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World Religions & Beliefs: Scientology

This guide provides resources on World Religions. Please note that this is an ongoing project. As such, we will be adding new content to this guide throughout the year.

Internet Resources

Research & Reference

Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison Of Belief

Nominated for seven Emmys, this acclaimed documentary examines the controversial Church of Scientology and how the church attracts and holds onto its followers.

Source: Kanopy

Perspectives

Scientology the Fundamentals of Thought

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Dianetics, with over 22 million copies sold What is the "meaning of life?" So many of us spend most of our lives searching for the answer to this age-old question. Well, what if you have had the answers all along and all you ever needed were the tools to access them? In this groundbreaking book, Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, you will embark on a remarkable journey, mastering the tools of life as you uncover the most important discovery you will ever make--the knowledge of you. Learn and immediately apply the fundamental processes and principles that define the primary architecture of how life works. Achieve a complete understanding of the mind, spirit and life. Recognize what motivates your actions and the actions of others, and unblock the barriers of the extraordinary potential you have locked inside. Life is a game--and quite simply, herein are the rules. You can be happier, more capable and play a better game, harnessing all life has to offer.   Here are the answers you've been looking for.   "The data here is usable and workable for everyday life. I like becoming smarter and more competent and able to understand life better. I have been applying many of these fundamentals already and it has definitely helped me to be successful in life. Besides helping myself, I am able to help my co-workers, family, etc. I highly recommend this book to others." (J.R.)    

Beyond Belief

Jenna Miscavige Hill was raised to obey. As the niece of the Church of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this highly controversial and powerful organization. But at twenty-one, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, and her dramatic escape, going deep inside a religion that, for decades, has been the subject of fierce debate and speculation worldwide. Piercing the veil of secrecy that has long shrouded the world of Scientology, this insider reveals unprecedented firsthand knowledge of the religion, its obscure rituals, and its mysterious leader—David Miscavige. From her prolonged separation from her parents as a small child to being indoctrinated to serve the greater good of the Church, from her lack of personal freedoms to the organization's emphasis on celebrity recruitment, Jenna goes behind the scenes of Scientology's oppressive and alienating culture, detailing an environment rooted in control in which the most devoted followers often face the harshest punishments when they fall out of line. Addressing some of the Church's most notorious practices in startling detail, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect—a childhood that, painful as it was, prepared her for a tough life in the Church's most devoted order, the Sea Org. Despite this hardship, it is only when her family approaches dissolution and her world begins to unravel that she is finally able to see the patterns of stifling conformity and psychological control that have ruled her life. Faced with a heartbreaking choice, she mounts a courageous escape, but not before being put through the ultimate test of family, faith, and love. At once captivating and disturbing, Beyond Belief is an eye-opening exploration of the limits of religion and the lengths to which one woman went to break free.

The Church of Scientology

Scientology's long and complex journey to recognition as a religion Scientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful new religions to emerge in the past century. To its detractors, L. Ron Hubbard's space-age mysticism is a moneymaking scam and sinister brainwashing cult. But to its adherents, it is humanity's brightest hope. Few religious movements have been subject to public scrutiny like Scientology, yet much of what is written about the church is sensationalist and inaccurate. Here for the first time is the story of Scientology's protracted and turbulent journey to recognition as a religion in the postwar American landscape. Hugh Urban tells the real story of Scientology from its cold war-era beginnings in the 1950s to its prominence today as the religion of Hollywood's celebrity elite. Urban paints a vivid portrait of Hubbard, the enigmatic founder who once commanded his own private fleet and an intelligence apparatus rivaling that of the U.S. government. One FBI agent described him as "a mental case," but to his followers he is the man who "solved the riddle of the human mind." Urban details Scientology's decades-long war with the IRS, which ended with the church winning tax-exempt status as a religion; the rancorous cult wars of the 1970s and 1980s; as well as the latest challenges confronting Scientology, from attacks by the Internet group Anonymous to the church's efforts to suppress the online dissemination of its esoteric teachings. The Church of Scientology demonstrates how Scientology has reflected the broader anxieties and obsessions of postwar America, and raises profound questions about how religion is defined and who gets to define it.

Going Clear

National Book Award Finalist A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology. At the book's center, two men whom Wright brings vividly to life, showing how they have made Scientology what it is today: The darkly brilliant science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, whose restless, expansive mind invented a new religion. And his successor, David Miscavige--tough and driven, with the unenviable task of preserving the church after the death of Hubbard. We learn about Scientology's complicated cosmology and special language. We see the ways in which the church pursues celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and how such stars are used to advance the church's goals. And we meet the young idealists who have joined the Sea Org, the church's clergy, signing up with a billion-year contract. In Going Clear, Wright examines what fundamentally makes a religion a religion, and whether Scientology is, in fact, deserving of this constitutional protection. Employing all his exceptional journalistic skills of observation, understanding, and shaping a story into a compelling narrative, Lawrence Wright has given us an evenhanded yet keenly incisive book that reveals the very essence of what makes Scientology the institution it is.

The Church of Scientology: Religion or Cult?

Scientology has attracted powerful political friends and a group of glittering celebrities that includes John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Tom Cruise, and Lisa Marie Presley. What exactly is the Church of Scientology, called religion by some and cult by others? In this program, ABC News anchors Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters and correspondent Tom Jarriel delve into the controversial church’s history, mission, and practices. Interviews with disciples and deserters, background on the benefits of joining and the repercussions of quitting, and footage of a Scientology "auditing session"—a key form of therapy—offer a look at the provocative organization founded by L. Ron Hubbard. (42 minutes)

Source: Films on Demand