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scientology beliefs and practices
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title: "Scientology beliefs and practices"
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_beliefs_and_practices
retrieved: 2026-06-28
---
Scientology's core belief is that a person is a thetan, an immortal spiritual being that resides in a physical body. A thetan has had innumerable past lives, some of which were lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Scientology doctrine states that a person undergoing the practice of auditing will eventually come across and recount a common series of past-life incidents.
Scientology describes itself as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others, and all of life. Scientologists also believe that a thetan has innate, yet suppressed, powers and abilities which can be restored through auditing by the removal of the "reactive mind" which is said to be responsible for unconscious behavioral patterns and discomforts. Believers reach their full potential "when they understand themselves in their true relationship to the physical universe and the Supreme Being." The Church of Scientology believes that "Man is basically good, that he is seeking to survive, (and) that his survival depends on himself and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe", as stated in the Creed of the Church of Scientology.
== Beliefs ==
=== Thetan ===
A thetan is the person himself, not his body or his name or the physical universe, his mind or anything else. It is that which is aware of being aware; the identity which IS the individual. One does not have a thetan, something one keeps somewhere apart from oneself; he is a thetan.
=== Physical universe (MEST) ===
=== Exteriorization ===
In Scientology, exteriorization refers to the thetan separating from the physical body and operating independently of it. Scientology auditing seeks to bring about this state by enabling the thetan to operate near the body without being "inside" it.
=== Past lives and immortality ===
Scientologists believe that the individual is an immortal spiritual being, a thetan, who has lived through many past lives and will continue to do so after the death of the body. Scientology distinguishes this from common definitions of reincarnation, framing it instead as the thetan taking on a newborn human body rather than being reborn as a different life form, and describes this cycle of life and death as ongoing rather than final.
Hubbard wrote about past lives as early as 1951 and presented recountings in his 1958 book Have You Lived Before This Life?. His book Mission Into Time describes a 1968 expedition undertaken to verify Hubbard's own claimed past-life memories. Scientology's elite staff level, the Sea Org, expresses this belief with its billion-year contract signed by its members, and in its motto Revenimus ("We Come Back").
Hubbard wrote much about a thetan's between-lives, and one's past-life traumas are believed to negatively influence a person's present condition. Scientology auditing aims to address these effects and recover past-life memories as part of one's spiritual advancement.
=== Eight dynamics ===
Scientology teaches that life is best understood through eight "dynamics", or urges toward survival, ranging from the individual to the supreme being. The eight dynamics are: (1) the self; (2) sex and family; (3) groups; (4) humankind; (5) all life forms; (6) the physical universe (MEST); (7) spiritual beings; and (8) the supreme being or infinity. According to Hubbard, the optimum solution to any problem is the one that brings the greatest benefit to the greatest number of dynamics. Hubbard introduced the Scientology cross in the mid-1950s as a religious symbol for Scientology, with its eight points symbolizing the eight dynamics.
=== Supreme being ===
Scientology does not define a specific doctrine of God, and members are encouraged to form their own understanding of a supreme being. Hubbard described the idea only in broad terms, placing greater emphasis on the spiritual potential of the individual than on the nature of a deity.
=== Tone scale ===
The tone scale is a numerical hierarchy of emotional states created by L. Ron Hubbard in Science of Survival (1951) and later expanded. Scientologists use it to describe and interpret human emotions and behavior, to gauge someone's value in society, and to determine how best to control or communicate with someone. The concept is a vertical scale of points from −40.0 to +40.0, each representing an emotion or other mental concept. The midpoint is 0.0, labelled "body death". From 0.0 upward is the emotional tone scale, including such points as apathy, grief, fear, anger, boredom, contentment, cheerfulness, enthusiasm, and serenity of beingness. Points below 0.0 are mental concepts rather than emotions, such as shame, blame, regret, sacrifice, hiding, and total failure. In common Scientology parlance, a person high on the tone scale is called uptone or high toned, and one low on the tone scale is called downtone or low toned.
According to Hubbard, one's tone affects a person's attitude, their ability to relate with others, and even body odors. The higher on the scale, the more emotionally alive someone would be. Lower tones, Hubbard asserted, should be exiled from society. During the auditing process, the auditor is trained to observe the client's emotional state using the tone scale, to raise an individual on the tone scale and improve his abilities.