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| But if you ask about Scientology anywhere on the Internet, you are likely to be answered by statements of distrust, skepticism, and suspicion. All across the Net - and all over the world - people are viewing the Church of Scientology with a critical eye. The users of the Internet are not buying into Scientology's carefully sculpted image. To a growing number of Netizens, the term "Scientologist" is being equated with "bully," "liar," and "cult fanatic." So why do so many people distrust the Church of Scientology? Since the fall of 1994, the denizens of the Internet have been eyewitnesses to an online battle, the likes of which have never been seen before -- and which has opened the eyes of a great many people. While many people still think the Church of Scientology is just a weird religion, the truth is being revealed online. While Scientology has always denied this, critics charge that there is another side to the Church of Scientology. A side, they say, that the Church has been trying to keep hidden from the world for over forty years. A dark and sinister side, rife with greed, corruption, and a lust for power and control. Is this statement overdramatic, perhaps? Read on, my friend...and learn for yourself the truth about the organization that calls itself the Church of Scientology. |
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| Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals, originally established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, then recharacterized by him in 1953 as an "applied religious philosophy". Scientology is officially represented by the controversial Church of Scientology. The Church presents itself as a non-profit religious organization dedicated to encouraging development of the human spirit. Providing counseling and rehabilitation programs, the Church offers itself as an alternative to psychiatry, which Scientologists believe to be a barbaric and corrupt profession. [1] (http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/heritage/pg011.html) Church spokespeople attest that Hubbard's teaching (called "technology" or "tech") has freed them from drug and alcohol addictions, depression, learning disabilities, mental disorders and other problems. Scientology has been the object of many allegations that sharply contradict the Church's self-description. Critics—including officials of several governments—have characterized the Church of Scientology as an unscrupulous commercial organization; it has often been described as a cult that harrasses its critics and exploits its members. Many of the Church's most controversial actions are, critics argue, a direct reflection of Hubbard's Scientology teachings. |
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| Introduction "Scientology is a religious philosophy in its highest meaning as it brings man to Total Freedom." - L. Ron Hubbard, Religious Philosophy and Religious Practice, 21 June 1960, revised 18 April 1967. "An endless freedom from is a perfect trap, a fear of all things ... Fixed on too many barriers, man yearns to be free. But launched into total freedom he is purposeless and miserable." - L. Ron Hubbard, The Reason Why; 15 May 1956. `The work of L. Ron Hubbard has been surrounded by controversy since he first announced his "modern science of mental health" in 1950. His followers assert that he is not only the reincarnation of Buddha but also Maitreya, who according to Buddhist legend will lead the world to enlightenment. To Scientologists, L. Ron Hubbard is quite simply the wisest, the most compassionate and the most perceptive human being ever to draw breath. Yet, Hubbard was dubbed "schizophrenic and paranoid" by a California Superior Court judge, and Scientology dismissed as "immoral and socially obnoxious" by a High Court judge in London. Scientologists have been convicted of criminal offences in Canada, the USA, Denmark and Italy. An enormous amount of documented evidence demonstrates that Hubbard was not what he claimed to be, and that his subject does not confer the benefits claimed for it. The Church of Scientology is an enormously wealthy, global organization, with over 270 churches and missions. Using profoundly invasive hypnotic techniques, Scientology has managed to inspire the at times fanatical devotion of tens of thousands of previously normal and intelligent people. |
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| With Scientology, Hubbard asserted that we are all spiritual beings ("thetabeings", and later "thetans"), who have lived for trillions of years, incamating again and again. He claimed that through the use of his new techniques, anyone could achieve supernatural powers. In 40 years, no scientific evidence has been provided for these claims. During the Hubbard College lectures, Hubbard also introduced the Electrometer, or E-meter, designed by Dianeticist Volney Mathison. The E-meter is actually a lie detector, closely related to the machine used in police polygraphs in the US. In Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard claimed "Dianetics cures, and cures without, failure". Two years later, he dismissed these earlier techniques as "slow and mediocre". He now claimed that with Scientology, "the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner". |
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| Scientologists have been convicted of criminal offences in Canada, the USA, Denmark and Italy |