Sunday, February 10, 2008

What does Scientology have to do with the occult and black arts?

This answer can also be found on my "Questions about Scientology" page.

Jim Gatos asked:
What, if any, are Scientology's connections, previous and present, with the occult and the Black Arts?

Grahame answered:
Short answer: None.

Longer answer: I guess this relates to your earlier questions about Alistair Crowley to which I gave this link: Was L. Ron Hubbard involved in a satanic cult before he founded Scientology?.

If you want to answer this question for yourself to your complete satisfaction then you should study some Scientology (such as the book "Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought") or the links I give at the end of this, then study some occultism or black-artism and then compare the two. That's really the only way for anyone to answer the question.

Personally I have no clue what sort of things are covered by the "occult" or "Black Arts" as I've never studied or dealt with them. However, to answer your question, I did look up some terms on Wikipedia (I know this is probably not the definitive source of data on these subjects but it gives a quick overview):

In the article for the word "Occult" it talks about "magic, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, numerology and lucid dreaming". There is none of that in Scientology. The article also says that Buddhism and Hinduism are not generally considered as occult and Scientology is somewhat comparable to Buddhism and Hinduism.

I had a quick look at "Magic" and the same applies there - nothing to do with Scientology.

I looked at "Black Arts" and there were several links from there so I chose "Black Magic" as the most applicable. The article says that "black magic" is a form of "magic," so again, this has nothing to do with Scientology.

Data on what Scientology is:
Scientology: An Analysis and Comparison of its Religious Systems and Doctrines by Bryan R. Wilson
Scientology: The Theological Fundamentals of the Scientology Religion
Scientology Axioms and Basics
Scientology Principles and Application

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