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IV - What Is "Dianetics" And "Scientology"?
Using the official literature of the Scientology organizations, one
finds that the definition of what "Scientology" and "Dianetics"
actually is and consists of, has changed over the years.
The current management states on its official website that the
"Scientology® Applied Religious Philosophy" contains a "precise system
of axioms, laws and techniques," that "provide the individual with the
ability to improve conditions [Exh. No. 45]." About the "Dianetics®
Spiritual Healing Technology" the reader learns that it is a
"technology," which has been used by "millions of people to rid
themselves of stress, fear, self-doubts, unwanted feelings" and
"psychosomatic ills [Exh. No. 46]."
It becomes more nebulous, when one compares these new descriptions
with those that were used to represent Scientology and Dianetics in
the past.
The "Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary," copyrighted in
1975 and published by the former "mother church" "Church of
Scientology of California," had been for a long time the official
dictionary and was used at least until 1992 inside the Scientology
organizations. Under the term "Scientology" it lists the following
descriptions [Exh. No. 47, Excerpt]:
" 3. an organized body of scientific research knowledge concerning
life,
" 4. a religious philosophy in its highest meaning
" 7. the science of knowing how to know
" 8. the study of the human spirit
" 9. a science of life
"13. an applied philosophy
"14. an applied religious philosophy ."
Dianetics is defined as follows [Exh. No. 47, Excerpt]:
"2. Dianetics is used to knock out and erase illnesses, unwanted
sensations, misemotions, somatics, pain, etc.
"5. a precision science
"6. a system of coordinated axioms which resolve problems concerning
human behavior and psychosomatic illnesses
"7. It is a science of mind ."
In a 1968-interview with British television ["The Shrinking World of
L. Ron Hubbard"] Dianetics- and Scientology-founder L. Ron Hubbard
portrayed "Scientology" as a "science, based on 55 workable axioms"
and a "study of knowingness" that "increases one's knowingness."
Five years earlier, on November 30th, 1963 in a press release issued
by the British Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead [Exh. No.
48, Excerpt], Hubbard referred to Scientology as
"the science of knowing how to know answers It is the Science of
Human Affairs which treats the livingness and beingness of Man, ."
In May 1950 Hubbard published the book "Dianetics -- The Modern Science
Of Mental Health" (DMSMH) and introduced Dianetics to the world as
follows [page 13, Edition 2000]:
"1. It is an organized science of thought built on definite axioms
().
"2. It contains a therapeutic technique which can be treated all
inorganic mental ills and all organic psychosomatic ills, with
assurance of complete cure in unselected cases."
That second definition probably describes best what Scientology and
Dianetics in fact always were and still are -- therapeutic techniques.
At its beginnings, in 1950, Hubbard introduced Dianetics as a new
self-help therapy. In various parts of the book Hubbard's theories
give their readers the impression that Dianetics is in fact a crude
form of psychoanalysis.
According to Hubbard depressions mental and psychosomatic illnesses
have its origins in the existence of "engrams." "Engrams" are
recordings of moments of pain and unconsciousness, which are stored in
the "reactive mind." The "reactive mind" represents some kind of
storage facility of the unconscious whose contents could be triggered
by exterior stimulants and create irrational behavior of the person.
In DMSMH Hubbard emphasized that a lot of engrams came into being in
the pre-natal phase of the person, due to attempted abortions. He
called them accordingly "pre-natal engrams."
As a solution for the unwanted existence of the engrams and the misery
they apparently caused for mankind Hubbard offered to the world his
self-developed therapy which had a similar set-up as a psychotherapy
session: The therapist ("auditor") would lead the patient
("pre-clear") through a series of questions that would cover the past
of the pre-clear's life until he would detect and area or incidents
that the preclear would associate with loss or pain. The auditor would
then let the pre-clear re-experience such incidents and by doing that
he would erase their bad effects on the preclear. Following the theory
that such losses are caused by earlier, similar incidents the preclear
would be led "back in time" or down the "time-track" to find the
"basic-basic engrams" that were at the end of the chain and erase
them. Hubbard called this form of therapy "Auditing."
A person, freed or "cleared" from all engrams would become a "Clear,"
an almost superhuman being. As Hubbard stated, "a Clear is an
individual who, as a result of Dianetics therapy, has neither active
nor potential psychosomatic illness or aberration." He also claimed
that Clears would have "all recall" upon their life, "optimum
analytical ability," "greater resistance to actual disease" [page 247,
Edition 2000] and an increased IQ [page 132].
After the initial success of the book and the creation of a movement
along with several Dianetics Centers, the craze about Dianetics came
to a halt in the years 1951/'52 due to the unproven promises about the
workability of Dianetics. Hubbard consequently created a more
spiritual set-up for his therapy, with a broader approach but at the
same time legally less vulnerable: he created the "religion
Scientology," founded his own churches and abolished the clinic-like
form of the early Dianetics-Centers, as he explained in a letter to
his secretary on April 10th, 1953 or 1954 [Exh. No. 49].
The above term "broader approach" refers to Hubbard's renewed theory
that past lives exists and man's current problems were not only caused
by engrams in "this lifetime" but mostly by those from past lives.
Hubbard claimed to have discovered that during further "research" on
the subject. A former aide, Jim Dincalci of Hubbard explained in an
interview with British television for a documentary about Hubbard's
life ["Secret Lives," 1997] how such "research" had been conducted:
"LRH gave his son Nibs [L. Ron Hubbard Jr.] some amphetamines, and
Nibs started talking, he said, he started really talking fast with
speed and he kept talking, and he kept talking. Dad kept giving him
speed and all of a sudden he was talking about his history when he was
clam and all these different situations in early earth."
Reincarnation was the new factor added to "Scientology," which
embraced the basic methodology of Dianetics, but changed the
responsive element from the "mind," as in Dianetics, to the "Thetan,"
which represented from then on the spiritual being inside the body of
a person. Thetans would occupy a human body and leave it after its
physical death to find a new body. Hubbard claimed to have found out
that Thetans have lived for millions and millions of years, and that
the current bad state of the average man was due to the accumulation
of engrams in all those "earlier lifetimes."
Not short of ideas, Hubbard added another instrument to his new
therapeutical set-up, the "E-Meter," a low-budget form of a lie
detector. The E-meter was introduced as a new diagnostical tool that
enabled the auditor to detect more "precisely" undesirable "incidents"
in the pre-clear's past lives. In an auditing session the preclear
holds two tin cans, connected through wires with an Ohmmeter. Through
the cans a small electrical current flows, and while unrecognizable
for the preclear, it makes the body of the preclear part of the
electrical circuit. The auditor asks his questions, and while looking
at the metering needle of the E-meter, detects areas in the
pre-clear's life that are "electrically charged" with misemotions,
pain, etc. [Exh. No. 50]. As in Dianetics the final purpose of
Scientology-auditing is to "clear" those areas from all unwanted
feelings and considerations.
During the fifties, using the above therapeutical set-up, Hubbard
created a series of various "auditing-levels," marketing them to the
public not only in order to sell the respective auditing but to sell
the auditor training as well, accompanied by its books and E-meters
through Dianetics or Scientology Centers.
In the mid-sixties, having developed an own system of auditing levels
and courses, called "Gradation and Awareness Chart" still with "Clear"
as the highest attainable grade, Hubbard moved forward for new
research. Soon enough in 1967 he announced a new technical
breakthrough. Not only had Hubbard discovered new levels of beingness
that he soon would made available for selling them to his followers,
but he claimed to have unearthed a gigantic, planetary conspiracy that
had happened 75,000,000 years before and that had affected every human
being on this planet. According to the then secret new auditing level,
"Operating Thetan III" [Exh. No. 51, Excerpt], Hubbard had found out
that,
"[t]he head of the Galactic Confederation (76 planets around larger
stars visible from here) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per
planet - 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people
to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal
volcanoes (Incident 2) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in
boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there
`packaged'. His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading
data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants. When
through with his crime Loyal Officers (to the people) captured him
after 6 years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap
where he still is. `They' are gone. The place (Confed.) has since been
a desert The length and brutality of it all was such that this
Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by
pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it."
Further on Hubbard stated that due to this incident of exploding
hydrogen bombs, so-called clusters of Thetans are attached to each
human body, which would negatively influence the life of each person.
After having achieved the "State of Clear," a Scientologist can get
rid of the "Body Thetans" through auditing at these new "Advanced
Levels" and re-achieve super-natural states. Hubbard attributed such
"levels of higher awareness" to earlier superior and god-like forms of
existence. Because of the newly re-attained super-natural abilities a
"Clear" would finally become an "Operating Thetan" or "OT."
Within the following 15 years Hubbard and one of his aides, David
Mayo, extended the range of the number of different OT-levels that
were offered by the Church of Scientology to its adherents. Most of
these "Advanced Levels" have their purpose in "freeing" the "pre-OT"
from the great number of "Body Thetans" his body is occupied by or
surrounded with and eradicating their negative influence on him/her as
a "spiritual being." Although the contents of the "OT levels" are
treated confidential by the organization and every adept is forced to
sign an individual non-disclosure agreement before starting on each
level, information and individual documents have found their way to
the public over the years.
In 1985 a tape with a New Year's message by L. Ron Hubbard was
circulated among the Scientology organizations. In that tape Hubbard
announced that he had completed his "research" into the level "New OT
VIII" and had delivered his notes and documents to the Scientology
management, which would make it available to the public at a certain
time. On January 24th, 1986 Hubbard died. In June 1988 "New OT VIII"
was sold and delivered to Scientology public members for the first
time aboard the ship "Freewinds" and has been remained since the
highest level of auditing, marketed by the Scientology management.
Today there exists numerous courses and auditing levels within the
Scientology network that are offered to the interested public and
Scientology members. Additional to auditing and auditor courses, the
Churches of Scientology offer as well administrative courses, based on
L. Ron Hubbard's "administrative technology." These and some of the
lower auditing services are also sold, licensed and delivered in a
rather "secular" fashion through the "World of Scientology
Enterprises" (WISE) and business consultancies that are affiliated
with WISE. Most of the courses and auditing services are structured
and mapped on Scientology's "Classification, Gradation & Awareness
Chart" [Exh. No. 52]. This chart symbolizes a "Bridge" to
Scientologists which they are urged to walk over (while taking and
paying for all available courses and auditing levels) to the upper end
where "total freedom" is promised to wait for them.
While the Church of Scientology offers a different program of courses
and auditing services to its public members today than it did 50 years
ago, the basic techniques, the theoretical background and the
therapeutical goals of Dianetics and Scientology auditing are still
similar if not the same. Nevertheless the organization completely
changed its outfit, from a "clinic," as mentioned in Hubbard's letter
from the early fifties [Exh. No. 49], to a tax-exempt religious
corporative network composed of churches. With the change of outfit,
the labels that describe the organization's activities have changed
too, at least to the outside world: his therapeutic technique has
become "pastoral counseling," patients are today "parishioners," fees
or prices for services are nowadays called "donations" and the
"E-Meter" is described as a "pastoral counseling device."
31 Dec 2002
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