Church of Scientology of Celebrity Central Nashville

We ventured out to the world of Scientology today, visiting the Church of Scientology of Celebrity Centre Nashville. Located on 8th Ave, this old building is only old on the outside--you step inside into a world of high-tech video museums and a large business....I mean church. Impressive.

Nathan's View: Ok...so the last few blog postings I have bashed the Business of the Church. It tends to be that nasty little hidden agenda that every church has a sermon around and no one wants to talk about... until I visited the Church of Scientology. The history and background of Scientology I will let Ashley or Melissa explain or I will leave it up to the plethora of readers to research for yourselves. The concept and principles that are at the root of Scientology I generally agree with. The message is one of awareness, enlightenment, and support/respect for everything around you. It is a place where you can find healing and support to better yourself. It seemed to be a strange blend of the body, soul, God, faith, and eternity, all wrapped up in psychoanalysis. Unfortunately, business is business, and from the minute I entered to the minute I left I felt like I was in an infomercial...or better yet...at a time share pitch where you are lured in with the hopes of leaving with free tickets to a dolphin tour and instead you find yourself with a pocket full of debt and a "free" week at the beach. It was kind of like that except the product was happiness, and the classes and books were the tools to happiness. But all this joy is not free my friends, it comes with a price and Scientologist recognize that. The employees (that should be your first hint) dressed in black suits, white shirts, and red ties or scarves and they followed you around to show the different modules which played on flat screens throughout this renovated building. The business structure, which they openly shared with us, was similar to that of a multi level marketing firm. There were different levels but as soon as you got someone to join, you were a member and they were under you (I can only assume that the revenue stream you receive as an employee is directly related to how many people you have under you) And what is the engine that seemed to run the institution you might ask? Classes and lectures written by their leader...L. Ron Hubbard. The one with all the answers...and a ridiculously fantastic business mind in my opinion. The trick was to get you in by taking a personality test to determine which areas of your life you are struggling with. Then they would isolate those issues through the use of a device (which we tried and didn't work the way they said it would but they kept saying "see it moved a little bit!") that measures stress. From there you are given a list of classes that you can take to better that area in your life and if that does not clear it up...then someone is there to push you toward another class...all the while you are paying good money for these products. Now before you go throwing the word cult around remember, the same structure is within the church...we just don't always recognize that when we are new and are asked to volunteer as greeters for the church or work an activities table we are doing the same thing...the only difference is Scientologist have their price tag in the open, the church usually doesn't. The bottom line for me was the church of Scientology is a business just like any other...they have definitely kicked it up a few notches in the weird and uncomfortable factor...but they are a business never the less. What is odd is it IS structured as a church and the genius flaw of Scientology from my perspective. Genius because of the tax benefits I am sure they receive for operating under a non profit structure. A flaw for the fact that they are lumped into the same social expectations of a church and as a result are typically ridiculed for their practices and seemingly cultish approaches. The bottom line is the church of Scientology was so upfront with their eagerness to get us enrolled in a class that I was not sure if I should appreciate their honesty or ridicule it. For me I am still digesting the entire experience, but it is an experience I am glad I had...


Ashley's View:
I was truly fascinated by this whole experience. Nathan's already addressed the cynical business side, so I'm going to give you the positive perspective. Let me say that if Scientology were presented as a school instead of a religion, I'd be all over it. Honestly, like Nathan stated, it's a successful business model--and unlike every Protestant church I've been to, not once did they ever ask for donations. I love that. It's not about handouts--they have created a business out of it, and it's widely successful. I'm not sure what I think about that--if that's a good or bad thing to incorporate into religion. I mean, I strongly believe that the church needs to understand the business-side of things--it's what gives me a bad taste about church-always pulling on heartstrings to support them, and completely lost in the business world. So I appreciate that. But...for Scientology it was so skilled at the business side, and the intellectual/teaching side, that it lacked the spiritual side. No wait--the God part. Spiritual/emotional I can see, but the God part was pretty distant.

I could address so many areas of Scientology. It really fascinates me, and I think it's because I have grown up learning from all these motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar about the power of positive thinking. I believe strongly that we are in charge of our attitudes, and that our minds are way more powerful than just understanding your ABCs. Scientology really addresses this aspect. It encompasses the mind/body/soul aspect (although mind/body is more of what I saw an the soul part...).

I have to talk about the "exercise" they did during service. We spent 30 minutes doing a visualization thing. Wow--how do I explain it?? It was like "Simon Says"--"Think about that back wall. Now think about touching that wall. Don't do it, just decide to do it. Now decide to touch the wall. Once you have fully made that decision, get up and do it. Now touch it like you aren't letting go. Now decide to let go. Now actually let go." This went on forever. At first it was weird. At the end it was enough already. But in the middle, it really hit me on what it was all about. It's again, about the power of our minds. That we make conscious decisions on every move we make--and it's a threefold process. We decide we will do something. Then we actually act and do it. Then we decide how it will affect us. The process of going through it for the trivial things, like a wall at a church, makes it easier to understand it when we have to deal with the more difficult things, like personal relationships. I really appreciated that. Not quite as much as our tour guide, who giggled and squealed like a little school girl through the process, but I appreciated the goal nonetheless.

All in all, if Scientology were on the intellectual/motivational realm and not under the stigma of religion, I'd be all about promoting it. The religious side is the only part I don't fully agree with...although they swear LRH is not a god, every sermon, every book, every breath is directed by him. I think this is a lot of where the cultish assumption comes from. I'm intrigued and I want to go back and see the videos. But I don't want to make it my religion. I love that they did call God the "Author of the Universe" and other beautiful terms. I love that they truly embrace every element of life--respecting yourselves, others, the environment/world...I love that this was the most open place we've been to with welcoming us (although I was a little wary of their hidden MLM agenda)...but to switch to Scientology...I'm not sold on that as a religion.


Melissa's View:
Well, I have been procrastinating writing because I didn’t know how to put into words what I experienced. I am an emotional writer and have been a little hesitant to know exactly how to put that on paper. I guess I would sum it up in one statement….”crazier than shit house rats!” I could leave it at that, but I know many will question, so I will do my best to explain! I think the fact that they have called themselves a “church” has really messed with my head. If you told me you wanted to take me to a museum and we would be learning how to listen to our bodies and would be bettering myself and the world around me, I think I would really enjoy it. But the whole point of this faith tour is to experience new religions and I have no idea how this is a religion…other than depending solely on one’s self.
I was a little nervous as we walked in and led to a hallway to wait for the service to start. As soon as we walked in the hall, they closed the doors to the “sanctuary” …all I could see inside before the door closed was round tables and people with black coats all dressed alike. Nate and I looked at each other thinking, what the hell did we just get into! A girl greeted us and took us on a tour of the “church” where we watched flat screen TVs, each with its own topic on helping yourself. After a guided tour and some very awkward moments where we felt like the “staff members” were fighting over us, time for the service. This was just great…Shania Twain music was sung in honor of Valentine’s Day! The lady who led the service, asked us for permission to be our minister for the day and then read from the great book of L .Ron Hubbard. Afterwards we were guided through a 35 min exercise in “choosing to do things.” I think Ash did a great job of giving an example of what this consisted of…adult version of Simon Says! We were grabbing our feet, chairs, walls, floor, placing our ears, nose, legs, hands where we were told. I do understand that this was to show that you are in control of what you do and make sure that you are intentionally, on purpose making your own decisions. I think the underlying message was that we choose how we will act and feel and have control of our lives. I agree with this…drama is only drama if you make it that way (stay tuned for the book about me learning this the hard way!). I guess I just don’t know why it had to be so elementary. We are all adults and it felt very childish as we performed this exercise and the school house giggles in the background from our tour guide didn’t help either! And you guessed it, we ended with another Shania song…classic!
I think as Ash and Nate have said and I agree that Scientology has a great business model and they were very welcoming. I don’t really have anything bad to say about that. I just have a hard time with them calling themselves a church. I don’t know that I have done a very good job expressing how I feel about this experience because I don’t really know. There was no religion, no God, no intimacy, just felt cold and business like. So all in all, I loved the experience and would say the best way to explain it is to experience it for yourself.