The original concept of "Scientology" was to use a scientific approach to try and understand life... instead of an emotional, superstitious or dogmatic approach. Pretty simple.

A year earlier Hubbard had discovered that mental problems (such as self-doubt and depression) were caused by previous bad experiences. And he found that simply having a person recall the memory over and over discharged the harmful influence. Why people can’t explain these things, I’ll never know.

Anyway, fixing the mind was Dianetics which means “through mind” (from Greek). Since the scientific approached worked, Hubbard thought maybe he could go further and use it to explain some of the common issues that gave people trouble. That worked too, and about a year later he announced Scientology.

Science hits soul

Interestingly, it was just this scientific approach that revealed the presence of a powerful single-point energy source within the area of each person’s head. That turned out to be the human soul and woops! suddenly Scientology was into the province of religion.

Further research indicated the person was their soul. The idea that a person is their body proved out to be wrong (sorry!). The spirit is eternal and at death simply moves off or hangs around the room or attends the funeral and eventually gets bored and then goes and selects another body in a maternity ward somewhere. The soul doesn’t need eyes or ears. This is what “sees” pictures in your mind, aka the “mind’s eye.” The mind’s eye is you.

On the up side, it’s nice to know you’ll have another chance to live again after you die. Most people would like to have another chance. The really cool thing from a practical standpoint is that the processes Hubbard developed increase IQ and result in specific abilities. To my knowledge, nothing else that does that. My own IQ went up 18 points. In school I was always taught that was impossible. The specific abilities available from Scientology include,

• Knowing you won't get any worse
• Ability to communicate freely with anyone on any subject
• Ability to recognize the source of problems and make them vanish
• Relief from the sufferings and hostilities of life
• Freedom from the upsets of the past and ability to face the future
• Moving out of fixed conditions into the ability to do new things
• The ability to be a well and happy human being
• Ability to confront the past
• The return of self-determinism
• Freedom from overwhelm

Déjà vu

Love and friendship and animosities develop through multiple lifetimes so some of us go “way back” in terms of past relationships. This explains stuff like “love at first sight,” deja vu, and child proteges.

On the down side, if you were really looking forward to sitting on a cloud somewhere and singing hymns to someone on a thrown for 99 quintillion-zillion years... “Okay, Hymn #112, once again, this time like you mean it...” huh, that isn’t the way it works.

That’s not to say there’s something wrong with “heaven” and “hell” as metaphors. Pretty accurate as metaphors. One need only visit the nearest state prison to see hell or experience love to visit the other place.

Turf Wars

Back in 1950 some people instantly hated Dianetics because they were afraid it might put them out of  business. Psychiatry has always said “the mind is very mysterious.” So they really hated Dianetics from the start and a turf war erupted.

They caused a lot of problems and put Scientology on the defensive. No doubt it was a major reason why Scientology became a church.

But after about 40 years everyone found their world wasn’t going to end and actually there was plenty of room for everyone. Psychiatry and drug companies could operate side by side with Scientology in the world and no one was going to go out of business. Why? Because there are people who really believe drugs and psychiatry are answers. Those people will never be interested in Dianetics or Scientology.

The Birds

So the turf wars finally died down and everyone went home... except David Miscavige. He never figured out the war was over. He goes on battling imaginary enemies. Like the lady in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds who keeps batting at seagulls long after they’re gone. Coo-coo.

That’s why we want to get David Miscavige out of there. Besides being a pecker, he’s dishonest. So what we want to do is free Scientology from this little Hitler.

You may or may not ever be interested in what Dianetics or Scientology can do for you. What we want to do is keep it available and keep it free so it’s always there should you ever need it. Pretty simple.

It’s not a religion!

Scientology is not a religion in the western sense; we don’t worship God. So if that's your definition of religion, Scientology is not that. It's a spiritual philosophy.

Hating Scientology or fighting Scientology is as stupid as Scientology fighting psychiatrists. Or David Miscavige fighting Scientologists. Actually, David Miscavige fighting his own people is a lot stupider than some people hating Scientology.

Science fiction

Scientology is not perfect. Never was, never will be. And there are several main criticisms that you always hear. What makes Scientology valid is that the techniques work. When your IQ goes up 18 points like mine did, you pretty much don't care about its imperfections. It worked and that's more that I could say for everything else I studied or tried before Scientology. So that's why most Scientologists are so doggedly devoted to the subject even when the leader, David Miscavige, is a complete brain-fried flipped-out punk.

A lot of people criticize Hubbard. Contrary to the phony image that Hubbard was "perfect" as presented by lunatic David Miscavige, Hubbard was just a normal guy with as many flaws and mistakes as you and me. Personally, I don't care that Ron wasn't perfect or that he made mistakes. One has to weigh the good with the bad and when you do that, he was a decent human being. I don't expect perfection of anyone.

Most of the criticisms you hear about Hubbard are efforts to discredit him on a personal basis, rather than rejections of his findings. Personally I've investigated many schools of thought. None of it worked for me. Except Scientology. That works beautifully. What is really important to me is does it work? That's my only test.

So I don't care what his profession was or like every other human he wasn't perfect. I just don't care.

Everyone’s different

Some people like Scientology. Some people like Christianity. Some people like pharmaceuticals. Some people like psychiatry. Some people like chocolate. Some people like whale blubber. I don’t like whale blubber. But I respect your right to like it if that’s your thing.

It’s a big planet. There’s plenty of room for all of us to live in peace. That is objective one. The second objective is finding out that we can actually help each other. I’m sure that’s waaaaaaay down the road. Whatever. The only thing none of us have room for in the world is criminality. Criminals need to go to jail and that’s where David Miscavige belongs. Take care.

Written by Thoughtful

 
Dianetics = study of the mind, dianoētikos ‘relating to thought’ + -ics.
Scientology = study of knowledge (from scire ‘know’ and -logie ‘denoting a subject of study’).