I read the book and know a thing or two about Scientology.
Hubbard borrowed a lot of ideas from various therapies that have fairly good principles. Gestalt therapy being the main one with a little cognitive therapy thrown in.
The basics behind Gestalt therapy is that we hide our true selves behind layers of fake personalities. For instance, you might present to the world as a sweet person when under neither you are an aggressive and greedy person or a real hard-ass might be hiding a tenderness. Anyway, the goal is find your core personality and act on it. Gestalt therapy may actually be the inventor of the phase “keep it real†as that is the goal.
Scientology has a machine called the “clear machine†that is a type of mini lie detector. A person will ask you questions about your life as you hold the machine. It will indicate if you are lying. The goal is then to work on telling the truth and thus becoming a “clear†and this is exactly the goal in Gestalt therapy where one seeks to be “congruent“ with one‘s internal and external presentation.
Scientology also talks about something called “engrams†(spelling?). These are chunks of thought that program a person in a certain way. It is claimed that even at the moment of conception the noises that people make can affect the baby’s mind. That’s bizarre.
Anyway, the basic idea is a lot like cognitive therapy’s idea that the thought that you think are the main determinant of your actions. What you think and believe you will do.
So, it appears to me that Scientology ripped off several good ideas that were already out there and added a new twist. It’s a big twist too.
The group works as if you are taking classes at a school. The more classes that you take then the higher that you go. Of course the higher that you go the more that you have to pay. A person could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars from what I understand.
I have read accounts by people that have gotten out of Scientology, and have broken their nondisclosure contracts, that the final “lesson†is that you learn about this ancient despot from another planet named Xeno (or something) that sent all of these beings to Earth and then killed them. It’s their negative energy that sticks to us and makes us unhappy. Scientology is the method by which we get rid of their unhappy legacy.
So, Scientology works on people’s minds in a couple of simple ways. Firstly, if you mix good ideas with crazy ideas it can make the crazy ideas seem legitimate. It uses a lot of scientific claims that have little validity. For instance, they will say something like: It is a well known fact that fetuses can understand what people are saying. Well, it’s not a “well known fact†at all. However, if you have the audacity to say that it is, then some people will believe you. Finally, if you pay large amounts of money for something then you are more likely to value it. After you pay 100,000,000 for the “truth†you probably want to believe that it is the Truth.
My mind is boggled that anyone believes the final aspect of it all.