Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices created by the American author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard initially presented his ideas in 1950 as a form of talk therapy called Dianetics. He later expanded and reframed those ideas as a religion, which he named Scientology. In 1953, he founded the Church of Scientology, which, by one 2014 estimate, had around 30,000 members.
A core Scientology belief is that traumatic events cause subconscious command-like recordings in the mind, which may have occurred in past lives, and which can only be relieved through an activity called "auditing". Auditing and training to audit are the two primary activities in a Scientology organization and are outlined in a structured progression chart called The Bridge to Total Freedom, with the two main achievement levels being the status of "Clear" (the goal of the original Dianetics) and "Operating Thetan" (Scientology's version of spiritual freedom). Fees are charged for auditing and training.
The upper‑level teachings of the Operating Thetan levels are considered confidential and are only revealed to Scientologists when they reach each level. The texts, which involve a past life cosmology narrative, have been leaked and publicized, despite the Church of Scientology litigating to keep them confidential.
The Church has been involved in numerous controversies, legal disputes, and even criminal convictions. It has been variously described as a religion, a cult, a business, and a scam. Scientology is classified differently around the world, with some countries granting it religious status, while others treat it as a non-religious belief system, a commercial enterprise, or a suspicious activity subject to government monitoring. Its practices and leadership have been the subject of sustained investigative reporting, academic study, government inquiries, and popular media portrayals.
History
Scientology emerged in the early 1950s from L. Ron Hubbard's earlier system of Dianetics, which he promoted as a form of mental therapy. After the initial Dianetics organizations collapsed, Hubbard reframed his ideas as a religion and began establishing Scientology organizations in the United States and abroad. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Scientology had developed its own doctrines, practices, and organizational structure, with Hubbard directing the movement from Saint Hill Manor in England.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Scientology expanded internationally but also faced increasing scrutiny from governments and regulatory agencies. In response, the organization created the Guardian's Office, an internal unit devoted to managing criticism and legal challenges, leading to several high-profile confrontations with authorities. These events shaped Scientology's reputation and contributed to its complex legal and social status in different countries.
In 1967, Hubbard established the Sea Org, a dedicated group of followers that became the hierarchical top tier of Scientology's administration. After Hubbard's death in 1986, leadership passed to David Miscavige, who consolidated control over the Church of Scientology's organizational network.
Under Miscavige, the organization has pursued legal recognition in numerous countries, and obtained tax-exempt status in the United States in 1993. Beginning in the early 2000s, the Church undertook a large scale real estate acquisition program. Public exposure on the internet increased criticism of Scientology, contributing to debate over the Church's practices and influence.
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is the organization that administers, governs, and promotes Scientology. It operates on a centralized hierarchical structure, running a global network of organizations and affiliated groups, and owns numerous properties including large campuses in California and Florida. The Church is managed by the Sea Org, an elite group of staff who sign billion-year contracts and hold senior positions within the network. Scholars describe the Church as highly bureaucratic with a heavy emphasis on statistics and performance targets.
The Church promotes Scientology through books and magazines, media productions, and advertising campaigns. It also operates Celebrity Centres, which cultivate celebrity involvement as a means of public outreach. The organization runs a variety of social programs—including drug rehabilitation, educational initiatives, business training, and disaster-response teams—that critics and some scholars describe as front groups used for recruitment and public relations.
The Church is widely known for its extensive litigation, aggressive responses to criticism, intelligence-gathering operations, and heavy disciplinary practices. These practices have been the subject of significant controversy and legal scrutiny.
Scientologists
Hubbard as source
Scientology is based entirely on the thousands of writings and lectures of L. Ron Hubbard, which Scientologists regard as the authoritative source of its ideas and practices. Hubbard claimed that he developed his ideas through research and experimentation rather than through revelation from a supernatural source.
Hubbard developed thousands of neologisms, and Scientology's specialized vocabulary (Scientologese) is expected to be learned by members. The use of this terminology functions to separate Scientologists from non-Scientologists. The organization refers to its practices as "technology", or "tech", and emphasizes a strict "standard" application of the tech as infallible.
Scientologists view Hubbard as an extraordinary, Messiah-like figure, a thetan who remained on Earth to guide others toward spiritual liberation, and as the discoverer of the source of human suffering and the technology to overcome it. Scientologists often refer to Hubbard affectionately as "Ron". Church management describes Hubbard's physical death as "dropping his body" to continue research at higher spiritual levels, and the Church's hagiography of Hubbard contributes to the "prophetic authority" attributed to Hubbard.
Every Scientology Org maintains a "shrine room" arranged like an office set aside for Hubbard's return, and furnished to resemble those he used in life, including a bust and large photograph of him. The Church presents that Hubbard's work is complete and unalterable, and their archival project has buried copies of his writings on metal disks in underground vaults intended to preserve them against catastrophe.
Beliefs
Scientology teaches that each person is an immortal spiritual being called a thetan, the true self that exists independently of the body, but has a body. According to Hubbard, thetans have lived through many past lives and continue existing after bodily death, after which they take on another newly-born human body. Negative experiences from earlier lifetimes are said to affect a person's present condition, and Scientology techniques are presented as methods for addressing those past traumas.
Scientology believes that the physical universe—called MEST, an acronym for matter, energy, space, and time—was originally created by thetans, who later became trapped within it and lost awareness of their spiritual nature. A central aim of Scientology practice is the recovery of the thetan's innate abilities, including exteriorization, the state when a thetan separates from the physical body and operates independently of it.
Scientology does not define or worship a supreme being, and focuses on the spiritual potential of the individual thetan rather than on the nature of a deity.
Scientology maintains a strong doctrinal hostility toward psychiatry and psychology. Hubbard taught that psychiatrists were responsible for severe harms in both ancient and modern history, and Scientology regards psychiatry as a corrupt and destructive profession. This stance is promoted institutionally through the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an anti-psychiatry organization established by the Church.
Practices
Auditing
Ethics and justice
Symbology
Scientology celebrates seven calendar events including L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, Auditor's Day, and New Year's. There is a Sunday service which is primarily of interest for non-members and beginners. Weddings and funerals are also held.
Advanced teachings
Operating Thetan levels
Space opera and the Wall of Fire
Controversies
Scientology has been involved in extensive public controversy since its founding. Major areas of controversy include its financial demands of members, abuses of members and staff, extralegal actions against critics and former members, and aggressive litigation. Scholarly and governmental assessments vary, but most state that Scientology has a long record of adversarial conduct. Religious scholars Urban and Lewis described the Church of Scientology as "the world's most controversial new religion", and "arguably the most persistently controversial of all contemporary new religious movements".
Financial demands
Scientology has been criticized for the high prices of its training courses and auditing services, which can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Members complain that the Church uses high-pressure sales tactics to extract large donations for the purchase and renovation of Scientology properties, and to push Scientologists to pre-pay for future services. The Church maintains tight secrecy surrounding their advanced teachings, which are accessible only to higher-level members, and the mystery is used to further entice members to advance their progress more quickly. Members in the US are able to reduce their taxes by deducting as charitable gifts the amounts they pay for Scientology services.
Abuse of members
Members have been pressured to cut ties with family members through the practice known as disconnection. Confidential information disclosed during counseling sessions has been misused for internal disciplinary actions, and disclosed publicly to others. Scientology's ethics and justice systems are used to control members and keep them in the group; per Kent, the system's purpose is "to eliminate opponents, then eliminate people's interests in things other than Scientology".
Abuse of staff
Staff work extremely long hours for minimal pay, and are coercively pressured to remain on staff after expressing a wish to leave. Staff who leave are presented with a , retroactively charging for services they received as part of their employment, and easily running into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Staff who join the Sea Org—the elite inner group who sign billion-year commitments, work full time for the Church, and supervise management of the international network of hundreds of corporations—have reported routine sleep deprivation and harsh disciplinary programs, such as forced manual labor and years of confinement in the Rehabilitation Project Force. They routinely experience overwork, poor food, housing, and healthcare. Numerous Sea Org staff have reported that Scientology leader David Miscavige has mentally abused staff members and physically assaulted them.
Lawsuits by former Sea Org staff have accused Scientology of emotional injury (Wollersheim), human trafficking (Headley), forced labor (Baxter), forced abortions (DeCrescenzo), forced marriage (Doe), and unlawful imprisonment (Haney).
Criminal cases
The organization and officials have been involved in a number of criminal cases. The most prominent US case is United States v. Hubbard in which eleven senior staff, including Hubbard's wife, were convicted and jailed in 1979 for infiltrating US government agencies under the Church's infiltration campaign called Operation Snow White.