Scientology Explained

[Nakosis]

This is not an endorsement of Scientology or a recommendation to get involved with Scientology. In fact since my involvement with Scientology was in the early 80's, when L Ron Hubbard was still alive, I have no ideal what the contemporary experience of Scientology would be.

I posted this in the religious debate section because I intent to explain my theory of how/why Scientology works. So feel free to ask questions or disagree with my beliefs.

My Scientology credentials, as mentioned, I joined in the early 80's. I was introduce to Scientology through the "Personality Test". This was the normal recruitment process. They get you to agree to come in, take a personality test. Give you a personality evaluation and then try to convince you to take some training courses. They were called TR0 through TR4 I believe. TR means training routine. This are basic courses that train a person to become an auditor.

An auditor is a person trained to lead an individual through a series of processes created by L Ron Hubbard with the intent of removing "engrams" that occurred during one's current lifetime. Events which cause mental aberration in one's personality. The end goal being to "Clear" an individual of all of these engrams so they can be mentally healthy.

The purpose of the TRs is to train you to not emotional react to what others individual say or do. During auditing you may hear of terrible things done by or to an individual you are auditing. You are not allow to react to anything said or done by the individual during auditing. You must complete the auditing process as written without interruption for it to work. You can't allow yourself to be sidetracked by the auditee.

There are two basic tracks in Scientology. That of auditor and that of the auditee. Either you pay for the training to audit others or you pay to be audited by others. There is also a third route through Scientology, the route I took. That of joining the Sea Org. You sign a million year contract and to work for Scientology and then both training and auditing is free, as long as you don't leave. Otherwise you owe all of that money for any auditing and training you received.

 

[Nakosis]

​

I join the Sea Org organization called Publications or "Pubs" for short. They both printed the books sold by the church as well as designed and built the "E-Meter" The device pictured above use during auditing by the auditor to identify emotional responses during the auditing process. I ended up being the the team that designed and built the Mark VI e-meter. I assisted with software which simulated the movement of the needle as well as assembled and repaired the electronics.

I received some training as an auditor and received some auditing. However never became "Clear" nor completed training to be an auditor. However as a member of Pubs I had complete access to all of the church publications.

I lived in Hollywood Calif in the blue Scientology building pictured above for a couple of years. I got married to a fellow Scientologist in the church. However they had a falling out with the church and was subsequently kick-out and declared a suppressive person. I felt my obligations as a husband overrode any obligation I had to the church so I left as well.

The previous two post are just for background information but I will be happy to answer any questions I can.

 

[Stevicus]

View attachment 87868​

This is not an endorsement of Scientology or a recommendation to get involved with Scientology. In fact since my involvement with Scientology was in the early 80's, when L Ron Hubbard was still alive, I have no ideal what the contemporary experience of Scientology would be.

I posted this in the religious debate section because I intent to explain my theory of how/why Scientology works. So feel free to ask questions or disagree with my beliefs.

My Scientology credentials, as mentioned, I joined in the early 80's. I was introduce to Scientology through the "Personality Test". This was the normal recruitment process. They get you to agree to come in, take a personality test. Give you a personality evaluation and then try to convince you to take some training courses. They were called TR0 through TR4 I believe. TR means training routine. This are basic courses that train a person to become an auditor.

An auditor is a person trained to lead an individual through a series of processes created by L Ron Hubbard with the intent of removing "engrams" that occurred during one's current lifetime. Events which cause mental aberration in one's personality. The end goal being to "Clear" an individual of all of these engrams so they can be mentally healthy.

The purpose of the TRs is to train you to not emotional react to what others individual say or do. During auditing you may hear of terrible things done by or to an individual you are auditing. You are not allow to react to anything said or done by the individual during auditing. You must complete the auditing process as written without interruption for it to work. You can't allow yourself to be sidetracked by the auditee.

There are two basic tracks in Scientology. That of auditor and that of the auditee. Either you pay for the training to audit others or you pay to be audited by others. There is also a third route through Scientology, the route I took. That of joining the Sea Org. You sign a million year contract and to work for Scientology and then both training and auditing is free, as long as you don't leave. Otherwise you owe all of that money for any auditing and training you received.

So, is Scientology actually a religion or is it more of a psychological self-help course? I recall a lot of self-help and psychology-based programs from when I was a kid (such as EST). My mother had some dealings with Scientology, and her opinion was largely negative. She took some interest briefly, but once she was on their mailing list, she couldn't stop the flood of mail.

 

[Twilight Hue]

View attachment 87868​

This is not an endorsement of Scientology or a recommendation to get involved with Scientology. In fact since my involvement with Scientology was in the early 80's, when L Ron Hubbard was still alive, I have no ideal what the contemporary experience of Scientology would be.

I posted this in the religious debate section because I intent to explain my theory of how/why Scientology works. So feel free to ask questions or disagree with my beliefs.

My Scientology credentials, as mentioned, I joined in the early 80's. I was introduce to Scientology through the "Personality Test". This was the normal recruitment process. They get you to agree to come in, take a personality test. Give you a personality evaluation and then try to convince you to take some training courses. They were called TR0 through TR4 I believe. TR means training routine. This are basic courses that train a person to become an auditor.

An auditor is a person trained to lead an individual through a series of processes created by L Ron Hubbard with the intent of removing "engrams" that occurred during one's current lifetime. Events which cause mental aberration in one's personality. The end goal being to "Clear" an individual of all of these engrams so they can be mentally healthy.

The purpose of the TRs is to train you to not emotional react to what others individual say or do. During auditing you may hear of terrible things done by or to an individual you are auditing. You are not allow to react to anything said or done by the individual during auditing. You must complete the auditing process as written without interruption for it to work. You can't allow yourself to be sidetracked by the auditee.

There are two basic tracks in Scientology. That of auditor and that of the auditee. Either you pay for the training to audit others or you pay to be audited by others. There is also a third route through Scientology, the route I took. That of joining the Sea Org. You sign a million year contract and to work for Scientology and then both training and auditing is free, as long as you don't leave. Otherwise you owe all of that money for any auditing and training you received.

I'm really sorry , but because of the history of Scientology , I regard this as a crime organization.

 

[Nakosis]

​

Now to get to the point of this thread which is my view of how or why Scientology works.

During one's life events occur that Scientology calls engrams. These are event where you both suffered physical pain along with other physical and emotional stimulation. Most of these occur at a early age and are stored at a subconscious level. An example giving is an event in your life where you get bitten by a dog while the sent of bacon is in the air and hear the sound of a train in the distance. Now you don't completely remember the event. You may recall being bitten by a dog as a kid but don't recall the smells or the sounds. Later, you find the smell of bacon make you physically ill or you have an unreasonable fear of trains and you don't know why.

Auditing gets you to remember the details of the event. What occurred, what other simulations you experienced and any thoughts you had at the time. Once you have completely recalled the event, all the concurrent stimulation, all of the thoughts and emotions, bacon and trains will no longer be a problem for you. The engram has been "cleared".

Dianetics is the process of clearing all of these engrams you have experienced in this life so you no longer experience this aberrational. You are no longer a "weirdo".

What Scientology is, is that while they were auditing people, people started recalling events that happened to them in previous lives. Clear, the state of clear is when you've dealt with all of the engrams of one's current lifetime. Then comes the Scientology OT process. You pay to have the engrams of all of your previous lives cleared.

Stories that you've heard of an intergalactic society hidden from earth comes from stories told by people while being audited. Yes, so not only have you lived previous lives, you have lived previous lives on other planets.

Then you develop abilities like being able to exist, your POV anyway, external to the body. You exist above it, near by it while still connected to it. This is being OT or being an Operating Thetan. At this point you've realized you exist as something that is separate from the physical form.

I've talked to Scientologists who are 100% certain they are a thetan being and not a physical body. So these non-physical being go around operating these physical bodies trying to convince you to discover your non-physical self.

Now before you ask, yes I can experience existing as a being existing separate from my body at least briefly. Real or imagined? I suspect the brain is capable of imagine such an existence to point that it seems one's reality. The OT Scientologist is said to exist in this state of being separate from the body continuously.

 

[Nakosis]

So, is Scientology actually a religion or is it more of a psychological self-help course? I recall a lot of self-help and psychology-based programs from when I was a kid (such as EST). My mother had some dealings with Scientology, and her opinion was largely negative. She took some interest briefly, but once she was on their mailing list, she couldn't stop the flood of mail.

Sure, they are still trying to get me to come back after 40 years. They have a mission to clear the planet. Scientology initially was a self-help program. However L Ron Hubbard soon discovered the tax advantages of being a religion. The church had a number of run-ins with the IRS early on. They created an organization called the Guardian Org which so far has managed to keep its religious status at least in the US. In the US we are very weird about our laws protecting religious beliefs.

However some countries like Germany do not recognize Scientology as a religion. So there it operates as a self help organization.

 

[Nakosis]

I'm really sorry , but because of the history of Scientology , I regard this as a crime organization.

Not a problem. I plan to get into my own views of how this works psychologically.

I think they've tripped over some interesting understanding of how the brain works.
Dianectics is a self help book. The religion came later. You can read the book, self audit and work this all out yourself and have nothing to do with Scientology.

Scientology developed around training auditors which hold your hand through this process which you pay them for the service. You end up buying the book. In fact are required to by the books, sales you know... But, never have to actually read it and get to pay these nice people, who by the way also had to pay a lot of money to be trained to be an auditor by the church.

All of these money being paid was initially justified by having to pay all of the legal costs of having to defend itself from the US government. While that is no longer an issue the costs have not gone down.

 

[Heyo]

My Scientology credentials, as mentioned, I joined in the early 80's. I was introduce to Scientology through the "Personality Test". This was the normal recruitment process. They get you to agree to come in, take a personality test. Give you a personality evaluation and then try to convince you to take some training courses.​

I stumbled into such a personality test. I think it was a very powerful test, as they needed only five minutes to determine that they didn't like me and kicked me out again.

 

[Nakosis]

I stumbled into such a personality test. I think it was a very powerful test, as they needed only five minutes to determine that they didn't like me and kicked me out again.

What did you do?
Tell them you were broke?

 

[Heyo]

What did you do?
Tell them you were broke?

Yep. Broke and happy.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

You sign a million year contract and to work for Scientology and then both training and auditing is free, as long as you don't leave. Otherwise you owe all of that money for any auditing and training you received.​

Isn't it a billion year contract today?
Typo, or did that change since the 80s?

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

View attachment 87870
​

I join the Sea Org organization called Publications or "Pubs" for short. They both printed the books sold by the church as well as designed and built the "E-Meter" The device pictured above use during auditing by the auditor to identify emotional responses during the auditing process. I ended up being the the team that designed and built the Mark VI e-meter. I assisted with software which simulated the movement of the needle as well as assembled and repaired the electronics.

As a software engineer, this is interesting to me. Specifically the use of the word "simulated".
So how does this thing work exactly? I don't need technical detail off course, just conceptually...

Seems to me that to measure emotional responses, one would need to be hooked up to some kind of brainscanning device, or at least something that measure heart rate or alike, no?

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

View attachment 87878
​

Now to get to the point of this thread which is my view of how or why Scientology works.

During one's life events occur that Scientology calls engrams. These are event where you both suffered physical pain along with other physical and emotional stimulation. Most of these occur at a early age and are stored at a subconscious level. An example giving is an event in your life where you get bitten by a dog while the sent of bacon is in the air and hear the sound of a train in the distance. Now you don't completely remember the event. You may recall being bitten by a dog as a kid but don't recall the smells or the sounds. Later, you find the smell of bacon make you physically ill or you have an unreasonable fear of trains and you don't know why.

Auditing gets you to remember the details of the event. What occurred, what other simulations you experienced and any thoughts you had at the time. Once you have completely recalled the event, all the concurrent stimulation, all of the thoughts and emotions, bacon and trains will no longer be a problem for you. The engram has been "cleared".

Dianetics is the process of clearing all of these engrams you have experienced in this life so you no longer experience this aberrational. You are no longer a "weirdo".

What Scientology is, is that while they were auditing people, people started recalling events that happened to them in previous lives. Clear, the state of clear is when you've dealt with all of the engrams of one's current lifetime. Then comes the Scientology OT process. You pay to have the engrams of all of your previous lives cleared.

Stories that you've heard of an intergalactic society hidden from earth comes from stories told by people while being audited. Yes, so not only have you lived previous lives, you have lived previous lives on other planets.

Then you develop abilities like being able to exist, your POV anyway, external to the body. You exist above it, near by it while still connected to it. This is being OT or being an Operating Thetan. At this point you've realized you exist as something that is separate from the physical form.

I've talked to Scientologists who are 100% certain they are a thetan being and not a physical body. So these non-physical being go around operating these physical bodies trying to convince you to discover your non-physical self.

Now before you ask, yes I can experience existing as a being existing separate from my body at least briefly. Real or imagined? I suspect the brain is capable of imagine such an existence to point that it seems one's reality. The OT Scientologist is said to exist in this state of being separate from the body continuously.

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So tell us about Lord Xenu

 

[PureX]

Who would go to a pseudo religious cult for a "personality test"?

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Who would go to a pseudo religious cult for a "personality test"?

Apparantly, millions of people.

Humans are very capable of buying into all kinds of BS.

 

[Nakosis]

So tell us about Lord Xenu

Never experience anything about that myself. However these are recollection of the past life experience of people during auditing. These personal experience occur during higher level auditing. It was all pretty much not spoken about until you reach that level of auditing and then one was told not to say anything about it because it would cause mental aberrations in folks not ready for it.

I never saw anything in any of the books I read and it was never spoken about to anyone not of that level of auditing.

However what I did read was that earth was a prison planet. All of the trouble makers were sent here and underwent a process which cause them to forget that they were spiritual beings. We went through a type of mental suppression which ended up causing us to think we were nothing more than a physical body and therefore not think to try and escape the boundaries of earth.

 

[Nakosis]

Who would go to a pseudo religious cult for a "personality test"?

People like to discover things about themselves. Even if it is pseudoscience.
Look at all the folks into astrology.
It's not really any different from doing a political quiz to say what it says about you political proclivities.

 

[Nakosis]

As a software engineer, this is interesting to me. Specifically the use of the word "simulated".
So how does this thing work exactly? I don't need technical detail off course, just conceptually...

Seems to me that to measure emotional responses, one would need to be hooked up to some kind of brainscanning device, or at least something that measure heart rate or alike, no?

It is based on a Wheatstone bridge. It measures the electrical resistance of your body like a sort of lie detector.
Usually if the person is not distracted by a thought the needle floats at a specific range. Different people have different ranges their needle floats at.

If a person comes across a bad thought or memory it will cause the needle to jump or move erratically. Auditing often consists of the auditor reciting from a list of trigger words. Words know to trigger emotional responses in most people. If the auditor see the needle jumping while saying one of these trigger words they will repeat it telling the person to trying and focus on what is causing the emotional response.

So you look inside yourself trying to understand why you are feeling what you are feeling when you hear that particular word. Eventually you recall some memory of an event in your life by focusing on how you are feeling at that moment which is the source of what is causing you to feel that way.

If you become conscious of the event which is triggering the emotion you will no longer be subconsciously effected by it. You gotten rid of one more irrational feeling causing irrational behavior.

 

[Viker]

A Scientologist tried to date me years ago. I don't know if they were interested in me or converting, a then Satanist, to Scientology.

 

[Nakosis]

Isn't it a billion year contract today?
Typo, or did that change since the 80s?

No you are right, I believe it was a billion year contract I signed 40 years ago.
So I guess that means Scientology is going to continue to harass me for another 999999960 years.