Church to promote spiritual growth founded by the late science fiction writer F. Ron Hubbard in 1954. The Church of Scientology is currently headquartered in Los Angeles and has a combined membership of about 8 million in 70 countries around the world. The basic tenets of the faith, as set forth in the Church’s book What Is Scientology?, state that a person is primarily a spiritual rather than a material being, and that people are basically good, not evil. “Man does not have a spirit,” states What Is Scientology? “he is a spirit.” Scientology, according to the church’s statements, is intended to better mankind spiritually by increasing individual self-awareness. It does this through healing psychological and psychosomatic wounds, thus making people healthier and less likely to suffer from debilitating diseases.
Scientology’s primary aims are similar to those of Hubbard’s dianetics, a form of psychological counseling he first summarized in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950). However, Scientology is not the same thing as Dianetics. According to What Is Scientology? Dianetics tries only to adjust the effects the spirit has on a person’s body. It can solve problems arising from the unconscious mind, and it can supposedly help prevent accidents, injuries, and some illnesses. Scientology rests on a more spiritual basis. It states that people consist of three parts: body, mind, and the tan, the immortal spirit of a person. The Church of Scientology claims to address mankind directly as a spirit, intending to bring people into a realization of their basic immortal spiritual nature.