The church of scientology is an organization that holds numerous beliefs that are only semiavailable to the public due to the secretiveness of the organization . In basic terms , they believe that alien spirits negatively interact with humans and must be cleansed from humans using specialized devices . They have a complex mythology based around the containment of an alien godlike figure which resulted in the death and subsequent formation of these alien spirits eons ago . It is also notable that in order to advance through the organization multiple courses must be taken , family and friends that do not believe in scientology are encouraged to be cut off from members of the church , courses and treatments require payment , and that scientologist beliefs are highly hostile to forms of psychiatric treatment . Outside of practitioners , scientology is widely regarded as a predatory cult that is designed to target vulnerable people in an effort to cheat them out of their money . High level Scientologists have been found to engage in unethical and sometimes illegal practices , the most famous of which being the attempted infiltration of the US government to attempt to purge negative records of their founder , L . Ron Hubbard , a science fiction writer . More mundane illegal activities include tax fraud and evasion of prosecution . Scientologists use celebrity endorsements in recruitment efforts and engage in what are widely considered to be excessive lawsuits to suppress negative attention of the organization and receive favorable treatment such as religious taxexempt status . As to why anyone would join , the leadership presumably benefits financially while new recruits tend to join for the same reasons people join other cults , namely for a sense of belonging resulting from loneliness or social isolation , mental instability , and vulnerability to coercion due to factors such as age and education levels .