By
Prof. Richard G. Benefield
I. INTRODUCTION
L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), was an author with a strong imagination
who
produced much science fiction, which is interesting, and which sold
far and wide. He
started a movement called DIANETICS, but the name was later changed
to Scientology,
and then it was called a church. It began to win more followers
after being called a
church. Then it fought for tax exemption.
Hubbard tried college, was placed on academic probation, and never
had the
qualifications to practice “mental healing.” But he made big
claims of producing ultimate
Truth.
Hubbard’s fantastic claims for his religion are dangerous psychologically
and
physically.
2. CRIMES
Hubbard, his wife, and some followers were involved in the crimes
of break-ins,
burglary, wiretapping, and other activities. Some convictions
followed. Time magazine,
in 1983, and other news media, reported these events. Hubbard
was especially harsh
against people he thought to be his enemies.
Crimes actually committed by religions, and cults were, and are,
common. Most
people are not educated about this fact, and most never will study
such things about
religions, cults, and some church denominations. Reality about
these institutions make
many people feel uncomfortable, so they will not consider the facts.
Many of these people
are tender minded.
3. HUBBARD’S DISCLAIMERS
On the back of the complete title page of his book, “Dianetics:
The Modern
Science of Mental Health,” the readers are rather ambiguously told
that Dianetics is not an
authoritative statement. It is further said that the E-Meter
cannot do anything. These are
two disclaimers. They admit that Dianetics is no authority.
Hubbard used the E-Meter,
but he and his followers deny that it can cure or predict anything.
It is supposed to be an
aid to locating spiritual problems with the use of electrobes.
It might as well be a ouija
board.
These disclaimers are somewhat like the disclaimers used in advertizing
by
psychics on television. The psychic disclaimer says, “For entertainment
only.” Many
people are damaged by Dianetics, and by psychics. Disclaimers
are efforts for protection
against law suits. Yet many thousands of people pay money, but
pay no attention to
disclaimers.
Watch for various disclaimers.
4. REJECTION OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
Scientology rejects both psychology and psychiatry. Cults,
and many people in
various contradictory religions, do the same thing. These two
mental health sciences are
seen as threats. So they are run down, criticized, and rejected.
But such rejection does
not lessen the importance and value of these sciences.
5. REJECTION OF FREUD
As could be expected, Scientology rejects both Freud and psychoanalysis.
It
shares this erroneous rejection with the women’s liberation movement,
and the so-called
gay liberation movement. Scientology perceives two more threats
from Freud and the
mental health science he founded.
6. ANTI-PHILOSOPHY
Hubbard used the word “philosophy,” but rejected it as a science
claiming instead
that Dianetics is a science. But Dianetics is no science.
Hubbard mentioned some
philosophers, but thought that he was superior to all of them.
Sheer nonsense!
7. MYSTICISM
Hubbard believed that a person could know through intuition, a
feeling which
indicates what is true. There are many contradictory claims by
various people that they
can “just feel” what decision or decisions will do. A mystic
usually feels that he/she is
“plugged” into a special truth “socket.” But many reports claim
that Scientology is
interested in wealth, and its “cleansing” power more than anything
else.
Mysticism influenced Ronnie Hubbard. He received some of
this influence from
Eastern Religious mysticism. Mysticism is the claim of having
special or mysterious
insight which no one can have unless he or she is initiated into the
same group. The
mysterious is often obscure. Mystics often claim that outsiders
“just don’t understand.”
Mysticism has power because so many mystics have closed minds.
Scientology says it is
not mystical but it is.
8. “PROCLAIMS” NOT LOGICAL ARGUMENTS
To proclaim is to declare, set forth, or announce. A “proclaim”
is a teaching or
declaration. I coined the word to denote what religionists and
mystics often do. They
make “proclaims” about their doctrines. But mere proclaims are
not logical. Cults and
religions use “Proclaims.” They proclaim one so-called truth
after another. Moreover
they proclaim all types of contradictory truths. False truth
claims are all over the world,
and this fact is literal.
Proclaims merely proclaim or state that something is true or a
fact. Proclaims are
not logical arguments, and are not based on logic and the scientific
method.
9. COUNTRIES IN CONFLICT WITH SCIENTOLOGY
Scientology admits that it had and has conflicts with governments
in various
countries. Countries include France, Italy, Canada, Australia,
Great Britian, Germany,
United States, and so on. The united German government rejected
scientology by saying
that it is not a church but a dangerous cult. It is considered
to be a money-making racket,
not a legitimate church. Scientology conflicted with other nations
over money matters,
taxes, in some cases tax exemption, and over psychotic members refusing
to take
prescriptions from psychiatrists. Psychotic patients often cannot
be controlled without
psychiatrists or other physicians prescribing effective drugs.
American federal government officials in the past raided Scientology
places in
efforts to confiscate illegal drugs. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), the federal
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other government agencies investigated
Scientology. It was also investigated by Interpol on an international
basis.
Many court battles occurred as governments filed charges against some
Scientologists,
and as Scientology filed many lawsuits. And the trouble goes
on.
Scientology, along with other cults, religions, church denominations,
and onlyistic
(we are “it” -- have the truth) churches and religious groups finally
became a tax exempt
religion in the United States. It is a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt religion.
Taxpayers can have
fun paying taxes it does not pay.
10. DIANETICS: FALSE PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY
Hubbard claimed that man, he meant people (he always used “man,”
time, and
time, and time again), made no progress in mental healing in the past.
Man learned little
about the mind, and there was very little progress in knowledge about
the mind in Western
civilization. Hubbard proclaimed that he discovered the only
true science of mind. It
sounds like the Christian Science cult at times. Psychology,
psychoanalysis, and especially
psychiatry, according to Mr. Hubbard, was all false and evil.
He and Scientology
literature carried on strong opposition against psychiatry, the American
Psychiatric
Association (APA), and to a lesser extent against the American Medical
Association
(AMA).
Some psychiatrists treated psychotic Scientologists as patients.
Then some
psychiatrists rejected Scientology as a dangerous religion. Hubbard’s
claims about
Dianetics as a cure for all types of mental illnesses was completely
rejected. Moreover
Hubbard’s so-called mental technology could cause various emotional,
and mental
problems. Today (1998) Scientology labels psychiatrists as “priesthood,”
and likens them
to witch doctors, and implies that they are fools, and stupid, and
that they never did
anything for mentally ill people or for society. Scientology
claims that it made modern
psychiatry nervous, and that it wounded it. Scientology wants
psychiatrists to leave a
person alone if he or she is having an epileptic seizure or a psychotic
episode regardless of
how severe the episode is, and regardless of what happens to the person.
Scientology
claims that millions of dollars spent on psychiatrists are wasted money,
and that
Scientology, using Hubbard’s mental healing, could accomplish more
for $10.00, the cost
of a book, probably Hubbard’s “Dianetics.”
All psychosurgery is rejected, and so are all drugs prescribed
by psychiatrists.
Scientologists are forbidden to take any prescribed drugs for nervous,
emotional, or
mental problems. Scientology claims that psychiatry is trying
to control the world in
attempts to control peoples’ minds with prescribed drugs. Then
it claims there are 500
Scientology practioneers to every one psychiatrist. Hubbard,
and Scientology, intend to
end insanity (their use of the term) in the world. They intend
to do it with Dianetics
technology. Likewise they want to end crimes and war. Scientology
is a kind of
utopianism which causes more insanity, and as we saw has been involved
in many crimes.
It only contributes to insanity problems, and does not end them.
Scientology opposes the use of Electric Shock Therapy (EST).
Some psychiatrists
also oppose its use. But Scientology uses its E-Meter (Electropsychometer)
which relays
a small current of electricity into the body of the subject.
Remember, Scientology says
again and again that the E-Meter can do nothing, but then it says it
can be made to work.
Legal authorities have warned Scientology not to make false medical
or psychological
claims. The E-Meter is supposed to measure a change in a subject’s
mind and a problem
can be indicated. It is part of a money making system.
Psychiatrists rejected it.
“Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,” is the complete
title of
Hubbard’s book. But it is neither science nor safe or effective
treatment for emotional or
mental problems. It is no more reliable than Mary Baker Eddy’s
“Science and Health
With Key to the Scriptures,” which is the authority for the Christian
Science cult.
11. COURT DECLARED HUBBARD TO BE INSANE
Los Angeles Times reporters provided news about Hubbard
and his religion from
time to time. In June of 1984 it reported that a Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge gave
the court’s opinion that L. Ron Hubbard was a paranoid schizophrenic,
who was also a
pathological liar. Time magazine questioned Hubbard’s mental
competentcy in 1983.
After 1984 Hubbard was not heard from again. It is guessed that
some of his followers
hid him away because he suffered a mental breakdown. His death
was reported to be
January 24, 1986. In a sense Ron Hubbard was an unfortunate victim,
and a tragedy who
could have helped many people find the way of God instead of the way
of another cult.
12. DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM
I served as the director of an American Indian tribe’s social
services department
for two years while continuing to teach university courses. The
Chilocco, Oklahoma,
Indian School closed. I wrote a closing speech for one educational
official. Scientology
obtained the closed school and opened a Narconon Drug Rehabilitation
Center in it. An
employee came to my office and asked me to endorse the center.
They wanted to treat
some Indians in their drug program, and wanted the endorsement of the
Indian Health
Services, and wanted to receive federal funding which federal tax payers
would pay. He
did not tell me that it was a Scientology project but I was already
familiar with the
program.
I talked with him about the center, and program, and then about
Scientology. I
asked, “How many psychologists do you have at the center?” He
said, “None, but we
have a person who took a general psychology course.” I have taught
university
psychology courses for many years, and it is unbelievable that a drug
treatment center only
had the first course in psychology completed by one person. Of
course it had no
psychiatrist or psychoanalyst. I refused to endorse the center
but it eventually obtained
federal funding.
Some people who take drugs enter the center and study Hubbard’s
Dianetics book,
exercise, take sauna baths, and eat regular meals. Some people
on drugs never receive
any treatments or therapy or enter any kind of center, and yet merely
quit drugs. Many
others need help but should receive professional medical and mental
health treatment.
People do not need to be indoctrinated into cults.
Scientology, like most cults, depends on many testimonials to
endorse its religion
and programs. Testimonials can be manipulated, and selected,
and they can be, and often
are, illogical. Religious and political groups have used testimonials
to endorse and prove
almost everything.
13. ANTI-BIBLE
Scientology says that Hubbard’s “Dianetics,” and some of his other
writings, are
her scriptures. They spell scriptures without a capital “S.”
The Mormon Church uses
“The Book of Mormon,” “Doctrines and Covenants,” and “The Pearl of
Great Price” as
their scriptures. Other cults use a variety of so-called holy
writings. Some also use the
Bible or parts of it. Scientology does not believe in the Old
Testament or the New
Testament.
14. ANTI-CHRISTIAN
Scientology claims that their followers can attend any church
or religion and yet be
Scientologists. But people who are members of the Scientology
religion are expected to
give money and tithe. Money is necessary. Hubbard himself
was a multimillionaire.
Scientology says that it has no dogma about God. It says
there are many gods.
This is polytheism (belief in gods -- plural). The Mormon Church
teaches that faithful
Mormons can become gods (polytheism), have sex forever, and populate
other planets or
earths (plural). Polytheism is common in many cults, and religions.
But there is only one
God.
Scientology refers to the “Christ Legend,” does not accept Christ
as the Saviour,
rejects the idea of sin, and says repentance is contemptible; rejects
salvation in Christ, and
rejects hell (lake of fire) as a myth.
“Church” means “body of believers called out.” The Greek
word for “Church” is
“ecclesia.” The Church of Christianity is a body of Christian
believers in Christ, called out
of the bondage and sinful bondage of the world by the Holy Spirit.
The Scientology
“church” and religion is nothing like the Church. But it has
to be a church or religion in
order to be tax exempt.
Scientology is a mystic type of philosophy of religion based on
pseudo-psychology.
Scientology uses the appeal to simplicity fallacy. It claims
that Hubbard’s
teachings are simple.
People who refuse to accept Scientology are accused of being uninformed,
in
error, or merely opposed to the Truth. Ladies and gentlemen so
say all of the cults!
15. TURNING CHILDREN AGAINST PARENTS
Scientology has programs to win youth. “Disconnection” is
the term used when it
is considered to be necessary to disconnect from a family. Cults,
and religions, teach
youth that if their parents do not want them to accept the Truth, then
they must break
away from their families.
Youth are told that their parents do not have time to “get involved”
just now, and
that they refuse to accept the Truth. “We have the Truth,” is
a common claim and appeal
of cults. They often succeed in turning a young person against
a paraent, or parents.
Cults often break-up families, marriages, and homes. Cults drill
and drill youth on refusing
to obey parents if parents try to get them out of the cults.
Emotional and mental problems
are often caused by these methods. When a youth gets sick or
suffers a mental break
down, then the parents often get back their daughter or son.
Then the struggle to restore
the youth often begins in earnest. Physicians, psychiatrists,
hospitals, worries, and
expenses (bills) are often involved. I personally detest the
ways which cults use to break
up families. Many church denominations and religions do the same
thing.
Only a parent who has experienced such a tragedy can know the
agony and
struggle involved in getting the youth back to mental and physical
health. Many youth
never fully recover. Many adults have the same mental problems
or break-downs.
Cults deny that they brainwash people, but brainwashing is part
of their methods.
They cannot lie their way out of this fact.
16. DANGEROUS RELIGION
Scientology claims that it is the world’s fastest growing religion
but it is not. The
religion of Islam is the fastest growing religion and it is non-Christian.
Estimates of
Scientology’s membership are from two million to five million people.
This is large for a
cult, and large for many church denominations, and for some religions.
The Mormon cult
is also growing faster than Hubbard’s religion. See my writing
on this web site. Title:
“Mormons: Can They Become Gods, and Have Sex Forever?”
Page 24.
Hubbard taught that a person is a “preclear” before going through
the process of
study based on his writing. It is claimed that no person was
really “clear” until Hubbard
produced his religious system. No one, so it is said, ever knew
the Truth. Later
contradictions follow this claim. A person pays to audit Scientology
courses. It gets
expensive. An Auditor which is a Scientology minister teaches
the courses. After
completing Dianetics training, and exactly applying Scientology principles,
an auditor
(student) can become a “Clear.” This means that a person’s so-called
reactive mind has
been lost. The claim is that the person no longer has this mind.
The “Clear” is said to
have no harmful engrams. An engram is supposed to be somewhat
of a mental photo or
picture received when the person is unconscious. Harmful engrams,
so Hubbard, must be
ousted before a person is a “Clear.” (Can an unconscious person
receive “pictures?”)
Now a “Clear” is on the path of Scientology Truth. (This so-called
Truth is actually
fiction). But once a Scientologist does not mean always a Scientologist.
Many
Scientologists quit the religious cult. Some Scientologists are
converted to God through
Christ and become Christians. Many other people in the cult simply
cannot afford it
anymore. It is a waste of time and money.