Scientology: Cult, Science or a Corporate Enterprise?

Abstract

From damaging campaigns spearheaded by once-loyal celebrities to documentaries revealing internal exploitation, Scientology is now considered a cult by many, but this essay aims to understand whether that label is accurate or whether Scientology should instead be considered a science. Alternatively, may it be more accurately referred to as a new religious movement (NRMs), or as a corporate enterprise straddling the fence between the sacred and the commercial. It is the postulation of this essay that Scientology, in its complexity of operations, suits all of these labels simultaneously and that what Scientology represents is a result of contemporary spirituality in a highly commercialised modern world.