Church of Scientology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of Scientology, a new religious movement. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall management, dissemination and propagation of Scientology.[2][3][4] Every Church of Scientology is separately incorporated and has its own local board of directors and executives responsible for its own activities and corporate well-being.[5][6][7] The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey by L. Ron Hubbard.[8][9] Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, located in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California, the location of which is kept secret from most Scientologists.[10]

The highest authority in the Church of Scientology is in The Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the Religious Technology Center (RTC), whose headquarters are in Los Angeles. CSI "is the mother church and has the mission of propagating the Scientology creed around the world." RTC's main function is to "preserve, maintain, and protect the purity of the Scientology technology in accord with Hubbard's original research and to insure its proper and ethical delivery." The Scientology Missions International is under CSI and RTC and functions as "the central church to Scientology missions worldwide."[11]

Although in some countries it has attained legal recognition as a religion,[12] the church has been the subject of a number of controversies, and has been described by its critics as both a cult and a commercial enterprise.[13]

The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey by[8][9]L. Ron Hubbard, his wife Mary Sue Hubbard, and John Galusha, although the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI) had already been operating since 1952[14][15] and Hubbard had been selling Scientology books and other items. Soon after, he explained the religious nature of Scientology in a bulletin to all Scientologists,[16] stressing its relation to the Dharma. The first Church of Scientology opened in 1954 in Los Angeles.[17]

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."[18]

Hubbard had official control of the organization until 1966 when this function was transferred to a group of executives.[19] Although Hubbard maintained no formal relationship with Scientology's management, he remained firmly in control of the organization and its affiliated organizations.[20]

In May 1987, following Hubbard's death, David Miscavige, one of Hubbards former personal assistants and video photographer, 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.[21]

The Church of Scientology promotes Scientology, a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard, starting in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.[22]

Scientology teaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. 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.[23] Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as "auditing", in which practitioners aim to re-experience consciously painful or traumatic events in their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.[24] Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations.[25] Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States[26] and other countries,[27][28][29] 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.[30] 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."[31]

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Church of Scientology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia