The sad thing about $cientology is that it could have been the best thing since the Buddha, IF Mr. Hubbard had not been a sadistic criminal and world class con man, whose motives he himself succinctly summed up as "All men are my slaves and women grovel at my feet."  Many of the most brilliant and dedicated researchers in the human mind of the last 50 years spent their lives in $cientolgy contributing to it.  Of course, their advances were stolen by Mr. Hubbard, who claimed them as his own and excommunicated and attacked, utterly destroying where possible, those to whom he owed the most.  Whatever workable parts of the technology were perverted and  eventually swallowed up by his gargantuan psychotic faschist robotic military intelligence agency crusade to take over the world. 

Well, what would you expect from a black magician follower of Crowley, who was a liar, thief, drug addict and psychotic megalomaniac, and who used up and discarded people like toilet paper?

His legacy, the "Church" of Scientology, which appears to have been taken over by black ops divisions of various governments in the early 1980's, is apparently now primarily engaged in researching gulag mind washing and slave labor control techniques, much as Jonestown was.

The really superlative, excellent and useful parts of the technology are buried in lies, omissions, complexities, errors, propaganda, exaggeration, wishful thinking, and flat-out fraud.  And of course, it's all perfect, exact, unquestionable and unalterable . . .  like the "Standard Technology" that was announced as perfect and complete in 1968, and then revised every few weeks for the next 30 odd years, while remaining constantly sacrosanctly perfect, unchanging and unalterable, engraved in inerrancy in eternity, in every successive soon-to-be repudiated version.

Thus, in actual practice, $cientology is the total and exact opposite of what it claims to be, and actually might have been or become, if Hubbard had been much more sane and vastly less aggressively criminal.  Unfortunatey, due to its very real sophistication in many areas of dealing with the mind, it has become the greatest threat to enlightenment that I know of, bitterly and relentlessly attacking and destroying all it's perceived "enemies" . . . i.e. those beings actually attempting to help their fellow man without buying the ridiculous permission of those with a "command intention" mission to harrass and destroy others in the name of total freedom, but sadly lacking any clue about their own or anyone else's spiritual advancement or salvation.

LET'S LOOK AND SEE: 

For an instant, but surprisingly accurate assessment of the much-promoted "bridge" to nowhere, let us examine the small illustration above, copied from the $cientologi$t$ very own web site [pursuant to "fair use" as authorized by Title 17, the Copyright Act] for discussion and commentary.

The first thing which you see in the illustration is a GATE.  The purpose of the gate, of course, is to keep people OFF the "bridge to total freedom" [as they dub it] . . . to keep out the "downstats," "freeloaders," "degraded beings," "Potential Trouble Sources," "Suppressive Persons," and other undesireables . . . TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM ENTERING OR CROSSING ["the bridge to total freedom"].   In their normal state, these tall stout gates are closed and locked tightly, and vigilantly defended by dedicated, ferocious and unreasonable Guardians . . . all in the name of "total freedom"!

Of course, the gate can be opened . . .  for a price.  Current estimates for a trip across the bridge run around $350,000 . . . without any of the extensive and numerous side-trips, detours, and extras which abound and proliferate.  To open the gate, you need to bring GOLD.   LOTS of gold. 

In fact, if you simply look at the picture, you will see that, in actual fact, the bridge itself is PAVED WITH GOLD.   Bring lots of gold.  Hey, I used to know a guy who spent $250,000 in ONE YEAR at the Flag Land Base ["the Mecca of Technical Perfuction"].   At the end of the year, he was more fucted up than ever before, and not too surprisingly, also out of money.  At that point they lost interest in him and told him he was "unsuitable" to be helped.  [Bring lots of gold!]

Continuing to look, you will then see that the bridge rises very steeply [just like the prices] [making it a real EFFORT to climb that hill] and takes you WAY out to sea, over the vast and uncharted ocean.  After you have gone too far out to swim back, you suddenly run out of bridge . . . and it drops you several hundred feet into the ocean . . . to your certain death.  The sharks fight over your carcass.

It doesn't go anywhere . . . except to oblivion. 
It's the GOLDEN GATE to SPIRITUAL SUICIDE!

And the other thing that's BLINDINGLY CLEAR about the bridge?  THERE'S NO ONE ON IT!  It's totally barren and EMPTY!  All the suckers who brought their gold and paved the bridge have either gone off the deep end or been overboarded along the way for being "down$tat$" or "Potential Trouble Sources" [when they ran out of gold or stopped paying].   The $cientologi$t$ are way too busy guarding the gate from undeserving intruders and scouting for new $ucker$ to get out and take the trip over it.  All this huff and puff stuff from the $cam Cult is about a bridge to nowhere . . . that isn't being travelled by anybody. 

THERE YOU HAVE IT!, the whole story in a thumbnail: all neatly summed up in one small image, courtesty of the cult itself.  Who would know better than they?  Pathetic, isn't it?

FOR MORE INFORMATION:   

For more of the latest info, read alt.religion.scientology, a very busy and interesting newsgroup on usenet.  The few $cientology $hill$ who dare to post there are regularly humiliated by their own shameful incompetence and dishonesty, and the raw naked truth about their loathesome cult.

Here is an unordered series of alt.religion.scientology articles by Body N. Thetan from November, 1995.  They give a good broad overview of $cientology and L Ron Hubbard.  Some are now dated and obscure, but others were precisely accurate in their assessments and future predictions.
LRH: HIS STORY
TUBBARD INTELLIGENCE AGENCY [TIA]
$CIENTOLOGY PRO.BABLE $TRATEGY
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
PURE SPECULATION
QUESTIONS RE COPYRIGHT/TRADE SECRET
TOTAL VICTORY FOR $CIENTOLOGY
ON BEING NICE TO LRH BECAUSE OF ALL THE *GOOD* THINGS HE DID:
LEGAL OPINION PLEASE
JESUS! MORE QUESTIONS:
CAN EIGHT MILLION $CIENTOLOGI$T$ BE WRONG?
LET'S SETTLE UP WITH THE Co$!
WHY KILL CO$A nostril's "LRH" COPYRIGHTS?

Here is a charming little piece that reflects the e$$ence of $erious $cientology :
THE COMMODORE'$ PRAYER