Scientology's Views On Death
The Early Show: Principles Likely To Play Role In Jett Travolta's Funeral
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Play CBS Video Video A Scientology Funeral The funeral for Jett Travolta has people wondering what Scientologists believe about spirituality and how they mourn, reports Hattie Kauffman.
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Jett Travolta in undated family photo (AP Photo/Rogers & Cowan)
The ceremony will most likely involve tenets of the Church of Scientology, the faith of Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman observed Tuesday.
Jett Travolta, 16, died Friday at the family vacation home in the Bahamas. Funeral home officials say the cause of death was a seizure disorder.
And, Kauffman says, while there will be mourning for Jett, Scientologists believe his spirit is still alive.
"The mood of the funeral or the ceremony itself would not be a very sad one," former Scientologist Bruce Hines says. He's presided over Scientologist funerals.
In Scientology doctrine, Hines explained, "the body that you have ceases to work. It dies for whatever reason, and then you go and, for example, they say you would go to a hospital and find some baby being born and you would decide to inhabit that body."
Call it reincarnation, with a twist, Kauffman suggests. That spirit is called a thetan.
"Scientologists believe that thetans have been attached to bodies in past lives and that this pattern of attachment will continue well onto the future," points out Stephen Kent, professor of sociology and alternative religions at the University of Alberta.
"At one point during the history of Scientology," Hines notes, "they said you had to dodge these alien beings who will try to trap you and give you an implant."
Most scientologists cremate their dead, Kauffman says. The Travolta had Jett's body cremated.
Says Kent, "The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was cremated. ... Because the body is de-emphasized in the Scientology belief system, likely it doesn't really matter a whole lot what happens to the body itself."
To lose a child after illness is especially difficult for Scientologists, Kauffman adds, because they believe 70 percent of disease is psychosomatic.
"If you are sick," Hines says, "you definitely have something you need to deal with on a mental and spiritual level.
"The other possibility," says Kent, "is to believe the thetan had some issues in past lives that it was working out by incarnating in a challenged body."
In Jett's case, Kauffman concludes, the challenge was seizures.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 78 CommentsGOD decides these things, not man. I must say I''m disapointed to know that God is not a Part of Johns life or Kellies.
Jett is gone, who they follow will determine if they see Jett again... In HEAVEN.
While I''m truly sorry for their Loss, I know how hard it must be.
But the grieving process needs to be dealt with instead of some man saying, he isnt dead, just searching for another body.
God Bless this family and help them with their grief, show them the light and let them serve no God but YOU.
The article states as follows:
they say you would go to a hospital and find some baby being born and you would decide to inhabit that body."
"At one point during the history of Scientology," Hines notes, "they said you had to dodge these alien beings who will try to trap you and give you an implant."
I don''t care how you sugar coat it-that is just plain creepy.
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Response to
Religion, any religion, is the scourge of mankind.
It disables your mind, keeping you from accepting truth and science.
"Who is the more foolish...........the fool or the fool that follows him?."
(Quoted from Star Wars)
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Posted by sly_64 at 08:22 AM : Jan 07, 2009
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if that IS WHAT YOU THINK then you have that right as I respect that...
now can you be the same?
It disables your mind, keeping you from accepting truth and science.
"Who is the more foolish...........the fool or the fool that follows him?."
(Quoted from Star Wars)
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Posted by tibu987 at 07:28 PM : Jan 06, 2009
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that is why the ideology of athiesm invented the MTV..to fill in that vacumm
I''m no chemist or scientist but here''s my take. Humans are energy. Energy, once created, can not be destroy. It can be transferred but not destroyed. Our spirit is this energy source. When we die it leaves our bodies. Even Christians believe that we are all spirit and that the spirit lives after it leaves the body.
Please spend 5 minutes searching for information about Scientology. The answers to the worlds problems can only be solved by Scientology. Oh, if you come across anything that calls it a cult - please don''t read that stuff. Education is King and Scientology may already be in your neighborhood disguised as? "Applied Scholastics" "Narconon" "Criminon" ...
OK, this just screams for an investigation. Interesting how these famous people''s kids always die in the Bahamas getting around any investigations.
Well, I do pray for the Travolta family on so many levels. That has to be a great lost. But, it doesn''t sound like it is a big deal to them. He is just invading some other other baby''s body.
Religion, any religion, is the scourge of mankind.
It disables your mind, keeping you from accepting truth and science.
"Who is the more foolish...........the fool or the fool that follows him?."
(Quoted from Star Wars)
And unlike Hollywood''s other top Scientologist, Mr. Travolta has never made a fool of himself by bouncing on couches, condemning Brooke Shields for using Paxil, stating that psychiatry "is a Nazi science", or that methadone was actually originally called Adolophine after Adolf Hitler, ect. Mr. Travolta has spoken - and outstandingly - through his work.
However, and the questions need to be asked, considering the stellar medical claims of Scientology*, why did Travolta''s son even have medical problems or have these conditions cause the son''s death?
*Cure arthritis History of Man p. 7 "Today, Eleanor has arthritis. She is audited... tonight she doesn''t have arthritis"
Raise the dead Magazine Articles on Level 0 Checksheet 1968, "Dissemination of Material" p.75 "A child had died, was dead, had been pronounced dead by a doctor, and the auditor, by calling the thetan back and ordering him to take over the body again brought the child to life."
Cure cancer THE HISTORY OF MAN (1961) P. 20
"Cancer has been eradicated by auditing out conception and mitosis."
from http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/medclaims.htm
What a truly ignorant, unbelieveably stupid fool you are! ROFL That has nothing to do with what I wrote about nor about what Scientology does to to alleviate psychosis.
CLEAR!
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