Thousands of years ago, 178 billions of creatures lived across the galaxies. Emperor Xenu —dictator of the Galactic Confederacy— decided to end their lives, as they overpopulated the galaxies. He gathered a group of humans and transported them to Earth. Upon their arrival, a hydrogen bomb exploded, killing many and leaving behind very few survivors. These lost souls gathered around Xenu, who took them to a movie theater; there, he projected a movie to make them believe in only one God.
For science fiction lovers, OT III by Ron Hubbard is one of the worst written stories in the history of the world. OT III narrates the Genesis of a multimillion dollar religion that each year gains more followers and power: Scientology.
Scientology was created in 1954, and its ideology is based on a hierarchical system. This cult sees people as more than a product of their environment, or their genes, whose spiritual salvation depends upon themselves. Hubbard swindled thousands of people who approached him to learn his teachings. The church became popular, and now this religion is practiced around twenty countries. Its administration, lucrative incomes, and obscurity surrounding its rituals and practices have raised questions and speculations around its detractors. These are 5 dark secrets of Scientology that the documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief by Alex Gibney unveils.
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Violence against its followers
The violence against its followers serves to keep them inside the cult, and it has been documented in the book Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. The leader established a policy called Fair Game, in which Scientologists harass everyone who questions their faith. The followers of this cult are also taught to break relations with the people outside Scientology, regardless if they’re family or close friends. By dissolving any connection outside the church, they oblige their followers to choose between salvation and their family. The church also has concentration camps where people who committed an offense are forced to work.
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Multimillionaire Enterprise
The Scientology church is secretive with its finances. The ideology of this religion pretends to liberate the spiritual form of each person, and in order to achieve this form of exaltation, the followers must obey every commandment left by Xenu and attend self-help programs. People can only attend these workshops after paying thousands of dollars for them. The more workshops people have on their record, the faster they’ll scale up in the hierarchy.
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Corruption
Scientology is depicted as a church but this multimillionaire business has been classified as a a private enterprise, profit-oriented cult, and civil organization. The leaders, who seek to make of their cult a religion —to avoid paying taxes, and win more followers—, will do whatever it takes to make it happen.
In 1990, the church hired private detectives to go after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) principal employees. The Scientologist leaders sued them. The IRS finally settled an agreement, and the cult became a religion, at least in the US.
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Hierarchy
The Church’s hierarchy is made up so it can hide its secrets from the public eye. Other religions share great amounts of information to their followers through clerics or spiritual guides. On the other hand, Scientology only reveals its secrets to high ranking followers. Information is never interchanged between the higher and lower levels of the hierarchy. In order to ascend, the followers must pay several fees. At the end, the higher ranks are granted access to documents written by Ron Hubbard.
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Blackmail
The act of confession for the Catholic Church is depicted in Scientology as an auditing process. Scientologists who wish to ascend ranks are recorded, and they must reveal personal information and describe their most traumatic events. Rumor has it that Tom Cruise and John Travolta can’t escape the church out of fear of having their secrets revealed.