Scientology: A Religion in South Africa David Chidester University of Cape Town South Africa        Second, auditing has many of the characteristics of religious rituals of confession. As a familiar feature of Roman Catholic practice, in which contrition, confession to a priest, and acts of penance form an important ritual cycle, confession also appears as a ritual in Buddhism. According to the Buddhist text of the Mahavaaaa, if anyone “remembers having committed a sin, and desires again to be pure, let him reveal the sin he committed, and when it has been revealed, all shall be well with him.”23 In the Buddhist ritual, therefore, a state of spiritual purity, which is similar in some respects to what Scientologists refer to as being Clear, requires recollecting memories of the past and revealing them through confession.      Third, the practice of auditing, especially in the advanced stages of “solo-auditing,” recalls more traditional religious rituals of meditation. In Buddhist practice, for example, ritual aids are often used to focus attention. The meditator might concentrate on a visual design, a sacred tone, or an enigmatic riddle to achieve a new clarity of awareness. Frequently, meditation is monitored by a teacher who observes the progress of novices.      In addition to auditing, Scientology provides training as an educational programme that recovers the religious dimension of the activity of study. In many religious traditions, the intensive study of sacred texts is an important religious ritual. In the Jewish yeshiva, for example, the study of sacred texts under the supervision of a Talmudic master is explicitly understood as a religious activity with all the characteristics of ritual. Similarly, Scientology training involves an intensive engagement with sacred texts, under ministerial supervision, as a significant religious activity. Just as the Church of Scientology has tried to recover the religious function of healing, it has also worked to restore the religious significance of the disciplined activity of study.

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