The understanding of religion in the middle ages and the reactive stance is taken against a number of scientific developments that led to processes such as the Renaissance, Reform, and the Age of Enlightenment in European history. All these processes have paved the way for the formation of modern sciences and the concept of modernity. In parallel with these transformations occurring in the modern individual and modern society, changes were observed in the field of mentality and truth. Undoubtedly, the most important area in which this change is seen emerges in the "positioning of religion". The "God-centric" understanding was abandoned, and the "human" factor was placed on top of the human-god-nature triangle, and scientific knowledge started to play a dominant role in the life of modern man by overshadowing "divine knowledge". After the processes of modernism and postmodernism, the "human" placed at the top of the hierarchy has transformed socially, economically, and politically as well as an understanding of knowledge. Communities that have taken their religious knowledge from their lives and started to live a mind-centered life have finally started to become individualized and drawn into their own shell with the dissolution of the traditional family structure.
As a matter of fact, at the end of all these processes, the individualized and detached from his metaphysical bonds were left alone with all their "neurosis" and needed a little "metaphysical motion". We can evaluate the rapid spread of new religious movements that emerged in the Western world in the 20th century and the favor of people as an effort to close the “metaphysical gap” at the end of the aforementioned processes. In this article, the emergence of the new religious movement and the rapidly spreading “Scientology” will be examined in terms of the development process, basic defense, truth, liberation theories, and conception of worship.
The Emergence and Development Process of the Scientology Sect
The Scientology Church finds its origins in the "Indian Eastern Philosophy". Also, unlike classical religious movements, it is a religious movement that has the principle of “delivering the spirit to the authority of God” by using methods such as “psychotherapy-hypnosis” as a kind of spiritual treatment method. Considering the meaning of the concept of Scientology, it is basically a unified name consisting of the words "scio" which means "knowing, fully comprehending" in Latin and "logos" which means "work, workspace" in Greek. It means "knowing how to know something".This concept was designed by L. Ron Hubbard and was later used as the name of a religious community. Representatives of this religious movement see Scientology as a philosophical religion. The source of this understanding is based on the "spiritual enlightenment" principle, which is mostly seen in Indian religions rather than divine. Indeed, there are many religious systems that perceive the principle of spiritual enlightenment as truth. Scientology, on the other hand, considers these religious currents as "sibling systems of truth" because of their common understanding at this point. In this context, religious events such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Manichaeism are seen as sibling truth systems. Before going into the details about the emergence of the sect subject to the research, it will be appropriate to touch upon some important points from the life of the founder of the sect and to understand the dynamics that form the basis of the sect.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the sect, was born in the United States in 1911 as a child of an American family of British origin. He spent his childhood years on his grandfather's farm and did not receive regular education for a certain period of time. In the following years, with his father's appointment to the Far East, he visited countries such as China and India during the four-year period and attended the lessons of the Buddhist clergy, and for the first time encountered some teachings about the concepts of "human-soul" etc. Later, when they returned to the USA, he enrolled in the engineering department, lived an active student life, but there is no clear evidence that he completed the university. Ron preferred writing rather than engineering, which is his profession. He sustained his life with the writings he wrote on science fiction in the journals of imagination. During the outbreak of the Second World War, he was enlisted as an officer in the Navy. Dr. Thompson, who he met at the hospital after his injury here, has a significant impact on Ron's book “Dianetics” that he will write in the following years. During his years at the hospital, he acquired information about the “structure of the mind” and “psychoanalysis" from him. Another important phase in the emergence of Ron's views is his connection with the "California Eastern Community" and his relationship with Jack Parsons, the leader of the spiritualist community. Ron later left this congregation and moved on to the stage where he would lay the ground for his new theory.
After all these processes, Ron published his book "Dianetics The Original Thesis" in 1948 with the claim of "an alternative theory to psychotherapy".At the end of his past processes, he created a new synthesis by blending his imagination ability with Indian philosophy and spiritualist views. In the following years, this new theory was developed, formulated and all these ideas were brought together in the work titled “Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health”.This work, which is the main book of the Scientology sect, had a great impact during its publication and rose to the top of the New York Times bestseller list this year. The work contains promises to be more intelligent, to be more healthy in the body, and to give metaphysical abilities to the mind by opposing medical science and psychological therapies. This work caused the clustering of many people around Ron, and in 1950 with the help of all these favors, the "Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation" was established in New Jersey and the first step was taken in an organizational sense. Clustered around Ron, this community has accelerated publication and doctrine activities through the "amateur foundation". However, at the point where it is reached, all activities and theses have taken on a religious character and have become "principles of faith".
Finally, in 1954, a new denomination was officially established as the Church of Scientology. This understanding, which was designed as a new religion, did not have religious rituals unlike classical religious events but benefited from the auditing method inspired by psychoanalysis. This deficiency in the sense of ritual was closed in the following years through a number of works that the organization worked on intensively and some religious rituals were put forward. Ron, who is regarded as the founding personality of religion, has encountered great opposition in the American public opinion after this understanding became a religion, despite the pleasure he saw in his early years. It made its location after the forced migration to England the new center of the Scientology sect. When his life and activities here were subject to the parliamentary investigation, he had to leave England and founded the "The Sea Organization (Sea Org)" and was opened to the open seas. After eight years of marine life, Ron left his agency administration to the assembly called “Seventy” and spent the last years of his life in the background. Ron Hubbard has not appointed any heirs to lead the agency after him.
After Hubbard's death in 1986, "David Miscavige" came to the fore for leadership. Miscavige's family belonged to the Scientology Church in the early period, and he was almost born into this sectarian understanding. He served in important positions within the church at a young age and was praised by R. Hubbard. By 1986, David Miscavige, the only name that stood out in the church, became the head of the organization. Based on the claim that R.Hubbard Scientology is a religion, he spent years of great efforts to be "tax-exempt" but could not reach this goal while living. After 10 years under the leadership of Miscavige, after some struggles with the IRS, on October 1, 1993, the Church of Scientology was accepted as a religion by IRS, it was under the guarantee of the constitution and was exempt from tax with all its institutions.
Miscavige, depicted by the Church as "the religious leader of the Scientology religion", still maintains this task. Today, this religious movement, which has 11,000 churches in 167 countries, continues to spread the "teachings of Hubbard" under the leadership of Miscavige.
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