Portal:Scientology

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The Scientology Portal

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Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by Speculative Fiction author L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey.

Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counselling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects. Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations. Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt organization in the United States and some other countries, and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion. In other countries, notably France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Scientology does not have comparable religious status.

A large number of organizations overseeing the application of Scientology have been established, the most notable of these being the Church of Scientology. Scientology sponsors a variety of social service programs. These include the Narconon anti-drug program, the Criminon prison rehabilitation program, the Study Tech education methodology, a volunteer organization, a business management method, and a set of moral guidelines expressed in a booklet called The Way to Happiness.

The Church of Scientology is one of the most controversial new religious movements to have arisen in the 20th century. It has often been described as a cult that financially defrauds and abuses its members, charging exorbitant fees for its spiritual services. The Church of Scientology has consistently used litigation against such critics, and its aggressiveness in pursuing its foes has been condemned as harassment. Further controversy has focused on Scientology's belief that souls ("thetans") reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth. Former members say that some of Hubbard's writings on this remote extraterrestrial past, included in confidential Upper Levels, are not revealed to practitioners until they have paid thousands of dollars to the Church of Scientology. Another controversial belief held by Scientologists is that the practice of psychiatry is destructive and abusive and must be abolished. Notable Scientologists include many well known people such as Tom Cruise, Greta Van Susteren, Chick Corea, John Travolta, Priscilla Presley and Kirstie Alley.

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Gerald Loeb Award
"The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" is a Time magazine article highly critical of Scientology that was first published on May 6, 1991, as an eight-page cover story. Written by investigative journalist Richard Behar, the article was later published in Reader's Digest in October 1991. Behar's article covers topics including: L. Ron Hubbard and the development of Scientology, its controversies over the years and history of litigation, conflict with psychiatry and the IRS, the suicide of a Scientologist, its status as a religion, and its business dealings. After the article's publication, the Church of Scientology mounted a public relations campaign to inform the public of what it felt were falsehoods in the piece. It took out advertisements in USA Today for twelve weeks, and Church leader David Miscavige was interviewed by Ted Koppel on Nightline about what he considered to be an objective bias by the article's author. The Church of Scientology brought a libel suit against Time Warner and Behar, and sued Reader's Digest in multiple countries in Europe in an attempt to stop the article's publication there. The suit against Time Warner was dismissed in 1996, and the Church of Scientology's petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case was denied in 2001. Behar received awards in honor of his work on the article, including the Gerald Loeb Award (pictured), the Worth Bingham Prize, and the Conscience-in-Media Award.
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The M/V Freewinds.
Credit: Echo29

The M/V Freewinds is a cruise ship operated by the Church of Scientology. Its home port is Curaçao, and it frequents the Netherlands Antilles and the Caribbean. The vessel was built in 1968 by Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland, at the former Crichton-Vulcan shipyard to Ice Class 1A, as one of a series of four RORO car ferries. It was purchased by Majestic Cruise Lines, a Church of Scientology corporation, in 1986 and subsequently was renamed the Freewinds in its home port of Curaçao.

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Lisa McPherson
Lisa McPherson (February 10, 1959–December 5, 1995) was a Scientologist who died of a pulmonary embolism while under the care of the Flag Service Organization (FSO), a branch of the Church of Scientology. After a minor car accident, paramedics took McPherson to a hospital for evaluation after she appeared mentally unstable. With the assistance of fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out after a short evaluation. After fifteen days under attendance by Scientologists at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, the Scientologists drove her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. Following her death the Church of Scientology was indicted on two felony charges "abuse and/or neglect of a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license." The heated controversy included regular pickets outside Scientology offices on or around the anniversary of her death. Charges against the Church of Scientology brought by the State of Florida were dropped after the state's medical examiner changed the cause of death from "undetermined" to an "accident" on June 13, 2000. A civil suit brought by her family against the Church was settled on May 28, 2004.
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Chick Corea

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Scientology means 'scio', knowing in the fullest sense of the word and 'logos', study. In itself the word means 'knowing how to know'.Scientology is a 'route', a way, rather than a dissertation or assertive body of knowledge. Through its drills and studies one may find the truth for himself. The technology is therefore not expounded as something to believe, but something to 'do'.
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