The vital statistics of Scientology
What is Scientology?
Scientology is an applied religious philosophy.
The term Scientology is taken from
the Latin word scio (knowing in the
fullest meaning of the word) and the Greek
word logos (study of). In itself
the word means literally "knowing how
to know."
Scientology is further defined as the study
and handling of the spirit in relationship
to itself, universes and other life.
Any comparison between Scientology and
the subject known as psychology is nonsense.
Early psychology such as that begun by St.
Thomas Aquinas and extended by many later
authors was, in 1879, interrupted severely
by one Professor Wundt, a Marxist at Leipzig
University in Germany. This man conceived
that man was an animal without soul and
based all of his work on the principle that
there was no psyche (a Greek word
meaning spirit). Psychology, the study of
the "spirit" (or mind) then came
into the peculiar position of being "a
study of the spirit which denied the spirit."
For the subsequent decades, Wundtian "psychology"
was taught broadly throughout the world.
It taught that man was an animal. It taught
that man could not be bettered. It taught
that intelligence never changed. This subject,
Wundtian psychology, became standard, mainly
because of the indifference or lack of knowledge
of people in charge of universities.
Scientology can and does change behavior
and intelligence, and it can and does assist
people to study life. Unlike Wundtian pseudo-psychology,
it has no political aspiration. Scientology
is not teaching dialectical materialism
under the heading of "psychology."
Scientology is a route, a way,
rather than a dissertation or an assertive
body of knowledge.
Through its drills and studies one may
find the truth for oneself. It is the only
thing that can show you who you really
are.
The technology is therefore not expounded
as something to believe but something to
do.
The end result of Scientology studies and
drills is a renewed awareness of self as
a spiritual and immortal being.
Only those who believe, as do psychiatrists
and psychologists, that man is a soulless
animal or who wish for their own reasons
to keep man unhappy and oppressed are in
any conflict with Scientology.
Scientology, used by the trained and untrained
person, improves the health, ability, intelligence,
behavior, skill and appearance of people.
It is a precise and exact science, designed
for an age of exact sciences.
It is employed by an auditor upon
individuals or small or large groups of
people in their presence. The auditor makes
these people, at their choice, do various
exercises, and these exercises bring about
changes for the better in intelligence,
behavior and general competence.
Scientology is employed as well by business
and government persons to solve problems
and to establish better organization.
It is also employed by the average person
to bring better order into life. ...
Is Scientology valid?
Tens of thousands of case histories, all
sworn to, are in the possession of the organizations
of Scientology. No other subjects on Earth
except physics and chemistry have had such
grueling testing. Scientology in the hands
of an expert can restore man's ability to
handle any and all of his problems. Scientology
is used by some of the largest companies
on Earth. It is valid. It has been tested.
It is the only thoroughly tested system
of improving human relations, intelligence
and character, and is the only one which
does.
L. Ron Hubbard
Excerpted from the book Scientology:
The Fundamentals of Thought
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