Is Scientology really a religion or is it a self help program?

Bromley state that scholars and observers have come to radically different conclusions about the RPF and whether it is "voluntary or coercive, therapeutic or punitive". Many Scientologists' first contact with Scientology is through local informal groups and field auditors practicing Dianetics counseling. 161 In addition to these, Scientology operates hundreds of Churches and Missions around the world.

162 This is where Scientologists receive introductory training, and it is at this local level that most Scientologists participate. 162 Churches and Missions are licensed franchises; they offer services for a fee, and return a proportion of their income to the mother church. 162 They are also required to adhere to the standards established by the Religious Technology Center (RTC), which supervises the application of Scientology tech, owns the trademarks and service marks of Scientology, and collaborates with the Commodore's Messenger Organization to administer and control the various corporate entities within Scientology.

163164 The RTC's Chairman is David Miscavige, who, while not the titular head of the Church of Scientology, is believed to be the most powerful person in the Scientology movement. Once an individual has reached Clear and wishes to proceed further, he or she can take OT auditing and coursework with Advanced Organizations located in Los Angeles, Sydney, East Grinstead and Copenhagen. 166 Beyond OT V, the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida, offers the auditing and course work for OT levels VI and VII, while OT VIII is offered only by the Flag Ship Service Organization aboard the Scientology ship Freewinds.

167 Since 1981, all of these Churches and organizations have been united under the Church of Scientology International umbrella organization, with the Sea Org providing staff for all levels above the local Churches and Missions. In 2012, the Ideal Center of Scientology for the Middle East opened in a refurbished historic building in Jaffa, Israel. A number of Scientology organizations specialize in promoting the use of Scientology technology as a means to solve social problems.

Narconon is a drug education and rehabilitation program. The program is founded on Hubbard's belief that drugs and poisons stored in the body impede spiritual growth, and was originally conceived by William Benitez, a prison inmate who applied Hubbard's ideas to rid himself of his drug habit. 162169 Narconon is offered in the United States, Canada and a number of European countries; its Purification Program uses a regimen composed of sauna, physical exercise, vitamins and diet management, combined with auditing and study.

Criminon is a program designed to rehabilitate criminal offenders by teaching them study and communication methods and helping them reform their lives. 162 The program originally grew out of the Narconon effort and today is available in over 200 prisons. 169 It has experienced steady growth, based on a good success rate, with low recidivism.

Applied Scholastics promotes the use of Hubbard's educational methodology, known as study tech. 170 Originally developed to help Scientologists study course materials, Hubbard's study tech is now used in some private and public schools as well. 171 Applied Scholastics is active across Europe and North America as well as in Australia, Malaysia, China and South Africa.171 It supports literacy efforts in American cities and Third World countries, and its methodology is sometimes included in management training programs.

The Way to Happiness Foundation promotes a moral code written by Hubbard, to date translated into more than 40 languages. The Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) acts as an umbrella organization for these efforts. The World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) is a not-for-profit organization which licenses Hubbard's management techniques for use in businesses.

170 The most prominent training supplier to make use of Hubbard's technology is Sterling Management Systems. The Church of Scientology has also instituted a Volunteer Ministers program to provide disaster relief; for example, Volunteer Ministers were active in the aftermath of 7 July3, providing food and water and applying Scientology methods such as "Assists" to people in acute emotional distress. 174175 The Scientology Volunteer Ministers also used the "assist" to help Haiti quake victims.

176177 The Volunteer Ministers have also been sent to the site of relief efforts in Southeast Asia in the wake of the 7 July7 tsunami and to London Underground stations that were attacked in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Eight hundred were sent to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Some Scientology organizations are focused on bringing about social change.

170 One of these is the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). Founded in 1969, it has a long history of opposing psychiatric practices such as lobotomy, electric shock treatment and the use of mood-altering drugs. 180181 The psychiatric establishment rejected Hubbard's theories in the early 1950s.

181 Ever since, Scientology has argued that psychiatry suffers from the fundamental flaw of ignoring humanity's spiritual dimension, and that it fails to take into account Hubbard's insights about the nature of the mind. 180 Scientology holds psychiatry responsible for a great many wrongs in the world, saying it has at various times offered itself as a tool of political suppression and "that psychiatry spawned the ideology which fired Hitler's mania, turned the Nazis into mass murderers, and created the Holocaust."180181 In recent years, the CCHR has conducted high-profile campaigns against Ritalin, given to children to control hyperactivity, and Prozac, a commonly used antidepressant. 181 Neither drug was taken off the market as a result of the campaign, but Ritalin sales decreased, and Prozac suffered bad press.

The main other organization in this field is the National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, devoted to combating what it describes as abusive practices by government and police agencies, especially Interpol. Church of Spiritual Technology, a non-profit organization that owns the copyrights to Scientology books. Although Scientology is most often used as shorthand for the Church of Scientology, a number of groups practice Scientology and Dianetics outside of the official Church.

These groups, collectively known as the Free Zone or as Independent Scientologists, consist of both former members of the official Church of Scientology, as well as entirely new members. Bill Robertson, a former Sea Org member, was a primary instigator of the movement in the early 1980s. 183 The Church labels these groups as squirrels in Scientology jargon, and often subjects them to considerable legal and social pressure.

184185186 More recently, high-profile defectors Mark Rathbun and Mike Rinder have championed the cause of Independent Scientologists wishing to practice Scientology outside of the Church. The Church of Scientology has pursued an extensive public relations campaign for the recognition of Scientology as a religion in the various countries in which it exists. 35189190 Opinions around the world still differ on whether Scientology is to be recognized as a religion or not,191 and Scientology has often encountered opposition due to its strong-arm tactics directed against critics and members wishing to leave the organization.

124 A number of governments now view the Church as a religious organization entitled to protections and tax relief, while others continue to view it as a pseudoreligion or cult. 192193 The differences between these classifications have become a major problem when discussing religions in general and Scientology specifically. Scientology is officially recognized as a religion in the United States.

The New York Times noted in this connection that the Church of Scientology had funded a campaign which included a whistle-blower organization to publicly attack the IRS, as well as the hiring of private investigators to look into the private lives of IRS officials. 65 In 1991, Miscavige, the highest-ranking Scientology leader, arranged a meeting with Fred T. Goldberg Jr., the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service at the time.

196 The meeting was an "opportunity for the church to offer to end its long dispute with the agency, including the dozens of suits brought against the IRS." The committee met several times with the Scientology legal team and "was persuaded that those involved in the Snow White crimes had been purged, that church money was devoted to tax-exempt purposes and that, with Mr. Hubbard's death, no one was getting rich from Scientology."65 In 7 July3, a settlement was reached; the church would receive its tax-exempt status and end its legal assault on the IRS and its personnel. The church was required only to resubmit new applications for exemption to the IRS exempt organizations division; the division was told "not to consider any substantive matters" because those issues had been resolved by the committee.

65 The secret agreement was announced on 7 July7, with the IRS refusing to disclose any of the terms or the reasoning behind its decision. 65 Both the IRS and Scientology rejected any allegations of foul play or undue pressure having been brought to bear upon IRS officials, insisting that the decision had been based on the merits of the case. 197 IRS officials "insisted that Scientology's tactics had not affected the decision" and that "ultimately the decision was made on a legal basis".

65 Miscavige claims that the IRS’s examination of Scientology was the most exhaustive review of any non-profit organization in history. Elsewhere, Scientology has been able to obtain religious recognition in such countries as Australia,20199 Portugal,200 Spain,201202 Slovenia,91 Sweden,91203204 Croatia,91 Hungary91 and Kyrgyzstan. 94 In New Zealand, the Inland Revenue Department classified the Church of Scientology as a charitable organization and stated that its income would be tax exempt.

Scientology has so far failed to win religious recognition in Canada. 11 In the UK, the Charity Commission for England and Wales ruled in 1999 that Scientology was not a religion and refused to register the Church as a charity, although a year later, it was recognized as a not-for-profit body in a separate proceeding by the UK Revenue and Customs and exempted from UK value added tax. Since 1997 Germany has considered Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution.

It is seen as an anticonstitutional sect and a new version of political extremism and because there is "evidence for intentions agains the free democratic basic order" it is observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. 208209 Germany will continue to monitor Scientology's activities in the country, despite continued objection from Scientology which cites such monitoring as abuse of freedom of religion. 210 France and Belgium have not recognized Scientology as a religion, and Stephen A.

Kent, writing in 2001, noted that no such recognition had been obtained in Ireland, Luxembourg, Israel or Mexico either. 211 The Belgian State Prosecution Service has recommended that various individuals and organizations associated with Scientology should be prosecuted. 212213 An administrative court is to decide if charges will be pressed.

212213 In Greece, Scientology is not recognized as a religion by the Greek government, and multiple applications for religious status have been denied, for example in 2000 and 2003. Scientology is a religion of significance to scholars. 215 While acknowledging that a number of his colleagues accept Scientology as a religion, sociologist and professor Stephen A.

Kent wrote: "Rather than struggling over whether or not to label Scientology as a religion, I find it far more helpful to view it as a multifaceted transnational corporation, only one element of which is religious" emphasis in the original. 216217 Kent also holds that the US government sees Scientology not as a religion, but as a charitable organization due to its religious claims. Dr. Frank K.

Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis wrote, "it is abundantly clear that Scientology has both the typical forms of ceremonial and celebratory worship and its own unique form of spiritual life."220 Flinn further states that religion requires "beliefs in something transcendental or ultimate, practices (rites and codes of behavior) that re-inforce those beliefs and, a community that is sustained by both the beliefs and practices", all of which are present within Scientology. Using the synonym of alternative religions, Barrett (1998:237) and Hunt (2003:195) place Scientology in the sociological grouping of personal development movements together with the Neurolinguistic Programming, Emin, and Insight. Describing the variety of scholarly opinions in existence, David G.

Bromley and Douglas E. Cowan stated in 2006 that "Overall, however, most scholars have concluded that Scientology falls within the category of religion for the purposes of academic study, and a number have defended the Church in judicial and political proceedings on this basis."144 Bromley and Cowan noted in 2008 that Scientology's attempts "to gain favor with new religion scholars" had often been problematic. Religious scholar J.

According to Jacob Neusner, editor of World Religions in America, "Scientology contains religious practices and rituals, as well as moral principles and standards for ethical conduct, all aimed at the redemption and salvation of humanity. This religion is supported by a community of believers, including highly dedicated ordained clergy, and their activities are organized socially much like other, more traditional American religions." While NRM scholars have generally accepted the religious nature of Scientology, media reports have tended to express the opinion that "Scientology is a business, often given to criminal acts, and sometimes masquerading as a religion."144224 During his lifetime, Hubbard was accused of using religion as a façade for Scientology to maintain tax-exempt status and avoid prosecution for false medical claims.

224 The IRS cited a statement frequently attributed to Hubbard that the way to get rich was to found a religion. 225226 According to scholar J. Gordon Melton, the supposed statement is actually unsubstantiated, although several of Hubbard's science fiction colleagues do recall Hubbard raising the topic in conversation.

Hubbard grew up in a climate that was very critical of organized religion, and frequently quoted anti-religious sentiments in his early lectures. 227 The scholar Marco Frenschkowski (University of Mainz) has stated that it was not easy for Hubbard "to come to terms with the spiritual side of his own movement. Hubbard did not want to found a religion: he discovered that what he was talking about in fact was religion.

This mainly happened when he had to deal with apparent memories from former lives. He had to defend himself about this to his friends."227 Frenschkowski allows that there naturally were practical considerations about "how to present Scientology to the outside world", but dismisses the notion that presentation as a religion was just an expedient pretense, pointing to many passages in Hubbard's works that document his struggle with this issue. 227 Drawing parallels to similar struggles for identity in other religious movements such as Theosophy and Transcendental Meditation, Frenschkowski sees in Hubbard's lectures "the case of a man whose background was non-religious and who nevertheless discovers that his ideas somehow oscillate between 'science' (in a very popular sense), 'religion' and 'philosophy', and that these ideas somehow fascinate so many people that they start to form a separate movement.

The Church of Scientology denounces the idea of Hubbard starting a religion for personal gain as an unfounded rumor. 228 The Church also suggests that the origin of the rumor was a quote by George Orwell which had been misattributed to Hubbard. 229 Robert Vaughn Young, who left the Church in 1989 after being its spokesman for twenty years, suggested that reports of Hubbard making such a statement could be explained as a misattribution of Orwell, despite having encountered three of Hubbard's associates from his science fiction days who remembered Hubbard making statements of that sort in person.

230 It was Young who by a stroke of luck came up with the "Orwell quote": "but I have always thought there might be a lot of cash in starting a new religion, and we'll talk it over some time" It appears in a letter by George Orwell (signed Eric Blair) to a friend Jack Common, dated 7 July8 (7 July3), and was published in Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, vol. 231 In 2006, Rolling Stone's Janet Reitman writes Hubbard said the same thing to science fiction writer Lloyd Eshbach, a fact quoted in Eshbach's autobiography. Scientology maintains strict control over the use of its symbols, icons, and names.

It claims copyright and trademark over its "Scientology cross", and its lawyers have threatened lawsuits against individuals and organizations who have published the image in books and on Web sites. Because of this, it is very difficult for individual groups to attempt to publicly practice Scientology on their own, independent of the official Church of Scientology. Scientology has filed suit against a number of individuals who have attempted to set up their own auditing practices, using copyright and trademark law to shut these groups down.

The Church of Scientology and its many related organizations have amassed considerable real estate holdings worldwide, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars. 31 Scientology encourages existing members to "sell" Scientology to others by paying a commission to those who recruit new members. 31 Scientology franchises, or missions, must pay the Church of Scientology roughly 10% of their gross income.

234 On that basis, it is likened to a pyramid selling scheme. 235 While introductory courses do not cost much, courses at the higher levels may cost several thousand dollars each. 236 As a rule, the great majority of members proceeds up the bridge in a steady rate commensurate with their income.

Most recently the Italian Supreme Court agreed with the American IRS that the church's financial system is analogous to the practices of other groups and not out of line with its religious purposes. In conjunction with the Church of Scientology's request to be officially recognized as a religion in Germany, around 1996 the German state Baden-Württemberg conducted a thorough investigation regarding the group's activities within Germany. 238 The results of this investigation indicated that at the time of publication, Scientology's main sources of revenue ("Haupteinnahmequellen der SO") were from course offerings and sales of their various publications.

Course offerings ranged from (German Marks) DM 187 July9 to about DM 30,000 – the equivalent today of approximately $119 to $19,560 USD. Revenue from monthly, bi-monthly, and other membership offerings could not be estimated in the report, but was nevertheless placed in the millions. Defending its practices against accusations of profiteering, the Church has countered critics by drawing analogies to other religious groups who have established practices such as tithing, or require members to make donations for specific religious services.

Of the many new religious movements to appear during the 20th century, the Church of Scientology has, from its inception, been one of the most controversial, coming into conflict with the governments and police forces of several countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,242 France243 and Germany). 431230244245 It has been one of the most litigious religious movements in history, filing countless lawsuits against governments, organizations and individuals. Reports and allegations have been made, by journalists, courts, and governmental bodies of several countries, that the Church of Scientology is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members.

Scientology's disconnection policy, in which members are encouraged to cut off all contact with friends or family members who are "antagonistic" to Scientology. The death of a Scientologist Lisa McPherson while in the care of the Church. (Robert Minton sponsored the multi-million dollar law suit against Scientology for the death of McPherson.

Criminal activities committed on behalf of the Church or directed by Church officials (Operation Snow White, Operation Freakout). Conflicting statements about L. Ron Hubbard's life, in particular accounts of Hubbard discussing his intent to start a religion for profit and of his service in the military.

Scientology's harassment and litigious actions against its critics encouraged by its Fair Game policy. Attempts to legally force search engines such as Google and Yahoo! To omit any webpages critical of Scientology from their search engines (and in Google's case, AdSense), or at least the first few search pages.

Allegations by former high-ranking Scientologists that David Miscavige beats and demoralizes staff and that physical violence by superiors towards staff working for them is a common occurrence in the church. 250251 Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis denied these claims and provided witnesses to rebut them. In 7 July8, a French court found the Church of Scientology guilty of organized fraud.

Four officers of the organization were fined and given suspended prison sentences of up to 2 years. The Church of Scientology said it would appeal the judgment. Prosecutors had hoped to achieve a ban of Scientology in France, but due to a temporary change in French law, which "made it impossible to dissolve a legal entity on the grounds of fraud", no ban was pronounced.

252 The sentence was confirmed by appeal court in 7 July7. In 7 July8, Australian Senator Nick Xenophon used a speech in Federal Parliament to allege that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organization. Due to these allegations, a considerable amount of investigation has been aimed at the Church, by groups ranging from the media to governmental agencies.

Scientology social programs such as drug and criminal rehabilitation have likewise drawn both support and criticism. Professor of sociology Stephen A. Kent says "Scientologists see themselves as possessors of doctrines and skills that can save the world, if not the galaxy."259 As stated in Scientology doctrine: "The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology."260 Kent has described Scientology's ethics system as "a peculiar brand of morality that uniquely benefited the Church of Scientology ... In plain English, the purpose of Scientology ethics is to eliminate opponents, then eliminate people's interests in things other than Scientology.".

In the 1990s, Scientology representatives began to take action against increased criticism of Scientology on the Internet. The organization says that the actions taken were to prevent distribution of copyrighted Scientology documents and publications online, fighting what it refers to as "copyright terrorists". In 7 July7, Church lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to shut down the newsgroup alt.religion.

Scientology by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group. 263 In practice, this rmgroup message had little effect, since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when sent to groups that receive substantial traffic, and newgroup messages were quickly issued to recreate the group on those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message led to a great deal of public criticism by free-speech advocates.

264265 Among the criticism raised, one suggestion is that Scientology's true motive is to suppress the free speech of its critics. The Church also began filing lawsuits against those who posted copyrighted texts on the newsgroup and the World Wide Web, and lobbied for tighter restrictions on copyrights in general. The Church supported the controversial Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act as well as the even more controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Some of the DMCA's provisions (notably the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act) were heavily influenced by Church litigation against US Internet service providers over copyrighted Scientology materials that had been posted or uploaded through their servers. Beginning in the middle of 1996 and ensuing for several years, the newsgroup was attacked by anonymous parties using a tactic dubbed sporgery by some, in the form of hundreds of thousands of forged spam messages posted on the group. Some investigators said that some spam had been traced to Church members.

269270 Former Scientologist Tory Christman later asserted that the Office of Special Affairs had undertaken a concerted effort to destroy alt.religion. Scientology through these means; the effort failed. On 7 July8, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was leaked to the Internet and uploaded to YouTube.

272273274 The Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube requesting the removal of the video. 275 Subsequently, the group Anonymous voiced its criticism of Scientology and began attacking the Church. 276 Calling the action by the Church of Scientology a form of Internet censorship, participants of Anonymous coordinated Project Chanology, which consisted of a series of denial-of-service attacks against Scientology websites, prank calls, and black faxes to Scientology centers.

277278279280281 On 7 July7, Anonymous announced its intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring a "war" against both the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center. 280282 In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect the freedom of speech, and end what they saw as the financial exploitation of church members. On 7 July3, an Anonymous video appeared on YouTube calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on 7 July8.

284285 According to a letter Anonymous e-mailed to the press, about 7,000 people protested in more than 90 cities worldwide. 287 July9ny protesters wore masks based on the character V from V for Vendetta (who was influenced by Guy Fawkes) or otherwise disguised their identities, in part to protect themselves from reprisals from the Church of Scientology. 287288 Many further protests have followed since then in cities around the world.

The Arbitration Committee of the Wikipedia internet encyclopedia decided in 7 July8 to restrict access to its site from Church of Scientology IP addresses, to prevent self-serving edits by Scientologists. 290291 A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were topic-banned as well. 290291 The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with articles on living persons being the "worst casualties".

Scientology literature states that L. Ron Hubbard demonstrated his professional expertise in hypnosis by "discovering" the Dianetic engram. Hubbard was said to be an accomplished hypnotist, and close acquaintances such as Forrest Ackerman (Hubbard's literary agent) and A.

Van Vogt (an early supporter of Dianetics) witnessed repeated demonstrations of his hypnotic skills. During the auditing process, the auditor may collect personal information from the person being audited. 292 Auditing records are referred to within Scientology as preclear folders.

293 The Church of Scientology has strict codes designed to protect the confidentiality of the information contained in these folders. 292 However, people leaving Scientology know that the Church is in possession of very personal information about them, and that the Church has a history of attacking and psychologically abusing those who leave it and become critics. 293 On 7 July7, a Guardian's Office order (G.

121669) by Mary Sue Hubbard authorized the use of auditing records for purposes of "internal security."294 Some former members have said that while they were still in the Church, they combed through information obtained in auditing sessions to see if it could be used for smear campaigns against critics. Hubbard envisaged that celebrities would have a key role to play in the dissemination of Scientology, and in 1955 launched Project Celebrity, creating a list of 63 famous people that he asked his followers to target for conversion to Scientology. 297 Former silent-screen star Gloria Swanson and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck were among the earliest celebrities attracted to Hubbard's teachings.

Today, Scientology operates eight churches that are designated Celebrity Centers, the largest of these being the one in Hollywood. 299 Celebrity Centers are open to the general public, but are primarily designed to minister to celebrity Scientologists. 299 Entertainers such as John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, Nancy Cartwright, Jason Lee, Isaac Hayes, Edgar Winter, Tom Cruise, Chick Corea and Leah Remini have generated considerable publicity for Scientology.