INTRODUCTION

The Church of Scientology is a psychotherapeutically oriented religion founded in the mid twentieth century by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986). Hubbard's extensive writings and taped lectures constitute the beliefs and the basis for the practices of the Church. Hubbard was a talented fiction writer and adventurer deeply interested in the human psyche. Scientology grew out of Dianetics, a popular therapy movement founded by Hubbard in the early 1950s.

Rather like ancient gnosticism, Scientology views human beings as pure spirits (“Thetans”) trapped in MEST (the world of Matter, Energy, Space, and Time). Humanity's ultimate goal is to achieve a state of total freedom in which – rather than being pushed around by external circumstances and by our own subconscious mind – we are “at cause” over the physical universe. Unlike traditional gnosticism, achieving this exalted state of total freedom does not require that we distance ourselves from everyday life. Instead, the greater our spiritual freedom, the more successful we will be at the “game of life.”