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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dianetics | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:18:44.107872+00:00 | kb-cron |
What Hubbard touts as a science of mind lacks one key element that is expected of a science: empirical testing of claims. The key elements of Hubbard's so-called science don't seem testable, yet he repeatedly claims that he is asserting only scientific facts and data from many experiments. It isn't even clear what such "data" would look like. Most of his data is in the form of anecdotes and speculations ... Such speculation is appropriate in fiction, but not in science. The validity and practice of auditing have been questioned by a variety of non-Scientologist commentators. Commenting on the example cited by Winter, the science writer Martin Gardner asserts that "nothing could be clearer from the above dialogue than the fact that the dianetic explanation for the headache existed only in the mind of the therapist, and that it was with considerable difficulty that the patient was maneuvered into accepting it." Other critics and medical experts have suggested that Dianetic auditing is a form of hypnosis. Hubbard, who had previously used hypnosis for entertainment purposes, strongly denied this connection and cautioned against hypnosis in Dianetics auditing. Professor Richard J. Ofshe, a leading expert on false memories, suggests that the feeling of well-being reported by preclear at the end of an auditing session may be induced by post-hypnotic suggestion. Other researchers have identified quotations in Hubbard's work suggesting evidence that false memories were created in Dianetics, specifically in the form of birth and pre-birth memories. According to an article by physician Martin Gumpert, "Hubbard's concept of psychosomatic disease is definitely wrong. Psychosomatic ailments are not simply caused by emotional disturbances: they are diseases in which the emotional and the organic factor are closely involved and interdependent."
But even the limited good that dianetics may do by introducing a single, narrowly-defined role-playing technique into interpersonal relations is probably more than offset by the damage it can do with its accompanying pretentious and nonsensical doctrines. [...T]hose who are helped by dianetics will necessarily be kept at a low level of intellectual and emotional maturity by the nonsense they have absorbed in order to be helped. The lure of the pseudoscientific vocabulary and promises of dianetics cannot but condemn thousands who are beginning to emerge from scientific illiteracy to a continuation of their susceptibility to word-magic and semantic hash.
== See also == Bibliography of Scientology Co-counselling
== References ==
== Further reading == Behar, Richard (May 6, 1991). "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". Time. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Breuer J, Freud S, "Studies in Hysteria", Vol II of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Hogarth Press, London, 1955). Fischer, Harvey Jay: "Dianetic therapy: an experimental evaluation. A statistical analysis of the effect of dianetic therapy as measured by group tests of intelligence, mathematics and personality. " Abstract of Ph.D. thesis, 1953, New York University Miscavige, David (October 8, 1993). "Speech to the International Association of Scientologists" – via David S. Touretzky. O'Brien, Helen: Dianetics in Limbo. Whitmore, Philadelphia, 1966 Streissguth, Thomas (1995). Charismatic Cult Leaders. The Oliver Press. ISBN 1881508188. OL 1097441M. van Vogt, A.E.: Dianetics and the Professions, 1953 Williamson, Jack (1984). Wonder's Child: My life in science fiction. New York: Bluejay Books. ISBN 0312944543. OL 2848895M.
== External links == Official website