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What is The Church of Scientology and what are their beliefs. Many celebrities including recently deceased musician Isaac Hayes have adopted Scientology. According to their official website, Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard also laid the foundations and policies for the establishment and management of Scientology organizations with the first Church of Scientology being established in December 1953. Hubbard established Scientology's doctrines during a period from 1952 until his death in January 1986, establishing the basic principles in the 1950s and 1960s. It was originally secular, Hubbard stating in 1952 that "Scientology would be a study of knowledge." The following year he began to characterize Scientology's beliefs and practices as a religion, and by 1960 he was defining Scientology as "a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word 'religion' itself." In 1969 he wrote that "It is fundamentally an applied religious philosophy."

Scientology and the organizations that promote it have remained highly controversial. The Church of Scientology has been characterized as a cult and accused of establishing unscrupulous commercial enterprises, harassing its critics and abusing the trust of its members. In 1967, the IRS stripped all US-based Scientology entities of their tax exemption, declaring Scientology's activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard. The church sued and lost repeatedly for 26 years trying to regain its tax-exempt status. The case was eventually settled in 1993, at which time the church paid $12.5 million to the IRS—greatly less than IRS had initially demanded—and the IRS recognized the church as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

In 1978, a number of Scientologists including L. Ron Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard , who was second in command in the organization at the time, were convicted of perpetrating the largest incident of domestic espionage in the history of the United States. It was called "Operation Snow White" within the Church. It involved infiltrating, wiretapping, and stealing documents from the offices of Federal attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service. Eleven church staff, including Mary Sue Hubbard and other highly placed officials, pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court based on evidence seized in the raids, and received sentences from two to six years.

L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics is the basis of the Scientology movement. According to Hubbard, Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit, mind and body. The word "Dianetics" is derived from the Greek (dia) meaning "through" and (nous), mind; so it literally means "through mind". Hubbard wrote that mental and psychosomatic physical problems are caused by traumatic recordings called engrams that are stored in the reactive mind. The goal of Dianetics is to erase the engrams in the reactive mind to achieve the state of Clear. Once this state of "Clear:" is achieved, according to Hubbard, an individual is able to function at his or her full potential. The ultimate goal is for one to reach the level Cleard Theta Clear, described by Hubbard as: "A thetan who is completely rehabilitated and can do everything a thetan should do, such as move MEST and control others from a distance, or create his own universe".

Let me know your feelings about this new and popular religious movement.

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What is The Church of Scientology ?

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