965) and New Zealand (1969) have yielded unfavorable observations and conclusions.[192][193][194][195]
Australia
There is currently no legal restriction in Australia on the practice of Scientology. In 1983 the High Court of Australia dealt with the question whether the Church of Scientology is a religious institution and as such not subject to payroll tax. The Court unanimously confirmed the Church of Scientology to be a religious institution.[196]
On November 18, 2009 the Church came under fire from an Independent senator in the Commonwealth Parliament, Nick Xenophon. Under parliamentary privilege in the Senate, Xenophon declared that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organization.[197]
Belgium
In September 2007, a Belgian prosecutor announced that they had finished an investigation of Scientology and said they would probably bring charges. The church said the prosecutor's public announcement falsely suggested guilt even before a court could hear any of the charges. In December 2012, Belgian officials completed their file on Scientology and brought charges of extortion, illegal medicine, various breaches of privacy, and fraud.[198][199]
France
In France, a parliamentary report classified Scientology as a dangerous cult.[200] On November 22, 1996, the leader of the Lyons Church of Scientology, Jean-Jacques Mazier, was convicted of fraud and involuntary homicide and sentenced to eighteen months in prison for his role in the death of a member who committed suicide after going deeply into debt to pay for Scientology auditing sessions. Fourteen others were convicted of fraud as well.[201] In 2009, members of the church were sued for fraud and practicing pharmacology without a license,[202] and the Church was convicted of fraud in October 2009, being fined €600,000, with additional fines and suspended prison sentences for four officers.[203]
In an interview on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporationcurrent affairsradio programThe Current with Hana Gartner, former high-ranking Scientology official Mark Rathbun commented that the decision to convict the Church of Scientology of fraud in France would not have a significant impact on the organization.[204] 'On the France thing I don't think that's going to have any lasting impact, simply because they got a nine hundred thousand dollar fine I think - which is like chump change to them. They've got literally nearly a billion dollars set aside in a war chest,' said Rathbun.[204]
Germany
In Germany, official views of Scientology are particularly skeptical.[205] In Germany it is seen as a totalitarian anti-democratic organization and is under observation by national security organizations due to, among other reasons, suspicion of violating the human rights of its members granted by the German Constitution,[206] including Hubbard's pessimistic views on democracy vis-à-vis psychiatry and other such features.[207] In December 2007, Germany's interior ministers said that they considered the goals of Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and would seek to ban the organization.[208] The plans were quickly criticised as ill-advised.[209] The plans to ban Scientology were finally dropped in November 2008, after German officials found insufficient evidence of illegal activity.[210]
The legal status of the Church of Scientology in Germany is still awaiting resolution; some courts have ruled that it is a business, others have affirmed its religious nature.[211] The German government has affirmed that it does not consider the Church of Scientology to be a religious community.[211]
Ireland
As in most European countries, the Church of Scientology is not officially recognized in Ireland as a charitable organization, but it is free to promote Scientology beliefs.[212] The Irish government has not invited the Church of Scientology to national discussions on secularization by the Religious Council of Ireland. The meetings were attended by Roman Catholic bishops, representatives of the Church of Ireland, Ireland's Chief Rabbi, and Muslim leaders.[213]
Israel
In Israel, according to Israeli professor of psychology Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 'in various organizational forms, Scientology has been active among Israelis for more than thirty years, but those in charge not only never claimed the religion label, but resisted any such suggestion or implication. It has always presented itself as a secular, self-improvement, tax-paying business.'[190] Those 'organizational forms' include a Scientology Organization in Tel Aviv. Another Israeli Scientology group called 'The Way to Happiness' (or 'Association for Prosperity and Security in the Middle East') works through local Scientologist members to promote The Way to Happiness.[214] An Israeli CCHR chapter runs campaigns against perceived abuses in psychiatry.[215] Other Scientology campaigns, such as 'Youth for Human Rights International' are active as well.[216] There is also an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that opposes Scientology and other cults or missionary organizations in Israel,[217]Lev L'Achim, whose anti-missionary department in 2001 provided a hotline and other services to warn citizens of Scientology's 'many types of front organizations'.[218]
Netherlands
On October 17, 2013, a Dutch court ruled that 'the Amsterdam arm of Scientology is a charitable organization and exempt from paying taxes.'[219] DutchNews.nl reported that the court ruled 'The Scientology Church in Amsterdam be treated in the same way as other church and faith-based organisations and allowed to claim tax breaks'.[220] The appeal court also ruled that 'Scientology's classes don't differ significantly from what other spiritual organizations do, or can do.'[219] The court noted 'Scientology movement's training programmes are not the same as those offered by commercial companies because people who cannot afford them pay a reduced fee or get them free' and that 'the courses are aimed at spiritual and theoretical enlightenment.'[220]
Russia
The European Court of Human Rightsruled in April 2007 that Russia's denial to register the Church of Scientology as a religious community was a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of assembly and association) read in the light of Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion)'.[221] In July 2007, the St. Petersburg City Court closed down that city's Scientology center for violating its charter.[222][223]
Spain
On October 31, 2007, the National Court in Madrid issued a decision recognizing that the National Church of Scientology of Spain should be entered in the Registry of Religious Entities.The administrative tribunal of Madrid's High Court ruled that a 2005 justice ministry decision to scrap the church from the register was 'against the law.' Responding to a petition filed by the church, the ruling said that no documents had been presented in court to demonstrate it was anything other than a religious entity.[224][225]
United Kingdom
The UK government's 1971 official report into Scientology was highly critical,[226] but concluded that it would be unfair to ban the Church outright. The UK government does not classify the Church of Scientology as a religious institution and it is not a registered charity.[174][227] However, in 2000, the Church of Scientology was exempted from UK value added tax on the basis that it is a not-for-profit body.[228]
In December 2013, the UK Supreme Court officially ruled that Scientology is a religion, in response to a 5-year legal battle by Scientologist Louisa Hodkin to marry at the Church of Scientology chapel in central London. With the new ruling, the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths now recognize weddings performed within Scientology chapels and redefined religion so that it was 'not... confined to those with belief in a supreme deity.'[229][230][231][232]
United States
In 1979 Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, along with ten other highly placed Scientology executives were convicted in United States federal court regarding Operation Snow White, and served time in an American federal prison. Operation Snow White involved infiltration, wiretapping and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In 1993, however, the United States IRS recognized Scientology as a 'non-profit charitable organization,' and gave it the same legal protections and favorable tax treatment extended to other non-profit charitable organizations.[233] A New York Times article says that Scientologists paid private investigators to obtain compromising material on the IRS commissioner and blackmailed the IRS into submission.[234]
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 unless the Service has issued previously or issues contemporaneously a similar pronouncement that provides for consistent and uniform principles for determining the deductibility of fixed donations for all churches including the Church of Scientology.[citation needed]
In a 2001 legal case involving a married couple attempting to obtain the same deduction for charity to a Jewish school, it was stated by Judge Silverman:[235]
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 (2008) such a suit is not known to have been filed. In further appeal in 2006, the US Tax Court again rejected couple's deduction, stating:
We conclude that the agreement reached between the Internal Revenue Service and the Church of Scientology in 1993 does not affect the result in this case.[236]
However, this matter is still ongoing. On February 8, 2008, three judges in the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 'expressed deep skepticism' over the IRS's position that treatment of Scientology is 'irrelevant to the deductions the Orthodox Jews, Michael and Marla Sklar, took for part of their children's day school tuition and for after-school classes in Jewish law'.[237]
See also
Gallery
References
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|access-date=
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(help) - ^Wakefield, Margery. Understanding Scientology, Chapter 9. Reproduced at David S. Touretzky's Carnegie Mellon site.
- ^moreorless. 'The Church of Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force A Study by Juha Pentikäinen (Chair of the Department of the Study of Religions, University of Helsinki, Finland), Jurgen F.K. Redhardt, and Michael York (Bath Spa University College)'. Cesnur.org. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- ^Scientology = Child Slavery, Scam of Scientology.
- ^Former Scientologist Claims Children Forced Into Labor Camp, Inquisitr, Tara Dodrill, March 18, 2013.
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- ^'Industry of Death exhibition on psychiatry walks a fine line'. Canada.com. August 8, 2007. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
'A major purpose of Scientology is to destroy psychiatry and replace it with its own pseudo-counselling techniques. And CCHR is one of Scientology's front-group weapons attempting to achieve that goal,' says Stephen Kent, a University of Alberta sociologist specializing in new religions and cults. Scientology holds that psychiatrists are 'cosmic demons', he says.
- ^Kirsten Stewart (July 2, 2005). 'Scientology's political presence on the rise'. The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
The church [of Scientology] kept a low profile, paying professional lobbyists to press its cause or relying on CCHR, which skeptics call a front group designed to recruit Scientologists and replace psychiatry with Dianetics.
- ^'[ Fence Post ]'. Chicago Daily Herald(Letters to the Editor)
|format=
requires|url=
(help). January 4, 2001.Dangerous program / In a letter to Fence Post (Dec. 12), Susan Stozewski of the Chicago Church of Scientology attempts to promote a drug rehab program called Narconon. I wish to warn readers that Narconon is a front group for the Church of Scientology. I found from personal experience that Narconon is a sham and is, in fact, a slick device to lure unsuspecting people into Scientology. An acquaintance of mine recently discovered that she had serious liver damage from Narconon's bogus 'purification' program and she now cannot get health insurance coverage. Another Scientology front group to beware of is the CCHR or Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The CCHR is using tax-exempt funds in a covert campaign to discredit psychiatric-psychology treatment. The CCHR has an extensive network of agents that are distributing distortions about psychiatric treatment and medications such as Prozac and Ritalin. This is a very dangerous thing and people should be aware that it is going on. / Jim Beebe / Northbrook
|access-date=
requires|url=
(help) - ^'Scientology Inc.' at Newsreview.com
- ^Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos, Times Staff Writers, Courting the Power Brokers The Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1990
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(help) - ^Leiby, Richard (December 25, 1994). 'Scientology Fiction: The Church's War Against Its Critics—and Truth'. The Washington Post. p. C1. Retrieved June 21, 2006.
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- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on May 14, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2011.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^[Claridge, Thomas (September 12, 1992). 'Church of Scientology fined $250,000 for espionage'. Globe and Mail.]
- ^Neusner, Jacob (2003). World Religions in America. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 221–236. ISBN0-664-22475-X.
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- ^'The Wall Street Journal. December 30, 1997 Reproduced at Dave Touretzky's Carnegie Mellon site
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- ^Melton, J. Gordon (2003). 'Other Psychic New Age Groups'. Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th ed.). Detroit: Gale.
- ^ abcdeBurglaries and Lies Paved a Path to Prison The LA Times, By Robert W. Welkos and Joel Sappell, June 24, 1990
- ^On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes, Los Angeles Times, Joel Sappell, Robert W. Welkes, page A1, June 29, 1990. This story is also available on the Carnegie Mellon University library website as 'Part 6: Attack the Attacker, On the Offensive . . . '
- ^McLaughlin, Jim; Andrew Gully (February 19, 1998). 'Church of Scientology probes Herald reporter'. Boston Herald. Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2009.
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- ^The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power TIME magazine, May. 06, 1991 By Richard Behar. By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world... his fingers were still clutching $171 in cash, virtually the only money he hadn't yet turned over to the Church of Scientology, the self-help 'philosophy' group he had discovered just seven months earlier.
- ^Frantz, Douglas (November 14, 1998). 'Florida Charges Scientology In Church Member's Death'. The New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
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- ^'French Scientologists Arrested in Italy'. dalje.com.Missing or empty
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(help) - ^Juliet, Anne-Cécile. 'L'étrange séquestration qui embarrasse la Scientologie'. Bellaciao.org. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
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- ^The Foster Report. Chapter 5, 'The Practices of Scientology;' section (a), 'Recruitment;' pages 75-76. '... a systematic approach to answering the questions should yield systematic variations in the conclusions derived from an analysis of the test scores ... these two methods [for answering the questions of the test] would be expected to produce different, if not complementary, profiles ... These variations in answering the questions did not seem to affect the Oxford Capacity Analysis as the three methods produced remarkably similar profiles ... when each of two diametrically opposed methods of response produces the same extreme deviant scores as the other and as a third 'random' response style, we are forced to a position of scepticism about the test's status as a reliable psychometric device.'
- ^'The Seven-Division Org Board'. What is Scientology. Archived from the original on June 21, 2013.
- ^Dissemination by Churches of Scientology through 'Field Staff Members'Archived July 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, 'Field Staff Member: a Scientology parishioner who introduces others to Scientology through personal contact.'
- ^Official Scientology FAQ: 'There are thousands of Scientologists who work full time in churches and missions throughout the world as executives or administrative staff. There are also those who further the dissemination of Scientology on a one-to-one basis or through the dissemination of Scientology materials and books, those who hold jobs in the Church's social reform groups and those who work in the Office of Special Affairs involved in community betterment or legal work. All of these provide rewarding careers as each forwards the expansion of Scientology and thereby makes it possible for more and more people to benefit from its technology.'
- ^Melton, J. Gordon (May 10, 1981). 'A Short Study of the Scientology Religion'. Church of Scientology. Archived from the original on June 25, 2007.
The Church regularly propagates its beliefs through the traditional channels of liturgy, dissemination of its religious publications and in its community programs.
- ^Reproduced version of Introspection Rundown Release Contract
- ^Wright, Lawrence (2013). Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
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(help) - ^Ortega, Tony (June 30, 2008). 'Scientology's Crushing Defeat'. Village Voice. Village Voice Media. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
Scientology president Heber Jentszch admitted several years ago that the six million number does not represent current membership but the total amount of people who have ever, since the founding in 1954, taken even a single Scientology course.
- ^'Religion'. Census.gov. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on January 19, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2009.
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- ^Interview with Barbara Lieser, SPIRITA 1/93, Page 22
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- ^Statement of Celebrity Centre Vice President Greg LaClaire, August 7, 2004 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on August 31, 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2007.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^Spokesperson Beth Akiyama in: Scientology comes to town, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 24, 2005
- ^L. Ron Hubbard (1970). Final Blackout. Leisure Books. ISBN978-0-8439-0003-3.
HE IS ALSO renowned as the founder of Scientology and the creator of 'Dianetics,' with an estimated 15 million adherents around the world.
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- ^'Derek H. Davis'. Spirit Restoration.org. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010.
- ^Religionsfreiheit und Konformismus. Über Minderheiten und die Macht der Mehrheit, Lit. Verlag, Münster, 2004, ISBN978-3-8258-7654-8, page 113
- ^Jarvik, Elaine (September 18, 2004). 'Scientology: Church now claims more than 8 million members'. Deseret News. Archived from the original on December 12, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
If the church indeed had 4 million members in the United States, he says, 'they would be like the Lutherans and would show up on a national survey' such as the Harris poll.
- ^on-line.scientology.org homepage, viewed February 2007
- ^'Self-Described Religious Identification Among American Adults'. InfoPlease. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
- ^Wright, Lawrence (February 2011). 'The Apostate'. The New Yorker.
- ^'Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population'. United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
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- ^Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics. '2011 National Household Survey: Data tables – Religion (108), Immigrant Status and Period of Immigration (11), Age Groups (10) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey'. 12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
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- ^Davis, Derek H. (July 2004). 'The Church of Scientology: In Pursuit of Legal Recognition'. CESNUR--Center for Studies on New Religions. Retrieved June 15, 2007.
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- ^Kent, Stephen (July 1999). 'Scientology -- Is this a Religion?'. Marburg Journal of Religion. Retrieved August 26, 2006. Kent, while acknowledging that a number of his colleagues accept Scientology as a religion, argues that 'Rather than struggling over whether or not to label Scientology as a religion, I find it far more helpful to view it as a multifaceted transnational corporation, only one element of which is religious.' (Italics in original.)
- ^Sir John Foster (December 1971). 'Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology'. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London. Retrieved March 5, 2007.
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- ^'Senator Nick Xenophon brands Scientology a 'criminal organisation''. Herald Sun. Australia. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
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- ^Lewis, James R., ed. (2009). Scientology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-533149-3., p. 289
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- ^Tom Lyons: Troubled Scientology Church in Ireland is now €1m in red, The Irish Independent, June 28, 2006
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External links
- Church of Scientology
- 'Welcome to Scientology'. Church of Scientology official home page. Church of Scientology.
- 'What is Scientology ?'. Common questions answered about Scientology and its activities. Church of Scientology.
- Favorable sites
- Irving Hexham. 'The religious status of Scientology'. Is Scientology a religion?. University of Calgary.
- Critical sites
- Church of Scientology Corporations Research Index at the Wayback Machine (archived February 11, 2015)
- Cult Education Institute at the Wayback Machine (archived March 31, 2016)
- Other
- Church of Scientology companies grouped at OpenCorporates
The Scientology symbol is composed of the letter S, which stands for Scientology, and the ARC and KRC triangles, two important concepts in Scientology.[1] | |
Formation | May 1952[2] |
---|---|
Headquarters | Gold Base Riverside County, California[3] |
David Miscavige | |
Website | www.scientology.org |
Remarks | Flagship facility: Church of Scientology International, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Scientology is a body of religious beliefs and practices launched in May 1952 by American author L. Ron Hubbard (1911–86). Hubbard initially developed a program of ideas called Dianetics, which was distributed through the Dianetics Foundation. The foundation soon entered bankruptcy, and Hubbard lost the rights to his seminal publication Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1952. He then recharacterized the subject as a religion and renamed it Scientology,[4] retaining the terminology, doctrines, the E-meter, and the practice of auditing.[5][6] Within a year, he regained the rights to Dianetics and retained both subjects under the umbrella of the Church of Scientology.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
Hubbard describes the etymology of the word 'Scientology' as coming from the Latin word scio, meaning know or distinguish, and the Greek word logos, meaning 'the word or outward form by which the inward thought is expressed and made known'. Hubbard writes, 'thus, Scientology means knowing about knowing, or science of knowledge'.[13]
Hubbard's groups have encountered considerable opposition and controversy.[14] In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners brought proceedings against Dianetics Foundation on the charge of teaching medicine without a license.[15] Hubbard's followers engaged in a program of criminal infiltration of the U.S. government.[16][17]
Hubbard-inspired organizations and their classification are often a point of contention. Germany classifies Scientology groups as an 'anti-constitutional sect'.[18][19] In France, they have been classified as a dangerous cult by some parliamentary reports.[20][21]
- 1History
- 2Beliefs and practices
- 3Organization
- 4Controversies
- 5Disputes over legal status
- 6Scientology in religious studies
History
L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) was the only child of Harry Ross Hubbard, a United States Navy officer, and his wife, Ledora Waterbury. Hubbard spent three semesters at George Washington University but was placed on probation in September 1931. He failed to return for the fall 1932 semester.[22]
In July 1941, Hubbard was commissioned as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Naval Reserve. On May 18, 1943, his subchaser left Portland. That night, Hubbard ordered his crew to fire 35 depth charges and a number of gun rounds at what he believed were Japanese submarines.[23] His ship sustained minor damage and three crew were injured. Having run out of depth charges and with the presence of a submarine still unconfirmed by other ships, Hubbard's ship was ordered back to port. A navy report concluded that 'there was no submarine in the area.' A decade later, Hubbard claimed in his Scientology lectures that he had sunk a Japanese submarine.[24]
On June 28, 1943, Hubbard ordered his crew to fire on the Coronado Islands. Hubbard apparently did not realize that the islands belonged to US-allied Mexico, nor that he had taken his vessel into Mexican territorial waters.[25] He was reprimanded and removed from command on July 7.[25] After reassignment to a naval facility in Monterey, California, Hubbard became depressed and fell ill. Reporting stomach pains in April 1945, he spent the remainder of the war as a patient in Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California.[26] According to his later teachings, during this time Hubbard made scientific 'breakthroughs' by use of 'endocrine experiments'.[27]
On October 15, 1947, Hubbard wrote a letter to the Veterans Administration formally requesting psychiatric treatment, but admitted that he was unable to afford it.[28] Within a few years, Hubbard would condemn psychiatry as evil, which would grow into a major theme in Scientology.
Excalibur and Babalon Working
In April 1938, Hubbard reportedly reacted to a drug used in a dental procedure. According to his account, this triggered a revelatory near-death experience. Allegedly inspired by this experience, Hubbard composed a manuscript, which was never published, with the working titles of 'The One Command' or Excalibur.[29][30] The contents of Excalibur formed the basis for some of his later publications.[31]Arthur J. Burks, who read the work in 1938, later recalled it discussed the 'one command': to survive. This theme would be revisited in Dianetics, the set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body which became the central philosophy of Scientology.[32] Hubbard later cited Excalibur as an early version of Dianetics.[33][better source needed]
In August 1945, Hubbard moved into the Pasadena mansion of John 'Jack' Whiteside Parsons, an avid occultist and Thelemite, follower of the English ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley and leader of a lodge of Crowley's magical order, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).[34][35] Parsons and Hubbard collaborated on the 'Babalon Working', a sex magic ritual intended to summon an incarnation of Babalon, the supreme Thelemite Goddess.[16] The Church of Scientology admits to Hubbard's involvement with Parsons while claiming that it was for the purpose of naval intelligence.[36]
In the late 1940s, Hubbard practiced as a hypnotist[37] and he worked in Hollywood posing as a swami.[38] The Church says that Hubbard's experience with hypnosis led him to create Dianetics.[39]
Dianetics
In May 1950, Hubbard's Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science was published by pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction.[40][41][42][43] In the same year, he published the book-length Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, considered the seminal event of the century by Scientologists.[44] Scientologists sometimes use a dating system based on the book's publication; for example, 'A.D. 25' does not stand for Anno Domini, but 'After Dianetics'.[45]
Dianetics uses a counseling technique known as auditing in which an auditor assists a subject in conscious recall of traumatic events in the individual's past.[46] It was originally intended to be a new psychotherapy and was not expected to become the foundation for a new religion.[47][48] Hubbard variously defined Dianetics as a spiritual healing technology and an organized science of thought.[49] The stated intent is to free individuals of the influence of past traumas by systematic exposure and removal of the engrams (painful memories) these events have left behind, a process called clearing.[49] Rutgers scholar Beryl Satter says that 'there was little that was original in Hubbard's approach', with much of the theory having origins in popular conceptions of psychology.[50] Satter observes that in 'keeping with the typical 1950s distrust of emotion, Hubbard promised that Dianetic treatment would release and erase psychosomatic ills and painful emotions, thereby leaving individuals with increased powers of rationality.'[50][51] According to Gallagher and Ashcraft, in contrast to psychotherapy, Hubbard stated that Dianetics 'was more accessible to the average person, promised practitioners more immediate progress, and placed them in control of the therapy process.' Hubbard's thought was parallel with the trend of humanist psychology at that time, which also came about in the 1950s.[50] Passas and Castillo write that the appeal of Dianetics was based on its consistency with prevailing values.[52] Shortly after the introduction of Dianetics, Hubbard introduced the concept of the 'thetan' (or soul) which he claimed to have discovered. Dianetics was organized and centralized to consolidate power under Hubbard, and groups that were previously recruited were no longer permitted to organize autonomously.[53]
Two of Hubbard's key supporters at the time were John W. Campbell Jr., the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, and Campbell's brother-in-law, physician Joseph A. Winter.[54] Dr. Winter, hoping to have Dianetics accepted in the medical community, submitted papers outlining the principles and methodology of Dianetic therapy to the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1949, but these were rejected.[55][56]
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list.[15][57][58] According to religious studies professor Paul Gutjahr, Dianetics is the bestselling non-Christian religious book of the century.[45](subscription required) Publisher's Weekly gave a posthumous plaque to Hubbard to commemorate Dianetics' appearance on its list of bestsellers for one hundred weeks. Studies that address the topic of the origins of the work and its significance to Scientology as a whole include Peter Rowley's New Gods in America, Omar V. Garrison's The Hidden Story of Scientology, and Albert I. Berger's Towards a Science of the Nuclear Mind: Science-fiction Origins of Dianetics. More complex studies include Roy Wallis'sThe Road to Total Freedom.[45]
Dianetics appealed to a broad range of people who used instructions from the book and applied the method to each other, becoming practitioners themselves.[43][59] Dianetics soon met with criticism. Morris Fishbein, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and well known at the time as a debunker of quack medicine, dismissed Hubbard's book.[60][61] An article in Newsweek stated that 'the Dianetics concept is unscientific and unworthy of discussion or review'.[62] Hubbard asserted that Dianetics is 'an organized science of thought built on definite axioms: statements of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences.'[63]
Hubbard became the leader of a growing Dianetics movement.[43] He became a popular lecturer and established the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he trained his first Dianetics counselors or auditors.[43][59]
Some practitioners of Dianetics reported experiences which they believed had occurred in past lives, or previous incarnations.[59] In early 1951, reincarnation became a subject of intense debate within the Dianetics community.[64] Hubbard took the reports of past life events seriously and introduced the concept of the thetan, an immortal being analogous to the soul.[59] This was an important factor in the transition from secular Dianetics to the religion of Scientology. Sociologists Roy Wallis and Steve Bruce suggest that Dianetics, which set each person as his or her own authority, was about to fail due to its inherent individualism, and that Hubbard started Scientology as a religion to establish himself as the overarching authority.[65][53]
Also in 1951, Hubbard incorporated the electropsychometer (E-meter for short), a kind of electrodermal activity meter, as an auditing aid.[64] Based on a design by Volney Mathison, the device is held by Scientologists to be a useful tool in detecting changes in a person's state of mind.[64] The global spread of Scientology at the latter half of the 1950s was culminated with the opening of churches in Johannesburg and Paris, while world headquarters transferred to England in Saint Hill, a rural estate. Hubbard lived there for the next seven years.[66]
Dianetics is different from Scientology in that Scientology is a religion while Dianetics is not. The purpose of Dianetics is the improvement of the individual, the individual or 'self' being only one of eight 'dynamics.'[67] 'According to Hugh B. Urban, Hubbard's early science of Dianetics would be best comprehended as a 'bricolage that brought together his various explorations in psychology, hypnosis, and science fiction.' If Dianetics is understood as a bricolage, then Scientology is 'an even more ambitious sort of religious bricolage adapted to the new religious marketplace of 1950s America,' continues Urban. According to Roy Wallis, 'Scientology emerged as a religious commodity eminently suited to the contemporary market of postwar America.' L. Ron Hubbard Jr. said in an interview that the spiritual bricolage of Scientology, as written by Hugh B. Urban, 'seemed to be uniquely suited to the individualism and quick-fix mentality of 1950s America: just by doing a few assignments, 'one can become a god.'[68]
Harlan Ellison has told a story of seeing Hubbard at a gathering of the Hydra Club in 1953 or 1954. Hubbard was complaining of not being able to make a living on what he was being paid as a science fiction writer. Ellison says that Lester del Rey told Hubbard that what he needed to do to get rich was start a religion.[69]
Church of Scientology
In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners began proceedings against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for teaching medicine without a license, which eventually led to that foundation's bankruptcy.[70][71][72] In December 1952, the Hubbard Dianetic Foundation filed for bankruptcy, and Hubbard lost control of the Dianetics trademark and copyrights to financier Don Purcell.[73] Author Russell Miller argues that Scientology 'was a development of undeniable expedience, since it ensured that he would be able to stay in business even if the courts eventually awarded control of Dianetics and its valuable copyrights to ... Purcell'.[74][75]
L. Ron Hubbard originally intended for Scientology to be considered a science, as stated in his writings. In May 1952, Scientology was organized to put this intended science into practice, and in the same year, Hubbard published a new set of teachings as Scientology, a religious philosophy.[76] Marco Frenschkowski quotes Hubbard in a letter written in 1953, to show that he never denied that his original approach was not a religious one: 'Probably the greatest discovery of Scientology and its most forceful contribution to mankind has been the isolation, description and handling of the human spirit, accomplished in July 1951, in Phoenix, Arizona. I established, along scientific rather than religious or humanitarian lines that the thing which is the person, the personality, is separable from the body and the mind at will and without causing bodily death or derangement. (Hubbard 1983: 55).'[77]
In April 1953, Hubbard wrote a letter proposing that Scientology should be transformed into a religion.[78] As membership declined and finances grew tighter, Hubbard had reversed the hostility to religion he voiced in Dianetics.[79] His letter discussed the legal and financial benefits of religious status.[79] Hubbard outlined plans for setting up a chain of 'Spiritual Guidance Centers' charging customers $500 for twenty-four hours of auditing ('That is real money ... Charge enough and we'd be swamped.'). He wrote:
I await your reaction on the religion angle. In my opinion, we couldn't get worse public opinion than we have had or have less customers with what we've got to sell. A religious charter would be necessary in Pennsylvania or NJ to make it stick. But I sure could make it stick.[80]
In December 1953, Hubbard incorporated three churches – a 'Church of American Science', a 'Church of Scientology' and a 'Church of Spiritual Engineering' – in Camden, New Jersey.[81] On February 18, 1954, with Hubbard's blessing, some of his followers set up the first local Church of Scientology, the Church of Scientology of California, adopting the 'aims, purposes, principles and creed of the Church of American Science, as founded by L. Ron Hubbard.'[81][82] The movement spread quickly through the United States and to other English-speaking countries such as Britain, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.[83] The second local Church of Scientology to be set up, after the one in California, was in Auckland, New Zealand.[83] In 1955, Hubbard established the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C..[59] The group declared that the Founding Church, as written in the certificate of incorporation for the Founding Church of Scientology in the District of Columbia, was to 'act as a parent church for the religious faith known as 'Scientology' and to act as a church for the religious worship of the faith.'[84]
The Church experienced further challenges. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation concerning the claims the Church of Scientology made in connection with its E-meters.[60] On January 4, 1963, FDA agents raided offices of the Church of Scientology, seizing hundreds of E-meters as illegal medical devices and tons of literature that they accused of making false medical claims.[85] The original suit by the FDA to condemn the literature and E-meters did not succeed,[86] but the Court ordered the Church to label every meter with a disclaimer that it is purely religious artifact,[87] to post a $20,000 bond of compliance, and to pay the FDA's legal expenses.[88]
In the course of developing Scientology, Hubbard presented rapidly changing teachings that some have seen as often self-contradictory.[89][90] According to Lindholm, for the inner cadre of Scientologists in that period, involvement depended not so much on belief in a particular doctrine but on unquestioning faith in Hubbard.[89]
In 1966, Hubbard purportedly stepped down as executive director of Scientology to devote himself to research and writing.[59][91] The following year, he formed the ship-based Sea Organization or Sea Org which operated three ships: the Diana, the Athena, and the flagship the Apollo.[59][92] One month after the establishment of the Sea Org, Hubbard announced that he had made a breakthrough discovery, the result of which were the 'OT III' materials purporting to provide a method for overcoming factors inhibiting spiritual progress.[92] These materials were first disseminated on the ships, and then propagated by Sea Org members reassigned to staff Advanced Organizations on land.[92]
Hubbard in hiding, death, and aftermath
In 1972, facing criminal charges in France, Hubbard returned to the United States and began living in an apartment in Queens, New York.[93] When faced with possible indictment in the United States, Hubbard went into hiding in April 1979. He hid first in an apartment in Hemet, California, where his only contact with the outside world was via ten trusted Messengers. He cut contact with everyone else, even his wife, whom he saw for the last time in August 1979.[94] In February 1980 he disappeared into deep cover in the company of two trusted Messengers, Pat and Anne Broeker.[95][96]
In 1979, as a result of FBI raids during Operation Snow White, eleven senior people in the church's Guardian's Office were convicted of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. In 1981, Scientology took the German government to court for the first time.[97]
On January 24, 1986, L. Ron Hubbard died at his ranch in Creston, California.[98]David Miscavige emerged as the new head of the organization.
Splinter groups: Independent Scientology, Freezone, and Miscavige's RTC
While Scientology generally refers to Miscavige-led Church of Scientology, other groups practice Scientology. These groups, collectively known as Independent Scientologists, consist of former members of the official Church of Scientology as well as entirely new members.
In 1950, founding member Joseph Winter cut ties with Hubbard and set up a private Dianetics practice in New York.[99] In 1965, a longtime Church member and 'Doctor of Scientology' Jack Horner (born 1927), dissatisfied with the Church's 'ethics' program, developed Dianology.[100] Capt. Bill Robertson, a former Sea Org member, was a primary instigator of the movement in the early 1980s.[101] The church labels these groups 'squirrels' (Scientology jargon) and often subjects them to considerable legal and social pressure.[102][103][104]
On January 1, 1982, Miscavige established the Religious Technology Center (RTC).[105] On November 11, 1982, the Free Zone was established by top Scientologists in disagreement with RTC.[106] The Free Zone Association was founded and registered under the laws of Germany, and espouses the doctrine that the official Church of Scientology led by David Miscavige has departed from Hubbard's original philosophy.[107]
The Advanced Ability Center was established by Hubbard's personal auditor David Mayo after February 1983 – a time when some of Scientology's upper and middle management split with Miscavige's organization.[108]
More recently, high-profile defectors Mark Rathbun and Mike Rinder have championed the cause of Independent Scientologists wishing to practice Scientology outside of the Church.[109][110]
Beliefs and practices
According to Scientology, its beliefs and practices are based on rigorous research, and its doctrines are accorded a significance equivalent to scientific laws.[111] Scientology cosmology is, however, at odds with modern science, with claims of memories going back '76 trillion years':[112] much longer than the age of the universe. Blind belief is held to be of lesser significance than the practical application of Scientologist methods.[111] Adherents are encouraged to validate the practices through their personal experience.[111] Hubbard put it this way: 'For a Scientologist, the final test of any knowledge he has gained is, 'did the data and the use of it in life actually improve conditions or didn't it?''[111] He defined Scientology's aims as: 'A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war; where the world can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.'[113][114] He described Scientology as an 'applied religious philosophy' because, according to him, it consists of a metaphysical doctrine, a theory of psychology, and teachings in morality.[115] The core of Scientology teaching lies in the belief that 'each human has a reactive mind that responds to life's traumas, clouding the analytic mind and keeping us from experiencing reality.' Scientologists undergo auditing to discover sources of this trauma, believing that re-experiencing it neutralizes it and reinforces the ascendancy of the analytic mind, with the final goal believed to be achieving a spiritual state that Scientology calls 'clear.'[116]
Theological doctrine
Scientology does not preach or impose a particular idea of God on Scientologists. Rather, people are expected to discover the truth through their own observations as their awareness advances.
... the Church of Scientology has no set dogma concerning God that it imposes on its members. As with all its tenets, Scientology does not ask individuals to accept anything on faith alone. Rather, as one's level of spiritual awareness increases through participation in Scientology auditing and training, one attains his own certainty of every dynamic. Accordingly, only when the Seventh Dynamic (spiritual) is reached in its entirety will one discover and come to a full understanding of the Eighth Dynamic (infinity) and one's relationship to the Supreme Being.[117]
Many Scientologists avoid using the words 'belief' or 'faith' to describe how Hubbard's teachings impacts their lives. They perceive that Scientology is based on verifiable technologies, speaking to Hubbard's original scientific objectives for Dianetics, based on the quantifiability of auditing on the E-meter. Scientologists call Dianetics and Scientology as technologies because of their claim of their scientific precision and workability.[2]
Reactive mind, traumatic memories, and auditing
Scientology presents two major divisions of the mind.[118] The reactive mind is thought to record all pain and emotional trauma, while the analytical mind is a rational mechanism that serves consciousness.[119][120] The reactive mind stores mental images which are not readily available to the analytical (conscious) mind; these are referred to as engrams.[121] According to Scientology, engrams are painful and debilitating; as they accumulate, people move further away from their true identity.[122] To avoid this fate is Scientology's basic goal.[122] Some engrams are taught by Hubbard to happen by accident while others are inflicted by 'thetans who have gone bad and want power,' as described by the Los Angeles Times. These engrams are named Implants in the doctrine of Scientology. Hubbard said, 'Implants result in all varieties of illness, apathy, degradation, neurosis and insanity and are the principal cause of these in man.'[123]
L. Ron Hubbard described the analytical mind in terms of a computer: 'the analytical mind is not just a good computer, it is a perfect computer.' According to him it makes the best decisions based on available data. Errors are made based on erroneous data and is not the error of the analytical mind.[2]
Dianetic auditing is one way by which the Scientologist may progress toward the Clear state, winning gradual freedom from the reactive mind's engrams and acquiring certainty of his or her reality as a thetan.[124]David V. Barrett, a sociologist of religion who has written widely about the subject, says that according to Scientology, the 'first major goal is to go Clear.' Clearing was described to represent 'the attainment of Man's dreams through the ages of attaining a new and higher state of existence and freedom from the endless cycle of birth, death, birth … Clear is the total erasure of the reactive mind from which stems all the anxieties and problems the individual has.'[125]
Scientology asserts that people have hidden abilities which have not yet been fully realized.[126] It teaches that increased spiritual awareness and physical benefits are accomplished through counseling sessions referred to as auditing.[127] Through auditing, people can solve their problems and free themselves of engrams.[128] This restores them to their natural condition as thetans and enables them to be at cause in their daily lives, responding rationally and creatively to life events rather than reacting to them under the direction of stored engrams.[129] Accordingly, those who study Scientology materials and receive auditing sessions advance from a status of Preclear to Clear and Operating Thetan.[130] Scientology's utopian aim is to 'clear the planet', that is, clear all people in the world of their engrams.[131]
Auditing is a one-on-one session with a Scientology counselor or auditor.[132] It is similar to confession or pastoral counseling, but the auditor records and stores all information received and does not dispense forgiveness or advice as a pastor or priest of another religion might do.[132] Instead, the auditor's task is to help a person discover and understand the universal principles of affinity, reality, and communication (ARC).[132] Most auditing requires an E-meter, a device that measures minute changes in electrical resistance through the body when a person holds electrodes (metal 'cans'), and a small current is passed through them.[128][132]
Scientology teaches that the E-meter helps to locate spiritual difficulties.[132] Once an area of concern has been identified, the auditor asks the individual specific questions about it to help him or her eliminate the difficulty, and uses the E-meter to confirm that the 'charge' has been dissipated.[132] As the individual progresses up the 'Bridge to Total Freedom', the focus of auditing moves from simple engrams to engrams of increasing complexity and other difficulties.[132] At the more advanced OT levels, Scientologists act as their own auditors ('solo auditors').[132]
Douglas E. Cowan writes that the e-meter 'provides an external, material locus for the legitimation of [Scientology] practice.' Scientologists depend on the 'appearance of objectivity or empirical validity' of the e-meter rather than simply trusting an auditor's abstract interpretation of a participant's statements. He also states that without the e-meter, 'Scientology could not have achieved whatever status it enjoys as a new religious movement.' He also argues that without it, the Church may not have survived the early years when Dianetics was just formed.[133]
Emotional Tone Scale and survival
Scientology uses an emotional classification system called the tone scale.[134] The tone scale is a tool used in auditing; Scientologists maintain that knowing a person's place on the scale makes it easier to predict his or her actions and assists in bettering his or her condition.[135]
Scientology emphasizes the importance of survival, which it subdivides into eight classifications that are referred to as 'dynamics'.[136][137] An individual's desire to survive is considered to be the first dynamic, while the second dynamic relates to procreation and family.[136][138] The remaining dynamics encompass wider fields of action, involving groups, mankind, all life, the physical universe, the spirit, and infinity, often associated with the Supreme Being.[136] The optimum solution to any problem is held to be the one that brings the greatest benefit to the greatest number of dynamics.[136]
Toxins and purification
The Purification Rundown[139] is a controversial 'detoxification' program used by the Church of Scientology as an introductory service.[139][140] It features high-dose dietary supplements and extended time in a sauna (up to five hours a day for five weeks).[141] Scientology claims it is the only effective way to deal with the long-term effects of drug abuse or toxic exposure.[140]
Narconon is a 'drug education and rehabilitation program' founded on Hubbard's beliefs about 'toxins' and 'purification'.[142][143] Narconon is offered in the United States, Canada and a number of European countries; its Purification Program also uses high-dose vitamins and extended sauna sessions, combined with auditing and study.[142][143]
Introspection Rundown
The Introspection Rundown is a controversial Church of Scientology auditing process that is intended to handle a psychotic episode or complete mental breakdown. Introspection is defined for the purpose of this rundown as a condition where the person is 'looking into one's own mind, feelings, reactions, etc.'[144] The Introspection Rundown came under public scrutiny after the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995.[145]
Rejection of psychology and psychiatry
Scientology is vehemently opposed to psychiatry and psychology.[146][147][148] Psychiatry rejected Hubbard's theories in the early 1950s and in 1951, Hubbard's wife Sara consulted doctors who recommended he 'be committed to a private sanatorium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia.'[149][150] Thereafter, Hubbard criticized psychiatry as a 'barbaric and corrupt profession'.[151]
Hubbard taught that psychiatrists were responsible for a great many wrongs in the world, saying that psychiatry has at various times offered itself as a tool of political suppression and 'that psychiatry spawned the ideology which fired Hitler's mania, turned the Nazis into mass murderers, and created the Holocaust.'[149][151] Hubbard created the anti-psychiatry organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which operates Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, an anti-psychiatry museum.[149][151]
From 1969, CCHR has campaigned in opposition to psychiatric treatments, electroconvulsive shock therapy, lobotomy, and drugs such as Ritalin and Prozac.[152] According to the official church website, 'the effects of medical and psychiatric drugs, whether painkillers, tranquilizers or 'antidepressants', are as disastrous' as illegal drugs.[116]
Body and thetan
Scientology beliefs revolve around the immortal soul, the thetan.[119][122][153] Scientology teaches that the thetan is the true identity of a person – an intrinsically good, omniscient, non-material core capable of unlimited creativity.[119][122]
Hubbard taught that thetans brought the material universe into being largely for their own pleasure.[122] The universe has no independent reality but derives its apparent reality from the fact that thetans agree it exists.[119] Thetans fell from grace when they began to identify with their creation rather than their original state of spiritual purity.[122] Eventually they lost their memory of their true nature, along with the associated spiritual and creative powers. As a result, thetans came to think of themselves as nothing but embodied beings.[119][124]
Thetans are reborn time and time again in new bodies through a process called 'assumption', which is analogous to reincarnation.[122] Scientology posits a causal relationship between the experiences of earlier incarnations and one's present life, and with each rebirth, the effects of the MEST universe (MEST here stands for matter, energy, space, and time) on the thetan become stronger.[122]
Space opera and the Wall of Fire
The Church of Scientology holds that at the higher levels of initiation ('OT levels'), mystical teachings are imparted that may be harmful to unprepared readers. These teachings are kept secret from members who have not reached these levels. The church says that the secrecy is warranted to keep its materials' use in context and to protect its members from being exposed to materials they are not yet prepared for.[128]
These are the OT levels, the levels above Clear, whose contents are guarded within Scientology. The OT level teachings include accounts of various cosmic catastrophes that befell the thetans.[154] Hubbard described these early events collectively as 'space opera'.
In the OT levels, Hubbard explains how to reverse the effects of past-life trauma patterns that supposedly extend millions of years into the past.[155] Among these advanced teachings is the story of Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as the tyrant ruler of the 'Galactic Confederacy'. According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Scientologists at advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating body thetans and neutralizing their ill effects.[156]
Excerpts and descriptions of OT materials were published online by a former member in 1995 and then circulated in mainstream media. This occurred after the teachings were submitted as evidence in court cases involving Scientology, thus becoming a matter of public record.[155][157] There are eight publicly known OT levels, OT I to VIII.[158] The highest level, OT VIII, is disclosed only at sea on the Scientology cruise ship Freewinds.[158] It has been rumored that additional OT levels, said to be based on material written by Hubbard long ago, will be released at some appropriate point in the future.[159]
A large Church of Spiritual Technology symbol carved into the ground at Scientology's Trementina Base is visible from the air.[160] Washington Post reporter Richard Leiby wrote, 'Former Scientologists familiar with Hubbard's teachings on reincarnation say the symbol marks a 'return point' so loyal staff members know where they can find the founder's works when they travel here in the future from other places in the universe.'[161]
Ethics, suppressives, and disconnection
The Ethics system regulates member behavior,[162][163] and Ethics officers are present in every Scientology organization. Ethics officers ensure 'correct application of Scientology technology' and deal with 'behavior adversely affecting a Scientology organization's performance', ranging from 'Errors' and 'Misdemeanors' to 'Crimes' and 'Suppressive Acts', as those terms defined by Scientology.[164]
Scientology asserts some people are truly malevolent, and Hubbard taught 20 percent of the population were suppressive persons, which includes some hopelessly antisocial personalities who are the truly dangerous individuals in humanity: 'the Adolf Hitlers and the Genghis Khans, the unrepentant murderers and the drug lords.'[165][166] Scientology disconnection policy prohibits most contact with Suppressive Persons.[165][166] The church denies that a disconnection policy exists, and quotes Hubbard's definition of disconnection as 'a self-determined decision made by an individual that he is not going to be connected to another.'[167]
A Scientologist who communicates with a suppressive person risks being declared a Potential Trouble Source.[168][169] Defectors who turn into critics of the movement are declared suppressive persons,[170][171][172][173] and the Church of Scientology has a reputation for moving aggressively against such detractors.[174]
Fair game
The term Fair Game is used to describe policies and practices carried out against people the Church perceives as its enemies. Hubbard established the policy in the 1950s, in response to criticism both from within and outside his organization.[16][17] Individuals or groups who are 'Fair Game' are judged to be a threat to the Church and, according to the policy, can be punished and harassed using any and all means possible.[16][17]
Hubbard and his followers targeted many individuals as well as government officials and agencies, including a program of illegal infiltration of the IRS and other U.S. government agencies during the 1970s.[16][17] They also conducted private investigations, character assassination and legal action against the Church's critics in the media.[16] The policy remains in effect and has been defended by the Church of Scientology as a core religious practice.[175][176][177]
Scientology ceremonies
In Scientology, ceremonies for events such as weddings, child naming, and funerals are observed.[122] Friday services are held to commemorate the completion of a person's religious services during the prior week.[122] Ordained Scientology ministers may perform such rites.[122] However, these services and the clergy who perform them play only a minor role in Scientologists' religious lives.[178]
The arts
Hubbard theorized in 1951 that the 'aesthetic mind' is a phase of mental activity that 'deals with the nebulous field of art and creation.' In August 1965, Hubbard published the book Art that defines art as 'a word which summarizes the quality of communication.' He also claimed that art is 'the least codified of human endeavors and the most misunderstood.' The book is used as a textbook for art courses in Scientology.[179]
Organization
The internal structure of Scientology organizations is strongly bureaucratic with a focus on statistics-based management.[162] Organizational operating budgets are performance-related and subject to frequent reviews.[162]
Membership statistics
A 2001 survey estimated that 55,000 people in the United States claimed to be Scientologists. Worldwide estimates of Scientology's core practicing membership ranges between 100,000 and 200,000, mostly in the U.S., Europe, South Africa and Australia.[128] The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that the number of American Scientologists had dropped to 25,000.[181][182][183][184] A 2008 Trinity College survey concluded there were only 25,000 American Scientologists.[185] Scientology is also declining in the United Kingdom.[186][182] In 2011, high-level defector Jeff Hawkins estimated there were 40,000 Scientologists worldwide.[182]
Although the Church of Scientology claims to be the fastest growing religious movement on Earth, the church's estimates of its membership numbers are reportedly significantly exaggerated.[187][188][189]
Sea Org
The highest ranking people in the Scientology hierarchy are the members of the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.[162] The organization includes some 5,000 of Scientology's most dedicated adherents, who work for low pay, and sign a billion-year contract.[162][190]
Rehabilitation Project Force
The Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) is a controversial part of the Scientology 'justice' system.[164] When Sea Org members are found guilty of a violation, they are assigned to the RPF.[164] The RPF involves a daily regimen of five hours of auditing or studying, eight hours of work, often physical labor, such as building renovation, and at least seven hours of sleep.[164]Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley state that scholars and observers have come to radically different conclusions about the RPF and whether it is 'voluntary or coercive, therapeutic or punitive'.[164]
Office of Special Affairs
The Office of Special Affairs or OSA (formerly the Guardian's Office) is a department of the Church of Scientology which has been characterized as a non-state intelligence agency.[191][192][193] It has targeted critics of the Church for 'dead agent' operations, which is mounting character assassination operations against perceived enemies.[194]
A 1990 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that in the 1980s the church more commonly used private investigators, including former and current Los Angeles police officers, to give themselves a layer of protection in case embarrassing tactics were used and became public.[195]
Church of Spiritual Technology
The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) has been described as 'most secret organization in all of Scientology.'[196] The organization owns the copyrights to all Scientology materials and the bulk of Hubbard's estate. CST licenses this intellectual property to the Religious Technology Center who then sub-licenses it to Church of Scientology International.
The organization also operates the Scientology archiving project, which aims to preserve the works of Hubbard on stainless steel tablets, encased in titanium capsules in specially constructed vaults throughout the world.
Shelly Miscavige, wife of leader David Miscavige, who hasn't been seen in public since 2007, is said to be held at a CST compound in Twin Peaks, California.[197][198]
Franchises and advanced organizations
Many Scientologists' first contact with Scientology is through local informal groups and field auditors practicing Dianetics counseling.[199] In addition to these, Scientology operates hundreds of Churches and Missions around the world.[142] This is where Scientologists receive introductory training, and it is at this local level that most Scientologists participate.[142] Churches and Missions are licensed franchises; they may offer services for a fee provided they contribute a proportion of their income and comply with the Religious Technology Center (RTC) and its standards.[142][200][201]
Operating Thetan levels are offered only at Scientology's Advanced Organizations (Los Angeles, Sydney, East Grinstead and Copenhagen).[202] The Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida offers OT levels VI and VII. The Scientology ship Freewinds offers OT VIII.[203]
Celebrity Centers
In 1955, Hubbard created a list of 63 celebrities targeted for conversion to Scientology.[204] In a church policy letter in 1973, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, 'The purpose of [the] Celebrity Centre is, to forward the expansion and popularization of Scientology through the arts.'[205]
Scientology operates eight churches that are designated Celebrity Centres, designed to minister to celebrity Scientologists.[206] The largest of these is in Hollywood, California, called Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International.[206] The Celebrity Centre International was the first one that was opened in 1969 and its opening is celebrated the first week of August each year in an evening gala.[207]
Former silent-screen star Gloria Swanson and actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta have spoken publicly about their commitment to Scientology, as has actress and musician Juliette Lewis.[204][208][209]
Scientology tech in jails and prisons, schools, and management
Several Scientology organizations promote the use of Scientology technology as a means to solve social problems. Scientology began to focus on these issues in the early 1970s, led by Hubbard. The church developed outreach programs to fight drug addiction, illiteracy, learning disabilities and criminal behavior. These have been presented to schools, businesses and communities as secular techniques based on Hubbard's writings.[210] The Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) acts as an umbrella organization for these efforts.[211] Notable examples include:
- Criminon, an offshoot of Narconon, introduces Scientology practices to criminal offenders.[142][143]
- Applied Scholastics, founded in 1972, teaches Scientology study tech to K-12 students.[212]Delphi Schools operates numerous private schools throughout the United States, including the flagship academy The Delphian School in Yamhill County, Oregon.
- The World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) applies Scientology technology to business management.[212] The most prominent training supplier to make use of Hubbard's technology is Sterling Management Systems.[212]
- The Way to Happiness Foundation promotes a moral code written by Hubbard, to date translated into more than 40 languages.[212]
Volunteer ministers
The Church of Scientology began its 'Volunteer Ministers' program as a way to participate in community outreach projects. Volunteer Ministers sometimes travel to the scenes of major disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by Hubbard entitled The Way to Happiness, and engaging in a method said to calm panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a 'touch assist.' Accounts of the Volunteer Ministers' effectiveness have been mixed, and touch assists are not supported by scientific evidence.[213][214][215]
Other entities
Other Scientology-related organizations include:
- International Association of Scientologists, the official Scientology membership organization. Since 1985, the IAS has held an annual ceremony awarding the IAS Freedom Medal.
- The National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, devoted to combating what it describes as abusive practices by government and police agencies, especially Interpol.[149][216]
Controversies
The Church of Scientology is one of the most controversial religious organizations. A first point of controversy was its challenge of the psychotherapeutic establishment. Another was a 1991 Time magazine article that attacked the church, which responded with a major lawsuit that was rejected by the court as baseless early in 1992. And a third is its religious status in the United States, formalized when the IRS granted the organization tax-exempt status in 1993.[219]
It has been in conflict with the governments and police forces of many countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,[220] France[221] and Germany).[7][222][223][224][225] It has been one of the most litigious religious movements in history, filing countless lawsuits against governments, organizations and individuals.[226]
Reports and allegations have been made, by journalists, courts, and governmental bodies of several countries, that the Church of Scientology is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members.[223][224] A considerable amount of investigation has been aimed at the church, by groups ranging from the media to governmental agencies.[223][224]
The controversies involving the church and its critics, some of them ongoing, include:
- Criminal behavior by members of the Church, including the infiltration of the US Government.[222]
- Organized harassment of people perceived as enemies of the Church.[222]
- Scientology's disconnection policy, in which some members are required to shun friends or family members who are 'antagonistic' to the Church.[186][227]
- The death of a Scientologist Lisa McPherson while in the care of the church. (Robert Minton sponsored the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Scientology for the death of McPherson. In May 2004, McPherson's estate and the Church of Scientology reached a confidential settlement.)[228]
- Attempts to legally force search engines to censor information critical of the Church.[229]
- Allegations the Church leader David Miscavige beats and demoralizes staff, and that physical violence by superiors towards staff working for them is a common occurrence in the church.[230][231] Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis denied these claims and provided witnesses to rebut them.[230]
Scientology social programs such as drug and criminal rehabilitation have likewise drawn both support and criticism.[232][233][234][235]
Stephen A. Kent, a professor of sociology, has said that 'Scientologists see themselves as possessors of doctrines and skills that can save the world, if not the galaxy.'[236] As stated in Scientology doctrine: 'The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.'[237] Kent has described Scientology's ethics system as 'a peculiar brand of morality that uniquely benefited [the Church of Scientology] ... In plain English, the purpose of Scientology ethics is to eliminate opponents, then eliminate people's interests in things other than Scientology.'[238]
Many former members have come forward to speak out about the Church and the negative effects its teachings have had on them, including celebrities such as Leah Remini. Remini spoke about her split from the Church, saying that she still has friends within the organization who she is no longer able to speak to.[239]
Criminal behavior
Much of the controversy surrounding Scientology stems from the criminal convictions of core members of the Scientology organization.
In 1978, a number of Scientologists, including L. Ron Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard (who was second in command in the organization at the time), were convicted of perpetrating what was at the time the largest incident of domestic espionage in the history of the United States, called 'Operation Snow White'. This involved infiltrating, wiretapping, and stealing documents from the offices of Federal attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service.[240] L. Ron Hubbard was convicted in absentia by French authorities of engaging in fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.[241] The head of the French Church of Scientology was convicted at the same trial and given a suspended one-year prison sentence.[242]
An FBI raid on the Church's headquarters revealed documentation that detailed Scientology's criminal actions against various critics of the organization. In 'Operation Freakout', agents of the church attempted to destroy Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology, an early book that had been critical of the movement.[243] Among these documents was a plan to frame Gabe Cazares, the mayor of Clearwater, Florida, with a staged hit-and-run accident. 9 individuals related to the case were prosecuted on charges of theft, burglary, conspiracy, and other crimes.
In 1988, Scientology president Heber Jentzsch and ten other members of the organization were arrested in Spain on various charges including illicit association, coercion, fraud, and labor law violations.[244]
In October 2009, the Church of Scientology was found guilty of organized fraud in France.[245] The sentence was confirmed by appeal court in February 2012.[246]
In 2012, Belgian prosecutors indicted Scientology as a criminal organization engaged in fraudand extortion.[247][248][249] On March 2016, the Church of Scientology was acquitted of all charges, and demands to close its Belgian branch and European headquarters were dismissed.[250]
Organized harassment
Scientology has historically engaged in hostile action toward its critics; executives within the organization have proclaimed that Scientology is 'not a turn-the-other-cheek religion'.[251]Journalists, politicians, former Scientologists and various anti-cult groups have made accusations of wrongdoing against Scientology since the 1960s, and Scientology has targeted these critics – almost without exception – for retaliation, in the form of lawsuits and public counter-accusations of personal wrongdoing. Many of Scientology's critics have also reported they were subject to threats and harassment in their private lives.[252][253]
According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article, Scientology had largely switched from using church members to using private investigators, including former and current Los Angeles police officers, as this gives the church a layer of protection in case investigators use tactics embarrassing to the church. In one case, the church described their tactics as 'LAPD sanctioned,' which was energetically disputed by Police Chief Daryl Gates. The officer involved in this particular case of surveillance and harassment was suspended for six months.[195]
Journalist John Sweeney reported that 'While making our BBC Panorama film Scientology and Me I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists, brain-washed—that is how it felt to me—in a mock up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers'.[254]
Violation of auditing confidentiality
During the auditing process, the auditor collects and records personal information from the client.[255][256]
While the Church of Scientology claims to protect the confidentiality of auditing records, the Church has a history of attacking and psychologically abusing former members using information culled from the records.[256] For example, a December 16, 1969, a Guardian's Office order (G. O. 121669) by Mary Sue Hubbard explicitly authorized the use of auditing records for purposes of 'internal security.'[257] Former members report having participated in combing through information obtained in auditing sessions to see if it could be used for smear campaigns against critics.[258][259]
Shunning
The practice of shunning in Scientology is termed 'Disconnection'. Members can disconnect from any person they already know, including existing family members. Many examples of this policy's application have been established in court.[260][261][262] Failure to disconnect from a Suppressive Person is itself labelled a Suppressive act.[263]
Allegation of coerced abortions
The Sea Org originally operated on vessels at sea where it was understood that it was not permitted to raise children on board the ships.[238] Pregnant women in the Sea Org have reported been pressured to undergo abortions.[238] Sea Org members were reportedly shown secret writings by L. Ron Hubbard to convince them that having an abortion was not against Scientology practices.[264]
In 2003, The Times of India reported 'Forced abortions, beatings, starvation are considered tools of discipline in this church.'[265]
A former high-ranking source reports that 'some 1,500 abortions' have been 'carried out by women in the Sea Organization since the implementation of a rule in the late 80s that members could not remain in the organization if they decided to have children.' The source noted that 'And if members who have been in the Sea Organization for, say, 10 years do decide to have kids, they are dismissed with no more than $1,000' as a severance package.[266]
Many former members have claimed they were pressured to undergo abortion.
Longtime member Astra Woodcraft reportedly 'left Scientology for good when the church tried to pressure her to have an abortion'.[267][268] Former Sea Org member Karen Pressley recounted that she was often asked by fellow Scientologists for loans so that they could get an abortion and remain in the Sea Org.[269][270][271] Scientology employee Claire Headley has claimed she 'was forced to have (two) abortions to keep her job and was subjected to violations of personal rights and liberties for the purpose of obtaining forced labor.'[272] Laura Ann DeCrescenzo reported she was 'coerced to have an abortion' as a minor.[273]
In March 2009, Maureen Bolstad reported that women who worked at Scientology's headquarters were forced to have abortions, or faced being declared a 'Suppressive Person' by the organization's management.[274] In March 2010, former Scientologist Janette Lang stated that at age 20 she became pregnant by her boyfriend while in the organization,[275] and her boyfriend's Scientology supervisors 'coerced them into terminating the pregnancy'.[276] 'We fought for a week, I was devastated, I felt abused, I was lost and eventually I gave in. It was my baby, my body and my choice, and all of that was taken away from me by Scientology,' said Lang.[276][277]
Australian Senator Nick Xenophon gave a speech to the Australian Parliament in November 2009, about statements he had received from former Scientologists.[278] He said that he had been told members of the organization had coerced pregnant female employees to have abortions.[278] 'I am deeply concerned about this organisation and the devastating impact it can have on its followers,' said Senator Xenophon, and he requested that the Australian Senate begin an investigation into Scientology.[278] According to the letters presented by Senator Xenophon, the organization was involved in 'ordering' its members to have abortions.[279] Former Scientologist Aaron Saxton sent a letter to Senator Xenophon stating he had participated in coercing pregnant women within the organization to have abortions.[280] 'Aaron says women who fell pregnant were taken to offices and bullied to have an abortion. If they refused, they faced demotion and hard labour. Aaron says one staff member used a coat hanger and self-aborted her child for fear of punishment,' said Senator Xenophon.[281] Carmel Underwood, another former Scientologist, said she had been put under 'extreme pressure' to have an abortion,[282] and that she was placed into a 'disappearing programme', after refusing.[283] Underwood was the executive director of Scientology's branch in Sydney, Australia.[281]
Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis dismissed such claims as 'utterly meritless'.[272] Mike Ferriss, the head of Scientology in New Zealand, told media that 'There are no forced abortions in Scientology'.[284] Scientology spokesperson Virginia Stewart likewise rejected the claims and asserted 'The Church of Scientology considers the family unit and children to be of the utmost importance and does not condone nor force anyone to undertake any medical procedure whatsoever.'[285]
Scientology, litigation, and the Internet
In the 1990s, Miscavige's organization took action against increased criticism of Scientology on the Internet and online distribution of Scientology-related documents.[286]
Starting in 1991, Scientology filed fifty lawsuits against Scientology-critic Cult Awareness Network (CAN).[287] Many of the suits were dismissed, but one resulted in $2 million in losses, bankrupting the network.[287] At bankruptcy, CAN's name and logo were obtained by a Scientologist.[287][288] A New Cult Awareness Network was set up with Scientology backing, which operates as an information and networking center for non-traditional religions, referring callers to academics and other experts.[289][290]
In a 1993 U.S. lawsuit brought by the Church of Scientology against Steven Fishman, a former member of the Church, Fishman made a court declaration which included several dozen pages of formerly secret esoterica detailing aspects of Scientologist cosmogony.[291] As a result of the litigation, this material, normally strictly safeguarded and used only in Scientology's more advanced 'OT levels', found its way onto the Internet.[291] This resulted in a battle between the Church of Scientology and its online critics over the right to disclose this material, or safeguard its confidentiality.[291] The Church of Scientology was forced to issue a press release acknowledging the existence of this cosmogony, rather than allow its critics 'to distort and misuse this information for their own purposes.'[291] Even so, the material, notably the story of Xenu, has since been widely disseminated and used to caricature Scientology, despite the Church's vigorous program of copyright litigation.[291]
In January 1995, church lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to shut down the newsgroupalt.religion.scientology by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group.[292] In practice, this rmgroup message had little effect, since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when sent to groups that receive substantial traffic, and newgroup messages were quickly issued to recreate the group on those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message led to a great deal of public criticism by free-speech advocates.[293][294] Among the criticisms raised, one suggestion is that Scientology's true motive is to suppress the free speech of its critics.[295][296]
The Church also began filing lawsuits against those who posted copyrighted texts on the newsgroup and the World Wide Web, and lobbied for tighter restrictions on copyrights in general. The Church supported the controversial Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act as well as the even more controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Some of the DMCA's 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 ensuing for several years, 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. Some investigators said that some spam had been traced to church members.[298][299] Former Scientologist Tory Christman later asserted that the Office of Special Affairs had undertaken a concerted effort to destroy alt.religion.scientology through these means; the effort failed.[300]
On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was leaked to the Internet and uploaded to YouTube.[301][302][303]The Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube requesting the removal of the video.[304] Subsequently, the group Anonymous voiced its criticism of Scientology and began attacking the Church.[305] Calling the action by the Church of Scientology a form of Internet censorship, participants of Anonymous coordinated Project Chanology, consisting a series of denial-of-service attacks against Scientology websites, prank calls, and black faxes to Scientology centers.[306][307][308][309][310] On January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled 'Message to Scientology', and a press release declaring a 'war' against the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center.[309][311]In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect the freedom of speech, and end what they saw as the financial exploitation of church members.[312]
On January 28, 2008, an Anonymous video appeared on YouTube calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008.[313][314] According to a letter Anonymous e-mailed to the press, about 7,000 people protested in more than 90 cities worldwide.[315] Many protesters wore masks based on the character V from V for Vendetta (who was influenced by Guy Fawkes) or otherwise disguised their identities, in part to protect themselves from reprisals from the Church of Scientology.[316][317]Many further protests have followed since then in cities around the world.[318]
The Arbitration Committee of the Wikipedia internet encyclopedia decided in May 2009 to restrict access to its site from Church of Scientology IP addresses, to prevent self-serving edits by Scientologists.[319][320] A 'host of anti-Scientologist editors' were topic-banned as well.[319][320] The committee concluded that both sides had 'gamed policy' and resorted to 'battlefield tactics', with articles on living persons being the 'worst casualties'.[319]
Disputes over legal status
The legal status of Scientology or Scientology-related organizations differs between jurisdictions.[321] Scientology was legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in South Africa,[322]Australia,[323]Sweden,[324]New Zealand,[325][326]Portugal,[327] and Spain.[328] Scientology was granted tax-exempt status in the United States in 1993.[329][330][331][332] The organization is considered a cult in Chile and an 'anticonstitutional sect' in Germany,[18] and is considered a cult (French secte) by some French public authorities.[19]
The church argues that Scientology is a genuine religious movement that has been misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted.[333][334] The Church of Scientology has pursued an extensive public relations campaign for the recognition of Scientology as a tax-exempt religion in the various countries in which it exists.[335][336][337]
Scientology has often encountered opposition due to its strong-arm tactics directed against critics and members wishing to leave the organization.[171] A number of governments regard the Church as a religious organization entitled to tax-exempt status, while governments variously classify it as a business, cult, pseudoreligion, or criminal organization.[188][338][339]
In 1957, the Church of Scientology of California was granted tax-exempt status by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and so, for a time, were other local churches.[60][340] In 1958 however, the IRS started a review of the appropriateness of this status.[60] In 1959, Hubbard moved to England, remaining there until the mid-1960s.[59]
In the mid-sixties, the Church of Scientology was banned in several Australian states, starting with Victoria in 1965.[341] The ban was based on the Anderson Report, which found that the auditing process involved 'command' hypnosis, in which the hypnotist assumes 'positive authoritative control' over the patient. On this point the report stated,
It is the firm conclusion of this Board that most scientology and dianetic techniques are those of authoritative hypnosis and as such are dangerous ... the scientific evidence which the Board heard from several expert witnesses of the highest repute ... leads to the inescapable conclusion that it is only in name that there is any difference between authoritative hypnosis and most of the techniques of scientology. Many scientology techniques are in fact hypnotic techniques, and Hubbard has not changed their nature by changing their names.[342]
The Australian Church was forced to operate under the name of the 'Church of the New Faith' as a result, the name and practice of Scientology having become illegal in the relevant states.[341] Several years of court proceedings aimed at overturning the ban followed.[341] In 1973, state laws banning Scientology were overturned in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. In 1983 the High Court of Australia ruled in a unanimous decision that the Church of Scientology was 'undoubtedly a religion and deserving of tax exemption.'.[343]
In 1967, the IRS removed Scientology's tax-exempt status, asserting that its activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard, rather than for charitable or religious purposes.[340] The decision resulted in a process of litigation that was settled in the Church's favor a quarter of a century later, the longest case of litigation in IRS history.[60]
Scientology as a religion
Scientology is officially recognized as a religion in the United States.[329][330][331][332] Recognition came in 1993,[344] when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stated that '[Scientology is] operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes.'[345][346] Scientology was again recognized as a religion by the U.S. courts when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in Headley v. Church of Scientology International in 2012.[347]
The New York Times noted in this connection that the Church of Scientology had funded a campaign which included a whistle-blower organization to publicly attack the IRS, as well as hiring of private investigators to look into the private lives of IRS officials.[340] In 1991, Miscavige, the highest-ranking Scientology leader, arranged a meeting with Fred T. Goldberg Jr., the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service at the time.[348] The meeting was an 'opportunity for the church to offer to end its long dispute with the agency, including the dozens of suits brought against the IRS.' The committee met several times with the Scientology legal team and 'was persuaded that those involved in the Snow White crimes had been purged, that church money was devoted to tax-exempt purposes and that, with Mr. Hubbard's death, no one was getting rich from Scientology.'[340] In August 1993, a settlement was reached; the church would receive its tax-exempt status and end its legal actions against the IRS and its personnel. The church was required only to resubmit new applications for exemption to the IRS Exempt Organizations (EO) division, which was told 'not to consider any substantive matters' because those issues had been resolved by the committee.[340] The secret agreement was announced on October 13, 1993, with the IRS refusing to disclose any of the terms or the reasoning behind the decision.[340] Both the IRS and Scientology rejected any allegations that foul play or undue pressure had been used on IRS officials, insisting that the decision had been based on the merits of the case.[349] IRS officials 'insisted that Scientology's tactics had not affected the decision' and that 'ultimately the decision was made on a legal basis'.[340] Miscavige claims that the IRS's examination of Scientology was the most exhaustive review of any non-profit organization in history.[350]
Elsewhere, Scientology is recognized as a religion in Australia,[330][351] Portugal,[352] Spain,[353]Slovenia,[354] Sweden,[354][355][356]Croatia,[354]Hungary[354] and Kyrgyzstan.[357] In New Zealand, the Inland Revenue Department classified the Church of Scientology as a charitable organization and stated that its income would be tax exempt.[358] It has gained judicial recognition in Italy,[359][clarification needed] and Scientology officials have won the right to perform marriages in South Africa.[360]
Scientology is not recognized as a religion in Canada.[360] In the UK, the Charity Commission for England and Wales ruled in 1999 that Scientology was not a religion and refused to register the Church as a charity, although a year later, it was recognized as a not-for-profit body in a separate proceeding by the UK Revenue and Customs and exempted from UK value added tax.[360][361] In December 2013, the United Kingdom's highest court officially recognized Scientology as a religion. The ruling ended a five-year legal battle by Scientologist Louisa Hodkin, who sought the legal right to marry at the Church of Scientology chapel in central London. The opinion by five supreme court justices redefined religion in law, rendering the 1970 definition 'out of date' in restricting religious worship to 'reverence or veneration of God or of a Supreme Being.'[362][363][364]
Viewed as a commercial enterprise
Scientology has been accused of being 'a business, often given to criminal acts, and sometimes masquerading as a religion.'[178][365]
In conjunction with the Church of Scientology's request to be officially recognized as a religion in Germany, around 1996 the German state Baden-Württemberg conducted a thorough investigation of the group's activities within Germany.[366] The results of this investigation indicated that at the time of publication, Scientology's main sources of revenue ('Haupteinnahmequellen der SO') were from course offerings and sales of their various publications. Course offerings ranged from (German Marks) DM 182.50 to about DM 30,000 – the equivalent today of approximately $119 to US$19,560. Revenue from monthly, bi-monthly, and other membership offerings could not be estimated in the report, but was nevertheless placed in the millions. Defending its practices against accusations of profiteering, the Church has countered critics by drawing analogies to other religious groups who have established practices such as tithing, or require members to make donations for specific religious services.[367]
Since 1997 Germany has considered Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution. It is seen as an anticonstitutional sect and a new version of political extremism and because there is 'evidence for intentions against the free democratic basic order' it is observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.[368][369] In 1997, an open letter to then-German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, drew parallels between the 'organized oppression' of Scientologists in Germany and the treatment of Jews in 1930s' Nazi Germany.[370][371] The letter was signed by Dustin Hoffman, Goldie Hawn and a number of other Hollywood celebrities and executives.[371][372] Commenting on the matter, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said that Scientologists were discriminated against in Germany, but condemned the comparisons to the Nazis' treatment of Jews as extremely inappropriate, as did a United Nations Special Rapporteur.[372][373] Based on the IRS exemptions, the U.S. State Department formally criticized Germany for discriminating against Scientologists and began to note Scientologists' complaints of harassment in its annual human rights reports,[340] as well as the annual International Religious Freedom Reports it has released from 1999 onwards.[374] Germany will continue to monitor Scientology's activities in the country, despite continued objection from Scientology which cites such monitoring as abuse of freedom of religion.[375]
France and Belgium have not recognized Scientology as a religion, and Stephen A. Kent, writing in 2001, noted that recognition had not been obtained in Ireland, Luxembourg, Israel or Mexico either.[376] Although the Belgian State Prosecution Service recommended that various individuals and organizations associated with Scientology should be prosecuted,[377][378] the Belgian courts finally decided in March 2016 that Scientology is not a criminal organization.[379]
In Greece, Scientology is not recognized as a religion by the Greek government, and multiple applications for religious status have been denied, notably in 2000 and 2003.[380]
In the Netherlands, Scientology was granted tax exempt status in October 2013.[381] The status was revoked in October 2015. The court ruled that because auditing fees and course costs were more expensive than most commercial education institutions, Scientology appeared to be aimed at making a profit.[382][383]
Scientology maintains strict control over the use of its symbols, icons, and names. It claims copyright and trademark over its 'Scientology cross', and its lawyers have threatened lawsuits against individuals and organizations who have published the image in books and on Web sites. Because of this, it is very difficult for individual groups to attempt to publicly practice Scientology on their own, independent of the official Church of Scientology. Scientology has filed suit against a number of individuals who have attempted to set up their own auditing practices, using copyright and trademark law to shut these groups down.[384]
The Church of Scientology and its many related organizations have amassed considerable real estate holdings worldwide, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.[222] Scientology encourages existing members to 'sell' Scientology to others by paying a commission to those who recruit new members.[222] Scientology franchises, or missions, must pay the Church of Scientology roughly 10% of their gross income.[385] On that basis, it is likened to a pyramid selling scheme.[386] While introductory courses do not cost much, courses at the higher levels may cost several thousand dollars each.[387] As a rule, the great majority of members proceeds up the bridge in a steady rate commensurate with their income. Most recently the Italian Supreme Court agreed with the American IRS that the church's financial system is analogous to the practices of other groups and not out of line with its religious purposes.[388]
In November 2009, Australian SenatorNick Xenophon used a speech in Federal Parliament to allege that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organization. Based on letters from former followers of the religion, he said that there were 'allegations of forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, and embezzlement of church funds, of physical violence and intimidation, blackmail and the widespread and deliberate abuse of information obtained by the organization'.[389]
Scientology in religious studies
Describing the available scholarship on Scientology, David G. Bromley and Douglas E. Cowan stated in 2006 that 'most scholars have concluded that Scientology falls within the category of religion for the purposes of academic study, and a number have defended the Church in judicial and political proceedings on this basis.'[178] Hugh B. Urban writes that 'Scientology's efforts to get itself defined as a religion make it an ideal case study for thinking about how we understand and define religion.'[390] Toward the second decade of the 2000s, a new interest for Scientology emerged among scholars, bringing the subject from obscurity.[391]
According to the Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States, 'even as Scientology raises questions about how and who gets to define religion, most scholars recognize it as a religion, one that emerges from and builds on American individualism and the spiritual marketplace that dominated 1950s America.'[392] David G. Bromley comments that Scientology 'could gain strength by adding to the new perspective on existence, the hope and human meaning that only a transcendent creed can give.'[393]
Bromley and Cowan noted in 2008 that Scientology's attempts 'to gain favor with new religion scholars' had often been problematic.[336] According to Religious Studies professor Mary Farrell Benarowski, Scientology describes itself as drawing on science, religion, psychology and philosophy but 'had been claimed by none of them and repudiated, for the most part, by all.'[394]
Regis Dericquesbourg writes about the efficacy of Scientology in imparting knowledge: 'Scientology indeed not only brings knowledge, it also brings personal introspection through auditing, and transmission in upper levels is not merely reading texts: what is transmitted is experienced through a solo or duo auditing experience.' He compared it to psychoanalysis.[395]
Frank K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis wrote, 'it is abundantly clear that Scientology has both the typical forms of ceremonial and celebratory worship and its own unique form of spiritual life.'[396] Flinn further states that religion requires 'beliefs in something transcendental or ultimate, practices (rites and codes of behavior) that re-inforce those beliefs and, a community that is sustained by both the beliefs and practices', all of which are present within Scientology.[188] Similarly, World Religions in America states that 'Scientology contains the same elements of most other religions, including myths, scriptures, doctrines, worship, sacred practices and rituals, moral and ethical expectations, a community of believers, clergy, and ecclesiastic organizations.'[397]
While acknowledging that a number of his colleagues accept Scientology as a religion, sociologist Stephen A. Kent writes: 'Rather than struggling over whether or not to label Scientology as a religion, I find it far more helpful to view it as a multifaceted transnational corporation, only one element of which is religious' [emphasis in the original].[398][399]
Donna Batten in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law writes, 'A belief does not need to be stated in traditional terms to fall within First Amendment protection. For example, Scientology—a system of beliefs that a human being is essentially a free and immortal spirit who merely inhabits a body—does not propound the existence of a supreme being, but it qualifies as a religion under the broad definition propounded by the Supreme Court.'[400]
J. Gordon Melton asserts that while the debate over definitions of religion will continue, 'scholars will probably continue in the future to adopt a broad definition, thus including Scientology in a wider religious field.'[401]
The material contained in the OT levels has been characterized as bad science fiction by critics, while others claim it bears structural similarities to gnostic thought and ancient Hindu beliefs of creation and cosmic struggle.[154][402] Melton suggests that these elements of the OT levels may never have been intended as descriptions of historical events and that, like other religious mythology, they may have their truth in the realities of the body and mind which they symbolize.[154] He adds that on whatever level Scientologists might have received this mythology, they seem to have found it useful in their spiritual quest.[154]
Scholar Luigi Berzano of the University of Turin listed five religious characteristics of Scientology: a set of doctrines leading to a spiritual goal, a community of believers, an authority figure (Hubbard), ritual practices, and 'an ethical-moral view of life.'[403]
In Handbook of Scientology, scholar Erin Prophet states that the derision and opposition that Scientology arouses is not proportional to its “actual size, influence and ability to do harm.” Prophet uses Monster Theory to explain this phenomenon. According to Derrida, a monster is a “hybridization,” a “species for which we do not yet have a name.” Prophet explains that the object of Monster Theory does not mean they are actually monsters, but that “people are more willing to believe false and exaggerated claims about them, to deny them basic human rights, event to treat them as a different species, due to their perceived hybridity.”[404]
Hubbard's motives
During his lifetime, Hubbard was accused of using religion as a façade for Scientology to maintain tax-exempt status and avoid prosecution for false medical claims.[365] The IRS cited a statement frequently attributed to Hubbard that the way to get rich was to found a religion.[405][406] Though some claim the statement is unsubstantiated, many of Hubbard's science fiction colleagues, including Sam Merwin, Lloyd Arthur Eshbach and Sam Moscowitz, recall Hubbard raising the topic in conversation.[406][407][408]
Hubbard grew up in a climate that was very critical of organized religion, and frequently quoted anti-religious sentiments in his early lectures.[409] The scholar Marco Frenschkowski (University of Mainz) has stated that it was not easy for Hubbard 'to come to terms with the spiritual side of his own movement. Hubbard did not want to found a religion: he discovered that what he was talking about in fact was religion. This mainly happened when he had to deal with apparent memories from former lives. He had to defend himself about this to his friends.'[409] Frenschkowski allows that there were practical concerns in the question of 'how to present Scientology to the outside world', but dismisses the notion that the religious format was just an expedient pretense; Frenschkowski points to many passages in Hubbard's works that document his struggle with this question.[409] Frenschkowski suggests that it was a biographical mistake to suggest that Hubbard only became interested in Scientology as a religion in 1954. He notes that Hubbard discussed religion and the concept of God even in the years leading up to the emergence of Scientology, and that he did not 'rush into religion' but rather, 'discovered it through the development of his work with pre-clears.'[77]
Drawing parallels to similar struggles for identity in other religious movements such as Theosophy and Transcendental Meditation, Frenschkowski sees in Hubbard's lectures 'the case of a man whose background was non-religious and who nevertheless discovers that his ideas somehow oscillate between 'science' (in a very popular sense), 'religion' and 'philosophy', and that these ideas somehow fascinate so many people that they start to form a separate movement.' Hubbard experiments with traditional religious language in a short piece written in 1953 called 'The Factors', 'a basic expression of Scientologist cosmology and metaphysics', reprinted in current Scientology literature. Frenschkowski observes that the text is partly biblical in structure and that this development is a component of Scientology's metamorphosis into a religion, written at a point when the nature of the new movement was unclear.[410]
The Church of Scientology denounces the idea of Hubbard starting a religion for personal gain as an unfounded rumor.[411] The Church also suggests that the origin of the rumor was a remark by George Orwell which had been misattributed to Hubbard.[412]Robert Vaughn Young, who left the Church in 1989 after being its spokesman for 20 years, suggested that reports of Hubbard making such a statement could be explained as a misattribution, despite having encountered three of Hubbard's associates from his science fiction days who remembered Hubbard making statements of that sort in person.[223] It was Young who by a stroke of luck came up with the 'Orwell quote': 'but I have always thought there might be a lot of cash in starting a new religion, and we'll talk it over some time'. It appears in a letter by Eric Blair (known the world as George Orwell) to his friend, Jack Common, dated 16-February-38 (February 16, 1938), and was published in Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, vol. 1.[413] In 2006, Rolling Stone's Janet Reitman also attributed the statement to Hubbard, as a remark to science fiction writer Lloyd Eshbach and recorded in Eshbach's autobiography.[414]
Scientology as a UFO religion
Scientology can be seen as a UFO religion in which the existence of extraterrestrial entities operating unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are an element of belief. In this context, it is discussed in UFO Religions by Christopher Partridge,[415] and The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions by James R. Lewis,[416] while Susan Palmer draws several parallels with Raelianism.[417] Gregory Reece, in his book UFO Religion: Inside flying saucer cults and culture, writes:
Scientology is unique within the UFO culture because of this secretiveness, as well as because of the capitalist format under which they operate. Scientology is also difficult to categorize. While it bears strong similarities to the Ashtar Command or the Aetherius Society, its emphasis upon the Xenu event as the central message of the group seems to place them within the ancient astronaut tradition. Either way, Scientology is perhaps most different from other UFO groups in their attempt to keep all of the space opera stuff under wraps. They really would have preferred the rest of us not to know about Xenu and the galactic federation. Alas, such secrets are hard to keep[418]
Regardless of such statements by critics, Hubbard wrote and lectured openly about the material he himself called 'space opera.' In 1952, Hubbard published a book (What to Audit / A History of Man[419]) on space opera and other material that may be encountered when auditing preclears.[420][421]
According to David G. Bromley, Scientology is 'part therapy, part religion, part UFO group. It's a mix of things unlike any other religious group out there.'[116] Scholar Andreas Grunschlo writes that as a ufogical religion, Scientology 'conceives of earthly human beings primarily as extraterrestrial spirits ('Thetans') which have now to put on their 'bridge to freedom' again —a soul conception which is paralleled by the typical ufogical 'star seeds' or 'walk-ins' planted on this earthly 'garden' for spiritual growth.'[422]
Influences
The general orientation of Hubbard's philosophy owes much to Will Durant, author of the popular 1926 classic The Story of Philosophy; Dianetics is dedicated to Durant.[423] Hubbard's view of a mechanically functioning mind in particular finds close parallels in Durant's work on Spinoza.[423] According to Hubbard himself, Scientology is 'the Western anglicized continuance of many early forms of wisdom.'[424] Ankerberg and Weldon mention the sources of Scientology to include 'the Vedas, Buddhism, Judaism, Gnosticism, Taoism, early Greek civilization and the teachings of Jesus, Nietzsche and Freud.'[425] Hubbard asserted that Freudian thought was a 'major precursor' to Scientology. W. Vaughn Mccall, Professor and Chairman of the Georgia Regents University writes, 'Both Freudian theory and Hubbard assume that there are unconscious mental processes that may be shaped by early life experiences, and that these influence later behavior and thought.' Both schools of thought propose a 'tripartite structure of the mind.'[426]Sigmund Freud's psychology, popularized in the 1930s and 1940s, was a key contributor to the Dianetics therapy model, and was acknowledged unreservedly as such by Hubbard in his early works.[427] Hubbard never forgot, when he was 12 years old, meeting Cmdr. Joseph Cheesman Thompson, a U.S. Navy officer who had studied with Freud[428] and when writing to the American Psychological Association in 1949, he stated that he was conducting research based on the 'early work of Freud'.[429]
In Dianetics, Hubbard cites Hegel as a negative influence — an object lesson in 'confusing' writing.[430] According to Mary A. Mann, Scientology is considered nondenominational, accepting all people regardless of their religions background, ethnicity, or educational attainment.[431] Another major influence was Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics.[427] Hubbard was friends with fellow science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt, who explored the implications of Korzybski's non-Aristotelian logic in works such as The World of Null-A, and Hubbard's view of the reactive mind has clear and acknowledged parallels with Korzybski's thought; in fact, Korzybski's 'anthropometer' may have been what inspired Hubbard's invention of the E-meter.[427]
Beyond that, Hubbard himself named a great many other influences in his own writing – in Scientology 8-8008, for example, these include philosophers from Anaxagoras and Aristotle to Herbert Spencer and Voltaire, physicists and mathematicians like Euclid and Isaac Newton, as well as founders of religions such as Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Mohammed – but there is little evidence in Hubbard's writings that he studied these figures to any great depth.[427]
As noted, elements of the Eastern religions are evident in Scientology,[429] in particular the concept of karma found in Hinduism and Jainism.[432][433] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Scientology draws from Taoism and Buddhism.[434] According to the Encyclopedia of Community, Scientology 'shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism.'[435][436]
In the 1940s, Hubbard was in contact with Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist and member of the Ordo Templi Orientis then led by Aleister Crowley, and there have been suggestions that this connection influenced some of the ideas and symbols of Scientology.[437][438] Religious scholars Gerald Willms and J. Gordon Melton have stated that Crowley's teachings bear little if any resemblance to Scientology doctrine.[437][438]
J. Gordon Melton writes that Scientology has its roots in Esoteric thought. He cited the significance of understanding Scientology's appeal as aligned with Esoteric tradition. The Church is a 'significant revision' and 'meaningful revitalization' within the esoteric tradition. Melton states that Scientology can also be traced back to Gnosticism, Manicheanism, Freemasonry and Theosophy.[439]
According to James R. Lewis, Scientology is in the same lineage of supernatural religious movements such as New Thought. Scientology goes beyond this and refers to their religio-therapeutic practices as religious technology. Lewis wrote, 'Scientology sees their psycho-spiritual technology as supplying the missing ingredient in existing technologies—namely, the therapeutic engineering of the human psyche.'[440]
Scientology and hypnosis
Hubbard was said to be an accomplished hypnotist, and close acquaintances such as Forrest Ackerman (Hubbard's literary agent) and A. E. van Vogt (an early supporter of Dianetics) witnessed repeated demonstrations of his hypnotic skills.[405] Scientology literature states that L. Ron Hubbard expertise in hypnosis led to the discovery of the Dianetic engram.[441][442] However, Hubbard wrote that hypnosis is a 'wild variable', and compared parlor hypnosis to an atom bomb.[443] He also wrote:
Hypnotism plants, by positive suggestion, one or another form of insanity. It is usually a temporary planting, but sometimes the hypnotic suggestion will not 'lift' or remove in a way desirable to the hypnotist.[444]
Etymology of 'Scientology' and earlier usage
The word Scientology, as coined by L. Ron Hubbard, is a derivation from the Latin word scientia ('knowledge', 'skill'), which comes from the verb scīre ('to know'), with the suffix -ology, from the Greek λόγος lógos ('word' or 'account [of]').[445][446] Scientology is further defined as 'the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes, and other life.'[447]
The term scientology had been used in published works at least twice before Hubbard. In The New Word (1901) poet and lawyer Allen Upward first used scientology to mean blind, unthinking acceptance of scientific doctrine (compare scientism).[448] In 1934, philosopher Anastasius Nordenholz published Scientology: Science of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge, which used the term to mean the science of science.[449] It is unknown whether Hubbard was aware of either prior usage of the word.[450][451]
ARC and KRC triangles
The ARC and KRC triangles are concept maps which show a relationship between three concepts to form another concept. These two triangles are present in the Scientology symbol. The lower triangle, the ARC triangle, is a summary representation of the knowledge the Scientologist strives for.[122] It encompasses Affinity (affection, love or liking), Reality (consensual reality) and Communication (the exchange of ideas).[122] Scientology teaches that improving one of the three aspects of the triangle 'increases the level' of the other two, but Communication is held to be the most important.[452] The upper triangle is the KRC triangle, the letters KRC positing a similar relationship between Knowledge, Responsibility and Control.[453]
Among Scientologists, the letters ARC are used as an affectionate greeting in personal communication, for example at the end of a letter.[454] Social problems are ascribed to breakdowns in ARC – in other words, a lack of agreement on reality, a failure to communicate effectively, or a failure to develop affinity.[165] These can take the form of overts – harmful acts against another, either intentionally or by omission – which are usually followed by withholds – efforts to conceal the wrongdoing, which further increase the level of tension in the relationship.[165]
Bridge to total freedom
Scientologists seek to attain spiritual development through study of Scientology materials and auditing. The subject (called Technology or Tech in Scientology jargon) is structured in a series of levels (or gradients) of gradually increasing complexity. The sequence of study ('training') and auditing ('processing') levels is termed the 'Bridge to Total Freedom', or simply 'the Bridge'.[452][455] Training concerns primarily the principles and techniques of auditing.[455] Processing is personal development through participation in auditing sessions.[455]
The Church of Scientology teaches the principle of reciprocity, involving give-and-take in every human transaction.[456] Accordingly, members are required to make donations for study courses and auditing as they move up the Bridge, the amounts increasing as higher levels are reached.[456] Participation in higher-level courses on the Bridge may cost several thousand dollars, and Scientologists usually move up the Bridge at a rate governed by their income.[456]
According to David G. Bromley, religious studies professor, working toward being an 'Operating Thetan' means moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom, 'which at the highest level transcends material law.' He further emphasizes this belief of Scientologists: 'You occasionally come across people in Scientology who say they can change the material world with their mind.'[116]
Scientology in popular culture
The 2005 South Park episode 'Trapped in the Closet' publicized the story of Xenu, based directly on the actual Scientology Operating Thetan III document,[457] and accompanied by an onscreen caption reading 'This is what Scientologists actually believe'. After explaining these beliefs, the character representing the church's president ultimately reveals to Stan that the church is in reality a money-making scam.[citation needed]
Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 film The Master features a religious organization called 'The Cause' that has many similarities to Scientology.[458][459][460] Also, the character of Lancaster Dodd, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, shares a physical resemblance to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.[461]
In April 2015, following the recent release of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Saturday Night Live aired a music video featuring the 'Church of Neurotology', a parody of Scientology's 1990 music video 'We Stand Tall'.[462][463]
In November 2016, cable network A&E began airing Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, a documentary series. Remini, a TV actress and star, was a member of the Church of Scientology for over 30 years and a public proponent of Scientology for years before a public falling out in 2013. She is an executive producer of the series. The series follows Remini as she explores the history and workings of the Church, discusses her experiences and interviews ex-members willing to speak out about alleged abuses of the Church. The initial episode drew 2.1 million viewers.[464]
See also
References
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Notes
- Barrett, David V. (1998). Sects, 'Cults' & Alternative Religions: A World Survey and Sourcebook (Paperback) New Ed. Sterling Pub Co Inc. ISBN978-0-7137-2756-2.
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External links
- Scientology at Curlie