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Spaceship, issue 10, October 1950
Page 6
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featured article... DIANETICS... fact or fantasy? Four months ago, a thick, green book appeared which promised to make a giant-sized stir in the scientific world. Your editor along with many others went immediately head-over-heels in favor of the book. After a careful re-reading, it begins to appear that Dianetics is not all that it's reputed to be. It is a remarkable tribute to the powers of advertising that Dianetics has remained up in the top five of the best-sellers so long. At first sight, the book appears to be a veritable fountain of miracles..."all non-germ diseases cured"..."live to be 120"....."indelible memory"..."infallible therapy"... Maybe its just my air of scepticism, but can these things be done? Can it be proven that the human mind is just another machine, subject to breakdowns and able to be repaired just by the tightening of a few mental screws? L. Ron Hubbard,the author of Dianetics (Hermitage House $4.00) theorizes that all mental ills and all of the so-called "psychosomatic illnesses" such as arthritis and common colds (!) are caused by misplaced memories called "engrams". These "engrams" can be relived, whereupon they will leave the wrong part of the mind (called the "reactive mind" by Hubbard) and return to the standard, healthy memory (called the "analytic mind".). The sum total of Dianetic therapy, the key to everlasting health, is the process of making the patient relive these "misplaced memories" until they no longer trouble him. Hubbard had produced case-histories which seem to show that Dianetics is yet to fail when applied by an expert dianetic "auditor". The dianetics people state flatly that dianetics has been tried on a minimum of 300 people, and has worked 100 percent. every time. "Clears", people who have successfully completed Dianetic treatment, are said to be immune to any and all forms of mental disease and all diseases caused by mental or emotional disturbances! To add to the confusion, several amateurs trying Dianetics have reported success; most non-professionals have not. Scientific reactions so far have been varied; most scientists consider the claims fantastic, and Dianetics is looked on with disfavor by the American Psychoanalytic Society. An obvious fallacy is that if Hubbard's claims are true, he will be hailed as one of the five greatest men of all time, ranking with the Christs, the Buddhas, the Gandhis. He should supplant in fame such men as Darwin: for, after all, what is a man who merely theorized that man evolved from a prehistoric ancestor when compared with one who gave man freedom from disease? I don't think Hubbard's work merits such acclaim. 64
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featured article... DIANETICS... fact or fantasy? Four months ago, a thick, green book appeared which promised to make a giant-sized stir in the scientific world. Your editor along with many others went immediately head-over-heels in favor of the book. After a careful re-reading, it begins to appear that Dianetics is not all that it's reputed to be. It is a remarkable tribute to the powers of advertising that Dianetics has remained up in the top five of the best-sellers so long. At first sight, the book appears to be a veritable fountain of miracles..."all non-germ diseases cured"..."live to be 120"....."indelible memory"..."infallible therapy"... Maybe its just my air of scepticism, but can these things be done? Can it be proven that the human mind is just another machine, subject to breakdowns and able to be repaired just by the tightening of a few mental screws? L. Ron Hubbard,the author of Dianetics (Hermitage House $4.00) theorizes that all mental ills and all of the so-called "psychosomatic illnesses" such as arthritis and common colds (!) are caused by misplaced memories called "engrams". These "engrams" can be relived, whereupon they will leave the wrong part of the mind (called the "reactive mind" by Hubbard) and return to the standard, healthy memory (called the "analytic mind".). The sum total of Dianetic therapy, the key to everlasting health, is the process of making the patient relive these "misplaced memories" until they no longer trouble him. Hubbard had produced case-histories which seem to show that Dianetics is yet to fail when applied by an expert dianetic "auditor". The dianetics people state flatly that dianetics has been tried on a minimum of 300 people, and has worked 100 percent. every time. "Clears", people who have successfully completed Dianetic treatment, are said to be immune to any and all forms of mental disease and all diseases caused by mental or emotional disturbances! To add to the confusion, several amateurs trying Dianetics have reported success; most non-professionals have not. Scientific reactions so far have been varied; most scientists consider the claims fantastic, and Dianetics is looked on with disfavor by the American Psychoanalytic Society. An obvious fallacy is that if Hubbard's claims are true, he will be hailed as one of the five greatest men of all time, ranking with the Christs, the Buddhas, the Gandhis. He should supplant in fame such men as Darwin: for, after all, what is a man who merely theorized that man evolved from a prehistoric ancestor when compared with one who gave man freedom from disease? I don't think Hubbard's work merits such acclaim. 64
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