The discussion above should make one thing clear: the communal life and activities of the Sea Organization within the Church of Scientology fully conform to the communal life and activities of traditional religious orders, East and West, in the past and in the present. As in Buddhism and Christianity, the religious order of the Sea Organization serves to exemplarily preserve and promulgate the teachings and technology discovered by L. Ron Hubbard. The goal of the Sea Organization is the spiritual survival not only of its own members and members of the Church of Scientology but also humankind and the universe itself. In that, the Sea Organization is like the religious orders of the major religions of the world.
The goal of the Sea Organization is the spiritual survival not only of its own members and members of the Church of Scientology but also humankind and the universe itself. In that, the Sea Organization is like the religious orders of the major religions of the world.
If a personal observation may be permitted, I would like to comment that when I have visited the Sea Organization berthings, communal life, and activities in Los Angeles and at Gilman Hot Springs, I repeatedly was reminded of my own days in a Franciscan monastery. I studied, prayed and meditated with the same intensity as I observed Scientologists studying, working and doing auditing. I lived in similar quarters and worked in similar settings, I worked in the monastery book bindery, binding new and rebinding old editions of the Bible and theological treatises. I produced holy cards and publications to advertise the work of the monastery. There was one difference: Scientology and the Sea Organization avail themselves of the latest forms of technology in carrying out their religious mission. We forget that when the monasteries first arose they did the same thing. In availing of this advanced technology the Church of Scientology is simply following the pattern laid down by L. Ron Hubbard himself.
Frank K. Flinn,
Adjunct Professor in Religious Studies
January 2010
