20 world religions and faith practices 398

Church of Scientology
Š‡  ”‡‡† ‘ ˆ – Š‡  Š—”…Š ‘ ˆ  …‹‡–‘Ž‘‰› • ƒ›•ǣ ‡ ‘ ˆ – Š‡
Š—”…Š „‡Ž‹‡˜‡ǣdzǥ dzŠƒ–ƒŽŽ ‡ Šƒ˜‡ ‹ƒŽ‹‡ƒ„Ž‡ ”‹‰Š–• – ‘ –Š‡‹” ‘™
”‡Ž‹‰‹‘—• ’”ƒ…–‹…‡• ƒ† –Š‡‹” ’‡”ˆ‘”ƒ…‡Ǥdz Š‡ Š—”…Š ‘ˆ …‹‡–‘Ž‘‰›
„‡Ž‹‡˜‡• Dz–Šƒ–ƒ‹•„ƒ•‹…ƒŽŽ›‰‘‘†ǡ–Šƒ–Š‡‹••‡‡‹‰–‘•—”˜‹˜‡ǡሾƒ†ሿ
–Šƒ– Š‹• •—”˜‹˜ƒŽ †‡’‡†• ‘ Š‹•‡Žˆ ƒ† —’‘ Š‹• ˆ‡ŽŽ‘™• ƒ† Š‹•
ƒ––ƒ‹‡–‘ˆ„”‘–Š‡”Š‘‘†™‹–Š–Š‡—‹˜‡”•‡Ǥ

History

The Church of Scientology sprouted from the creative genius
of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Born in 1911, he spent much
of his childhood on his grandfather’s Montana ranch while his
parents served abroad in the US Navy. During the 1920s, Hubbard
started to visit his parents as a teenager in Asia, where he was
introduced to Taoism, Buddhism, and other Eastern philosophies.
As a child, he read extensively, and by the age of twelve
was studying the theories of Freud. “Hubbard always claimed that his
ideas of Dianetics originated in the 1920s and 1930s. By his
own account, he spent a great deal of time in the Oak Knoll
Naval Hospital’s library, where he would have encountered the
work of Freud and other psychoanalysts.”2
In 1929 he returned to the United States and in 1930 enrolled
in George Washington University, studying mathematics,
engineering, and nuclear physics. Hubbard wanted to answer the
basic questions relating to the human being’s nature, and decided to
do further research on his own. To finance this, he began a literary
career in the early 1930s, publishing numerous stories and screen
plays in various genres, including adventure, mystery, and science
fiction. H ubbard continued his travels and then served in the
United States Navy during World War II. He suffered near fatal

wounds during the war, and used some of his own theories concerning
the human mind to assist in his healing.3
In 1938, L. Ron Hubbard authors a manuscript called š…ƒŽ‹„—”,
which contains ideas that were later incorporated into Scientology.
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