From what I read, L Ron Hubbard first invented a system called 'Dianetics"-this was a kind of crude psychoanalysis, aided by his bogus “E-Meter” device. Dianetics originally made no bizarre claims about “thetans”, Xenu, etc. The idea was that your problems were caused by repressed memories (which Hubbard called “engrams”); and that Dianetics would draw them out and remove their harmful effects. sometime in the 1950’s Hubbard morphed Dianetics into Scientology-and the real craziness started. I was told that Hubbard set up Scientology as a franchise-he sold territories to underlings, which would pay him back with a percentage of their take from auditing fees. is this correct? If so, when did the IRS start investigating the scam? the “church” was pulling in huge amounts of money, while paying its slaves next to nothing.What happened to the original franchise holders-were they all bought off or forced out?
I’ve heard a story about Scientology being organized or having been organized along a franchise basis, but there’s nothing inherently fraudulent about franchises. Pizza Hut sells franchises to business owners who can then open up their own “Pizza Hut”. It’s not a scam.
Do those Pizza Huts then claim tax-free religous status? The blatant pay-for-play nature of Scientology should immediately and completely remove it from the ranks of religions.
The book Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman goes into some detail about the original Scientology franchise system and how the franchisees were eventually muscled out.
It can be argued that many churches are organized like franchises.
Thanks- owning a $cientology “church” must be enormously profitable-you basically pay almost nothing for your labor..and patrons/victims fork over enormous fees to be “audited”. Hubbard (by the early 1960’s) was rolling in cash-the “church” was able to buy up a lot of property for cash.