I was going to try to clarify some of this terminology by researching Scientology on the web, but my search clarifies nothing. I was going to post some of the more complicated aspects fo the philosphy, but couldn't find even one that I understood well enough to bring over here.
Check out Wikipedia for more...
"In Scientology doctrine, space opera was the term used by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to describe extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in "past lives". Descriptions of "space opera" incidents play an important part in the beliefs of Scientology [1] and has led to Scientology being characterized by some critics and commentators as a "UFO religion" (Partridge, UFO Religions). Hubbard claimed that the modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events from millions of years ago.
Scientology's doctrines famously include the story of Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy who brought billions of frozen people to Earth 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Xenu is only one element of Scientology beliefs in alien civilizations. Such doctrines have existed in Scientology virtually since its beginning, with Hubbard writing and lecturing about civilizations such as Helatrobus, the Espinol Confederacy and Arslycus in the 1950s and Xenu's Galactic Confederacy in the 1960s. He described repeated instances of them using brainwashing implants on hapless beings. He also spoke of alien invasions of Earth, such as that carried out around 6235 BC by the Fifth Invader Force, who were "very strange insect-like creature with unthinkably horrible hands."
