WORLD RELIGIONS: Scientology

Scientology
Created by L. Ron Hubbard as a successor to his earlier self-help system called dianetics.
Dianetics was used as a counseling technique known as auditing which was developed by Hubbard to enable conscious recall of traumatic events in one's life.
Hubbard at first hoped to get dianetics accepted in the medical field but it was met with strong skepticism despite releasing a best selling book to back it up.
It was Hubbard's belief in reincarnation that ultimately lead to the formation of Scientology as a religion. Some followers reported experiences or dreams they believed had occurred in past lives, Hubbard took these accounts seriously and questioned the existence of the soul.
It wasn't until 1993 that the group received the unanimous tax exempt status they had desired for roughly four decades.
Scientology: Scio (Latin) "knowing, in the fullest sense of the word," logos (Greek) "study of." Thus Scientology means "knowing how to know."
A certain understanding of one’s true spiritual nature and one’s relationship to self, family, groups, Mankind, all life forms, the material universe, the spiritual universe and the Supreme Being.
Scientology further holds Man to be basically good, and that is spiritual salvation depends upon himself, his fellows, and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.
The Eight Dynamics
Self - Survive as an individual
Creativity - Contains the family unit and raising children
Group Survival - Community, friends, a company and state
Species - Need to survive as men and women
Life Norms - Help life forms i.e. animals, birds, insects etc.
Physical Universe - Matter, energy, space and time
Spiritual Dynamic - Spiritual identity
Infinity - Commonly called God, the Supreme Being or Creator
Humans are immortal aliens i.e. extraterrestrial spiritual beings, termed a “Thetan” who is trapped on Earth in a physical body. Reincarnation – “to be born again in different life forms”.
Greater spiritual awareness by 2 methods: Auditing and Training. Progression from level to level is often “The Bridge of Total Freedom”
The Process:
You are audited which is basically a introductory counseling session, through this process it is believed people can discover and solve their inner problems, it is also somewhat related to a confession. An E-Meter is used to measure electrical resistance in the body and locate issues.
The Bridge To Total Freedom:
This is the process of learning the beliefs of Scientology, each session costs money and this bridge is a very large one to cross so the rate at which one moves across is governed by their financial situation.
Operating Level III: The Story Of Xenu:
Proceed with caution as it is believed within Scientology that reading the following story will cause Pneumonia to those who read and those who hear this story without the proper training. To reach this story one must go through expensive hours of counseling and reached a clear state of mind.
Xenu according to L. Ron Hubbard was the dictator of a Galactic Confederation of planets who 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people in DC-8 like spacecraft, then stacked them around volcanoes and killed them all using hydrogen bombs. The souls were set free into the air however Xenu planned for this and captured the souls in a massive electronic ribbon.
The souls were incarcerated in Xenu's desperate effort to reduce the population on the crowded planet. These billions of citizens were brought together under the impression they were attending income tax inspections. Then trapped in paralyzing gel and loaded on the spacecraft now headed towards Earth.
The now imprisoned souls were taken to a type of cinema and forced to watch super colossal motion pictures for 36 days as a form of re-education. After the new beliefs were instilled the now confused souls which have lost the ability to differentiate from each other found survivors and inhabited them, those early humans were known as "body-thetans."
These Thetans still cling to our souls today and it is up to us to cleanse our souls of them. Xenu has since been overthrown by a faction known as the Loyal Officers and allegedly imprisoned within an electric mountain top, the locations is not entirely know but has been debated about it being on Earth, or more commonly known as "Teegeeack" within the Confederation. Earth Is looked at as a prison planet within the confederation and we are the prisoners trapped here with the souls of the deceived.
Scientology today:
Scientology today has roughly 10,000 churches and missions though out the world according to scientology.org, though numbers have decreased over the years, there is still a strong core of die hard followers to this day despite many coming forward speaking of mental and physical abuse they experienced while being associated with the church.
Scientologists believe strongly in reincarnation, death is celebrated because the soul doesn't die it finds a new body to reside in.