Whoa baby. Ok first of lets get down to the conspiracy before getting to the book. So many folks are against it, hell there’s even a movie I watched called The Bridge that shows how all these scientologists do the opposite of what is taught in Dianetics and all that. I mean the controversy is so juicy.
Others say L. Ron was a great illusionist and how he’s perfect the art of lying and persuasion through practices like magic and Satanism etc. There’s also some story of L. Ron claiming Xenu the alien god is the main man kinda thing. Not bothered with that. So you gotta keep an open mind.
As for the book it makes sense to a point. It’s all about how you rank on the ‘survival’ chart. The more you do to help your survival rating the better and closer you are… even to immortality??!! Lots of charts, grading, etc. Like they’re right about Engrams (Impressions in Art of Living) and how some engrams in the past can affect someone in the future kinda thing.
The terms they use are special to Scientology. Stuff like aberration, clears, pre-clears, occlusion?, auditor, etc. Now the basics are that a ‘pre-clear’ goes to an ‘auditor’ to release the ‘engrams’ (meditation in Art of Living ;o)) Its extremely scientific and technical and from what I’m told, you HAVE TO know all the terms and if you don’t the auditor will as you to go and read certain chapters again.
These guys are totally against hypnosis, psychotherapy, psychiatry and the like. Mostly because the ‘self’ can still hear stuff even when they’re knocked out, say like under anesthetic. In fact it’s pretty opposite as in you are told to go to your past, you’re not induced as in hypnotherapy and past life regression. So you go to your past and start of just remembering stuff till you come to a problem point where you’re asked mostly to repeat the story/engram till it releases. YAY! They also claim that you can remember prenatal times too.
Speaking of prenatal they say that’s when we get the most engrams coz we’re in mommy’s tummy and hearing all the bull and taking it in. And for some reason through out the book dude kept talking about the same situations where it’s either mom/dad does not want the baby and the other partner will kill the person if they get rid of it kinda thing. The other repeating story is when they have sex while mother is expecting or when mother is cheating and the part-time lover gives baby the engram. And one more for the road, another repeating story is where patient is under anesthetic and say like the nurse does some ‘dodgy’ things or says some things to or around the patient, which in turn puts an engram in him. So those bits I found pretty BS.
They also say it’s best to be silent when someone you know is hurt or has an accident so as not to give them the pity kinda engram etc. I’m a fan of silence so.. go silence! After all the analysis, case studies, procedures, do’s and don’ts they get to the history and how far they’ve come etc etc. Lots of repetition.
Contents:
– 1 Dedication
– 2-3 Synopsis
– 4 How to Read this Book
Book One: The Goal of Man
– Ch.1 The Scope of Dianetics
– Ch.2 The Clear
– Ch.3 The Goal of Man
– Ch.4 The Four Dynamics
– Ch.5 Summary
Book Two: The Single Source of All Inorganic Mental and Organic Psychosomatic Ills
– Ch.1 The Analytical Mind and the Standard Memory Banks
– Ch.2 The Reactive Mind
– Ch.3 The Cell and the Organism
– Ch.4 The “Demons”
– Ch.5 Psychosomatic Illness
– Ch.6 Emotion and the Dynamics
– Ch.7 Prenatal Experience and Birth
– Ch.8 Contagion of Aberration
– Ch.9 Keying-in the Engram
– Ch.10 Preventive Dianetics
Book Three: Therapy
– Ch.1 The Mind’s Protection
– Ch.2 Release or Clear
– Ch.3 The Auditor’s Role
– Ch.4 Diagnosis
– Ch.5 Returning, The File Clerk and the Time Track
– Ch.6 The Laws of Returning
– Ch.7 Emotion and the Life Force
– Ch.8 Some Types of Engrams
– Ch.9 Pt.1 Mechanisms and Aspects of Therapy
– Ch.9 Pt.2 Mechanisms and Aspects of Therapy
– Ch.10 Dianetics – Past and Future