The Founder of Scientology – L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) Photo courtesy of Wikicommons Images, Los Angeles Daily News, CC-BY 4.0

GB asks: “Is Scientology a cult? Everything I read about it sure makes it sound like this is a really bizarre organization.”

Bizarre is too mild a word. The Church of Scientology, which boasts many celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, is based upon many outlandish beliefs and has been riddled with scandals involving abuse and even death among its members.

For those who are unfamiliar with its tenets, Scientology was invented by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) in 1952 as an offshoot of his self-help program described in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Scientologists believe that people are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) who have forgotten their true nature. It offers a method of spiritual rehabilitation known as “auditing” which attempts to free people of the scarring effects of painful and traumatic events in their lives. Scientologists scorn the use of all medicines, believing that most physical problems are manifestations of spiritual ailments.

Some of their more outlandish beliefs surround an evil galactic ruler, Xenu, who supposedly lived 75 million years ago and who solved a universal over-population program by transporting trillions of people to earth where they were destroyed. The souls of these dead people – known as body thetans – are thought to inhabit our bodies. The object is to get rid of these beings in order to be healthier and to gain special powers of mind-over-matter.

Apparently, this facet of scientology is not revealed to practitioners until after they have paid thousands of dollars to the Church of Scientology, which is why this belief-system has been besieged with accusations of fraud and other cult-like practices.

Photo courtesy of Wikicommons Images, PictorialEvidence, CC BY-SA 3.0

For example, Christie King Collbran and her husband Chris, belonged to an organization within Scientology known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org, since they were teenagers. Sea Orgs work for an elite corps of Scientology staff members who are responsible for keeping the Church running. The couple signed a contract with the Church for a “billion” years, which is in keeping with their belief that Scientologists are immortal, and worked there for 13 years before becoming disillusioned. During that time, they say they worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for “sporadic” paychecks of $50 a week at most. They said Sea Org members were repeatedly beaten by the church officials and others were pressured to have abortions.

After the Collbrans decided to leave, the Church forced them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work and to pay thousands of dollars for the coursework and counseling they received. They were also made to cut off all communication with their parents, siblings and friends who remain in the Church. Tommy Davis, spokesman for the Church, told The New York Times that the Collbrans were “apostates” and claimed they didn’t leave out of protest, but were expelled. Chris Collbran says he no longer believes in Scientology. “Eventually I realized I was part of a con,” he said, “and I have to leave it and get on with my life.” His wife, however, claims she still believes in its teachings and has only disavowed its leadership.

The year before the Collbran defections, director and screenwriter Paul Haggis , who won Oscars for “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash” left the Church after 35 years, citing the Church’s brutal “disconnection” program which mandates that members must “disconnect” from any family members who disagree with the Church.

Even prominent leaders of the Church have left such as Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder who spoke out about the rampant abuse in the Church. They were close associates of Scientology leader David Miscavage and told the St. Petersburg Times that he routinely attacked his “lieutenants” and that they often did the same to their underlings to “demonstrate loyalty to Miscavige and prove their mettle.”

These are just a few of the scandals that have plagued the Church in recent decades, but there are so many that Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to listing them all, including the unfortunate deaths of some members such as Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died of a pulmonary embolism in 1995 after being held by fellow Church members for 17 days in isolation at a Florida hotel. The state’s medical examiner determined that Lisa was a victim of negligent homicide and the Church was officially indicted on two felony charges of “abuse and/or neglect of a disabled adult” and “practicing medicine without a license.”

Needless to say, this negative publicity is believed to be one of the reasons that the membership roles in this macabre cult have shrunk to no more than 20,000 adherents worldwide.

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