Also called the Church of the New Understanding. It is a practical school of philosophy based on hedonism. Its aim is to secure man’s happiness through an understanding of himself and of others as spiritual beings. The development of certain religious tendencies and the existence of its own form of worship have led various States to regard it as a religion, among them France (judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal, 29 February 1980).
Origin. An American engineer, Lafayette R. Hubbard, born in 1901, returned from the war suffering from a permanent physical disability and faced cruel moral suffering. He then tried to recover by himself the peace of his spirit and his well-being. He set out his discoveries in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950), or science of the spirit, and tried to spread them through a school called Scientology, or science of knowing.
Method. The “auditor” (minister-counsellor) helps the “preclear” to become master of his “reactive mind” (the part of the mind that perceives and classifies unconsciously). The “electrometer,” an instrument invented by the Master, makes it possible to locate the areas of spiritual suffering. Then the preclear becomes aware that the thetan (his immortal part) must become operative, that is, effective in relation to the 8 dynamics (from this comes the 8-pointed cross): the urge toward individual survival, spouse and children, group, mankind, nature, matter-energy-space-time, spirit, and the Supreme Being.
Principles. “Nothing is true for man unless he has observed it” (personal integrity). “Man is fundamentally good.” “His survival depends on himself.” Scientology does not refer to any particular god, but leaves each person the possibility of discovering him.”
Cults. Baptisms, marriages, ordinations, funerals. Books of prayers and sermons registered by the founder.
Spread. Six million adherents throughout the world; one million of them in Europe.
Yves de Gibon
Cf. Dictionary of Religions (edited by Cardinal Paul Poupard), Herder, Barcelona 1987, pp. 1292–1293.
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On the page Aciprensa.com/ one may read the following on this subject.
Seventy-five million years ago a galactic sovereign named Xenu confined the “thetans” to Earth, evil spirits that to this day infect men’s psyches, causing ills that can be cured only with a great deal of money and “clarification” sessions. This, which might seem like a science-fiction story, is nothing other than the postulate of the Church of Scientology, a sect that, through threats and extortion, has built an economic empire by winning over Hollywood stars, businessmen, and politicians throughout the world.
Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Oliver Stone, Constantin Costa Gravas, Larry King, Mario Puzo, Aaron Spelling, Gore Vidal… all share fame and fortune, but also a place in theChurch of Scientology.
The News
The followers of the sect made news again last week by making desperate gestures in the face of the German government’s refusal to allow its members to hold public posts within the Executive branch or in political parties.
A resolution promoted by the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Ben Gilman, and Senator Mike Enzi seeks to force the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to yield in its position, requesting the intervention of Bill Clinton himself.
The news, which has stirred —without altering— the international political scene, has once again called into question the activities of the group, which suffered previous setbacks in Spain and France, where it went through several trials accused of being a sect whose true aim is to make money by recruiting adherents among people with illnesses or work-related or psychological problems.
The Origins
According to a report by Barcelona’s La Vanguardia , the sect’s “doctrine” arose in the imagination of its founder, Ron Laffayette Hubbard, a science-fiction writer who was born in Nebraska in 1911. In order to recruit adherents, Hubbard mixed the fantasy of his novels with reality.
Costly Cure
In his best-known work, “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,” Hubbard says that “we can free ourselves from our psychoses if we face the traumatic incidents or engrams that block our mind.” According to the founder, freeing oneself from these is very easy, but very costly, since it entails an “auditing” with the help of an “E-meter” costing up to 5 thousand dollars. However, the complete course that concludes the “path of purification” entails expelling all the engrams which, similar to Freudian traumas, “are the product of errors committed in previous lives.” Today, eliminating all present and past traumas can cost more than 80 thousand dollars.
Famous Sheep
For this reason, the Scientology proselytizing campaign generally targets “bellwether sheep” who have money. “If you get the bellwether sheep to follow you —Hubbard used to say—, they will all follow you.” Thus, in 1955 he tried to convince Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, John Ford, Pablo Picasso, and Walt Disney; and although none of them accepted, 40 years later the list of sectarians would impress anyone.
The number of “stars” linked to the sect in recent times shows its power and its capacity to exert pressure on the “star-system.” Half of Hollywood is convinced that John Travolta’s “conversion” to the sect has obtained him new roles when he was on the verge of professional extinction.
Only Objective
“Money, money, money. Make them give it to you, get it. Whatever it takes, make money.” With these words —always according to La Vanguardia— Hubbard would have indicated his main objective. To this end, the leadership of Scientology is said to have created Sterling Inc., a branch of the sect that blackmailed dentists addicted to drugs until, some time later, it was discovered. Later, they createdNarconon and Health Med, international front companies that also served to recruit and extort drug addicts, under the pretext of providing a “redemptive treatment.”
European Front
The treatments of Scientology, however, have not been very well received in Europe, where prominent figures have rejected them. In recent years, the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Klaus Kinkel and Hervé de Charette, shared their positions on the matter. The French minister joined the Germans’ “apprehension” toward the sect, while Kinkel referred to a letter published in the International Herald Tribune and signed by a long list of stars, in which the sect presented itself as the victim of a persecution similar to that of the Jewish Holocaust. “The letter is an insult to the victims of National Socialism,” Kinskel said.
The cases of Germany and France are only one chapter in the psychological war that Scientology wages before world public opinion. For now its credibility seems able to hold up… but not for much longer.
Source: Dictionary of Religions
