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Dianetics is the base tome of the Scientology faith. It lays out the bedrock, the foundation of Scientology. It portrays itself as a scientific “self help” guide to the human mind and proposes that it’s a factual, scientific breakthrough.
“It is An organized science of thought built on definite axioms (statement of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences. )
(from Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard. Pg 11)
Alas; this is not the case, Dianetics is a poorly wrought pseudo scientific explanation of how the mind works, nothing more. It is written in such a way to sound impressive to people lacking formal education, but it is not backed by facts. The ideas in Dianetics are simply the opinions of one man, Science Fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
Hubbard begins his book this way, indeed; many books in Scientology start out like this;
“In reading this book, be very certain you never go past a word you do not understand.”
He goes on to say that the only reason a person gives up a study, becomes confused or is unable to learn is because they have gone past a word they did not understand. If you find yourself not comprehending some part of the book, go back and find the misunderstood word, then look it up.
This is absurd on the face of it. It’s a different type of reading than the one I was taught. Running into words that I don’t understand happens from time to time. I don’t go to a dictionary every time this happens. Sometimes a quick look at the glossary is enough or sometimes I can get the definition of the word from context. I don’t recall ever failing to understand a book or chapter because I didn’t understand a word. Also, it’s generally up to the author not the reader to convey the meaning of a passage or a page. This putting responsibility for not understanding on the reader, a hallmark of Scientology if ever there was one.
Hubbard might also be talking about his own study habits. Hubbard admits that he was a very poor student, flunking out of High School and never graduating from a formal collage.
“I had neglected to go to High School,” says Hubbard [Introduction to Dianetics (Audio presentation, part 4, page 6 included transcript.)]
I’ve have a problems allowing a self-described failure of a student tell me the right way to read. And Hubbard now wants to tell me about Psychology, when he admittedly does not have the tools to study any subject?
Hubbard begins Dianetics by saying that the overall command of an organism is to survive. This is the base tenant of Dianetics and indeed, the entire Scientology movement. This “dynamic principle” as he calls it is a correct idea (although I think most people involved in biology would suggest the genes are the entity most endowed with the “survival command.”) That’s just science though, what does it have to do with Dianetics?
Not much apparently!
Hubbard goes on to describe the human mind. Hubbard suggests that there are in fact three parts of the human mind. The Analytical mind, the Reactive mind and the Somatic Mind. According to Hubbard, the Analytical mind functions just like a computer.
“It is a perfect calculating machine.” He says. “All functions of the Analytical mind can be described as a function of data processing. The human mind also remembers everything perfectly, better than any recording device. The human mind is a perfect machine indeed.” Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health page 62)
“Like a computer, the standard memory banks are perfect, recording faithfully and reliably.” (DTMSOMH Page 64)
But this is a story of the mind and all good stories must have an antagonist. For Hubbard, the antagonist is the “Reactive Mind.”
“If there ever was a devil, he designed the reactive mind” writes Hubbard.( DTMSOMH page 70)
According to Hubbard, the Reactive is to blame for all of our fears, our shortcoming and even most infectious disease. Any bad decision, any and all mistakes can be attributed to the reactive mind. According to Hubbard, It is our single greatest impediment. This is a running thread throughout all of Scientology but it begins in Dianetics. Essentially, people are not really responsible for what they do. It’s the reactive mind, thetans, suppressive persons or something!
In Dianetics, the reactive mind and all the bad data put into it becomes the scapegoat for all of our problems, but we are fortunate! There is Dianetics therapy to help us get rid of the pesky Reactive mind’s influence and get us to our true potential.
How does the Reactive Mind do all of this? How can we stop the Reactive mind from interfering with our true potential to be super special beings with immunity to the common cold and perfect memory? Hubbard never really explains this very well, he talks about how each cell has a built in super-duper recorder and how each cell can remember everything that happens to us in glorious Technicolor. It is not clear how this works but Hubbard assures us, it is all scientific.
Luckily Hubbard was the very first person in the history of world to come up with the answer to fix the broken reactive mind. It’s Dianetics therapy! And what can you fix with Dianetics therapy?
“Arthritis, dermatitis , allergies, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, “ says Hubbard.” bursitis, ulcers, sinusitis, etc, form a very small section of the psychosomatic catalog. Bizarre aches and pains in various portions of the body are generally psychosomatic. Migraine head-aches are psychosomatic and , with others are uniformly cured by Dianetic therapy. (and the word cured is used in its fullest sense.)”
Hubbard goes on to say that the common cold is psychosomatic and can be cured using Dianetics therapy. Also Tuberculosis [DTMSOMH page 125]
How do you do all that? Well apparently the reactive mind is full of engrams. Engrams are perfect recordings of trauma that are picked up in an unconscious or semi conscious state by those super data recorders in our cells. They are like complex computer programs that change the way our minds work. It is sort of involuntary form of self hypnosis.
Engrams affect us in all kinds of strange ways. Say if a person was afraid of dogs, an engram is to blame. One was created during an accident (like a fall that knocked you out cold.) During the time you were unconscious a dog barked. From that time you would be afraid of dogs.
Simple right? By guiding a person through the fall incident, the unreasoned fear of dogs can be “erased” from the reactive bank. It sounds so simple! And actually it is, psychological counselors use this kind of technique all the time. Dianetics seems to be nothing more than a crude kind of regression or talk therapy.
But wait, there’s more! Hubbard “discovered“ even small babies create engrams. Not just small babies, unborn babies get them from their moms! According to Hubbard, most pregnant women try to abort their fetuses and every time they do this, an engram is created. Engrams are also created when husbands beat their pregnant spouses, in “Hubbard world” this supposedly happens all the time. In fact, one of the creepy things about Dianetics is the overwhelmingly violent “case histories.” People are constantly slapping, shouting and punching each other. Pregnant women seem to be a favorite target for many get repeatedly punched in the stomach by their husbands.
For example, Hubabrd writes dialog for this “case history;”
“Father “Stay here! Stay down damn you, you ****! I’m going o kill you this time, I said I would and I will. Take that”, (Intensified somatic as his knee is ground into the mother’s abdomen.) “You better start screaming, go on, scream for mercy…… “
Hubbard goes on in this vein for about four more paragraphs. [DTMSOMH pg 437.)
Somehow, the idea that this kind of violence is commonplace is a bit strange when found in an introductory self-help book. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that many people leaving Scientology tell consistent stories of physical abuse, beatings, verbal and mental abuse. All seem commonplace in Scientology. Violence appears to be an approved form of management according to a recent Saint Petersburg Times article.
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/#story_anchor
When reading this kind of stuff, one ceases to wonder why. There is apparently violence inherent in Scientology, down to its very roots. It begins in Dianetics.
Dianetics (so Hubbard claims) is based on “axioms.” An axiom is roughly a “self evident truth or fact.” For example, if I said “Fire is hot,” that would be an axiom; we don’t need to test this fact needlessly. We all know fire is hot (although I can prove that fire is actually cold in relation to lots of things.)
The term “axiom” is not actually used very much outside of mathematics. However, Hubbard makes many claims in Dianetics that are based on what he calls axioms. Most of these seem to be opinions. In fact if someone were to substitute the words “facts,” “ truth” and “axiom” in much of Hubbard’s writings with “In my opinion,” you would find that his conclusions are not based on any pre-agreed truths or facts, unless you think Hubbard’s opinions are facts. Hubbard apparently did not know what a fact was. It is abundantly clear that many of his followers make this same mistake.
What this all boils down to is very simply, Dianetics is not a “study” of anything. Hubbard’s so-called “technology” is not technology in the conventional sense. Dianetics is a system of faith healing based on one man’s opinion about how the mind works. It is not based on scientific principles; it is not based on fact, it’s not a science at all. Dianetics is a set of beliefs taken on faith. There is no testing, no university studies and no peer reviewed journals. Only Hubbard himself making one declarations and building the next on top of it.
There are reams of “testimonies” of how Dianetics has helped people; none of this lends any weight to Hubbard’s ideas. None can be used for citation for the lack even a smidgen of verifiable information.
In any case; Just about any kind of therapy will help someone. But you can’t create truth or fact by lining up people and having them write testimonials on how wonderful something is. Not to mention that some if not all of the testimonials are gotten under duress.
This ladies and gentlemen is not how science is done. This is how religion is done, this is how pseudoscience is done and this is how crackpots do things, it is how a cult works. Just because Hubbard can speak authoritatively on a subject does not make him an authority. Hubbard could speak authoritatively on just about any subject, house wiring for example, I bet he could have talked all day about to wire a house, but he’s the last person I’d let inside my home to do electrical work. Why? Because he has no training and no experience, he is a lay-person and his ONLY expertise is a gift for gab.
So why is it that many people allow him inside their heads when he has no background or education in psychology? They don’t have schools to keep people out of the fields of the mind, they have schools and licenses to help keep people honest, to prevent abuse by unscrupulous operators. Unscrupulous operators like Hubbard and his followers. Hubbard had about the same expertise and experience in house wiring as he had with psychology, no wonder many people deep into Scientology behave strangely.
Why then? Why do people fall for Dianetics? Is it simply because he is able to tell a good story? I think that likely. Hubbard was able to observe human behavior and created a yarn to explain why people behaved in certain ways . Hubbard may not have been an electrician or psychologist but he was an OK writer, a fiction writer. Do you know what fiction writers do?
They start off with an idea, say “the crown jewels have been stolen by three gerbils and a ninja hamster. “ Then they work backwards, figuring out how this could have happened. With luck they will have a good story.
Hubbard (I’m convinced) started out by saying “I’m going to tell people exactly how their minds work.” Then he began working backwards and wrote Dianetics. It all sounded good and logical, the people around him liked the ideas so he got it published. Most authors would never have published such a load of junk as non-fiction, but not Hubbard! He not only published it, he built upon it, reveled in it. He found that lots of other people were asking the same questions he was, but he happened have an answer. No matter that he made it up like any of his fiction stories.
He found that he like the attention a lot, a whole lot. In fact, Hubbard appeared to become addicted to the attention; he got people to adore him. Not just some nerdy science fiction fans, people from all walks of life, people who wanted answers about how their minds worked, about their hopes and fears. Even about what happened to them after they died.
Hubbard gave them answers, and they paid more attention to him. It became a positive feedback loop, Hubbard found his cash cow but more importantly, people thought he was important. He liked that and the rest as we say, is history!
So; what is Dianetics in a nutshell?
In my opinion? It is little more than psychological faith healing i. Some of it might even be correct and useful, but I would never trust any or it. The human mind is a complex and finicky thing. It’s far too important to allow the followers of Hubbard free rein over it thought processes. Dianetics is like a gateway drug into Scientology itself. Dianetics, without stringent testing and peer review is just another crackpot idea in a bin of crackpot ideas.
Excerpts for this essay were taken from” Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health,” Copyright 1986, Bridge Publications Los Angeles CA. And the lecture “Introduction to Dianetics,” Golden Era Productions.