On this day in 1950, “Book One” was published.
It seems an appropriate day to remember some of the claims Hubbard made in his lengthy explanation of his “discoveries” that had been thoroughly tested…
Let’s start with the most infamous:
Clears of course DO get colds. They also get cancer, suffer heart attacks, strokes, pancreatitis and all sorts of other ailments. But this statement is still in the current edition of book.
As for the 270 cases, this is of course also a total fabrication. Obviously. No “laboratory fact” confirms this lie because it is provably false. And there were no 270 cases.
He claimed ALL “psychosomatic ills” could now be cured.
And how does he define psychosomatics illnesses? There is a whole chapter devoted to describing them:
That’s an awful lot of stuff that Dianetics “cures.”
Then there is his explanation of why a seven year old girl should not react to a passionate kiss from a man based on his reactive mind theories:
And his thoughts about opium, marijuana and phenobarbital being “better” than alcohol flies directly in the face of Narconon, and scientology’s Drug Free World campaigns that are unapologetically anti-marijuana (and certainly opium and other stronger drugs) but say nothing about alcohol — which is NOT forbidden among scientologists.
But then again, after he lost the copyrights to Dianetics, Ron proclaimed the following in Scientology 8 – 8008:
It was found that there was no purpose in reducing incidents out of the reactive mind beyond the point where the analytical mind could step apart from the reactive mind, and then command it. Dianetics is a science which addresses itself directly to the reactive mind to reduce the command value of that reactive mind. Scientology is an embracive subject, much wider in application. It has as its goal the beingness that can exist without an energy or matter, which is to say, without time, whether homo sapiens or not.
Dianetics was an evolutionary step, a tool which had use in arriving at a higher level of knowledge; its use, however, produced slower results and much lower goals. Further, Dianetic processes were limited in that they could not be applied more than a few hundred hours without the reactive mind assuming a very high command level over the analytical mind due to the fact that the reactive mind was being validated continually in the process, whereas the better process was to validate the analytical mind.
Medicine and psychology, as practiced today, have absorbed and are using many of the principles of Dianetics without caring to be aware of the later developments in the field of the mind as represented here. Thus, the society absorbs and very often misunderstands knowledge.
And yes, this IS in the current edition of the book.
Despite these contradictory positions, Dianetics continues to be hawked today.
Interestingly, the techniques described in 8-8008 were soon abandoned when “new techniques” were developed and then in 1955, when he managed to regain the rights to Dianetics the subject was “restored” and scientology and dianetics were “reconciled” in Dianetics 55.
But of course, “clearing” which was delineated in DMSMH underwent an almost endless stream of “new technology” that would “finally make it possible” to clear people.
To this day, there never has been a Clear, as described by Hubbard, produced anywhere. Not even Ron himself.
DMSMH = Dianetics, the Moronic, Scam, Mimicking, Habromania
Theirs a interview where the interviewer attempts to trip up Hubbard by asking him if they can help physical ills, he said yes as long as they are psychosomatic in nature. He went on to ask him what specific ills but he was one step ahead and didn’t specify and assertively said he cannot give health advise.
I wonder what if any benefit this book has – some swear by it and say without it they would be lost but most don’t talk highly of it.
There once was a garrulous fellow
With vacuous words he did bellow
Weighed down by his blubber
The great L. Ron Hubbard
Preached doctrines as shaky as jello
I often laugh at those two axioms, particularly the second:
* The analytical mind computes in differences.
* The reactive mind computes in identities.
Identities. Saying something mean about Davey “ecclesiastical leader” is equal to attacking Scientology. Questioning one thing said or written by LRH is the same as violating KSW.
In fact, armed with the axiomatic understanding that the whole of Scientology is essentially a reactive mind, the first axiom explains why it is slowly imploding:
* The mind perceives, poses and resolves problems relating to survival.
Scn is a reactive mind blinded by millions of LRH words and unable to perceive. Scn is a reactive mind that see everyone as potential SPs, and considers all SPs (and wogs) a threat, as scary entheta. Scn does everything in its power to keep away from its own memories, erasing facts.
It’s funny how much makes sense if Scn is viewed as a terrified reactive mind constantly in fight or flight mode seeing tigers in every rustle of the grass.
Yes, good assessment of the beast. Once caught up in that self perpetuating maelstrom of the mind, life itself goes out of focus and a crystal clear insanity takes its place. Truly, nothing good comes of Scientology. Just look at the people in it, especially the long term staff or SO beating that drum. Heart wrenching to see lives wasted like that.
Where are all the Clears?
My favourites–
Lightning quick computations.
Eidetic memory.
Optimum vision.
Please don’t forget the use of Amphetamine (trademark Benzedrine) in Dianetics!
“CHAPTER SEVEN
Ii
TECHNIQUE AND ApPLICATION
and over with each perceptic – all subsequent engrams. The locks blowout without being touched, the Doctrine of the True Datum working full blast and the analyzer refusing to tolerate what it suddenly notices to be nonsense. We wake the patient up with drugs – Benzedrine, caffeine, better ones will be invented. “
Hubbard wasn’t the only writer to be powered by cigarettes and bennies. Ayn Rand did the same thing. Hubbard had no problem with stimulants as this didn’t threaten his racket. LSD on the other hand …
Ye Hubbared loved speed but also loved to condemn it’s usage in medicine. (ADHD)
BTW what does David Miscavige think about giving Amphetamines after an dianetics session? Was Hubbard wrong according to DM?
Around 1979 my Clear number was (still is?) in the 8000’s. The CoS says it has almost 80,000 Clears from over the years so I guess that’s too big a list to publish and I don’t know if I’m still on it. I think you need to be re-verified or something. The Nation of Islam has its own list and I think they have about twenty.
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being facetious – haha
Here’s an article about the ever changing definition of Clear written by David Mayo in 1989 while he was still a scientologist and running his own Indy group. At the end of the article he writes:
Perhaps what we have been calling “clear” is “no longer chronically affected by engrams” or “engrams no longer in chronic restimulation.” As such, the state would be more accurately described as a state of release or as a state of reduction. In other words, it would mean that the majority of a person’s aberrations had gone into abeyance.
Regardless of what the state is named, the recognition that a person can continue to be come clear-er, restores hope and makes progress possible again.
…………………………………………………………………
http://www.ivymag.org/iv-01-02.html
Basically it’s the same old excuses but it gives a bit of an explanation as to why people “stayed in” for so long.
How in the world I bought that crap once upon a time is beyond me. Wishful thinking I suppose.
Without doubt it is the worst written load of garbage on paper I’ve ever had to suffer through, multiple times. History of Man comes a close second.
Aw well, we all mistakes – Scientology with its cousin Dianetics, was a whooper!
Peace to all those affected by that cult of a church.
I went to a Polish Catholic school in the 1950’s. We could not read Dianetics. When I read it in the 1970’s, I liked part one but rejected part2.
Dianetics had no competition in the early days. It was read to fill a void.
Hi George! As best as I recall in the 1970’s DMSMH was not required reading. Even if it was I think you could gloss over it and didn’t have to believe everything. It was all replaced with “newer and better stuff.”
Being the studious and intellectual person you are I guess you might have plowed through the whole thing. Lol :-))
The only surprise is that they didn’t make it a Year Zero and devise a chronological era based on the foundation of Scientology. Or maybe we missed it?
Actually, Scientology has its own dating system used only in rare instances. Years are suffixed AD meaning ‘After Dianetics’ . So 2022 would be ’72AD’ meaning seventy-two years after Dianetics was published.
Very very good points here. This really is enough to make any Scientologist wake up and leave this scam.
Another great contradiction is at the start of ‘History of Man’ where Hubbard admits Dianetics achieved mediocre results and people relapsed if an auditor didn’t go into past lives!
When you’re in, you read these basic books. Yet, you don’t really question or fully get what he is saying. Maybe you do, deep down, but you desperately want it to be true so you continue in hope. Hubbard was a master at hypnosis and keeping people in fear and despair and under his control.
Hubbard started with lies and a scam, and he just kept going with it until the day he died.
A stupid, difficult to read book, full of easily proven lies. I’ve always disliked that book. But when you’re in, the party line is that it’s such a great book. So you read it and you justify it…”Well maybe I misunderstood some things or went past some M.U’s, or????”. Actually I didn’t do too much of that, I always thought it was a lousy book, and definitely not one you’d want to give to a new person you’re trying to get in.
But they’re still pushin that piece of shit. Why? Cause Ron said so, that’s why! Don’t question it!
it never ceases to amaze me the striking similarities of Scientology/Dianetics to the Morman religion and LRH to Joseph Smith.
Not quite. Joseph Smith found a church which would come to believe in continuing revelation, and split into several churches (a large one and several smaller ones) which continue to believe this, and different interpretations thereof.
LRH on the other hand made Scientology rigid and absolutely not open to interpretation, so Scientologists continue to follow his every command. Unless of course Miscavige has began to reorient them around himself to supplant the founder.
Well, as a former Mormon and a former Scientologist, let me make a few corrections to your comment. First, while Mormonism has splintered into sects(most notable schisms in 1844 and 1890), the Salt Lake church insists on an absolute blind obedience to its teachings. And Scientology has splinter movements most notably the one called the Freezone.
Hubbard was a con’s con. If there was a Con’s Hall of Fame he would be in it.
👌🤣🤣🤣
In it? Hell, it would be named after him!
Reading this drivel is sickening every time. I have been a proofreader, editor, and grammar/writing instructor for years. El Con’s prose is a joke. The attempts to appear literate and knowledgeable in science and medicine are pathetic. How is saying “. . . and so forth” appropriate in scientific literature? That is the opposite of scientific literature. El Con’s prose reminds me of something that I would have written in seventh grade as a joke. It reads like a spoof that my childhood buddies and I could have written for the sake of being wise asses.
That brought back a lot of memories of the day I bought Dianetics, I had seen those commercials with the volcano so many times I felt compelled to buy the book. I still remember the excitement of thinking I could raise my IQ and have perfect memory and all the other wild claims he made in the book. Looking back it’s hard to believe I bought everything he said hook line and sinker. What a disappointment it was years later to finally figure out it was all a bunch of nonsense.
When I was young, it was hard for me to believe that people could be so dishonest. It took me a long time to learn a healthy cynicism. Here was Hubbard’s motivation, as revealed in his affirmations: “Your psychology is advanced and true and wonderful. It hypnotizes people. It predicts their emotions, for you are their ruler.”
There was a time in the not-to-distant past that May 9th was one of the big-deal days for the Church of Scientology. Ruth Eckerd Hall was reserved here in Clearwater – the whole nine yards.
BUT…
Nothing happened. Or maybe I’m just out of the loop as far as the brouhaha this stupid book elicited.
OR…
Maybe it’s that this stupid church is going out with a whimper instead of a bang and I’m witnessing that.
Same for the LA area. They used to hold it in the Shrine Auditorium which seats 6,000 people. Now they have to look for smaller venues because there is no way they could have even one tenth of that many people show up.
Cindy, I don’t think “May 9th” was even celebrated this year at Flag and Covid was probably the excuse. This church can now blame Covid for its dwindling numbers. Oh wait! I forgot, they had highest ever expansion, even during Covid.
Ha ha ha. Yes first they blame low stats on Covid and then say they had highest evers despite Covid. I wish someone would ask them, which statement is the lie? Surprise! It’s both statements.