Scientology: A load of crap!

Well, this is my creative writing entry for Litsoc Creative Writing 2009. If anyone reading this entry happens to be a follower of Scientology, then the anguish inflicted upon you as a result of this article is totally deliberate and I have only one advice for you..." Get a life dude and change your religion"......P.S. I'm so going to hell for this :-))). Anyways, jokes apart, I personally feel that the constitutional right of "freedom of religion" is as over-rated as it is misapplied. No sane person could ever grant Scientology the status of a religion much less a tax-exempt status which was granted to the Church of Scientology by the US government (They never cease to surprise me as far as insanity is concerned. Scaling new heights everyday).

Before you let your pre-conceived notions about ‘freedom of religion’ propel you into believing that all religions are equal and every man has the right to preach and practice his own religion, I would vehemently advice you to peruse through the entire article, objectively analyze it and then draw your own conclusions. Scientology is a relatively new religion conceptualized by L.Ron.Hubbard which emerged as an extension of an earlier self-help system referred to as Dianetics. Scientology preaches that humans are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. It promotes spiritual rehabilitation through a type of counseling popularly known as “auditing”. Auditing courses and related practices are only made available to members in return for specified donations. Forcing its members to shell out money in order to follows its various religious practices gives the impression of Scientology being more of a commercial institution than a religion. It has been widely criticized as a cult that attempts to financially defraud and abuse its members.

Its founder, L.Ron.Hubbard, an American science fiction writer, was a controversial public figure. He has been accused of being a pathological liar who indulges in fraudulent practices and constantly seeks to con people of their money under the garb of religion. Quoting L.Ron.Hubbard himself, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, he would start his own religion”. A blunt statement like that sheds light on the sanctity of the religion or rather the lack of it and its ulterior financial motives. Apart from that, Hubbard strongly believes in suppressing people as highlighted in one of his Scientology principles which involves falsely declaring someone as a ‘suppressive person’ and gradually ousting him from the group. Hubbard was also convicted in 1979 of conspiracy against the United States federal government for running an espionage network which skimmed millions of dollars from church accounts and transferred the funds to far-away destinations.

Coming back to the innate essence of Scientology, it propounds that souls or ‘thetans’ as coined by Scientologists reincarnate and have lived on other planets long before coming to Earth. The core of Scientology revolves around the "thetan", believed to be the individualized expression of the cosmic source, or life force, named after the Greek letter theta. The ‘thetan’ is believed to be the true identity of a person – an intrinsically good, omniscient soul capable of unlimited creativity transcending all boundaries. Scientology also proposes that these Thetans have Engrams which is a psychic scar believed to be the origin of illness. Life, according to Scientology, is all about riding oneself of these Engrams and it is attained by pursuing a path of enlightenment known as The Bridge to Total Freedom. At each stage of The Bridge, one is audited by a senior church member who hooks one up to an electropsychometer, an instrument which measures minute changes in electrical resistance through the body. The E-meter helps locate Engrams and indicates whether the concerned person has been relieved from spiritual impediment of his sins. Subsequent to completing all the stages or crossing the imaginary bridge to freedom, one becomes an Operating Thetan (OT). OTs are rumoured to be able to communicate with animals, move inanimate objects and depart from their bodies at will. With reference to the origin of Engrams, Scientologists also believe 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu dumped 13 trillion aliens from numerous planets into the Earth’s volcanoes and vaporized them by detonating hydrogen bombs. It is further believed that the deteriorated souls of these aliens continued to enter the human body implanting Engrams and faux ideas about god and psychiatry. Thus, the ultimate purpose of life is to purge oneself of these alleged Engrams. Further, when one releases an Engram, the erasure is often accompanied by yawns, tears, urine, vomiting or other excreta. Hence, it can be inferred that whenever you piss, puke or crap, you are one step closer to immortality.

All this hoopla about Engrams, galactic warlords, aliens and Thetans portrays Scientology as something out of a surreal science fiction movie as opposed to an acceptable religion. Coupled by the fact that it has financial fraud written all over it drastically quashes its credibility as a religion. That apart, judging by the antics of Tom Cruise on national television, a celebrated Scientologist, one can only conclude that this so-called religion most certainly cannot aid in the process of attaining spiritual nirvana. There is not an iota of “science” in Scientology. The terminology is just a mere ploy to appear more modern and contemporary in order to attract a bevy of people to the Scientology clan. There is absolutely no shred of evidence of the presence of any Engrams or Thetans or other vague Scientology jargon. As exemplified by its creator itself, it is simply a cock and bull story concocted by L.Ron.Hubbard to deceive gullible people and extract money out of them. Scientology’s eventual aim is to seize control of the media and government and it intends to do so by removing the “suppressive people” from society, by quarantining or extermination. Scientology is noting but a cheap science fiction story masquerading as a religion with the ultimate aim of taking control of the world. It is up to us to sieve out the facts from fiction and rid ourselves of the false belief that Scientology is a religion.