The Church teaches that their Sacred Scriptures (Hubbard's writing) are unchangeable. There have been some very slight exceptions to this, to remove the worst PR. Hubbard's writing are registered as copyrighted, and many of them are trade secrets. Not surprisingly, fewer than 2% of Church members have read Hubbard's views on Christianity.
New Church members are told that Scientology's policy is to "Change no man's religion" and they are assured that Scientology doctrine does not conflict with any other religions, and indeed it is consistent and supportive of ALL religions, past and present. These members have no possibility at all to verify these statements, since the upper level scriptures are not accessible to them.
Belief or Non-Belief in a Supreme or a Supreme Being can be a part of any religion. Scientology is essentially atheistic. Hubbard claimed that the creation of the physical universe was a joint venture by a group of "thetans" (spirits) who are now the victims of amnesia, enforced on them at the hands of hostile groups who obliterated their memories with electronic mind-control and encapsulated their consciousness in a body.
In the Hubbardian cosmology, modern-day psychiatrists and medical doctors were the ancient nemesis who invaded galaxies and planets and enslaved the populaces. They, (the "Psychs") introduced religious concepts and symbols and incorporated them into their electronic mind-control techniques. The Church invests a substantial amount of manpower and finances into their Holy War to expose and exterminate Hubbard's ancient enemies.
In the 1950's, Hubbard wrote a series of newsletter about his
technical "discoveries" and called them PABS (Professional Auditor Bulletins).
In PAB 31 Hubbard writes:
"Religion does much to keep the assumption in restimulation, being basically a control mechanism used by those who have sent the preclear into a body. You will find the cross as a symbol all over the universe, and the Christ legend as implant in preclears a million years ago."In the same article, Hubbard's infers that Jesus Christ was an agent of a mind-control organization that was imported to Earth:
"A few operating thetans -scarcity- could lead to trouble. Witness the chaos resulting from the activities and other determinism technology of one operating thetan, 2,000 years ago. It is despicable and utterly beneath contempt to tell a man he must repent, that he is evil. Those who talk most about peace on earth and good-will among men themselves carry forward the seas of unrest, war and chaos."Hubbard claimed that he was Guatama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism. In "Hymn of Asia" he stated that he addressed the Buddhist Congress in London in 1955 and inferred he was the future Buddha that was predicted in the Pali Canon. In Certainty magazine, Vol.5, No. 10, he writes of his achievements as the Buddha, and positions himself as a contender with Jesus Christ.
"Two and a half thousand years ago a handful of clears civilized half a billion people. What if we were all clear. Neither Lord Buddha nor Jesus Christ were OT's according to the evidence. They were just a shade above clear."In HCO bulletin of 18 July 1959 Hubbard wrote as a "Historical Note",
"The whole Christian movement is based on the victim. Compulsion of the overt-motivator sequence. They won by appealing to victims. We can win by converting victims. Christianity succeeded by making people into victims. We can succeed by making victims into people."Hubbard's criticism of Christian confessionals is utter hypocriscy, in view of his organization's policy of leaking the contents of confessionals and transgressions culled from the confidential records of dissident present and former church members. In HCO bulletin 21 Jan 1960 he writes,
"Some Churches used a mechanism of confession. This was a limited effort to relieve a person of the pressure of his overt acts. Later the mechanism of confession was employed as a kind of blackmail by which increased contribution could be obtained from the person confessing."Hubbard continued his "research" on the insidious genesis of Christianity and in the "Heaven" bulletin of 11 May 1963 he released his latest "objective" findings which were:
"Based on over a thousand hours of research auditing, analyzing the facsimiles of the reactive mind, and with the help of a Mark V Electrometer. It is scientific research and is not in any way based upon the mere opinion of the researcher...The contents of this HCO bulletin discover the apparent underlying impulses of religious zealotism and the source of the religious mania which terrorized Earth over the ages and has given religion the appearance of insanity."In his much touted 1950 book, "Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health", Hubbard asserted that "engrams" were the root cause of ALL human abberations and psychosomatic illnesses. With his news discoveries of what transpired in Heaven, Hubbard offered a new cause of the human dilemma.
"The Goals-Problems-Mass (GPM) implants, which are the apparent basic source of abberation and human travail, which began with the goal to Forget, were cynically done `in Heaven'.Hubbard dismissed the concerns of some members about his disparagement and cyncism about other religions,
" For a long while, some people have been cross with me for my lack of co-operation in believing in a Christian Heaven, God and Christ. I have never said I didn't disbelieve in a Big Thetan but there was certainly something very corny about Heaven et al. Now I have to apologize. There was a Heaven. Not too unlike, in cruel betrayal, the heaven of the Assassins in the 12th Century who, like everyone else, dramatized the whole track implants - if a bit more so. The symbol of the crucified Christ is very apt indeed. It's the symbol of a thetan betrayed."Hubbard describes the incident as occuring 43+ trillion years ago. The stunned thetan was placed in a doll body and transported to Heaven in a ship. Over a period of one trillion years, the thetan was giving a series of electronic implants, containing the phrases To Forget, To Remember, To Go Away.
Hubbard described the terrain of Heaven,
"The gates of the first series are well done, well built. An avenue of statues of saints leads up to them. The gate pillars are surmounted by marble angels. The entering grounds are very well kept, laid out like Bush Gardens in Pasadena, so often seen in the movies. Aside from the implant boxes which lie across from each other on the walk there are other noises and sounds as though the saints are defending and berating."
"The second series, probably in the same place, shows what a trillion years of overt acts does (or is an additional trick to collapse one's time). The place is shabby. The vegetation is gone. The pillars are scruffy. The saints have vanished. So have the angels. A sign on one (the left as you enter) says `This is Heaven'. The right has a sign "Hell" with an arrow and inside the grounds one can see the excavations like archaeological diggings with the raw terraces, that lead to "Hell". Plain wire fencing encloses the place. There is a sentry box beside and outside the right pillar. The roadway `leading up' to the gates is deeply eroded. An effigy of Joseph, complete with desert clothing is seen approaching the gates (but not moving) leading a donkey which `carries' the original Madonna and child from `Bethlehem'. The implanting boxes lie on either side of this `entering' path at path level."Hubbard concluded:
"Further, we have our hands on an appalling bit of technology where the world is concerned. With rapidity and a Meter it can be shown that Heaven is a false dream and that the old religion was based on very painful lie, cynical betrayal."Hubbard abandoned Dianetics as the solution to an Un-Clear world after his discovery of the Heaven incident and the nature of the Goals-Problems-Mass implant. He spent the next five years "researching" the pattern of the implants and in 1967-68 he made another series of "discoveries" which are now know as "OT2" and "OT3". Hubbard wrote voluminous notes on the command phrases contained in the GPM implants, which he claimed were universal in nature. Church members undergoing initiation on these levels are required to mentally repeat these phrases until their effects are nullified.
In tape #10 recorded at the first Class VIII course on the ship Apollo, October 3, 1968, Hubbard says:
"Somebody somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC found some pieces of R6, and I don't know how they found it, either by watching madman or something. But since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity.(This quote in the original recording [wav, 640 kB].The man on the cross. There was no Christ. But the man on the cross is shown as Everyman."
Hubbard's "major" breakthrough in this period was his discovery that human bodies are actually the result of the melding of thetans during a psychiatrically-inspired implant 76 million years ago. Hubbard wrote that a galactic despot, Xenu, rounded up the population of 76 planets in this sector of the galaxy and transported them to Earth, placed them in volcanoes, and exploded H-bombs, then subjected them to 36 days of electronic implanting, including the "Christianity" and "Heaven" implant. This incident created "Body Thetans" (BT/s), beings who were attached to other beings or human beings. They monitor one's thought and impede one's life. Hubbard developed a technique for exorcizing these Body Thetans.
In 1978 Hubbard made another "Breakthrough!" which he called NOTS (New-Era Dianetics for OTs). Hubbard developed new techniques for dealing with BTs who were comatose or did not respond to his 1968 exorcizing techniques. Hubbard claimed that a human body was actually a mass of BTs who were comatose and diseases were simply BTs who were acting against the person. Hubbard claimed that eradicating these BTs from on or near the body would result in the creation of a Supra-Human, an Operating Thetan, capable of telepathic and telekinetic powers, without the need for a human body.
Following the government raids of Hubbard's Secret Intelligence offices; he went into hiding, never publically to be seen again.
In May 1980 he wrote the OT VIII, Confidential, Student Briefing
bulletin wherein he summarized his ancient role in the never-ending fight
against the psychiatric implanters. It is not clear whether OT VIII contains
references to Christianity. An alleged copy of OT VIII was filed as court
exhibit in the Fishman case. Therein he writes:
"for those of you whose Christian toes I may have stepped on, let me take the opportunity to disabuse you of some lovely myths. For instance, the historic Jesus was not nearly the sainted figure he has been made out to be. In addition to being a lover of young boys and men, he was given to uncontrollable bursts of temper and hatred that belied the general message of love, understanding and other typical Marcab PR. You have only to look at the history his teachings have inspired to see where it all inevitably leads. It is historic fact and yet man still clings to the ideal, so deep and insidious is the biological implanting."It should be pointed out that some present and former church members have disputed the authenticity of this bulletin and claimed that it was a "forgery" written to "embarass" the church.