Don’t confuse past life work with Scientology

Many of you may have tuned into Leah Remini’s exposé of Scientiology on the A&E channel, Scientology & the Aftermath.  I thoroughly commend the courageous work Remini and her associates are doing to bring the light of truth to the terrible abuses of this ‘religion.’  It is a series that will horrify you at times, but is certainly worth watching.  However, I have a bone to pick with Remini from statements she made on the beginning show of her second season aired a few weeks ago, Thetans in Young Bodies.

Remini states that Scientology’s belief that children are old spirits, who have lived before and will live again, is a “dangerous concept.”  She claims that this eliminates any sense of “ownership” that a parent would otherwise have toward their child -- if the daughter now may have been the mother in the past.  “You don’t value the interpersonal relationship with your child,” she contends.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  The belief in reincarnation and prior lifetimes actually strengthens the bonds between loved ones, when we see the lines of love and connection that exist across the ages.  I’ve seen it time and time again in my clients, that powerful sense of recognition and understanding that we are on eternal journeys together.  We cherish these people in our lives even more.  It is Scientology that is dangerous -- not the belief in past lives --  with the bizarre way it twists a belief in prior lifetimes to its own purpose, to create an army of young people who sign their ‘eternity’ away to the church. 

So please don’t confuse a belief in prior lifetimes as meaning you are in agreement with anything that Scientology does or stands for.  They do have a “technology” (aka, peer counseling) that supposedly “clears” anything you’ve brought forward from prior lifetimes that’s getting in your way.  Given the abuses perpetrated by the church, I sincerely doubt that clearing has been effective!  Having had an extended-family member who at one time was sucked into the vortex that is Scientology, I speak from experience.