What even is Scientology?

was founded by L.Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer and writer of a book called "dianetics", some kind of mixture of Freudian psychology, new age mysticism and belief in a extraterrestrial origin of man. His ideas are based on ideas of self-improvement as found in various orders and lodges similar to freemasonry like the golden dawn and the ordo temple orientis which he was part of at some point. he basically tried to create a supposedly more scientific version of these groups(a little like Crowley's scientific illuminism) and added a structure that requires expensive courses to go from one stage to another to attain "clarity".