Eds., Wisdom Quarterly EDITORIAL; Prof. Stephen A. Kent (University of Alberta, Canada)
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Scientology is a money-making enterprise registered as a "church," perhaps to avoid paying taxes on profits and "donations" like some "prosperity doctrine" mega-church televangelists (Last Week Tonight).
Its founder was sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, who bragged to fellow Pasadena Satanist/occultist the weapons developer Jack Parsons (founder of JPL, aka "Jack Parsons' Lab," the Jet Propulsion Lab) that he could start his own religion.
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He then claimed or very strongly suggested he was the redhaired Buddhist Messiah prophesied by many Tibetan Buddhists. The Future Buddha is the world-system's heartfelt "Friend" (Pali Metteya or Sanskrit Maitreya).
Hubbard did not know much about Eastern religions and made his self-aggrandizing claims in a poetry book he published as Hymn of Asia An Eastern Poem. His text explores several themes.
According to Prof. Stephen A. Kent, the first line of Hubbard's extended poetic hymn asks, "Am I Metteyya? [sic]." Hubbard quickly followed this question with the statement, "I come to bring you all that Lord Buddha would have you know of life, Earth, and Man"* (Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1996, p. 21).
- *The original text contains very short lines of verse, and in this quote and others I have compressed them into prose and bracketed appropriate punctuation. I left alone, however, Hubbard's capitalization, which may appear serendipitous.
Hubbard, Prof. Kent continues, made a fundamental error in Buddhist soteriology... More
Hubbard started an all-business quasi-religion, and its current guru is controversial possible wife-murderer David Miscavige.
If anyone expects to get involved with Scientology and its many arms in Hollywood and the world, be prepared to spend a lot of money. Bring credit cards. They will take much more than money, but first they get all the money they can. More
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