Satanism is essentially demonology, isn't it?
The concept being that there are supernatural beings, some of which are very malevolent and try to take over people with Satan being the uber demon.
How is the concept of Body Thetans and Xenu not just another Satan/Demonology belief system complete with ceremonial exorcism?
Christianity embraces the concept of Satan right? So Christians believe in supernatural beings and the uber bad being. So you could say Christians are Satanists except they don't follow Satan - it's just integral to their belief. Who and what do Scientologists follow? That seems to be the main distinction. Even in 1952 Hubbard was lecturing about and channeling disembodied "Targs" in real time. The people in the audience would have been transitioning between the non-demon based concepts of Dianetics and the demon based concepts of Scientology. So now instead of psychological improvement they are pursuing spiritual improvement and the idea of spirit, spiritual powers and immortality become the "stable datum" of your thinking. Using that stable datum, or any supernatural spiritual concept as the foundation for all your other rational has the potential to expand your acceptance of possibilities to virtually every imaginable scenario. And that is where we find Scientologists - accepting and believing everything Hubbard tells them.
So I'm going to say, yes, I think Scientology is essentially satanism in that it teaches demonology, that there can be uber demons and because it teaches that anything is OK in the name of the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics - which is ultimately going to be Hubbard and Scientology. And right there you have your uber demon. Maybe it's not in a Christian context but in principle it's the same.
It's about good and evil and being controlled or free to pursue your own destiny.
You know, the more I think about the 8 Dynamics and the idea that we are supposed to be "Pan-Determined" or fully responsible across all the dynamics - the more I think that is a lot of BS. Hubbard manipulated people's good intentions and willingness to help. You do that by appealing to their sense of responsibility. Once you get them on board with the idea that they should be responsible for everything then they are bad or degraded if they don't go along with your sense of priorities. Scientologists try to be "Self-Determined", and they try to be "Pan-Determined" - or by being fully self-determined on all the dynamics you are actually being pan-determined. And then when you reach a new level of spiritual enlightenment you need to re-evaluate where you stand on all the dynamics in a new unit of time, which invariably will be more devout to Scientology. And every dynamic is in a condition of existence and every dynamic has a condition of existence in relation to every other dynamic. WTF? Do Scientologists ever sit down and ask themselves if the conditions and dynamics are all just crap? Hubbard said that part of having good control is also being able to be controlled. When did Hubbard ever let anyone or anything control him? His whole personal philosophy about how he governed his own life was not being the effect, not being controlled by anyone. It was Crowley's "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." LRH embodied that belief in his Affirmations. It's a matter of court record. From all my experience with Scientology and according to my own observations I find myself come back to that as the original core inspiration for Hubbard.
To my thinking this is Satanism. Giving yourself over totally to someone else's will who doesn't give a damn about anybody or anything other than themselves and who uses spirituality as a hook.
I've told the story about the time I was walking down the sidewalk heading down N. Berendo from Sunset Blvd. toward LA Org when a group of about 6 demonstrators came toward me heading towards Sunset. I think they were done for the day and from their signs I guessed they were hard core like Seventh Day Adventists or something. I was in street clothes but I was wearing a necklace with a Theta symbol. One of the girls struck up a casual conversation and we were just chatting when the leader guy saw my necklace and yelled out, "You're one of those Theta things aren't you?!! You will have to die and be reborn in the eyes of the Lord to be saved!!" I said, "OK!, Thank You!, I got it!..bye!"...as they all started walking backwards toward Sunset, the head guy repeating the chant.
Now, you know, I think he may have been onto something.