Scientology
Excerpt
from a study by Dario Sabbatucci
Professor of History of Religions,
University of Rome,
Rome, Italy
Posted on www.cultawarenessnetwork.org
May
2004
Scientology is a "prophetic" religion, born out of
the teachings of a charismatic founder, L.
Ron Hubbard, who holds the place that Gautama, the Buddha, has in
Buddhism, Christ in Christianity and Muhammad in the Islamic religion (the
three great religions of today). Unlike Christ and Muhammed, Mr. Hubbard
did not claim godhood or that he was visited with divine revelation. Like
Gautama, Mr. Hubbard claimed to be a man who had discovered a path to
spiritual enlightenment, salvation and freedom.
L. Ron Hubbard published in 1950 the successful book Dianetics: The Modern Science of
Mental Health. The book promised "self-achievement" (or achievement of
"static life") against the frustrations of the exterior world (chaos),
with axioms supported by socio-anthropological, historical-religious,
philosophical-religious arguments. It is a fact that this book's success
generated a religion, Scientology, in which Dianetics is now subsumed. One
should not be fooled by the scientific premises the name "Scientology"
derives from. It is a modern religion which, just by virtue of being
modern (or fit for the people of today), introduces itself as scientific.
In this regard I will cite two similar cases, on whose religious
consistency there are no doubts: Bahaism in the Islamic realm, and
Christian Science in the Christian realm.
Bahaism started during the last century; it took its name from the title
of its founder, Baha'Ullah("Splendor of God"), who had already been a
follower of Babism, a religious movement in Islamic Persia. Among the most
important soteriological propositions of Bahaism is the unity between
science and religion.
Christian Science was founded around the end of the last century by the
American prophet Mary Baker Eddy. This religion originates with
psychosomatic medicine. As in the case of Mr. Hubbard's popular book on
"mental health," Christian Science also started with a popular book
written by Eddy and published in 1875 as Science and Health. "Health" is
the same thing as "salvation" for these prophet authors who, in this way,
more or less resume the Latin concept of "salus."
The first Scientology religious community was founded as a church in 1954,
with the name Church of Scientology of California. In this way the
religion perfected itself, organizing itself on the Christian
ecclesiastical model. The Churches of Scientology spread in various towns
in the English-speaking world (Canada, Australia, South Africa, England
and the United States); as well as to France, Germany, Denmark, Holland,
Italy and Sweden. Other European countries (Belgium, Austria, Ireland) and
extra-European countries (Japan, Korea, India, Israel, Mexico) were
reached by Scientology missions and churches.
In Christian culture the whole of the doctrines concerning the basic
religious values takes on the name of theology, because everything is
related to the knowledge of God and his Will. Here, the term and concept
of Scientology substitutes for "theology." Instead of being the study
(-logy) of God (theo-), we have the study (-logy) of knowledge (sciento-).
In both cases, though, the real aim of knowledge is the absolute; in fact
this "knowledge" is absolute. Although it seems to require study and
application, it is spiritual and transcends empiric knowledge of the
physical universe, even though it is believed to be able to make an
intervention in it.
The doctrinal content of Scientology is born out of the tendency to look
inward, which can also be found in the Christian research of "God in
yourself", which is typical of mystical insurgences. A proposition of the
Church of Scientology -- expressed in its constitutive act in California
-- is that: "The best proof of the existence of God is the God that man
finds inside himself." However, the explicit and implicit model of the
Scientology inward search is the process of the Vedic religion, which
started with the meditation on the Upanishad.
The Upanishad model is devised in the following way: the substance of the
universe, Brahma, identifies itself with the substance of man, atman; so
man can contact the universe through the acknowledgement of his own atman,
without turning to the gods who, as in any polytheistic religion, are the
universe itself in its various forms and aspects. In Scientology, in the
place of the atman we find the thetan in the function of "immutable
essence" which transcends any contingent form.
2. The notion of thetan is basic for the Scientology faith, as much as the
notion of soul is for the Christian faith. But because of the need to
distinguish the concept of thetan from that of the soul, Scientology
created the new word, thetan, as more fitting for a new religion.
The new word answers to two opposing needs: 1) to achieve a complete
renewal, free from any semantics; thus a non-existent word, without any
meaning in any existing language; 2) the limiting of the arbitrary of the
invention, so that the new word would not be without a meaning even if it
didn't have a meaning in the existing languages. In sum, it was wanted to
give the new word a necessity which would overcome the contingency of
artifice. The Greek letter theta, which by itself does not mean anything,
was chosen. It is also the first letter of Theos (God) and of Thymos
(soul) and has been chosen as the root for a word which phonically is
similar to the Indian atman.
The morphological connection between atman and thetan, which we would
objectively judge as due to the derivation of the second term from the
first, is instead viewed by Scientology as an Indian anticipation of the
Hubbardian concept; so that we find in the Scientology books: "The Eternal
Indestructible Self (Atman) in the Upanishad is a precocious anticipation
of the Scientological concept of thetan."
3. Scientology follows the Upanishad model with the aim of looking inward
to find a correct relationship between self and the universe: "Little by
little, while the thetan progresses in the knowledge about himself, his
ability to relate with the universal forces (dynamics) operating on the
level of becoming (as opposed to the level of being, where the thetan
becomes recognizable) increases."
The Dynamics are eight and they are the urges toward survival of the
indivudual as oneself; through sex and the family; the group (extending
from the community to nationality); mankind; life forms (including animals
and plants); the physical universe; the spiritual universe (symbolized by
the letter Theta, as in the thetan, or spiritual being;and the Supreme
Being.
4. From the relationship between the thetan and the eight dynamics, there
are psychosomatic, ethical, parascientific and ritual consequences. In
Scientology terms, the relationship is understood as the reduction of the
chaos to the orderly reality constituted by the thetan. We could
understand it all in historic-religious terms, finding the typical
function of any religion in conferring a metahistorical value to the
historical realities. Here, as elsewhere, the object is to overcome with
the metahistorical "being" the chaotic historical "becoming" -- history
itself, seen as a personal history, national history, the history of
mankind, natural history, supernatural history (the creation of the world,
the action of the Creator, his intervention on the created). All these
"histories" trap and destroy the individual who does not know how to
orient himself (and orient them) because the thetan has lost awareness of
himself. But when the thetan has reached his full awareness, everything is
in order again, with these consequences:
Psychosomatic consequences: The thetan precipitates mental and physical
health, giving the best possible direction to the activity of the body and
the psyche.
Ethics: The thetan directs family relationships, along with social and
generically human relationships.
Scientific: The thetan illuminates scientific and technological research
in all fields. Apart from the technical and scientific production, it also
favors artistic and literary production. The teacher Hubbard is exalted
both as a writer and as a scientist, who was especially talented in seamanship,
photography, music, mineralogy,
agronomy and communication systems.
The full text of this article can been read here:Scientology Its
Historical- Morphological Frame
More Information about Scientology
The
Church of Scientology
Scientology
(CESNUR)
Church of
Scientology - The Foundation for Religious Freedom
Scientology Effective
Solutions
Guardian
Unlimited | Special reports | Scientology
Scientology . a
Map to Self Fulfillment
Experts
on Scientology Answer Questions
Columbia
Encyclopedia Entry on Scientology
What is
Scientology?
Church of Scientology
International European Public Affairs and Human Rights Office
EUpolitix
- Scientology
ePolitix
- Who is L. Ron Hubbard?
Scientology sito Italiano
