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Dianetics is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is practiced by followers of Scientology and the Nation of Islam.
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques. Hubbard created Scientology in 1952 after losing the rights to his Dianetics book in bankruptcy. He would manage the Church of Scientology until his death in 1986. Born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1911, Hubbard spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. While his father was posted to the U.S. naval base on Guam in the late 1920s, Hubbard traveled to Asia and the South Pacific. In 1930, Hubbard enrolled at George Washington University to study civil engineering but dropped out in his second year. He began his career as a prolific writer of pulp fiction stories and married Margaret Grubb, who shared his interest in aviation.
The Church of Scientology maintains a wide variety of beliefs and practices. The core belief holds that a human is an immortal, spiritual being (thetan) that is resident in a physical body. The thetan has had innumerable past lives, some of which, preceding the thetan's arrival on Earth, were lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Based on case studies at advanced levels, it is predicted that any Scientologist undergoing auditing will eventually come across and recount a common series of past-life events.
The Purification Rundown, also known as the Purif or the Hubbard Method, is a pseudoscientific procedure that advocates of Scientology claim is a detoxification program. There is no evidence for its efficacy in detoxification, and significant evidence from clinicians that it is dangerous. It involves heat exposure for up to 5 hours a day and can exceed 4 weeks in length. It can potentially cause heatstroke damage, which includes brain injury, heart problems, organ failure, and death. It was developed by Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard and used by the Church of Scientology as an introductory service. Numerous individuals have been hospitalised as a result of taking part in the process.
The E-meter, originally the electropsychometer, is an electronic device for displaying the electrodermal activity (EDA) of a human being. It is used for auditing in Scientology and divergent groups. The efficacy and legitimacy of Scientology's use of the E-meter has been subject to extensive litigation, and, in accordance with a federal court order, the Church of Scientology publishes disclaimers declaring that the E-meter "by itself does nothing", is incapable of improving health, and is used specifically for spiritual purposes.
In Scientology, Operating Thetan (OT) is a state of complete spiritual freedom in which one is a "willing and knowing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time". The Church of Scientology offers eight "levels" of OT, each level costing thousands of US dollars.
In Dianetics and Scientology, auditing is a sequence of actions whereby the "auditor" takes an individual through times in their current or past lives with the purpose of ridding the individual of negative influences from past events or behaviors. According to practitioners, auditing is meant to bring the individual to "Clear" status; thus, an individual being audited is known as a "preclear" or PC.
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, sometimes abbreviated as DMSMH, is a book by L. Ron Hubbard about Dianetics, a system that he developed from a combination of personal experience, basic principles of Eastern philosophy and the work of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. The book is a canonical text of Scientology. It’s colloquially referred to as Book One. The book launched the movement, which later defined itself as a religion, in 1950. As of 2013, New Era Publications, the international publishing company of Hubbard's works, sells the book in English and in 50 other languages.
In Dianetics and Scientology, Clear is a status afforded to followers by the Scientology organization, or by other Scientologists, after they complete certain activities. It is one of the major ostensible "states" practitioners strive to reach on their way up what the Scientologists call the Bridge to Total Freedom. Scientology followers are given the status of Clear when a person is deemed to be free of the influence of engrams – supposed unwanted emotions or painful traumas which Scientology claims are not readily available to the conscious mind. Scientologists believe that human beings accumulate anxieties, psychosomatic illnesses, and aberration due to receiving engrams throughout their current or past lives, and that by applying Dianetics, every single person can obtain the status of Clear.
MEST is an acronym for matter, energy, space and time, and means the physical universe. It was coined in 1950 by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and is spoken as a word rather than spelling out the letters.
Scientology: A History of Man is a book by L. Ron Hubbard, first published in 1952 under the title What to Audit by the Scientific Press of Phoenix. According to the author, it provides "a coldblooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years." It has gone through many editions since its first publication and is a key text of the Church of Scientology. The book has been ridiculed by critics of Scientology for its unusual writing style and pseudoscientific claims; it has been described as "a slim pretense at scientific method ... blended with a strange amalgam of psychotherapy, mysticism and pure science fiction; mainly the latter."
This bibliography of Scientology includes Scientology-related books authored by L. Ron Hubbard and those produced by the Church of Scientology and its related organizations. Books compiled by the Church of Scientology and published after the death of Hubbard are usually indicated as "Based on the Works of L. Ron Hubbard".
Clear Body, Clear Mind is a pseudoscience book published in 1990 by the Church of Scientology's publishing house Bridge Publications. It is credited to L. Ron Hubbard who died four years earlier, and is largely a compilation of material he wrote in the 1960s. It is one of the canonical texts of Scientology and mainly deals with the Purification Rundown ("Purif"). Scientologists believe this "detoxification" program, created by Hubbard, has unique medical and spiritual benefits, but has been criticized by medical professionals as "dangerous", "quackery," and "in some cases lethal".
All About Radiation is one of the books by L. Ron Hubbard that form the canonical texts of Scientology, although it is no longer promoted by the Church of Scientology nor included in their "Basics" book canon. Its first printing was from HASI by way of the Speedwell Printing Company, Kent, England, 1957. Later editions were published by the Church of Scientology's in-house publisher Bridge Publications.
The Bridge to Total Freedom, also known as the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, is Scientology's primary action plan and road map to guide a person through the sequential steps to attain Scientology's concept of spiritual freedom. Displayed in every Scientology organization as an enormous poster using red ink, the comprehensive chart contains almost every service available within Scientology. All steps on the Bridge cost money.
The relationship between Scientology and religious groups is very complex. While Scientology claims that it is fully compatible with all existing major world religions and that it does not conflict with them or their religious practices, there are significant contradictions between Scientology and most religions, especially the major monotheistic religions. Members are not allowed to engage in other similar mental therapies or procedures, religious or otherwise.
The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project was founded in New York City in 2003 with the stated purpose of treating rescue workers for toxins inhaled from the smoke of the September 11 attacks. It has two clinics: Downtown Medical on Fulton Street, two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, and another at Williston Park, Long Island. The project's co-founder and top fundraiser is actor Tom Cruise. It uses the Purification Rundown, a "detoxification" program invented by L. Ron Hubbard as part of Scientology's Bridge to Total Freedom. This rundown has been criticized by many doctors as pseudoscientific and medically dangerous. It was reported in October 2007 that 838 people had completed the program.
This is a bibliography of books critical of Scientology and the Church of Scientology, sorted by alphabetical order of titles.
References
- 1 2 Miller, Russell (1987). Bare-faced Messiah : The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 227–228. ISBN 0805006540. OL 26305813M.
- 1 2 Hubbard, L. Ron; Denk, Gene; Spink, Farley R. (1989). All About Radiation. Bridge Publications. ISBN 0884042278. OL 1903713M.
- ↑ Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart Books. p. 142. ISBN 081840499X. OL 9429654M.
- ↑ Wallis, Roy (1975). Sectarianism: Analyses of Religious and Non-Religious Sects. p. 92. ISBN 0470919108. OL 5189644M.
- ↑ Hubbard, L. Ron (1990). Clear Body, Clear Mind. Bridge Publications. ISBN 0884045498. OL 18657017M.