This is Article II of my Scientology Report series...
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Scientology Part II-A: Basic Beliefs
Unlike Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, Scientology does not have one single particular book, but rather a series of books, which number 18 in totality. Study is achieved by reading each book in chronological succession and thereby mastering the material within.
The goals of Scientology include two major points. The first goal is to have a civilization without insanity, war or criminals; where the able can prosper and honest people can have rights, and where humans can rise above mediocrity. The second goal is for humans to achieve certainty of spiritual existence and certainty of one’s relationship to the Supreme Being.
The first of these concepts is that a person is a spiritual being who possesses a mind and body, the spirit lives on after the death of the body, and that the spirit has also experienced many reincarnations. To many people, this is not so unfamiliar a concept, but what strikes people as a tad off the beaten path is that in L. Ron Hubbard’s terminology, the soul, or spirit body, is known as a Thetan.
The second of Hubbard’s ideas and concepts is that of auditing. This process seeks to rid a person of any traumatic incidents, ethical transgressions or just plain bad decisions that are believed to weigh the person down and prevent him or her from succeeding in life on their desired level. Before the auditing process begins, the person being audited is referred to as pre-Clear. Once the process is underway, the auditing counselor works with the pre-Clear to get rid of any negative instances within the mind. The desired stages to achieve are that of Clear and Operating Thetan, or rather, someone who has managed to get free of the negativity that would hold them back from their desired achievements. Each of these states is said to recover a person’s natural spiritual abilities and to bring mental and physical benefits. Members of Scientology continually study the religion’s tenets in order to go from pre-Clear to Operating Thetan.
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MY THOUGHTS: When I did the research for this second article, I already had knowledge of some of Hubbard's terminology, as I had attempted, at one point, to read Dianetics. But to be quite honest, I couldn't even get halfway through the book. The concepts that Hubbard put forth were somewhat familiar as they are indeed drawn from both psychology and Eastern mysticism, but his personal terminology for the soul and its negative experiences, etc, really says to me that either he has a unique vision for humanity, or he had a system in his sci-fi books that was most likely to be implementable in current-day society and he just went for the gusto. And quite frankly, when it comes to Dianetics and some aspects of Scientology, if my solar plexus had a face, it would have a weirded-out, quizzical expression plastered all over.
I haven't tried reading any of his sci-fi books, but one day, I may scratch that curious itch. After all, I'm willing to try *most* things once. But Scientology itself? Ehhh, I am happy being a Druidic Pagan, I thank ya.
