Neuroscience Concepts in a New-Age Religion:
Scientology's Model of the Mind
David S. Touretzky
Computer Science Department & Center for the Neural Basis of CognitionCarnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891
Poster presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. November 7-12, 1998. Los Angeles, California. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., 24:241.
Abstract
Scientology builds upon Dianetics, an abreactive therapy technique Hubbard introduced in 1950. His work mixes ideas from Freud, Jung, Aleister Crowley, and gnostic mysticism.
The scientific trappings of Scientology extend even to instrumentation: a skin galvanometer called an E-meter (electropsychometer) is said to allow an auditor (therapist) to observe the creation or destruction of "mental mass'' by reading the needle movement.
On the most advanced levels of Scientology, adherents learn that they share their bodies with body thetans. These alien spirits have suffered traumatic incidents and are too weak and confused to control their own bodies. Illness can be caused by toxins in the body.
The power of other minds to directly affect one's physical well-being is a common feature of many magical belief systems. But Scientology also incorporates the mind-as-computer metaphor, and makes explicit reference to neuroanatomical structures.
 L. Ron Hubbard in the late 1960s, making an adjustment to the Mark V E-Meter. From The Book Introducing the E-Meter, by L. Ron Hubbard. |
Timeline
May 1950: The publication of the 500-page book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, kicks off a Dianetics craze that sweeps the country.
1954: The Church of Scientology was formed in Los Angeles.
1967: Hubbard creates a new doctrine, OT III (the "Wall of Fire"), that humans are spiritual descendants of space aliens.
1977: FBI agents stage simultaneous raids on Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and discover "an astonishing espionage system which spanned the United States and penetrated some of the highest offices in the land" (Miller, 1988)
1986: L. Ron Hubbard dies while living in seclusion in Creston, California.
1993: After a thirty-year battle, Scientology regains its tax-exempt status in a secret agreement with the IRS. The agreement was leaked to the Wall Street Journal in 1997.
Scientology's Theory of Mind
The mind is also tripartite, consisting of an analytical mind, a reactive mind, and a somatic mind. The analytical mind is a perfectly rational computer, but it drops out during periods of unconsciousness or any painful event. The reactive mind records painful events as "mental image pictures'' called engrams, and recalls them in an associationist fashion that interferes with the analytical mind's computations. The somatic mind is responsible for reflexive, animal-like behaviors.
In his early work, such as Dianetics: Evolution of a Science, Hubbard speculated that the analytical mind might reside in the prefrontal lobes. The reactive mind was said to rely on a cellular recording mechanism that might also one day be localized to a specific brain area.
However, in later writings, Hubbard completely dissociated the mind from the body, leaving the brain in charge of only autonomic functions and primitive reflexes.
The diagram at left appeared in Dianetics as an appendix contributed by D.H. Rogers. It shows that "percepts" enter the reactive mind directly, but they enter the analytical mind's memory bank only through a gate that blocks the recording of painful experiences. The gate is also closed during periods of unconsciousness. At these times, individuals may accumulate harmful engrams, as experiences are recorded literally by the reactive mind without the sophisticated analysis that the analytical mind provides.
Dianetics is the most essential book in the Scientology religion. Believers refer to it as "Book One". In later editions (starting in the 1980s), Rogers' appendix was deleted to purify the book of any thoughts not directly attributed to L. Ron Hubbard.
This diagram, also from the Rogers appendix, offers a glimpse into the analytical mind. The "analyzer" is composed of several attention units that receive input from the standard memory banks and perform computations, leading to the evaluation of data and rational behavior.
The reactive mind (as shown in the previous diagram) can also generate behavior, but its operation is overly literal and not rational. Because the reactive mind stores painful memories and unanalyzed events, it tends to propose inappropriate behaviors and interfere with the analyzer's operation.
Dianetic therapy opens the pathway from the reactive mind's memory banks to the analyzer (see lower left portion of this diagram), allowing painful memories to be confronted and neutralized.
Memories From Past Lives
When he created Scientology as the successor to Dianetics, Hubbard moved from psychology to mysticism. Borrowing from Eastern religion, Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have lived thousands of past lives. Painful memories accumulated during those lives must be addressed through a type of counseling called "auditing."
In a book called Have You Lived Before This Life?, Hubbard reported several dozen tales of past lives that supposedly came to light during auditing. Some were from recent history; others involved incidents of "space opera," with aliens and ray guns, in civilizations that predate the human race.
People who undergo extensive Scientology auditing are taught to "recall" incidents from their past lives. Scientology is the most systematic, blatant, and successful inducer of False Memory Syndrome currently known.
The E-Meter
In response to sweeping claims that Scientology could cure various diseases with the E-meter, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration raided the organization on January 4, 1963. It seized hundreds of E-meters as illegal medical devices.
As a consequence of the raid and the ensuing legal battle, Judge Gerhardt A. Gessell ordered that E-meters carry a legal disclaimer. The current version of this disclaimer reads as follows (RTC is Religious Technology Center):
By itself, this meter does nothing. It is solely for the guide of Ministers of the Church in Confessionals and pastoral counselling. The Electrometer is not medically or scientifically capable of improving the health or bodily function of anyone and is for religious use by students and Ministers of the Church of Scientology only. HUBBARD, E-METER and SCIENTOLOGY are trademarks and service marks owned by RTC and used with its permission.
E-Meter Controls and Indicators
- The Cans: electrodes used to measure skin resistance. Usually, one is held in each hand. (For solo auditing, both are held in one hand.) Because the quality of the electrical contact depends on one's grip on the electrodes, there is ample opportunity for subtle, unconscious finger movements to influence the readings.
- Tone Arm Knob: the primary range control. At a TA setting of 2, the needle will be at the setpoint when the resistance across the cans is 5,000 ohms. At a TA setting of 3, the needle will be at setpoint at 12,500 ohms. The meter comes with a pair of reference resistors, allowing its calibration to be checked at these two values. At the start of an auditing session, the TA should be between 2 and 3.
- Needle: analog needle displaying current flow across the cans, the inverse of resistance. A leftward movement of the needle is called a "rise" (increased resistance); a rightward movement is a "fall".
- Sensitivity Knob: fine-tunes the gain on the amplifier to control the amount of resistance change necessary to obtain a full-scale needle deflection. With a sensitivity setting that is too low, the needle will simply remain at the setpoint. With too high a setting, every little twitch sends the needle off scale. A normal sensitivity value is around 5.
- TA Counter: Cumulative measure of ``downward'' TA motion (counter-clockwise movement of the knob), displayed digitally. For example, suppose the auditor moves the TA setting from 2.5 to 2.2. The TA Counter will increase by 0.3. Only decreases in TA are counted; increases in the TA setting are ignored by the counter. The total downward TA motion during an auditing session is recorded on the auditor's worksheet, intended to signify the "release of charge."
- Mode Switch: values are Off, On, and Test. In Test mode, the needle should swing rightward and indicate in the ``Test'' region of the scale. If it fails to reach this region, the batteries are low. The needle should bang smartly off and then settle against the right-hand pin when the E-Meter is charged.
- Clock: a digital clock/calendar. This is a separate circuit board, mounted underneath the main board.
- TA Setting: digital display of current tone arm setting.
- Meter Check Button: A pushbutton that temporarily disconnects the electrodes from the meter. A tiny amber LED located just above the button lights up when the electrodes are disconnected. This arrangement allows the auditor to quickly check the meter's calibration, or to check for a malfunction if the PC is rockslamming. (The rockslam indication could be caused by a meter fault, or by the PC touching the cans together. If the meter checks out okay, then the PC really is rockslamming and the auditor must deal with it.) Pushing the button again reconnects the electrodes and extinguishes the LED.
Hollywood actor John Travolta is undergoing auditing at a Scientology facility. Persons receiving auditing are called PCs, or "pre-clears". The folder at lower right is one of Travolta's PC folders, containing records of his auditing sessions. All transgressions confessed during auditing are recorded in the PC folder and kept permanently in the church's files.The meter is generally positioned so that it is only visible to the auditor. It is the auditor's job to interpret the meter movements to determine the line of questioning to be pursued. A "read" on the meter in response to a question indicates that there is "charge" on that topic, and it should be investigated further.
Magical Physics and Mental Mass
Scientology employs a kind of magical physics in which the "mental image pictures" stored in the reactive mind have physical mass that can be measured on a scale.Memories become more powerful and their "mental mass" increases as attention is placed on them. Memories of extremely traumatic events carry high amounts of "charge" that must be released through auditing.
The variation in current flow measured by the E-meter is attributed either to a change in body resistance resulting from the gain/loss of mental mass as memories are contacted, or to the charge attached to those memories.
Click for larger version.
Illustration from Understanding the E-Meter, by L. Ron Hubbard.
NOTs (New Era Dianetics for OTs)
The advanced levels of Scientology are called OT levels because they are supposed to help one recover the state of being OT, meaning "at cause" (having power) over MEST.
In OT III, the adherent learns that he has been the victim of a brainwashing scheme perpetrated by Xenu, the galactic ruler 75 million years ago, with the help of psychiatrists. He, as a thetan, is not the sole occupant of his body. Other thetans who are too weak or confused to control their own bodies are attached to his body, and their reactive minds are in contact with his own, clouding his thoughts and contributing mental mass that registers on the E-meter.
Scientology auditing at the OT levels focuses on establishing telepathic contact with these "body thetans" and clearing them out. Essentially, OT auditing is about curing demonic possession via self-exorcism.
Levels OT IV through OT VII, collectively known as NOTs, continue this procedure.
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