zen_tom

It's a religion, self-help regime, or set of techniques that were developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the 50s Sci-Fi writer. It uses self-hypnosis techniques (which could arguably be similar to those used in eastern meditative religions and Crowley's, Wiccan and other spell-casting or deep prayer religions) to create feelings of warmth and euphoria, as well as to help achieve one's personally defined goals. They believe that a person is a spiritual being, literally, a being separate to the body, or rather, one that is trapped within the body, unaware of what it is truely capable of.

More is learned as one becomes more involved in the religion, and it is rumoured that the more advanced people are taught that they are inhabited by hundreds of alien spirits, each of which confuse and abberate the central, 'thetan' that is the true identity of the individual. Later revelations are classed as secret and a number of attempts at revealing them have resulted in heavy-handed usage of libel laws as a method of silencing dissenters.

The study, or involvement in scientology aims to improve the condition of one's spiritual being by taking it through a series of techniques designed to free it, or clear it of abbarations caused by traumatic events that occur both during this lifetime, and also in previous ones. Both in the human manifestation, and in other, less evolved forms.

Some of the controvosy is due to the way the people behind it use selling techniques to recruit people (one of which may might include actively recruiting hollywood celebrities). There is also the morally questionable method of witholding involvement unless people pay 'donations', or work to recruit others. In a similar way, other religions have come under fire for 'selling' God, or for asking their members to pay money in order to show their commitment.

I want to be as fair as possible about this, and hope I've given a rounded picture - if not, there are many web sites that can be found both in favour, and against. Some of the critical websites have been silenced, or removed from google's primary search results - however, they can be reached either via direct links, or by following Google's explanation of their pulling the listing.