Scientology Régis Dericquebourg Professor, Sociology of Religion University of Lille III Lille, France I. IS SCIENTOLOGY A RELIGION?   THE COSMOLOGY: THE SUPERNATURAL IN SCIENTOLOGY      The founder, L. Ron Hubbard (1911­86), renews the thesis of primordial spirits. He asserts that before the birth of the universe, spirits existed, which he calls thetans. They were non-material, massless beings without temporal limits, occupying no space, omniscient, omnipotent, indestructible, immortal and capable of creating anything. These intangible beings, along with the Supreme Being, created the universe. In doing so, they got caught in their own trap and got stuck in their creation—and especially in Man—i.e., in matter, energy, space and time (MEST, the physical universe), even forgetting that they were the creators. Thus they lost their power and omniscience and became vulnerable human beings. Since that time, they have returned, life after life, inhabiting different bodies. Today, thetans have forgotten their true spiritual identity and believe they are human bodies. Hence, Man has a spiritual origin: he is altogether a body, a mind and a thetan.      This is a gnostic version of the fall of perfect man into imperfection and a transposition of Greek drama, where the Gods interfere in human affairs and are trapped.      A liberation must put an end to the succession of lifetimes. Scientology wants to bring man close to the state of original thetan.

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