Scientology Attracting the Rich in their Challenge to Christianity
As we continue with our series on the Challenges To the Christian Foundations laid down by Jesus. one of the most interesting cults/false religions is that of Scientology.
See how many of the signs of being in a cult you can find!
We have research this topic through direct quotes from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The formatting has been added for easier reading. Here is what we discovered about the group called Scientology and their challenge to Christianity.
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A. THE ORIGINS OF SCIENTOLOGY
1. The founder of Scientology
Xenu (/ˈziːnuː/ZEE-noo),[1][2][3] also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy” who, 75 million years ago, brought billions[4][5] of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs.
Official Scientology scriptures hold that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.[1][6]
These events are known within Scientology as “Incident II”,[7] and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard.
Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the R6 “implant” (past trauma)[8] was “calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it”.[8][9][10]
2. The ‘Advanced Level’ for Salvation
Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church’s secret “Advanced Technology”,[7] considered a sacred and esoteric teaching,[11] and normally only revealed to members who have contributed large amounts of money.[12]
The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story’s confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy.[13] Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.[14][15]
Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard’s notes, and the Internet.[14] In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction,[16]UFO religions,[17]gnosticism[18][19] and creation myth.[20]
The now-disembodied victims’ souls, which Hubbard called thetans, were blown into the air by the blast. They were captured by Xenu’s forces using an “electronic ribbon” (“which also was a type of standing wave“) and sucked into “vacuum zones” around the world. The hundreds of billions[5][25] of captured thetans were taken to a type of cinema, where they were forced to watch a “three-D, super colossal motion picture” for thirty-six days.
3. Thetans given the only true Information
This implanted what Hubbard termed “various misleading data”‘ (collectively termed the R6 implant) into the memories of the hapless thetans, “which has to do with God, the Devil, space opera, et cetera”.
This included all world religions, with Hubbard specifically attributing Roman Catholicism and the image of the Crucifixion to the influence of Xenu. The two “implant stations” cited by Hubbard were said to have been located on Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.[26]
B. THE DOCTRINES OF SCIENTOLOGY
1. How did the group start?
Within Scientology, the Xenu story is referred to as “The Wall of Fire” or “Incident II”.[7][8] Hubbard attached tremendous importance to it, saying that it constituted “the secrets of a disaster which resulted in the decay of life as we know it in this sector of the galaxy”.[34]
The broad outlines of the story—that 75 million years ago a great catastrophe happened in this sector of the galaxy which caused profoundly negative effects for everyone since then—are publicly admitted to lower-level Scientologists. However, the details are kept strictly confidential, at least within Scientology.
The OT III document describes how Hubbard entered the Wall of Fire but emerged alive, “probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years”.[26] He first publicly announced his “breakthrough” in Ron’s Journal 67 (RJ67), a taped lecture Hubbard recorded on September 20, 1967, to be sent to all Scientologists.[21]
According to Hubbard, his research was achieved at the cost of a broken back, knee and arm. OT III contains a warning that the R6 implant is “calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it”.[10][26] Hubbard claimed that his “tech development”—i.e. his OT materials—had neutralized this threat, creating a safe path to redemption.[8][9]
2. Reading their teachings forbidding unless having ‘higher knowledge’.
Xenu
The Church of Scientology forbade individuals from reading the OT III Xenu cosmogony without first having taken prerequisite courses.[35] Scientologists warn that reading the Xenu story without proper authorization could cause pneumonia.[35][36]
In RJ67,[21] Hubbard then alludes to the devastating effect of Xenu’s genocide:
“And it is very true that a catastrophe occurred on this planet and in the other 75 planets which formed this (Galactic) Confederacy 75 millions years ago. It has since that time been a desert, and it has been the lot of just a handful to try to push its technology up to a level where someone might adventure forward, penetrate the catastrophe and undo it. We’re well on our way to making this occur.”
3. Further events described
OT III also deals with Incident I, set four quadrillion[37] years ago. In Incident I, the unsuspecting thetan was subjected to a loud snapping noise followed by a flood of luminescence, then saw a chariot followed by a trumpeting cherub. After a loud set of snaps, the thetan was overwhelmed by darkness.
This is described as the implant offering the gateway to this universe, meaning that these traumatic memories are what separate thetans from their static (natural, godlike) state.
4. Foundations of the physical and mental ailments
Hubbard uses the existence of body thetans to explain many of the physical and mental ailments of humanity which, he says, prevent people from achieving their highest spiritual levels.[8]
OT III tells the Scientologist to locate body thetans and release them from the effects of Incidents I and II by auditing them.[8] This is accomplished in solo auditing, where the Scientologist holds both cans of an E-meter in one hand and asks questions as an auditor.
5. Objections by ‘their church’
The Scientologist is directed to find a cluster of body thetans, address it telepathically as a cluster and take first the cluster then each individual member of the cluster through Incident II, then Incident I if needed.[8] Hubbard warns that this is a painstaking procedure, and that OT levels IV to VII are necessary to continue the long process of dealing with one’s body thetans.
6. Denial of Jesus Christ and His death
The Church of Scientology has objected to the Xenu story being used to paint Scientology as a mere science fiction fantasy[38] (see Space opera in Scientology doctrine). Hubbard’s statements concerning the R6 implant have been a source of contention. Critics and some Christians state that Hubbard’s statements regarding R6 prove that Scientology doctrine is incompatible with Christianity,[39][40] despite the Church’s statements to the contrary.[41] In “Assists”, Hubbard says:[24]
“Everyman is then shown to have been crucified so don’t think it’s an accident that this crucifixion, they found out that this applied. Somebody somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC, found some pieces of R6, and I don’t know how they found it, either by watching madmen or something. But since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity. The man on the Cross. There is no Christ but the man on the cross is shown as Everyman.”
C. HOW TO ACHEIVE SALVATION
1. Achieving truth by advanced teachings
By applying dianetics, every single person can reach Clear.[1]
A person is said to be a Clear when he “no longer has his own reactive mind and therefore suffers none of the ill effects that the reactive mind can cause.” A Clear is said to be “at cause over” (in control of) their “mental energy” (their thoughts), and able to think clearly even when faced with the very situation that in earlier times caused them difficulty.
The next level of spiritual development is that of an Operating Thetan. A person who has not reached a state of Clear is called a “pre-clear.”[2]
2. Understanding ‘dianetics’ brings complete control of the mind
Dianetics states that a person’s awareness is influenced by the stimulus-response of the reactive mind. Achieving the state of Clear means a person has overcome the reactive mind and is in complete control of his analytical mind. According to Hubbard:
“A Clear is a being who no longer has his own reactive mind, and therefore suffers none of the ill effects the reactive mind can cause. The Clear has no engrams which, when re-stimulated, throw out the correctness of his computations by entering hidden and false data.”[3]
It is estimated that the cost of reaching the Clear state in Scientology is $128,000.[4]
D. THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY’S POSITION
1. They are Reluctant to show their teachings
In its public statements, the Church of Scientology has been reluctant to allow any mention of Xenu. A passing mention by a trial judge in 1997 prompted the Church’s lawyers to have the ruling sealed, although this was reversed.[52] In the relatively few instances in which it has acknowledged Xenu, Scientology has stated the story is a religious writing that can be seen as the equivalent of the Old Testament—in which miraculous events are described that are unlikely to have occurred in real life, assuming true meaning only after years of study. They complain of critics using it to paint the religion as a science-fiction fantasy.[38]
2. Hidden the truth of what they really believe.
Senior members of the Church of Scientology have several times publicly denied or minimized the importance of the Xenu story, but others have admitted its existence. In 1995, Scientology lawyer Earl Cooley hinted at the importance of Xenu in Scientology doctrine by stating that “thousands of articles are written about Coca-Cola, and they don’t print the formula for Coca-Cola“.[53] Scientology has many graduated levels through which one can progress.
Many who remain at lower levels in the church are unaware of much of the Xenu story which is first revealed on Operating Thetan level three, or “OT III”.[26][54] Because the information imparted to members is to be kept secret from others who have not attained that level, the member must publicly deny its existence when asked. OT III recipients must sign an agreement promising never to reveal its contents before they are given the manila envelope containing the Xenu knowledge.[54][55]
It is knowledge so dangerous, members are told, that anyone learning this material before he is ready could become afflicted with pneumonia.[35]
3. Court cases to find the truth
Religious Technology Center director Warren McShane testified in a 1995 court case that the Church of Scientology receives a significant amount of its revenue from fixed donations paid by Scientologists to study the OT materials.[56] McShane said that Hubbard’s work “may seem weird” to those that have not yet completed the prior levels of coursework in Scientology.[56]
McShane said the story had never been secret, although maintaining there were nevertheless trade secrets contained in OT III. McShane discussed the details of the story at some length and specifically attributed the authorship of the story to Hubbard.[57]
When John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York, was asked about the Xenu story in the September 9, 2007, edition of the Daily Telegraph, he said “That’s not what we believe”.[58]
When asked directly about the Xenu story by Ted Koppel on ABC‘s Nightline, Scientology leader David Miscavige said that he was taking things Hubbard said out of context.[21] However, in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Mike Rinder, the director of the church’s Office of Special Affairs, said that “It is not a story, it is an auditing level”, when asked about the validity of the Xenu story.[55]
4. BBC and ABC News Investigate Scientology
In a BBC Panorama programme that aired on May 14, 2007, senior Scientologist Tommy Davis interrupted when celebrity members were asked about Xenu, saying:
“None of us know what you’re talking about. It’s loony. It’s weird.”[59]
In March 2009, Davis was interviewed by investigative journalist Nathan Baca for KESQ-TV and was again asked about the OT III texts.[60] Davis told Baca
“I’m familiar with the material”, and called it “the confidential scriptures of the Church“.[60]
In an interview on ABC News Nightline, October 23, 2009,[61] Davis walked off the set when Martin Bashir asked him about Xenu. He told Bashir,
“Martin, I am not going to discuss the disgusting perversions of Scientology beliefs that can be found now commonly on the Internet and be put in the position of talking about things, talking about things that are so fundamentally offensive to Scientologists to discuss. … It is in violation of my religious beliefs to talk about them.”
When Bashir repeated a question about Xenu, Davis pulled off his microphone and left the set.[61]
In November 2009 the Church of Scientology representative from New Zealand, Mike Ferris, was asked in a radio interview about Xenu.[62] The radio host asked,
“So what you’re saying is, Xenu is a part of the religion, but something that you don’t want to talk about”.
Ferris responded, “Sure”.[62] Ferris acknowledged that Xenu “is part of the esoterica of Scientology“.[62]
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How many signs of a cult or a false religion can you find in this report from the direct quotes from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia? This report has been adapted from the Wikipedia report on Scientology.
Again, we as Jesus Followers must know our Bible and the basic teachings of our belief in order to understand those who are caught in a false world of illusion.
Please continue to pray for those who seek Truth that they may find Him!
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: Scientology
Filed under: Challenges to the Christian Faith
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