Scientology Overview

Quotes

·          The fact is:  Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a
     person who sincerely desires to improve his life.¹
·         In all the broad universe there is no other hope for man than ourselves. —Ron’s
   Journal 67 ²
·          Scientology is the most vital movement in the Earth today. —The Aim of Scientology³  
·          We are the FREE People.  We LIVE!  We’re free. —We Are the Free People⁴   
·          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 depends on what you do here
     and now with and in Scientology. —Keeping Scientology Working⁵    

Goal of Scientology
The goal of Scientology is making the individual capable of living a better life in his own estimation and with his fellows… the dream of every religion [is] the attainment of complete and total rehabilitation of man’s native but long-obscured abilities that place him in control over matter, energy, space, time, form, thought and life.⁶
 

Three parts to Man
Man consists of three parts. The first of these is the spirit, called in Scientology the thetan (from the Greek letter theta, meaning "thought" or "spirit"), which is the individual himself.

The second of these parts is the mind. The thetan uses his mind as a communication and control system between himself and his environment.  The third of these parts is the body. The body is not the person.⁷  

Thetans
The thetan, according to Hubbard, has been around for a long time.  In the beginning, thetans together created this universe.  However, over the eons, they devolved into a degraded state, becoming the effect of the very universe which they created.  In his current debilitated state as a thetan, man is unaware of his actual identity as an immortal thetan.⁸ 

This process of deterioration has also been expedited by a process called “implanting” in which thetans are subjected to high voltage laser beams used to program them for various purposes.  These implants are carried out in various locations in the universe and without our own solar system.  According to Hubbard, each of us, when we die, is subconsciously programmed to return to the nearest implant station in space where our memories of the life we just lived are electronically zapped away, and where we will be programmed for our next life.  Then we are sent back to earth to “pick up a new body” in an endless cycle of rebirth that has been going on for trillions of years. 

Through Scientology auditing, the electronic “charge” resulting from the implants can be removed, supposedly restoring the person to levels of ability not achieved “in this sector of the universe” for millions of years.  As the electronic charge is removed, the restored thetan, called an “operating thetan” or “OT” in Scientology, will theoretically regain many lost abilities that he had in his “native state,” such as extrasensory perception, telepathy, telekinesis, as well as full control of his present body.⁹ 

Scientology’s belief system
The French sociologist Regis Dericquebourg, an expert in comparative religions, explains Scientology's belief system as one of "regressive utopia," in which man seeks to return to a once-perfect state through a variety of meticulous, and rigorous, processes [called Dianetics] intended to put him in touch with his first created spirit. These processes are highly controlled, and, at the advanced levels, highly secretive. Scientology withholds key aspects of its central theology from all but its most exalted followers.¹⁰ 
 

Dianetics
Published in 1950, Dianetics maintained that the source of mental and physical illness could be traced back to psychic scars called "engrams" that were rooted in early, even prenatal, experiences, and remained locked in a person's subconscious, or "reactive mind." To rid oneself of the reactive mind, a process known as going "Clear," Dianetics preaches a regressive-therapy technique called auditing, which involves re-experiencing incidents in one's past life in order to erase their engrams.¹¹ 

Hubbard regards his techniques as superior to all other forms of healing for psychosomatic and psychological disorders, for which he claims a 70% success rate.  Although he collected much of his material by the use of hypnosis, he claims that Scientology does not use or involve hypnosis, and opposes its use for therapy.  lee 

Dianetic therapy may be briefly stated:  Dianetics deletes all the pain from a lifetime… Dianetics leaves an individual full memory, but without pain.” ¹² 

Analytical Mind
Hubbard discovered that the mind has two very distinct parts- the analytical mind and the reactive mind.   One of these—that part which one consciously uses and is aware of—is called the analytical mind.  This is the portion of the mind which thinks, observes data, remembers it and resolves problems.  It has standard memory banks which contain mental image pictures, and uses the data in these banks to make decisions that promote survival.¹³
 

Reactive Mind
Not recorded in the analytical mind:  painful emotion and physical pain.  When a person is fully conscious, his analytical mind is fully in command.  When the individual is “unconscious” in full or in part [due to moments of intense pain], the reactive mind cuts in, in full or in part.  “Unconscious” could be caused by the shock of an accident, anesthetic used for an operation, the pain of an injury or the deliriums of illness.

When a person is “unconscious,” the reactive mind exactly records all the percepts of the incident, including what happens or is said around the person.  It also records all pain and stores this mental image picture in its own banks, unavailable to the individual’s conscious recall and not under his direct control.¹⁴  The reactive mind has recorded experiences in trillions of years of lifetimes.¹⁵ 

Engrams
The reactive mind stores particular types of mental image pictures called engrams.  These engrams are a complete recording, down to the last detail, of every perception present in a moment of partial or full “unconsciousness… but they have their own force… an engram can be permanently fused into any and all body circuits and behaves like an entity. ^{16, 17}   

Engrams can take over the body’s behavior during periods when the Analytical Mind trips out… The normal person, unaware of the Reactive Mind, will not understand why he acts as he does, and will be unable to control actions in those areas where the engrams have been recorded.  He won’t be able to remember when the engrams are recorded.  In fact, the most serious ones were fused into his circuits before he was born.¹⁸

“The entire physical pain and painful emotion of a lifetime—whether the individual “knows” about it or not—is contained, recorded, in the engram bank.  Nothing is forgotten.  And all physical pain and painful emotion, no matter how the individual may think he has handled it, is capable of re-inflicting itself upon him from this hidden level unless that pain is removed by Dianetic therapy…  The engram and only the engram causes aberration* and psychosomatic illness…” ¹⁹

{*“Aberration:  Any deviation or departure from rationality.  Used in Dianetics to include psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions of all kinds and classifications…It means basically to err, to make mistakes, or more specifically to have fixed ideas which are not true.” ²⁰) 

“Aberration is caused by what has been done to, not done by the individual.” ²¹

Auditing
“Auditors have since the first session of Scientology been the only individuals on this planet in this universe capable of freeing Man.” —Auditors²²     

The goal of auditing is to restore beingness and ability.  Auditing, then, deletes those things which have been added to the reactive mind through life’s painful experiences and addresses and improves one’s ability to confront and handle the factors in his life. Once all engrams in the reactive mind are deleted, the individual reaches a state of “Clear.”²³ 

Auditing becomes possible only through application of the communication formula.  A person participating in auditing (a “preclear”) must direct his attention inward to the deepest recesses of his reactive mind to confront occluded past incidents, including past lives, in order to find the answers to auditing questions, erase the harmful energy contained in the mental image picture recordings of these incidents, and thus experience relief from spiritual travail.²⁴  These techniques can effectively “erase” the contents of the reactive mind and eliminate the ability of such recording to affect the person without his conscious knowledge.²⁵   

Through auditing one is able to look at his own existence and improve his ability to confront what he and where he is.   

E-meter
“The E-meter is never wrong.  It sees all.  It knows all.  It tells everything.”  -- L. Ron Hubbard ²⁶ 

Most auditing is done with a device called the electropsychometer, or E-meter. Often compared to lie detectors, E-meters measure the changes in small electrical currents in the body, in response to questions posed by an auditor. Scientologists believe the meter registers thoughts of the reactive mind and can root out unconscious lies.²⁷  

The E-meter helps the “auditor” probe the preclear’s subconscious mind, looking for areas of emotional charge to be explored in auditing.²⁸   

This small boxlike instrument is a galvanic skin response monitor which registers changes in skin conductivity caused, according to Scientology, by emotional upset.  The face of the E-meter contains a dial on which a needle registers “rises” and “falls” of emotional “charge.”  Various knobs alter the sensitivity of the needle reactions.  To the box are connected two leads attached to small soup or juice cans which the preclear holds in his hands.²⁹   

Operating Thetans
An Operating Thetan (OT) then is one who can handle things without having to use a body or physical means.  Basically one is oneself, can handle things and exist without physical support and assistance.  It doesn’t mean one becomes God.  It means one becomes wholly self. ³⁰ 

Hubbard promises his followers that a way had been found to restore to human beings both the awareness of their true identity as thetans and the once-possessed superhuman abilities, knows as “OT abilities.”  It is only after the reactive mind has been erased in the “Clear” that it is possible to rehabilitate the thetan, and to restore these ancient powers.  This auditing takes place on the “OT levels,” the mysterious and secret levels of Scientology.³¹   

OTs are Scientology's elite -- enlightened beings who are said to have total "control" over themselves and their environment. OTs can allegedly move inanimate objects with their minds, leave their bodies at will and telepathically communicate with, and control the behavior of, both animals and human beings. At the highest levels, they are allegedly liberated from the physical universe, to the point where they can psychically control what Scientologists call MEST: Matter, Energy, Space and Time.³²   

As an OT, a person through Scientology auditing should regain the ability to “exteriorize” at will from his body, becoming able to travel to any location in the universe and to control the body from a distance. ³³  

Secrets of the Universe
On the OT levels, Hubbard promises, one learns the long lost secrets “of this sector of the universe,” secrets of our past now available for the first time in millions of years.  By understanding these secrets, and by doing the auditing on these upper levels, one can at last achieve freedom from the physical universe in which we have been trapped for so long.  Over the years, the material from most of these levels has been made public, with the exception of the highest level to be released so far—OT VIII.  At present, this level is administered in a floating classroom aboard a Scientology ship sailing the Caribbean.³⁴ 

The most important, and highly anticipated, of the eight "OT levels" is OT III, also known as the Wall of Fire. It is here that Scientologists are told the secrets of the universe, and, some believe, the creation story behind the entire religion. It is knowledge so dangerous, they are told, any Scientologist learning this material before he is ready could die. They assert that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu controlled seventy-six planets in this corner of the galaxy, each of which was severely overpopulated. To solve this problem, Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings and then flew them to Earth, where they were dumped into volcanoes around the globe and vaporized with bombs. This scattered their radioactive souls, or thetans, until they were caught in electronic traps set up around the atmosphere and "implanted" with a number of false ideas -- including the concepts of God, Christ and organized religion. Scientologists later learn that many of these entities attached themselves to human beings, where they remain to this day, creating not just the root of all of our emotional and physical problems but the root of all problems of the modern world. ³⁵  

Training
A key belief in Scientology is "communication." One of Scientology's basic courses is "Success Through Communication," taught to young people and adults. It involves a series of drills, known as "training routines," or "TRs." 

In the first training routine, called “TR-0” for Training Routine Zero, two students sit in chairs facing each other, knees almost touching, and they look into each other’s eyes without blinking for a prolonged period of time.  If either student blinks, moves, twitches, or has tearing of the eyes, etc., he or she will be flunked and told to restart the drill.  During TR-0, a student may hallucinate, and will almost certainly experience some sort of dissociation; however, the drill is continued until the student can effortlessly maintain an unblinking stare with his partner.³⁶   

In the second training routine, the student is to say or do anything at all to make the other student react, and then flunk the student for reacting.  This drill is continued until each student can confront anything the partner says or does without reacting. ³⁷

Another drill asks students to close their eyes and simply sit, sometimes for hours.³⁸ 

Another drill involves an ashtray: "You tell it to stand up, sit down, and you 'move' the ashtray for hours. You're supposed to be beaming your intention into the ashtray, and the supervisor is going to tell you if you're intent enough." ³⁹

These drills, Scientologists say, help improve what they call their "confront," which in Scientology's lexicon means "the ability to be there comfortably and perceive."  

Brainwashing
Willa Appel [1983. Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.] describes a three-stage brainwashing process, applicable to the Scientologist. 

First stage:  The recruit is isolated from his past life, cut off from his former position and occupation as well as those with whom he has emotional ties. 

Applied to Scientology:  In gradually adopting a new language, the recruit is subtly separated from those in his past who no longer “speak his language.”  The use of the term “wog,” a derogatory term, to refer to all those outside Scientology, accomplishes the same end.  The student is also pressured to spend every available minute “on course.” Instead of frivolous pursuits outside Scientology which are termed “off-purpose.” ⁴⁰  

Second stage: The loss of name and identity is reinforced by inducing the novice, emotionally and intellectually, to surrender his past life.  Humiliation and guilt are the basic tools in the psychological dismembering of the former self.

Applied to Scientology: This phase is accomplished in two ways.  First, through the process of auditing, also called the “confessional,” in which the Scientologist over a period of time divulges all the secrets of his entire lifetime.  And second, through the “ethics” process of writing up one’s “O/Ws” (overts and withholds), in which the person records every wrong deed, real or imagined, committed in this and in previous lifetimes.  The Scientologist must produce these O/Ws until the Ethics Office is satisfied that he is reduced to an acceptable level of contrition and humiliation.⁴¹   

Third stage:  The convert assumes a new identity and a new worldview.

Applied to Scientology: This is accomplished through a rigorous process of indoctrination through written and tape-recorded materials.  The member’s confidence in all previously trusted social institutions is ended, and replaced with the belief that salvation can only come through Scientology.  The person’s new sense of identity comes from his or her belonging to the cult as all other allegiances are severed. ⁴²

Footnotes

1.       What is Scientology: Based on the Works of L. Ron Hubbard.  Bridge Publications Inc: Los Angeles, CA.  1998. pg.
       215.
2.       Margery Wakefield, with chapters by Robert Kaufman and Bob Penny. Understanding Scientology.
       http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us.html
3.       Margery Wakefield.
4.       Margery Wakefield.
5.       Margery Wakefield.
6.       What is Scientology. Pg. 100.
7.       www.scientology.org
8.       Margery Wakefield.
9.       Margery Wakefield.
10.   Janet Reitman.  Inside Scientology: Unlocking the Complex Code of America's Most Mysterious Religion.  Feb 23,
      2006.  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology
11.   Janet Reitman. 
12.   L. Ron Hubbard.  Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.  Bridge Publications Inc.: L.A., California, 2007.
      Pg. vi.
13.   What is Scientology. Pg. 64.
14.   Ibid.
15.   Janet Reitman. 
16.   What is Scientology. Pg. 64.
17.   Professor John A. Lee. The Lee Report on Dianetics and Scientology, Chapter 4 of “Sectarian Healers and
    Hypnotherapy”, a study for the Committee on the Healing Arts. Ontario 1970. 
      http://www.xenu.net/archive/audit/lee.html
18.   Ibid.
19.   L. Ron Hubbard.  Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.  Bridge Publications Inc.: L.A., California,
      2007. Pg. vi.
20.   Ibid, pg. 539.
21.   Ibid, pg. v.
22.   Margery Wakefield.
23.   What is Scientology. Pg. 82.
24.   What is Scientology. Pg. 83.
25.   Professor John A. Lee. 
26.   Margery Wakefield.
27.   Janet Reitman. 
28.   Margery Wakefield.
29.   Ibid.
30.   What is Scientology. Pg. 167.
31.   Margery Wakefield.
32.   Janet Reitman. 
33.   Margery Wakefield.
34.   Ibid.
35.   Janet Reitman. 
36.   Margery Wakefield.
37.   Ibid.
38.   Janet Reitman. 
39.   Ibid.
40.   Margery Wakefield.
41.   Ibid.
42.   Ibid.