It ’s the late forties and a immature science fiction writer is walk through Manhattan on his way to a get together . As he walks , he contemplate a level he ’s been playing around with — it takes position a long meter ago , 10 of millions of class ago at least . The Earth is still full of active vent . In the sky , a great fleet of starship seem , sent by Xenu , the lord of a distant Galactic Confederation . The spaceships are mug up full of billion of Xenu ’s subjects who are fix near spue volcanoes and wipe out by hydrogen turkey . Their souls , orthetans , survive to become incarnated by the humans who will one day dominate this satellite . undecomposed hooey , but then what ?
Before he can compute out the next plot of land component , the author , Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , get at his destination , a tony apartment on 57th street . Here , at the home of Fletcher Pratt and his wife Inga , a group of initiate sci - fi author are contact as a group called the Hydra Club [ source : Harrison ] . In attendance are some names that will later become eminent in their field , including Harlan Ellison .
Hubbard sits down and start kvetch to another Hydra Club extremity bring up L. Sprague de Camp that it ’s intemperate to make a living when you ’re getting devote a penny a word . Lester Del Rey , presently to become famous as the editor of Del Rey Books , gong in say the real arcanum to making money is to start a new religious belief because the bang-up affair about religion is that they ’re tax - exempt . At that point , the Hydra Club erupts with ideas for DIY spectral philosophical system [ reservoir : Shermer ] .
L. Ron Hubbard proceed home and excogitate this . He ’s been playing around with a bunch of unlike ideas for a duet of years — ideas aboutreincarnation , the spirit , psychology , mind control , theoccult . Could he interweave all of these thread together into something cohesive ? Something that could become the instauration for a new notion scheme ? A new way of being ? A new science of the mind ? A new … religion ?
A Brief History of L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born in Nebraska in 1911 . His father was a navy man who was posted to legion locations around the world and the young Hubbard travel wide with his home . After graduate eminent school , he inscribe at George Washington University where he studied technology . But he dropped out before finish a degree . Instead he took up scientific discipline fiction writing and begin establishing a name for himself in that field .
In 1941 , he follow in his begetter ’s footsteps and joined theNavy . He would later on take a storeyed military career during World War II , alleging that he earned legion medals including a Purple Heart , which is given to servicemen wounded in combat . Hubbard also liked to say he was an elect air force officer who captained a fleet of ships .
During a test run of the ship in the Pacific , Hubbard reported sighting two Japanesesubsand over the next two - and - a - half days ordered his men to throw off 37 deepness accusation on them . He also address in air and sea support . He credit his sauceboat and its bunch with having so thoroughly destroyed the subs that no tracing of them could be find .
U.S. Naval records say a fairly different story . Hubbard did command two sauceboat , including the PC 815 , a submarine hunter . But in its report on the issue , the Navy could find no grounds either of these Japanese submarines survive in the surface area . The investigators resolve that Hubbard fabricated them .
Still in command of his ship , Hubbard took the PC 815 down the California slide and lawlessly entered Mexican waters where , again illicitly , he ordered his man to test the ship ’s guns by firing on an uninhabited Mexican island . Mexico complained and Hubbard was jaw . Navy records show that the succeeding religious leader was relieved of his command of two different gravy holder over the form of his military career . He was assigned to onshore duties in the recent 1940s [ origin : Sappell and Welkos ] .
After pay heed that black meeting of the Hydra Club and resign his military mail in 1950 , Hubbard published an article in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction , call " Dianetics : A New Science of the judgement . " It was the founding here and now in the bowel movement that would become known as Scientology .
Scientology According to Scientology
harmonise the official Scientologywebsite , Hubbard educe the word , " dianetics " from the ancient Greek word for " through " ( dia ) and " nous " meaning " mind or soulfulness . " To boil the concept down to its basics , dianetics pertain to how the head — or soul — strike the body . Scientologists believe the psyche to be an port between a person ’s thetan — or lawful , ghostlike ego — and their surroundings . This port has two elements , the " analytical mind " and the " reactive brain . " The analytical head , as the terminus paint a picture , is rational and aware , whereas the reactive brain is unconscious and unvoluntary , yet simultaneously in charge of the analytical judgement .
The responsive head is where all the trouble is . It lay in experiences in double-dyed recordings , calledengrams , which feature every constituent of an outcome , even , or perhaps especially , traumatic consequence . If left to fester , these engram are the source of nearly all that ails us . To extenuate the power of these engrams , it ’s necessary to recount them loud to a trainedauditorwho can elicit the correct result with a set of ordained inquiry . Once through this process , the engram are purged of their power and a someone becomes devoid of the pain they make .
Auditing is said to be a cognitive operation of objective , scientific precision , with each question calibrated to produce the necessary final result . The Church of Scientology holds that , thanks to Hubbard ’s thrifty design of the auditing process and its interrogation , the subroutine is free of any errors that might spring up from the auditor ’s subjective biases .
Scientologists also assert that auditing not be confused with psychiatry , which utilize methods they conceive to be ineffective — mainly that psychiatristsinterpretwhat someone enounce rather than simplyacceptwhat they say , as auditors do . listener practice a series of tests administered before and after an auditing session to influence the results and establish what kind of auditing program will be necessary to bring a " pre - clear " soul to a " light " state , or " free " of their reactive nous . The results of these mental test can be recorded on a graphical record to illustrate the progress made .
Hubbard expanded " Dianetics : A scientific discipline of the Mind , " to book - length form and when it was release , also in 1950 , it was a hit . Hubbard traveled the country giving lectures and establish his ideas in the Quran . But by 1952 , stake in dianetics was wane and Hubbard decided on a unlike row . He began incorporating the principle of dianetics into a fresh opinion system , which he dubbedScientology .
Scientology took dianetics to a fresh grade , key out the thetan or soul with past lives . Hubbard reasoned that if the thetan surpass metre and the body , then it should be able-bodied to distinguish itself from the body at will . He alleged that this could be done and the process is calledexteriorization . distinguish a spirit by nature leads a system of thought into the realm of faith . In 1954 , Hubbard established the Church of Scientology of California , which is considered the establishment ’s female parent church . In 1957 , theIRSgranted taxation - nontaxable status , making Scientology an official religion in the centre of the U.S. government [ source : Frantz ] .
So do Scientologists believe in a deity ? Absolutely , says the website , but unlike other religions , Scientology has no fixed educational activity aboutgodthat it dictates to members . Instead Scientologists are expected to increase their spiritual awareness based on trust , auditing and training . The combination of these pattern take into account Scientologists to becomefree(via auditing ) and stay that way ( via training ) .
The ultimate finish of a Scientologist is to move up theBridge to Total Freedom . Hubbard make a precise chart , know as theClassification , Gradation and Awareness Chart , which register the exact itinerary a Scientologist must take to becomeclearand move up the Bridge .
Scientology Controversies
Scientology has grown exponentially since its initiation , counting among its members such fame as Tom Cruise and John Travolta . But with success get along exposure . Ten years after grant ittax - exemptstatus in 1957 , the IRS vacate it , saying that in its perspective , Scientology was really a commercial organisation created to garner profit for Hubbard . The Church of Scientology challenge this opinion many times , but for the next 25 years , the decisiveness was upheld . last , in 1993 , the IRS once again granted Scientology its tax - complimentary condition [ source : Frantz ] . It was a victory that Hubbard did not live to see . He died in 1986 and the church was taken over by a man distinguish David Miscavige .
But before his destruction , Hubbard ’s wife Mary Sue Hubbard was among 11 luxuriously - ranking phallus indict by the U.S. lawyer on 28 charges of conspiracy in 1978 . The boot were based on a five - year investigation dubbed Operation Snow White , which turned up internal church documents sketch safari to chivvy its legion critics , governing official and agents [ source : Robinson ] . A class later on , nine of the 11 church member pleaded guilty to a single numeration of cabal to jam justice .
After its own deep investigating , in 1997The New York Timesalleged that the Church of Scientology , under Miscavige ’s leadership , bear a kind of cold war against the IRS and deploy underhanded tactic to obtain its position . There ’s grounds to paint a picture , for instance , that the church hiredprivate investigatorsto attend into the life of private IRS employees to happen vulnerability that could be exploited . One way or another , many tax experts were stun by the IRS ’s unexpected decision .
More controversy has pursued Scientology since then , including multiple indictment and convictions for church leaders around the globe . Some ex - members , include its former executive director of particular affair and main spokesperson , Mike Rinder , also claim to have been psychologically abused and exploit by the church ’s leaders . In 2013 , Leah Remini , one of the stars of the idiot box comedy , " The King of Queens , " publically chuck up the sponge the church . Remini had been set up as a Scientologist but felt that she could no longer persist loyal to the institution .
In 2015 , she published a book cry , " Troublemaker : Surviving Hollywood and Scientology , " which , in part , chronicled her experiences with the religious belief . Then , in 2016 , she conjoin teams with Rinder for the docuseries on A&E , in which they traveled the country interview ex-husband - Scientologists , some of whom allege experiencing a range of traumas from physical and emotional forms of ill-treatment to statutory violation [ source : Gilbert ] .
Also in 2015 , HBO presented a docudrama called " go Clear : Scientology and the Prison of Belief , " base on a book by Lawrence Wright , a Pulitzer Prize - winning journalist . The documentary film go into extensive detail about Hubbard , Miscavige and an alleged church building acculturation of power - mongering , greed and authoritarianism [ source : Gilbert ] .
Controversy also surrounds the fiscal price of being a Scientologist . Auditing , which is need for all members — is not liberal , and can cost up to $ 800 an hour [ generator : Nededog ] . Training — another necessary of being a Scientologist — also comes at a steep price . In her A&E docuseries , Remini explained that that there are 12 basic books in Scientology , which costs about $ 4,000 . But member must buy the script again and again whenever they ’ve been update . Remini tell in her 35 years as a Scientologist , she spent"millions " [ source : Nededog ] .
And then there ’s that Bridge to Total Freedom . Remini said on her series that courses cost about $ 650 each , and there are hundreds of courses to reach the top .
Scientology’s Future
When Xenu bar that horde of miscreant to a distantvolcanicplanet all those eons ago , he could n’t have foreseen ( or could he ? ) that one day L. Ron Hubbard would let out the honest origins of human race and , in doing so uncover the means of correct all the wrongs we day-to-day experience . The story of Xenu and the Galactic Confederation and those thetan souls that hold up annihilation only to be embody as wretched pre - clear bipeds , is said to be the underground root tale of human beings transmitted only to Scientologists who reach the gamey levels of spiritual insight in the church building ’s hierarchy .
The fact that this story contains many of the tropes of 1950s science fabrication does n’t mechanically render it the most absurd spiritual origin story . As many people have pointed out , the mythic tales of most spiritual belief systems are equally , if not more , grotesque . And , as has also been indicate , few institutional religions can claim a chronicle unsullied by report of abuse and corruption .
The real critique of Scientology asks whether or not the various negative action attribute to the Church of Scientology are the inevitable byproducts of any religious organisation ’s growth or are they the outcome of the belief arrangement ’s founding philosophical system and pattern .
Many of the investigations into Hubbard ’s past , his cover tendency toward mendacity and self - aggrandizement , and his allegedly cypher efforts to produce Scientology as a means of remuneration and gain , point to the latter proposition . Scientology , claim many of its knocker , is rotten at its marrow [ author : Douthat ] .
Whether this is true , the religious belief is currently experiencing difficulties and its future does not look brilliant . While the church claim that Scientology swash millions of adherents across the globe , " travel Clear " put the number at fewer than 50,000 . And although Tom Cruise and John Travolta remain close Scientologists , they have become less vocal about their religion , and the church has had difficulty enter unexampled , younger celebrity to be its public face .
At the origin of Scientology ’s apparent decline is the determine factor of our age — the internet . In the past times , when controversies arose , the Christian church would utilize aggressive legal action at law to control the narrative . But while it remains possible to sue a media outlet into silence , theinternetwith all its blogs and tweets , is much harder to rein in [ source : Gilbert ] .
It ’s hard not to think that L. Ron Hubbard in his heyday would have found a way to employ the internet to his advantage and turn thing around for his beleaguered Christian church . Perhaps his reincarnated thetan is out there somewhere , already plot a comeback .
Lots More Information
Most religions have a foundation story and I have no gripe with Scientology look to sci - fi for its background tale . In fact , I think we should be launch more faith on the backs of good storylines . A cult of Virginia Woolf ’s " To the Lighthouse , " for example , which would require a yearly pilgrimage to the Shetland Islands , or a doctrine base on " The Lord of the Rings " in which adherents must be sick a gold ring into an active volcano . The possibilities are eternal …
