UNDERSTANDING THE MIND - SCIENTOLOGY

Scientology is an applied religious philosophy which offers an exact route through which anyone can regain the truth and simplicity of his spiritual self. The study provides miracle-working technology on how to preserve marriage, straighten out delinquent children, solve human conflict, resolve drug and alcohol problems and much, much more. UpperCrust talks to Marion Whitta.

Arriving in Mumbai in the wake of 26/11, a group of International Scientology volunteers gathered to help. They headed to Sir JJ Hospital where they worked directly with the victims. Within a few weeks, the majority of those admitted had been discharged from the hospital so the volunteer team began working with colleges and Mumbai University itself to help train people at large how to become more effective. Whether it be a seminar on how to effectively learn (as against memorising parrot-style) or then again, training the trainers of the Maharashtra Civil Defence on communication skills which is a module of the Scientology Disaster Response training.

The director of the Tour in India, Marion Whitta, smiles when asked the question - What Is Scientology? It seems that this has been asked quite often before. As she clarified, the word Scientology means "knowing how to know" and is an applied spiritual philosophy. As to the Founder of this movement, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, here is a man already known to many Indians as he was awarded, in March 2006 in Delhi, with the prestigious Shristi award (the first time that this national award has been bestowed on a man not of Indian heritage) and was again honoured last August by the Indian Lions Club in Delhi, with presentation of the Humanitarian Award, posthumously.

Mr. Hubbard, an American humanitarian and philosopher, whose works today comprise a legacy of more than 500 books and 3,000 taped lectures, founded an international movement where, irrespective of race, colour or creed, a person can be helped with tools to become more effective in any number of ways such as learning how to solve his own problems or simply learning how to better get along with others. It was in May of 1950 that the book Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health was published and shot to the top of the New York Bestseller List where it stayed month in and month out and is still, almost 60 years later, selling as a best seller. In India there are already booklets which have been translated into Hindi, Bengali and Urdu as well as some state languages (The Technology of Study is published in Marathi) with many more major books very shortly to be published in Hindi.

Mr. Hubbard at the age of 12 was the youngest ever "eagle scout", and was well-known due to his expeditions as a member of the prestigious Explorers Club. Then again he was a well-known photographer let alone becoming famous as a writer where he wrote literally hundreds of stories which were published in the heyday of American pulp fiction. He also wrote science fiction, westerns, romance novels, etc which he used to fund his research, his major works concerning man himself which culminated in Scientology. There are major centres in many parts of the world including North America, South America, Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK. In India there are centres in Delhi, Kolkata, in the Punjab, Bangalore, Ooty as well as Mysore and more recently in Ahmedabad.

The India Scientology tour has spent time in many of the big cities throughout the country to date since its arrival in 2005. Training seminars have been delivered to literally thousands of professionals as well as students. As also to hundreds of police officers in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mysore, including BSF and CRPF officers. The 'man in the street' who just wants to be able to get along better in some aspect of his life was also part of this exercise. Asked why the interest in Scientology, Marion says that it's simply a case of workability. People in India are interested in personality improvement and are seeking solutions for the work-a-day world, whether how to do better at work or how to be a great mother or how to be able to graduate as a student, not merely scraping through but to be a graduate who knows and can effectively apply what he or she has learnt. As Marion Whitta adds, "People want solutions to their problems or they just want to improve their condition in life and when they find technology that is simple, something they can apply for themselves, then they want exactly that." Making Scientology user friendly there are some 19 extension courses which can be done over the net. This is a free service.

Marion gives a quote from Mr Hubbard's book Dianetics where he states: "You are beginning an adventure. Treat this as an adventure and may you never be the same again." You can check out the website yourself and maybe start on your own adventure.

www.scientology.org
www.volunteerministers.org