Cruisin' with Cruise: Making waves with Scientology



Freewinds (Photo: Mary-Austin & Scott)



According to Brian Palmer of Slate, guests who cruise on the Scientology ship Freewinds (no, not The Love Boat – this is serious stuff) might even be serenaded by Tom Cruise.  That is, when they’re not getting educated and counseled “most days …from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m., with one-hour breaks for lunch and dinner.” 

Think it might be easy to ditch this schedule in favor of a quick dip in the pool?  Well, think again.  You might soon find yourself in front of the “ethics officers” – explaining why swimming is an integral part of your plan for achieving Operating Thetan Level VIII.

If you’re scratching your head and saying “Sounds Greek to me…” – you’re on the right track.  An explanation from the scientology.org website states that “the individual himself is considered to be the spiritual being,” and is called a thetan (“taken from the Greek symbol or letter theta which has long served as a symbol for thought or spirit”).  Scientology bills itself as “heir to the understanding of thinking men since the

beginning of human history…”

It also bills itself as a “new religious movement” - and the “religious” part of that phrase has caused quite a stir in certain circles.  Although some have claimed that Scientology is not an authentic religion, Professor of Religious Studies Irving Hexham (who is decidedly not a Scientologist) concludes that it is.  Hexham readily admits that “scholars offer many different definitions of religion…”  He chooses this one by Professor Ninian Smart for purposes of determining the “religious” aspects of Scientology:  A set of institutionalized rituals identified with a tradition and expressing and/or evoking sacral sentiments directed at a divine or trans divine focus seen in the context of the human phenomenological environment and at least partially described by myths or by myths and doctrines.

Apparently, Hexham sees key elements of Scientology matching up with key elements of Smart’s definition of religion.  That being said, Hexham goes on to remind his readers that calling Scientology a “genuine” religion is not the same thing as calling it a “true” (or a “false”) religion. 

Now that’s a lot to chew on right there – which could be why guests aboard the Freewinds are allotted regular meal times within their otherwise tightly-packed schedules.

Resources

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/papers/irving/scient.html

http://www.whatisscientology.org/html/Part01/Chp02/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/12/valeska_paris_and_the_scientology_cruise_ship_what_happens_onboard_.html

Copyright December 3, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved