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A C
Per-Arne Berglie
Professor, History of Religion
University of Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden
S
CIENTOLOGY
A C
OMPARISON WITH
R
ELIGIONS OF
THE
E
AST AND
W
EST
F
REEDOM
P
UBLISHING Per-Arne Berglie
Professor, History of Religion
University of Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden
S
CIENTOLOGY
A C
OMPARISON WITH
R
ELIGIONS OF
THE
E
AST AND
W
EST
F
REEDOM
P
UBLISHING F
REEDOM
P
UBLISHING
6331 H
OLLYWOOD
B
OULEVARD
, S
UITE
1200
L
OS
A
NGELES
, C
ALIFORNIA
90028-6329
T
EL
: (213) 960-3500
F
AX
: (213) 960-3508/3509 Scientology
A Comparison
with Religions
of the East
and West
1
S
CIENTOLOGY
A C
OMPARISON WITH
R
ELIGIONS OF
T
HE
E
AST AND
W
EST
PER-ARNE BERGLIE
PROFESSOR
,
HISTORY OF RELIGION
UNIVERSITY OF STOCKHOLM
S
TOCKHOLM
, S
WEDEN
Having been requested in my capacity as an historian of religion to
give an opinion on the Church of Scientology, I shall herewith deliver
the following statement:
Initially, I would like to point out that in my research I have pri-
marily dealt with Buddhism in its various regional forms and with
Tibetan religion. However, in my education and in my seminary teach-
ing, I have had reason to work with and discuss the general issues on
history of religion. The following brief reflections are based on my
study of a larger number of scriptures from the Church of Scientology
and on a number of religious scientific examinations and discussions
concerning the Church from different angles, including history of ideas
as well as sociological and psychological.
Among recent important studies, I would like to emphasise, in par-
ticular, Scientology (1994) by Bryan Ronald Wilson, leading British
sociologist of religion; From Therapy to Religion (1994) by Dorthe
Refslund Christensen; and the article Scientology and Indian Religion
(Chaos No. 25, 1994) by Oluf Schonbeck. I have furthermore visited the
Churchs premises in Stockholm and spoken to its representatives there as well as in other relations and thereby have sought to form a direct
personal understanding of the Church of Scientology.
Scientology is usually viewed as an example of a new religion, a
designation which commonly refers to movements created in the
Western world in this century and which arrived in Sweden during the
1960s and later. With this designation, one refers not only to the ori-
gins of the religion but also infers that this new spirituality in many
respects is different from other older churches, communities and sects
as far as concept, religious ceremonies, methods of missionary work
and acquisition of new members. It is possible that the designation
new religions is also an expression of a disassociative opinion; that
in a certain eagerness to explain origin and formation on the basis of
social and psychological analyses, they may be minimising new reli-
gions to functions of these social-psychological factors. Particularly in
older representations by authors who belong to or are closely related
to older and more established religious communities, an irritation is
noticeable concerning the competition being offered by the new
spirituality. In some cases, this is expressed by branding these reli-
gions as sects and claiming they attract primarily young people under
emotional circumstances and then are about to retain them with dubi-
ous and authoritarian methods. All religions, churches and religious
communities have at one point in time been new and have appeared
against an older and traditional background with all this may imply as
far as missionary work, proselytisation, organisation and dissemination
of the message.
The instrumentality, the focusing on life here and now, the organi-
sation and the rational and technical vocabulary existing among certain
new religions have caused representatives from primarily Christian
communities to question whether we can refer to these as religions.
This discussion is of little interest and relevance to an historian of reli-
gion today.
For example, if one uses a common definition of religion
Religion is the conviction of the existence of a supernatural world, a
conviction which first and foremost is expressed in concepts of belief
of various kind which are concretely illustrated in rituals and obser-
vances and in epic portraying (Ake Hultcrantz, Methods Within the
Comparative Research of Religion, 1973, page 13), the Church of
Scientology very clearly appears as a religion. There is furthermore no
Scientology
A Comparison
with Religions
of the East
and West
2 reason for an historian of religion to rank different religions from dif-
ferent starting points along a scale of value.
Religions can be analysed in manifold ways and from different angles
of approach. In this context, it appears fitting to make use of a disposi-
tion which indicates variations and nuances as well as the degree of
fullness. The historian of religion Ninian Smart has in several works
pedagogically arranged his presentation under seven headlines, each of
them aimed at a particular and characteristic dimension of the religion
in question. These seven dimensions are the ritual and practical; the
emotional and those related to experience; the mystic and narrative; the
philosophical and educational; the ethical and juridical; the social and
institutional; and, finally, the material and estetical. On the basis of this
pattern, one can seek to discern the typical characteristics in one single
religion in a way which facilitates comparisons with other religions and
other relative comparisons.
This statement is not the place for describing the history of the
Church of Scientology, nor to broach the problems of reliability of
sources facing an historian of religion when comparing the contribu-
tions of the dynamic founder of Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron
Hubbard (1911-1986), from different periods in his development.
Neither will the development from Dianetics therapy to the doctrines
of the Church of Scientology be taken up; the starting point as far as
the source of the religion is concerned is simply the picture of itself
which the church considers as representative.
The first dimension is the ritual and practical. Here is found the indi-
vidual spiritual counselling called auditing, and Scientologys religious
education, called training. Here also are the collective rituals, regular-
ly held religious services and ceremonies for marriages, naming of chil-
dren, and funerals. The auditing procedure and its structure is natural-
ly directly dependent on the churchs viewpoint on man and his spiri-
tual possibilities for development, which will be taken up later. The
principle is that the individual in a formalised way is to be brought to
realisation of his spiritual status and what is preventing his develop-
ment as a spiritual being. By making such barriers visible, the individ-
ual is placed in a position where he can remove these and proceed. In
this respect, the spiritual counselling has some similarity with certain
therapeutic activity and the method is as well reminiscent of those used
by certain forms of Buddhism and Hinduism, which are also based on
Scientology
A Comparison
with Religions
of the East
and West
3 a close relationship between the teacher and the pupil and interaction
between formalism and intuition.
The collective religious ceremonies appear to be influenced by
Christianity and are not unique within a Western context. The texts that
guide the performance of the ceremonies render a dignified and ade-
quate impression.
The second dimension is related to experience and is more difficult
to grasp. Based on information from active members of the church as
well as from outside observers, the collective ritual gives the partici-
pants the opportunity to experience congregation and devotion. The
individual counselling, like similar experiences in other religions, is
possibly subject to those tensions which may arise during such a pro-
cedure; but it apparently also is able to provide an experience of relief
and liberation.
The third dimension is the narrative and mystical. In this respect,
Scientology appears quite lacking, comparatively. One has the impres-
sion that their short history and their rational and almost technological
approach hinders this aspect of the religion. By my reading of the mate-
rial provided to me, however, I wondered whether the account of L.
Ron Hubbards life, particularly the early stage, carried an ingredient of
hagiography, and it could be of interest here to follow the development.
The philosophical and doctrinal dimension is the fourth. It is not
possible to adequately address Scientologys extensive and not totally
uncomplicated philosophy in this limited space. It is in part an esoteric
doctrine, wherein the full meaning of various things is revealed on a
gradual basis, using an esoteric terminology with many verbal neolo-
gisms and semantic shifts. It can be stated that although the concept of
a Supreme Being exists, other concepts of faith also play an impor-
tant role. The most essential is that a human being is said to be a
spiritual being. The person himself, beyond name, body and mind, is
called the thetan (for spirit, soul, life force) from the word theta,
a symbol for thought or spirit. The thetan is non-material and not actu-
ally a part of our physical world, but caught in it and burdened down
in it, assuming a human body at birt