Scientology Swindles
Rishi Mehta
Issue date: 10/13/05 Section: Commentary
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While the majority of Americans became exposed to the religion for the first time, the reality is that with eight million followers, scientology is becoming one of the fastest growing religions - an unfortunate phenomenon.
Ron Hubbard started the Scientology movement in the 1950s, building it up to a multinational organization. By 1993, Scientology was officially recognized as a religion by the government, although many of its teachings were kept secret. Despite such confidentiality, the foundation of this seemingly pseudo-religion is known. Scientologists believe Earthlings were invaded millions of years ago by alien souls sent here from outer space. In fact, contemporary literature on Scientology describes such a basic tenet as follows:
"An incident [occurred in the past which led] to the current evils of the Earth. This incident started with a galactic shake-up 75 million years ago, when an alien ruler sent billions of subjects to this planet to solve an overpopulation problem. These "thetan" souls dispersed and invaded humans. Scientology is the means through which one's Body Thetans (BTs) are purged."
Despite such baffling beliefs, it is not the belief structure that is most discerning. Rather, it is the fact Scientology continues to exploit the confidentiality and wallets of average Americans. While much of the mainstream media has focused on the more famous of Scientology's followers -J ohn Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Lisa Marie Presley - critics estimate there are scores of "average people spending decades and bankrupting themselves in the pursuit" of Scientology's teachings. Pursuit? We'll come back to that.
The exploitation of followers' confidentiality lies in the fact the Church of Scientology "audits" its members before entrance into the religion. Without an official license, leaders of the religion "counsel" individuals to get a good gauge as to what Scientology can offer them. The Church of Scientology, however, is under little or no legal obligation to keep confidential such "counseling" services, unlike the professions of psychology and psychiatry. In fact, there are countless cases of former members of the "religion" claiming the church has exploited the information the members gave during the "audit" sessions.