Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic.
Every Wednesday we cover an interesting topic, hobby, or something else that people might
feel like they’re uneducated about.
Today we’re diving into a religion for the first time, focusing on Scientology.
I’m going to try to remain unbiased and give you a look at what the Church of Scientology
says, what other people might say about it, and hopefully it’ll give you an idea of
who they are and what they believe.
I will bring up controversies about Scientology but by doing so, I’m not agreeing with or
endorsing any arguments.
Before we dive in, I also want to clarify that Scientology is not the same as Christian
Scientists, as they’re often confused.
So let's start at the beginning. Scientology was developed by an author named L. Ron Hubbard.
This is important and is the first controversy already, as L. Ron Hubbard was an established
author, known for works of fiction, mostly science fiction.
Over his lifetime, he published over 600 fiction pieces, including both short stories and novels
and he holds the Guinness World Record for the author with the most published works.
So as we get into the religion aspect of Scientology, you can see that people might not believe
the religious texts he wrote, following so many works of science fiction.
Hubbard was a United States veteran, serving as a Navy officer during World War 2 and commanding
two ships but was removed from his post because his superiors found him incapable of command.
In one of these instances, he fired upon a Japanese submarine that no one else saw and could
later find no proof of, and the other instance involved him firing upon an island that turned
out to belong to Mexico, an ally of the US.
The Church of Scientology gives a lot of weight to his military career, as his injuries and
near-death experiences were partially responsible for his ability to see the truth of things
and create the foundation for their belief set.
The Church of Scientology also disputes a lot of records about Hubbard, including medical
records and even says that sections are falsified, to protect his possibly secret activities as an intelligence officer.
These Navy records also dispute many of the injuries he claims to have suffered.
We move forward in time, where throughout the 1930s and 40s Hubbard continued to write
but also began to experiment more with the occult, including practicing as a hypnotist
and diving into other religious acts, some pretty unconventional.
And in 1950 we have the arrival of his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
This year is crucial for Scientologists, the beginning of everything.
Dianetics is focused on a technique still used today in Scientology called “auditing.”
Either through conversation or through a machine called an “e-meter,” these professionals
would help the patient recall past traumas and get through them or over them, removing
the emotional trauma of past memories in a process called “clearing.”
The e-meter picks up on signals from the body, in the same way a polygraph lie detector might,
and tell the auditor what phrases or memories trigger negative feelings and when they can
conclude certain conversations.
They hoped to get this process approved in the larger world of medicine but these proposals were rejected.
At this time, Hubbard also coined a term called “thetan,” which is essentially our soul
but it’s immortal and allows us to tap into past lives (and potentially past traumas from
those lives that still might affect us).
Dianetics is part of Scientology, but Dianetics in itself is not the religion, but rather
one way to enhance the religious experience.
"The average man is up against certain problems, he's asking himself certain questions."
"How can I make more money? How can I make my wife faithful? How can I make my children grow up?"
"Well... In other words, how can I live a better life?"
"How can I make things uh... more even... more stable for my family?"
"How... You know, how how how how. And what am I up against?"
"What is happening to me in my life, what is my purpose in life, and so forth."
"These questions in actual fact absorb a tremendous quantity of his energy and he himself is not able to go out and do anything very progressive about it."
"So the best things for him to do is go out and do something about it but he CAN'T do anything about it because he is so immersed in it."
"So actually in Scientology processing, he resolves these questions. He understands what he's doing. He know what he wants to do."
"He makes up his mind and he goes ahead and he does it and he turns from a man who is simply a puzzled static being into someone that is more dynamic and will accomplish something."
At this point, he pivoted to Scientology and made the argument that this whole process
is a religion, not a science.
With this came his idea to monetize, charging (at the time) $500 for an entire 24 hours of auditing.
This created a wave of churches being formed across the world, including the central headquarters
in Washington DC, which now still stands as a museum.
The headquarters now exists in California, in Riverside County.
About 1000 people live on the property and it’s well protected, including high fences and constant security.
There is a public road that drives through it, though it’s constantly recorded and monitored.
The Church requested that the road either be closed to the public or even moved to go
around the property but both requests were denied.
There are many rumors about living at this space that are hotly debated, including subpar
working wages, pursuit teams that bring people back and don’t allow them to leave, and
required confessions if they hear of other people in the compound talking or gossiping
about the church or its members.
I say this is debated because no one inside the base will complain or make a statement
to the police about their experience there.
Only a few have made complaints after they’ve left the Church and those cases have all been
tossed out or not taken seriously due to lack of information or evidence.
Let’s back up and focus on what Scientologists believe.
As a religion, what are their beliefs?
They believe that their soul, the thetan, is immortal and our lives are not confined
to this single lifetime.
They also believe we are capable of anything, even if we haven’t been able to realize it yet.
They do believe in a God-like figure called the Supreme Being, that its members learn
about and discover on their own unique journeys.
There are eight “dynamics” that drive us forward, including the urge towards infinity,
which includes discovering God.
Other dynamics include the urge to protect animal life, the urge to exist as a peaceful
community, and the urge to exist as one mankind across all races.
When speaking about Scientology, words like faith and belief are often avoided, in lieu
of concrete terms based on science and technology.
Once you are “clear,” meaning you’ve been cleansed of traumatic memories and feelings,
you are able to climb the ladder to more meaningful and powerful positions.
After clear comes a state called Operating Thetan, or OT for short.
This allows you to control the world around you, including life, energy, and matter.
They also can leave their bodies, as the thetan itself is not confined to it.
There are many levels of Operating Thetan and it costs money through the auditing process to progress.
The cheapest level is $2,750 and that’s assuming you’re free of those memories and
feelings, otherwise you’ll have much more auditing to do before this.
The third level of OT involves a major discovery that Hubbard discovered after Scientology had been founded.
While people reaching this level have signed confidentiality agreements, some of these
documents have been released to the public and it tells a story that again causes a pretty major controversy.
Okay, bare with me.
75 million years ago, an ancient being called Xenu was a dictator of something called the
Galactic Confederacy.
He brought humans to Earth, dropped them into volcanos, and killed them, releasing
their thetans into the environment.
These thetans are angry and upset, causing us now to be infected and affected by these negative emotions.
To overcome these negative emotions from this traumatic event is how you can reach OT level
III but it’s dangerous.
L. Ron Hubbard claims that it’s a tough thing to do and many illnesses might plague
people attempting to conquer it.
The Church doesn’t enjoy the telling of this story and will go out of its way to block
its telling, so if this video disappears or if I go missing, that may be the reason why.
This story was the focus of an episode of South Park centering on Scientology.
"What is the most secret part of Scientology or thing they worry about leaking?"
"Um well... You know, that stuff about the aliens and the volcano, you know..." HOST: "I don't know, what is that?"
"Oh gosh..." 3rd Man: "It's like the whole basis of Scientology."
"Yeah, well you don't know about that when you're in Scientology until you reach a certain level."
"Like you have to receive a certain amount of training and counseling and it can take years and the Scientologist has to pay a lot of money before they get there."
The total to get to this point through the process of auditing is around $100,000.
If you don’t become enlightened and don’t solve these life mysteries, you must pay to
try the process again.
"By the way, most Scientologists don't even get to this point."
Host: "Most." "Right, most don't."
Host: "Right, because you have to be wealthy to get to this."
"Not only do you have to be wealthy, but a lot of times what they do, the new scam is..."
"You gotta... you get to a level and they go 'Oh, we messed that up, you gotta go back down, at your expense."
While the church doesn’t come out and discuss
Xenu and this incident, volcanos do feature prominently on the covers of Dianetics.
Now another controversy arrives in the form of taxes and if Scientology should actually
be considered a religion by the IRS.
The IRS tried to claim back taxes in the 60s but the Church responded with thousands of
lawsuits against the IRS, resulting in about 25 years of back and forth litigation, eventually
resulting in the decision that Scientology was indeed a church and exempt from taxes.
Now by the time this landmark decision was made, L. Ron Hubbard had passed away.
The Church’s official statement was that he no longer needed his physical body and
continued to write and research without it.
This was in 1986 and a man named David Miscavige took over the Church.
A lot of claims have come out against Miscavige, including violence and abuse towards church
members, but nothing has been substantiated.
Something notable that happened around the time of the leadership change was the rise
in the “celebrity” Scientologists, prime examples to help recruit others.
First came John Travolta, then Tom Cruise, and they are the two most well-known, but
many other Hollywood types came to Scientology, able to pay for these auditing sessions that
could relieve them of past traumas.
But what people don’t think about… is that these auditing sessions, essentially counseling,
covering their deepest darkest secrets, are all kept in records, so each member of
the church has a file that can be used at any time to either discredit them or blackmail them.
This might be the reason that people stay in the church or don’t tell the truth when asked.
Now this already a long video but if you’re interested in more supposed testimony, there
are a few documentaries that go into much more depth, including Going Clear, available
now on Amazon Prime.
So as you can see, this is complicated, an international network that is given religious
status in the US but in other countries is defined as a dangerous cult.
We’ve got former members of the Church claiming some horrible things but there is no evidence.
They believe in the immortal soul and its endless capability, but beyond that are some
pretty bizarre extraterrestrial origins that people can find difficult to believe.
In the comments, let me know your thoughts about Scientology.
And we’ll see you next week for another What Is video about an interesting topic.