John Travolta and Tom Cruise are famous film stars who are Scientologists. This is a religion dreamt up by former science fiction writer and con man Ron L. Hubbard. It is difficult to deal with their ideas as they keep them a secret. "Since the full knowledge of the faith is reserved for those who complete the course, there can be no official confirmation to outsiders of what they ultimately believe. According to popular culture Scientology teaches that 75 million years ago the intergalactic tyrant Xenu brought millions of space aliens to earth." (Times,23 June)
It isn't only poor exploited workers that are victims of religious nonsense, even well-heeled people can be conned too! RD
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
Scientology and its connections with Hollywood superstars may lead us to look upon it with some amusement but it is a genuinely harmful religion.
ReplyDeleteNarconon is an international drug rehabilitation organisation which claims a presence in 26 countries around the world. It is involved anti-drug activities, including lectures to schools, educational programmes and providing residential drug rehabilitation therapy for addicts. It claims extraordinarily high success rates - anything up to 85%. Founded in 1966, the modern Narconon programme is the work of the late L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology. It combines what might be termed his moral philosophy with his theories on the nature of drug addiction and his solutions to the problem .
Much of Narconon's "science" is based on provably false scientific statements by Hubbard, such as that niacin breaks up fat (it doesn't), that LSD is stored in the body (it isn't), and that radiation can be sweated out of the body (it can't). The research upon which Narconon is supposedly based has never been published or subjected to scientific validation.
Narconon's detoxification programme completely cuts off the addict's supply of drugs, rather than wean him off - an approach similar to "cold turkey" methods. Doctors and drug addiction experts regard "cold turkey" as dangerous.
Narconon uses massive overdoses of vitamins and minerals as well as vastly extended sauna sessions at doses and exposures many times beyond the safe limits, with serious potential side-effects including organ damage and death.
Narconon's staff are often former clients, some hired immediately on graduation. This has been criticised as risky and inappropriate, and their training has been described as inadequate.Narconon's practice of allowing its clients to treat each other has been strongly criticised as inappropriate and potentially endangering their health and safety.
Narconon is based on bogus science causes serious risks for clients' health and safety, as Hubbard frequently disregards or is ignorant of side-effects and often misinterprets adverse effects as actually being positive.
Scientology is indeed a dangerous religion.