DSST Introduction to World Religions cheat sheet

Ninian Smart's seven dimensions: ritual/practical, narrative/mythic, experiential/emotional, social/institutional, ethical/legal, doctrinal/philosophical, material/artistic.

Doctrinal dimension states beliefs explicitly; mythic dimension transmits them as stories; the two can diverge in the same tradition.

The material dimension covers buildings, icons, vestments, relics, and pilgrimage sites - often the most archaeologically visible aspect.

Phenomenology (Otto, Eliade) brackets truth claims to describe religious experience; epoché is the suspension of judgment it requires.

Otto's numinous: mysterium tremendum et fascinans - a mystery that both repels with awe and attracts with fascination.

Eliade's axis mundi is a center that connects heaven and earth; hierophany is any manifestation of the sacred in profane space.

Functionalist accounts (Durkheim) define religion by social cohesion and the sacred/profane split rather than by belief in gods.

Substantive definitions name content (e.g., belief in supernatural beings); functional definitions name what religion does for individuals or society.

Comparative method risks perennialism, the assumption that superficially similar practices across cultures mean the same thing.

'Primal' labels orally transmitted, small-scale traditions; it is a category of convenience, not a claim of primitiveness or inferiority.

Animism (Tylor's term) is the attribution of spirit or personhood to animals, plants, natural features, and objects.

Mana is an impersonal, transferable force in Polynesian and Melanesian traditions; tabu marks persons or things as set apart and restricted.

Totemism links a clan to a plant, animal, or natural species treated as ancestor, kin, and emblem, with food and marriage rules attached.

Shamans are part-time specialists who enter altered states to journey, retrieve souls, or negotiate with spirits; they are not full-time priests.

Rites of passage follow Van Gennep's three phases: separation, liminality, and reaggregation; liminality is the threshold, often dangerous and transformative.

Imitative (sympathetic) magic acts on a likeness; contagious magic acts on something once in contact with the target.

Ancestor veneration treats dead kin as active participants in household affairs, honored with offerings and consulted for guidance.

Dreamtime (Tjukurpa) in Aboriginal Australian traditions is a continuing ancestral creation order, not merely a mythical past.

Shruti is revealed scripture (Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads); smriti is remembered tradition (Epics, Puranas, Dharmashastras).

Four Vedas: Rig (hymns), Sama (melodies), Yajur (sacrificial formulas), Atharva (spells and everyday concerns).

Four aims of life: dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure), moksha (liberation); ashramas are student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant.

Brahman is ultimate reality; atman is the self; the Upanishadic formula tat tvam asi ('that thou art') identifies them.

Samsara is rebirth driven by karma; moksha ends it. Three paths: karma yoga (action), jnana yoga (knowledge), bhakti yoga (devotion).

Major deities: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver, with avatars such as Rama and Krishna), Shiva (destroyer/transformer).

The trimurti pairs creation, preservation, and destruction; Devi or Shakti traditions center the Goddess as ultimate power.

Varnas are the four social classes; jati are the many birth-based endogamous groups. The term 'caste' conflates both.

Six schools (darshanas) include Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta; Advaita Vedanta teaches non-dualism.

Four Noble Truths: suffering (dukkha) exists; it has craving (tanha) as origin; it can cease; the Eightfold Path is the way.

Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration - grouped as wisdom, ethics, and mental discipline.

Three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no fixed self).

Pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination) explains rebirth as a twelve-link chain, not as a soul passing between bodies.

Theravada ('way of the elders') uses the Pali Canon, idealizes the arhat, and dominates Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.

Mahayana adds the bodhisattva ideal, emptiness (shunyata), and sutras such as the Lotus; it spreads through China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam.

Vajrayana (Tibetan) uses tantra, mandalas, mudras, and mantras; key schools are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.

Zen (Chan) emphasizes zazen and koans; Pure Land emphasizes faith in Amitabha and rebirth in the Pure Land.

The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama, born a prince, awakened under the Bodhi tree; the Tripitaka groups Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma.

Five classic relationships: ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger, friend-friend; each carries reciprocal duties.

Ren (humaneness) is the central virtue; li is ritual propriety and social form; yi is rightness; zhi is wisdom; xin is trustworthiness.

Xiao (filial piety) extends respect for parents to ancestor veneration and care for elders generally.

Junzi ('exemplary person') is the moral ideal, achieved by cultivation rather than birth; Confucius redefined nobility.

Mencius held human nature is good and sprouts of virtue need cultivation; Xunzi held it is bad and needs deliberate shaping.

The Five Classics include the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Odes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals.

The Analects records sayings of Kong Qiu (551-479 BCE); the Four Books became the exam core under Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism (Song-Ming) absorbed Buddhist and Daoist metaphysics, centering li (principle) and qi (vital stuff).

The civil service examination system made Confucian texts the gateway to office for over a millennium.

Dao means 'way' or 'path' - the ineffable source and pattern of all things; the Daodejing opens by saying the named dao is not the constant dao.

Wu wei is non-coercive action: acting without forcing, in accord with natural patterns rather than against them.

Ziran is spontaneity or self-so-ness; pu is the uncarved block, an image of plainness and potential.

The Daodejing (Laozi) and Zhuangzi are foundational texts; the Zhuangzi uses parables and humor to dissolve fixed perspectives.

Daoist cosmology: dao generates one, one generates two (yin-yang), two generates three, three generates the ten thousand things.

Religious Daoism has an organized clergy, liturgies, and deities such as the Three Pure Ones; it differs from philosophical Daoism.

Daoist alchemy sought physical immortality through meditation, breath control, diet, and elixirs; internal alchemy reframed it as spiritual work.

The Daozang is the Daoist canon; the Celestial Masters is an early organized movement founded by Zhang Daoling.

Shema: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one' - a central declaration of monotheism recited daily.

Tanakh divides into Torah (five books), Nevi'im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings); the Talmud pairs Mishnah and Gemara.

Covenant links God and Israel; Abraham's covenant involves circumcision, and Sinai's covenant involves the 613 mitzvot.

Ten Commandments appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; they open with exclusive loyalty to God and include the Sabbath.

Major festivals: Rosh Hashanah (new year), Yom Kippur (atonement), Sukkot (booths), Passover (exodus), Shavuot (Torah), Hanukkah (dedication).

Life-cycle rites: brit milah (circumcision), bar/bat mitzvah, marriage (chuppah), and mourning periods (shiva).

Kosher rules separate meat and dairy and restrict animals to those that chew cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales.

Branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist differ on revelation, law's authority, and gender roles.

Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith include God's unity, incorporeality, and the coming of the Messiah.

Core doctrines: Trinity (one God in three persons), incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and salvation by grace.

The Nicene Creed (325/381) and Apostles' Creed summarize orthodox belief; Chalcedon (451) defines Christ's two natures.

Sacraments: most traditions hold baptism and Eucharist; Catholic and Orthodox lists add confirmation, penance, orders, marriage, anointing.

Bible: Old and New Testaments; Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts, Pauline and general epistles, Revelation.

Major branches: Catholic (bishop of Rome), Orthodox (patriarchs, icons, leavened bread), Protestant (Reformation, sola scriptura, sola fide).

Reformation landmarks: Luther's 95 Theses (1517), Calvin's Geneva, the Church of England under Henry VIII.

Liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week (Easter Triduum), Easter, Pentecost.

Easter is the resurrection feast computed by lunar calendar; Christmas is December 25 in Western traditions, January 7 in many Orthodox ones.

Distinctive practices: monasticism, pilgrimage, veneration of saints and Mary, and differing views of transubstantiation versus symbolic presence.

Five Pillars: shahada (witness), salat (prayer five times daily), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Shahada: 'There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.'

Quran has 114 suras revealed to Muhammad (570-632 CE) in Mecca and Medina; it is recited in Arabic and regarded as God's speech.

Sunna consists of Muhammad's words and deeds recorded in hadith; chains of transmission (isnad) are graded for reliability.

Six articles of faith: God, angels, revealed books, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree.

Sunni and Shia split over succession after Muhammad; Shia hold to the Imamate and commemorate Ashura at Karbala.

Sharia derives from Quran, Sunna, qiyas (analogy), and ijma (consensus); fiqh is jurisprudence; major Sunni schools are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali.

Jihad means struggle or effort; greater jihad is inner moral struggle, lesser jihad is armed defense with strict rules.

Prohibitions include shirk (associating partners with God); halal and haram govern food, with pork and alcohol forbidden.

Kami are sacred powers or presences in natural phenomena, ancestors, and exceptional persons; they are venerated, not worshiped as omnipotent creators.

Shinto is Japan's indigenous tradition; the term combines shen (spirits) and dao (way), adopted to distinguish it from Buddhism.

Torii gates mark the boundary between ordinary space and sacred precinct; visitors purify at a temizuya before approaching.

Purification (harae) and cleanliness are central; misogi is purification by water, and kegare is ritual pollution.

Ise Jingu enshrines Amaterasu, the sun goddess and imperial ancestress; Izumo Taisha is linked to Okuninushi.

Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record creation myths, including Izanagi and Izanami and the emergence of Amaterasu.

State Shinto (1868-1945) was a government-supported ideology; after 1945 the tradition reorganized as shrine Shinto (Jinja Honcho).

Festivals (matsuri) carry kami in portable shrines (mikoshi); folk practices include amulets (omikuji, ofuda) and household altars (kamidana).

Twelve Olympians include Zeus (sky, Rome's Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus).

Interpretatio romana is the Roman practice of identifying foreign gods with their own - e.g., Zeus with Jupiter, Hermes with Mercury.

Homeric epics and Hesiod's Theogony supply the main Greek mythic narratives of gods and heroes.

Greek mystery cults, notably the Eleusinian Mysteries for Demeter and Persephone, promised initiates a better afterlife.

Orphism taught transmigration of souls and ascetic purification; Dionysian cults emphasized ecstatic possession.

Roman state religion combined public priesthoods (pontifices, augurs, Vestal Virgins) with household cult of lares, penates, and the genius.

Mithraism, popular among Roman soldiers, was a mystery cult centered on a bull-slaying god; Sol Invictus was a late imperial solar cult.

Stoicism saw logos pervading the cosmos; Epicureanism held gods exist but are unconcerned; Neoplatonism taught emanation from the One.

Constantine's Edict of Milan (313) and Theodosius' bans on pagan sacrifice (late 4th century) ended state pagan cult.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986); Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950.

Thetan is the immortal spiritual being; the body is a physical object the thetan uses; the goal is spiritual freedom and ability.

Reactive mind stores engrams - painful past experiences that restimulate and distort behavior; the analytical mind handles rational thought.

Auditing is one-on-one counseling using an E-meter to locate and discharge engrams; the process is called clearing.

The Bridge to Total Freedom is the graded path of auditing and training; Clear is a key level, above which are OT levels.

The Church of Scientology was incorporated in 1954; it describes itself as a religion and is recognized as such in the US.

Eight dynamics: self, family/sex, groups, mankind, life forms, physical universe, spiritual universe, and infinity or God.

The Creed of the Church of Scientology and the Auditor's Code set out beliefs and counseling conduct.

Scientology is controversial; critics dispute its practices and status, and some countries restrict or refuse it religious recognition.

Ninian Smart's seven dimensions: ritual/practical, narrative/mythic, experiential/emotional, social/institutional, ethical/legal, doctrinal/philosophical, material/artistic.

Doctrinal dimension states beliefs explicitly; mythic dimension transmits them as stories; the two can diverge in the same tradition.

The material dimension covers buildings, icons, vestments, relics, and pilgrimage sites - often the most archaeologically visible aspect.

Phenomenology (Otto, Eliade) brackets truth claims to describe religious experience; epoché is the suspension of judgment it requires.

Otto's numinous: mysterium tremendum et fascinans - a mystery that both repels with awe and attracts with fascination.

Eliade's axis mundi is a center that connects heaven and earth; hierophany is any manifestation of the sacred in profane space.

Functionalist accounts (Durkheim) define religion by social cohesion and the sacred/profane split rather than by belief in gods.

Substantive definitions name content (e.g., belief in supernatural beings); functional definitions name what religion does for individuals or society.

Comparative method risks perennialism, the assumption that superficially similar practices across cultures mean the same thing.

'Primal' labels orally transmitted, small-scale traditions; it is a category of convenience, not a claim of primitiveness or inferiority.

Animism (Tylor's term) is the attribution of spirit or personhood to animals, plants, natural features, and objects.

Mana is an impersonal, transferable force in Polynesian and Melanesian traditions; tabu marks persons or things as set apart and restricted.

Totemism links a clan to a plant, animal, or natural species treated as ancestor, kin, and emblem, with food and marriage rules attached.

Shamans are part-time specialists who enter altered states to journey, retrieve souls, or negotiate with spirits; they are not full-time priests.

Rites of passage follow Van Gennep's three phases: separation, liminality, and reaggregation; liminality is the threshold, often dangerous and transformative.

Imitative (sympathetic) magic acts on a likeness; contagious magic acts on something once in contact with the target.

Ancestor veneration treats dead kin as active participants in household affairs, honored with offerings and consulted for guidance.

Dreamtime (Tjukurpa) in Aboriginal Australian traditions is a continuing ancestral creation order, not merely a mythical past.

Shruti is revealed scripture (Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads); smriti is remembered tradition (Epics, Puranas, Dharmashastras).

Four Vedas: Rig (hymns), Sama (melodies), Yajur (sacrificial formulas), Atharva (spells and everyday concerns).

Four aims of life: dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure), moksha (liberation); ashramas are student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant.

Brahman is ultimate reality; atman is the self; the Upanishadic formula tat tvam asi ('that thou art') identifies them.

Samsara is rebirth driven by karma; moksha ends it. Three paths: karma yoga (action), jnana yoga (knowledge), bhakti yoga (devotion).

Major deities: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver, with avatars such as Rama and Krishna), Shiva (destroyer/transformer).

The trimurti pairs creation, preservation, and destruction; Devi or Shakti traditions center the Goddess as ultimate power.

Varnas are the four social classes; jati are the many birth-based endogamous groups. The term 'caste' conflates both.

Six schools (darshanas) include Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta; Advaita Vedanta teaches non-dualism.

Four Noble Truths: suffering (dukkha) exists; it has craving (tanha) as origin; it can cease; the Eightfold Path is the way.

Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration - grouped as wisdom, ethics, and mental discipline.

Three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no fixed self).

Pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination) explains rebirth as a twelve-link chain, not as a soul passing between bodies.

Theravada ('way of the elders') uses the Pali Canon, idealizes the arhat, and dominates Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.

Mahayana adds the bodhisattva ideal, emptiness (shunyata), and sutras such as the Lotus; it spreads through China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam.

Vajrayana (Tibetan) uses tantra, mandalas, mudras, and mantras; key schools are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.

Zen (Chan) emphasizes zazen and koans; Pure Land emphasizes faith in Amitabha and rebirth in the Pure Land.

The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama, born a prince, awakened under the Bodhi tree; the Tripitaka groups Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma.

Five classic relationships: ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger, friend-friend; each carries reciprocal duties.

Ren (humaneness) is the central virtue; li is ritual propriety and social form; yi is rightness; zhi is wisdom; xin is trustworthiness.

Xiao (filial piety) extends respect for parents to ancestor veneration and care for elders generally.

Junzi ('exemplary person') is the moral ideal, achieved by cultivation rather than birth; Confucius redefined nobility.

Mencius held human nature is good and sprouts of virtue need cultivation; Xunzi held it is bad and needs deliberate shaping.

The Five Classics include the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Odes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals.

The Analects records sayings of Kong Qiu (551-479 BCE); the Four Books became the exam core under Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism (Song-Ming) absorbed Buddhist and Daoist metaphysics, centering li (principle) and qi (vital stuff).

The civil service examination system made Confucian texts the gateway to office for over a millennium.

Dao means 'way' or 'path' - the ineffable source and pattern of all things; the Daodejing opens by saying the named dao is not the constant dao.

Wu wei is non-coercive action: acting without forcing, in accord with natural patterns rather than against them.

Ziran is spontaneity or self-so-ness; pu is the uncarved block, an image of plainness and potential.

The Daodejing (Laozi) and Zhuangzi are foundational texts; the Zhuangzi uses parables and humor to dissolve fixed perspectives.

Daoist cosmology: dao generates one, one generates two (yin-yang), two generates three, three generates the ten thousand things.

Religious Daoism has an organized clergy, liturgies, and deities such as the Three Pure Ones; it differs from philosophical Daoism.

Daoist alchemy sought physical immortality through meditation, breath control, diet, and elixirs; internal alchemy reframed it as spiritual work.

The Daozang is the Daoist canon; the Celestial Masters is an early organized movement founded by Zhang Daoling.

Shema: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one' - a central declaration of monotheism recited daily.

Tanakh divides into Torah (five books), Nevi'im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings); the Talmud pairs Mishnah and Gemara.

Covenant links God and Israel; Abraham's covenant involves circumcision, and Sinai's covenant involves the 613 mitzvot.

Ten Commandments appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; they open with exclusive loyalty to God and include the Sabbath.

Major festivals: Rosh Hashanah (new year), Yom Kippur (atonement), Sukkot (booths), Passover (exodus), Shavuot (Torah), Hanukkah (dedication).

Life-cycle rites: brit milah (circumcision), bar/bat mitzvah, marriage (chuppah), and mourning periods (shiva).

Kosher rules separate meat and dairy and restrict animals to those that chew cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales.

Branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist differ on revelation, law's authority, and gender roles.

Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith include God's unity, incorporeality, and the coming of the Messiah.

Core doctrines: Trinity (one God in three persons), incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and salvation by grace.

The Nicene Creed (325/381) and Apostles' Creed summarize orthodox belief; Chalcedon (451) defines Christ's two natures.

Sacraments: most traditions hold baptism and Eucharist; Catholic and Orthodox lists add confirmation, penance, orders, marriage, anointing.

Bible: Old and New Testaments; Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts, Pauline and general epistles, Revelation.

Major branches: Catholic (bishop of Rome), Orthodox (patriarchs, icons, leavened bread), Protestant (Reformation, sola scriptura, sola fide).

Reformation landmarks: Luther's 95 Theses (1517), Calvin's Geneva, the Church of England under Henry VIII.

Liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week (Easter Triduum), Easter, Pentecost.

Easter is the resurrection feast computed by lunar calendar; Christmas is December 25 in Western traditions, January 7 in many Orthodox ones.

Distinctive practices: monasticism, pilgrimage, veneration of saints and Mary, and differing views of transubstantiation versus symbolic presence.

Five Pillars: shahada (witness), salat (prayer five times daily), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Shahada: 'There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.'

Quran has 114 suras revealed to Muhammad (570-632 CE) in Mecca and Medina; it is recited in Arabic and regarded as God's speech.

Sunna consists of Muhammad's words and deeds recorded in hadith; chains of transmission (isnad) are graded for reliability.

Six articles of faith: God, angels, revealed books, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree.

Sunni and Shia split over succession after Muhammad; Shia hold to the Imamate and commemorate Ashura at Karbala.

Sharia derives from Quran, Sunna, qiyas (analogy), and ijma (consensus); fiqh is jurisprudence; major Sunni schools are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali.

Jihad means struggle or effort; greater jihad is inner moral struggle, lesser jihad is armed defense with strict rules.

Prohibitions include shirk (associating partners with God); halal and haram govern food, with pork and alcohol forbidden.

Kami are sacred powers or presences in natural phenomena, ancestors, and exceptional persons; they are venerated, not worshiped as omnipotent creators.

Shinto is Japan's indigenous tradition; the term combines shen (spirits) and dao (way), adopted to distinguish it from Buddhism.

Torii gates mark the boundary between ordinary space and sacred precinct; visitors purify at a temizuya before approaching.

Purification (harae) and cleanliness are central; misogi is purification by water, and kegare is ritual pollution.

Ise Jingu enshrines Amaterasu, the sun goddess and imperial ancestress; Izumo Taisha is linked to Okuninushi.

Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record creation myths, including Izanagi and Izanami and the emergence of Amaterasu.

State Shinto (1868-1945) was a government-supported ideology; after 1945 the tradition reorganized as shrine Shinto (Jinja Honcho).

Festivals (matsuri) carry kami in portable shrines (mikoshi); folk practices include amulets (omikuji, ofuda) and household altars (kamidana).

Twelve Olympians include Zeus (sky, Rome's Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus).

Interpretatio romana is the Roman practice of identifying foreign gods with their own - e.g., Zeus with Jupiter, Hermes with Mercury.

Homeric epics and Hesiod's Theogony supply the main Greek mythic narratives of gods and heroes.

Greek mystery cults, notably the Eleusinian Mysteries for Demeter and Persephone, promised initiates a better afterlife.

Orphism taught transmigration of souls and ascetic purification; Dionysian cults emphasized ecstatic possession.

Roman state religion combined public priesthoods (pontifices, augurs, Vestal Virgins) with household cult of lares, penates, and the genius.

Mithraism, popular among Roman soldiers, was a mystery cult centered on a bull-slaying god; Sol Invictus was a late imperial solar cult.

Stoicism saw logos pervading the cosmos; Epicureanism held gods exist but are unconcerned; Neoplatonism taught emanation from the One.

Constantine's Edict of Milan (313) and Theodosius' bans on pagan sacrifice (late 4th century) ended state pagan cult.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986); Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950.

Thetan is the immortal spiritual being; the body is a physical object the thetan uses; the goal is spiritual freedom and ability.

Reactive mind stores engrams - painful past experiences that restimulate and distort behavior; the analytical mind handles rational thought.

Auditing is one-on-one counseling using an E-meter to locate and discharge engrams; the process is called clearing.

The Bridge to Total Freedom is the graded path of auditing and training; Clear is a key level, above which are OT levels.

The Church of Scientology was incorporated in 1954; it describes itself as a religion and is recognized as such in the US.

Eight dynamics: self, family/sex, groups, mankind, life forms, physical universe, spiritual universe, and infinity or God.

The Creed of the Church of Scientology and the Auditor's Code set out beliefs and counseling conduct.

Scientology is controversial; critics dispute its practices and status, and some countries restrict or refuse it religious recognition.

Ninian Smart's seven dimensions: ritual/practical, narrative/mythic, experiential/emotional, social/institutional, ethical/legal, doctrinal/philosophical, material/artistic.

Doctrinal dimension states beliefs explicitly; mythic dimension transmits them as stories; the two can diverge in the same tradition.

The material dimension covers buildings, icons, vestments, relics, and pilgrimage sites - often the most archaeologically visible aspect.

Phenomenology (Otto, Eliade) brackets truth claims to describe religious experience; epoché is the suspension of judgment it requires.

Otto's numinous: mysterium tremendum et fascinans - a mystery that both repels with awe and attracts with fascination.

Eliade's axis mundi is a center that connects heaven and earth; hierophany is any manifestation of the sacred in profane space.

Functionalist accounts (Durkheim) define religion by social cohesion and the sacred/profane split rather than by belief in gods.

Substantive definitions name content (e.g., belief in supernatural beings); functional definitions name what religion does for individuals or society.

Comparative method risks perennialism, the assumption that superficially similar practices across cultures mean the same thing.

'Primal' labels orally transmitted, small-scale traditions; it is a category of convenience, not a claim of primitiveness or inferiority.

Animism (Tylor's term) is the attribution of spirit or personhood to animals, plants, natural features, and objects.

Mana is an impersonal, transferable force in Polynesian and Melanesian traditions; tabu marks persons or things as set apart and restricted.

Totemism links a clan to a plant, animal, or natural species treated as ancestor, kin, and emblem, with food and marriage rules attached.

Shamans are part-time specialists who enter altered states to journey, retrieve souls, or negotiate with spirits; they are not full-time priests.

Rites of passage follow Van Gennep's three phases: separation, liminality, and reaggregation; liminality is the threshold, often dangerous and transformative.

Imitative (sympathetic) magic acts on a likeness; contagious magic acts on something once in contact with the target.

Ancestor veneration treats dead kin as active participants in household affairs, honored with offerings and consulted for guidance.

Dreamtime (Tjukurpa) in Aboriginal Australian traditions is a continuing ancestral creation order, not merely a mythical past.

Shruti is revealed scripture (Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads); smriti is remembered tradition (Epics, Puranas, Dharmashastras).

Four Vedas: Rig (hymns), Sama (melodies), Yajur (sacrificial formulas), Atharva (spells and everyday concerns).

Four aims of life: dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure), moksha (liberation); ashramas are student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant.

Brahman is ultimate reality; atman is the self; the Upanishadic formula tat tvam asi ('that thou art') identifies them.

Samsara is rebirth driven by karma; moksha ends it. Three paths: karma yoga (action), jnana yoga (knowledge), bhakti yoga (devotion).

Major deities: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver, with avatars such as Rama and Krishna), Shiva (destroyer/transformer).

The trimurti pairs creation, preservation, and destruction; Devi or Shakti traditions center the Goddess as ultimate power.

Varnas are the four social classes; jati are the many birth-based endogamous groups. The term 'caste' conflates both.

Six schools (darshanas) include Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta; Advaita Vedanta teaches non-dualism.

Four Noble Truths: suffering (dukkha) exists; it has craving (tanha) as origin; it can cease; the Eightfold Path is the way.

Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration - grouped as wisdom, ethics, and mental discipline.

Three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no fixed self).

Pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination) explains rebirth as a twelve-link chain, not as a soul passing between bodies.

Theravada ('way of the elders') uses the Pali Canon, idealizes the arhat, and dominates Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.

Mahayana adds the bodhisattva ideal, emptiness (shunyata), and sutras such as the Lotus; it spreads through China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam.

Vajrayana (Tibetan) uses tantra, mandalas, mudras, and mantras; key schools are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.

Zen (Chan) emphasizes zazen and koans; Pure Land emphasizes faith in Amitabha and rebirth in the Pure Land.

The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama, born a prince, awakened under the Bodhi tree; the Tripitaka groups Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma.

Five classic relationships: ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger, friend-friend; each carries reciprocal duties.

Ren (humaneness) is the central virtue; li is ritual propriety and social form; yi is rightness; zhi is wisdom; xin is trustworthiness.

Xiao (filial piety) extends respect for parents to ancestor veneration and care for elders generally.

Junzi ('exemplary person') is the moral ideal, achieved by cultivation rather than birth; Confucius redefined nobility.

Mencius held human nature is good and sprouts of virtue need cultivation; Xunzi held it is bad and needs deliberate shaping.

The Five Classics include the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Odes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals.

The Analects records sayings of Kong Qiu (551-479 BCE); the Four Books became the exam core under Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism (Song-Ming) absorbed Buddhist and Daoist metaphysics, centering li (principle) and qi (vital stuff).

The civil service examination system made Confucian texts the gateway to office for over a millennium.

Dao means 'way' or 'path' - the ineffable source and pattern of all things; the Daodejing opens by saying the named dao is not the constant dao.

Wu wei is non-coercive action: acting without forcing, in accord with natural patterns rather than against them.

Ziran is spontaneity or self-so-ness; pu is the uncarved block, an image of plainness and potential.

The Daodejing (Laozi) and Zhuangzi are foundational texts; the Zhuangzi uses parables and humor to dissolve fixed perspectives.

Daoist cosmology: dao generates one, one generates two (yin-yang), two generates three, three generates the ten thousand things.

Religious Daoism has an organized clergy, liturgies, and deities such as the Three Pure Ones; it differs from philosophical Daoism.

Daoist alchemy sought physical immortality through meditation, breath control, diet, and elixirs; internal alchemy reframed it as spiritual work.

The Daozang is the Daoist canon; the Celestial Masters is an early organized movement founded by Zhang Daoling.

Shema: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one' - a central declaration of monotheism recited daily.

Tanakh divides into Torah (five books), Nevi'im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings); the Talmud pairs Mishnah and Gemara.

Covenant links God and Israel; Abraham's covenant involves circumcision, and Sinai's covenant involves the 613 mitzvot.

Ten Commandments appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; they open with exclusive loyalty to God and include the Sabbath.

Major festivals: Rosh Hashanah (new year), Yom Kippur (atonement), Sukkot (booths), Passover (exodus), Shavuot (Torah), Hanukkah (dedication).

Life-cycle rites: brit milah (circumcision), bar/bat mitzvah, marriage (chuppah), and mourning periods (shiva).

Kosher rules separate meat and dairy and restrict animals to those that chew cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales.

Branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist differ on revelation, law's authority, and gender roles.

Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith include God's unity, incorporeality, and the coming of the Messiah.

Core doctrines: Trinity (one God in three persons), incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and salvation by grace.

The Nicene Creed (325/381) and Apostles' Creed summarize orthodox belief; Chalcedon (451) defines Christ's two natures.

Sacraments: most traditions hold baptism and Eucharist; Catholic and Orthodox lists add confirmation, penance, orders, marriage, anointing.

Bible: Old and New Testaments; Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts, Pauline and general epistles, Revelation.

Major branches: Catholic (bishop of Rome), Orthodox (patriarchs, icons, leavened bread), Protestant (Reformation, sola scriptura, sola fide).

Reformation landmarks: Luther's 95 Theses (1517), Calvin's Geneva, the Church of England under Henry VIII.

Liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week (Easter Triduum), Easter, Pentecost.

Easter is the resurrection feast computed by lunar calendar; Christmas is December 25 in Western traditions, January 7 in many Orthodox ones.

Distinctive practices: monasticism, pilgrimage, veneration of saints and Mary, and differing views of transubstantiation versus symbolic presence.

Five Pillars: shahada (witness), salat (prayer five times daily), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Shahada: 'There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.'

Quran has 114 suras revealed to Muhammad (570-632 CE) in Mecca and Medina; it is recited in Arabic and regarded as God's speech.

Sunna consists of Muhammad's words and deeds recorded in hadith; chains of transmission (isnad) are graded for reliability.

Six articles of faith: God, angels, revealed books, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree.

Sunni and Shia split over succession after Muhammad; Shia hold to the Imamate and commemorate Ashura at Karbala.

Sharia derives from Quran, Sunna, qiyas (analogy), and ijma (consensus); fiqh is jurisprudence; major Sunni schools are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali.

Jihad means struggle or effort; greater jihad is inner moral struggle, lesser jihad is armed defense with strict rules.

Prohibitions include shirk (associating partners with God); halal and haram govern food, with pork and alcohol forbidden.

Kami are sacred powers or presences in natural phenomena, ancestors, and exceptional persons; they are venerated, not worshiped as omnipotent creators.

Shinto is Japan's indigenous tradition; the term combines shen (spirits) and dao (way), adopted to distinguish it from Buddhism.

Torii gates mark the boundary between ordinary space and sacred precinct; visitors purify at a temizuya before approaching.

Purification (harae) and cleanliness are central; misogi is purification by water, and kegare is ritual pollution.

Ise Jingu enshrines Amaterasu, the sun goddess and imperial ancestress; Izumo Taisha is linked to Okuninushi.

Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record creation myths, including Izanagi and Izanami and the emergence of Amaterasu.

State Shinto (1868-1945) was a government-supported ideology; after 1945 the tradition reorganized as shrine Shinto (Jinja Honcho).

Festivals (matsuri) carry kami in portable shrines (mikoshi); folk practices include amulets (omikuji, ofuda) and household altars (kamidana).

Twelve Olympians include Zeus (sky, Rome's Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus).

Interpretatio romana is the Roman practice of identifying foreign gods with their own - e.g., Zeus with Jupiter, Hermes with Mercury.

Homeric epics and Hesiod's Theogony supply the main Greek mythic narratives of gods and heroes.

Greek mystery cults, notably the Eleusinian Mysteries for Demeter and Persephone, promised initiates a better afterlife.

Orphism taught transmigration of souls and ascetic purification; Dionysian cults emphasized ecstatic possession.

Roman state religion combined public priesthoods (pontifices, augurs, Vestal Virgins) with household cult of lares, penates, and the genius.

Mithraism, popular among Roman soldiers, was a mystery cult centered on a bull-slaying god; Sol Invictus was a late imperial solar cult.

Stoicism saw logos pervading the cosmos; Epicureanism held gods exist but are unconcerned; Neoplatonism taught emanation from the One.

Constantine's Edict of Milan (313) and Theodosius' bans on pagan sacrifice (late 4th century) ended state pagan cult.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986); Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950.

Thetan is the immortal spiritual being; the body is a physical object the thetan uses; the goal is spiritual freedom and ability.

Reactive mind stores engrams - painful past experiences that restimulate and distort behavior; the analytical mind handles rational thought.

Auditing is one-on-one counseling using an E-meter to locate and discharge engrams; the process is called clearing.

The Bridge to Total Freedom is the graded path of auditing and training; Clear is a key level, above which are OT levels.

The Church of Scientology was incorporated in 1954; it describes itself as a religion and is recognized as such in the US.

Eight dynamics: self, family/sex, groups, mankind, life forms, physical universe, spiritual universe, and infinity or God.

The Creed of the Church of Scientology and the Auditor's Code set out beliefs and counseling conduct.

Scientology is controversial; critics dispute its practices and status, and some countries restrict or refuse it religious recognition.

Ninian Smart's seven dimensions: ritual/practical, narrative/mythic, experiential/emotional, social/institutional, ethical/legal, doctrinal/philosophical, material/artistic.

Doctrinal dimension states beliefs explicitly; mythic dimension transmits them as stories; the two can diverge in the same tradition.

The material dimension covers buildings, icons, vestments, relics, and pilgrimage sites - often the most archaeologically visible aspect.

Phenomenology (Otto, Eliade) brackets truth claims to describe religious experience; epoché is the suspension of judgment it requires.

Otto's numinous: mysterium tremendum et fascinans - a mystery that both repels with awe and attracts with fascination.

Eliade's axis mundi is a center that connects heaven and earth; hierophany is any manifestation of the sacred in profane space.

Functionalist accounts (Durkheim) define religion by social cohesion and the sacred/profane split rather than by belief in gods.

Substantive definitions name content (e.g., belief in supernatural beings); functional definitions name what religion does for individuals or society.

Comparative method risks perennialism, the assumption that superficially similar practices across cultures mean the same thing.

'Primal' labels orally transmitted, small-scale traditions; it is a category of convenience, not a claim of primitiveness or inferiority.

Animism (Tylor's term) is the attribution of spirit or personhood to animals, plants, natural features, and objects.

Mana is an impersonal, transferable force in Polynesian and Melanesian traditions; tabu marks persons or things as set apart and restricted.

Totemism links a clan to a plant, animal, or natural species treated as ancestor, kin, and emblem, with food and marriage rules attached.

Shamans are part-time specialists who enter altered states to journey, retrieve souls, or negotiate with spirits; they are not full-time priests.

Rites of passage follow Van Gennep's three phases: separation, liminality, and reaggregation; liminality is the threshold, often dangerous and transformative.

Imitative (sympathetic) magic acts on a likeness; contagious magic acts on something once in contact with the target.

Ancestor veneration treats dead kin as active participants in household affairs, honored with offerings and consulted for guidance.

Dreamtime (Tjukurpa) in Aboriginal Australian traditions is a continuing ancestral creation order, not merely a mythical past.

Shruti is revealed scripture (Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads); smriti is remembered tradition (Epics, Puranas, Dharmashastras).

Four Vedas: Rig (hymns), Sama (melodies), Yajur (sacrificial formulas), Atharva (spells and everyday concerns).

Four aims of life: dharma (duty), artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure), moksha (liberation); ashramas are student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant.

Brahman is ultimate reality; atman is the self; the Upanishadic formula tat tvam asi ('that thou art') identifies them.

Samsara is rebirth driven by karma; moksha ends it. Three paths: karma yoga (action), jnana yoga (knowledge), bhakti yoga (devotion).

Major deities: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver, with avatars such as Rama and Krishna), Shiva (destroyer/transformer).

The trimurti pairs creation, preservation, and destruction; Devi or Shakti traditions center the Goddess as ultimate power.

Varnas are the four social classes; jati are the many birth-based endogamous groups. The term 'caste' conflates both.

Six schools (darshanas) include Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta; Advaita Vedanta teaches non-dualism.

Four Noble Truths: suffering (dukkha) exists; it has craving (tanha) as origin; it can cease; the Eightfold Path is the way.

Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration - grouped as wisdom, ethics, and mental discipline.

Three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anatta (no fixed self).

Pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination) explains rebirth as a twelve-link chain, not as a soul passing between bodies.

Theravada ('way of the elders') uses the Pali Canon, idealizes the arhat, and dominates Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.

Mahayana adds the bodhisattva ideal, emptiness (shunyata), and sutras such as the Lotus; it spreads through China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam.

Vajrayana (Tibetan) uses tantra, mandalas, mudras, and mantras; key schools are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.

Zen (Chan) emphasizes zazen and koans; Pure Land emphasizes faith in Amitabha and rebirth in the Pure Land.

The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama, born a prince, awakened under the Bodhi tree; the Tripitaka groups Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma.

Five classic relationships: ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger, friend-friend; each carries reciprocal duties.

Ren (humaneness) is the central virtue; li is ritual propriety and social form; yi is rightness; zhi is wisdom; xin is trustworthiness.

Xiao (filial piety) extends respect for parents to ancestor veneration and care for elders generally.

Junzi ('exemplary person') is the moral ideal, achieved by cultivation rather than birth; Confucius redefined nobility.

Mencius held human nature is good and sprouts of virtue need cultivation; Xunzi held it is bad and needs deliberate shaping.

The Five Classics include the Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Odes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals.

The Analects records sayings of Kong Qiu (551-479 BCE); the Four Books became the exam core under Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism.

Neo-Confucianism (Song-Ming) absorbed Buddhist and Daoist metaphysics, centering li (principle) and qi (vital stuff).

The civil service examination system made Confucian texts the gateway to office for over a millennium.

Dao means 'way' or 'path' - the ineffable source and pattern of all things; the Daodejing opens by saying the named dao is not the constant dao.

Wu wei is non-coercive action: acting without forcing, in accord with natural patterns rather than against them.

Ziran is spontaneity or self-so-ness; pu is the uncarved block, an image of plainness and potential.

The Daodejing (Laozi) and Zhuangzi are foundational texts; the Zhuangzi uses parables and humor to dissolve fixed perspectives.

Daoist cosmology: dao generates one, one generates two (yin-yang), two generates three, three generates the ten thousand things.

Religious Daoism has an organized clergy, liturgies, and deities such as the Three Pure Ones; it differs from philosophical Daoism.

Daoist alchemy sought physical immortality through meditation, breath control, diet, and elixirs; internal alchemy reframed it as spiritual work.

The Daozang is the Daoist canon; the Celestial Masters is an early organized movement founded by Zhang Daoling.

Shema: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one' - a central declaration of monotheism recited daily.

Tanakh divides into Torah (five books), Nevi'im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings); the Talmud pairs Mishnah and Gemara.

Covenant links God and Israel; Abraham's covenant involves circumcision, and Sinai's covenant involves the 613 mitzvot.

Ten Commandments appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; they open with exclusive loyalty to God and include the Sabbath.

Major festivals: Rosh Hashanah (new year), Yom Kippur (atonement), Sukkot (booths), Passover (exodus), Shavuot (Torah), Hanukkah (dedication).

Life-cycle rites: brit milah (circumcision), bar/bat mitzvah, marriage (chuppah), and mourning periods (shiva).

Kosher rules separate meat and dairy and restrict animals to those that chew cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales.

Branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist differ on revelation, law's authority, and gender roles.

Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith include God's unity, incorporeality, and the coming of the Messiah.

Core doctrines: Trinity (one God in three persons), incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and salvation by grace.

The Nicene Creed (325/381) and Apostles' Creed summarize orthodox belief; Chalcedon (451) defines Christ's two natures.

Sacraments: most traditions hold baptism and Eucharist; Catholic and Orthodox lists add confirmation, penance, orders, marriage, anointing.

Bible: Old and New Testaments; Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts, Pauline and general epistles, Revelation.

Major branches: Catholic (bishop of Rome), Orthodox (patriarchs, icons, leavened bread), Protestant (Reformation, sola scriptura, sola fide).

Reformation landmarks: Luther's 95 Theses (1517), Calvin's Geneva, the Church of England under Henry VIII.

Liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week (Easter Triduum), Easter, Pentecost.

Easter is the resurrection feast computed by lunar calendar; Christmas is December 25 in Western traditions, January 7 in many Orthodox ones.

Distinctive practices: monasticism, pilgrimage, veneration of saints and Mary, and differing views of transubstantiation versus symbolic presence.

Five Pillars: shahada (witness), salat (prayer five times daily), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting in Ramadan), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Shahada: 'There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.'

Quran has 114 suras revealed to Muhammad (570-632 CE) in Mecca and Medina; it is recited in Arabic and regarded as God's speech.

Sunna consists of Muhammad's words and deeds recorded in hadith; chains of transmission (isnad) are graded for reliability.

Six articles of faith: God, angels, revealed books, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree.

Sunni and Shia split over succession after Muhammad; Shia hold to the Imamate and commemorate Ashura at Karbala.

Sharia derives from Quran, Sunna, qiyas (analogy), and ijma (consensus); fiqh is jurisprudence; major Sunni schools are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali.

Jihad means struggle or effort; greater jihad is inner moral struggle, lesser jihad is armed defense with strict rules.

Prohibitions include shirk (associating partners with God); halal and haram govern food, with pork and alcohol forbidden.

Kami are sacred powers or presences in natural phenomena, ancestors, and exceptional persons; they are venerated, not worshiped as omnipotent creators.

Shinto is Japan's indigenous tradition; the term combines shen (spirits) and dao (way), adopted to distinguish it from Buddhism.

Torii gates mark the boundary between ordinary space and sacred precinct; visitors purify at a temizuya before approaching.

Purification (harae) and cleanliness are central; misogi is purification by water, and kegare is ritual pollution.

Ise Jingu enshrines Amaterasu, the sun goddess and imperial ancestress; Izumo Taisha is linked to Okuninushi.

Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record creation myths, including Izanagi and Izanami and the emergence of Amaterasu.

State Shinto (1868-1945) was a government-supported ideology; after 1945 the tradition reorganized as shrine Shinto (Jinja Honcho).

Festivals (matsuri) carry kami in portable shrines (mikoshi); folk practices include amulets (omikuji, ofuda) and household altars (kamidana).

Twelve Olympians include Zeus (sky, Rome's Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus).

Interpretatio romana is the Roman practice of identifying foreign gods with their own - e.g., Zeus with Jupiter, Hermes with Mercury.

Homeric epics and Hesiod's Theogony supply the main Greek mythic narratives of gods and heroes.

Greek mystery cults, notably the Eleusinian Mysteries for Demeter and Persephone, promised initiates a better afterlife.

Orphism taught transmigration of souls and ascetic purification; Dionysian cults emphasized ecstatic possession.

Roman state religion combined public priesthoods (pontifices, augurs, Vestal Virgins) with household cult of lares, penates, and the genius.

Mithraism, popular among Roman soldiers, was a mystery cult centered on a bull-slaying god; Sol Invictus was a late imperial solar cult.

Stoicism saw logos pervading the cosmos; Epicureanism held gods exist but are unconcerned; Neoplatonism taught emanation from the One.

Constantine's Edict of Milan (313) and Theodosius' bans on pagan sacrifice (late 4th century) ended state pagan cult.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986); Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950.

Thetan is the immortal spiritual being; the body is a physical object the thetan uses; the goal is spiritual freedom and ability.

Reactive mind stores engrams - painful past experiences that restimulate and distort behavior; the analytical mind handles rational thought.

Auditing is one-on-one counseling using an E-meter to locate and discharge engrams; the process is called clearing.

The Bridge to Total Freedom is the graded path of auditing and training; Clear is a key level, above which are OT levels.

The Church of Scientology was incorporated in 1954; it describes itself as a religion and is recognized as such in the US.

Eight dynamics: self, family/sex, groups, mankind, life forms, physical universe, spiritual universe, and infinity or God.

The Creed of the Church of Scientology and the Auditor's Code set out beliefs and counseling conduct.

Scientology is controversial; critics dispute its practices and status, and some countries restrict or refuse it religious recognition.