Church of Scientology (Part I)

The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, a new religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the church has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a cult and a manipulative commercial enterprise.  In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.

The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for guiding local Scientology churches.  Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California. The location at Gilman Hot Springs is private property and not accessible by the public.  Scientology Missions International is under CSI and oversees Scientology missions, which are local Scientology organizations smaller than churches.  The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.

All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org, which is a legally nonexistent paramilitary organization for the "elite, innermost dedicated core of Scientologists".  David Miscavige is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, holding the rank of captain.

Germany classifies Scientology as an "anti-constitutional sect".  In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult by parliamentary reports.

History

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology

The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey by L. Ron Hubbard, his wife Mary Sue Hubbard, and John Galusha. By that time, the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI) had already been operating since 1952 and Hubbard himself had already been selling Scientology books and technologies. In 1953 he wrote to Helen O'Brien, who was managing the organization, asking her to investigate the "religion angle".  Soon after, despite O'Brien's misgivings and resignation, he announced the religious nature of Scientology in a bulletin to all Scientologists, stressing its relation to the concept of Dharma. The first Church of Scientology opened in 1954 in Los Angeles.

Hubbard stated, "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology."  After the formation of the Church of Scientology, Hubbard composed its creed. The Scientology creed emphasizes three key points: being free to enjoy religious expression, the idea that mental healing is inherently religious, and that healing of the physical body is in the spiritual domain.

Hubbard had official control of the organization until 1966 when this function was transferred to a group of executives.  Although Hubbard maintained no formal relationship with Scientology's management, he remained firmly in control of the organization and its affiliated organizations.

In May 1986, subsequent to the sudden death of L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, who was at that time the Commanding Officer of the Commodore's Messenger Organization, assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a non-profit corporation that administers the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Although RTC is a separate corporation from the Church of Scientology International, whose president and chief spokesperson is Heber Jentzsch, Miscavige is the effective leader of the movement.

In 1996, the Church of Scientology implemented the "Golden Age of Tech" (tech pertaining to the entire body of Scientology religious techniques) releasing a training program for Scientology auditors, while precisely following Hubbard's teachings. It was followed by the launch of "The Golden Age of Knowledge" in 2005, where Hubbard's announcements of milestones in the research and development of Dianetics and Scientology were released. Between 2005 and 2010, the church would complete its 25-year program to restore and verify the church's "scriptures". The church released the second phase of the Golden Age of Tech on November 2013, based on the original work of Hubbard. The Super Power Rundown a new component of auditing was released in Clearwater, Florida.

Beliefs

The Church of Scientology promotes Scientology, a body of beliefs and related practices created by Hubbard, starting in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.

Scientology teaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. Scientology's central mythology developed around the original notion of the thetan. In Scientology, the thetan is the individual expression of "theta", described by Neusner as "the cosmic source and life force". The thetan is the true human identity, rendering humans as "pure spirit and godlike". The religion's mythology holds the belief that "in the primordial past, thetans applied their creative abilities to form the physical universe". Contrary to the biblical narrative that shows that the universe was created by a divine, sole creator, Scientology holds that "the universe was created by theta in the form of individualized expressions".

The story of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard.  Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as "auditing", in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.  Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations. Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States and other countries, and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion.

Scientology describes itself as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others, and all of life. According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions, it is "concerned with the isolation, description, handling and rehabilitation of the human spirit".  One purpose of Scientology, as stated by the Church of Scientology, is to become certain of one's spiritual existence and one's relationship to God, or the "Supreme Being."

One of the major tenets of Scientology is that a human is an immortal alien spiritual being, termed a thetan, which is presently trapped on planet Earth in a physical "meat body." Hubbard described these thetans in "The Space Opera" cosmogony. The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives preceding the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Descriptions of space opera incidents are seen as true events by Scientologists.

Scientology claims that its practices provide methods by which a person can achieve greater spiritual awareness.  Within Scientology, progression from level to level is often called The Bridge to Total Freedom. Scientologists progress from "Preclear", to "Clear", and ultimately "Operating Thetan".

Scientologists are taught that a series of events, or incidents, occurred before life on earth.  Scientologists also believe that humans have hidden abilities which can be unlocked.

Hubbard's image and writing are ubiquitous in Scientology churches. Churches built after Hubbard's death include a corporate-style office set aside for Hubbard's reincarnation, with a plaque on the desk bearing his name, and a pad of paper with a pen for him to continue writing novels.  A large bust of Hubbard is placed in the chapel for Sunday services, and most sermons reference him and his writing.

Headquarters, bases, and central orgs

The highest authority in the Church of Scientology is the Religious Technology Center (RTC). The RTC claims to only be the "holder of Scientology and Dianetics trademarks", but is in fact the main Scientology executive organization.  RTC chairman David Miscavige is widely seen as the effective head of Scientology.  CSI provides a visible point of unity and guides the individual churches, especially in the area of applying Hubbard's teaching and technology in a uniform fashion.}   At a local level, every church is a separate corporate entity set up as a licensed franchise and has its own board of directors and executives.

Scientology organizations and missions exist in many communities around the world.   Scientologists call their larger centers orgs, short for "organizations." The major Scientology organization of a region is known as a central org. The legal address of the Church of Scientology International is in Los Angeles, California, 6331 Hollywood Blvd, in the Hollywood Guaranty Building. The Church of Scientology also has several major headquarters, including:

Saint Hill, West Sussex, England

Hubbard moved to England shortly after founding Scientology, where he oversaw its worldwide development from an office in London for most of the 1950s. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor, a Georgian manor house near the Sussex town of East Grinstead. During Hubbard's years at Saint Hill, he traveled extensively, providing lectures and training in Australia, South Africa in the United States, and developing materials that would eventually become Scientology's "core systematic theology and praxis".  While in Saint Hill, Hubbard worked with a staff of nineteen and urged others to join. In September 14, 1959, he wrote: "Here, on half a hundred acres of lovely grounds in a mansion where we have not yet found all the bedrooms, we are handling the problems of administration and service for the world of Scientology. We are not very many here and as the sun never sets on Scientology we are very busy thetans."

The most important achievement of the Saint Hill period was Hubbard's execution of the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course (SHBC). It was delivered by Hubbard from March 1951 to December 1966 and "is considered the single most comprehensive and rigorous training course for budding auditors in the church". Scientology groups called "Saint Hill Organizations" located in Los Angeles, Clearwater (Florida), Copenhagen and Sydney still teach this course.

This became the worldwide headquarters of Scientology through the 1960s and 1970s. Hubbard declared Saint Hill to be the organization by which all other organizations would be measured, and he issued a general order (still followed today) for all organizations around the world to expand and reach "Saint Hill size". The Church of Scientology has announced that the next two levels of Scientology teaching, OT 9 and OT 10, will be released and made available to church members when all the major organizations in the world have reached Saint Hill size.

Flag Land Base, Clearwater, Florida, United States

The "worldwide spiritual headquarters" of the Church of Scientology is known as "Flag Land Base," located in Clearwater, Florida. It is operated by the Floridian corporation Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.

The organization was founded in 1975 when a Scientology-founded group called "Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp" purchased the Fort Harrison Hotel for $2.3 million. Because the reported tenant was the "United Churches of Florida" the citizens and City Council of Clearwater did not realize that the building's owners were actually the Church of Scientology until after the building's purchase. Clearwater citizens' groups, headed by Mayor Gabriel Cazares, rallied strongly against Scientology establishing a base in the city (repeatedly referring to the organization as a cult), but Flag Base was established nonetheless.

In the years since its foundation, the Flag Land Base has expanded as the Church of Scientology has gradually purchased large amounts of additional property in the downtown and waterfront Clearwater area. Scientology's largest project in Clearwater has been the construction of a high-rise complex called the "Super Power Building", or Flag Building, which "is the centerpiece of a 160-million construction campaign."

The Church of Scientology's CST Chairman of the Board, David Miscavige, led the opening and dedication of the 377,000-square-foot Flag Building on November 17, 2013. The multi-million cathedral is the new spiritual headquarters of Scientology. The fifth and sixth floor contain the "Super Power Program", which includes specially designed machines that Scientologists believe allow users to develop new abilities and experience enlightenment. The building also includes a dining facility, course rooms, offices and small rooms for "auditing" purposes.

Organizations in Hollywood, California

Los Angeles, California, has the largest concentration of Scientologists and Scientology-related organizations in the world, with the church's most visible presence being in the Hollywood district of the city. The organization owns a former hospital on Fountain Avenue which houses Scientology's West Coast headquarters, the Pacific Area Command Base — often referred to as "PAC Base" or "Big Blue", after its blue paint job. Adjacent buildings include headquarters of several internal Scientology divisions, including the American Saint Hill Organization, the Advanced Organization of Los Angeles, and the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles. All these organizations are integrated within the corporation Church of Scientology Western United States.

The Church of Scientology successfully campaigned to have the city of Los Angeles rename one block of a street running through this complex "L. Ron Hubbard Way". The street has been paved in brick.

Scientology's Celebrity Center International is located on Franklin Avenue, while the Association for Better Living and Education, Author Services and the official headquarters of the Church of Scientology International (in the Hollywood Guaranty Building) are all located on Hollywood Boulevard. The ground floor of the Guaranty Building also features the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, a museum detailing his life that is open to the general public. The Celebrity Centre was acquired by the church as the Chateau Elysee in 1973, built to accommodate members in the arts, sports and government.

Another museum in the area is the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, located on Sunset Boulevard, which is operated by the church-affiliated Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

Gold Base, Riverside County, California

The headquarters of the Religious Technology Center, the entity that oversees Scientology operations worldwide, is located in unincorporated Riverside County, California, near Gilman Hot Springs and north of Hemet. The facility, known as Gold Base or "Int", is owned by Golden Era Productions and is the home of Scientology's media production studio, Golden Era Studios. Several Scientology executives, including David Miscavige, live and work at the base.  Therefore, Gold Base is Scientology's international administrative headquarters.

The Church of Scientology bought the former Gilman Hot Springs resort, which had been popular with Hollywood figures, in 1978; the resort became Gold Base. The facilities at Gold Base have been toured by journalists several times. They are surrounded by floodlights and video observation cameras, and the compound is protected by razor wire.  Gold Base also has recreational facilities, including basketball, volleyball, and soccer facilities, an exercise building, a water slide, a small lake with two beaches, and a golf course.

Trementina Base

The Church of Scientology maintains a large base on the outskirts of Trementina, New Mexico, for the purpose of storing their archiving project: engraving Hubbard's writings on stainless steel tablets and encasing them in titanium capsules underground. An aerial photograph showing the base's enormous Church of Spiritual Technology symbols on the ground caused media interest and a local TV station broke the story in November 2005. According to a report in The Washington Post, the organization unsuccessfully attempted to coerce the station not to air the story.

Freewinds

The cruise ship Freewinds was the only place the highest level of Scientology training (OT VIII) was offered. It cruised the Caribbean Sea, under the auspices of the Flag Ship Service Organization. The Freewinds was also used for other courses and auditing for those willing to spend extra money to get services on the ship. In April 2008, the Freewinds was sealed, and work stopped on refurbishments, due to "extensive contamination" with blue asbestos.  According to a public announcement in 2017, the Church subsequently purchased another vessel on which to administer high-level Scientology training.

Ideal Orgs

Starting in 2003 Miscavige began encouraging local groups to purchase larger facilities to use as churches. These building are known within the Church of Scientology as "Ideal Orgs".  This push has included the acquisition of many historic buildings by the Church.  The Church has relied on parishioners to provide manual labor in renovations, such as through the Church's Rehabilitation Project Force. The Church's investment in expensive property at a time when church membership is dwindling has been described by former members and critics of the church as a money making tactic.

Ideal Org opening events have been held in Johannesburg, South Africa; Rome, Italy; Malmo, Sweden; Dallas, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Washington D.C.; Phoenix, Arizona, Inglewood, California; Santa Ana, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Brussels, Belgium; Florence, Kentucky; Clearwater, Florida; Sacramento, California; Melbourne, Australia; Mexico City, London, Quebec; Seattle, Washington; Pretoria, South Africa; Padova, Italy; Los Gatos, California; Hamburg, Germany; Milan, Italy; Atlanta, Georgia; Dublin, Ireland; and Detroit, Michigan.

The church has also purchased buildings for the purposes of setting up Ideal Orgs, but which have been delayed or canceled. In the UK, delayed Ideal Orgs have included Birmingham (purchased in 2007), Gateshead (purchased 2007), Manchester (purchased 2006), and Plymouth (purchased 2009).  The delays have prompted calls from locals for a compulsory purchase of the historically significant buildings, which remained largely vacant and undeveloped since purchase.  The Birmingham org was opened in 2017.

Production facilities

Golden Era Productions

The Golden Era Productions facility is located in the Hollywood Guaranty Building. It produces promotional materials for the Church of Scientology, as well as lectures, training films and other materials related to Hubbard.

International Dissemination and Distribution Center

Occupying 185,000 square feet, the dissemination center prints Church magazines and other Scientology materials in 15 languages. The center has a custom-built web press with a 55 thousand pages per hour capacity. According to a Church press release, the center's warehousing and shipping department is fully automated, with the capability to address and handle half a million items per week.  This system is connected "directly into the US Postal Service, with a postal representative on site."  The center also produces Scientology materials in various other languages as well as promotional materials and uniforms.

Scientology Media Productions

The Scientology Media Productions media center was inaugurated on May 28, 2016. The five-acre complex, on the intersection of Sunset and Hollywood in Hollywood, California, has a 150 foot communications tower marked with a Scientology symbol. Originally built in 1912, it was restored by the church for content creation and delivery in print, broadcast and online media.  On 12 March 2018, Scientology Network started broadcasting on DirecTV as well as online at the Scientology Network website, and through AppleTV, Roku, fireTV, Chromecast, iTunes and Google Play.

Affiliated organizations

There are many independently chartered organizations and groups which are staffed by Scientologists, and pay license fees for the use of Scientology technology and trademarks under the control of Scientology management. In some cases, these organizations do not publicize their affiliation with Scientology.

The Church of Scientology denies the legitimacy of any splinter groups and factions outside the official organization, and has tried to prevent independent Scientologists from using officially trademarked Scientology materials. Independent Scientologists, also known collectively as the "Free Zone" are referred to as squirrels within the Church. They are also classified by the Church of Scientology as suppressive persons ("SPs")—opponents or enemies of Scientology. Hubbard himself stated in Ron's Journal '67 "That there were only seven or eight Suppressive Persons on the planet..."

In 2010, an exception to the rule was made specifically for the Nation of Islam, which is the only officially sanctioned external Dianetics organization and the first official non-Scientology Dianetics org since 1953. Minister Louis Farrakhan publicly announced his embracement of Dianetics, and has been actively promoting Dianetics, while stating he has not become a Scientologist. He has courted a relationship with the Church, and materials and certifications are still required to be purchased from the Church of Scientology, and are not independently produced.

Scientology Missions International

The Scientology Missions International, the branch of the Church of Scientology devoted to Missions, was set up in 1981. According to the church's official website, the SMI is the "mother church" for all missions, with headquarters in Los Angeles. In 1983, there were forty missions. Currently, the church has grown to an estimated 3,200 missions, churches and groups.

Sea Org

The Sea Organization (often simply referred to as the "Sea Org") was incorporated under the name 'Operational Transport Committee' in the United Kingdom in 1966 for legal maritime registration purposes. The Sea Org is an unincorporated fraternal religious order founded in 1967 by Hubbard as he embarked on a series of voyages around the Mediterranean Sea in a small fleet of ships staffed by Scientologists and hired professional seamen. Hubbard—formerly a lieutenant junior grade in the US Navy—bestowed the rank of "commodore" of the vessels upon himself. The crew who accompanied him on these voyages became the foundation of the Sea Organisation. The very first members of 'The Sea Project' (1966–67) were high-level trained staff and OTIII completions personally chosen by L. Ron Hubbard from Saint Hill Manor and overseas church missions. The purpose was to establish an effective base of operations for the OTC research voyages to assist LRH to verify his discoveries and research into past-lives. Hubbard was also keen to see if he could recover any deposits of treasure that he believed that he had hidden in dozens of locations around the Mediterranean region. Teams of divers and metal-detectorists were dispatched to remote locations to dig for these alleged deposits. There is evidence of some success in locating identified targets, but only two probable eye-witness testimonies of any artifacts being recovered. One from under a temple complex on Sicily and another from an underwater temple at Carthage. Witnesses have claimed to have seen small craft unloading gold bullion onto the 'Athena' vessel and later seen in Hubbard's personal hold aboard The Apollo Flag ship in 1968 by staff members.

The Sea Org is described by the church as forming an elite group of the most dedicated Scientologists, who are entrusted with the international management of Scientology and upper level churches such as the Advanced Organization Los Angeles, American Saint Hill Organization, Flag Service Organization and Celebrity Center International. Sea Org members are also in charge of the upper levels of Operating Thetan (OT) training. The organization is known as the "monastic wing of Scientology."

Scientologists who are qualified to do so are often encouraged to join the Sea Org, which involves a lifetime commitment to Scientology organizations in exchange for room and board, training and auditing, and a small weekly allowance. Members sign an agreement pledging their loyalty and allegiance to Scientology for "the next billion years," committing their future lifetimes to the Sea Org. The Sea Org's motto is "Revenimus" (or "We Come Back").

Critics of Scientology have spoken out against the disciplinary procedures and policies of the Sea Org, which have been a source of controversy since its inception and variously described as abusive and illegal. Former Sea Org members have stated that punishments in the late 1960s and early 1970s included confinement in hazardous conditions such as the ship's chain locker.

In 1974, Hubbard established the Rehabilitation Project Force (or RPF) as a sub-unit of the Sea Org, in order to provide a "second chance" to members whose offenses were considered severe enough to warrant expulsion. RPF members are paired up and help one another for five hours each day with spiritual counseling to resolve the issues for which they were assigned to the program. They also spend 8 hours per day doing physical labor that will benefit the church facility where they are located. On verification of their having completed the program they are then given a Sea Org job again.

In practice, there have even been reports of child labor and for considerably longer than eight hours a day.  For example, Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of David Miscavige and author of Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, has stated that as a child she often worked 14 hours a day and only got to see her parents once a week, and sometimes even more seldom.

Volunteer Ministers

The Church of Scientology began its "Volunteer Ministers" program as a way to participate in community outreach projects. Volunteer Ministers travel to the scenes of major disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by Hubbard entitled The Way to Happiness, and engaging in a method said to calm panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a "touch assist." Accounts of the Volunteer Ministers' effectiveness have been mixed, and touch assists are not supported by scientific evidence.