Los Angeles, USA - Jett Travolta is not in heaven.
Instead, the 16-year-old son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier this month of a seizure has cycled back to Earth in a new body.
That's according to Scientology beliefs practiced by Travolta and his family.
"The body dies away. It is the clay, the shell of a person. It is not you. You as an individual are an immortal, spiritual being," Church of Scientology International spokesman Tommy Davis said from his Los Angeles office. "When the body dies, the person moves on to the next lifetime in a new body."
The Church of Scientology began in 1950 when L. Ron Hubbard, an American writer and international adventurer, wrote the book Dianetics . It became so popular that a self-enhancement movement known as Scientology emerged among its readers. Today, the movement has become a church and claims more than 8 million members, including celebrities such as Travolta, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley and Anne Archer.
The Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, was born and raised in Utah, attended Weber State College (now University) and graduated with a communications degree from the University of Utah. Jentzsch, a former Mormon, joined the Scientology movement in 1967 and four years later helped start a mission to the stars -- recruiting Hollywood celebrities into the fold.
Scientologists believe specific mental and physical exercises will enhance intelligence, behavior and spiritual well-being. Hubbard wrote that experience in this or previous lives is recorded in the mind as "engrams." The soul -- or "thetan" -- is not only trapped by its own engrams, which become mental blocks, but it is also caught up in matter, energy, space and time. Such engrams must be erased before the soul can achieve full creative power and wisdom.
They call the process of erasing these mental blocks "clearing." Hubbard established the process, which is considered the faith's most sacred "technology," a spiritual healing. Their spiritual counseling is known as "auditing," and it progresses through stages. The first deals with individual, family, social or historical dynamics. Successive stages of auditing attempt to free the soul from "all dependence upon the physical body and the material universe," Hubbard wrote.
The ultimate purpose of auditing is to "clear the planet," creating a world governed by universal benevolence and perpetual peace.
"We don't really think about heaven," said the Rev. Lora Mengucci, head of Utah's 200- to 300-member Scientology community. "Each person has [his or her] own view of the hereafter. We believe we are spiritual beings. We go from life to life, from one human body to the another … striving to be better all the time , eventually helping everyone to be better. "
Some have said Scientologists don't believe in medicine, but that's untrue, Mengucci said. "If you have a broken bone, a thyroid condition, diabetes or anything like that, you go to the doctor."
Scientology funerals, like the one for Jett Travolta, are fairly conventional, Davis said.
A typical funeral would include speeches by an ordained Scientology minister as well as comments by family and friends, who have a chance to "acknowledge and thank the person for what he or she has done in this lifetime, and to wish them well as they move on to their next lifetime," he said. "It is meant to celebrate the life of the departed and to reaffirm the belief that we are immortal, spiritual beings."
The body would then be buried or cremated, he said. "The church has no dogma on that."