Expert: Chuck Beatty - 11/2/2009

Question
Do you believe that any of the practices within Scientology can be put to good use if excracted out of the organization. In other words, do you believe it has anything whatsoever to offer, through all of it's faults?

Also, you said the following in a previous response:
"There are no supernormal powers, and we are NOT souls, and we don't go flying out of our heads at death."

You say it like blunt fact. Do you simply believe that there is no soul, or do you claim to actually KNOW it?

If you say that you DO know it, do you think that puts you a step ahead of those who claim to 'know' that we indeed ARE souls in bodies?

Both sides seem to have 'evidence', but does anyone really have the monopoly on the fact at this point?

PS I saw the YouTube video just so you know...

Answer
Frankly, there is the possibility that the therapy questions and rules for carrying out Hubbard's brand of therapy, which might be useful when applied to people to help them.   

I would hesitate to give blanket okay on ALL of Hubbard's "processes" and the techniques he says employ in various situations.

I highly, highly recommend you read Chapter 3 of Harriet Whitehead's book, on Scientology, her is easily findable on Amazon.com for as low as $7.10.    Chapter 3 directly applies to your question.

It's a technical question that someone trained in the history of therapy, and realize her book now 22 years old, and in the meantime there's been much brain research which even MORE shows our thought processes, and there is less supernatural probabilities than previously, to account for our psychological processes in our heads.

So, realize that your question leads right into a larger bigger set of issues, that at least one scholar tried to deal with, Harriet Whitehead.

Hubbard's techniques cannot just be accepted, they have absolutely NOT been peer reviewed.

But there is so much anecdotal claims of benefit from even his "body thetan" removal "upper level" spiritual processes, that the benefits seem to be had by some people.   

Hubbard says that "body thetans" exist.   

If you read Chapter 3 carefully, you will that there is a difference between an "imaginary" mental memory or an imaginary belief, and reality, and that imaginary beliefs and imaginary memories still have an effect on someone in the positive.

Hubbard says a whole lot of things are proven as real, by the movement of the needle on the Emeter when the patient is asked about things.

There's a newly shared tape on Wikileaks where Hubbard and his wife are auditing, she auditing him, and she's telling the needle movements, "blowdowns" when he states things.   The implication is that he makes a statement about his long ago past lives, and because the needle "blows down", that his statement is being vindicated by the needle's downward "blowing down" action.

Thus was how Hubbard gained his certainty that his past lives, and the mechanics of various treacherous mental tricks done on "thetans" in their long ago past lives.

The emeter was the scientific tool, plus the benefits, the relief, the physical positive healing changes, that he and other experienced, was the proof of the reality of all this past lives' trauma and "implanting" of false ideas, in all these early Scientologists' therapy sessions.

But this does NOT prove past lives.   

How the brain reacts to questions, how the mental processes can be tricked to benefit the "case" of a person, does NOT prove past lives as reality.

So, really, to get a grip on why Scientology is what it is, and NOT something to just jump into, PLEASE minimally read Chapters 2 and 3 of Harriet Whitehead's excellent 1987 book on Scientology, called "Renunciation and Reformulation", Cornell University Press, findable for just over 7 dollars on amazon.com.

Best, Chuck Beatty