Scientology and the never ending treadmill.
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I thought we would move away from Christianity and Buddhism for the time being and examine some of the more kooky and interesting religions out there.
Scientology is a 'religion' that has many celebrity adherents. The most famous Scientologists are probably Tom Cruise and John Travolta. John Travolta also starred in a movie called 'Battlefield Earth' based on novels written by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.
Some of the central tenents of Scientology include:
A person is an immortal spiritual being (termed a thetan) who possesses a mind and a body.
The thetan has lived through many past lives and will continue to live beyond the death of the body.
Through the Scientology process of "auditing," one can free oneself of "engrams" and "implants" to reach the state of "Clear," and after that, the state of "Operating Thetan." Each state is said to represent recovering the native spiritual abilities of the individual, and to confer dramatic mental and physical benefits.
A person is basically good, but becomes "aberrated" by moments of pain and unconsciousness in his or her life.
What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. No beliefs should be forced as "true" on anyone. Thus, the tenets of Scientology are expected to be tested and seen to either be true or not by Scientology practitioners.
Psychiatry and psychology are destructive and abusive practices.
They also have other weird beliefs which I won't get into for the time being. It involves space aliens, galactic battles and all sorts of bad science fiction.
The interesting points I want to address are the spiritual abilities that come with the state of "Clear" and "Operating Thetan".
In some ways, I think this alludes to buddhist concepts. Reaching the states of "Clear" and becoming an "Operating Thetan" is something like attaining enlightenment.
"The benefits of going Clear, according to Hubbard, were dramatic. A Clear would have no compulsions, repressions, psychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as fifty points. He also claimed that atheism, "zealotism" (by which he seems to have meant fundamentalism) and homosexuality could be "cured" through Dianetics, if they were caused by engrams. He further believed that widespread application of Dianetics would result in "A world without insanity, without criminals and without war,".
According to a Scientology Journal called "The Auditor," the total number of "Clears" as of May 2006 stands at 50,311.
Of course, the problem here is that these powers don't actually exist. Many of the people who became "clear" questioned why they did not have near perfect recall and other 'super' abilities that they were supposed to have obtained.
So Hubbard created states beyond "Clear" called "Operating Thetan". As an OT, you have godlike powers.
It is called, in Scientology, “Operating Thetan.” The definition of the state of Operating Thetan is “knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time.”
There appear to be 15 OT levels. Currently, I believe the highest OT level people have achieved is OT VIII, though perhaps some might have reached OT IX.
At some point one is to eventually reach the state of Cleared Theta Clear, a godlike state which Hubbard describes this way:
"A thetan who is completely rehabilitated and can do everything a thetan should do, such as move MEST and control others from a distance, or create his own universe; a person who is able to create his own universe or, living in the MEST universe is able to create illusions perceivable by others at will, to handle mest universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his friends interested in existence".
Using those powers, Scientology claimed to have helped bring down the Berlin Wall.
"On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, marking the end of the Cold War. Scientology took full credit for this event. I was at the Scientology quarterly sales event where Scientology management made the announcement that the Berlin Wall fell solely because the Freewinds, whose maiden voyage was June 6, 1988, was delivering OT 8 (the highest level of Scientology spiritual technology) and that "real" OTs were finally coming off the production line. The actual mechanics of this accomplishment were unclear. Did it mean that "real OTs" were capable of infusing the environment with so much "theta" that communism just melted in its face, or did it mean that OTs twitched their collective noses and the wall just came tumbling down?" - http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/essays/literati/00-sola.htm
So here's the trick. People must realise that these powers don't exist. If Scientology's goal is a world without war, and they have all these superpowered peopel running around, why is there still war?
So what you do is you create a climb with no end. Dangle a 'next level' that is always out of reach and make the person think "just one more level".
And just keep collecting money. -
But not exactly.. from what is written it sounds like some psychological or supposedly supernatural state, but nothing about realisation of ultimate reality.Originally posted by Phaze:In some ways, I think this alludes to buddhist concepts. Reaching the states of "Clear" and becoming an "Operating Thetan" is something like attaining enlightenment.
The definition is 'An Operating Thetan (OT) is able to control matter, energy, space and time rather than being controlled by these things. As a result, an OT is able to be at cause over life.'
Scientology sounds pretty weird to me. -
Scientology is weirder, and scarier that you know.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:But not exactly.. from what is written it sounds like some psychological or supposedly supernatural state, but nothing about realisation of ultimate reality.
The definition is 'An Operating Thetan (OT) is able to control matter, energy, space and time rather than being controlled by these things. As a result, an OT is able to be at cause over life.'
Scientology sounds pretty weird to me.
They have been known to stalk opponents and actively run programs to discredit and destroy their critics.
Their 'secret beliefs' are basically bad science fiction.
"In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (also Xemu), pronounced ['zi.nu:], was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions[1] of aliens to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to wreak chaos and havoc today.
These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The story of Xenu is part of Scientology beliefs in extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and founder of Scientology.
Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that R6 was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it." The Xenu story was the start of the use of the volcano as a common symbol of Scientology and Dianetics from 1968 to the present day.[citation needed]
Criticism of the Church of Scientology often includes details of the Xenu story. The Church has tried to keep Xenu confidential[2] and critics say that revealing the story is in the public interest, given the high prices charged for OT III, part of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology" doctrines taught only to members who have already contributed large amounts of money to the organization.[3]
The Church avoids making 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 both copyright and trade secrecy. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public, largely via the internet." -
Although this does sound rude, but I must say, Scientiology is a laugh.
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Sounds like star wars turn badOriginally posted by Phaze:Scientology is weirder, and scarier that you know.
They have been known to stalk opponents and actively run programs to discredit and destroy their critics.
Their 'secret beliefs' are basically bad science fiction.
"In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (also Xemu), pronounced ['zi.nu:], was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions[1] of aliens to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to wreak chaos and havoc today.
These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The story of Xenu is part of Scientology beliefs in extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and founder of Scientology.
Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that R6 was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it." The Xenu story was the start of the use of the volcano as a common symbol of Scientology and Dianetics from 1968 to the present day.[citation needed]
Criticism of the Church of Scientology often includes details of the Xenu story. The Church has tried to keep Xenu confidential[2] and critics say that revealing the story is in the public interest, given the high prices charged for OT III, part of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology" doctrines taught only to members who have already contributed large amounts of money to the organization.[3]
The Church avoids making 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 both copyright and trade secrecy. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public, largely via the internet."
Anybody else also find it suspicious that 'L. Ron Hubbard' the founder of Scientology is also a 'science fiction writer'
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Yea.. $100000 needed before reaching Clear.. or have I got it wrongOriginally posted by Phaze:And just keep collecting money.
p.s. just finished reading ur posts just now... find it really.. yeah, 'weird and scary'