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)
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)
However to label him a pure fraud is to ignore the complex, charming, delusional, and visionary features of his character that made him so compelling to the many thousands who follow him and the millions who read his work. One would also have to ignore his life's labor in creating the intricately detailed epistemology that has influenced so many (Wright)
Ron Hubbard, who was otherwise well-known as a science-fiction author. Hubbard's goal in developing scientology was to help man achieve a higher plane of civilization and existence (Robinson and Buttnor)
Ron Hubbard Exposed by John Atack is a personal memoir by a disgruntled former member of the Church of Scientology. It is certainly useful as an account of what Scientologists were asked to believe -- especially during Hubbard's lifetime, when he was still issuing new pronouncements and revelations about Galactic Overlord Xenu and the Planet Teegeeack, actual names from Hubbard's own cosmological revelation "OT 3" issued in 1967 (Atack 28)
The appeal of Scientology in its early days to recovering drug addicts suddenly becomes apparent: in explaining the soul as particularly susceptible to behaviorist brainwashing, Hubbard offers some sort of explanation -- beyond the neuro-chemical processes of addiction, and significantly in contrast to both the Deist or Judeo-Christian assumptions of 12-Step Programs and the psychiatric profession which very often treats psychiatric conditions with addictive drugs, as Tom Cruise insisted to Matt Lauer that Ritalin was the equivalent of a "street drug" ("Cruise Tangles with Matt Lauer" 2005) -- as to how repetitive behaviors might be traced back to past trauma. Hubbard derived that notion from Freud -- and modern skeptics like Frederick Crews have been asking if Freud ever offered any empirical evidence for it (Crews 92) -- but it strikes me that Hubbard also got from Freud the notion of a sort of secularized version of the Roman Catholic Confessional
The book version of Dianetics appeared not long after, and sold well, especially after being given a promotional mention in Walter Winchell's newspaper column (Miller 145). Sixty years afterward, Hubbard's speculations are enshrined as a religion, the Church of Scientology -- although there are many persons who consider it to be less a religion and more, as its debut might indicate, like truly astounding science fiction, involving metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, all the way back to the evil machinations of Galactic Overlord Xenu 70 million years ago (Hubbard's rough equivalent of the Fall of Adam in Christian theology)
The sort of outrage that motivated the Reformation -- sparking off sectarian violence among Catholic and Protestant which persisted beyond the sixteenth century and persists to this day in Northern Ireland, among other places -- is surely in order for Scientology, which is essentially a profit-making scheme that uses the legal privileges associated with established religions in the American system as a tax advantage. Among contemporary scholars of religion, Stephen Kent has published numerous articles taking Scientology seriously as a religion, but at the same time fully aware and honest (as the Church of Scientology is not) about what Kent characterizes as "Hubbard's religious representations of Scientology as attempts to protect his followers from charges that they were practicing medicine without licenses" (Kent 97)
It was prefaced by a note from the magazine's editor stating "I want to assure every reader, most positively and unequivocally, that this article is not a hoax, joke, or anything but a direct, clear statement of a totally new scientific thesis." (Miller 153)
Ron Hubbard and his wife were themselves audited: although not in the Scientology sense. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was after Hubbard and the Church of Scientology for numerous violations during the 1970s (Behar)
" Tory Christman manages one of the most high profile anti-Scientology Web sites on the Internet called Operation Clambake. In an Operation Clambake article, the author claims that members "have been lied to, betrayed, abused, deceived," their stories made public in the mass media and online (Christman nd)
In 1993 the Church of Scientology paid the IRS $12.5 million dollars in a legal settlement that enabled the Church of Scientology to thereafter enjoy tax-exempt status as an officially classified religion in the United States (MacDonald 1997)
L. Ron Hubbard has twice entered the Guinness Book of World Records, in 2005 for being the most translated author, and in 2006 for being the most published author (Robinson & Buttnor 2006)
Integral to the religion is the belief that most drugs are harmful not just to the body but also to the mind and spirit. The Church of Scientology has been an active in "more than a thousand social betterment groups," including those that address substance abuse (Robinson & Buttnor)
This could lead to a marked reluctance, often likely brought on by a true self-denial, of existing health issues, as well as a resistance to traditional medical tests. This reluctance and resistance will inhibit, respectively, the collection of quantitative and qualitative data in an attempt to assess the health of Scientologists (Bainbridge & Stark 1980)
Refraining from the suggestion of illness and any other disagreement will be more conducive to the subject's compliance with the needs of the assessment. Political and cultural tensions concerning the group are high, and disagreements could lead in an outright dismissal of the assessment attempt and the medical practitioner (Kent 2002)
Scientology: Factors Affecting Health Assessment Considered by some to be a cult and others to be a religion, albeit a controversial one, Scientology unquestionably establishes strong cultural and personal beliefs and attitudes in its members (Ogle 2010)
In general, the dietary and health practices of Scientologists are in keeping with those recommended for all individuals, with normal deviations. The religious and spiritual practices of Scientologists are not all known to those outside the Church, but are certainly highly influential in the shaping of the beliefs and attitudes that Scientologists exhibit (Peckham 1998; Bainbridge & Stark 1980)
Another organ of the church, the Religious Technology Center (RTC) is the final arbiter in doctrinal matter and is the legal custodian of all church trademarks (Church of Scientology, 2010). The religious structure of the church has many hidden dimensions and remains highly elusive to outsiders (Nikos and Castillo, 2010)
The basis of scientology is eight dynamics, which address the core issues of human survival from the perspective of man as a spirit. The eight dynamic is God, and adherents are free to interpret God according to their own understanding (Weldon, 1993)