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Almost 40 years ago as a College Freshman at UNLV, I wrote a term paper on cults and was tasked with researching many religious organizations which were believed to be cults. One organization on my list was the Scientology Center which at that time was located in a strip mall on the East side of the Strip in Las Vegas. The director of the center granted me an interview and was very friendly and understanding of my assignment. Having all the couth of a typical 18 year old. I asked the chain-smoking fellow (all members milling around the center appeared to be smoking non-stop) was Scientology a cult? He laughed at the directness of the question I suppose but instead of answering it, he guided me and my friend through the room of smoke to another room where we sat and watched a film about the greatness and legacy of the founder of the Church of Scientology L.Ron Hubbard.
Wyatt Tyrone Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
I wish I could say that everything I’ve put on this page comes from the fruit of my College-paper interview but unfortunately, neither the Director of the center nor the L. Ron Hubbard film he showed us would shed much light on the beliefs and practices of the Church of Scientology. There wasn’t an internet back then and nary a book on modern religious systems could be found in the cardex or micro-fiche of the public library. Much of the information gathered on this page is derived from the work and research of a personal friend and author, Kurt Van Gorden in his Chapter 13 contribution to the book “Kingdom of the Cults” by Dr. Walter Martin. Dr. Martin believed and taught that Scientology was both a cult and of the occult due to the founders involvement with Aleister Crowley, the satanist high priest and its aberration of a variety of world religions including Christianity.
Scientology is legally categorized as a religion and can also be defined as a religion in the secular sense. However, according to the standard of the Bible, it is a false religion and like Jesus of the Bible, we can freely speak aainst false religion without denying one’s rights to believe in that religion as true. Because Scientology meets so many of the criterion which define a particular religious group as a ‘cult’ (a term popularized by Dr. Walter Martin in the 60s) many Christian scholars categorize the Church of Scientology as a cult. Have a look at the following set of 14 criteria which can serve as a general method of identifying a given religious group as a cult:
Scientology was founded by a man named Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (L. Ron Hubbard – pictured) who is referred to today by members as simply “LRH”. Hubbard was a popular science fiction writer of the 1930s and 40s until he reached the conclusion that the real money was in starting a religion:
"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion."
This statement was made in 1949 and 1 year later in 1950 Hubbard released his work “Dianetics: A Modern Science of Mental Health”. This launched his career in self-help and religious books. The Church of Scientology was officially incorporated in California in 1954.
He met his wife, Sara Northrup (pictured), through a Pasadena-based occult group which was led by Jack Parsons, a disciple of the leading Satanist, sorcerer and black magician Aleister Crowley. Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis historical records include many letters between Parsons and Crowley in which Hubbard is mentioned several times.
Miami Daily News, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This proved a bit embarrasing for the Church of Scientology who, shortly after this news broke, made claims that Hubbard was given a secret mission from Naval Intelligence to infiltrate the OTO group and shut it down. However, no record has ever been recovered to demonstrate that Naval Intelligence hired Hubbard for any such operation. (Corydon, Madman, page 305). Parsons is also on record in a letter he wrote to Crowley where he speaks highly of Hubbard’s knowledge of “the rituals”; one can safely infer that the rituals that Crowley was famous for were occultic satanic rituals.
Hubbard’s most famous book, “Dianetics”, which supposedly was written in only 60 days (c.f. Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon) was a word coined by Hubbard which he defined as a system or process of “through thought” or “through the soul”. As such, he claimed that his Dianetics was a new “science of the mind” for mankind whom Hubbard believed, like many other world religions and cults, to be “basically good”.
Feoffer, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Hubbard believed that if a man changes his circumstances and eliminates pain, then his condition improves. This might sound obvious to a casual oberserver but in actuality it is a page taken straight out of Siddharta Gautama’s (the Buddha) writings. Hubbard differs from Buddhism in that he believes that the survival of mankind is based in avoiding pain AND gaining pleasure. Gautama doesn’t include the pleasure part.
Hubbard divides man’s mind into three categories and functions: (Dianetics, pg577)
The engram serves as a type of “motion picture” on the mind according to Hubbard which can trigger a “thetan” which is a cyclical reincarnated entity. The trigger is an “installed disk” of conditioned semantic responses and the idea behind Dianetics is that for a regular fee to the Church of Scientology, an auditor will “audit” the engram through a form of counseling using an electric galvanometer or E-meter. Typically the auditor chases the engram from memory to memory attempting to eradicate it but often discovering additional engrams chained together which require additional auditing visits which require additional payments to the organization.
The goal of these repeated treatments is to “clear” the individual of all engrams of his past. This can take several years and several several thousands of dollars but in the Church of Scientology, reaching the state of “Clear” is like receiving a ranking of the highest order. All those members chasing this state are called “pre-clears”. Perhaps one of the most embarrasing events in early Scientology happend when Hubbard threw a massive event for 4000 in Los Angeles to come see the first ever “clear” Sonya Bianca. Hubbard claimed she now had perfect reacall and could remember every moment of her life. Then under scrutiny, she couldn’t even remember basic physics formuli (she was a University Physics student), nor the color of Hubbard’s necktie which she had just seen shortly before. The night ended in disaster with many people leaving the auditorium amidst even further taunting questions. Hubbard tried to make excuses for the event but it would come to naught. The event would be brushed under the rug and Scientologists would go on to claim that 1966 saw the very first clear.
© O’Dea at Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Church of Scientology displays a similar cross to that of Christianity except that it has a sort of sun-burst behind the cross. According to a Scientology dictionary, the model of the cross came from a “very ancient Spanish mission in Arizona” where Hubbard claims to have excavated a sand casting of this cross.
Church of Scientology London by Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Hubbard came up with the idea and existence of Thetans and it is these “creatures” which is actually the person himself, that adds the religious nature to Scientology as they liken the Thetan to man’s spirit. It is a timeless entity which reincarnates in interplanetary life-forms.
The Thetan, once cleared must then learn to take control over his environment in order to become an “Operating Thetan” There are additional courses offered which pertain to survival through what are called the Eight Dynamics of life:
L. Ron Hubbard’s writings since Dianetics are considered “scripture” by the Church of Scientology and even though the 8th dynamic mentions survival through a supreme being, much of Scientology’s literature doesn’t mention God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, salvation or other theological terms associated with Christianity. Hubbard instead appeared to be heavily influenced by Buddhism, a bit of Hinduisn and a whole lot of the Occult as we see in his past affiliations. Hubbard revealed his sources for his belief system in his “Phoenix Letters” in 1954. He states, “The Veda (from Hinduism) is best read in a literal translation from the Sanskrit…A great deal of our material in Scientology is discovered right back there. Tao means knowingness” he said, “In other words, it is an ancestor to Scientology, the study of ‘knowing how to know'”. He goes on to say, “The Veda, the Tao, the Dharma, all mean knowingness…We first find this Buddha called actually Bodhi…This probably would be a Dianetic release.” This clearly shows that the basis religions for his Dianetics program is Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Kurt Van Gordon goes on to rightly quote John 10:8 where Jesus says, “All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers” and then he points out that the Vedas, Confucius, Lao-tzu of Taoism, the Buddha and the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” (quoted by Hubbard) all came before Jesus and are therefore rightly condemned as “thieves and robbers”.
Hubbard was also a syncretist/pluralist. In “The Scientology Catechism” it says, “We have no dogma in Scientology and each person’s concept is different…Each person attains his own certianty as to who God is and exactly what God means to him. THe author of the universe exists, how this is symbolized is dictated by your early training and conscience.”. Ultimately God is spoken of in the pantheistic terms of Hinduism in that Hubbard taught that man is part God and attain a “godlike” nature. He believed that man will evolve into “homo novis” – very high and godlike. (L Ron Hubbard, History of Man pg 38). To this, Van Gordon quotes Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie.” and Hosea 11:9 which says, “I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee.”
The world headquarters for the Church of Scientology is called the “Gold Base” and it is located North of San Jacinto, about 85 miles from Los Angeles. Famous Scientologist celebrities who lend their endorsements to Scientology are/were: Priscilla Presley (who has since left the Church), Kirstie Allie who was a Thetan 8 (deceased 71), singer Lou Rawls (deceased 73), Isaac Hayes – voice of Chef on the irreverant Southpark cartoon (deceased age 66). Hayes took part in almost every episode making fun of other religions and cults then when the Southpark creators took aim at Scientology, he left the show. Other celebrities are/were Leah Remini (who has left the Church), Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis (who has since left the Church) and so many more. It is a revolving door with members either leaving or dying relatively young while a part of the group.
Scientology is to be addressed in the same manner as we might address a Hindu or a Buddhist (more the latter than the former) in that God has placed the reality of eternity in all mankind and to reach someone this deep in deception, it is imparative to point out the reality of sin, the truth of the God of the Bible who declares in Isaiah 41 that He is discerned from the false belief systems by the truth he has spoken about both past and future events. We will stand before Him one day and, like L. Ron Hubbard had to do, all Scientologists must give an account for their sins against the one and only Holy God. There is a paradigm of falsehood which must be permeated in order to deliver the truth of the Gospel to the Scientologist which you can read for yourself by clicking the button below.
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God (from Whom all good things come – James 1:17), by belonging to the right church, denomination, world religion, or by having a particular world view. Rather only those who trust in the Lord Jesus (preached by the Apostles in the Bible) for their own sin. We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell. But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of that sin is eternal separation from God (death). The good news is that the Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible: