Scientology

HISTORY 

The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, established a career as a writer in the 1930s, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories.

Hubbard was the commander of a submarine chaser during World War II. He was relieved of his command after the ship shelled an island that he thought was unoccupied. However, it turned out it was a Coronado island south of San Diego in Mexican waters and home to several members of the Mexican Coast Guard.

After the war, L Ron Hubbard developed Scientology, a movement on the fringe of Christianity. Hubbard taught that some physical and all mental illnesses are caused by "engrams" meaning bad experiences both pre- and postnatal, which have to be exorcised. He published Dianetics The Modern Science Of Mental Health, in which he first outlined his teachings on May 9, 1950.

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology in 1950

The following year, Hubbard's wife Sara went to a psychiatrist to obtain advice about his increasingly violent and irrational behaviour. She was warned that he probably needed to be institutionalized for treatment of paranoid schizophrenia and that she was in serious danger. Thereafter, Hubbard criticized psychiatry as a "barbaric and corrupt profession."

The success of Dianetics led to Hubbard's founding of the Church of Scientology, a more religious version of the ideas outlined in his book. The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey. The beliefs and therapeutic practices it espoused showed an influence of holistic medicine and a suspicion of modern psychological techniques such as electro therapy.

Cover of the first edition Wikipedia Commons

Hubbard's writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology. The Church's dissemination of his works on such subjects as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation led to Hubbard being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world.

Hubbard also holds The Guinness World Record for the most audio books published by one author.

Hubbard established an "Academy of Scientology" at this Northwest, Washington, D.C. building in 1955. It is now the L. Ron Hubbard House museum.

The L. Ron Hubbard House museum. By AgnosticPreachersKid 

A week after suffering a stroke L. Ron Hubbard Hubbard died on January 25, 1986. The Church of Scientology maintains a California mansion, in hopes that Hubbard will live there when he's reincarnated.

After L. Ron Hubbard's death, the Church of Scientology officially claimed that he voluntarily abandoned his physical body after it became an impediment to his work, and that he had left Earth to do scientific research on another planet—having "learned how to do it without a body".

David Miscavige had been a deputy to the Scientology founder while he was a teenager before rising to a leadership position by the early 1980s. Following the sudden death of L. Ron Hubbard, Miscavige assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a non-profit corporation that administers the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Miscavige has been the effective leader of the Scientology movement ever since.

By Scientology Media - Flickr: David Miscavige - Portrait, 

In 1990, the movie actor Tom Cruise, who in his youth had planned to go into the priesthood, renounced his Catholicism and joined The Church of Scientology. He claimed that Scientology has helped him overcome his dyslexia. Since then, Cruise has been an outspoken advocate for the movement.

CONTROVERSY

Scientology has been controversial since it began and the movement has been accused by critics of being both a cult and a commercial enterprise.

The Cult Awareness Network listed Scientology as the No. 1 most dangerous cult. The church of Scientology sued them into bankruptcy, bought the name and assets and set up the New Cult Awareness Network.

In 1967, the IRS stripped all US-based Scientology entities of their tax exemption, declaring Scientology's activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard. Scientology had P.I.s dig into the personal lives of IRS managers and initiated hundreds of law suits against IRS employees. Eventually Scientology offered to drop all suits for religious tax exemption and the US government caved.

Church of Scientology "Big Blue" building at Los Angeles. By PictorialEvidence

Paulette Cooper (born July 26, 1942) is an American author whose writing against the Church of Scientology resulted in harassment from Scientologists. Her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology,  resulted in a lawsuit against her in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the years to come, Scientology instituted a total of nineteen lawsuits against Cooper from all over the world.

As she continued to investigate Scientology over the years, Cooper became the target of several harassment campaigns, which included an attempt to get her committed to a psychiatric ward by writing her name and number on street walls, subscribing her to pornographic mail lists, and faking bomb threats with her stationary and fingerprints. The Church of Scientology finally agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Cooper in 1985.

The activist group Anonymous sent thousands of all-black faxes to the Church of Scientology to deplete all of their ink cartridges.

L. Ron. Hubbard’s own son, L. Ron Hubbard Jr. was highly critical of Scientology and claimed black magic was the inner core of the belief system once stating, "my father did not worship Satan. He thought he was Satan."

The German government does not recognize Scientology as a religion; rather, it views it as an abusive business masquerading as a religion.

Charles Manson studied Scientology while in prison to learn how to manipulate people.

HBO had to hire a team of 160 lawyers before releasing its 2015 documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief because of the Church's litigious nature.

FUN SCIENTOLOGY FACTS

The Church of Scientology says that 13-15 million people are a part of the Church. Critics disagree with that figure, however. They say the organization probably does not have more than 100,000 followers, mostly in the United States.

The "worldwide spiritual headquarters" of the Church of Scientology is known as "Flag Land Base," located in Clearwater, Florida. The building contains a Sea Org museum and training facilities.

The Flag Building in Clearwater, Florida. Posted to Flickr by Party Harder 370

Scientology's international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California. The location at Gilman Hotsprings is private property and not accessible by the public.

The Hole is the unofficial nickname of a facility operated by the Church of Scientology on Gold Base. They have reportedly held people against their will for months there, during which they live in degrading conditions, eating and sleeping in cramped spaces.

The word "Scientologist" is a registered trademark.

Margaret "Polly" Grubb was the first wife of L. Ron Hubbard, to whom she was married between 1933 and 1947.  She once discovered two love letters her husband had written, to two different women, in the couple’s outgoing mail. She switched the envelopes and sent them.

Scientology head David Miscavige is 5'1" tall (1.55m), which makes him even shorter than Tom Cruise.

Scientology staff are required to salute the dogs of leader David Miscavige as they pass by.

Kirstie Alley, a longtime Scientologist, never reprised her role as Rebecca Howe on the Cheers spinoff Frasier. The sitcom centered around Dr. Frasier Crane, a psychiatrist, and Scientology's views on psychiatry are well-documented.