Scientology
Scientology
in its basic form is a body of beliefs and related practices
created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard developed
Scientology teachings in 1952 as a successor to his earlier
self-help system, Dianetics.
Origins
Of Scientology
Although
today associated almost exclusively with Hubbard, the word "scientology"
predates his usage by several decades. An early use of the word
was as a neologism in an 1871 book by the American anarchist
Stephen Pearl Andrews presenting "the newly discovered
Science of the Universe." In 1934, the Argentine-German
writer Anastasius Nordenholz published a book using the word
positively: Scientologie, Wissenschaft von der Beschaffenheit
und der Tauglichkeit des Wissens ("Scientologie, Science
of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge").
Beliefs
Of Scientology
- A person
is an immortal spiritual being (termed a thetan) who possesses
a mind and a body.
- The thetan
has lived through many past lives and will continue to live
beyond the death of the body.
- Through
the Scientology process of "auditing," people can
free themselves of traumatic incidents, ethical transgressions
and bad decisions which are said to collectively restrict
the person from reaching the state of "Clear" and
"Operating Thetan." Each state is said to represent
the recovery of native spiritual abilities and to confer mental
and physical benefits.
- A person
is basically good, but becomes "aberrated" by moments
of pain and unconsciousness.
- Psychiatry
and psychology are destructive and abusive practices.
- Scientology
states that there is no absolute right or wrong.
Scientology
is composed of a complex network of corporations, churches and
organizations all geared towards promoting the use and dissemination
of Scientology and related techniques.
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