I contend that other domains have encroached on religion, or
religion on them, such that the native fauna in religion’s own garden is
scarcely recognizable. In this essay, I distinguish psychology from religion
using Scientology as a case in which the two domains have been obfuscated. In
other words, I want to remove the troublesome category mistake that allows
psychological matters to be reckoned as religious.
After living on the Divinity School quad at Yale for a year,
I ventured off-campus to a small apartment. The contrast was stark; as I was
unloading my mattress off the U-Haul truck, an old prostitute came over and
offered to help me. “And then we can use it,” she said. I politely declined.
Once I had moved in, the building’s janitor introduced himself and informed me
that the building was owned by Scientologists and he was one as well. Hearing
that I was a divinity student, he quickly came up with a thick book on
Scientology for me to read, which I did. My reaction was that the substance of
Scientology is psychological rather than religious.
The core practice in Scientology is the audit, in which one
person helps another in getting rid of hurtful memories. The aim is freedom.
Scientologists would say that such freedom is spiritual, but I contend that
being free from the pain of certain memories is a psychological freedom because
the freedom is mental—of the mind. My aim is not to be critical of Scientology;
helping people to dissolve traumatic memories is highly laudatory, even though
it is not religious.
Part of the problem has to do with getting carried away with
wording. In advance of the launch of Scientology’s television network in March,
2018, a promotional video featured an e-meter. This piece of equipment is
described in the ad as ‘the cutting edge of spiritual technology.”[1]
The expression, spiritual technology,
seems odd, even oxymoronic. “According to Scientology’s website, the electronic
instrument is used by auditors in sessions with members to check [sic] they are
addressing ‘the correct area in order to discharge the harmful energy connected
with that portion of the preclear’s reactive mind.”[2]
In other words, the device measures how nervous a person is while bad memories
are being targeted for dissolution. Lest energy
signal something spiritual, the correct categories are physiology and
thermodynamics (i.e., natural science).
Even in terms of cosmology, God is believed to be the source of the universe, including its
energy, rather than the energy itself (which would be pantheism). God, in other
words, transcends the limits of the universe, rather than being its energy. The
harmful energy being picked up by the meter is a physiological effect of a
psychological state or change. Such energy, and the audit process itself, lie
wholly within the created realm and thus do not satisfy the divine attribute of
transcendence. Not even “getting deep” psychologically counts as transcendence
theologically speaking, which involves yearning for a beyond that lies beyond
the limits of human cognition, perception, and sensibility. The latter term
includes emotional feeling. So Augustine’s very emotional erotic pining for God
can be reckoned as human, all too human, rather than of a wholly other quality
reflecting the transcendence that is distinctly theological. In other words, theological
love is not emotional feeling. I suspect that we are so used to conflating psychology
with theology that the nature of distinctly
theological yearning eclipses our understanding and practice. To transcend
emotion, being free of it, may be a freedom surpassing that of the emotional
freedom from bad memories.
For more on weeding category mistakes out of religion, see the booklet, Spiritual Leadership in Business.
For more on weeding category mistakes out of religion, see the booklet, Spiritual Leadership in Business.
1. Erin Jensen, “Scientology Makes Debut with Its Own TV Network,” USA Today, March 13, 2018.
2. Ibid.
2. Ibid.
