One thing I know is that a cartoon show is purely entertainment and not all the facts are true. If you've seen the Catholic and Mormon episodes you will see that. But I would go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology and http://www.scientology.org/en_US/religion/index.html and you will get a lot more information from them then from a comedy cartoon.
I'm not a Scientology's, but they do believe in Xenu and in most, if not all, of the things portrayed in the show. The only difference from the part where the show says "This is what cytologistsSsleeve" (and not the parts making fun of Tom Cruise's sexual orientation, etc.) that I've found in my research has been that cytologistsSsleevevEthe volcano's were detonated by hydrogen bombs, while South Park showed only the volcanos.
As I understand it, the secrets of the story of Xenu are revealed only when you reach the OT III level, and then only for a hefty price (a couple thousand dollars' donations), so unless they've researched it themselves, "entry level" scientologists wouldn't even be aware of it.
Here is the episode in case anyone missed it...
http://www.xenutv.com/cruise/sp-closet.htm
Here is what they believe:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/scientology
Here is the Xenu story:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/xenu
Here it is from ex-members:
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/spaink-ot3.html
The scanned copies in Hubbard's handwriting used to be available, but because of pending court trials and other legal action from Scientology, they aren't at the moment. These originate from court trials, in which Scientology confirmed the material was accurate.
So yes that is what they really believe, and it is what they really teach you. However OTIII is a very high level in the church and can take members many many years to reach it, even decades.
The Church of Scientology was a cult created by L Ron Hubbard from the 1950's after he released a book called "Dianetics". This was a book which reported to overhaul mental health & the way medical practitioners look at and heal the body. Needless to say the book didn't do this, and its methods don't work any more than a placebo would if at all. It is constantly referred to as a pseudo-science and sometimes just pure quackery!
I believe that it is a cult and it uses mind/social control techniques to gain, keep & manipulate its members into doing whatever 'the group' wants them to. The also outright lie to new members to get them to join the group, before telling them the more weird stuff of Scientology.
Scientologists hold different beliefs depending on how long they have been inside the Church.
Scientologists believe:
o Man has a immortal soul called a thetan.
o You have a primitive reactive mind which is the source of much of man's problems, which collects "engrams" from traumatic times or when you are unconscience.
o A lot of physical illnesses/problems are physcosomatic caused by "Engrams".
o You can 'audit' engrams out and this will solve your issues and clear up your health. They also believe it makes you a more intelligent, aware and reasoned individual.
o Reincarnation and the ability to know these past lives and get to more engrams this way.
o Paying lots of money to scientology for there tech, courses, and auditing.
o Getting more people into scientology.
If they have got to OTIII, then the belief changes slightly.
o The universe is quadrillions years old.
o Xenu the Interglatic Space Lord ruled a confederation of overpopulated planets.
o Xenu took a load of these aliens from each planet and brought them to earth. (in DC-8 type planes)
o They were then exploded in volcanoes 75 million yrs ago with H Bombs (NOTE: Some of these volcanoes didn't exist 75 million yrs ago)
o Their souls were then caught on ribbons and taken to implant stations, where Xenu brainwashed & confused them so they wouldn't leave the planet. This includes implanting all the world religions.
o These Alien souls called Body Thetans have attached to humans, and are infact the real cause of your problems and why you get and retain engrams...
o You audit these body thetans out by auditing there engrams and taking them back to the Xenu incidents I & II.
o People have jaw aches from when they were a clam in human evolution....hence the name of the main critical site http://www.clambake.org
Or indeed at their own website: http://www.scientology.org (notice how you won't find OTIII described on their website!)
OTIII seems like fiction doesn't it? Thats because Hubbard was a science fiction writer, and dianetic & scientology is no different - it is a work of science fiction, not science.
The one study done said it did not benefit people.
http://www.clambake.org/archive/fischer/
Here is a small article on the techniques used:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/techniques/
This is what one critic thinks of scientology:
" The Church of Scientology is a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion. Its purpose is to make money. It practices a variety of mind-control techniques on people lured into its midst to gain control over their money and their lives. Its aim is to take from them every penny that they have and can ever borrow and to also enslave them to further its wicked ends.
It was started in the 1950s by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard in fulfilment to his declared aim to start a religion to make money. It is an offshoot to a method of psychotherapy he concocted from various sources which he named "Dianetics". Dianetics is a form of regression therapy. It was then further expanded to appear more like a religion in order to enjoy tax benefits. He called it "Scientology".
Scientology is a confused concoction of crackpot, dangerously applied psychotherapy, oversimplified, idiotic and inapplicable rules and ideas and science-fiction drivel that is presented to its members (at the "advanced" levels) as profound spiritual truth. "
http://www.clambake.org/roland-intro.html
They also hound critics trying to discredit and ruin them in any way (even if illegally), pressuring with lawyers, etc in order to stop any criticism rather than tackling the points raised by the critic. The campaign against critics is a well documented one.
http://www.suppressiveperson.org/
You can find much information out on the web, including even whole books written by ex-members:
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/apobs/
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/isd/isd.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/xenu.html
are there any scientologists here who saw the episode of south park that explained sc
