Despite the twentieth century's
torrent of technological advances, our civilization is in dire need of
help. Since the
advent of an atomic age which
spawned the distinct possibility that all life on Earth could be extinguished
at the
push of a button, two generations
have grown up under that specter. Partially in consequence, life in our
society has
taken many strange twists: Children
are forcibly administered tranquilizing drugs in schools in the name of
control;
workers are taxed one hour's
wages for every three on the job; and our youth emerge from their schools
unable to
read or write. Through media
manipulation, whole populations are directed what to think, what to believe
or what
attitudes to hold. Such is the
world that would be encountered by a time traveler from the start of this
century, and
surely he would find it strange.
It is not easy to live with purpose,
dignity and happiness in a world so engrossed in materialism and so utterly
blind
to man's spiritual needs. Half
an hour's walk through any urban landscape would convince virtually anyone
that life
could be a happier proposition.
Which brings up the relevant question: What is Scientology?
Scientology is an applied religious philosophy.
The fastest growing religious
movement on Earth, Scientology has become a firmly established and active
force for
positive change in the world
in less than half a century.
The Scientologyr religious philosophy
contains a precise system of axioms, laws and techniques, exhaustively
researched and documented as
workable. As such, it provides the individual with the ability to dramatically
improve
conditions, not only in his own
life but in the world around him.
In a word, Scientology works.
THE RELIGIOUS HERITAGE OF SCIENTOLOGY
The dream of making the world
a better place has long been embraced by every religious movement in history.
Indeed, religion has served as
the primary civilizing influence on the planet.
The knowledge that man is a spirit
is as old as man himself. Only recently, with the advent of Western psychology,
have notions cropped up that
man is merely another animal, a stimulus-response mechanism. Such espousals
stand
at odds to every religious tradition,
which variously speak of the "soul," the "spirit" or the "life
force" - to
encompass a belief held by all
civilized men.
The Scientology religion follows
just this tradition of man's search for his spiritual identity. In
Scientology, the
individual himself is considered
to be the spiritual being - a thetan (pronounced "thay'-tn"). The term
is taken from
the Greek symbol for thought
or spirit. Thus, although a new movement, Scientology is heir to the understanding
of
thinking men since the beginning
of human history, that man is a spiritual being who aspires to understand
and
improve life. The search was
long , but it has been successful and answers now exist in Scientology
for anyone who
wishes to reach for them.
The Religion of Scientology
Scientology comprises a body of knowledge which extends from certain fundamental truths.
Prime among these truths:
Man is an immortal spiritual being.
His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities
are
unlimited, even if not presently
realized.
Scientology further holds man
to be basically good, and that his spiritual salvation depends upon himself
and his
fellows and his attainment of
brotherhood with the universe. In that regard, Scientology is a religious
philosophy in
the most profound sense of the
word, for it is concerned with no less than the full rehabilitation of
man's innate
spiritual self -- his capabilities,
his awareness and his certainty of his own immortality. Furthermore, as
religion
deals with the spirit in relationship
to itself, the universe and other life, and is essentially the belief in
spiritual
beings, Scientology follows a
religious tradition that is at least as old as mankind. Yet what Scientology
ultimately
represents is new. Its religious
technology is new, its ecclesiastical organization is new, and what it
means to
20th-century man is entirely
new.
At the heart of Scientology lie
its axioms that precisely define the fundamental laws and truths of life,
including who
we are, what we are capable of,
and most importantly, how we might realize our native spiritual abilities.
These
axioms form the foundation of
a vast body of wisdom that applies to the entirety of all life. From this
wisdom has
come a great number of fundamental
principles people can use to improve their immediate lives, as well as
to
achieve spiritual immortality.
In fact, there is no aspect of life that cannot be improved through the
application of
Scientology principles.
Auditing
The primary means by which the
basic truths of Scientology are applied to the rehabilitation of the human
spirit is
called auditing. It is the central
practice of Scientology, and it is delivered by an auditor, from the Latin
audire, "one
who listens."
An auditor does not engage in
some vague form of mental exploration, nor does an auditor offer solutions,
advice or
evaluation. One of the fundamental
principles of the Scientology faith is the truism that an individual can
improve
his conditions only if he is
allowed to find his own answers to life's problems. Scientology auditors
help individuals to
accomplish this goal by guiding
them to examine their existence through a carefully structured series of
steps that
Mr. Hubbard developed. By following
this gradient process, individuals can thereby improve their ability to
face
what they are and where they
are -- peeling away the layers of experience that have weighed so heavily
upon them.
Auditing, then, is not something
that is done to a person. Its benefits can be achieved only through active
participation and good communication.
The E-Meter
Unique to the Scientology religion
-- and revolutionary in the field of spiritual development -- is the use
by auditors
of the electropsychometer, or
E-Meter. Auditors use the E-Meter to help isolate areas of spiritual travail
or upset
that exist below a person's current
awareness. Once brought to light, such trouble areas can then be examined
by
the individual without the subjective
influences that attend spiritual counseling practices of other religions.
Mr. Hubbard developed the E-Meter
based on the knowledge that the mind contains mental image pictures, actual
recordings of past experiences.
These pictures contain energy and mass. When a person views one of these
mental
image pictures, or thinks a thought,
the E-Meter registers with precision the changes which occur in this mental
mass and energy. The E-Meter
does not diagnose or cure anything; it simply measures the state or change
of state
of an individual and serves as
a guide as to what should be addressed in an auditing session.
Dianetics announced the discovery
of a previously unknown and harmful part of the mind which contains many
recordings of past experiences
of loss, pain and unconsciousness in the form of mental image pictures.
These exist
below a person's level of awareness
and collectively accumulate to comprise what is called the Reactive Mind
-- the
source of all unwanted fears,
emotions, pains and psychosomatic illnesses. Step-by-step, auditing addresses
the
Reactive Mind until its previously
unknown content is uncovered and its harmful effects over an individual
are
erased. When such occurs, one
has achieved a new state of being that in Scientology is called Clear.
One's basic
and fundamental personality,
his artistry, personal force and individual character, his inherent goodness
and
decency, are all restored.
While Clear is a new state for
man, The Bridge leads him to even greater heights of spiritual freedom.
Above Clear
are the Operating Thetan (OT)
Levels. The thetan is the immortal spiritual being, the individual himself,
not his
body or mind or anything else.
It is not something he has, but what he is, a fact that becomes abundantly
clear on
these upper levels. The goal
of Clear is to remove from one's existence those things which are not part
of his
inherent spiritual self. The
goal of Operating Thetan is to overcome the travails of existence and regain
the
certainty and abilities of one's
native spiritual beingness. At this level one knows that he is separate
and apart from
such material things as physical
form or the physical universe.
Auditing at any level is an incomparable
experience, its full description well beyond the scope of this booklet.
However, imagine something that
has been troubling you all of your life -- some feeling or attitude or
experience.
Then imagine sitting with an
auditor and being asked an exact question -- the right question -- that
enables you to
suddenly, instantly see the truth
of this situation, the real source of it.
This is what auditing is, and
the result is revelatory -- tremendous relief, understanding, a sense of
freedom, the
ability to see everything more
clearly, an increased awareness. It is almost magical. And it is essentially
because of
this spiritual transformation
that is experienced by someone somewhere in the world every minute of every
day that
Scientology has grown as rapidly
as it has.
Training
Another fundamental practice of
the Scientology religion is training -- the study of Scientology principles.
Many
courses of training are available
in the Scientology religion because a person can, as stated, use the truths
found in
Scientology to improve conditions
in every area of life.However, the most important training courses are
those
through which one learns to become
an auditor. That is because the overriding principle in all courses is
that
Scientology is an applied religious
philosophy, and all training emphasizes application. The broad path the
Scientologist follows through
auditing and the study of Scientology materials is known as The Bridge.
This
embodies an ancient concept --
a long-envisioned route across a chasm between man's present state and
vastly
higher levels of awareness. The
Bridge is comprised of gradient steps so that gains are incremental, predictable
and
apparent.
There are two sides to this Bridge:
on one side, by receiving auditing, one reaches the highest states of awareness
as a spiritual being; on the
other, one studies the axioms and principles of Scientology and learns
to become an
auditor, ultimately advancing
to the highest levels of auditor skill. The freedom available through Scientology
requires passage along both these
paths. For while one becomes free through auditing, this must be augmented
by
knowledge of how to stay free.
Knowing the mechanisms by which spiritual freedom can be lost is itself
a freedom,
and places one outside their
influence. All told, then, The Bridge constitutes a route upward from the
lowest states
of human existence to hitherto
unimagined spiritual heights. And in that respect, it represents a spiritual
dream that
is as old as man himself.
The Scientology religion is based
exclusively upon L. Ron Hubbard's research, writings and recorded lectures
-- all
of which constitute the Scriptures
of the religion. These encompass more than 500,000 pages of writings, nearly
3,000 recorded lectures and more
than 100 films. He is the only source of the religion, and he has no successor.
A
fundamental doctrine of the Scientology
religion is that spiritual freedom can be attained only if the path outlined
in
these works is followed without
deviation, for it is an intensively researched and workable route.
To comprehend Scientology as a
religion, one must look past the parameters one might be familiar with,
such as
those of the Judeo-Christian
tradition, and view the East. For instance, although Scientology affirms
the existence
of a Supreme Being, its practice
does not include worship of such. Rather, the goal of the Scientology religion
is to
bring one to a level to make
his or her own conclusions. Thus, like many Eastern religions, salvation
in Scientology
is attained through personal
spiritual enlightenment. This, then, is the essence of Scientology: The
Bridge, the
auditing and training that takes
place every day of the year in every Church of Scientology in the world.
The
mission of Scientology is, after
all, nothing less than the rehabilitation of the human spirit. And, four
decades after
the Church's birth, it is because
of its ability to unerringly attain this age-old goal that men and women
from all
walks of life and diverse cultures
in nations throughout the world continue to reach for the promise of the
Scientology faith in ever-increasing
numbers.
THE CREED OF SCIENTOLOGY
We of the Church believe:
That all men of whatever race, color, or creed were created with equal rights;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives;
That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own defense;
That all men have inalienable
rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations,
churches and
governments;
That all men have inalienable
rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions
and to counter
or utter or write upon the opinions
of others;
That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind;
That the souls of men have the rights of men;
That the study of the mind and
the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion
or condoned
in non-religious fields;
And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.
And we of the Church believe:
That man is basically good;
That he is seeking to survive;
That his survival depends upon himself and upon his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.
And we of the Church believe that the laws of God forbid man:
To destroy his own kind;
To destroy the sanity of another;
To destroy or enslave another's soul;
To destroy or reduce the survival of one's companions or one's group.
And we of the Church believe that
the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the
body.