Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My aim is to make this review as unbiased as possible, so if you're looking for mentions of Xenu (Xemu), OT levels, Tom Cruise or discrediting LRH merely because he was a SF writer, look elsewhere. THE SLAP IN THE FACE Dianetics does not get off to a good start. Turn the pages a few times and you come to an IMPORTANT NOTE that basically says, "don't read any further if you haven't understood everything up to this point." Below that note is mention of a GLOSSARY, not just a small one, either. This one is about 100 pages long. This glossary is supposed to help you with words you might not know. However, in the text itself, there is no indication of whether a word is defined in the glossary or not. In short, you will probably find yourself flipping back to the glossary pretty often. Not a fun way of reading. What's even more ridiculous is that the glossary, while it does contain some difficult words, also contains such everyday terms as "ball", "fair" and "wisdom teeth". Now here's an interesting fact: The SYNOPSIS is only 11 pages. In those 11 pages are ~78 words that can be found in the glossary, an average of 7 words a page! Of those 78 words, 16 of them were Dianetic terms, averaging one new Dianetic word a page. Turn the pages a few more times and you come to a section titled HOW TO READ THIS BOOK. Makes you feel small and stupid, doesn't it? INTERESTING THOUGHTS There are many interesting thoughts in this book. How survival is what motivates all living things. How your engrams can control you if they become restimulated. Why talking around the "unconscious" is dangerous. How the ability to remember everything relates to sanity. Dianetics is interested in getting rid of these engrams (moments of "unconsciousness") and supposedly by getting rid of them your whole body benefits and you'll probably even get a boost in IQ. One must keep in mind that this book was written in 1950, so some of Hubbard's analogies are not as good as they could be. For myself, it seemed like he was saying that the human mind is a FRAGMENTED HARDDRIVE (like on your Windows PC at home). Engrams are the fragments, scattered here and there. And just like your PC at home, a fragmented mind is not operating at full capacity. By following Dianetic therapy with an auditor, you are essentially DEFRAGMENTING your mind. As I found out, this is actually a very good analogy, as the founder of Executive Software/Diskeeper Corporation is Craig Jensen, a Scientologist. What does this company make. Diskeeper, a harddrive defragmenting tool! Defragmenting your mind sounds pretty interesting, doesn't it? There's just one problem . . . SCIENTIFIC FACTS As I read this book, I noticed that LRH was fond of the following phrase "It is a scientific fact". At last count, I noted ~23 uses of "scientific fact" in the whole book. First off, I think one has to understand what LRH's definition of a "scientific fact" is. The answer lies on page 157, halfway down the page . . . "The only test is whether or not a fact works. If it does work and can be used, it is a scientific fact." What's missing here is that his "scientific facts" apparently don't have to be OBSERVABLE or DOCUMENTED. As you read this book, how many X-Rays do you see comparing the mind of a Preclear with that of a Clear? ZERO. How many photocopies of case histories of past auditing sessions do you find in this book? ZERO. How do you prove with physical, tangible evidence that engrams exist? I have no idea . . . And for me, that's why Dianetics falls flat on its face. This book has some interesting ideas (ideas that may even be partially or entirely correct!), but without any hard evidence it's hard to see how anyone can take the bait. THE MYSTERY Like I said at the beginning of my review, I'm not here to talk about Xenu or the other common attacks on Scientology. However, any average person would probably ask the following question about something that is in the glossary zero times and in the index zero times . . . What is up with the VOLCANO on the cover of the book and what does it have to do with Dianetics (besides being pretty cool cover art)??? If your copy of the Holy Bible had a picture of a box of Kleenex on the cover, wouldn't you wonder how it relates to Christianity? If your copy of the Quran had a picture of a Walruss on the cover, wouldn't you wonder how it ties in? Like LRH's "scientific facts" there are some things that are just not explained, and to me, that's creepy.