New to Scientology?

This page is for people who want to find out a bit more about Scientology but do not want to approach the Church of Scientology for some reason.

Here is some information about the subject and some references to help you find out more.

What is Scientology?

"The term SCIENTOLOGY is taken from the Latin word SCIO (knowing in the fullest meaning of the word) and the Greek word LOGOS (to study)"
Fundamentals of Thought - L Ron Hubbard

Scientology is that applied and workable philosophy developed by Lafayette Ron Hubbard during most of his life.

Scientology includes the understanding of life, it's composition and potentialities. The application part of the philosophy includes activities which one can embark upon to improve one's life both in the spiritual sense as well as the physical.

The philosophy and the application of it is found in the many books he wrote and the many thousands of lectures he gave which are available on audio tapes and CDs.

What is the philosophy?

The philosophy is based upon some simple observations which Ron made including:

That man is a spiritual being

That man is seeking to survive

That man is basically good

That man can improve himself

Out of these further observations were made and some basic principles were then formulated that enabled activities to be developed that practically assisted a person to improve his spirituality in a visible way. These activities are known as the technology or more colloquially as the "tech", for short.

One of the guiding principles that came out of this study, which Ron made over his life time, is that for a specific result of improvement to be obtained, a process or activity has to be followed exactly. This means a set standard of activity was needed to ensure that each individual obtains the beneficial results available by following these exact processes.

Ron developed, through some considerable research and testing, what is called, a Standard Technology. This was a way of doing the activities and exercises that ensured each person doing them, would get the beneficial results intended.

A myriad deviations are possible from this particular path or course of action but none of them, of course, would guarantee the same results as "standard technology", since the activities are different and therefore the results will be different.

Much in the same way one builds a bridge. If one decides to build the bridge differently to the correct method and applying the correct engineering principles required to build a bridge, one will invariably end up with something else and not a bridge.

So this is a practical, or working philosophy which an individual can utilise here and now to improve their life and well being. An individual principle, such as the stable datum, can be taken and used more or less immediately and a result observied. There are many basic principles in Scientology which one can taken and use to immediate effect.

So why all the controversy?

Every religion, without exception, has gone through a period where it has been unaccepted, ridiculed and vilified. There seems to be a cultural lag or delay before any "new" religion or philosophy, or even a culture for that matter, becomes accepted. Scientology is no different. It has it's adherents as well as it critics, much like any other subject. And the media always looks for controversy as that, they believe, is what "sells'.

But it really has nothing to do with the actual philosophy and technology.

Church vs the independent/Freezone field

Bill Robertson in Frankfurt/Main originally coined the term Freezone in 1983, and the concept spread throughout the world with thousands of people using and practicing the technology of Lafayette Ron Hubbard. The biggest groups are in Europe the US and Russia, but there are many hundreds of small groups and individuals using and practicing the technology of Lafayette Ron Hubbard. The Freezone, by definition is less rigid and not bound as is the 'official' Church of Scientology. It is also expanding, whereas the church is contracting.

The Freezone is made up of persons who have previously been members of the Church of Scientology but have either been thrown out and excommunicated for one reason or another or left on their own accord when they observed that the 'official' church was no longer practicing the original philosophy. It slso people who have learned about the philosophy in the Freezone for the first time without the influence of the 'official' church.

Nowadays the term freezone includes all those from strict standard tech practitioners to those who practice a wide varience of scientology up to and including that which is hardly recognisable. To distinquish ourselvesd from the freezone we now refer to ourselves as Independent Scientologists to distinquish ourselves from those that practice altered forms of the original philosophy and technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

Further References.

A good new site for beginners or the just plain curious is The Freezone Scientologist. Here you can find out more about the philosophy of Ron Hubbard and get answers to many questions that people ask.

Also check out the Aims and Purposes of the International Freezone if you have not done so already.

If you are interested in finding out more about the technology and you can use it here is an excellent book you can read called Guided Tour to Standard Technology at Gold Century Press

Further information can also be had at Technology

If you are interested in the differences between the Church of Scientology and the Freezone you can find those out by going to the scientologistsfreezone.com

The links page also provides links to other Freezone and individuals sites for further information.