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Contributors are Matthew Charet, Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Carole M. Cusack, Bernard Doherty, Marco Frenschkowski, Liselotte Frisk, Kjersti Hellesøy, Don Jolly, James R. Lewis, Renee Lockwood, András Máté-Tóth, Gábor Dániel Nagy, Johanna Petsche, Erin Prophet, Susan Raine, David G. Robertson, Mikael Rothstein, Lisbeth Tuxin Rubin, Nicole S. Ruskell, Shannon Trosper Schorey, Michelle Swainson, Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen, Hugh G. Urban, Donald A. Westbrook, and Benjamin Zeller.
Contributors are Matthew Charet, Dorthe Refslund Christensen, Carole M. Cusack, Bernard Doherty, Marco Frenschkowski, Liselotte Frisk, Kjersti Hellesøy, Don Jolly, James R. Lewis, Renee Lockwood, András Máté-Tóth, Gábor Dániel Nagy, Johanna Petsche, Erin Prophet, Susan Raine, David G. Robertson, Mikael Rothstein, Lisbeth Tuxin Rubin, Nicole S. Ruskell, Shannon Trosper Schorey, Michelle Swainson, Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen, Hugh G. Urban, Donald A. Westbrook, and Benjamin Zeller.
The present piece surveys different discussions of “religion” — especially in the legal realm — which have had a bearing on Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard adopted the religion label for practical reasons; in his mind, Scientology was a science, not a religion. However, it is clear that Scientology actually is a religion — at least in the sense of functioning as a religion in the lives of participants — parading as science; instead of, as Hubbard thought, a science parading as religion. This becomes particularly clear upon examination of individuals participating in the so-called “Free Zone” (ex-CoS members who continue to identify as Scientologists), for whom Scientology remains their primary religious identity.
When applying the category of “mythology” to a contemporary new religious group like the Church of Scientology (CoS), one has to choose from among several different categories of narratives which could be regarded as mythological. If we set aside the body of tales surrounding L. Ron Hubbard, CoS’s founder (which could arguably be classified as mythology), one of Scientology’s key stories is the so-called Xenu narrative (also referred to as the ot-iii teachings). Although this story is only revealed after one has tread the “Bridge” for some time, it is arguably a foundational myth, which sets the Scientology enterprise into a cosmological framework. While the present article will focus on the Xenu story, it also discusses Hubbard’s self-mythologizing, including his “discovery” of Incident Two (the Xenu narrative) as a hero myth.