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Religions: Scientology

Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard [1911-1986]. He created it as a body of certain beliefs and practices.  He created Scientology on the base of his successful self-help guiding system called Dianetics.  He called Scientology a religion and in 1953 created the Church of Scientology in Camden in New Jersey.

Scientology is of the belief that people are immortal, that have forgotten their original nature.  They belief that through spiritual rehabilitation, that by consciously experience painful traumatic events in their past, people can free themselves of the limiting effects of these experiences.

They provide study materials and auditing courses to it's member via a specified fee [they call it a donation].  The Scientology Church is also tax deductable in certain countries such as the USA, Italy, South Africa, and more.

They also provide social service programs such as anti-drug programs, prison rehabilitation, education methodology and a set of moral guidelines expressed in a booklet called The Way To Happiness.

There is, however, a lot of controversy clouding this religion, such as being attacked as a cult that brainwashes people, financial fraud, abusement of members, charging exhorbant fees for spiritual services.  In return they claim that they are simply misunderstood. It's aggressive pursuit of it's enemies has been condemned as harassment.

They have furthered controversy by their belief that souls are reincarnated and these souls have lived on other planets before living on Earth ... and related teachings are not revealed to practitioners until they pay thousands of dollars to the Scientology Church for this priviledged information.  They are also condemned for their belief that psychiatry is abusive and destructive to the patient and must be abolished.

BELIEFS:

The Bridge To Total Freedom

This is the means by which Scientologists undertake their personal life development.  This is a bridge with 2 sides:

1.  'Processing' is the practice of listening [auditing] which is introspection, to answer key questions in the mind, and these answers are suppose to lead to realizations about life.

2.  'Training' is the education to develop the skill of transferring the process of 'auditing' to another.

Morals and Ethics

Scientology teaches the The Bridge-progress that requires and enables the attainment of high morals, as well as ethical standards. Their text on ethics is a book called 'Introduction To Scientology Ethics'.

They define 'morals' as a collectively agreed code of good conduct, and ethics as an individual's actions to accomplish survival for himself and other on all [eight] dynamics.
The church also follows a series of behavioral codes: Auditor, Supervisor, Honor and a Scientologist.

ARC and KRC triangles

It consists of 3 components:

1.  Affinity ... affection, liking and love [the emotional state].
2.  Reality ... agreeing on what is real.
3.  Communication ... exchange of ideas.

Because it is such a controversial religion, is it difficult to establish how many members they really have.  In 2005 they claimed that they have eight million members worldwide, and in 2007 they claimed to have 3.5 million members in America.

But observers believe that the numbers are between 100,000 and 200,000 worldwide and that the numbers of members in America has dropped to 25,000 in 2007.

FIN


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