With the tragic death of John Travolta’s son in the Bahamas this week and all the craziness surrounding Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, it has raised many questions about what Scientology really is and what they believe. So, I did some research and will give you some main points about the “religion”, cult, or whatever you want to call it.

The Church of Scientology has no denominational structure.

Scientology describes itself as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others, and all of life.

One purpose of Scientology  is to become certain of one’s spiritual existence and one’s relationship to God, or the “Supreme Being.”

They believe that a human is an immortal alien spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is trapped on planet Earth in a physical body. Hubbard described these “thetans” in “The Space Opera” cosmogony.

Weirded out yet? I am.

Scientologists are taught that a series of extraterrestrial events, dubbed “space opera” incidents, ocurred before life on earth.

Scientologists also believe that humans have hidden abilities which can be unlocked.

In Scientology, the cosmic source or life force is represented by the Greek letter theta (Θ). Theta is meant to represent life or the life source, it is not part of the physical universe but it can control the universe.

So, a Greek letter can control the universe? Riiiiight.

The Bridge to Total Freedom provides the religious means whereby Scientologists use to increase their personal spiritual development based on a step by step process. The bridge is divided in two sides: “training” and “processing”. “Training’ is the religious education on the principles and practice of Scientology “auditing”; and “processing” is the actual practice of “auditing” itself.

Also, basic survival is broken down into eight dynamics. There are specifications about rebirth. There are ARC and KRC triangles, a tone scale, and rules about confidentiality and reincarnation.

I have studied world religions and I have to say, L. Ron Hubbard must have been on some nice trippy drugs when he thought up all this. People have a hard time believing there’s a God who created the universe but they believe a Greek letter can control it, there’s a space opera and we are all immortal alien beings? Wow.

[images: WENN]