From: whatis@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (....What Is?....)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Two questions
Message-ID: <17249@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Jul 91 05:50:11 GMT
References: <1991Jul24.155301.27444@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
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In article <1991Jul24.155301.27444@spool.cs.wisc.edu> derek@mtlion.cs.wisc.edu (Derek Zahn) writes:
>1) How does religion enter into it?  _Dianetics_ seems more like
>psychology than religion.  Is Scientology different from Dianetics?
>Is it possible to explore Dianetics, which is essentially a
>theory of how the mind works, without caring about any
>mystical/moral dogma?  Emptying the engram bank seems like
>a secular idea to me.

Scientology is the extension of Dianetics, taking it beyond the reactive
mind.  It occurred because, as LRH was doing further research on
Dianetics, he discovered that people were recounting past life
experiences and blowing engrams associated with them.  Around 1952,
there was an attempt by the higher-ups to put forth a statement
discounting past life stuff, since they were not in the business of
being a religion.  There is a policy letter by LRH stating something
like "Preclears in session have begun to recount past life experiences.
Just let them run through like they were going through any normal
engram."  Eventually the evidence was overwhelming and they had
officially invaded the real of spirituality and so became a religion.

When I was first starting, they mentioned the mystical side of it, but
said that I didn't have to believe anything until I experienced it for
myself, which seemed fair enough to me, so I didn't.

>2) I'm sure that this question is asked often -- my apologies.
>How much does it cost to try Dianetics long enough to make
>an evaluation of its effectiveness?  Can poor people like college
>students (who have little money to spend on what must be considered
>an experiment) explore Dianetics, or is it only for the rich?

I'm a poor college student too.  :)  This is a really hard question to
answer, since each case is so different.  In my case, I found a way to
pay $2000 for a sec check (which cleans up your overts and withholds
and helps get you back on the ethical track) and that was great, but
still it didn't quite push me over the edge.  Dianetics mentions people
blowing engrams and being ecstatic for days.  That finally happened to
me about four months later, when I was receiving staff auditing.  I
recounted a past life experience (and a between-life experience, just
to blow my sense of the world :) and as I came to the end of my
monologue... now, this is the hardest feeling in the world to describe.
The closest I've ever come to describing it is to say to imagine having
to really take a crap.  Imagine having felt that way for your entire
life, so you really don't notice that it's there.  Then suddenly being
able to relieve yourself, and feeling wonderful afterwards.  It's not a
great analogy, and it's not a pleasant one either :-| but it gives yopu
the idea.  This happened like POW!  In any case, that's when I decided
it was effective.  Dianetics was well-written and logically consistent
enough for me to give it the benefit of the doubt, and I was willing to
try it until I had such an experience.  Sure, I wavered a few times,
but I am glad I held out for that long.

So it took me three months of on-again, off-again auditing by trained
auditors.

BTW, an overt could easily be described as a sin, and a withhold as
withholding from others that you have sinned.  The actual definitions
are a bit more technical, but that gives you the idea.

BTW 2: My apologies if this post looks funny.  My editor is really
acting strangely right now.

--
Steve Boswell         | This opinion is distributed in the hopes that it
whatis@ucsd.edu       | will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY...
whatis@gnu.ai.mit.edu |