Scientology ? What exactly is it based upon ?

[markearthling]

Yes the works of L Ron Hubbard or so I hear,

 

From what I can make out Scientology is designed to hijack the mind

of the believer and the abrogation of the intellect and the pocket book

to a load of fraudulently bogus ideas/procedures/rituals and claptrap.

( they remind me of the Moonies and others )

 

That's about it really other than what others here think

on the subject.

[random]

Well to me Scientology seems to reject main stream medical science in favor of a more holistic approach, no great in depth study on my part though just "at a glance" I for 1 am in favor of naturopathic medecine but yeah..............just why do people sign away entire fortunes to this religion???????? sounds like a cult to me purely based on this finding.

[insane_alien]

basically, its based on a book by a science fiction writer (L Ron Hubbard by no coincidence) and claims all worldly problems are cause by ghosts of aliens who were blown up by nuclear bombs under volcanoes.

 

it should also be noted that L Ron Hubbard was famous for saying 'the best way to make money is to start a religion'

 

it is all a scam.

[pwagen]

Practical joke gone wrong.

[Marat]

I could make up a scam and sell it as a true religion, but if it also included an elaborate doctrinal system, it could just be true by coincidence, so we shouldn't infer that just because Scientology might have originated in a fraud then its doctrines must be false.

 

Just out of curiosity, I thought I might as well read the basic Scientology text, which I found I could only obtain for free by submitting my name and address to the local Scientology Church. Of course it turned out to be not that simple, since ever since then they have been contacting me to try to persuade me to sink deeper into their doctrine, though always (at least at this stage) in a very polite way.

 

The doctrine seems to be based on the experiences of Mr. Hubbard when he worked in a Navy psychiatric hospital, and the point of his recommended behavioral modifications is to transform people into maximally efficient success-machines, even if this can only be achieved at the cost of losing their sensitivity for the darker side of life, its unpleasant memories, and the essentially tragic nature of the human condition. They seem not to ask themselves seriously why the ultimate point of life should be achieving success within the assumptions of the existing power-, fame-, and wealth-distribution system of the social conventions of our community, rather than appreciating more poetic, philosophical, and wistful but less practical realities of our human nature.

[John Cuthber]

"What exactly is it based upon ?"

The fact that you can fool some of the people all of the time.

[Marat]

Do vast systems of deliberate deception really work, even if the people at the top know they are deceptions which are simply designed to create artificial concentrations of power and money for those in charge? Don't the people in the system need to have some sincere belief in what they are doing to keep motivated as they are moving up through the many career stages when their jobs still mean mainly self-sacrifice rather than profit? And if they need sincere belief in the doctrines of the system to rise gradually over 90% of their career to the top, when they can finally maintain the system just as an exploitation of those below, how do they ever overcome the self-indoctrination they required to rise up to their present position?

 

This problem applies to any system that controls people and can generate profits from that control, such as the legal system, the police, the politicians, the government bureaucrats, religious institutions, etc. Many such institutions always remain unsuccessful and thus require nothing but self-sacrifice from those working for them and managing them for their entire lives, so these systems must also be able to win adherents sincerely rather than just as exploitative deceptions of gullible fools.

 

Thus for example the present American incarnation of the Rosicrucians of the 17th century, the AMORC organization, has only 1400 members and collects only around $300 a year from each of its members, which seems barely to cover the costs of the minimalistic administration it maintains. Similarly, the various communist organizations which never come to power anywhere, and which are not likely to do so, nonetheless attract many sincere and self-sacrificing members long before they can turn a profit for any careerist members. Hiding in poverty in an attic apartment in Zurich in 1913, Lenin never thought what he was doing would make him famous or powerful, yet he persisted.

[Realitycheck]

What I ascertained out of it from my limited exposure to it is that it seeks to quantify and qualify various attributes of the mind, maximize capabilities of these respective quanta, and generally progress to a more efficient, powerful sense of well-being, although the effects seem to have led some of its followers to be overly self-serving, in light of the selfless, caring nature of Christianity. Some of these so-called quanta seemed a bit odd, which is what turned me off to it primarily. It was kind of like Hubbard made up a human attribute of the mind called zorgness, which defined ones ability to convince people. In order to develop your zorgness, you might go to a retreat and work on your idiomay, which would pertain to your sense of strength of character and willpower. Altogether, the coining of odd terms to characterize Scientology-specific quanta had a very odd feeling and even though at the time I was going through a spiritual awakening and looking for anything other than the antique standard, it did not impress me, like stoned kids trying to sell me snake oil. The recent revelation that they typically shunned peer-reviewed psychology and psychiatry only turned me off that much further.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Realitycheck