As an applied religious philosophy, Scientology focuses on
psychological technologies that people can use to make their lives
better. As such, it has very little to say about God, the afterlife or other
speculative religious ideas. Just as Scientology is focused on
humanity, so are its beliefs. Nevertheless, the Church of Scientology considers itself a religion
because of its focus on the soul and spiritual awareness and does
include some beliefs on other traditionally religious subjects.
Scientology Beliefs
Scientology includes belief in God, but offers no details or doctrine about God. In his explorations, Hubbard noted the prevalence and importance of belief in a Supreme Being to all peoples. God is therefore the Eighth Dynamic, which is also known as Infinity. Scientologists who progress to the Eighth Dynamic come to their own conclusions regarding the Supreme Being.Based on his personal research, L. Ron Hubbard concluded that a human is made up of three parts: the body, the mind and the thetan.
The body includes the brain, which is not to be confused with the mind. The purpose of the brain is to carry messages; it is likened to a switchboard.
The mind consists essentially of pictures. It is the accumulation of life experiences, memories, perceptions, decisions and conclusions.
The thetan is the soul, which is the true essence of a human being. Hubbard felt that "soul" had come to have too many meanings, so coined the term thetan based on the Greek letter theta.
The thetan can exist entirely independent of the body and the mind. Scientology teaches that, through a process called exteriorization, a thetan can leave the body but still control the body. This experience results in a person's certainty that he is not identified with his body. A person who is able to practice exteriorization is called an Operating Thetan or OT.
Scientology's ethical system is based on reason, not divine revelation. L. Ron Hubbard defined evil or unreasonable behavior (the two terms are synonymous) as that which brings about the destruction of individuals, groups, or inhibits the future of the race.
Among Hubbard's many works is a book entitled Introduction to Scientology Ethics. An overview of the fundamentals of this work is available in the Ethics and Conditions Booklet. The Scientology catalog claims these fundamentals "provide an exact means for an individual to gradiently raise his ethics level, increase his survival potential in any area of life and help others do the same. Thus ethics technology is the key tool you need to succeed in all aspects of existence."
Scientology has no rules for diet and does not prohibit smoking or drinking. However, drinking alcohol is not allowed within 24 hours of an auditing session, which would make it impossible to benefit from the service.
Scientology does not include an official belief about the afterlife. However, it reports that during auditing, a person often recalls memories of past lives and that Scientology ascribes to the idea of being born again into another body.
In Scientology doctrine, Xenu is a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. These events are known as "Incident II" or "The Wall of Fire," and the traumatic memories associated with them are known as the R6 implant. The Xenu story prompted the use of the volcano as a Scientology symbol.
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan Level III in 1967, famously warning that R6 was calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it.
