In the heart of downtown Portland, on the corner of SW Third Avenue and Oak Street, the Church of Scientology of Portland occupies the landmark Sherlock Building, a seven-story Romanesque Revival structure originally raised in 1893 and meticulously restored by the congregation as an Ideal Organization. The Portland Church has served a growing community in the Willamette Valley since 1971, and its expanded home in the Sherlock Building was dedicated on May 11, 2013. From this single landmark address it welcomes visitors for self-guided tours of its Public Information Center, holds Sunday services open to members of every denomination, delivers a large slate of introductory seminars and courses, trains and audits parishioners, and supports a wide network of social betterment initiatives.
The Sherlock Building: A 19th-Century Landmark Reborn
The Sherlock Building stands seven stories tall at the corner of Third Avenue and Oak Street and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized as the preeminent example of Sullivanesque-style architecture in Oregon. Construction began early in 1893 for Forbes and Breeden, one of the largest retail furniture businesses west of the Mississippi at the time, but the project was abandoned later that year when the economic Panic of 1893 struck the nation. Irish-born Portland businessman William Sherlock subsequently acquired the property and oversaw completion of the structure in 1894. The building's design was heavily influenced by the celebrated architect Louis Sullivan, known as the "father of modernism," whose work melded modern elements with the Romanesque Revival style then prevalent in America.
Through the next century, a series of owners modernized much of the building's interior to suit a variety of service and retail establishments. The Church of Scientology later conducted a meticulous renovation, preserving the structure's history and heritage for another century, including full seismic reinforcement of all seven stories. The building retains its original Romanesque Revival features, including distinctive brick piers with rusticated stone capitals and trim, the signature Sullivanesque windows framed with brick arches and terra cotta medallions, and the foyer with its coffered ceilings. The new Ideal Organization occupies 69,000 square feet and is fully equipped to accommodate the complete range of Dianetics and Scientology services and to serve all communities throughout the Willamette Valley.
Inside the Church
Visitors entering the building are received at the Church's reception area before moving into the Scientology Public Information Center, where more than 500 films present the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion, the life and legacy of Founder L. Ron Hubbard, and an overview of the Church-sponsored humanitarian programs. The Information Center also holds a permanent exhibit honoring Portland's place in Scientology history as the site of the 1985 Scientology Religious Freedom Crusade, when tens of thousands of Scientologists from across the world and leaders of all faiths united in the city for a movement that culminated in a watershed court victory for religious freedom in America. The opening ceremony of that crusade was reprised at the building's dedication with an inspiring rendition of the "Battle of Portland" Freedom Crusade anthem of 1985. Visitors are welcome to take a self-guided tour of the displays at their leisure and return as often as they like.
All Scientology congregational services and ceremonies are convened in the Chapel, which also serves as a venue for banquets, receptions and community events open to members of all denominations. The Café welcomes those touring the Church or attending scheduled events and is provided for parishioners during breaks in their Scientology services. A rooftop terrace offers a panoramic view of downtown Portland and the foothills of the Oregon Cascades beyond. The Church's bookstore makes available L. Ron Hubbard's Scripture on Dianetics and Scientology, with the Founder's legacy comprising tens of millions of published words in dozens of books and thousands of recorded lectures. Materials are available in 15 translated languages.
Beyond the public spaces, the Church houses multiple seminar rooms for evening and weekend introductory seminars, classroom space for introductory courses on Dianetics and Scientology principles, and the Hubbard Guidance Center where Scientologists participate in auditing, or spiritual counseling. Beyond this waiting area are dozens of auditing rooms that provide a quiet, distraction-free environment necessary for parishioners to achieve spiritual enlightenment. The Academy trains Scientologists to become auditors through multiple course rooms, each devoted to a different aspect of training. The Purification Center delivers L. Ron Hubbard's Purification Program, a regimen of exercise, sauna and nutrition designed to free individuals from the mental and spiritual damage caused by drugs and toxins. Traditional in every Church of Scientology is the Office of L. Ron Hubbard, honoring the religion's Founder and symbolizing that the Church remains true to his writings and ideals. Each floor of the building overlooks a central atrium that rises five stories through the heart of the structure.
Sunday Services and Religious Ceremonies
Scientology congregational services are held in the Chapel, including Sunday Services that are open to members of every denomination. The Church also performs Scientology wedding ceremonies, naming ceremonies and funeral services, and the Chapel can be reserved for community-wide events in the name of cooperative effort to uplift citizens of all denominations. Scientology has its own clergy, the Scientology Ministers, who perform these ceremonies and provide ministerial services, marriage counseling, help with difficulties in life and outreach to children and families. The Chapel's central role in the life of the Church is reflected in the way it doubles as a meeting place for interfaith and civic gatherings that the Portland Church hosts in cooperation with other community groups.
The Hubbard Dianetics Seminar: A Two-Day Weekend Intensive
For over fifty years, the book Dianetics has been the number-one bestselling book on the human mind, and the Hubbard Dianetics Seminar is the Church's flagship introductory weekend program. The two-day seminar is delivered Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and carries a $100 seminar donation, paid when the attendee arrives to start the seminar on Saturday morning. The goal of Dianetics is a new state for the individual called Clear, and the seminar teaches the discovery that painful experiences from the past are stored in a previously unknown part of the mind called the reactive mind, the source of stress, unreasonable fears and insecurities.
On arrival, attendees sign in and receive a seminar portfolio, then follow a guided agenda that includes the film How to Use Dianetics and a review of the ten-step procedure. After lunch, attendees are paired up with a friend or another participant and begin working through the Dianetics procedure, alternating between delivering and receiving, with Dianetics specialists on hand throughout the day to answer questions. The second day opens with a new film and continues through both morning and afternoon sessions before a wrap-up with a trained consultant who reviews progress and next steps. Coffee, tea and other refreshments are available at breaks throughout the weekend. Attendees who continue at home after the seminar can study Dianetics through the Dianetics Extension Course and are welcome to study in the course room under a Dianetics Supervisor. The Hubbard Dianetics Seminar is delivered every weekend at the Church.
The Personal Efficiency and Communication Courses
Monday through Friday the Personal Efficiency Course is delivered at 1:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., and on weekends it is delivered at 1:30 p.m., with a $50 course donation paid on arrival. Drawn from L. Ron Hubbard's book The Problems of Work, the course covers eight sections: the underlying rules on which success depends; confusion and how to conquer it; the anatomy of control and the difference between good and bad control; the relationship between affinity, reality and communication and the use of those three elements in human relationships; the A-R-C components and the Tone Scale for predicting behavior; the Eight Dynamics as a way to understand life as eight main divisions; the cause of exhaustion and the procedures to defeat it; and a final section on what it takes to succeed. The course kit, the Problems of Work book and free testing are included.
The Success through Communication Course gives eighteen exact skills based on fundamental Scientology principles, including how to start a conversation, how to end one smoothly, how to get ideas across, how to handle upsets and how to be comfortable and confident in anyone's presence. The course is delivered daily at the Church by trained specialists.
Twenty Life Improvement Courses
The Scientology Life Improvement Courses are twenty book-length courses grouped under five headings: Ethics and Survival, Goals and Purposes, Survival and Prosperity, Marriage, and Children. Each course comes with a workbook that contains all required lessons and materials, and each is studied on a checksheet that lets the student proceed at their own speed. Course lengths range from three to seven part-time days, and the list includes Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life, Personal Values and Integrity, How to Improve Relationships with Others, Knowing Who You Can Trust, How to Achieve Self-Confidence, How to Get Motivated, Formulas for Living, Scientology Tools to Organize for Success, Effective Time Management, Setting and Achieving Your Goals, Scientology Tools for Effective Leadership, Scientology Tools for Overcoming Financial Stress, Scientology Tools for Financial Security, Scientology Principles of Prosperity, Creating a Successful Marriage, Maintaining a Happy Marriage, Salvaging a Marriage, Having a Happy Baby, Successfully Raising Children and Successfully Parenting Tweens and Teens.
Quoting L. Ron Hubbard: "The goal of Scientology is making the individual capable of living a better life in his own estimation and with his fellows and the playing of a better game."
Free Tools for Life Online Courses
For those who would rather study from home, the Church offers the free Tools for Life Online Courses, nineteen courses drawn from the Scientology Handbook that can be taken at one's own pace with materials integrated into the online program. Subjects include The Technology of Study, The Cause of Suppression, The Dynamics of Existence, Solutions for a Dangerous Environment, The Components of Understanding, Marriage, The Emotional Tone Scale, Children, Communication, Tools for the Workplace, Assists for Illnesses and Injuries, Basics of Organizing, Answers to Drugs, Targets and Goals, How to Resolve Conflicts, Investigations, Integrity and Honesty, Fundamentals of Public Relations and Ethics and the Conditions. Each course takes between three and seven hours and ends with a certificate by email. An online course supervisor is available through a "Need help?" button in each course program to assist with assignments.
Auditing and Training: The Practice of Scientology
The practice of Scientology comprises auditing (spiritual counseling) and training. Through auditing, a Scientologist works one-on-one with a trained auditor to address areas of spiritual concern, progressing along the Bridge to Total Freedom toward the state of Clear and the higher states known as Operating Thetan. Auditing takes place in the Hubbard Guidance Center and in the dozens of auditing rooms throughout the building, each of which provides a quiet, distraction-free environment.
Training takes place in the Academy. Each course room is devoted to a different aspect of training, where parishioners study L. Ron Hubbard's written works and listen to his recorded lectures in a precise order set forth on a checksheet. A Course Supervisor is present in each course room to assist Scientologists in attaining full understanding of the material, referring students to the correct material if they are experiencing difficulty but not interpreting or lecturing. Training ranges from introductory courses to advanced studies of the higher levels of Scripture, including the intensive auditor training that prepares Scientologists to minister auditing to others. The end result of auditor training is that an individual is able to minister to another person; because Scientology offers an understanding of human behavior and what lies behind everyday problems, training as an auditor also provides individuals with the means of dealing with life itself.
The Church also operates a Purification Center where parishioners can complete the Purification Rundown, a regimen of exercise, sauna and nutritional supplementation developed by L. Ron Hubbard to free individuals from the mental and spiritual damage caused by drugs and toxins.
The Volunteer Ministers: Bright Yellow on the Scene
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is one of the largest and most visible international independent relief forces. Created in the mid-1970s by L. Ron Hubbard and sponsored by the Church of Scientology International as a religious social service, the program's motto is "Something Can Be Done About It." Hundreds of thousands of Scientologists and others have been trained in person or online in skills that use Scientology fundamentals to bring relief from physical, mental or spiritual suffering and to improve many aspects of life, including communication, study, marriage, parenting, dealing with stress, success in the workplace and achieving goals. The program has helped more than 46 million people, by the Church's count.
Volunteer Ministers are known for being among the first to arrive at disaster zones and the last to leave. Wearing their signature bright yellow shirts, they provide for the most immediate needs, using their organizing skills to establish systems for distributing water, food and first aid, and they bring spiritual first aid, relieving emotional shock and trauma with simple Scientology procedures called assists. They have worked with over 2,800 government agencies, relief organizations and community groups. A global network of volunteers forms the permanent Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Team that mobilizes in times of natural and man-made disasters, answering the call wherever needed. The Portland Church's Volunteer Ministers corps has been showing up at the Portland Marathon for more than twenty years, recognized by the event's Executive Director for their long-standing dedication.
Eight Global Humanitarian Programs
The Church supports a portfolio of social betterment and humanitarian initiatives. Each is sponsored by the Church and coordinated globally.
The Way to Happiness
The Way to Happiness is a nonreligious moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard. The Church sponsors its distribution through booklets, a book-on-film, public service announcements and an online education resource center, with the program reaching millions through multimedia messages on restoring integrity, repairing the moral fabric of society, stemming the decline of moral standards and teaching tools for happier living.
Applied Scholastics
Applied Scholastics promotes L. Ron Hubbard's study technology as a way to halt the decline of education. The program supports affiliated schools, tutoring programs and a grassroots World Literacy Crusade, with a global center of study technology coordinating activities around the world.
Criminon
Criminon delivers programs aimed at criminal reform and the rehabilitation of inmates, working in prisons around the world.
Narconon
Narconon is the Church-sponsored drug rehabilitation and prevention program, including the Narconon New Life Detoxification Method, a regimen that combines exercise, sauna and nutritional supplementation. The program addresses drug prevention through public education as well as rehabilitation.
Foundation for a Drug-Free World
The Truth About Drugs program of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World distributes drug-education booklets, public service announcements and an educational film. The Church notes that more than 170 million Truth About Drugs booklets have been distributed worldwide, and law enforcement agencies have used the materials in school-based drug prevention.
United for Human Rights
United for Human Rights, and its Youth for Human Rights initiative, distributes multimedia materials, public service announcements and an online education resource center to inform people across the globe about the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Citizens Commission on Human Rights
Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), established by the Church of Scientology in 1969, is a nonprofit mental health watchdog dedicated to eradicating psychiatric abuses. The Church reports that CCHR has supported the enactment of more than 380 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive psychiatric practices, that more than 5,500 abusive psychiatrists have been brought to justice worldwide, and that CCHR operates a network of chapters across 34 nations. CCHR also houses the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum in Los Angeles.
Freedom Magazine
Freedom Magazine reports on human rights issues around the world and is one of the public-facing publications of the Church's broader human rights work.
What Scientology Believes, in Its Own Words
Scientology describes itself as "a religion that offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of one's true spiritual nature." Man, the Church teaches, is a spirit who has a mind and occupies a body. As one page in the Church's frequently asked questions puts it: "That which is looking at the cat is you, a spirit. One is a spirit, who has a mind and occupies a body. You are you in a body." Scientology's religious practices comprise two activities: auditing, which addresses spiritual concerns through one-on-one sessions with a trained auditor, and training, which studies the religion's Scripture in a precise order on a checksheet.
The Church's beliefs and ethical life are codified in several creeds and codes, including the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Auditor's Code, the Code of Honor, the Code of a Scientologist, the Supervisor's Code, the Credo of a True Group Member, the Credo of a Good and Skilled Manager and the Aims of Scientology. The Scientology symbol is the S and Double Triangle, and the Scientology Cross is an eight-pointed cross representing the eight dynamics of existence.
Scientology is structured around a path called the Bridge to Total Freedom, which progresses through the state of Clear to the higher states of Operating Thetan. Auditing is delivered to parishioners using a device called the E-Meter, and parishioners advance through training and auditing in course rooms and auditing rooms that follow a single, standardized curriculum.
The Church's Place in Scientology's Worldwide Organization
The Church of Scientology of Portland is one of more than 11,000 Scientology Churches, Missions and affiliated groups in 167 countries. The Mother Church of the religion is the Church of Scientology International (CSI), headquartered in Los Angeles, which oversees the ecclesiastical activities of all Scientology Churches, Organizations and Groups worldwide. Religious Technology Center (RTC), also in Los Angeles, holds the trademarks and service marks for Dianetics and Scientology and serves as the ultimate ecclesiastical authority regarding the standard and pure application of L. Ron Hubbard's religious Technologies. Mr. David Miscavige serves as Chairman of the Board RTC and as the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion. Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) preserves and archives L. Ron Hubbard's Scripture, having preserved his works on more than 135 tons of archival books, stainless steel plates and nickel-plated records stored in 2,300 titanium capsules in calamity-proof vaults.
The Dedication in May 2013
On Saturday, May 11, 2013, more than 2,500 Scientologists and guests from across the United States joined city and state dignitaries for the dedication of the new Ideal Organization. Mr. David Miscavige led the dedication ceremony with local Church officials. Dignitaries on hand to commemorate the occasion included Cornelius City Manager and former Mayor of Beaverton, Rob Drake; Executive Director of the Portland Marathon, Les Smith; Chair of the Inter-Religious Action Network of Washington County, Annie Heart; and host of the national "Voice of Freedom" television and radio programs, Reverend Jim Nicholls. The Portland Church was the third new Ideal Organization to open in 2013, following Pretoria, South Africa, and Cambridge, Ontario.
Visiting the Church of Scientology of Portland
The Church of Scientology of Portland is located at 309 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97204, and is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The free self-guided tour of the Public Information Center, the free personality test and the Story of Dianetics film showing are available during those hours. The Hubbard Dianetics Seminar is delivered every weekend on Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Personal Efficiency Course is delivered Monday through Friday at 1:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and on weekends at 1:30 p.m. The Success through Communication Course is delivered daily. Twenty Scientology Life Improvement Courses and nineteen free Tools for Life Online Courses round out the curriculum. The Church's phone number is (503) 228-0116. Visitors of every religion and belief are welcome.