The Basic Language of Dianetics

“In reading this book, be very certain you never go past a word you do not fully understand. The only reason a person gives up a study or becomes confused or unable to learn is because he or she has gone past a word that was not understood.”

This “Important Note” prefaces L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics. It is a fair warning. Hubbard makes strange use of the English language and if you attempt to read it as if it were written in English, you will not understand it and you will probably give up.

He insists that he is writing in “Basic language” (pg. 2) so that ordinary housewives and businessmen can understand. He isn’t interested in peddling his “modern science of mental health” to scientists, biologists, physicians or mental heath professionals. In fact, Hubbard sneers at scholars and academics and intellectuals.

He is dismissive of them because they can see through his pretentious pseudo-scientific style. Over and over again in Dianetics, Hubbard insists that this is “scientific fact” and that his program is a “science of the mind.” But he does not offer any evidence. Not once.  

Instead he piles claim upon outrageous claim. “About 70 percent of the physician’s roster of diseases fall into the category of psychosomatic illness,” he claims on page 111. Documentation of this? Statistical analysis? Nope. Just the claim that Engrams cause them all and that those engrams can be “cleared” from the devoted follower.

Don’t ask questions. Don’t try to understand the meaning of words. Don’t expect evidence. Just keep forking over the money for your auditing sessions.