Study Technology
teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard
Study Technology, also called Study Tech, is a teaching method codified by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. Study Technology is used by Scientologists in their training, and it is also marketed outside the Church of Scientology through its affiliated corporation Applied Scholastics, which presents Study Tech as a secular teaching method for any student or topic. However, the method has many critics, including former teachers, claiming that Study Technology and its associated schools are intrinsically linked with religious aspects of Scientology.
Hubbard wrote in a policy letter in 1972 that "Study Tech is our primary bridge to Society." Most Study Tech books include a two-page biography of Hubbard that does not mention his role in creating Scientology. Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton said that Hubbard wrote the Study Tech materials to help people who joined Scientology with a low level of literacy, and that the materials are used within the Church of Scientology “not to proselytize for the religion but to teach people how to read.”
Theory
According to Study Tech, there are three barriers that prevent students from learning: "absence of mass", too steep a gradient, and the misunderstood word. According to Hubbard, each barrier produces a physiological response in the student such as yawning, or feeling bored or frustrated. In accordance with L. Ron Hubbard's beliefs, the method denies the existence of psychiatric conditions, or any biological learning difficulties.
Harley and Kieffer (2009) stated that Study Tech materials claim that "absence of mass" is the idea that abstractions must be illustrated physically before they can be fully understood: learning about trains is accelerated if the student can see a train or a representation of one. Scientology classrooms are equipped with modeling clay and "demo kits", small collections of everyday objects, such as corks, caps, pen tops, and paper clips. Modeling clay or the contents of such a kit are used to create a physical model of what is being studied, thereby giving the student "mass".
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Study Technology” is teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Study, Technology and teaching, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7628393. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Study Technology” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.