Random Religious News (Scientology and else)

2009-06-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Scientology Expanding

- The Church’s property holdings internationally have more than doubled in the last 5 years. The combined size of Church premises increased from 5.6 million square feet in 2004 to 11 million square feet in 2009.

- The Church has acquired 66 buildings since 2004 in major population centers around the world.

- The Church has completed 401,003 square feet of construction of new premises in the last 5 months. It currently has under construction another 475,887 square feet, including Churches in Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Quebec, Mexico City, Brussels, Rome and Tel Aviv.

- There are 8,071 Scientology Churches, Missions and groups in 165 nations, double the number five years ago.

- 80 million L. Ron Hubbard books and lectures on Dianetics and Scientology have been sold in the last decade, compared to 5.6 million in the prior decade, and 60 of that 80 million have been sold in the last two years-more than during the first 50 years of Dianetics and Scientology combined.

- The number of individuals completing auditing and training has doubled since 2007.

- Since the Church undertook to publish and reproduce its scriptural materials in-house in 2007, the average price of Mr. Hubbard’s books and lectures sold has decreased dramatically.

- There were 12.4 million visitors to the Scientology website in the last year alone coming from 234 countries, with 23 million video views.

- 4.5 million pages of L. Ron Hubbard’s writings have been translated in the last 10 years alone compared to a total of 359,459 for the prior 50 years, making him the most translated author in history-according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

- Today there are 196,000 Scientology Volunteer Ministers worldwide-there were 45,000 in 2004. Volunteer Ministers helped over 1.4 million people in the last year alone, a 300% increase over the 2004 figure of 550,000 people helped.

(Taken from ScientologyToday.org)

2007-10-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Eastern European Goodwill Tour Brings Disaster Preparedness to Craiova, Romania

In 2006, Romania was devastated by one of the worst flood seasons in the history of the country. And although there was no loss of life, so many Romanians were affected that it brought home the importance of having well trained emergency response personnel in place. Which explains why officials, community groups and the general public have been so interested in the disaster relief training program provided by the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Eastern European Goodwill Tour.

Youngsters dressed in traditional costumes at the grand opening of the Goodwill Tour in Craiova, Romania.

The first to take advantage of the Volunteer Ministers disaster relief training program was the local Red Cross, whose staff and volunteers attended seminars on communication and ethics. The Red Cross personnel also learned to deliver Scientology assists—simple techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard that handle the spiritual component in trauma.

More information here

2007-08-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

July 2007: David Miscavige releases "The Basics" of Scientology and Dianetics. Find out why here.

2007-07-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

I just found out that the Navy's ChaplainCare has reorganized their pages and one of the best available information sources on Scientology and other minorities vanished "just like that". This is irresponsible, insensitive and typical government think! To preserve this important information I fished it out of the Wayback Machine and post it here in full:

Scientology

Symbol

The main symbol of the Scientology^� religion is composed of:

	The letter "S" which represents Scientology.
	An upper triangle whose sides represent three closely interrelated factors: knowledge, responsibility and control.
	A lower triangle which represents affinity, reality and communication.

Another Scientology symbol is the eight-pointed cross. The eight points represent the Eight Dynamics of Existence, described below. The cross also represents the transition from materialism to spirituality and the crossing of that barrier.

Overview:

The Scientology religion deals with the human spirit and its relationship to the universe and its Creator. It teaches that its fundamental laws of life, when applied, help people achieve a happier and more fulfilling existence as surely as an apple falls to the ground when dropped.

Scientology teaches numerous workable methods:

	To deal with life situations
	To help people create strong interpersonal relationships, raise bright and able children and have happy and lasting marriages.

It also contains techniques to tackle the most serious societal problems of our age � illiteracy, drugs, crime and immorality. Scientology is something one does, it is not just a system of beliefs that one is asked to hold.

The keynote of the Scientology religion is that it deals with the human spirit and its salvation and rehabilitation. It teaches that an individual is a spirit: not a body, not a brain, not a fortuitous random conglomeration of genes and chemicals. It is this single recognition of the nature of an individual that forms the foundation of the Scientology religion. Throughout the ages, man has traditionally viewed himself as a spiritual being. It has only been within the last century that the materialistic idea that man is merely another animal similar to a monkey or rat has taken hold. Scientology teaches that this idea is patently false, unworkable, and acts as a barrier to a personal understanding of life. An individual little suspects how much untapped potential he or she has to create his or her own life.

Scientology directly addresses an individual's spiritual nature with answers to the age old questions of Who am I? What do I consist of? Where do I come from? Where am I going? This spiritual enlightenment leads to personal understanding of oneself and others.

Current status:

There are now 4,200 Scientology groups, missions and churches in 156 countries around the world servicing some 10 million individuals. There are also over 1,000 social betterment groups that the Church supports, which utilize their founder L. Ron Hubbard's technologies in the fields of education, moral rejuvenation, drug and criminal rehabilitation.

The Church has expanded more in the last five years than in the preceding fifty. During 2005, new Scientology groups, missions and churches have opened at the rate of three per day. Scientology is the fastest growing religion in the world.

History:

The Scientology religion was developed by American author and humanitarian "Lafayette Ron Hubbard. It came from his lifelong passion to assist man to a higher plane of civilization and existence. Mr. Hubbard was not only a writer, one of the leading lights of the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the mid-1900s, but a full Renaissance man who was a recognized explorer with membership in the prestigious Explorer's Club, a captain of corvettes during World War II, and fully versed in 21 different professions.

Born in Tilden, NE on 1911-MAR-13, L. Ron Hubbard traveled extensively during his youth. He covered some quarter of a million miles by the time he was twenty years of age, including several trips to the Orient; directed two expeditions to the Caribbean, one of which was the first mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico.

It was during his travels in Asia where he viewed so much misery and want that he asked himself "why all this?" and "to what depths can man fall," and "what is he anyway?" He found that there was not much known about the true nature of man and became fascinated with this line of research which he made his life's work.

In 1938, in the unpublished manuscript "Excalibur," he delineated his first major discovery. He found that the common denominator of existence is "survival" and outlined the theory that "life is composed of two things: the material universe and an X-factor...that can evidently organize and mobilize the material universe."

His first major work on the subject was published on 1950-MAY-09 and called "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." Dianetics is a methodology which is designed to help alleviate such ailments as unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and psychosomatic illnesses (illnesses caused or aggravated by mental stress). Dianetics is defined as what the soul is doing to the body. It is a mental therapy and led to the broader study of Scientology.

The initial press run of Dianetics was only 6,000 copies. Mr. Hubbard had planned to head an expedition to Greece after it was published. However, Dianetics sales exploded and the book reached the New York Times best seller list and stayed there month after month. Today Dianetics has sold over 21 million copies and is the best selling self-help book of all time.

It became obvious to Mr. Hubbard after observing many, many people using Dianetics and seeing the results that there was something more to man than just his mind and body. In the fall of 1951, he concluded that an individual was neither his body nor his mind, but an immortal spiritual being. With this discovery, L. Ron Hubbard moved firmly into the field traditionally belonging to religion � the realm of the human soul.

Scientology has a wide scope. Besides a score of books, there are today more than 15,000 pages of technical writing and more than 3,000 taped lectures that comprise its scriptures. These works represent a lifetime of research by L. Ron Hubbard to discover a workable means to set people free spiritually.

Mr. Hubbard has been recognized as the world's most translated author by the Guinness Book of World Records. His work now exists in 65 different languages.

In October 1993, the Internal Revenue Service of the United States granted full religious recognition and tax exemption to all Scientology churches, missions and social betterment groups in that country. Every Scientology church in Canada is recognized as a religion in the province in which it is located.

L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986. Unlike many emerging religions, the movement survived the transition to new leadership. Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center, is now the ecclesiastical head of the religion.

The Religious Technology Center is the senior Church body entrusted by Mr. Hubbard with maintaining the purity and orthodoxy of the Scientology religion as well as ensuring that the technologies of Dianetics and Scientology remain in good hands. The Religious Technology Center does not manage Scientology churches. This is done by the Church of Scientology International (CSI), the senior ecclesiastical management body of the religion. CSI broadly plans and coordinates Scientology expansion by providing programs to individual organizations and groups and then helping them with their implementation.

Beliefs:

The word "Scientology" means "the study of knowledge or truth." The Scientology religion holds that man is basically good, not evil. It teaches that it is their experiences that cause people to commit evil deeds. It is not their basic nature to do so. People can also mistakenly solve their problems by thinking only of their own personal interests and overlook or ignore how their acts may affect others. This creates interpersonal strife and problems. The Scientology religion also holds that individuals advance to the degree they preserve their spiritual integrity and values, and remain honest and decent. Indeed, individuals deteriorate to the degree they abandon these qualities.

Some organized efforts to help humanity try to solve people's problems for them. Scientology is different. The goal of Scientology applied religious philosophy is to bring the individual to a point where they are capable of sorting out the factors in their own life and solving their own problems. Scientology believes that when an individual�s intelligence is raised, and learns how to better confront life, he can solve his own problems and so better his own life. Once he has accomplished this he naturally starts to reach out to help his family, friends and society.

According to Scientology, the individual is not a body but a spirit. The term soul, however, has developed so many other meanings that a new term was needed. The term chosen by Mr. Hubbard was "thetan" from the Greek letter theta, the traditional symbol of thought and life. A thetan is the person himself, not his body, his name, the physical universe or anything else. It is that which is aware of being aware; the identity which IS the individual.

One phenomenon of the spirit or thetan researched by Mr. Hubbard is called exteriorization. Although mentioned in other religious texts, exteriorization is the ability of the thetan to leave the body and exist independent of the flesh. Exteriorized, a person can see without the body's eyes, hear without the body's ears and feel without the body's hands. Man previously had little understanding of this detachment from his mind and body. With the act of exteriorization attainable in Scientology a person gains the certainty he is himself, an immortal spiritual being, and not a body.

Some basic Scientology concepts that assist a person to understand life better are:

The Eight Dynamics of Existence: A "dynamic" is an urge, drive or impulse towards survival. Understanding these dynamics are believed to help a person gain insight and bring all aspects of his life into alignment. The first four dynamics were initially described by Mr. Hubbard in Dianetics. He expanded this to include four additional zones of existence the following year when he began research into the spiritual nature of man. These dynamic urges are best thought of as a series of concentric circles moving out from the first to the eighth:

	The First Dynamic is the urge to survive as oneself.
	The Second the urge to survive through family and sex.
	The Third is the urge to survive in various groups such as a company or with a group of friends.
	The Fourth is the urge to survive as mankind.
	The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth are the urges to survive through other life forms such as animals, the physical universe, the spiritual universe and Infinity or Supreme Being respectively.

Scientology teaches that simply delineating these dynamics clarifies and brings order into existence. One can observe these dynamics in one's own life, note which ones need improvement and through the use of this Scientology principle bring these factors into greater harmony.

Affinity, Reality and Communication: A concept of considerable importance in the Scientology religion is the principle of affinity, reality and communication. These three factors are expressed as a triangle that is enormously important in interpersonal relations. Affinity is the degree of liking or affection or lack of it for someone or something. Reality is agreement on the solid things of life or mutually held between individuals. Communication is the interchange of ideas or objects between two or more people.

The principle is when one corner of the triangle goes up, such as communication, the other two corners also go up. Conversely, when one corner goes down, the other corners also go down. So when one establishes good communication with someone else and they agree on some subject, affinity rises. Conversely, when there is a disagreement, affinity lowers and so does communication.

These three factors � affinity, reality and communication � add up to understanding. When one really understands something, he is in good communication with it, has affinity for it and knows what it is all about.

The ARC triangle has many uses in life. Using the principle that raising any corner of this triangle raises the other two one can improve his relationship with others.

Religious Practices:

The main Scientology religious practice is spiritual counseling called "auditing." It is a unique form of personal counseling intended to help an individual look at his own existence and improve his ability. Through viewing his own existence, an individual attempts to walk an exact route to higher states of awareness.

Auditing is a precise, thoroughly codified activity with exact procedures. A Scientology counselor is known as an "auditor". Auditing is assisted by use of a specially designed meter (E-Meter or Electro-psychometer) which helps locate areas of spiritual distress or travail by measuring the mental state or change of state of the person being audited.

Auditing uses processes -� exact sets of questions asked or directions given by an auditor to help a person find out things about himself and improve his condition. There are many, many different auditing processes.

An equally important Scientology practice is education in Scientology principles. This is called Scientology training. The religion teaches that auditing lets one see how something happened, while training teaches one why. Knowledge about the laws of life are necessary to maintain the personal freedom gained through auditing. If a person truly understands life, he can handle it.

The whole purpose of auditing and training is to graduate individuals to a higher state of spiritual existence. The goal is to revive the individual as a spiritual being and free him from dependence on the material universe. The different auditing and training actions which bring about spiritual enhancement are delineated in a Scientology chart called "The Bridge to Total Freedom." The metaphor of a bridge has long been used in religious tradition to denote the route across the chasm from where we are now, to a higher plateau of existence.

References used:

"Index of basic sites about Scientology applied religious philosophy, Dianetics spiritual healing technology and L. Ron Hubbard," at: http://www.exactscientology.net/

Sources of information on Scientology are at:

	"Welcome to Scientology" at: http://www.scientology.org/
	"What is Scientology" at: http://www.whatisscientology.org
	"Scientology: Theology and Practice of a Contemporary Religion," at: http://www.bonafidescientology.org

Site navigation: Home page > World religions > Scientology > here

Scientology, Dianetics and The Bridge are trademarks and service marks owned by Religious Technology Center.
Essay copyright � 1997 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2006-AUG-26
Author: B.A. Robinson and Al Buttnor

a www.religioustolerance.org

2007-04-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

The Era of the New Breed of Ideal Scientology Churches

On March 17^th and 18^th, over ten thousand Scientologists gathered to hear the latest news about a new breed of Scientology church, at the L. Ron Hubbard Birthday celebrations in Clearwater, Florida and Los Angeles, California. And many thousands more will attend this event in cities around the world over the coming weeks.

In October, thousands of Scientologists filled Queen Victoria Street for the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of London in the heart of the English-speaking world.

Just three months later over five thousand Scientologists from across Europe converged in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin when the spectacular new Church of Scientology of Berlin opened its doors.

But as those attending this weekend's event learned, the expansion represented by these new churches is only a glimpse of what is in store over the coming months.

These churches have become known as "Ideal Scientology churches," because of their greatly expanded capability to provide Scientology spiritual training and counseling to their members and to help the community with their acclaimed community outreach and social betterment activities.

And with so many today asking, "What IS Scientology?" these churches are fully oriented to answering this question through public information exhibits.

The Church of Scientology of Berlin is a case in point. Two entire stories of the magnificently restored 47,000 square foot building have been set aside for this purpose. Dozens of audio visual presentations and displays showing on 15 plasma screens are dedicated to answering virtually any question anyone could ask about L. Ron Hubbard and the Scientology religion and its activities. There are three public film rooms, multiple seminar and lecture rooms and course rooms that can deliver Life Improvement courses to hundreds of people at a time.

Two entire stories of the new Church of Scientology of Berlin are public information exhibits to answer people's questions about Scientology.

But even more to the point, the Berlin church and each of the new ideal Scientology churches under renovation or currently being planned, offer a full array of programs to help their communities.

In fact, service to the community is the cornerstone of these new Scientology churches, which are the generation point of activities aimed at restoring human rights, eradicating the illiteracy, drug abuse, crime and immorality which blight our cities and providing the one-on-one help that have made the bright yellow shirts of our Scientology Volunteer Ministers a symbol of help in cities and towns around the world.

And by selecting historical buildings and bringing them up to the most modern and aesthetic standards, the very renovation of these new Scientology churches is a service to the community.

In Los Angeles last month the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized the Church of Scientology International as a leader in the field of "adaptive reuse" — an efficient and environmentally responsible trend in architecture in which old or historic buildings are converted for new uses while retaining their classic features.

The complete restoration and renovation of the Main Street headquarters of the Church of Scientology of Buffalo, the former Buffalo Public Library, was described as "a work of love" by the Buffalo Business Journal, which heralded the Church's decision to bring new life to the historic landmark as an inspiration to other groups and organizations toward a dramatic rebirth of the downtown area of the city. The mayor personally welcomed the Church to its new home at its grand opening saying, "I know your commitment to helping others is not limited to your own members. And I know the way you extend that help is by building the base from which you operate the organization which is home to every Scientologist here in Buffalo. Not only in the physical sense, but in your numbers and your ability, more importantly, your ability to deliver."

In just the same way, when the Church of Scientology of San Francisco moved into the original Transamerica Building after fully refurbishing that turn-of-the-century classic, the Mayor of San Francisco acknowledged Scientologists for "making the Bay Area a better place for persons of all races, colors, creeds and walks of life."

But what is coming in terms of new ideal Scientology churches, as covered at the L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Event for 2007, outshines any previously announced. Over the next two weeks every Scientology church and mission in the world will be holding its own celebration honoring L. Ron Hubbard, featuring translated versions of the event held in Florida to share the exciting news and launch a completely new level of expansion for the Scientology religion.

2007-03-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

New Life Improvement Center in Plant City, Florida for the Church of Scientology of Tampa

The once bucolic town of Plant City, which began revitalizing its downtown in the 1990's, added the Church of Scientology of Tampa's Life Improvement Center to its roster of buildings, with the March 18th ribbon cutting at 112 North Collins Street. More info here...

2007-03-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

scientology Churches Around the World Celebrate the Birthday of L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard

In a tradition that dates back to the 1970's, Scientologists in churches and missions around the world commemorate the March 13^th birthday of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in the way he himself asked it to be celebrated—by greatly expanding their service to the communities in which they live.

L. Ron Hubbard once wrote, "A being is only as valuable as he can serve others," and taking this to heart, Scientologists contribute many hundreds of thousands of hours each year as Volunteer Ministers, manning tents in and around their home towns or traveling to distant lands to participate in Goodwill Tours or providing emergency relief in times of disaster. Many thousands more provide drug education and prevention to the youth of their cities, promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, protect the rights of their fellows by cleaning up the field of mental health and reverse plummeting moral standards in society by distributing copies of The Way to Happiness, a common sense moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard.

2007-02-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

Scientologist Robin Hogarth wins Grammy in Los Angeles

A Grammy for the "Best Traditional World Music" was awarded last week at the 49th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. It went to the Soweto Gospel Choir. Per ScientoloyToday the record producer, Scientologist Robin Hogarth, said that he was inspired in his work by the vision of L. Ron Hubbard of the potential of South Africa (the photo is from there as well). Cool, considering that most of the singers have been living in the poor townships of Johannesburg and learned singing in a church on Sundays. Well, Scientology makes dreams come true.

2007-02-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

Source: Scientology Today

Church of Scientology International Receives LA Business Journal's Real Estate Award

The Church of Scientology International is a 2007 recipient of the Los Angeles Business Journal's Real Estate Award. Announced in the February 12th issue of the LA Business Journal, the theme of this year's awards is "adaptive reuse" - a very popular trend in architecture that is efficient and environmentally responsible in which old or historic buildings are converted for new uses while retaining their classic features. All twelve honorees were chosen for their contributions in this field.

With 1.2 million square feet of renovated and restored space in 25 buildings in the greater Los Angeles area alone, the Church of Scientology International and local Scientology Churches are considered pioneers and leaders in the restoration of vintage properties.

But LA is certainly not the only city with new Scientology churches following the adaptive re-use model. Beautifully renovated new churches have been opened in Berlin (January 2007), London (October 2006), Johannesburg, Madrid, New York, San Francisco and Buffalo/NY. Three more opened over the past few years in Silicon Valley. And a program is underway to expand this to include new premises over the next three years for every existing Scientology church and new churches in major cities around the world."

The newest building opened in Berlin, Germany, on 13 January 2007:

2006-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

International Religious Freedom Report 2006 released by the US State Department!

For those interested, Scientology is being reported about in the chapters on Germany, France and Spain.

2006-09-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

Perestroika!

Last weekend the Church of Scientology of Moscow joined the local chapter of Youth for Human Rights International and the Moscow government in organizing the 26th annual International Marathon for Peace.

And when 60 runners carrying the flags of 45 countries joined the race in a symbolic message of peace, the idea of a world without the insanity of war and hatred and where human rights are a fact had already begun the shift from "idealistic dream" to "everyday fact." This is a message of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who said many decades ago:

"Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream."

(Source for photo: Scientology Today)

2006-09-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Take a Stand Against Crime in Fiji

Yellow shirts mingled with blue ones on the first day of Crime Prevention Week, when the Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour brought their anti-crime initiative to the police.

News from Scientology Today here

2006-09-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

Scientology Anti-Drug Initiative Receives Charity Status in Australia

The Federal Treasury and the Department of Family and Community Services has granted the Drug-Free Ambassadors full tax deductible status and put them on the register of Harm Prevention Charities.

The timing of this recognition couldn't be better. It coincides with the Ambassadors' plan to release hundreds of thousands of new booklets to let youth know the truth about heroin, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, speed or methamphetamines, ecstasy, crack, kiddie cocaine (ritalin) and painkillers.

(Found in: Scientology Today of 8 September 2006)

Kabbalah and Scientology

2006-09-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just read the "Observer":

"Hollywood and Divine
Hollywood, USA - Sometimes it seems it is almost impossible to open a newpaper without seeing a celebrity sporting the telltale red string of Kabbalah."

Hmm... Must be a different Hollywood. I have been living in central Hollywood since a while and have not seen any such "string". More likely to meet Scientologists around here. Anyone sharing that experience?