All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.
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«It contains a therapeutic technique with which can be treated all inorganic mental ills and all organic psychosomatic ills, with assurance of complete cure in unselected cases.» — L. Ron Hubbard, "Dianetics", p. 14. |
«In August 1950, at a lecture hall in Los Angeles he presented to a crowd of 6,000 the first person to be what he called a 'clear'. She was a student called Sonya Bianca. As a clear, she was supposed to have total recall. "Various members of the audience called questions at her. Could she remember what was said on page 217 of her physics textbook? She couldn't. Could she remember what she had for breakfast on the morning of August 17, 1946? She couldn't. Then various people called out for Hubbard to turn his back on her and see if she could remember the colour of his tie. She couldn't. At that moment, the whole business sort of collapsed. People started leaving the auditorium." Suddenly Hubbard was in trouble. He was accused of being a con-man and Dianetics a form of hypnotism, a technique at which he was so expert.» —"SECRET LIVES — L. Ron Hubbard", Channel 4, United Kingdom, Nov 19th 1997. |
The scientific literature records very few
scientific evaluations having been conducted into the
effectiveness and theoretical basis of Dianetics. Professor John
A. Lee states in his evaluation of Dianetics:
Channel 4 (UK, 1997): "Secret Lives - L. Ron Hubbard" @
XenuTVObjective experimental verification of Hubbard's physiological and psychological doctrines is lacking. To date, no regular scientific agency has established the validity of his theories of prenatal perception and engrams, or cellular memory, or Dianetic reverie, or the effects of Scientology auditing routines. Existing knowledge contradicts Hubbard's theory of recording of perceptions during periods of unconsciousness. [10] Only two independent scientific studies are recorded in the MEDLINE database, both having been conducted in the 1950s by researchers at New York University:
The validity of these studies has been questioned by Dianetics advocates, who have criticized the qualifications and methodology of the authors. They certainly seem to have made little impact on either side of the debate; they have rarely been quoted in the scientific literature, and have been ignored entirely by the Church of Scientology.
With his book, Dianetics, a best-seller, Ron Hubbard was America's new guru. In August 1950, at a lecture hall in Los Angeles he presented to a crowd of 6,000 the first person to be what he called a 'clear'. She was a student called Sonya Bianca. As a clear, she was supposed to have total recall. JEAN COX: "Various members of the audience called questions at her. Could she remember what was said on page 217 of her physics textbook? She couldn't. Could she remember what she had for breakfast on the morning of August 17, 1946? She couldn't. Then various people called out for Hubbard to turn his back on her and see if she could remember the colour of his tie. She couldn't. At that moment, the whole business sort of collapsed. People started leaving the auditorium." Suddenly Hubbard was in trouble. He was accused of being a con-man and Dianetics a form of hypnotism, a technique at which he was so expert. |
Xenu TV: "Scientology: Stress Test or Recruiting?"
A terrific report on how Scientology uses "Stress Tests" to lure people into the group. Jeff Jacobsen (1992): "The Hubbard is Bare - Science and Dianetics" There is one point I consider the most damning
to Hubbard's attempt to cloak dianetics in scientific validity.
While he seems to be inviting others to conduct their own
investigations (and thus seems to be open to attempts to refute
his claims), he never explains his own experimental methods,
thus closing the door to the scientific community's ability to
attempt to verify his claims. In order to evaluate Hubbard's
claims, the scientific community would seek to replicate his
experiments to see if the same results were obtained and to
check for possible influences on the experiment Hubbard may have
overlooked. They would also, as Popper suggests, try to shoot
holes in the theory, either on a logical basis or by conducting
refutational experiments.
The Skeptic's Dictionary: "Dianetics (the 'Bible' of Scientology)" However, in a disclaimer on
the frontispiece of the book, we are told that "Scientology and
its sub-study, Dianetics, as practiced by the Church...does not
wish to accept individuals who desire treatment of physical
illness or insanity but refers these to qualified specialists of
other organizations who deal in these matters." The disclaimer
seems clearly to have been a protective mechanism against
lawsuits for practicing medicine without a license; the author
repeatedly insists that dianetics can cure just about anything
that ails you. He also repeatedly insists that dianetics is a
science. Yet, just about anyone familiar with scientific texts
will be able to tell from the first few pages of Dianetics
that the text is no scientific work and the author no scientist.
Dianetics is a classic example of a
pseudoscience.
Operation Clambake: The Fabulous Fifties Collection of early articles evaluating Dianetics. Scientific American: "'Dianetics' - A New Science of the Mind?" This volume probably contains more promises and less evidence per page than has
any publication since the invention of printing.
Lermanet: "A Clinical Trial of Dianetic Theory" Summary: This paper formulates two hypothesis
concerning the retention of events occuring during a state of
unconsciousness. It describes an experiment in which a passage
read from a physics text was read to a subject placed in an
unconscious state by administration of sodium pentathal. During
a period of almost six months, Dianetic Auditors were unable to
recover the passage.
Thus the Engram Hypothesis is not substantiated by this
experiment.
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