Spiritual healing in a science of thought

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“The mind when it has an old experience will add that data into its current experience, and it keeps coming up with wrong answers.”—L. Ron Hubbard

 

ONE of the most accessible and popular books that we always see when we go to the bookstores in the Philippines and abroad is L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics.

This book competes with the Holy Bible and the Webster’s Dictionary in terms of visibility and probably number of copies sold and displayed in the bookstores worldwide.

In book sales, Dianetics has been dominant and affordable; sometimes it could cost an incredible P20!

Our late friend, philosopher-lawyer Ernesto Justiniani Dayot, got a copy—an “anniversary issue”—for only P12 in a book sale in Atrium Mall in Iloilo City on September 28, 2011.

A brand new anniversary issue copy was priced at P375.

Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body invented by the science fiction author and is practiced by followers of Scientology.

Hubbard coined Dianetics from the Greek stems dia, meaning through, and nous, meaning mind.

Dianetics explores the existence of a mind with three parts: the conscious “analytical mind,” the subconscious “reactive mind”, and the somatic mind.

The goal of Dianetics is to remove the “reactive mind”, which Scientologists believe prevents people from becoming more ethical, more aware, happier and saner.

The Dianetics procedure to achieve this is called “auditing”. Auditing is a process whereby a series of questions are asked by the Scientology auditor, in an attempt to rid the auditee of the painful experiences of the past which Scientologists believe to be the cause of the “reactive mind”.

 

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According to Wikipedia, Dianetics grew out of Hubbard’s personal experiences and experiments and has been described as a mix of “Western technology and Oriental philosophy”.

Hubbard stated that Dianetics “forms a bridge between” cybernetics and General Semantics, a set of ideas about education originated by Alfred Korzybski that was receiving much attention in the science fiction world in the 1940s.

Hubbard claimed that Dianetics can increase intelligence, eliminate unwanted emotions and alleviate a wide range of illnesses he believed to be psychosomatic.

Among the conditions purportedly treated against are arthritis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, ulcers, migraine headaches, sex deviations and even death. Hubbard variously defined Dianetics as “a spiritual healing technology” and “an organized science of thought.”

Dianetics predates Hubbard’s classification of Scientology as “applied religious philosophy”.

Early in 1951, he expanded his writings to include teachings related to the soul, or “thetan“.

Dianetics is also practiced by independent groups, collectively called the Free Zone. The Church of Scientology disapproves of Free Zone activities and has prosecuted them in court for misappropriation of Scientology/Dianetics copyrights and trademarks.

 

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Hubbard always claimed that his ideas of Dianetics originated in the 1920s and 1930s. By his own account, he spent a great deal of time in the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital’s library, where he would have encountered the work of Freud and other psychoanalysts.

In April 1950, Hubbard and several others established the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey to coordinate work-related for the forthcoming publication.

Hubbard first introduced Dianetics to the public in the article Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science published in the May 1950 issue of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health at that time, allegedly completing the 180,000-word book in six weeks.

The success of selling Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health brought in a flood of money, which Hubbard used to establish Dianetics foundations in six major American cities.

The scientific and medical communities were far less enthusiastic about Dianetics, viewing it with bemusement, concern, or outright derision. Complaints were made against local Dianetics practitioners for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. This eventually prompted Dianetics advocates to disclaim any medicinal benefits in order to avoid regulation.

Hubbard explained the backlash as a response from various entities trying to co-opt Dianetics for their own use. Hubbard blamed the hostile press coverage in particular on a plot by the American Communist Party. In later years, Hubbard decided that the psychiatric profession was the origin of all of the criticism of Dianetics, as he believed it secretly controlled most of the world’s governments.

 

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By the autumn of 1950, financial problems had developed, and by November 1950, the six Foundations had spent around one million dollars and were more than $200,000 in debt.

Disagreements emerged over the direction of the Dianetic Foundation’s work, and relations between the board members became strained, with several leaving, even to support causes critical of Dianetics. One example was Harvey Jackins, founder of Re-evaluation Counselling, originally a sort of discrete reworking of Dianetics, which L Ron Hubbard later declared suppressive to Scientology.

In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners instituted proceedings against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth for teaching medicine without a license. The Foundation closed its doors, causing the proceedings to be vacated, but its creditors began to demand settlement of its outstanding debts. Don Purcell, a millionaire Dianeticist from Wichita, Kansas, offered a brief respite from bankruptcy, but the Foundation’s finances failed again in 1952.

Because of a sale of assets resulting from the bankruptcy, Hubbard no longer owned the rights to the name “Dianetics”, but its philosophical framework still provided the seed for Scientology to grow. Scientologists refer to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health as “Book One.” In 1952, Hubbard published a new set of teachings as “Scientology, a religious philosophy.” Scientology did not replace Dianetics but extended it to cover new areas. Where the goal of Dianetics is to rid the individual of his reactive mind engrams, the stated goal of Scientology is to rehabilitate the individual’s spiritual nature so that he may reach his full potential.

 

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In 1978, Hubbard released New Era Dianetics (NED), a revised version supposed to produce better results in a shorter period of time. The course consists of 11 rundowns and requires a specifically trained auditor. It is run (processed) exactly like Standard Dianetics (once very widely practiced before the advent of NED) except the pre-clear (parishioner) is encouraged to find the “postulate” he made before the incident occurred. (“Postulate” in Dianetics and Scientology has the meaning of “a conclusion, decision or resolution made by the individual himself; to conclude, decide or resolve a problem or to set a pattern for the future or to nullify a pattern of the past” in contrast to its conventional meanings.)

New Era Dianetics is really only a prelude to what is available at the high levels of the Bridge including the incidents: New Era Dianetics for OTs also known as NOTS. It is available after Xenu and the now well known First Wall of Fire. NOTS is also known as the Second Wall of Fire. Free Zone (Scientology) offers a version of it in the Internet

The procedure of Dianetics therapy (known as auditing) is a two-person activity. One person, the “auditor”, guides the other person, the “preclear”.

The preclear’s job is to look at the mind and talk to the auditor. The auditor acknowledges what the preclear says and controls the process so the preclear may put his full attention on his work.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)