Arnie, I love you, man...may I please remind you that Jim is a newbie and that we are to be nice to newbies?
I understand your frustration and agree with you on the Melton character. Unfortunately, they are to be found in all areas of Academia, and elsewhere. (Think paid shills rather than real investigative scholars or researchers.
) I see them a lot in the area of environmental reports and biological or botanical surveys done for developers.
Jim, please understand the perspective that many of us (myself included- I first learned about Scientology in the 60's when it was mostly all about Dianetics and book one auditing) have about this issue. Many members here were in "Scientology" long ago enough to have personally witnessed the overnight transformation ordered by LRH, who always treated Scientology as his own personal cash cow, from "modern mental science" and "knowing how to know" into a "church", when he got into money and tax trouble. Scientology became a religion for tax evasion purposes and to give it an "acceptable truth" pro-social religious/spiritual cloaking to help grease the skids with locals, including local governments and law enforcement, who might otherwise investigate and oppose the organization's activities and treatment of it's members.
There are many old-timer Exes, including members here, who were told it was NOT a religion and believed it. They never would have joined if they thought it was a religion, either because they were happy with their own religion, and didn't want to leave it, or they had NO desire to become involved with any religion.
At first Scientology was touted as a science, attracted lots of geeky engineering or science loving types who liked the thought of the complexities of our minds being reduced to the workings of a mechanical recording device and liked the way our complex social network systems of interaction could be standardized and boiled down into grade charts, confined to eight "dynamics" and routines on which one could train and drill for "success" in greater social ability.
Those of us who are involved in exposing and ending the abuses and crimes of Corporate Scientology are involved in an information war, contending for the hearts and minds of the greater public at large, because it seems that overwhelming public opinion is the only thing which will compel our elected leaders, local government workers and law enforcement agencies to act, to actually investigate COS crimes and abuses and uphold and enforce the laws of the land. (Including, Mark, people's constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedom.
)
I understand that many younger and uninformed (as to it's true history) people believe it to be a "religion". Just calling it a "church" rather than the Corporation that it is, gives people who don't know anything else about it the false impression that it is a religion like any other. Some young people have grown up in a family which called it their religion. Some older, deluded people who have not progressed very far up the bridge, and do not understand Scientology's true attitude toward all "religion" consider it to be their religion (practicing Scientology for long tends to make people deluded.)
Only a few people out of the world-wide population consider it to be their religion. Most of those who love what their consideration of Scientology is and continue to practice it outside of the Cult (like some members here) would rather call it a philosophy or a system of mental self-help training rather than call it a religion.
You are aware that in the upper level training of Scientology, ALL of earth's human religions are discovered to be false, as they are considered to be ancient alien "implants" in our minds, a form of mind control conditioning that was carried out upon us millions of years ago, in order to control us. This is in direct contradiction to the lower level teaching that you can retain your own religion and it's practices and still be a Scientologist, which is a lie. If you continue "up the bridge" you will eventually be taught that all human religions are false and are harmful implants, created by an evil alien overlord named XENU to control you, and which must be erased from your mind.
From my personal perspective (space opera aside), how can it be a religion if there is NO concept of God or gods, or a higher power or powers of any kind, however you would define them? The only spirituality to be found is in the "space opera" (Ron's own words for it) story or "doctrine" if you will call it that.
The "aim" of Scientology processing is to recover your "Operating Thetan" abilities, to realize that you yourself are God or the god-like being who "mocked up" (created by making thought pictures) your entire life experience and your whole universe (including everyone and everything in it), because you are actually not human, but are the spirit of an ancient space alien being who has lived many lifetimes and had many experiences, mostly bad, and you "need" Scientology processing to recover and repair your self, and realize who you really are. Ron taught that he was the only one who had discovered this about our collective history and Scientologists think that they are the only ones who understand the true nature of reality.
You are not actually human, you are a Thetan, you are only using a human body that you happened to "pick up". This is a "spiritual" as Scientology gets...the "space opera". The teaching is that you can "drop a body" at will and go "pick up" another one, which helps to explain in part the frequency of Scientology suicides, whether from overt fast means, or the slower suicide of an early death by neglect due to overwork, poor food, little sleep, physical abuse, and no medicines and little medical treatment for Scientology Cult members, because "bodies don't matter, you can always pick up a new one".
This also explains the acceptance of coerced abortions for Sea Org women, that it is not really causing the death of their child, but that it's "just a body" which a Thetan has not picked up yet, and therefore no real harm is done by aborting it.
Oh, to get yourself right as a Thetan, you must also spend a lot of time, money and energy "auditing" the clusters of the millions of ghosts of other dead space aliens which were weaker or more introverted than you by XENU's maltreatment of them, and are clinging to you, are inside your body and in your "space", causing you problems. The purpose of self-auditing at these very expensive and very secret levels which the "church" persistently lies about (for our own good , of course, because learning about this too soon on the bridge will "mess up our cases") is to wake them up, counsel them that they are free to leave and go find another body to "pick up" and "run" for themselves, and to shoo them away from you and get them to "blow" (leave). This is as "spiritual" as Scientology gets.
There is no God or higher power in Scientology, only one's own self. (I see the influence of Crowley on Ron here.) Of course, this whole thing contradicts Ron's efforts with trying to float the Messiah project within the Sea Org or attempting to frame himself as Mettaya, the Buddha that is yet to come. But Ron's work is full of these sorts of contradictions because he made it up as he went along, using whatever would work of other people's work to excite and impress a gullible public for the purpose of selling books, lectures, courses and training. His goal was to "make money, make more money, make other people produce so as to make more money". Ron was a sociopathic con man. He sold people on the con he created and marketed until it didn't work as well, and then he changed it to get new people "in" or to keep people going up the "bridge" that he was selling them.
Scientology is constantly changing its pitch to appeal to the public. When psychology and psychiatry were big public interests, it was a modern science of mental health. When there were great fears about atomic bombs destroying us and a nuclear holocaust, it was all about radiation. When learning peace and creating a more functional and pro-social community was at the forefront of public thought, it was the way to happiness. Learn about COS true history and this is evident. Including the abrupt about face in naming and framing his group from a "modern science" to a "religion" when it served his purposes. The man had no shame (plenty of evidence of his having an anti-social personality disorder of one kind or another).
That the "religious cloaking" does seem to give the Cult of Scientology's crimes and abuses a bit of a pass over any other similar openly for-profit organization, is what fuels our frustration.
Corporate Scientology
is a nasty Cult, qualifies for cult status by every definition I have ever seen written. It does spend millions on slick PR to
appear to be a religion, to appear to be pro-social and benign or even benevolent, rather than the demonstrably criminal, brutal, for-profit organization that it is, and to scrub Ron's true dishonorable human history into the "shore story" of an admirable life of a kindly religious leader, whose prime motivation in creating the con called Scientology was to "help" people.
The Cult's PR about this has been thoroughly de-bunked, and people are entitled to know the truth about him and the group he created, as a means of protecting the public from Corporate Scientology's abuses.
I understand why you, Jim, consider Scientology to be a "new religion". I understand your perspective on it. However, from the perspective of one doing systems change advocacy and working for pro-social justice, organized Corporate Scientology is now, and always has been, a dangerous and harmful Cult.
