Customer Reviews

What Is Scientology?

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What Is Scientology is an impressive volume which is well organized and contains many statistics and graphs to back up most of its statements. Its purpose is to explain to the public at large what this new and controversial religion is all about. The book details its history and explosive growth and references that its religious claims have been substantiated by many religious scholars and high courts around the world. The book also outlines many of the good works that its secular organizations are deeply involved with such as handling drug abuse, illiteracy and criminal behavior and the many community awards that they have received. The central message seems to be this: Read about Scientology and decide for yourself.

A highly informative and detailed overview of Scientology. The personal experiences section in particular is very interesting and worth reading.

Good information package especially the part with the most commonly asked questions in it. Answered quite a few of my own and a few more besides! Definitely not a waste of time. Think I'll scan this site for more info - the entire subject looks quite interesting & worth a bit more time invested in finding out more about it. Hope you get as much knowledge from this as I did. Regards from a happy reader.

I am a Scientologist, so don't expect this to be a bad review :-) Instead, let me tell you why I think this book is important, not only for Scientologists. First of all it will help to correct a lot of false information that has been spread about Scientology. A small number of people try to keep the old lies about this religious philosophy alive. If they could have it their way, it would be enough to label someone as a "Scientologist" and that would justify the denial of basic rights to that person - without considering who the individual is or what he actually does. This book tells the truth about Scientology and uncovers the lies. If you like witch-hunts then skip this book. But if you honestly wish to have a better understanding of a Scientologist or the subject itself - this is the best book you can get! And it may be a very pleasant surprise to find out the truth about it. This is an entirely revised edition of a book published already many years ago. It includes much broader information than the first edition and is therefore the preferred reading. It starts with a history of philosophy and religion and what happened to these subjects at the end of the 19th century. That knowledge makes it possible to understand why Scientology is not greeted with enthusiasm by a few followers of materialistic beliefs. If you ever thought that you are more than a compound of chemicals and that your dreams and ambitions reach quite a bit further than the ones of your pet, you may be extremely interested to read the first part of the book. You will learn that the concept that man is just some sort of animal is very young and that it has failed to bring truly helpful answers for our world. Instead it has been abused to derive the intellectual justifications for the murderers commited by Hitler, Stalin and other criminals of the 20th century. The idea, however, that man is a spirit or a soul is the traditional idea which has been held true over thousands of years by most major religions and philosophies. It is in that light and tradition that you will have to see Scientology in order to really understand it. The book goes on with detailed descriptions of all the important aspects of Scientology. This includes social activities in the fields of education, drug and criminal rehabilitation programs and more. If you read this you will understand why Scientologists think that their answers should be known broadly. Furthermore you find sections in this book that answer all questions, critical ones included, from the viewpoint of Scientology. If you want to know what it is all about, there is just no better book. I have been a Scientologist for 20 years. But when I started reading some parts of that book, I sometimes felt like I was being introduced to a new subject! This book really covers a LOT! Having said that, let me point out that much of the material in the book is also available on-line at this link: http://www.scientology.org/home.html

I used this book for a college report on Scientology. It is an extremely informative volume with quite a bit of information on many aspects of the religion. However, take everything you read in it with a few grains of salt. (...)