What Scientology teaches1 / 2
Auditing.
An auditor guides a person (a preclear) through exact questions and procedures, often reading an E-meter, to find and handle charged areas of their past.
Auditing and the E-meter
Auditing and the E-meter
What Scientology teaches2 / 2
The Bible: confess to God, who forgives.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (WEB) · context
Auditing and the E-meter
What Scientology teaches1 / 2
The Bridge.
Scientology's Bridge to Total Freedom lays out levels of auditing and training, step by step, to Clear and beyond.
Clear and the Bridge to Total Freedom
What Scientology teaches2 / 2
The Bible: freedom is a gift from the Son.
36If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36 (WEB) · context
Clear and the Bridge to Total Freedom
Leaving and real freedom1 / 3
The truth will make you free.
31Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32 (WEB) · context
Real freedom: what Jesus offers
Leaving and real freedom2 / 3
Free indeed.
36If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36 (WEB) · context
Real freedom: what Jesus offers
Leaving and real freedom3 / 3
No condemnation.
1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1 (WEB) · context
Real freedom: what Jesus offers
Reason 11 / 5
Scientology leaves God open.
In Scientology's eight dynamics, the eighth is the urge toward existence as infinity, which it also calls the Supreme Being. The Church says it does not tell members what to believe about God.
Reason 1: God is not left undefined: he has spoken
Reason 12 / 5
The Bible starts with a God who acts.
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (WEB) · context
Reason 1: God is not left undefined: he has spoken
Reason 13 / 5
He is personal, and he wants to be known.
24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. 25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. 26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Acts 17:24-27 (WEB) · context
Reason 1: God is not left undefined: he has spoken
Reason 14 / 5
Knowing him is eternal life.
3This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
John 17:3 (WEB) · context
Reason 1: God is not left undefined: he has spoken
Reason 15 / 5
And he showed us his face in Jesus.
9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
John 14:9 (WEB) · context
Reason 1: God is not left undefined: he has spoken
Reason 21 / 5
Scientology's Creed: Man is basically good.
The Creed of the Church of Scientology (1954) states that Man is basically good. Dianetics teaches that what goes wrong in us comes from engrams: recordings of painful moments in the reactive mind.
Reason 2: We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Reason 22 / 5
Jesus located the problem in the heart.
21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”
Mark 7:21-23 (WEB) · context
Reason 2: We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Reason 23 / 5
Not one of us is the exception.
23for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23 (WEB) · context
Reason 2: We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Reason 24 / 5
God offers a new heart, not a cleaner old one.
26I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26 (WEB) · context
Reason 2: We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Reason 25 / 5
That is grace.
8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (WEB) · context
Reason 2: We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Reason 31 / 4
In Scientology, you are a thetan.
Scientology teaches that a person is a thetan: an immortal spiritual being, the true self, who in Hubbard's teaching (The Factors, 1953) took part in creating the physical universe of matter, energy, space and time.
Reason 3: You are not the source of the universe: God is
Reason 32 / 4
The Bible says God alone made it all.
24Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;
Isaiah 44:24 (WEB) · context
Reason 3: You are not the source of the universe: God is
Reason 33 / 4
Everything was made through the Son.
16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
Colossians 1:16-17 (WEB) · context
Reason 3: You are not the source of the universe: God is
Reason 34 / 4
We are his, not our own makers.
3Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalms 100:3 (WEB) · context
Reason 3: You are not the source of the universe: God is
Reason 41 / 5
Scientology teaches past lives.
Hubbard taught that the thetan has lived many lives over a vast span of time, the "whole track", and that painful incidents from past lives still affect us now (Have You Lived Before This Life?, 1960).
Reason 4: One life, then the judgment: not endless past lives
Reason 42 / 5
The Bible says we die once.
27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
Hebrews 9:27 (WEB) · context
Reason 4: One life, then the judgment: not endless past lives
Reason 43 / 5
Jesus promised a thief paradise the same day.
43Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43 (WEB) · context
Reason 4: One life, then the judgment: not endless past lives
Reason 44 / 5
And Jesus answered the past-life question directly.
2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “This man didn’t sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him.
John 9:2-3 (WEB) · context
Reason 4: One life, then the judgment: not endless past lives
Reason 45 / 5
He is the resurrection, not the next round.
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26 (WEB) · context
Reason 4: One life, then the judgment: not endless past lives
Reason 51 / 4
Scientology's diagnosis: engrams and overts.
Dianetics traces our trouble to engrams in the reactive mind. Scientology also speaks of overts, harmful acts, and withholds, which are confessed and handled in auditing sessions.
Reason 5: The problem is sin, and only God forgives sin
Reason 52 / 4
The Bible's diagnosis: sin against God.
4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
Psalms 51:4 (WEB) · context
Reason 5: The problem is sin, and only God forgives sin
Reason 53 / 4
Only God can forgive it.
5Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” 6But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7“Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Mark 2:5-7 (WEB) · context
Reason 5: The problem is sin, and only God forgives sin
Reason 54 / 4
Jesus forgives it, completely.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (WEB) · context
Reason 5: The problem is sin, and only God forgives sin
Reason 61 / 5
Scientology's Bridge has a price list.
Auditing and training on the Bridge to Total Freedom are given for fixed donations. In Hernandez v. Commissioner (1989) the US Supreme Court held these payments were not deductible gifts, because members received services in return.
Reason 6: Salvation is a free gift: it cannot be bought
Reason 62 / 5
Peter refused to sell God's gift.
20But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
Acts 8:20 (WEB) · context
Reason 6: Salvation is a free gift: it cannot be bought
Reason 63 / 5
You were redeemed with blood, not silver.
18knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 19but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ,
1 Peter 1:18-19 (WEB) · context
Reason 6: Salvation is a free gift: it cannot be bought
Reason 64 / 5
It is a gift, so no one can boast.
8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, that no one would boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (WEB) · context
Reason 6: Salvation is a free gift: it cannot be bought
Reason 65 / 5
Come and take it, without price.
17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” He who hears, let him say, “Come!” He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:17 (WEB) · context
Reason 6: Salvation is a free gift: it cannot be bought
Reason 71 / 4
Scientology: the spirit saves itself.
The Creed of the Church of Scientology says the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body. Progress comes through the thetan's own rising ability on the Bridge.
Reason 7: The spirit cannot save itself: Jesus saves
Reason 72 / 4
Jesus: apart from me you can do nothing.
5I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 (WEB) · context
Reason 7: The spirit cannot save itself: Jesus saves
Reason 73 / 4
Salvation is in no one else.
12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
Acts 4:12 (WEB) · context
Reason 7: The spirit cannot save itself: Jesus saves
Reason 74 / 4
It is by his mercy, not our works.
5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5 (WEB) · context
Reason 7: The spirit cannot save itself: Jesus saves
Reason 81 / 4
Scientology keeps its highest teaching confidential.
The Operating Thetan (OT) levels are given only to advanced members. Their content has been described in court filings and by journalists; the Church keeps it confidential and objects to outsiders publishing it.
Reason 8: God's truth is open, not locked in secret levels
Reason 82 / 4
Jesus taught in the open.
20Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet. I said nothing in secret.
John 18:20 (WEB) · context
Reason 8: God's truth is open, not locked in secret levels
Reason 83 / 4
God has not spoken in a dark corner.
19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
Isaiah 45:19 (WEB) · context
Reason 8: God's truth is open, not locked in secret levels
Reason 84 / 4
The apostles hid nothing.
2But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
2 Corinthians 4:2 (WEB) · context
Reason 8: God's truth is open, not locked in secret levels
Reason 91 / 5
Scientology has no place for a Saviour.
In Scientology, spiritual freedom comes through auditing and training. It does not teach that Jesus is God the Son, that his death pays for sin, or that he rose bodily from the dead.
Reason 9: Jesus is not one teacher among many: he is Lord
Reason 92 / 5
Jesus claimed God's own name.
58Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.”
John 8:58 (WEB) · context
Reason 9: Jesus is not one teacher among many: he is Lord
Reason 93 / 5
He died for our sins and rose.
3For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (WEB) · context
Reason 9: Jesus is not one teacher among many: he is Lord
Reason 94 / 5
Thomas worshipped him.
28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
John 20:28-29 (WEB) · context
Reason 9: Jesus is not one teacher among many: he is Lord
Reason 95 / 5
He is the only way.
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
John 14:6 (WEB) · context
Reason 9: Jesus is not one teacher among many: he is Lord