Yes, I think Scientology is a cult. But, a more odd one. My background? Raised Jewish, Bar Mitzvahed, Confirmed. Entered a Bhakti Yoga ashram in my early 20’s. Been praying, meditating and studying daily for 40 years now. (Bhakti Yoga is very similar to Western religions) Also have meditated with several Zen Buddhist groups over the years and maintained correspondence with both Zen Buddhist and Catholic (Trappist) monks. I have met a bunch of folks who practiced Scientology. I wish I could say they were jerks or loons, but they weren’t. The ones I met were very nice people. One was a super nice, gentle man. A chiropractor. Could not have been a nicer person. And my understanding is that Scientology is, in fact, quite good at getting people out of substance abuse. So, what is up with it? Well, when a fraud decides to craft a fake religion or a fake path, what do they, in fact, do? They rarely make up stuff whole cloth. What they do is study standard religions and their teachings. Then, they just parrot that stuff to their adherents, like it is their original thought. And so, if someone steals a real meditation technique that has been practiced for thousands of years, the meditation technique itself is valid. And the people who practice that technique are going to benefit from it, even if the person passing that technique to them is a total fraud, who just stole it out of a book. And that is why some of these cults attract and keep adherents. Because, either directly, or at some level, the philosophy they teach is sound and the spiritual disciplines they teach are sound. So….people get benefit, they wrongly attributed that benefit as coming from the cult leader, rather than the ancient Hindu saint who developed the technique or teaching. As far as Scientology goes, they are practicing some basic kinds of reflection that people will do when they engage standard counseling in psychology. Anytime someone reflects on their life and their actions, they are going to learn and benefit from that process. Scientology also works a great deal with what some paths call “affirmations.” Affirmations are very common in the martial arts and in Buddhism, as well as other paths. These are techniques to use the power of the mind to accomplish basic things in the real world. Oh, to have the confidence to go for difficult goals. Affirmations are generally fine, unless they move into the manipulative. But they are just a start. Scientology dwells on this aspect of spirituality to the exclusion of a higher path. So, you know, they are kind of teaching you how to “pump up” you mind so that you “kill it” at the ad company meeting. This is, in standard spiritual practice, a moral violation of the use of affirmations. One is only supposed to use affirmations to, you know, get through a difficult illness, or to be able to extend your prayer or meditation practice from a few minutes daily to an hour daily. It is not supposed to be used to out compete another salesman at your job selling machine parts. That is a misuse of the practice and a violation of the moral dictates of, you know, all the world’s major religions. And when you engage that kind of immoral act…almost like hypnotizing your fellow workers into being compliant with whatever you are pushing…you really do some serious wrong. And also, you are not aspiring for God. You are stopping at just being “the guy who gets stuff done at the office.” But again, those kind of affirmations are excellent to help people beat drug addictions and such. As far as the corruptions of the Scientology leadership? I am not really familiar with all that stuff. But corruption following morally irresponsible meditative practices? Sure doesn’t seem odd with folks who is willing to out talk you to get what they want. Not all that different from some smooth talking grifter type. And, you know, the spaceships. If something is very weird, yes, it is probably a cult. Real paths do not tend to be weird. They tend to be very straight ahead.
When I lived in Clearwater and helped subsidize the Scientology cult through my property taxes, I always thought that the City of Clearwater should be dissolved. We'd have instead North Largo, South Dunedin, and over there...Hubbardville. If they wanted Fire/Police/EMS, or water, sewer, or roads, they could pay for them like everybody else.
Love L Ron Hubbard, his statement "if you want to get rich start a religion is ever so true" and he did it.
