Scientology

Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author <a href="/facts/L._Ron_Hubbard/s3h0I2wy">L. Ron Hubbard</a>, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a <a href="/facts/Scam/1XNPz6wR">scam</a>, a <a href="/facts/Scientology_as_a_business/ryA3tvQM">business</a>, a <a href="/facts/Cult/PHvIWkYy">cult</a>, or a <a href="/facts/Religion/cxntrD0R">religion</a>. Hubbard initially developed a set of <a href="/facts/Pseudoscience/kdNzoLeS">pseudoscientific</a> ideas that he called <a href="/facts/Dianetics/WIY0JwMM">Dianetics</a>, which he represented as a form of therapy. An organization that he established in 1950 to promote it went bankrupt, and his ideas were rejected as nonsense by the scientific community. He then recast his ideas as a religion, likely for tax purposes and to avoid prosecution, and renamed them Scientology. In 1953, he founded the <a href="/facts/Church_of_Scientology/7ymYWP74">Church of Scientology</a> which, by one 2014 estimate, has around 30,000 members worldwide.
Key Scientology beliefs include <a href="/facts/Reincarnation/vITGGNlT">reincarnation</a>, and that traumatic events cause subconscious command-like recordings in the mind (termed "<a href="/facts/Engram_(Dianetics)/rGM7F2tJ">engrams</a>") that can be removed only through an activity called "<a href="/facts/Auditing_(Scientology)/QpTWlvF5">auditing</a>". A fee is charged for each session of "auditing". Once an "auditor" deems an individual free of "engrams", they are given the status of "<a href="/facts/Clear_(Scientology)/bzmrXksm">clear</a>". Scholarship differs on the interpretation of these beliefs: some academics regard them as religious in nature; other scholars regard them as merely a means of extracting money from Scientology recruits. After attaining "clear" status, adherents can take part in the <a href="/facts/Operating_Thetan/2pmKaWn9">Operating Thetan</a> levels, which require further payments. The Operating Thetan texts are kept secret from most followers; they are revealed only after adherents have typically given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Scientology organization. Despite its efforts to maintain the secrecy of the texts, they are freely available on various websites, including at the media organization <a href="/facts/WikiLeaks/rm4lC2cD">WikiLeaks</a>. These texts say past lives took place in <a href="/facts/Extraterrestrial_life/arxCPFTQ">extraterrestrial cultures</a>. They involve an alien called <a href="/facts/Xenu/bL0JJtcJ">Xenu</a>, described as a planetary ruler 70 million years ago who brought billions of aliens to Earth and killed them with <a href="/facts/Thermonuclear_weapon/T9zFe3H0">thermonuclear weapons</a>. Despite being kept secret from most followers, this forms the central mythological framework of Scientology's ostensible <a href="/facts/Soteriology/Asbm7zmf">soteriology</a>. These aspects have become the subject of popular ridicule.
Since its formation, Scientology groups have generated considerable opposition and controversy. This includes deaths of practitioners while staying at Church of Scientology properties, several instances of extensive criminal activities, and allegations by former adherents of <a href="/facts/Human_trafficking/07sKSjt4">human trafficking</a>, <a href="/facts/Child_labor/rhdNHpXK">child labor</a>, exploitation and <a href="/facts/Forced_abortion/IKVaKKFl">forced abortions</a>. In the 1970s, Hubbard's followers engaged in a <a href="/facts/Operation_Snow_White/S91xj71t">program of criminal infiltration</a> of the <a href="/facts/U.S._government/VJCxUaf7">U.S. government</a>, resulting in several executives of the organization being <a href="/facts/United_States_v._Hubbard/Bx2e3jMr">convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses</a> by a U.S. federal court. Hubbard was convicted of <a href="/facts/Fraud/VyU68aBy">fraud</a> in <a href="/facts/Trial_in_absentia/7sVld4H9">absentia</a> by a French court in 1978 and sentenced to four years in prison. The Church of Scientology was <a href="/facts/R_v_Church_of_Scientology_of_Toronto/AXuvWhou">convicted of spying and criminal breach of trust</a> in Toronto in 1992, and convicted of fraud in France in 2009. 
The Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgments as both a dangerous cult and a <a href="/facts/Scientology_as_a_business/ryA3tvQM">manipulative profit-making business</a>. Numerous scholars and journalists observe that profit is the primary motivating goal of the Scientology organization. Following extensive litigation in numerous countries, the organization has managed to attain a legal recognition as a religious institution in some jurisdictions, including Australia, Italy, and the United States. <a href="/facts/Scientology_in_Germany/eEpJDNe1">Germany</a> classifies Scientology groups as an anti-constitutional <a href="/facts/Cult/PHvIWkYy">cult</a>, while the <a href="/facts/Scientology_in_France/D9FtmuzY">French government</a> classifies the group as a dangerous cult. Scientology is the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and depictions in film and television, including the <a href="/facts/Emmy_Award/M6GvMDJc">Emmy Award</a>-winning <a href="/facts/Going_Clear_(film)/wboy7lD9">Going Clear</a> and <a href="/facts/Leah_Remini%3a_Scientology_and_the_Aftermath/c3XaaqdS">Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath</a>, and is widely understood to be a key basis for <a href="/facts/The_Master_(2012_film)/1yInnNjn">The Master</a>.

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Scientology