How the Church of Scientology works and why it is difficult to get out of it
Scientology is a kind of "religion of the year". In 2015, she invariably attracted attention: the devastating documentary on HBO “Going Clear” first came out, which caused another wave of revelations from the stars, and recently the book by American actress Lea Remini “Troublemaker”, which managed to break out of the church thirty years later, was published years after joining. As a final chord, the Moscow City Court recently banned the activities of the Moscow branch of the church.
Who Scientologists are, what they want and why it’s almost impossible to escape from them - the answers to all these questions are much more complicated than it might seem. We asked religious scholar Leonid Moyzhes to explain how the most mysterious religious organization of our time operates and why it managed to recruit so many famous people.
What is Scientology and where did it come from?
Scientology, which appeared not so long ago, has already managed to settle on all continents. In the sixty years since its creation, it has embraced tens of thousands of followers, becoming one of the most commercially successful and recognizable new religious movements. Despite this reliable information about her catastrophically little. Much stronger than the very peculiar views and practices, she is noticed by loud scandals that Scientologists are unsuccessfully trying to squeeze.
Scientology is a real “replica religion” created in the 50s in the USA by one particular person named Ron Hubbard. Officially, the creator did not try to rely on any ancient teaching, instead Scientology appeals to the authority of the most popular "religion" of the 20th century - science. Hubbard, of course, kept in his head the world cultural heritage when he invented his teaching. Even a cursory acquaintance with Scientology leaves the feeling that before you is a real mystical potpourri: here is a small pinch of Blavatsky's theosophy, here is a hello from ancient Gnosticism, there is a little occultism, and there, you see, American Christianity sticks out. However, it is the popular scientific concepts of the 50s that still occupy the central place in Scientology, as well as the very image of "Science". This is not surprising, given that the science fiction writer is at the root of this religion.
Who is Ron Hubbard?
Ron Hubbard, according to Scientologists, was a man of diverse talents. Born in Nebraska in 1911, before creating his religion, he managed to serve in the navy, having traveled to many countries, including under rather difficult conditions, and most importantly - became a popular science fiction writer who was familiar with many of the leading figures of the genre . It was this passion that became decisive. Hubbard first created his own "science", Dianetics, designed to help those suffering from problems and mental ailments, and later, as it gained popularity, turned it into a religion - Scientology.
For Scientologists, Hubbard is first and foremost the main spiritual mentor. Followers treat him with piety and tenderness, affectionately calling him "Ron" or LRH (an abbreviation of his name). An illustration of this is the Ron Hubbard Cabinet, which is necessarily present in all Scientology centers; Today, however, it is a purely symbolic gesture. A reverent attitude to Hubbard forces many to see in the Church of Scientology a sect built around the cult of personality, but in their worship of Hubbard Scientologists do not go further than followers of other religions. Another thing is that it looks quite funny against the background of the Scientologists' open desire for rationality and pragmatism.
What do Scientologists believe?
Scientology is based on a teaching called “Dianetics,” a pseudoscientific discipline that Hubbard invented and which Scientologists themselves define as the “first exact science of the mind.” The basic concept appeared in the second half of the 40s and was based on the literal understanding of popular ideas of complete mind control over the body, and the unconscious - over the conscious.
According to Hubbard, failures, fears, problems, and even physical discomfort are the result of the action of the so-called reactive mind, that is, the sum of all negative experiences that we are not fully aware of, but who continue to control our actions. For example, a man was attacked by a dog as a child, thanks to which he continues to fear all the dogs he meets. It is easy to see that this is a literal reading of the Freudian concept of repressed trauma, from which complex discourses about sexual experience and other psychoanalytic discoveries were thrown in favor of the basic idea: the past controls the present.
Hubbard called every such experience “engrams,” and suggested that with the help of Dianetics, a person can fight them, eliminating the “reactive mind.” Over time, this makes it possible to get rid of the problems that prevent you from achieving success, to live a full life, and then, using the resources of your brain, to say goodbye to physical ailments. The symbol of success for Hubbard himself was the fact that one of the books devoted to Dianetics with the subtitle “Modern science of the mind” had been in the top of the New York Times bestsellers for nearly a month, significantly overtaking all his previous literary works.
The most characteristic subject related to Dianetics (and later Scientology) is the E-meter, a device consisting of a scale and a pair of electrodes. According to Hubbard's teachings, the E-Meter reads electrical potential from human skin, which, in turn, changes when the mind touches some kind of engram. In this way, engrams can be detected using a device and a detailed conversation about life. Then the negative memory is required to live anew in the imagination, this time making the right choice to eliminate the injury. The procedure, during which a person under the guidance of a specially prepared person with an E-meter fights with the burden of his own past, was called auditing and is still the most important and frequent ritual of Scientology.
At first glance, auditing is more like a session with a psychoanalyst than a religious ritual. It is curious to note that Dianetics was at the same time radically contrasted with psychiatry, the established science of the mind. This confrontation has taken root so much that Scientologists are still spending a lot of money and resources on campaigns against psychiatrists.
Although many now treat this as a confrontation of madmen with their natural enemies, it must be admitted that the Institute of Mid-Century American Psychiatry was quite inhuman in terms of the quality of treatment and in relation to patients (a good example of the work of the clinic of that period is " over the cuckoo's nest "). Requirements for reform in this area were heard in different sectors of society, until finally they were heard already in the 70s. Regardless of the motives, one cannot deny that Hubbard in this case performed with the right beginnings.
However, L. Ron Hubbard would not have been known as a new prophet if he had settled on Dianetics. According to Hubbard himself, after a person completely overcomes his reactive mind, he is able to go even further, gradually eliminating the most basic engrams and establishing a connection with what is called soul in traditional religions. To do this, he must continue to engage in auditing, overcoming the trauma of previous lives. This revelation made Hubbard move from science to religion and establish Scientology.
Scientology is based on the idea of a thetan — the very “soul” that Hubbard was able to establish contact with. Thetans are immortal, are present in every human being, are reborn and exist from ancient times. The most interesting is the story of their occurrence: according to Hubbard's teachings, these are several billion souls of the representatives of the mysterious cosmic race, whom the dictator of Galactic Confederation Xenu had locked in human bodies due to overpopulation in his state, removing memory. After all his human problems have been eliminated, the Scientologist is given the opportunity to help the thetan who is hiding in him to restore his own identity. This makes it possible to gain superpowers, and in the future - to ascend to a fundamentally different level of existence.
This whole set of performances is known as the "space opera". It contains many other colorful stories describing the fate of thetans, the circumstances of Xenu's coming to power, and much more, but this particular plot is central. Researchers find parallels in it with a whole range of mystical teachings, but the comparison of the “space opera” with the plots of science fiction of that time most vividly presented by TV shows like “Twilight Zone” or “Star Trek” looks much more interesting. Obviously, Hubbard’s teaching is simply a product of its time.
It is almost impossible to estimate how much he himself believed in what he said. Scientology critics love to remember Hubbard’s phrase, seeing in it a confirmation that he was a simple fraud: “You can't get rich by coming up with science fiction. To get rich, you need to come up with religion.” Even if at first it was so, over time, he clearly believed in his own message, spending considerable resources on following his own advice. But the final answer to the question of how sincerely Hubbard preached Scientology, we hardly know.
What do Scientologists do?
Despite exotic mythology, in practice, Scientology communities are more like groups of contemporary American Protestants. These are close but open communities consisting of extremely positive people, ideally - family, leading a healthy lifestyle and seeking material success - in strict accordance with the Hubbard Doctrine. In addition to auditing, Scientologists have their own Sunday services, wedding and funeral practices, as well as a naming, a kind of christening for a newborn.
On a larger level, the Church is organized on a quasi-corporate basis headed by the chairman of the Center for Religious Technologies. Now this is David Miscavige, around which more than one scandal has erupted over the past ten years, involving accusations of various kinds of violence against church members. There is a complex hierarchy based on the degree of human progress along the path to the thetan: from simple practice to initiate to the most intimate secrets. Rumor has it that the second most important person in the church has recently become none other than Tom Cruise.
People come to the Church for various reasons, but the focus on pragmatic values unites Scientologists around the world. Whatever esoteric things the representatives of the higher echelons believe, the majority of the rank and file are ordinary people. Many of them have joined Scientology, because it promises prosperity in society, help in the fight against addictions, as well as solving everyday, psychological and family problems.
The promise of these simple joys, simultaneously reinforced by the authority of science and religion, leads people to Scientology. The scientific and technical component, the symbol of which is the E-meter, makes the Scientologists' statements convincing, and the fact that Scientology is positioned as a religion makes it possible to give the organization a special meaning, to elevate it above the usual psychological training and support groups.
Scientology removes not only the contradiction between religion and science, but also the conflict between “being modern” (in particular, “believing in science”) and life in accordance with the conservative morality that is attractive to many: family, moderation, honest stable work . As a result, people suffering from some kind of problems remain in the Church despite the arguments against it. In fact, this is what led the Scientologists to the ranks of the most famous member of the Church, the actor Tom Cruise, who claims that Hubbard's techniques, among other things, help him cope with severe dyslexia.
However, Scientology continues to generate many rumors and accusations that the Church is trying with all its might to control the lives of its members, at least the most public of them. For example, the popular opinion is that the Church directly influences the roles chosen by actors-followers, fearing anything that could adversely affect their reputation. The conservative opinion of Hubbard on many issues continues to be considered: the founder equated adultery in fact to mental disorders, condemned abortion, and had a negative attitude to homosexuality. Representatives of Scientology are often accused of trying to "cure" their gay followers.
Why do celebrities often become Scientologists?
Cruise is far from the only Hollywood star who joined Scientology. Other well-known members of the Church are the married couple John Travolta and Kelly Preston, as well as actors and actresses Jason Lee (“My name is Earl”), Elizabeth Moss (“Mad Men”), Juliette Lewis (“Natural Born Killers), Giovanni Ribizi (“ Avatar ” ), the singer Beck and many others. The example of Ribisi is particularly busy because the actor belongs to Scientology from early childhood, which he spent among California filmmakers. This allows us to estimate how deeply this organization has taken root in Hollywood.
Scientologists have achieved this result, because they consciously went to him. Ron Hubbard himself, the flesh of the flesh of his age and his country, was well aware of how much the support of celebrities can promote the young religion. He even opened a special "center for celebrities" in Hollywood, the prototype of such centers around the world. The actors themselves in Scientology are attracted to the same things as ordinary people: the ability to combine science and spirituality, moderately conservative values and the absence of exalted austerity, pragmatism and attention to the state of society.
Moreover, unlike other fashionable teachings that have spread among Bohemians since the 1950s and 1960s, Scientology is an organized religion with clear membership criteria and aggressive PR strategies. While the passion for yoga does not make a person a Hindu or a Buddhist, Scientologists readily enroll as members of the Church anyone who has visited at least a couple of their courses and has not expressed open rejection of their ideas.
At the same time, the stars that left Scientology are almost more than those who remained in its ranks. This, for example, actress Lea Remini (“King of Queens”), who belonged to the Church since she was nine years old, but became a consistent critic of this doctrine after an unsuccessful attempt to find out why David Miscavige's wife, Shelley, stopped appearing in public. And for director Paul Haggis ("Million Baby", "Clash"), a 35-year-old Scientologist, the turning point was that the San Diego branch of the church supported the so-called Proposition 8 - a ban on homosexual marriage in the state of California.
Former Scientologists also include actor Christopher Riva (“Superman”) and all three Cruise wives: Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes, for each of which the departure from the Church coincided with the divorce. Besides the fact that the former wives accused Cruise of being spied on by orders of the Church for themselves and their children, there has recently been a persistent rumor that Scientologists prohibit seeing Cruz with his daughter Suri, and the actor literally picks up a new wife for reasons of good PR.
It is worth emphasizing that many ex-Scientologists, both famous and not so, became ardent opponents of the Church. The best illustration of this is an interview with former members in the documenting "Going Clear", but countless confessions are not limited to them. It should be noted here and the "merit" of Scientologists themselves, who somehow revolve around the approach called "fair game". According to this concept, the Church has the right to strictly resist any attacks on it. This doctrine finds many manifestations, and one of them is an uncompromising and sometimes inadequate struggle with people who turn from Scientologists to critics of Hubbard's teachings.
Why is Scientology so hard to leave?
The most striking example of "fair game" is the operation "Snow White", organized by the American Church of Scientology. In the course of it, the followers of this religion were able to penetrate as clerks, secretaries and other employees into a number of governmental organizations with the aim of abducting and destroying “false information” about their Church. The grandiose scandal and the investigation that followed their discovery ended with quite realistic deadlines for a number of participants in the operation.
Another well-known case is the harassment that Scientologists organized against Paulette Cooper, an American writer and author of several articles and books in which she sharply criticizes the work of the Church. Scientologists succeeded in ensuring that Cooper was charged with sending out threats, which, however, were later refuted.
An equally harsh reaction followed the recent release of the documentary "Going Clear". В качестве ответной меры сайентологи выкупали целые развороты в Los Angeles Times, где помещали своеобразную антирекламу фильма, а также связались со всеми кинокритиками, посмотревшими фильм, пытаясь повлиять на их мнение. Одновременно с этим Церковь записала собственную серию короткометражек, посвященных своим бывшим членам, участвовавшим в создании фильма, с такими красноречивыми названиями, как "Марк Ратбан: опасный психопат" или "Майк Райндер: избивающий жену".These people received dozens of threatening letters, and repeatedly reported that they were being watched.
However, the most scandalous accusation, which has been persecuting the Church throughout history, is connected not with high-profile actions, but with their everyday practice. This is the idea that Scientologists collect information about all members of the Church. The circumstances in which such accusations are made are always different, but the general idea is quite obvious: during auditing, a person tells virtually all his life, and focuses on the most painful, including shameful, experience. In full accordance with the scientific style of the Church, these stories are recorded, which looks like the perfect way to gather information for potential subsequent blackmail.
Scientologists themselves claim that the recorded data is confidential information that will never be used in the interests of their organization. But at the dawn of its short history, the Church had already fallen into the use of this data for the purpose of "internal security." Then the corresponding directive was abolished as “not based on the teachings of Hubbard,” but nonetheless, accusations that the Church keeps its followers by blackmail occur regularly in the media space, as well as suggestions that Scientologists use hypnosis in the auditing process.
Obviously, the Church is not able to apply such methods against all people who are trying to leave - there are many cases of a completely “correct divorce” with Scientology, for example, Nicole Kidman leaving the Church. However, the accusations continue to surface, partly because a reasonable argument seems to be that only blackmail or hypnosis can keep people in the Church after all known scandals and information leaks.
Of course, it is really difficult to leave the Church of Scientology, as well as from any such religious organization, but this complexity is of a completely different nature. People who come to Scientology are mostly new converts, that is, those who have already been in search and are often at odds with the outside world. Scientologists are actively and, apparently, not completely unsuccessfully struggling with bad habits, they allow a lonely person to find a place where they are ready to accept and try to help, they build a clear and fairly simple picture of the world in front of a person. To give up all this is extremely difficult, and for many people it is a much more serious test than a scandal. This, of course, does not refute any separate accusations, but calls into question the very idea that somewhere in the USA there is a huge building from which the Chief Scientologist administers an army of intimidated and zombie people all over the world. Reality, as always, is much more complicated.
Who fights Scientology and how?
Criticism of Scientology makes it possible to find a common language for both Christian fundamentalists and “Anonymus” - regular visitors of imageboards. The latter became, in the 2000s, the real locomotive of the struggle against the Church. They organized numerous DDoS attacks, telephone hoaxes and marches designed to draw the attention of the state to certain crimes of the Scientologists.
Another conspicuous group is the former members of the Church who have already been mentioned, who often turn into its hottest opponents. People like Mike Rinder, who once occupied a rather high position in the Church, but later became disillusioned with it, spend a lot of time and energy on other people not to repeat their path. They give interviews where they reveal Scientology, participate in the creation of documentary films (besides the already mentioned “Going Clear”, we can name the films “Scientology and Me” and “The Secrets of Scientology” directed by John Sweeney), conduct their own investigations, organize help groups for those wants to leave the movement, and try to possibly bring Scientologists to justice.
In this case, to sue Scientologists is not an easy task. While in the public space, Scientologists are plagued by numerous scandals, in court they feel much more confident than many of their opponents. At one time, they managed to bring to ruin with the help of fines Cult Awareness Network - an organization that set as its goal the struggle against "destructive cults." Already in 2000, the Church was able to refute the rather serious accusations of "negligent killing" that followed the death of a girl named Lisa MacPherson, a Scientologist, who was placed under church guardianship after a road accident. And in 2007, the European Court of Human Rights satisfied the claim of the Moscow branch of the Church, which Scientologists filed after the authorities of the capital refused to register them as a religious organization.
Curiously, as early as November 2015, Russia made another attempt to combat Scientologists, this time emphasizing that the Church is both a religious and commercial organization. For example, Scientologists enjoy "religious" tax breaks, but they apply copyright laws to their books, which are distributed commercially. This practice of “double positioning” was used by Hubbard himself in the USA and often allowed to win lawsuits in the past, but turned out to be sideways in Russia: the court decided that the Church should be eliminated in the next six months.