山達基的英文字 Scientology,是拉丁字 scientia(知識、技巧)與希臘字 λόγος lógos(意指「表達內在思想的文字或外在形式並且使人了解」)組合而成,而 scientia 源自一個動詞 scīre(知道)。因此,山達基意指「了解關於知道」(英語:Knowing about knowing)。[16]
1901年,艾倫·厄普得(英语:Allen Upward)(Allen Upward)虛構了 Scientology 這個字,作為一個輕蔑的用語,用來代表「對科學的學說主義不經思考而盲目的接受」(亦即「盲目迷信科學」之意)。這是根據 Internet Sacred Text Archive 所引述厄普得一本罕為人知的著作 The New Word 之前言:「這個字代表理想主義」。然而該出版者也寫道:「我沒有任何證據,證明賀伯特知道這本非常罕見的書」。
L·羅恩·賀伯特作爲宗教創始人和魅力型权威,處於整套信仰體系的核心;而他的書籍則是教義和實踐的來源[17]。宗教社會學家大衛·布羅姆利(David G. Bromley)認爲山達基是賀伯特“本人對哲學、物理學和心理學的綜合”[18]。賀伯特聲稱他的想法是透過研究和實驗發展來的,而不是透過超自然來源的啟示[19]。賀伯特其生撰寫了數百本書[20],山達基人將其著作當作信仰用的典籍[21]。賀伯特的著作及理論被認為是完美的,不允許任何進一步闡述或修改[22]。賀伯特認為山達基是「一門應用宗教哲學,提供一個清楚而鮮明的深入理解,幫助你發揮心靈的潛能。」[23]。根據他的說法,它是由形上學說、心理學理論和道德教義組成[24]。賀伯特在山達基教的聽析和課程中融入了各種催眠技術[25],但同時在教義中完全否定催眠術與心理學[26],這是他在信徒中建立依賴和服從的方法[27]。
山達基對批評者進行私人調查、人格誹謗和法律訴訟。根據創始人羅恩·賀伯特的倡導,在與批評者打交道時,他的信徒應該「時刻發現或製造足夠的威脅,使他們求和。永遠不要防守。永遠進攻」。他敦促使用「黑色宣傳」來「破壞個人、公司或國家的聲譽或公眾信仰」[80]。這一套應對政策稱爲「公平遊戲法」(Fair Game Law)。
基於這一立場,山達基教會擅長使用訴訟和謊言來騷擾和攻擊批評者,意圖用黑社會性質的手段恐嚇批評者並製造「寒蟬效應」[81]。
山達基教會聲稱會保護聽析記錄的機密性,但該組織有利用記錄的保密資訊來攻擊和心理虐待前信徒的前科[84]。例如,1969年12月16日,教會特務領導瑪麗·蘇·賀伯特(Mary Sue Hubbard)發布的守護者辦公室命令(GO 121669)明確授權出於「內部安全」的目的來使用聽析記錄[85]。前教會成員也報告,他們參與了梳理聽析期間獲得的資訊的過程,以審查這些資訊是否可以針對批評者抹黑[86][87]。
1959年,西薩塞克斯郡东格林斯特德的聖崗莊園(Saint Hill Manor)成爲該教的全球總部。1968年,英國政府開始禁止外籍山達基信徒入境和拜訪總部。山達基威脅要起訴英國政府,政府官員發岀緊急秘密請求,要求英國駐洛杉磯領事館調查賀伯特,外交官員發現,他收購了一所「文憑工廠」大學之後,立刻互相授予假的博士學位[107]。1969年,高等法院駁回山達基申請,在法律上拒絕為他們的宗教成立一個認可的教堂[108][109]。1970年英國上訴法庭拒絕薩西克斯教堂成為宗教敬拜之地的申請[110]。1999年,英國慈善委員會駁回山達基申請,拒絕其成為慈善機構。委員們認為,山達基的核心活動——聽析和培訓——所提供的好處是私人性質。[111]2000年,稅務海關總署承認山達基為非營利組織,可以免稅。[112]2013年12月11日,英國最高法院宣布倫敦山達基教會之教堂,被視為英國法律下的宗教敬拜之地,一位政府大臣表示擔心,這項決定可能會影響山達基教未來在英國的法律地位[113][114]。
^Larson, Bob. Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality revised. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2004. ISBN 9780842364171.使用|accessdate=需要含有|url= (帮助)
^Dericquebourg, Regis. Acta Comparanda. Affinities between Scientology and Theosophy. International Conference – Scientology in a scholarly perspective 24–25th January 2014. Antwerp, Belgium: University of Antwerp, Faculty for Comparative Study of Religions and Humanism. 2014. (原始内容存档于February 16, 2017) (英语及法语).
^Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi: Scientology: Religion or racket? In: Marburg Journal of Religion 8 (1) (2003), S. 1–56, S. 29–31 (uni-marburg.de (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆); PDF; 365 kB).
^James T. Richardson, Massimo Introvigne, “Brainwashing” Theories in European Parliamentary and Administrative Reports on “Cults” and “Sects”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40 (2): pp. 143–168, S. 158 (德文)
^"Woman says her sister was 'changed' by Scientology," The Irish Times, January 30, 2003
^Scientology Presents Narconon Program(PDF). Westlake Post. 30 April 1970 [2017-03-05]. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2016-03-04). "The conference presented current programs effective in alleviating drug problems. No program which employs drug or electric shock therapy was presented, as it has been discovered that groups which condone these techniques have only been pretending to be effective in drug rehabilitation", said Max Prudente, Scientology spokesman. ... "Based solely on the philosophy and tenets of Scientology, the applied religious philosophy, this program has achieved new and dramatic breakthroughs in the field of drug rehabilitation. Its nearly 85% success ratio has earned high praise from Governors, state and federal officials and correction authorities across the U.S., " Prudente said.
^The Four Basic Social Programs. The Hawaiian-American. 17 December 1975 [6 September 2012]. (原始内容存档于2017-01-05). We talked with Rev. Diana Harris, Pastor of the Church of Scientology of Hawaii ... and she gave us a complete background on the church's social programs for those in need in our community. ... Another community program the church offers is Narconon - a program designed to assist persons to get off drugs and to keep off drugs. The program was utilized in Oahu State Prison for a while and enjoyed a very high rate of success, according to Pastor Harris. They [Scientology] have been asked to consider re-introducing the program to the prison at a later date.
^NARCONON to give awards. The Phoenix Gazette. 19 May 1970 [6 September 2012]. (原始内容存档于2017-01-05). General information regarding the technology of Scientology, upon which NARCONON is based, can be secured from the Institute of Applied Philosophy
^Farley, Robert. Detox center seeks acceptance. St Petersburg Times. 30 March 2003. When Narconon opened its Chilocco facility in 1991, the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health issued a blistering assessment in denying its application for certification. "There is no credible evidence establishing the effectiveness of the Narconon program to its patients," the board concluded. It attacked the program as medically unsafe; dismissed the sauna program as unproven; and criticized Narconon for inappropriately taking some patients off prescribed psychiatric medication.
^Kyle Smith. DON'T BE TRICKED BY $CI-FI TOM-FOOLERY. New York Post. 20 April 2007 [20 March 2014]. (原始内容存档于2014-03-22). Those who want a tan from his celebrity glow will urge a fair hearing for his quackery. Obscure City Councilman Hiram Monserrate suddenly finds himself talked about after issuing a proclamation of huzzahs for L. Ron Hubbard. Three: The Ground Zero maladies are so baffling that workers will try anything. Anyone who feels better will credit any placebo at hand - whether Cruise or the Easter Bunny. In 1991, Time called Scientology's anti-drug program "Narconon" a "vehicle for drawing addicts into the cult" - which the magazine said "invented hundreds of goods and services for which members are urged to give up 'donations' " - such as $1,250 for advice on "moving swiftly up the Bridge" of enlightenment. That's New Age techno-gobbledygook for advice on buying swiftly up the Bridge of Brooklyn. Scientology fronts such as the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project - its Web site immediately recognizable as the work of Hubbardites by its logo, which looks like the cover of a Robert Heinlein paperback from 1971 - hint that their gimmicks might possibly interest anyone dreaming of weight loss, higher I.Q. or freedom from addiction. And you might be extra-specially interested if you've faced heart disease, cancer, Agent Orange or Chernobyl. As Mayor Bloomberg put it, Scientology "is not science." Nope. It's science fiction.
^Robert W. Welkos; Joel Sappell. Church Seeks Influence in Schools, Business, Science. Los Angeles Times. 27 June 1990 [13 September 2012]. (原始内容存档于2012-10-23). A fourth article did not mention Hubbard by name, but reported favorably on Narconon, his drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, which is run by Scientologists.
^30 arrested in Paris crackdown on Scientologists. Agence France-Presse. 14 January 1992 [20 March 2014]. (原始内容存档于2014-11-17). About 30 Scientologists were arrested -- and 19 of them later indicted -- between May and October 1990 on charges of fraud, conspiracy to defraud and the illegal practice of medicine following the 1988 suicide of a church member in Lyon, eastern France. ... The sect has often found itself in trouble with officialdom the world over, accused of defrauding and brainwashing followers and, in France, of quackery at its illegal anti-drug clinics called "Narconon."
^Abgrall, Jean-Marie. Healing Or Stealing?: Medical Charlatans in the New Age(PDF). 2001: 193 [24 September 2012]. ISBN 1-892941-51-1. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2020-09-09). Narconon, a subsidiary of Scientology, and the association “Yes to Life, No to Drugs” have also made a specialty of the fight against drugs and treating drug addicts. ... Drug addicts are just one of the Scientologists’ targets for recruitment. The offer of care and healing through techniques derived from dianetics is only a come-on. The detoxification of the patient by means of “dianetics purification” is more a matter of manipulation, through the general weakening that it causes; it is a way of brainwashing the subject. Frequently convicted for illegal practice of medicine, violence, fraud and slander, the Scientologists have more and more trouble getting people to accept their techniques as effective health measures, as they like to claim. They recommend their purification processes to eliminate X-rays and nuclear radiation, and to treat goiter and warts, hypertension and psoriasis, hemorrhoids and myopia. . . why would anyone find that hard to swallow? Scientology has built a library of several hundreds of volumes of writings exalting the effects of purification, and its disciples spew propaganda based on irresponsible medical writings by doctors who are more interested in the support provided by Scientology than in their patients’ well-being. On the other hand, responsible scientific reviews have long since “eliminated” dianetics and purification from the lists of therapies — relegating them to the great bazaar of medical fraud. ... Medical charlatans do not base their claims on scientific proof but, quite to the contrary, on peremptory assertions — the kind of assertions that they challenge when they come out of the mouths of those who defend “real” medicine.
^Asimov, Nanette. Church's drug program flunks S.F. test / Panel of experts finds Scientology's Narconon lectures outdated, inaccurate. San Francisco Chronicle. 2 October 2004 [2017-03-05]. (原始内容存档于2017-02-22). The program, Narconon Drug Prevention & Education, "often exemplifies the outdated, non-evidence-based and sometimes factually inaccurate approach, which has not served students well for decades," concluded Steve Heilig, director of health and education for the San Francisco Medical Society. In his letter to Trish Bascom, director of health programs for the San Francisco Unified School District, Heilig said five independent experts in the field of drug abuse had helped him evaluate Narconon's curriculum. ... "One of our reviewers opined that 'this (curriculum) reads like a high school science paper pieced together from the Internet, and not very well at that,' " Heilig wrote Bascom. "Another wrote that 'my comments will be brief, as this proposal hardly merits detailed analysis.' Another stated, 'As a parent, I would not want my child to participate in this kind of 'education.' " Heilig's team evaluated Narconon against a recent study by Rodney Skager, a professor emeritus at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, describing what good anti-drug programs should offer students.
^Breckenridge, Memorandum of Intended Decision in Church of Scientology of California vs. Gerald Armstrong, Superior Court, Los Angeles County, case no. C420153. quoted in Atack 1990,第332頁 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAtack1990 (help)
^Russell, Ron. Scientology's Revenge – For years, the Cult Awareness Network was the Church of Scientology's biggest enemy. But the late L. Ron Hubbard's L.A.-based religion cured that–by taking it over. New Times LA. September 9, 1999.
^Urban, Hugh B.: The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion
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^Bainbridge, William Sims. “Science and Religion: The Case of Scientology.” In David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Hammond, eds. The Future of New Religious Movements. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987, 59-79.
^ Bromley, David G. (1987). The Future of New Religious Movements. Mercer University Press.
^ DeChant, Dell; Jorgensen, Danny L. (October 7, 2009). Neusner, Jacob, ed. World Religions in America, Fourth Edition: An Introduction. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 297. ISBN 9781611640472.
^Steve Bruce: Cathedrals to cults: the evolving forms of the religious life. In: Paul Heelas (Hrsg.): Religion, Modernity, and Postmodernity, Blackwell, Oxford 1998, pp. 19-35, 23.