Scientology: history, practices, and theological foundations

Scientology

Founded in 1954, the Church of Scientology was based on the teachings of L. (Lafayette) Ron Hubbard, an American author. Hubbard, the son of a naval commander, was born in Tilden, Nebraska in 1911. His mother, who attended teacher's college, taught young Hubbard at home and he learned to read and write at a very young age. During his youth Hubbard traveled extensively, and by the age of 19 he had traveled more than a quarter of a million miles to such places as China, Japan, Guam, and the Philippines. In 1929 Hubbard returned to the United States and resumed his formal education, studying mathematics and engineering. He also became interested in how the human mind worked and found the lack of knowledge thereof disappointing.

It was this quest to understand the workings of the mind that eventually lead Hubbard to publish Dianetics: The Modern Science of the Human Mind in 1950. Subsequently, in 1954, the first Church of Scientology was founded in Los Angeles, California. It is worth noting that this initial church was not founded by Hubbard but by Scientologists. In 1959 Hubbard moved to Sussex, England, where he resided for seven years, and this became the worldwide headquarters for the church. Over the ensuing years Hubbard developed a step-by-step method for reaching higher spiritual awareness and ability and trained Scientologists in this method. He also created a drug rehabilitation program as well as expanding the principles of Scientology. Hubbard died on January 24, 1986 ("History of Scientology").

Discussion

Dianetics

Dianetics is a Greek word that means through the mind. It is a family of sciences embracing the various humanities and translating them into usefully precise definitions. The book Dianetics can be described as a handbook containing the skills necessary for handling both interpersonal relations and the treatment of the mind. The techniques set forth enable the reader to successfully treat all psychosomatic ills and inorganic abnormalities. The purpose of the book is to enable the reader to produce a Dianetic Clear, an optimum individual with intelligence greater than the current normal, or the Dianetic Release, an individual who has been freed from his major anxieties or illness (Hubbard).

The first law of Dianetics is the dynamic principle of existence is to survive. Survival is divided into four dynamics. Dynamic one is the urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of self and his immediate symbiotes. Dynamic two is the urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of sex, the act and creation of children and their rearing. Dynamic three is the urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of the group, whether civil, political, or racial and the symbiotes of that group. Dynamic four is the urge of the individual to reach the highest potential of survival in terms of Mankind and the symbiotes of Mankind (Hubbard).

Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology has established over seven hundred centers in sixty-five countries (Urban). The church functions as a guide, offering a variety of courses designed to inform the individual about Scientology, personal counseling called auditing, designed to get rid of unwanted emotions, habits, and psychosomatic illnesses, and purification rundown, a procedure to free one's self from the harmful effects of drugs and toxins ("Scientology: Inside a Church of Scientology").

Controversy over the Church of Scientology

While the church is well-known for its high-profile celebrity patrons such as Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, and John Travolta, it has also been attacked by government agencies, anti-cult groups, and the media as a swindling business and a brainwashing cult. L. Ron Hubbard has been described as the man who solved the riddle of the human mind by the Church of Scientology, a mental case by the FBI and hopelessly insane by his former wife. Since the 1950s the church has come into a series of conflicts with the U.S. Government, including the FDA, and the IRS as well as the previously mentioned FBI, regarding its status as a religious organization and an assortment of alleged crimes (Urban).

In response Scientologists argue the religion is a legitimate movement that has been misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted by media witch-hunters in a McCarthy style fashion. The Church claims this constant pounding by media, government and anti-cult groups has created a hostile environment for the church and undermines the very idea of religious freedom (Urban). Scientology surfaces some of the most important legal, political, and ethical questions about the study of religion in the modern world.