Scientology(R)

Philosophy, quasireligious movement, and system of psychotherapy that elaborated into the Church of Scientology. Science-fiction writer L. (Lafayette) Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), author of the bestseller Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, founded the church in 1953. The supposed aim of Scientology, whose theory posits reincarnation, is to liberate one's "essential Self" (the "true, spiritual self").