Scientology How to Sell a Religion Sam Wiehe

Scientology: How to Sell a Religion Sam Wiehe

Agenda ● Brief overview of the Scientology Organization and its key members ● How Scientologists spread their messages ● Target audience ● Success of Scientology ● Issues with Scientology ● Why all of this matters - implications

History and Overview ● Scientology was created in 1954 by famous science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard ● The religion is a set of beliefs, based upon a self-help/mental science book by Hubbard called Dianetics ● Scientology costs a great deal of money to be a part of ○ The more you pay, the higher up the ladder you move ● After Hubbard died, current leader David Miscavige took over ● Scientology has been the cause of controversy all over the world ○ More on that in a bit Source: scientology. org

Summary of the beliefs of Scientologists ● “In Scientology doctrine, Xenu is a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. These events are known as "Incident II" or "The Wall of Fire, " and the traumatic memories associated with them are known as the "R 6 implant. " The Xenu story prompted the use of the volcano as a Scientology symbol” (religionfacts. com). ● Scientologists believe that people have “past memories”, or memories from previous lives that they have lived. ● Three parts to the human body - The body, the mind, and the soul (thetan) ● Intense interviews, also known as audits, can help reveal past memories as well as relieve stresses and bad memories.

Propaganda and message spreading ● The most basic form of message spreading comes in the form of pamphlet distribution. Especially in populated cities, scientologists will hand out informational pamphlets in hopes of gaining members to be audited. ● The church also relies heavily on celebrity endorsements. ○ Prominent members: Tom Cruise, Beck, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Elisabeth Moss ● Freedom Magazine - a monthly magazine published by the church. ● Scientology Media Productions - a $50 million media company launched by Tom Cruise in 2016. Source: latimes. com ● Techniques - Bandwagon, simple solution, deification.

Scientology in movies? ● Some movies have been accused of being littered with themes of Scientology. ● Example: M Night Shyamalan's After Earth starring Will Smith. ○ Journalist Matt Patches accused the movie of heavily reinforcing the beliefs of Scientology, as well as criticising the field of psychiatry, a prominent practice of the religion. ● Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta and Forest Whitaker. ○ Based on the book of the same name by L. Ron Hubbard. It has been regarded as Travolta’s love letter to Scientology, even though it is regarded as absolutely terrible. Source: impawards. com Source: imdb. com

The target audience ● Because Scientology is technically classified as a non-profit, tax-exempt religious organization, their key objective is to make money. ● They target celebrities because of their willingness to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to climb the “ladder”. ● Scientologists also target ordinary citizens in populated areas of the world, so that they can recruit people to spread their message in order to collect more money in auditing sessions. ● They do not target specific groups of people or gender; they want as many people as they can possible have.

Success? ● The success of Scientology is certainly up for debate ○ Many have questioned the organization’s claim of having 15 million members, and estimates can be much, much lower than that, depending on who you ask. ● Scientology is still not exactly a mainstream religion. Many people still view it as a fringe-y, cult-like group. ● The movies that have been deemed to have some references and allusions to Scientology have been heavily criticized and panned. ● That being said, the organization is still worth over a billion dollars, so they are still bringing in a tremendous deal of untaxed revenue.

Controversy ● Many view the organization as being more of a cult, with the devout worship of LRH and his works. ● Since its inception, there have been hundreds of claims of abuse from within the church, and claims of abuse from former members by current members. ○ SP - Suppressive Person. Someone that leaves the church and talks negatively about it. ○ “Attack the attacker” ● Taxes - The church has had a longstanding feud with the IRS because of its large amount of untaxed revenue, as well as questions regarding just how much revenue it brings in.

In Summary ● While still not quite mainstream, Scientology has a large enough presence to be concerned about. ● Scientology is pervasive in spreading its message through the media and through person-to-person interaction. ● The organization has been the cause of hundreds of lawsuits and claims of abuse, so its impact could be vast. Thank you!