“Free Personality Testing – Come this way!” said the sign I passed entering Scientology’s Castlereagh Street headquarters.
The interior feels like the what you’d get if you blended a holistic healing centre with Starship Enterprise. Erupting volcanoes, light pierced landscapes, and the Egyptian-looking Scientology symbols, provide the imagery for the science meets self-help vibe.
Zipping towards me, a uniformed female attendant.
“The personality test? This way!”
Now, I’m looking down at Scientology’s Oxford Capacity Analysis personality test: a battery of 200 questions asking how I “feel RIGHT NOW” about a range of issues.
"Do you get occasional twitches of your muscles when there is no logical reason for it?"
"Are you rarely happy,
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Pondering whether I “enjoy telling people the latest scandal about my associates” (I do!), I notice the roped off office of church founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Presumably, the great man beams in from out-of-galaxy from time to time.
After finishing my test, I’m whizzed over to a star trek like video pod. I thought we might be taking off, but instead, I was shown a short film outlining the dangers of the "Reactive Mind". Apparently, we’re plagued by subliminal and harmful thoughts, which we can eliminate using Scientology.
"Hi. I'm Scott*”, says a friendly young man dressed with a crisp white shirt and thin black tie. “Come this way and we’ll check out your results".
“This graph indicates what you have told us about yourself. These results are not my opinion, but a factual, scientific analysis of your answers”.
The graph shows ratings on a scale from -100 to +100 for 11 attributes such as Stable/Unstable, Happy/Depressed, and Composed/Nervous. For each category there’s a "normal" range, a “Desirable State” and an “Unacceptable State”.
My result was distressing, to say the
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Scientology teaches that psychiatry is "evil", and spurns the use of drugs to treat mental illness. Tossing modern medicine aside, serious psychiatric disorders are treated using vitamin supplements.
As I left the Sydney building I noticed several teenagers in the lobby. I doubt I would’ve laughed off such a damning character assessment at such an impressionable age. I wondered. which of these fresh faces would be told they had no real reason to live? That their opinions are of little value. That they are undependable, completely irresponsible, malicious and mean.
A few hours after taking the test in 2008, Norwegian student Kaja Bordevich Ballo, jumped from her 4th story dorm room window, leaving a note saying sorry to her family for not “being good at anything”. With a previous history of mental illness, Kaja found the test results “devastating”. Following a Norwegian parliamentarian saying that “everything points to the scientology cult having played a direct role” in her suicide, a police investigation failed to confirm a causative link to Scientology.
Looking at these smiling young faces, I wanted to yell, “Go! Run!” Get out of the Starship, RIGHT
The Church Of Scientology claims to offer a path of self-betterment and spiritual enlightenment through a precise protocol that heals the body and spirit. In reality, Scientology is an opportunistic organization that methodically targets, recruits, and exploits people, particularly highly vulnerable individuals. The Church of Scientology reaches out to these potential members through a robust collection of programs designed to help the general population. Though these programs have been defended as social programs that have little to no religious content, they are “front” programs for things such as drug abuse, self-help programs, psychiatry and mental health initiatives, and educational outreach. These front programs are touted as “salves for people’s emotional wounds,” but these same persons are recruited for the churches financial gain (Spohrer pg. 108). WikiLeaks has reported dozens of front companies attached to Scientology with topics ranging anywhere from office management to homeschool training programs. Three of the more well-known organizations are Narconon, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, and Practice Manage Consulting. Each one of these has its own way of preying on weakness and gaining both money and membership.
What savvy genius came up with this?" Lafayette Ron Hubbard was an author and philosopher born in 1911. He researched the Dynamic Principle of Existence, and his goal in this was the ability to unify all available knowledge for the greater good of society. Like many of us, he observed the harmful effects of criminality and drug addiction and made it his goal to completely eradicate these. He began his search for the fundamental truths of human spirituality. He officially announced Scientology as a religion at Hubbard College in Wichita, Kansas in 1952 and served as its first Executive Director. He once said, "One of the great truths of Scientology is that increased awareness is the only factor which offers any road out." Later, in 1965, he unveiled his revolutionary Classification and Gradiation Chart, a step by step advancement to higher states of awareness and
It’s not unknown that The Church of Scientology has been a contentious subject of conversation for decades. The controversial religion was originally discovered by a gentleman named L. Ron Hubbard in 1954 through the establishment of ideas in which he believed would act as an antidote to mental health concerns called Dianetics. After an unsuccessful attempt resulting in bankruptcy, Hubbard branched his ideas into the basis of a new found religion called Scientology ("The Beliefs and Teachings of Scientology”). To Hubbard’s advantage, Scientology expeditiously accelerated in growth, becoming one of the fastest expanding religions in the 20th century. Scientology pledged a “light at the end of the tunnel” to those wandering through dark times, and created a pathway to a faultless understanding of one’s true spiritual fulfillment through a system of self-knowledge in relation to one’s own life, community, and mankind. Due to the Scientology’s controversial beliefs, abnormal practices, and aberrant church-member relationships, the religion poses as a superlative model of church rebelling against society’s social norms.
Psychological studies are mainly based on the direct observation of human behavior, rather than reasoning or speculation. Psychology is like any other subject- the majority of people have a very shallow and basic understanding of what the study involves, and yet they lack a crucial knowledge of the major struggles and disagreements among those who study it. It does not surprise me that psychology is one of the more popular majors available. By nature, it sparks human curiosity, especially as to what contributes to the system of our thoughts and the pattern in our behaviors. For the first eighteen
The need for another personality test seems small. Personality tests have been in use in American since 1943 when the Meyers Briggs was first published (OPP, 2015). The field is now very diverse. With the Meyers Briggs and Smalley’s Animal Types on one end to What Star Wars Character Are You? On the other, these tests run the gambit from serious to funny, and then on down to time wasters. To really prove your usefulness, a new test must fill a niche in the market. Something only your test can provide. However the 34 vaguely worded themes give no great bit of detail to really
“Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality”.1 These are the words of President Woodrow Wilson during his “Declaration of Neutrality” on August 19, 1914. Something crazy would happen, the United States would enter The Great War a three years later. A lot of things influenced the United States to finally get to their eventual declaration of war on Germany. The two factors I thought most significant were: the United States’ economic interests favoring Great Britain and Wilson’s insatiable need to have a voice at the peace talks in Europe.
Scientologists believe that a “thetan,” or spirit, will never die and thus they will be able to fulfill their commitment. The Sea Organization is a large project created to “Clear the Planet.” Scientologists who join believe that after this planet is “cleared” there will be other planets in the universe in need of “clearing” (the term clearing meaning to convert to Scientology). Sea Organizations were given the nickname “Orgs” and they can be considered the churches of Scientology. Every single one of these Orgs must have a beautifully decorated, furnished and unused private office. These offices would be for the use of L. Ron Hubbard only. They must be present in all Orgs, even ones in need for space. The purpose of these Offices would be to accommodate Hubbard on the chance that he might visit. Hubbard was not expected to visit, but the offices would still need to be there for the chance that it still could happen. Thus, Scientologists cater to Hubbard’s needs so much that it is unnatural in any religion that claims to worship One God, as Scientology does. Furthermore, the beliefs of Scientologists may be questioned due to their ranking system. Scientology redefined the term “ethics” as a condition in the religion. This means that when one becomes a Scientologist, they are given their “ethics condition” and those assigned a low condition (which is anything below normal) need to work their way to the top. The conditions are as follows from highest
Do you know about the things that our American colonists went through just to have independence? There were many new laws, raised taxes, and rebellions caused in this point in time. The French and Indian War was caused by King Philip wanting to take over colonist land. The colonists obviously didn’t like or appreciate this so the rebelled. An example of this is that British gained control of the colonies. An event to support this is the Stamp Act. The king wanted to put taxes on any paper items, the colonists didn't like this. The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. The Declaration of Independence states that you have the right to rebel or revolt and that’s
Scientology’s Death and Afterlife Scientology portrays the work of L. Ron Hubbard who founded the religion in 1957. Scientology is new in comparison to other religions, but nonetheless it has its strong following and devoted Scientologists in which they embody the work of L. Ron Hubbard. Focusing on the death and afterlife of Scientology reveals unique traits and practices in which the founder sought fit for his theory of a virtuous belief system. Fortunately, the creation of this religion is extremely well documented and provides an insight to the founder’s life and how death and afterlife ties in perfectly with his theory. Scientologists are extremely fortunate to have a well-documented story of the creation of Scientology and
The church of Scientology has been the subject of controversy since its inception. Its methods and beliefs have attracted the attention of scholars from around the world. The church has been under government investigation and has endured a countless amount of lawsuits (Reitman 14). It is also a hot topic by the media with several endorsements by some of the most recognized Hollywood celebrities. However, the main topic of debate regarding the Church of Scientology is its status as a religion. Some members claim that the church has helped them overcome their struggles and that they are happier people, while others condemn it as a dangerous cult (Sweeney). The church of Scientology is a religious group whose purpose is to retain their
In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, we see how knights and kings were expected to show emotion during the Late Middle Ages in England. The main theme I hope to portray is what emotions they were allowed to show and what emotions were not appreciated. We see the importance of self-control by kings and how this can represent true strength and courage to their knights. The writing also focuses on strength, loyalty, courage, prowess, and honor and how they intertwine with emotion. However, we will also see various instances where kings show emotions and still can persevere through struggle.
The documentary ‘Going Clear’ is focused on the Church of Scientology. Some of the important figures in the documentary included Paul Haggis, Lawrence Wright, Sara Goldberg, Spanky Taylor, and Marthy Rathbun (Going Clear). In this documentary, these former scientologists were interviewed about their personal experiences, where they revealed information about what actually happened behind the doors of the Church. The documentary was based on Lawrence Wright’s book, ‘Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief’ and was a compilation of the opinions of several former scientologists about the true colors of Scientology and Hubbard’s history (Going Clear).
Many people have heard of the revolutionary new religious practice called Scientology. However, the majority of people who have heard of it, have little knowledge of the principles and practices behind the religion. In fact, there is a dark side behind Scientology, and much speculation that the religion is a brainwashing cult. Many people are opposed to the religion because of its secretiveness, its extreme methods of teaching and its alleged use of mind control.
I had watched the South Park episode and thought the idea of the religion was absurd. Through my research I have realized Scientology is even more ridiculous than I thought. Not only does the religion contradict itself multiple times on whether or not it is a religion or not, but it also makes speaking out against it nearly impossible. I had to leave out over half of my research because I did not even want to explain some of the crazy procedures Scientology has used. I focused on the shunning of legitimate science because it made the religion sound a little less weird, still really weird just not so much. While spending hours watching their indoctrination materials I was constantly harassed to take a “free personality test, to discover my real self.” This was very annoying. Not only am I afraid that the Church of Scientology website gave my computer a virus, but I am also mildly concerned that somehow this religion will be spying on me. In conclusion Scientology is even more bizarre than I originally
And they lived happily ever after... Or did they? Pride and Prejudice, a captivating novel written by Jane Austen, is the story of Elizabeth and her adventure challenging society and ending up deep in true love. Pride and Prejudice takes place in a town outside of London called Hertfordshire, where the reader follows Elizabeth, her friends, and her family as they search for love in the nineteenth century. The author writes of Elizabeth's journey of not only finding herself, but finding true love with Mr. Darcy in the end. Austen herself never married, something that was very untraditional for her time. She went against normalcy and knew that marriage was for love, not money as