THEY now number 7000 here and congregate in the Boston church, one of 53 Scientology churches in North America and one of 141 world-wide.

Jerry Velona grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey and had not heard of dianetics or scientology before coming to Boston to study at the Berkeley School of Music. He joined a band with a few scientologists, became interested in dianetics, a keystone of the faith, and joined the church because he believed it.

"A group of people with a useful technology that could change things for the better," he says. Today he is the church's Minister of Public Affairs and the drummer for "Inferno," a rock band.

"Jerry Velona, there are two to see you," the receptionist said, dressed in a polyester suit. He was sitting behind a bulbous steel microphone, the type that usually summons hospital doctors. The microphone wired his voice throughout the three-story brownstone on Beacon St., the Boston Church of Scientology. The building is not far from the Boston Common, where scientologists often greet passersby with free personality tests, designed to measure "deviation from and progress toward optimum survival" and allow one to discover the "exact barriers to a greater self-confidence."

Velona opened the hollow, plywood door labelled 'Chapel' and sat down in the dimly-lit room near the Scientology cross. The verticle bar of the cross, according to Velona, symbolizes the "transcendence of spirituality over the world," while the four points at the end of the two bars of the cross represent four of the faith's eight dynamics. These eight dynamics stress the dedication and protection of one's self, of the family, the group, mankind, plants and animals, material objects, other spiritual beings and the "supreme being." According to Velona, the questions of right and wrong and all ethical questions revolve around the eight dynamics. In measuring the good one must attempt to consider and respect as many of the dynamics as possible. This "measurement" of good is left up to each individual because "scientology is not dogmatic, it is not a set of dictums that box in the individual."

As "a religion of action rather than dogma," Scientology channels its efforts toward social reform, Velona said. The church's progressive group, the Association of Scientologists for Reform, supports groups aiding alcoholics, the aged, prison inmates, the mentally retarded and "identifies areas in society it sees are in need of reform." Another of the church's groups, the American Citizens for Honesty in Government, pays $10,000 to anyone who can document the corruption of a public official.

ACCORDING to Velona, the "technology" of Scientology allows one to better one's own "intelligence, intellectual capacity and happiness" through a study of the mind and its effects on the body. This study is carried out under the rubric dianetics, which according to Velona are "a set of coordinated axioms which resolve certain problems in human behavior."

Dianetics postulates that there are two aspects to the human mind, the analytical and the reactive. The analytical mind perceives the immediate environment, puts it in the context of past experience, and compels one to act a certain way. It is the conscious part of the mind. The reactive mind operates below the state of consciousness as a stimulus-response mechanism. Through Scientology, Velona said, clasping both of his elbows across His chest,

One breaks down the reactive mind and brings it into one's consciousness."

As in the building's entryway, a large photograph of L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's founder, looks out into the room. Hubbard grew up in Tilden, Nebraska and founded dianetics in 1950 after a number of years as a science fiction writer and a stint with the Navy in World War II. According to Velona, Hubbard "affirmed to himself that man is a spiritual being. Whereas dianetics had dealt just with the mind, Hubbard realized it branched off into more of a spiritual philosophy." The first Church of Scientology was founded in Washington in 1954. Hubbard headed the faith until 1966 and now acts as a consultant to the religion and an adviser to all scientologists.

On the third floor, under Hubbard's picture, hangs a placard reading, "You can always write to Ron." The placard states:

Standing Order no. 1

"All mail addressed to me shall be received by me."

Standing Order no.2

"A message box shall be placed in all Scientology Organizations so that any message for me may be received by me."