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In 1950, self-professed scientist and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, in which he outlined the basic tenets of what would become known as the Church of Scientology (CoS). Over the next three decades numerous books, lectures, and multimedia resources produced by Hubbard (these materials are considered the scripture of the movement) would expound on these principles, creating a process by which individuals could supposedly be freed from physical and mental disorders and obtain incredible powers of perception, telekinesis (moving or affecting objects with thought alone), and spatial/temporal teleportation (the ability to travel to different times and places in the universe). While starting life as psychological program (which most mental health professionals dismissed as pseudoscience), Dianetics (this term used interchangeably with Scientology) quickly emerged as an international alternative religious movement, made even more popular in recent years by television and film celebrities who publicly embrace it.
This study will explore the basis principles of the Church of Scientology, its parallels with Christianity, and some of the recent controversies surrounding the movement.