Sunday, September 7, 2008

Dianetics: The Original Thesis - Chapter Two

PLEASE NOTICE:

The opinions stated in this blog are that of the author, not that of Scientology, Dianetics, or Anonymous. The words Scientology, Dianetics, and other related terms are trademarked by the Religious Technology Center and are used here under the Fair Use Doctrine.

------------------

SUMMARY

Chapter Two is entitled "An Analogy of the Mind", and outlines a brief analysis of the anatomy of a human mind according to LRH, as well as a short description of what branch of dianetics is being discussed in this book overall. There are three parts of the mind: the physio-animal, which controls every physical aspect of the mind and is possessed by every creature; the analyzer, which is Man's more advanced version of the physio-animal section; and the reactive mind, which is essentially the inferior mind of an animal, though it exists as a sub-mind in Man.

------------------

Once again, the problems begin with the very first words...

It is not the purpose of Abnormal Dianetics to investigate or accurately reconstruct the human mind. The purpose of abnormal Dianetics is to delete from the existing mind those physically painful experiemces which have resulted in the aberration of the analytical mind, to erase from the body psychosomatic illnesses which are physical abnormalities and the physical manifestation of the aberration, and to restore in its entirety the proper working function of a mind not otherwise physically deranged.


So if the goal of Dianetics is to get rid of the memories of experiences, then how can you do it WITHOUT reconstructing the anatomy of a mind? You can't just hack your way into someone's brain without knowing where you're going, right? Yet this book is somehow the one that came first. How about that?

Also, bearing in mind the remark on psychosomatic illnesses, take a look at the very next paragraph.

Abnormal Dianetics embraces the various physiological aspects of psychosomatic medicine, including the glandular balance or imbalance of the organism as influenced by painful physical experiences.

But wait! According to Tom Cruise, "There's no such thing as a chemical imbalance." Does this void the word of LRH, or Tom Cruise?

L. Ron then begisn to list off a few of the sub-divisions of the "Modern Science of Mental Health", and they are as follows: Dynamic Dianetics; Child Dianetics; Educational Dianetics; Medical Dianetics; Judicial Dianetics; Political Dianetics; and Military Dianetics. However, this book is about the division entitled Abnormal Dianetics (as if it wasn't abnormal enough), although some of the others are referred to briefly in the future chapters.

Moving on, when an individual is acting against the basic dynamic (SURVIVE!), he/she is either incredibly stupid or aberrated. These aberrations come from data that has been recieved in the midst of a painfuil situation, especially when the person's analytical mind is not active. It is the purpose of Abnormal Dianetics to fix these aberrations.

At this point, L. Ron Hubbard begins to offer his 'analogy of the mind'. Let me say that again: his ANALOGY. Why couldn't he take the time to tell us exactly what is going on in the mind rather than give us examples that aren't quite correct but provide an example? Moreover, this was supposedly sent as a manuscript to the medical community, but I think they would rather desire specific evidence than general guesses like this.

Now L. Ron begins an explanation of the mind's workings (or his analogy, anyway). All creatures possess a 'physio-animal' mind, which is the physical existence of the mind and controls bodily functions. However, man's mind has evolved to become an incredibly complex 'analyzer', but the animalistic version of the mind still remains as the 'reactive' mind. When the analytical mind is unable to respond to a situation, the details of a situation are recorded completely in the reactive mind until the analytical mind returns again. When something happens in a person's environment that matches with the content of the reactive mind, it is restimulated and causes negative effects.

OK, I'd better stop before this sounds like an infomercial for Scientology.

All of this is presented as an analogy. Yet why is it all part of official Scientology terminology? They believe that the mind is analytical and reactive, and that the reactive mind must be removed in order to advance. Not as an analogy, but as fact! Are they reading hard enough?

Anyway. that's where the chapter ends, but I'd like to bring up a particular point on this segment. Scientology gets most of its followers as people who are lost and looking for answers to life's questions, such as "Will I ever be happy?" This segment is Hubbard's take on "What makes the difference between man and animal?" As such, it fits in with the religion standpoint quite well, especially when fighting against the 'evil psychiatrists' who consider man as an animal; anyone who has seen the Scientology Orientation film knows this as a fact. Of course, the fact that Hubbard was making all of this up as he went along makes it a bit impressive, despite the sheer sleaziness of it all. However, the further you get into the religion, the less believable it becomes, yet there are people that believe every word.

------------------

TL;DR

Lia-Ron Hubbard has a BS, MS, and Ph. D

BS = Bulls***
MS = More of the Same
Ph. D = Piled Higher and Deeper

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You keep dragging Scientology into your interpretation of this book when Scientology didn't even exist when this book was written.

Statements like "it also attempts to seperate itself from Scientology itself" by making reference to the "human soul" shows that you don't get it that there was no Scientology at the time he wrote that.

This is PRECISELY why you're supposed to read the books in chronological order and then learn how LRH changed his mind on many aspects, and refined and improved his ideas over the decades. You can't say "oh, ha ha, he said this in 1949 but then look, he contradicts himself in 1970." His works are a chronological chain, a time track, just like any researcher's life's work.