My perspective on Scientology

About 20 years ago I used to live in Hollywood, California. Back then, because of my work, I had to pass the building where Scientology was located (I don’t’ remember if it was called a church then), but I do remember the hasslers passing out flyers and more or less putting their bodies to make your walk difficult in order to offer something that had to do with a free test. Since I’ve never paid much attention to them and considered an annoyance their perennial presence, I can’t tell you what the test involved, but I do know by many accounts that it was sort of a brainwashing technique dreamed by Ron Hubbard, the founder of the thing. Hubbard, by all accounts, was a writer of science fiction and his books have been widely read but that alone, 20 years later, can’t show anyone that Scientology is a legitimate church. Sure, they can call it a church, simply because in this country as far as religion goes, any crack head can found one if it follows the rules and registers. As a matter of fact, come to think of it, I could create a church in my own home, provided I conduct services and have a few followers. Will that make me a believable pastor or another crack head? Who knows.

The same way I doubt Scientology has anything to do with religion and is more of a cult with a bunch of followers guided by their own personal goals. What amazes me is the number of high profile people involved in this, mostly from the entertainment industry, who are declared “scientologists”. People that otherwise seem intelligent, well educated and by most measures successful, brought recognition to what a few years ago, was simply a concocted and weird far out bunch of premises, like their connection with aliens and such. And before all scientologists get upset with me, let me also tell you that I don’t believe Mormons are part of a real church either. Some guy a couple of hundred years ago when everyone was preoccupied with colonizing the west, found what it turn out to be a real church out of practically nothing but his own feverish mind and the need of his followers to grasp onto something besides despair.

When many traditional religions are under the microscope, from Catholicism to Judaism and everything in between, here we have all this newcomers (by biblical standards) force feeding their ideas to others and frankly I don’t think everything is done to foster the most noble principles, especially when we witness the tightness of these, what I call, cults, and the many secrets they hold from strangers.

My idea of a religion is one that accepts everyone without reservations and opens the doors to any scrutiny and that’s not what Scientology does. On the contrary, they conduct their business, for that is what it is, probably better than the CIA or the FBI when it‘s time for secrecy. Simple souls who have joined, probably don’t even know how they’re being manipulated, and that’s the beauty of their “system”, having a flock of followers who are real believers in whatever they say. The others, the ones I mentioned with brains and money are probably there because they feed from each other the same way members of a secret society help one another.

In any case, if you must join a church at least try to find one that relates to God and not some dead writer who must be having a ball in the spiritual world looking down on his silly creation. Next time I’ll try to come up with ideas for new churches and some interesting names. May be I can sell them on Ebay.