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Scientology: Tra Ortodossia E Scismi

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Scientology: Tra Ortodossia E Scismi Scientology: tra ortodossia e scismi Tesi di laurea in Antropologia della Dott.sa Eleonora D'Agostino, Dipartimento di Storia, Cultura, Religioni - Università La Sapienza, Roma. Nota di Simonetta Po, curatrice del sito "Allarme Scientology": Ho ripreso la tesi dal blog "La Reception" che l'ha pubblicata a puntate e che ringrazio. Il blog non fornisce il titolo originale dell'opera. Quello riportato è stata una mia scelta personale. L'anno di discussione della tesi dovrebbe essere il 2015. Ho corretto alcuni link dell'autrice che rimandavano al vecchio indirizzo del mio sito. Ho aggiustato la formattazione che sul blog "La Reception" non era uniforme. Ho aggiunto una mia nota e un link su un passaggio della tesi censurato dal blog "La Reception". Ho aggiunto una mia nota su passaggio che mi riguarda. Ho aggiunto l'indice generale. Indice generale INTRODUZIONE................................................................................................................................1 PRIMA PARTE.....................................................................................................................................3 Capitolo 1: le origini di Scientology................................................................................................3 Capitolo 2: La dottrina di Scientology...........................................................................................11 Capitolo 3: Gli ADVANCED ABILITY CENTER........................................................................19 Capitolo 4: Le RON’S ORG..........................................................................................................30 Capitolo 5: Il secondo scisma: gli anni 2000.................................................................................38 Capitolo 6: Scientology e la Rete..................................................................................................44 SECONDA PARTE............................................................................................................................47 Capitolo 1: Dianetica in Italia........................................................................................................47 Capitolo 2: La preistoria di Scientology........................................................................................51 I primi seguaci italiani...............................................................................................................51 Dall'Istituto Italiano di Tecnologie Applicate alla Chiesa di Scientology ................................58 Capitolo 3: Il primo scisma: gli Advanced Ability Center.............................................................63 Accuse e processi a Scientology ..............................................................................................70 Capitolo 4: Il secondo scisma: L’Indipendologo, La reception, e gli altri.....................................73 Capitolo 5: Le RON’S ORG in Italia ............................................................................................81 TERZA PARTE..................................................................................................................................84 Capitolo 1: Come si conosce Scientology in Italia........................................................................84 Capitolo 2: Come si vive da staff o pubblico di Scientology in Italia .........................................89 Capitolo 3: Come si vive Scientology in Italia .............................................................................94 Ufologia....................................................................................................................................95 Complottismo............................................................................................................................98 Capitolo 4: Il Mind .....................................................................................................................100 Capitolo 5: Gli indipendenti........................................................................................................102 Capitolo 6: Scientology è una religione? ....................................................................................110 QUARTA PARTE.............................................................................................................................111 Capitolo 1: Online Religion o Religion Online?..........................................................................111 Capitolo 2: The religious-social shaping of technology..............................................................119 Capitolo 3: L’identità, l’autorità e l’autenticità di Scientology in rete........................................136 CONCLUSIONI...............................................................................................................................142 1 INTRODUZIONE Questo lavoro inizia nel novembre del 2013, quando cominciai le mie ricerche per analizzare il fenomeno Scientology in Italia. Da allora mi resi conto di indagare su un fenomeno ignorato dal mondo accademico, soprattutto in Italia dove mancavano dei lavori che interpretassero la realtà di questo nei confini nazionali. Fu proprio all’inizio che scoprii un mondo che non si limitava alle mura delle Org di Scientology, ma che era presente anche in Internet con grande movimento. Navigando in rete scoprii non solo tracce della Scientology ortodossa o ufficiale, ma anche le tracce della “Scientology indipendente”. Ma cosa è la Scientology indipendente? Si tratta di un concetto che racchiude in sé tutta una serie di movimenti e persone che portano avanti la filosofia e tecnologia di Ron Hubbard in modo esterno alla Chiesa di Scientology, che considerano non più il punto di riferimento per le loro pratiche. Partendo da questo, cominciai il mio lavoro entrando in contatto con esponenti della Chiesa ufficiale e degli indipendenti sul territorio italiano. Questo lavoro si compone di quattro parti ognuna delle quali divisa in capitoli. Nella prima parte verrà trattata la storia del movimento di Scientology e del suo fondatore, L. Ron Hubbard; riportando anche la storia dei movimenti scismatici indipendenti: gli Advanced Ability Center, le Ron’s Org, e i movimenti indipendenti degli anni 2000 portati avanti dai recenti fuoriusciti come Mark Rathbun e altri. Nella seconda parte sarà affrontato il tema delle origini di Scientology in Italia partendo dal modo in cui venne recepita l’opera di Hubbard nei primi anni della sua pubblicazione attraverso i media, per poi trattare dei primi passi di Scientology come pratica nel nostro paese. Sarà in questo capitolo che vedremo come la Chiesa iniziò a inserirsi a partire dai primi anni ’70 e come si evolse la presenza della Scientology indipendente a partire dagli anni ’80 con quello che chiamo il primo scisma, e a partire dagli anni 2000 con quello che chiamo il secondo scisma. Nella terza parte sarà affrontata una descrizione delle pratiche e dei sincretismi da me riscontrati attraverso il lavoro etnografico presso fuoriusciti, indipendenti, e scientologist ufficiali nel territorio italiano: sarà qui che si affronteranno i legami con l’ufologia e i temi del “complottismo”, come 2 anche le particolarità nel modo in cui si vive Scientology in Italia. Si cercherà di illustrare anche il tema della religiosità o meno di questo movimento da un punto di vista emico, e il modo in cui gli indipendenti hanno intrecciato profonde reti sociali utili anche per la pratica della stessa tecnologia scientologica. Nella quarta parte sarà affrontato il tema di Scientology e la rete, coadiuvata nelle mie ricerche dai recentissimi studi sulle religioni in Internet, tra i quali spicca il lavoro di Heidi Campbell. Qui cercherò di descrivere la presenza di Scientology ortodossa e non nel vasto campo di ricerca della rete (con particolare attenzione rivolta alla realtà italiana), tracciando le differenze nei due approcci e analizzando questo mondo con le basi teoriche poste da Heidi Campbell nella sua teoria del “religious-social shaping of technology”. In questo loco sarà portata alla luce anche l’importanza delle contemporanee tecnologie per la messa in discussione del potere costituito e delle autorità tradizionali. Alla fine di questo lavoro saranno poste le conclusioni, riportando i confronti con i lavori di importanti studiosi e riunendo le interpretazioni e i punti cui sono giunta alla fine della mia analisi. L’appendice riporterà una parte dei documenti da me analizzati e citati nel testo. Considero questo scritto un lavoro in itinere e spero che possa essere aggiornato e completato in futuro con altre ricerche sul campo e analisi. PRIMA PARTE Capitolo 1: le origini di Scientology Scientology trae le sue origini dal lavoro di Ron Hubbard, autore del fortunato libro “Dianetics” e di tutti gli altri testi che sono l’ossatura portante di questa forma di spiritualità [1]. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard è stato uno scrittore di fantascienza statunitense, ma ai più è noto prevalentemente per essere il fondatore di Scientology. Quello che sappiamo può essere suddiviso principalmente in due filoni: • la biografia che la Chiesa di Scientology ne tramanda; • le informazioni raccolte dagli esterni. Infatti “on the one hand, there is the church’s official biography of Hubbard, which tells of his extensive travels throughout the Far East, his successful academic career, and his heroic military 3 service; on the other hand, there is the counternarrative provided by critics and ex-Scientologists, who
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