The Kotzé Report

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SECTION III

CHAPTER 6
THE BASIC THEORY UNDERLYING DIANETIC AND SCIENTOLOGY THERAPY

A. Introduction:

6.1.    Since Mr. Hubbard himself claims that Scientology developed out of Dianetics, it is necessary briefly to direct attention to the latter as the underlying basis on which Scientology is founded. Scientology basically rests upon the hypotheses of Dianetics. If these suppositions can be demonstrated to be scientifically valid, the treatment based thereon can likewise be tested and verified. If the contrary is established, namely that the dianetic theory cannot be scientifically proved, it is merely a supposition which should not form a basis for the treatment of human illnesses, even though the illnesses are merely at the psycho-somatic level.

6.2.    It is the intention to examine these suppositions and to test them against recognised and accepted scientific standards. Mr. Hubbard commences as follows: Dianetics (Gr., dianoua - thought) is the science of mind. Far simpler than physics or chemistry, it compares with them in the exactness of its axioms and is on a considerably higher echelon of usefulness. The hidden source of all psycho-somatic ills and human aberration has been discovered and skills have been developed for their invariable cure.[01]

6.3.    Mr. Hubbard claims Dianetics to be a science, simpler but much more adaptable than physics or chemistry. He also claims that the hidden source of all psycho-somatic illnesses, was discovered by Dianetics and further, that skills, which means techniques, were developed to cure them without exception. It must [b]e borne in mind that, Scientology claims that approximately 70% of all illnesses is psycho-somatic.[02]

6.4.    Mr. Hubbard also states:

"Dianetics is an exact science and its application is on the order of, but simpler than, engineering. Its axioms should not be confused with theories since they demonstrably exist as natural laws hitherto undiscovered."[03]

"A science of the mind, if it were truly worthy of that name would have to rank, in experimental precision, with physics and chemistry. There could be no 'special cases' to its laws."[04]

6.5.    Thus the following deduction from Mr. Hubbard's own writings are fully justified:

1. That it is claimed that by making use of the techniques of Dianetics approximately 70% of all human illnesses can be cured.

2. That it is claimed that Dianetics is an exact science.

6.6.    The Commission anticipated proof of these claims. No such proof was presented to the Commission.

B. The Theory of Dianetics:

(a) The Reactive and Analytical Minds.

6.7.    According to Mr. Hubbard the human "mind" consists of three divisions, namely, the "analytical mind", the "reactive mind" and the "somatic mind".

6.8.    The analytical mind is the "I" (the centre of awareness) and can be compared with a "computer" and possesses the following characteristics:

1. It analyses data.
2. It is a perfect computer.
3. It is infallible.
4. In order to operate it requires data: Percepts, memory and imagination.
5. It records all conscious forms of experience (or "knowingness"): Each perception, sight, sound, smell, taste, organic sensation, pain, rhythm, ciresthesia and emotion is fully, properly and neatly filed in the "standard banks".
6. It constantly weighs fresh experience in the light of old experience, makes fresh deductions in the light of former, previous or old ones, draws new conclusions, and generally is intent on being correct at all times.

There is no question of the analytical mind making any error except those errors which flow from insufficient or erroneous but accepted data.

6.9.    The reactive mind is the sub-mind which until now man regarded as underlying his conscious mind, but which Dianetics has discovered to be the only mind that is always conscious.

6.10.    The reactive mind is energetic. It does not remember but records and uses the recordings only to produce action — It does not 'think'; it selects recordings and impinges them upon the 'conscious' mind and the body without the knowledge or consent of the individual.[05] The only knowledge which the individual has of such action is intermittent realization that he does not act rationally in regard to one matter or another and cannot understand why this is so.

6.11.    The reactive mind reacts exclusively to physical pain and painful emotions. It is not under volitional control but works as a stimulus-response basis. It reacts on the same basis as the animal's mind. Recordings are not taken up as memory or experience but only as forces to be reactivated. It receives its recordings as cellular engrams when the conscious mind is unconscious.

6.12.    When man is under anaesthesia e.g. during an operation, or when he becomes unconscious through injury or illness, his reactive mind functions fully. He may not be 'aware' of what has taken place, but, as dianetics has discovered and can prove, everything which happened to him in the interval of 'unconsciousness' was fully and completely recorded.[06a] These particulars are not analysed or evaluated by the conscious mind. It may, however, be reactivated at any time thereafter by similar circumstances which are observed by the individual when he is awake and conscious. When any such recording, called an engram, is restimulated it has commanding power. It disengages the conscious mind, takes mechanical control of the body and causes behaviour and action to which the conscious mind or individual would never consent. He is, nevertheless, handled like a marionette by his engrams.[06b]

6.13.    The antagonistic powers of the outside world in this way become part of the individual without his knowledge or consent. In this way an internal world of power is formed, which has an impact, not only in the external world but on the individual himself. Aberrations are therefore caused not by what the individual did, but what has been done to him.

6.14.    Since it is the general assumption that man is in fact unaware of what happens to him during periods of unconsciousness, e.g. during anaesthesia, illness, injury or as a result of drugs, the reactive mind is aided in this manner.

6.15.    Mr. Hubbard further asserts that two hundred and seventy persons suffering from all forms of inorganic mental illness and a great variety of psycho-somatic ills were examined and treated and states that: In each one this reactive mind was found operating its principles unvaried[06c] and that The reactive mind is the entire source of aberration. It can be proved and has been repeatedly proven that there is no other, for when that engram bank is discharged, all undesirable symptoms vanish and a man begins to operate on his optimum pattern.[06d]

6.16.    During moments of unconsciousness the operation of the analytical mind is suspended, the reactive mind takes over and the reactive mind banks are formed. This can be illustrated as follows:

A            B ........... C            D ........... E            F

AF = the complete life cycle of an individual. During AB, CD and EF man is conscious and his analytical mind is in action. What he observes, feels and experiences are recorded in the standard memory banks. BC and DE are the moments of unconsciousness when the reactive mind takes over. The reactive mind bank is created, or stated differently, engrams are formed. Unbeknown to man his whole life is influenced in this manner. It visits him with aberrations and psycho-somatic ills. This causes mental deviations, such as neuroses, psychoses, it renders him schizophrenic, paranoiac, maniac depressive, hypocondriac, it gives him colds, asthma and even heart disease. In its entirety the whole forms his entire life.

6.17.    Recordings by the reactive mind are complete in the finest detail. The reactive bank does not store memories as we think of them. It stores engrams.[07a] The formation of engrams are accompanied by pain and painful emotions.

(b) Engrams and Aberrations.

6.18.    All physical pain and painful emotions, which the individual experiences during his lifetime, irrespective of whether or not he is aware thereof, are stored in the engram bank. Nothing is ever forgotten.

"And all physical pain and painful emotion no matter how the individual may think he has handled it, is capable of re-inflicting itself upon him from this hidden level, unless that pain is removed by dianetic therapy.

The engram and only the engram causes aberration and psycho-somatic illness."[07b]

6.19.    Engrams possessing language are recorded at conscious level as commands. Thought processes are not only disturbed by these engramic commands but also because the reactive mind reduces, by regenerating unconsciousness, the actual ability to think. Few people possess, because of this, more than 10% of their potential awareness.[07c]

6.20.    Mr. Hubbard proceeds a step further and declares:

"It had been discovered that the engram bank recording was probably done on the cellular level, that the engram bank was contained in the cells. It was then discovered that the cells, reproducing from one generation to the next, within the organism, apparently carried with them their own memory banks … Where one has human cells, one has potential engrams."[07d]

6.21.    Engrams are formed during moments of unconsciousness, the state induced by anaesthesia, drugs, injury or shock. It is clear, according to Mr. Hubbard, that painful emotion and physical pain are not recorded in the standard banks. During these moments the operation of the analytical mind is suspended. Then he proceeds to outline the basis of his entire supposition by stating that clinical tests establish the following to the scientific facts:

1. "The mind records on some level continuously during the entire life of the organism.

2. All recordings of the lifetime are available.

3. 'Unconsciousness', in which the mind is oblivious of its surroundings, is possible only in death and does not exist as total amnesia in life.

4. All mental and physical derangements of a psychic nature come about from moments of 'unconsciousness'.

5. Such moments can be reached and drained of charge with the result of returning the mind to optimum operating condition."[08a]

6.22.    Since unconsciousness is the sole source of aberration Mr. Hubbard declares that his doctrine can be tested in the following way:

"If you care to make the experiment you can take a man, render him 'unconscious', hurt him and give him information. By dianetic technique, no matter what information you give him, it can be recovered. This experiment should not be carelessly conducted because you might also render him insane."[08b]

6.23.    There are three types of engram — all of them are aberrating viz.:

"First is the contra-survival engram. This contains physical pain, painful emotion, all other perceptions and menace to the organism. A child knocked out by a rapist and abused receives this type of engram. The contra-survival engram contains apparent or actual antagonism to the organism."

"The second engram type is the pro-survival engram. A child who has been abused is ill. He is told, while he is partially or wholly 'unconscious', that he will be taken care of, that he is dearly loved, etc. This engram is not taken as contra-survival but pro-survival. It seems to be in favor of survival. Of the two this last is the most aberrative since it is reinforced by the law of affinity which is always more powerful than fear. Hypnotism preys on this characteristic of the reactive mind, being a sympathetic address to an artificially unconscious subject. Hypnotism is as limited as it is because it does not contain, as a factor, physical pain, and painful emotion: things which keep an engram out of sight and moored below the level of 'consciousness'."

"The third is the painful emotion engram which is similar to the other engrams. It is caused by the shock of sudden loss such as the death of a loved one."[08c]

6.24.    Mr. Hubbard further states that the reactive mind bank consists exclusively of these engrams and that its thinking process is confined to engrams: … for it thinks in terms of full identification, which is to say identities, one thing identical to another.[08d] While the analytical mind is capable of solving any problem the reactive mind thinks in terms of equalities: That's so beautifully, wonderfully simple that it can be stated, in operation, to have just one equation: A=A=A=A=A.[09a]

6.25.    Mr. Hubbard gives the following example to demonstrate how an engram is recalled and causes deviation and illness. A woman is kicked or knocked out, which equals the pain of the kick, which equals the overturning chair, which equals the sound of a passing motor car, which equals what her husband says to her that she is no good, that she easily changes her mind, that she is unconscious.

"In the case of the woman who was knocked out and kicked, any perception in the engram she received has some quality of restimulation. Running water from a faucet might not have affected her greatly. But water running from a faucet plus a passing car might have begun some slight reactivation of the engram, a vague discomfort in the areas where she was struck and kicked, not enough yet to cause her real pain but there all the same. To the running water and the passing car we add the sharp falling of a chair and she experiences a shock of mild proportion. Add now the smell and voice of the man who kicked her and the pain begins to grow. The mechanism is telling her that she is in dangerous quarters, that she should leave. … She stays. The pains in the areas where she was abused become a predisposition to illness or are chronic illness in themselves, minor it is true in the case of this one incident, but illness just the same. Her affinity with the man who beat her may be so high that the analytical level, being assisted by a normally high general tone, may counter against these pains. But if that level is low, without much to assist it, then the pains can become major."[09b]

This is not all. The engram which has been formed, apart from restimulation e.g. the running water, the noise of a motor car contains neurotic positive suggestion.

6.26.    A person with an engram does not know what ails. In the example of the woman a key-in was required to activate the engram. At a stage when she was conscious and tired the husband threatened to beat and abuse her. That is experience at conscious level:

"It was found to be 'mentally painful' by her. And it was 'mentally painful' only because there was real, live, physical pain unseen under it, which had been 'keyed-in' by the conscious experience. The second experience was a lock … She thinks she is worried about what he said in the lock experience. She is actually worried about the engram. In this way memories become painful."[09c]

6.27.    The following is a further example:

"Put a man under ether, hurt him in the chest. He has received an engram because his analytical power was turned off first by the ether and then by a chest pain. While he was there on the operating table, the reactive mind recorded the click of instruments, everything said, all sounds and smells. Let us suppose that a nurse was holding one of his feet because he was kicking. This is a complete engram."[09d]

6.28.    This engram will be keyed-in at some future time by a similar incident. Anything happening hereafter which is to the slightest degree related to the formation of the engram acts as a key-in i.e. restimulates the experience:

"This is 'push-button' in its precision. If one knew another's main restimulators (words, voice tones, music, whatever they are — things which are filed in the reactive mind bank as parts of engrams) one could turn another's analytical power almost completely off, actually render him unconscious."[10a]

6.29.    Mr. Hubbard proceeds:

"Engrams can, if environment is uniform be held in chronic restimulation! This means a chronic partial shut-down of analytical power. The recovery of intelligence by a clear and the rise of that intelligence to such fantastic heights results in part from the relief of word commands in engrams that he is stupid and in a larger part from the relief of this chronic shut-down condition.

This is not theory. This is scientific fact. It is strictly test-tube. The engram contains the percept of a shut-down analyzer; when it is restimulated the engram puts that datum back into force in some degree.

…

If a person has a large number of engrams and they are keyed-in and he lives around many restimulators his condition can vary from normal to insane."[10b]

6.30.    Mr. Hubbard proceeds to make the assertion that engrams are formed by everything said by other people while a person is unconscious:

"In passing it should be mentioned that only absolute silence, utter silence and tomb-like silence, should attend an operation or injury of any kind. There is nothing which can be said or given as a perceptic in any moment of 'unconsciousness' which is beneficial to a patient. Nothing! In the light of these researches and scientific findings (which can be proven in any other laboratory or group of people in very short order), speech or sound in the vicinity of an 'unconscious' person should be punished criminally as, to any-one who knows these facts, such an act would be a willful effort to destroy the intellect or mental balance of an individual. If the patient is complimented, as in hypnosis or during an injury or operation, a manic is formed which will give him temporary euphoria and eventually plunge him into the depressive stage of the cycle."[10c]

6.31.    Another form of engrams is described as follows:

"Sometimes, in the first session, a pre-clear shuts his eyes in reverie to find himself in a dentist's chair at the age of three. He has been there for the last thirty years or so because the dentist and his mother both told him to 'stay there' while he was shocky with pain and gas … so he did, and the chronic tooth trouble he had all his life is that somatic."[11a]

6.32.    Mr. Hubbard maintains that there are also pre-natal engrams:

"Tests had held up the discovery that all data, awake, asleep and 'consciousness', from the moment of conception on was always recorded somewhere in the mind or body … That babies cannot record until the myelin sheating is formed has about as much truth, on investigation, as the fact that penis-envy is the cause of female homosexuality. Neither theory, when applied works. For the baby, after all, is composed of cells and it is evidenced now by much research that the cell, not an organ, records the engram."[11b]

6.33.    The engram is passed from parent to child as if it is an hereditary factor which is implanted on the gene: Like germs they respect none and carry forward from individual to individual, from parents to child, respecting none until they are stopped by Dianetics.[11c] Even when a person shows emotion to an expectant mother, the emotion is directly implanted on the unborn child.

6.34.    In Dianetics the prenatal engram remains in the foreground:

"Do not suppose that just because you cannot reach prenatal engrams in a case that they are not here. There are scores and scores of them in every case. Remember that an engram isn't a memory, it has to be developed to become within recall. There is no human being walking on earth today who does not have a plenitude of prenatals."[11d]

(c) The Consequences of Engrams.

6.35.    Mr. Hubbard claims that it is possible to eradicate all psycho-somatic illness by dianetic therapy. He states:

"Psycho-somatic illnesses are those which have a mental origin but which are nevertheless organic.

…

The problem of psycho-somatic illness is entirely embraced by dianetics, and by dianetic technique such illness has been eradicated entirely in every case.

About seventy per cent of the physician's current roster of diseases falls into the category of psycho-somatic illness. How many more can be so classified after dianetics has been in practice for a few years is difficult to predict, but it is certain that more illnesses are psycho-somatic than have been so classified to date."[12a]

6.36.    Mr. Hubbard states that treatment for incidental injuries, surgery for various ailments such as genetic malformation, and orthopaedic cases remain properly outside the field of Dianetics: …although it can be remarked in passing that almost all accidents are to be traced to dramatization of engrams and that clears rarely have accidents.[12b] However:

"Arthritis, dermatitis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, sinusitis, etc. form a very small section of the psycho-somatic catalogue. Bizarre aches and pains in various portions of the body are generally psycho-somatic. Migraine headaches are psycho-somatic and, with the others, are uniformly cured by dianetic therapy. (And the word cured is used in its fullest sense)."[12c]

6.37.    He remarks that the number of physical ailments which are psycho-somatic depends on: … how many conditions the body can generate out of the factors in engrams. For example, the common cold has been found to be psycho-somatic.[12d] A number of germ diseases are predisposed and perpetuated by engrams. Tuberculosis is one.[12e]

6.38.    He moreover maintains that any inclination towards an illness is caused by engrams:

"Many conditions which have been called 'inherited disabilities' are actually engramic. … Engrams can predispose and perpetuate bacterial infections …

…

At the present time dianetic research is scheduled to include cancer and diabetes. There are a number of reasons to suppose that these may be engramic in cause, particularly malignant cancer."[12f]

6.39.    Mr. Hubbard classifies all psycho-somatic illnesses in five classes and quotes examples of each. He makes the assertion that childrens' ills are aggravated by engrams and even prevented by clearing:

"A check of many subjects on this matter of childhood illness being predisposed by, precipitated by and perpetuated by engrams causes one to wonder just how violent the diseases themselves really are: they have never been observed in a cleared child and there is reason to investigate the possibility that childhood illnesses are in themselves extremely mild and are complicated only by psychic disturbance — which is to say, the restimulation of engrams.

In fact, one could ask this question of the entire field of pathology: what is the actual effect of disease minus the mental equation? How serious are bacteria?"[12g]

(d) Dianetic Therapy.

6.40.    Engrams are the source of all evil. By releasing man from his engrams, he is not only freed from mental and all psycho-somatic illnesses but is at the same time transformed into a better being than all other persons who have not undergone dianetic therapy and Scientology processing. This release is accomplished by merely lifting engrams from the reactive mind to the analytical or conscious mind. This procedure should be compared with abreaction in psychiatric practice, i.e. a panic state induced by bringing to conscious recall certain past episodes.

6.41.    In Mr. Hubbard's own words:

"Dianetic therapy may be briefly stated. Dianetics deletes all the pain from a lifetime. When this pain is erased in the engram bank and refiled as memory and experience in the memory banks, all aberrations and psycho-somatic illness vanish …"[13a]

6.42.    Dianetic therapy consists of processing. Mr. Hubbard states:

"The object of dianetic therapy is to bring about a release or a clear.

A release (noun) is an individual from whom major stress and anxiety have been removed by dianetic therapy.

A clear (noun) is an individual who, as a result of dianetic therapy has neither active nor potential psycho-somatic illness or aberration.

To clear (verb) is to release all the physical pain and painful emotion from the life of an individual …"[13b]

Mr. Hubbard adds:

"The purpose of therapy and its sole target is the removal of the content of the reactive engram bank. In a release, the majority of emotional stress is deleted from the bank. In a clear, the entire content is removed."[13c]

6.44.    Nobody can err with dianetic therapy:

"The mind is a self-protecting mechanism. Short of the use of drugs as in narco-synthesis, shock, hypnotism or surgery, no mistake can be made by an auditor which cannot be remedied either by himself or by another auditor."[13d]

6.45.    The techniques available to the auditor are returning, repeater techniques, time shift and somatic location:

"The first, last and only job of the auditor is to find the earliest engrams available and erase them. …

The various ways to accomplish this are the techniques and arts of therapy. Anything which brings about this erasure of engrams in place and their refiling as experience is useful and legitimate whatever it includes."[13e]

An engram is erased by recounting it until it has vanished entirely:

"There is one motto which applies to all therapy 'If you keep asking for it, you'll get it'. Any and all engrams surrender on the basis of returning the patient to the area time and again, session after session."[14a]

6.46.    A therapy session commences as follows:

"The patient sits in a comfortable chair, with arms, or lies on a couch in a quiet room where perceptic distractions are minimal. The auditor tells him to look at the ceiling. The auditor says: 'When I count from one to seven your eyes will close'. The auditor then counts from one to seven and keeps counting quietly and pleasantly until the patient closes his eyes. A tremble of the lashes will be noticed in optimum reverie."[14b]

The processing continues:

"(Auditor pauses; installs canceller). All right, let us go back to your fifth birthday … (work continues until the auditor has worked the patient enough for the period) … Come to present time. Are you in present time? (Yes). (Use canceller word). When I count from five to one and snap my fingers you will feel alert. Five, four, three, two, one. (Snap)."[14c]

6.47.    The auditor starts with prenatals. In the unlikely event of engrams not being found:

"… bring the patient up to present time but remind him to keep his eyes closed. Now ask him a few questions about his family, his grand parents, his wife or, if the pre-clear is a woman, her husband. Ask about any former husbands or wives. Ask about children. And ask particularly about death. You are looking for a painful emotional engram, an instant of loss which will discharge."[14d]

6.48.    Should something emerge the preclear should be retracted, the matter investigated until a discharge is obtained. If it is not obtained then something else must be looked for:

"If nothing discharge yet, keep calm (all this work will pay dividends in the next session or the next or the next)[,] keep searching, keep observing. There is emotional charge here somewhere which will discharge. Try other combinations of words such as those which would be said to a sick and worried child, make the pre-clear repeat them."[14e]

"If he is stuck in present time, start him on repeater technique again, suggesting bouncers: 'Get out and never come back!' 'You can't ever return!' etc., … If he is not returning after some of this, start in with holder phrases: 'I'm stuck!' 'Don't move!' and so forth."[14f]

6.49.    Other courses are also open to the auditor:

"The first of them is to use his wits. The next is to indoctrinate the patient into returning. This indoctrination is quite simple. The auditor takes the patient back a few hours and has the patient tell what he sees. The sonic and visio may be occluded but the patient may have some idea of what is taking place. The auditor then takes him back a few days, then a few months and finally several years, each time getting the patient to describe his 'surroundings' as best he can. …

…

If repeater technique still does not work and still does not get data, diagnose by his behaviour in therapy and his statements what must be troubling him or occluding his recalls and again use these guesses as repeater. …

Should this still fail, then find some light locks, incidents which contain minimal pain, and run those."[15a]

6.50.    In the later development of Scientology processing, an electronic device called the E-Meter is used as an aid.

(e) Clear as the Goal.

6.51.    The state of clear is the objective of dianetic therapy. It is attainable by undergoing basic treatment: The clear, the goal of dianetic therapy, can be created from psychotic, neurotic, deranged, criminal or normal people if they have organically sound nervous systems.[15b]

6.52.    This is further supported by:

"Dianetically, the optimum individual is called the clear. …

A clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any autogenic (self-generated) diseases referred to as psycho-somatic ills. These tests confirm the clear to be entirely without such ills or aberrations. Additional tests of his intelligence indicate it to be high above the current norm."[15c]

6.53.    The clear is motivated by Dynamics I – IV, engrams being prevented by their proper functioning. Clear, however, is not only the goal of Dianetics, but also of Scientology. Its objective is the mental and spiritual aspect of man, and it is less concerned with the erasure of engrams than with the increase of ability awareness:

"Scientology is that branch of psychology which treats of (embraces) human ability. It is an extention of DIANETICS which is in itself an extention of old-time faculty-psychology of 400 years ago …

Scientology, used by the trained and untrained person improves the health, intelligence, ability, behaviour, skill and appearance of people.

It is a precise and exact science, designed for an age of exact sciences."[16]

"Dianetics can be done with no reference whatever to Scientology or its techniques …

You use Dianetics much the way you would use any remedy.

When a fellow is burned, you audit out the burn …

Dianetics is the answer to human suffering. USE it …

Scientology is a vital practice in itself. It places a person above any further illness or suffering. But he has to be made well first …

Having gotten the pc[17] well by medical care and Dianetic auditing, then start out with Scientology …

Never run a Scientology grade to make a pc well or cure something. It's a misapplication.

By using Dianetics as readily as you use shoes you can make and keep people well …

By then correctly using Scientology we can make the person a far better being.

We now have STANDARD DIANETICS.

We have developed Scientology STANDARD TECH.

Both are now valid as themselves.

They do not cross.

Dianetics for the body.

Scientology for the spirit.

USE BOTH."[18]

6.54.    It appears from the last mentioned quotation that scientologists are under the impression that Dianetics and Scientology have basically the same object. The following passage is even more emphatic:

"The handling of psychosis, neurosis, and psycho-somatic illness do not happen to be the goal of the Scientologist. As long as the accent is upon ability any malfunction will vanish. … If he increases the general ability of the individual in any and all fields then, of course any miss-ability such as those represented by psychosis, neurosis, and psycho-somatic illness will vanish."[19]

6.55.    Mr. Hubbard emphatically claims that Dianetics is an exact science and places it on the same level as the natural sciences. He alludes to clinical tests without giving supporting particulars. He writes:

"Clinical tests prove these statements to be scientific facts:

1. The mind records on some level continuously during the entire life of the organism.

2. All recordings of the lifetime are available.

3. 'Unconsciousness', in which the mind is oblivious of its surroundings, is possible only in death and does not exist as total amnesia in life.

4. All mental and physical derangements of a psychic nature come about from moments of 'unconsciousness'.

5. Such moments can be reached and drained of charge with the result of returning the mind to optimum operating condition. 'Unconsciousness' is the single source of aberration."[20]

These so-called scientific facts are the basis of Mr. Hubbard's theory that engrams are formed during unconsciousness or as the result of anaesthesia, drugs, injury or shock and that they can be erased by means of dianetic therapy. However, he neither employs a recognized scientific method nor gives any scientifically substantiated proof of the validity of these "facts".

6.56.    On the other hand the practical applicability of what Mr. Hubbard teaches is stressed: LET US BE PRACTICAL. A science is not a science unless it is practical. A theory is no good unless it works.[21] And again: The essence of Scientology is its practicality: its application is broad and its results are uniformly predictable.[22]

6.57.    Dianetics is concerned with health through the mind (mental therapy) and Scientology with the development of increased ability, understanding and communication. Both, however, make use of procedures termed processing or auditing.

6.58.    These procedures are described as follows:

"Processing requires at least two people … The individual applying the processing is called an auditor, which means essentially to listen and to compute. … The person undergoing processing, as stated before, is called a pre-clear. … Auditors today are rigorously trained … They must also follow certain rules, some of which are incorporated in the Auditor's Code. … The Auditor's Code of 1954 contains fifteen items which are listed here for the knowledge of the reader.

1. Do not evaluate for the pre-clear.
2. Do not invalidate or correct the pre-clear's data.
3. Use the processes which improve the pre-clear's case.
4. Keep all appointment's once made.
5. Do not process a pre-clear after 10 p.m.
6. Do not process a pre-clear who is improperly fed.
7. Do not permit a frequent change of auditors.
8. Do not sympathize with the pre-clear.
9. Never permit the pre-clear to end the session on his own independent decision.
10. Never walk off from a pre-clear during a session.
11. Never get angry with a pre-clear.
12. Always reduce every communication lag encountered by the continued use of the same question or process.
13. Always continue a process as long as it produces change and no longer.
14. Be willing to grant beingness to the pre-clear.
15. Never mix the processes of Scientology with those of various other practices.

A pre-clear may visit an auditor to resolve some acute present-time problem, like arguments in the family. He may visit the auditor for some long chronic problem such as migraine headaches … The pre-clear may just wish to understand life better or he may wish to develop his abilities more fully. … A trained auditor can easily handle many aspects of life.

Individual processing is usually done in a room with both the pre-clear and the auditor sitting or standing. … Auditing sessions are best done in a minimum of two-hours sessions. … In an intensive the auditor usually processes a pre-clear for a period of twenty-five to thirty hours a week. …

Processing, for the most part, involves the asking of questions or the giving of commands by the auditor."[23]

6.59.    Numbers 1, 2, 8 and 14 of this code of rules stress the importance of the neutral attitude towards the preclear on the part of the auditor. The auditor must neither evaluate for the preclear, he must not invalidate or correct him, nor sympathize with him, but must "grant him beingness" i.e. recognize his right to his own opinions and decisions.

6.60.    As far as can be judged from evidence before the Commission, there are various drills (in the form of commands) with the purpose of enhancing the preclear's powers of observation and concentration, while questions are used as an exercise in communication and with the purpose of getting him to view his own problems objectively.

6.61.    The Commission points out that:

1. The so-called rigorous training of auditors has been found to be inadequate. This is indicated elsewhere in the Report.

2. Mr. Horner's statement that:

   "An Auditor … requires … no machines"[24]

   no longer applies, since processing is now done with the aid of and E-Meter.

3. In the case of dianetic therapy processing is used in order to uncover engrams and to erase aberrations caused by them, whereas the questions, commands and drills of Scientology auditing are aimed at the increase of ability and the powers of observation, communication and control. Such auditing is done up to Grade VI. Beyond that, i.e. in the OT grades, candidates process themselves with the aid of given materials, veiled in secrecy, and the E-Meter.

6.62.    Mr. Hubbard emphatically claims that Dianetics is an exact science. However, he neither employs a recognized scientific method nor gives any scientifically substantiated proof. Proof, he says, is not dependent on intricate laboratory tests, but can be undertaken in any group by any intelligent individual.

6.63.    Certainly all suppositions in the accepted human sciences cannot be proven experimentally, but then these merely remain hypothetic suppositions, until their validity is proved by accepted scientific processes. The absolute validity of such suppositions can never be claimed, even in accordance with scientific law, let alone be regarded as an exact science, without absolute validity having been proved. Furthermore certain conditions for the experiment or adduction of proof, with possible deviations and exceptions, require to be stipulated. Against this, as appears from references quoted above, Mr. Hubbard claims that Dianetics is an exact science and places it on the same level as the known natural sciences. His main argument is that it works.

6.64.    Mr. Hubbard alludes to clinical tests without furnishing supporting particulars. An example hereof is set out in paragraph 6.21 above. The failure to describe the clinical tests makes it impossible for the Commission to subject them to verification and to accept them as scientific facts. At most they are to be regarded as suppositions. Of a similar nature are the tests alluded to in paragraph 6.32 above. There are no particulars with regard to their form, nature and scope.

6.65.    Mr. Hubbard frequently lends known concepts a different content of his own, thereby causing confusion, e.g. he uses the term "engrams" to indicate something different to its ordinary psychological meaning.[25] Engram is defined as follows:

"A mental image picture of an experience containing pain, unconsciousness, and a real or fancied threat to survival; it is a recording in the Reactive Mind of something which actually happened to an individual in the past and which contained pain and unconsciousness, both of which are recorded in the mental image picture called an engram."[26]

Furthermore, he presents the processing to erase engrams as his own discovery, whereas it is very similar to abreaction as practised by psychiatry. His frequent reference to the formation of engrams under anaesthesia is of no moment. He gives no indication of depth of anaesthesia. The whole principle of the method of "narco-analysis" used in medical practice to find out past episodes that may be relevant to a patient's symptoms is based on light anaesthesia. It is common knowledge that under light anaesthesia the patient may be fully aware of what is being said yet be unable to take part in conversation. He remembers much of this conversation on coming around, but nothing of what is said or goes on when he is under deep anaesthesia. Psycho-somatic illness is another case in point. Its occurrence is a recognised medical fact and it is accepted that its effects are physical. Mr. Hubbard's figure of approximately 70% is, however, meaningless without full explanation. The most organic condition e.g. a coronary thrombosis has a psychological factor. Each coronary patient has a different outlook on his own condition, which may either help or hinder his progress. To call a common cold (due to a virus) psycho-somatic is quite incorrect. One person with a cold reacts in such a way that he takes to bed for a week; another carries on uncomfortably but without fuss. It may be that Mr. Hubbard means by "psycho-somatic" symptoms of a physical type e.g. fast pulse, and induced psychological stimulus with no organic background. This is psycho-neurosis. But it could justifiably be claimed that every illness has a psychological factor.

6.66.    The Commission is satisfied that many dianetic and Scientology procedures make use of suggestion conditioning and (though this is emphatically denied by Mr. Hubbard) of hypnotism.

6.67.    The manner in which the suggestion is made is clearly indicated by the following passage:

"'The somatic strip will now go to birth', says the auditor.

The patient in reverie begins to feel the pressure of contractions thrusting him down the birth canal.

'The somatic strip will now go to the last time you injured yourself', says the auditor.

The pre-clear feels a mild reproduction of the pain of, perhaps, a bumped knee. If he has sonic and visio recall, he will see where he is and suddenly realize that it was in the office: he will hear the clerks and typewriters and the car noises outside.

'The somatic strip will now go into the prenatal area', says the auditor.

And the patient finds himself in the area, probably floating along, not uncomfortable.

'The somatic strip will now go to the first moment of pain or discomfort which can now be reached', says the auditor.

The patient drifts around a moment and suddenly feels a pain in his chest. He begins to cough and feels depression all over him. Mama is coughing (often source of chronic coughs). 'Roll the cough', says the auditor. The patient finds himself at the beginning of the engram and begins to run it. 'Cough, cough, cough', says the patient. He then yawns. 'It hurts and I can't stop', he quotes his mother. 'Go to the beginning and roll it again', says the auditor. 'Cough, cough, cough', begins the patient, but he is not coughing as badly now. He yawns deeply. 'Ouch. It hurts, it hurts, and I can't seem to stop', quotes the pre-clear, listening directly if he has sonic, getting impressions of what's said if he does not have. He has picked up words now that were suggested in it by 'unconscious'. 'Unconsciousness' is beginning to come off with the yawns. 'Roll it again', says the auditor. 'I can't stop', says the pre-clear, quoting all that he finds this time. The somatic is gone. He yawns again. The engram is erased.

'The somatic strip will now go to the next moment of pain or discomfort', says the auditor."[27]

6.68.    Firstly it is manifest that the person is in a semi-state of hypnosis, and the suggestions by the auditor are clear. What is particularly striking is that no provision is made in this therapy for individual differences, aptitudes, education and so forth. All people have engrams and their origin is equal.

6.69.    Any lingering doubt in regard to the suggestion that the patient is in a semi-state of hypnosis, disappears with the following passage: The somatic does not turn on. The patient goes into a strange sleep. He mutters about a dream.[28a] And in connection with the auditor's suggestions: There are moments when it is necessary to be quite persuasive with the strip …[28b]

6.70.    By way of summary the Commission desires to stress that dianetic therapy does not rest upon the making of a diagnosis. The underlying theory is that all humans are subject to engrams — prenatal engrams and post-birth engrams. They exist and merely require to be localised. Thus the diagnosis is a pre-existing reality at the moment when the preclear consults the auditor. Localisation of prenatal and thereafter of post-natal engrams is achieved by putting stereotyped questions, by repeating them until the preclear believes and accepts what is suggested. At this stage the needle of the E-Meter floats. The preclear F/Neds. The following is said about F/Neds: The act of having a floating needle … a manifestation … of great importance … when all Good Indicators are present, it indicates the pre-clear has reached the end point of the process being run.[29] The conclusion is almost irresistible that a light state of hypnosis is created by suggestion. The corner stone of dianetic therapy therefore rests upon unscientific pre-existing assumptions. Scientology processing has as its main objective the creation of the state of clear, i.e. a being freed of engrams. Such processing is a form of treatment barely distinguishable from dianetic therapy and open to the same criticism.

6.71.    In conclusion the Commission draws attention to certain dangers in connection with dianetic practice.

1. In this, as in the wider field of Scientology, the scanty training of the auditors is a matter for grave concern.

   The real danger of patients, particularly when the unqualified is unaware of the nature of the ailment or illness in question — possibly of a mental or psychic nature — is demonstrated in:

   "The auditor can do everything backwards, upside down and utterly wrong and the patient will still be better, provided only that he does not try to use drugs before he has worked a few cases, that he does not use hypnotism as hypnotism and he does not try to cross dianetics with some older therapy. He can use drugs in dianetics if he knows his dianetics and if he has medical concurrence. He can use all the techniques of hypnotism so long as he is thoroughly experienced with dianetics. …

   … And on the other hand it does not mean that some engineer or lawyer or cook with a few dianetic cases under his belt, will not be more skilled than all other practitioners of whatever background or kind. In this case, the sky is no limit."[30]

   It is clearly revealed by this extract that the claim is that anyone with elementary training in Dianetics possesses the ability to cure persons of all their illnesses, at least illnesses classified by Mr. Hubbard as psycho-somatic:

   "… for in research it has been proven that men and women with most unlikely professional backgrounds have suddenly become auditors superior in skill to those in fields you might suspect were more closely allied. … Dianetics is not psychiatry. It is not psycho-analysis. It is not psychology. It is not personal relations. It is not hypnotism. It is a science of mind and needs about as much licensing and regulation as the application of the science of physics."[31a]

   No knowledge greater than that contained in Chapter IV of the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is required to make a diagnosis. It is very simple. If a psychotic thinks he is God, he has an engram which tells him he is God. If he is worried about poison in his food, he has an engram which tells him so. The same applies to the fear of being dismissed from his position.

   "The man who comes in and says he has a bad pain in his stomach that feels 'just like a no. 12 gauge copper wire going straight through me' has quite possibly had a no. 12 gauge copper wire through him in an [att]empted abortion or talk of such a thing while he was in pain."[31b]

   The danger lurking here — in the theory of supposing what is at fault — exists in respect of the person who indeed suffers from a disease of the stomach.

   "Thus it can be said that wherever a man or woman aches is of minor importance to the auditor beyond using the patient's chronic illness to locate the chain of sympathy engrams, and all the auditor needs to know of that illness is that some area of the [b]ody hurts the patient. That, for the auditor, is enough for psycho-somatic diagnosis."[31c]

   Another aspect which must be considered, is that when a therapist-patient relationship develops transference and counter-transference by the nature of things always come into existence, particularly when matters laden with emotion are discussed. For example, matters concerning sex, human relationship as between opposite sexes and death of a dear one. Where a therapist is untrained in the handling of such matters, a transference-neurosis could develop. This is a situation of extreme danger which might cause serious harm to the patient and which, as a rule, requires the attention of a highly trained person. Such a condition could readily develop during dianetic and Scientology processing with dangerous consequences.

2. In the field of education and family relationships the engram theory is totally unacceptable.

   According to this only pain, painful emotions and unconsciousness play a part. Therefore it admits no parental or any form of environmental influence on personality or character formation. It consistently undermines the relationship between parent and child by having the latter discover all manner of sordid detail in father's and especially mother's past. A person's education, religion, ethical and moral codes, his attachment to culture and everything else [whi]ch has rendered him a human being are invalidated. Things of which the child has no knowledge or which he cannot understand are suggested to him. Thus instead of benefiting the child, incalculable damage could be done to him.

   "One of the prime sources of 'bad memory' is Mother. Often enough mother has been sufficiently panic-stricken at the thought of Junior's recalling just what she did to Junior that a Mankindwide aberration seems to have sprung up. The standard attempted abortion case nearly always has an infanthood and childhood full of Mama assuring him that he cannot remember anything when he was a baby. She doesn't want him to recall how handy she was, if unsuccessful, in her efforts with various instruments. Possibly prenatal memory itself would be just ordinary memory and in full recall to the whole race if this guilty conscience in Mother had not been rolling along lo! these millennia. In the normal course of work the auditor will have his hands full of Mama screaming objections about her grown son's or daughter's entering into therapy because of what they might find out: Mama has been known, by auditors, to go into a complete nervous collapse at the thought of her child's recalling prenatal incidents. Not all of this, by the way, is based on attempted abortion. Mama often has had a couple of more men than Papa that Papa never knew about; and Mama would very often rather condemn her child to illness or insanity or merely unhappiness than let a child pursue the course of the preclear even though Mother avowedly has no recollection whatever of anything bad ever happening to the child. Under therapy herself, she usually volunteers the truth. Here is the source of why good memory is discouraged in a society and infant and prenatal memory overlooked, to say nothing of the ability to return and relive."[32a]

   On the other hand Mr. Hubbard's arguments are sometimes plausible, e.g. he is wholly right when he maintains that:

   "The beginning and end of 'child psychology' is that a child is a human being, that he is entitled to his dignity and self-determinism."[32b]

   and when he interprets a child's actions as often a form of revenge taken for punishment:

   "A man is evil in the direct ratio that destructiveness has been leveled against him. An individual (including those individuals society is liable to forget as individuals: children) reacts against the punishment source whether that source be parents or government. Anything which sets itself forward against an individual as a punishment source will be considered in greater or lesser degree (as it is in proportion to benefits) as a target for the reactions of the individual.

   The little accidental milk glass upsets of children, that noise which just accidentally occurs on the porch where the children are playing, that little accidental ruination of Papa's hat or Mama's rug, these are often cold, calculated reactive mind actions against pain sources."[33a]

   But he has little positive suggestion to offer apart from the removal of engrams. He condones and encourages the child's revolt against authority:

   "If a child is punished and thereafter obeys, he can be considered to have succumbed. And the value of a child who will succumb to punishment is so slight that the Spartans would long since have drowned him, for it means he has sunk into an apathy unless it so happens that he himself has computed the idea, by-passing all reaction, that the thing for which he was punished was not bright (he can't be assisted in this computation if punishment is entered into the reactive mind by the source trying to assist him). He can flee the punishment source, which at least is not apathy but merely cowardice by popular judgment. He can neglect the matter entirely and ignore the punishment source — and would have been called a Stoic by the ancients, but might be called merely dull-witted by his friends. He can avoid the punishment source, which might give him the doubtful compliment of being sly or cunning or pandering. Or he can attack the punishment source either by direct action or by upsetting or fouling the person or the possessions of the source — in which instance he would be called, on direct action, a valiant fool, taking parental size into account, or in a less direct fashion he could be called 'covertly hostile' or could be said to be 'negating'; as long as a human being will attack as a response to a valid threat, he can be said to be in fair mental condition — 'normal' — and a child is said to be 'just acting like any normal child'."[33b],

   and never seems to consider that punishment may be meted out in the interest of the child. Indeed the way he makes parents and the engrams they supposedly caused responsible for the child's later misdemeanours sometimes are quite preposterous:

   "An engram received from Father beating Mother which says: 'Take that! Take it, I tell you. You've got to take it!' means that our patient has possibly had tendencies as a kleptomaniac."[33c]

3. The use of the E-Meter can lead to serious abuse.

   An instance is furnished by the evidence of Mr. A. Tannenbaum, a businessman and a strong adherent of the Church of Scientology, who made use of the services of a former scientologist, Mr. E. van Niekerk, who also testified before the Commission. Mr. Van Niekerk during his Scientology days was a qualified auditor and eventually became director of training. Mr. Tannenbaum desired to solve a problem relating to the disappearance of drugs in his pharmaceutical business and called upon Mr. Van Niekerk who was then conducting business under the style of "Industrial Security Agency". By the use of a machine which resembled the E-Meter and a Security Check Form he singled out the alleged thieves — one of them committing suicide as a result. Mr. Tannenbaum regarded this use of the instrument in question as an abuse of Scientology. The Security Check was designed as a therapeutic aid. Mr. Van Niekerk used it to condemn people.[34] If regard be had to Mr. Hubbard's description of the attributes of a good security checker —

   "thorough, swinish suspicion and not belief in mankind or the devil — only the meter",[35]

   the significance of Mr. Tannenbaum's evidence is emphasised and the harmful potential use of the E-Meter is underlined.

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Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Scientology for 1972
Republic of South Africa