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u/freezoneandproud · 1 pointr/scientology

We're talking about two different things, here -- or at least two aspects of it. One is the acceptability of an employer pushing its belief system on its employees (particularly when those belief systems are "faith based"); the other is whether/when that applies to the CofS or the members who are themselves employers.

Let's start with the first piece, which is the "rights" of an employee. I'm thinking of the many times I have worked for a large company that got into a Management Thing Of The Month Club, whether it was "Quality Circles" or Agile development or "business process re-engineering." If the boss says you're going to take the course, and that this is the way we do things around here... that's how it works. If you disagree with its premise or practice, you could bitch about it, or be insubordinate, but eventually (a) you do it anyway (b) you go to work somewhere where you don't have to endure such silliness (c) you give it a try and decide it's useful after all or (d) you hold your breath until the Management moves on to another fad. (If indeed it actually is; I'm a serious proponent of Agile, for instance.)

Note that some of these management objectives do have faith at their core, at least in practices such as "we're closed on Sunday so you can pray" or choosing franchisees who participate in group prayers. While I've been lucky enough to avoid such companies (they also tend to have crappy pay), I have known people to work in "Christian companies," and even if such businesses cannot legally discriminate in hiring... well, you're probably not going to last long unless you put up with the "Thanks to Jesus" commentary. If you took a job at such a firm and their employment contract says, "We apply biblical management principles," then you know it ahead of time, and you have the freedom to not accept the job.

> You could claim that parts of Leviticus are not part of the religious teachings of Christianity, being that it is a "book of law" and not a book regarding the sacrifice of Jesus, but its part of the "holy scripture" and thus it is inseparable from the religious teachings of Christianity.

A better analogy is the Talmud. The bible is "the word of god," but the Talmud is interpretations by men. It's possible to consider yourself Jewish without following the Talmud -- and that's pretty much what Reform Jews do. (It was the Talmud, for instance, that interpreted, "Do not eat the calf in its mothers milk" as the complex laws of Kashrut.)
Now, is WISE part of Scientology? I don't think so. It's based on the Green Volumes, sure. But it isn't the Green Volumes, any more than Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World isn't part of the bible... though he sure refers to it a lot. (I haven't read the book in 30 or 40 years, and I recall it as being good sales advice... and also very Christian.) "Inspired by," sure. "Aligned with." Absolutely. Does that make the advice less valuable, if it's true...? And if it's not, I don't care where it came from.

If someone accepts a job that uses WISE management techniques, and is open about doing so -- which seems to be the case here -- then I can't see how they are being forced to adopt a religion.

u/Ted_Witwer · 1 pointr/scientology

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion

Page 181:

'Originally conceived of in the 1960s by Charles and Ava Berner, Scientologists and teachers in California, "study technology.' was co-opted and launched by Hubbard as his own during a series of lectures he delivered at Saint Hill in 1960. Over the years, it would become Scientology's main form of indoctrination and a central facet of the church's ongoing strategy to use what, in a mainstream context, might seem valuable, or even progressive,* to draw people deeper into Scientology's alternative universe. It was based on three principles: students learn at their own pace, use physical examples — pictures, marbles, or clay models — to help work out complex concepts, and need to focus intensely on vocabulary, never skipping an unfamiliar word without looking it up in the dictionary. Anyone who wanted to move up the Bridge was required to master study technology, which was defined to Scientologists as a method of 'learning how to learn."

At the Dallas mission, students busied themselves with studying what seemed to be ordinary concepts like affinity or communication, and then with modeling them in clay, a process known as "clay demo". To make sure they understood every Avoid and concept they read, they were instructed in a process known as 'word clearing,' which entails relearning the definitions of even basic words, such as a or on. There are nine distinct types of word clearing, some done with an E-meter, some without; the most rigorous is called "Method 9," or M9. This required students to work with a partner, reading aloud from a book or, more often, from Hubbard's policies, in alternating paragraphs. Each time one partner blinked, twitched, yawned, or simply mispronounced a word, the other was required to stop, yell "Flunk!," and instruct the person to go back and find the word he or she didn't fully grasp, look it up, and then use it in sentences until the partner felt the confusion had been "cleared." Then the partners would resume reading aloud. Some critics of Scientology maintain that study tech, particularly its word-clearing and clay-demo processes, is harmful, as it essentially breaks down the entire semantic and thought structure of the individual, reducing a person to an almost childlike state. Lisa, however, loved her Scientology studies. She felt smarter, more competent. To her friends, she expressed a sense of being in control for the very first time in her life. Scientology was an adventure, and the people she met through the church were bright, friendly, easy to talk to, and united in the sense of being on a mission of self-discovery. "Nobody else that [Lisa] knew of with the exception of the woman that she worked with was involved in Scientology," said Carol Hawk. "Her family was not aware of what Scientology was ... and to be honest, I'm not sure Lisa was either. At the point, she was very young, and she was very excited about the process of learning about it, and feeling like she was doing something for herself!

Lisa began spending long hours at the mission, forgoing personal pastimes like country-western dancing, once her favorite activity. She stopped drinking and smoking pot; she also left off attending parties and family functions. Her vocabulary changed. People were "terminals". Cars, houses, clothes, jewelry, and other physical or material goods were "MEST" — matter, energy, space, and time. A person with a positive attitude was "uptone". Someone who worked hard and did well was "upstat." She was a 'thetan, and her life was not singular — she had lived many lifetimes, she informed her old friends.

Lisa's odd behavior worried Hawk. "I would say, 'Who are these people, these auditors. They're not psychologists, they're not doctors ... what happens if you're in this auditing session and this person who has no formal training gets you to a place that you can't handle?

But Lisa was sanguine. "Oh, they know how to handle any kind of situation. They know exactly the right questions to ask."

"It got to the point where we weren't really communicating because you are just kind of looking at her thinking, 'What are you talking about?'" Hawk recalled. One by one, friends drifted away. By 1984, virtually everyone left in Lisa McPherson's life was a Scientologist.'

u/r271answers · 0 pointsr/scientology

What you have heard is a likely combination of misinformation, misunderstandings, and out of context information with a dash of truth thrown in for believability (plus some stuff that so weird you can't make it up). I suggest you start with one of these books (in order of objectivity):

  • The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion by Dr. Hugh Urban. This one is by a religious studies professor and is by far the most objective. He covers the history of the church, its basic beliefs and practices, and controversies and does an amazing job of putting things into context.

  • Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. This guy is a journalist and did a pretty good job of staying objective. He chose some of the more sensationalist topics I think but still covered them more-or-less fairly. I was actually surprised that this book was more objective than I was expecting.

  • Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman. Another journalist's take on Scientology. Reitman was a bit heavier on the sensationalist stuff and didn't quite "get" the context for some aspects of Scientology but she still did a pretty good job.

    > allows it's members to attack critics

    The video you probably saw recently isn't attacking a "critic". While I don't believe he should be harassed at all, this is a guy who was a top executive that left, wrote some books that makes the rest of top management looks like total assholes, and basically wants to reform the whole movement from the outside. Normal critics, members, and ex-members don't get treated like this. No one is going to knock on your door for posting critical stuff on reddit, for example.

    > No one person's religion is "the right way"

    This is one of Scientology's core moral values - "Respect the Religious Beliefs of Others"

    > the rich are going to get more rich in this religion

    not really, not many people are making a lot of money from it even toward the top. It's mostly going into bank accounts, real estate, buildings, improvements of services, and other churchy things. The one guy at the very top lives a pretty CEO-like lifestyle but I doubt many others are getting rich other than the organization itself - and I'd argue that even it isn't super rich. Things like the setup ot Bridge Publications, the church's publishing arm, cost a huge amount of money.

    > put those funds back into the fucking community, instead of wasting it on new churches, make new homes and schools for the poor

    Then donate to organizations that build homes and schools instead of a church. The aims of a church are to further the spread the religion. Churches that build schools and houses are usually doing so with spreading their religion as their real agenda. There are plenty of secular non-profit organizations that build homes and schools for the poor as their primary concern that tend to be much better at it.

    Its also worth pointing out that donations to the Church of Scientology are typically not outright donations. They are almost always for some service or material good, such as a book or lecture series on CD. There isn't really a concept of 'tithing' in Scientology and indeed the idea of getting something directly back when you give someone money is kind of part of the culture of the church.
u/RachelRTR · 3 pointsr/scientology

Read Inside Scientology and Jenna Miscavige's (The niece of the current leader David Miscavige) Beyond Belief. I was curious and recently read these and they blew my mind. How this is still happening in the U.S. is insane. I would recommend Inside Scientology first to get a background on all of their beliefs and terminology. They have their own jargon that is incomprehensible to anyone not in the group. Jenna's story tells about her life growing up inside the Sea Org and how she had to escape. Before reading this I had no idea that they were holding people captive and using child labor. It is a very interesting subject to learn about, especially since no one ever talks about it.

u/Alanzos_Blog · -1 pointsr/scientology

If you picture Jon Atack in priestly robes, standing at an altar, preaching with his arms waving in the air at a Big Tent Anti-Scientology Hootenanny, you will have an accurate picture of who he really is.

He is not a legitimate critic of Scientology because he is not capable of telling the truth about it.

What is the truth about Scientology?

BOTH the good and the bad.

Jon Atack can only preach the bad. He is not capable of presenting the good.

His book, where it sticks to the facts, is very valuable for a person just getting out of the Church. It gives you vital information that they withheld from you as a Scientologist.

But beyond that, his preaching about Scientology leads to a dead end if you never move beyond it and start thinking for yourself again.

Jon Atack's preaching on Tony Ortega's blog is not valuable for anyone seeking to live with the truth about Scientology.

Alanzo

u/derrhurrderp · 21 pointsr/scientology

>I am a Sea Org member...

I’m very sorry to hear that. Here’s some great Study Tech to check out: https://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Scientology-Insiders-Celebrity-Spirituality-ebook/dp/B075MB8WKC

u/zjamison1 · 1 pointr/scientology

https://www.amazon.com/What-Scientology-L-Ron-Hubbard/dp/1573181226

Both stores I visited had 15-35 copies of this book in paperback in virtually identical condition.

u/rosalina2255 · 1 pointr/scientology

For years, Michelle LeClair, 45, was a prominent member of the Church of Scientology. She claims to have donated an estimated $5 million to the Church and claims to have acted as a spokesperson when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had a baby. In her new memoir, Perfectly Clear, LeClair, a mother of four, says the Church targeted and humiliated her for being gay when she came out, ultimately leading to her defection. The Church denies her claims, telling ELLE.com they're "pure fiction."

u/neonnoodle · 21 pointsr/scientology

I'm sorry, this is more than just a few sentences, but it's the simplest (but most complete) explanation I can manage:


Scientology began in the 1950s as a mode of self-improvement therapy called Dianetics, which was invented by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is a series of visualization techniques where two partners do a form of guided meditation through painful memories, aided by an "E-meter," or electro-galvanometer, which practitioners say can detect stressful thoughts.

As Dianetics became popular and the public swarmed to pay for lessons, training, books and seminars, Hubbard regrouped and reformed his original organization into something more like a system of franchises. Individual Scientology centers could sell therapeutic sessions (called "auditing"), books, training, etc., and send money back to the central office. These individual centers (called "orgs") also took on volunteers who would trade hours of work for auditing or courses. According to Scientology, these philosophies and techniques (called "technology") can save the world from all ills, so they encourage people to proselytize.

Hubbard continued to write higher and higher levels of teachings, which devotees could sign up to learn (for a fee). Hubbard also demanded intense loyalty from his followers. Because Scientology was taking in a lot of money, Hubbard moved in the 1960s to establish it as a church, which in the USA does not pay taxes. Thus was born the Church of Scientology.

Hubbard's tight control of the church, his personal grudges and paranoias, suspicion of outsiders, and his conspiracy theories all led over the years to a hostile and insular "us vs. them" spirit in the Church of Scientology. Governments are suspect, and psychologists/psychiatrists are considered the enemy of mankind. Committing crimes to interfere with these enemies is quietly tolerated and even encouraged.

After Hubbard's death, a young Scientologist named David Miscavige took control as head of the Church and its various other groups (things like anti-psychiatric advocacy groups, drug rehab programs which preach Scientology doctrines, and many more). He, like Hubbard, is a paranoid and hostile leader.

Many Scientologists have left the church in recent years, dissatisfied with one or more of the following things:

  • David Miscavige's emotional and physical abuse of church followers
  • Disciplinary action for church members which includes indefinite forced hard labor
  • The high price of Scientology auditing and courses
  • The lack of charitable outreach in the church
  • Deception about the true content of Scientology beliefs to the public
  • Policies which amount to excommunication of members or their families and friends
  • The prohibition against most forms of medical treatment
  • A secret requirement for female inner-circle members to get abortions
  • The church's refusal to take responsibility for all of the above abuses

    Janet Reitman's book Inside Scientology is a great guide if you want to know more.
u/0x7fff5fbff690 · 20 pointsr/scientology

By any reasonable definition, Scientology is a cult. There is evidence to support the idea that it's founder LRH was cynical and knowingly scammed his followers for the money, there is also evidence that he was a bit mad and really believed in the ideas of Scientology. Perhaps both are true. With regards to what they believe, put simply, they believe that our consciousnesses are actually alien spirits that were put on this planet 75 million years ago as part of some intergalactic war, they refer to these spirits as thetans, and believe that as thetans we move from one body to the next when we die. They also believe that as thetans we harbour the 'engrams' or subconscious memories of traumatic events from millions of years ago. Using a device called an e-meter, Scientologists with the help of an 'auditing partner' believe they are able to access these buried memories of past lives through the use of what they call 'Scientology tech', which is essentially just a literature written by LRH which consists of exercises and questions and procedures for auditors to take someone through. The fundamental texts in the 'tech' are the OT levels, (Operating Thetan). The idea is that by making your way up the 'bridge', (or through the process of completing the OT levels and other texts) you will reach a point where you have complete control over your Thetan powers and will no longer be hindered by the traumas you experienced in past lives. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Scientology is that in order to get all the way to the top OT level, you end up having to pay a huge amount of money. Each OT level costs 1000s. People have been known to bankrupt themselves in order to get to OT levels. There are also many stories of Scientology higher-ups using many tactics to squeeze as much money out of their followers as possible, tactics that are far beyond what you might see in Christianity for example. A lot of the behaviour you see coming from inside Scientology can easily be described as being quite sinister, and critics say that people who are desperate enough to spend 1000s on OT levels and 'tech' have been brainwashed, or happen to be psychologically vulnerable people who the cult is taking advantage of. This is just the surface of Scientology, and the complete story is utterly shocking and quite interesting. One of the best books I've read on Scientology from the perspective of understanding it's history and basic beliefs is Going Clear by Lawrence Wright: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison/dp/0307745309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417760332&sr=8-1&keywords=going+clear

u/ilikecakeandpie2 · 8 pointsr/scientology

It's actually more complicated than that, but your instinct is correct!

At one point after the war, he was trying to get help for certain "ailments" (not the ones he claimed he suffered during the war - just ulcers, and generally feeling bad etc.) and was denied disability several times by the Veteran's Administration. Then at one point pre-Dianetics, he requested psychotherapy (which was a new field then), and wrote a detailed letter requesting it and telling his symptoms. It was also denied. My understanding is that he was trying to get more money out of the disability department, it seems.

Then, when he wrote Dianetics, and some fans set up Dianetics groups and he went out doing demonstrations and lectures, he tried to get the American Psychiatric Association to pay attention and give him credibility. He wrote them letters, talked about his groundbreaking "research", and had hoped to become the new Freud or Jung or the rockstar of psychiatry. They investigated and denied him and most of them sort of called what he did pseudoscience and quackery.

THEN, he started coming out with ever-increasing tirades in writing and lectures that basically said that the "psyches" (psychologists and psychiatrists) were evil and out to get them, etc. He went on to say that Dianetics cured so many illnesses that it was taking business and credibility away from them, so they were out to destroy him. His writing and lectures got increasingly anti-psyche over time, leading to the current incarnation.

However, pretty much everyone was out to destroy him, if you ask him.

Those days (around when Scientology was formed, post-Dianetics), he was also on about the communists. He ghost-wrote what he claimed was a communist brainwashing manual and held it up as proof that they were awful - as well as wrote a plethora of letters to the FBI accusing his enemies of being communists (remember McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 50s/60s?). Many of those people had just wronged him in some way - it's obvious that he was trying to use the FBI and red scare to destroy people he didn't like.

Then the FBI didn't respond as he wanted (they called him something like "unstable" or "unhinged" in internal documents), so they became the enemy.

Of course, by that time, he'd had more accusations about money issues against him. He stole and ran away with and misappropriated money from people like Jack Parsons, some early donors/supporters, and the people running his Dianetics Foundation, among others. Some of those money issues became criminal-ish.

And he'd run afoul of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) by making claims about what Dianetics and the e-meter could do health-wise (curing cancer, making the blind see, none of it true, of course). So when the FBI didn't listen to him and he was under scrutiny for a bunch of other stuff, the FBI and the government became the enemy. That was part of the advent of the religious cloaking (going from a pop-psychology thing and making it a religion), to decrease government scrutiny in many ways (and avoid taxes).

Basically, this was a man who didn't suffer narcissistic wounds lightly. When someone dismissed him, didn't listen to or believe him, or made him feel "less than", he used his followers as pawns to insult and hurt them (always making himself the persecuted savior).

The "psyches" were only one of his many "I want to be acknowledged by you and be seen as important by you" targets who didn't give him what he craved - admiration and attention.

Go googling around for some of his letters to the FBI and Veteran's Administration and stuff like that, there's lots of very interesting reading.

His hubris also really comes across when the government of Rhodesia was trying to form a new government post-colonialism, and he went and wrote one (some would say badly) and approached some officials (mind you, as an unknown entity, swaggering about with his secretive group and being cagy about who he was) and was like "here, I wrote the constitution for you, you can thank me later". He was incredibly depressed when they were like "who is this guy?" and dismissed him.

There's a great story about him getting two bottles of pink champagne and walking up unannounced to the door of one of the government officials there and rang the doorbell, expecting to sit and have champagne with this official's wife and thereby get his "in" into the government... of course he was turned away there too.

I mean, he approached everyone in that manner - like he expected to have his ring kissed and be granted medals and seen as important. And then when he wasn't, well, that person or entity became his next target.

It's interesting stuff. If you're interested, some of the stories are researched, documented, and told in books like A Piece of Blue Sky, Bare-Faced Messiah - which was recently re-released and is incredibly documented and researched, Going Clear, Inside Scientology. And others, but I think those are the works that are informative, with incredibly researched documentation of claims.

EDIT: Oh, I also forgot that he wrote to the US Government offering his incredible knowledge and research and said that it could solve all their problems, etc. Then, when he didn't get any response after trying mightily hard, he wrote again and threatened to defect to the Soviet Union. He said they'd offered him a sweet sweet deal, with some kind of research position and budget and teaching positions or something, and if the US Government didn't take him up on it he was going to go to the communists with it instead. Of course, that was an empty threat...

He also claimed later, in lectures and stuff, to have worked on the Manhattan Project with the leading scientists, to develop the Atom Bomb. Which was, of course, not true. And he claimed at various times to have worked undercover for the CIA.