Dianetics Schmianetics

Last Sunday, my best friend from high school, D, managed to get me out of the house despite my having planned that day to be dedicated to my laundry. I got a call from her around 11:30 am and informed me of the Dianetics seminar that they'll be having over at the Traders Hotel in Roxas Boulevard in about one and a half hours. I told her that I have domestic duty calling but was able to win me over when she said that our other friends Cher and Zarah will be attending the seminar as well. I got excited as I haven't seen them in ages and I wanted to talk to them as well for a birthday bash/despidada that I have in mind for our friend Lea who's about to leave for the States and would probably stay there for good.

By the time 1 pm came, I was already dressed and took a cab to take me to the venue. I live nearby so it was no surprise that I got to the Traders Hotel before anyone else in my high school group. I brought with me the Dianetics book that I borrowed from D but never managed to read it in the almost 2 months that the book was in my possession :D Anyhoo, that proved to be an auspicious decision as the book served as my free ticket to the seminar because otherwise, I would've had to shell out Php500 for the entrance fee. I went to the registration table and proceeded to save seats for my friends.

Cher and Zarah arrived around 2 pm because of the long travel time (both of them came from Marikina) and wait time (I forgot who arrived late in their rendezvous point). They didn't really miss much because what transpired during the first hour was the introduction of Dianetics.

I came in with an open mind as I was curious about what Scientology and Dianetics is all about. At first, what the Australian speaker was saying was acceptable, at least in my belief system. He tells us about painful (physical, mental, emotional) and traumatic events having a very negative impact on a person's psyche. I agree with that because it is but natural for the body to come up with a defense mechanism against future instances of whatever that painful or traumatic event is. He then proceeded to tell us about the power of suggestion via words. I agree with that concept as well because words, in themselves contain energy. Shortly afterwards, he explained to us the dichotomy of the Analytical and the Reactive mind and its relationship to psychosomatic disorders. Okay, I think I believe in that somewhat.

The speaker's next statement raised a red flag in my mind when he claimed that ulcer, arthritis and asthma are psychosomatic disorders that auditing can cure. 'Is this guy on crack or something?' I thought. Okay, sure, it maybe true for some people with hyperactive imagination but what about people who habitually skips their meals which in turn causes the stomach's hydrochloric acid to eat away the stomach's lining? What about the people who got heriditary diseases? My dad's side of the family is notorious for gout being prevalent in their male members, my dad included having witnessed him go through the pain of gout twice or thrice in the last couple of years. My cousins got their ashtma from their mom. No wonder Tom Cruise is just whack!

For the last part of the seminar, they taught all the participants how to do a procedure that they call 'Auditing.' It's basically going through traumatic and painful incidents in your life while you're fully conscious (albeit with your eyes closed) to "reduce" the situation so that the negative engram (the side effect of having that painful/traumatic experience) would be obliterated. In the process, you become like a CSI going through everything, examining all the minute details of what your senses tell you. They have this assumption that even if you're knocked unconscious, your other senses such as hearing and touch becomes greater in the temporary absence of vision.

Watching the video of an auditing was amazing, at the time I was viewing it. When it came to putting into practice the theory. it did not work for me. I had a hard time recalling the sequence of events of a traumatic experience that happened when I was in high school some 10 years ago let alone recalling the minute details that the auditor is asking for. It was so ineffective that I got my friend and my auditor Cher to collode into pretending that we were still doing the damn exercise when in fact we were already chatting.

When we were done, members of the Church of Scientology kept on asking me to write a success story. When I told them that it didn't work, they asked me to do the auditing process a second time. Didn't work either. Al (D's friend) came to where I and Cher were seated. When he asked me how it was, I told him the truth and that made him propagandiza at lenght. What he did annoyed me to the point that I finally snapped at D's close friend, the man responsible for bringing the Church of Scientology to the country.

I took a cab with Zarah and Cher on our way home. I explained to them my side of the story. First point - I have the right to say no (with regards to the success story) and they can't make me do anything that I don't want to do. Second point - I hate hypocrites. I would rather come out as bitchy or in their case, someone with a reactive mind as big as Jupiter than to play along with what they wanted to hear from me. Third point - I've already made up my mind about Auditing not working for me. The mind is such a powerful thing that what whatever you think would happen. Since my thoughts are focused on the fact that Auditing just doesn't work for me, there is no amount of energy in the world that would change the outcome. Al, of all people, should know that!