Dianetics

Publisher's Summary

Containing discoveries heralded as greater than the wheel or fire, Dianetics has remained a best seller for more than 50 years. And with over 20 million copies in print - generating a movement that spans virtually every country on earth - it's indisputably the most widely read and influential book ever written about the human mind.

Here is the anatomy and full description of the Reactive Mind, the previously unknown source of the nightmares, unreasonable fears, upsets, and insecurities that enslave Man. This book shows you how to get rid of it, and so achieve something Man has previously only dreamed of: the State of Clear.

Dianetics enables you to discover and eradicate these harmful experiences, so they never affect you again, revealing the one person you've always wanted to know: You.

©2007 L. Ron Hubbard Library (P)2007 L. Ron Hubbard Library

Repetitive nonsense

I always thought Dianetics and Scientology were a bit loopy, but before I criticize something I make a point of understanding it first. I chose to listen to Dianetics on audible instead of reading it because of the length. I am about half way through and I can't take it any more. There is a lot of nonsense talk and the word engram is used so often I swear some one gets a commission each time it's read. The basic premise is that there are two minds in each person, the analytical mind and the reactive mind. The analytical mind is rational and makes decisions based on logic. The reactive mind reacts based on fear and aggression, based on past traumatic experiences. This is not rocket science to most people. This is the problem of this book. It takes this simple premise and reiterates it chapter after chapter, paragraph after paragraph, in such a repetitive and boring manner. To keep you excited (asleep really) the author has thrown in lots of gibberish fake science.

Every time I read something I disagree with I at least see something of merit in the authors work, a point of view. I see some reasoned argument for that persons position and I can learn from it. This book is the first time I have walked away understanding nothing. It is clearly trash designed to take your money and provide you with nothing in return. As Orwell said, it is trying to give solidity to pure wind.

102 of 126 people found this review helpful

I gave up before the book made any kind of point.

What would have made Dianetics better?

The book just rambled. I'm hoping it eventually got to a point or some sort of action plan, I just couldn't hang in there. It kept going in circles without giving any kind of real information.

What was most disappointing about L. Ron Hubbard’s story?

There was no story.

What does Lloyd Sherr bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I probably wouldn't have made it past the first page if I hadn't been plugged into an audio book and taking a walk.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

33 of 50 people found this review helpful

1of those reads that is best to see for yourself

So much about Scientology exists in the zeitgeist but dianetics should be analyzed for yourself and see if it works.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Owner’s manual for the mind

This book is very controversial, to be sure. I recommend you read it and decide for yourself if it is true. I found it to be accurate in it’s description of the mind and the technique it teaches led me to a better understating of my self and an improvement in my life.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

waste

the book is a bunch of double talk, fabricated to make money off you. dont get sucked in

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

Scientifically proven sciencey science, right here

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I couldn't say. Someone with more patience, perhaps.

Any additional comments?

I got about halfway into it before giving up. Narrator is very good. Content is intolerable. Loaded with vague platitudes and lines of new-age bullshit braced about every third paragraph with a firmly stated but utterly unsupported assertion that THIS ISN'T THEORY, IT'S PROVEN SCIENTIFIC FACT. I can't recall a single time when a statement like that was followed with even a hint of what that proof might have been, or how it was developed. There's always an element of the pep talk in self-help literature, and it's often a good thing -- designed to stimulate your power of belief to make the changes you want to make. Here, though, it's so transparently an appeal to authority (the author's) that it's simply impossible to suspend disbelief enough to take the ride. Perhaps its real main purpose is to convince me that I am not a "clear" but must take some further action to become one. Still, it certainly didn't give any practical tips on how to go about doing so by the time I gave up, around page 150.This book has had a big impact on culture and society and I really wanted to finish it, but I just couldn't. Check, please.

9 of 15 people found this review helpful

Way too rhetoric

I'm one to give everything a chance, but this book is just too full (in my opinion) of WAY TOO MUCH rhetoric. Allot of the references are made to "research" which is not supported by the text. Just allot of "we found this or that in our study". The book is also full of countless theoretical examples to try to explain what the author is trying to say. I kept feeling like "yeah I got it the first 20 times you said it" was something I kept repeating in my head. official sounding terms and labels fill the book, and really don't serve to convince me that the author was really on to something. I picked up a couple of helpful tips on how I can manipulate how my mind may perceive something, but other than that I really couldn't wait to finish the book, to just put the dam thing behind me. I'm not one to mess with folks beliefs, but how they built a "religion" around the ideas put forth by this book is beyond me. The text really has nothing to do with a belief structure, but reads more like a case study on the mind and how the author believes it works. Finally, when one thinks it maybe beginning to finally get interesting (more mind rhetoric), the book then turns itself into a instructional manual. As if by reading the dam thing, one might be able to or even more bold, be qualified (eeek) to treat folks for various different mind "psychosomatic" illness. Just from reading this! Scary! Anyway, I've always been curious about this book, and now that it's finally behind me, I can honestly say, that it's not for me, and how it became what it has, and what's sparked is both a shock and a very sad thought.

29 of 49 people found this review helpful

Waste of time

Chose to listen to this because I wanted to learn what Dianetics is about. If I started believing what this group believes, I really would need intensive therapy!

32 of 55 people found this review helpful

I should not have waited<br />

eye opening new paradigm even 34 years later I wish I would have read this much sooner

7 of 12 people found this review helpful

science fiction meets insulting prejudice

Not much to say here. Isaac Asimov's books are about as scientifically accurate as this waste of time. Seriously don't waste your time. It's the depraved ranting and raving of a fart huffing clown who was almost believable until he started trashing abortion, homosexuality, and mental illness. Definite waste of an audible credit and 7 hours of my life.

9 of 16 people found this review helpful

An amazing and insightful book

Dianetics is a great book which explores the mind, then gives you solutions to help yourself and the others around you.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Excellent study of the human mind.

Dianetics, the modern science of mental health, is probably the most important book written on the human mind ever.
It uses analogies in describing how the mind works, and gives anecdotal accounts of actual events that cause pain and stress. The therapy is not for the faint hearted. It requires commitment and the ability to confront absolutely anything. The benefits of therapy are unlimited.
I know that for some people Dianetics is nonsense. They don't get it at all. That's ok, each to their own. Another mans junk is another mans gold.
But, just try it. What is true for you, is true for you. You may like it.

Absolute rubbish! Dangerous ideas.

Other than sometimes stating the obvious this is nothing more than a rambling waste of time. The only scientific fact true of this book is its absolute manure!

8 of 18 people found this review helpful

excellent book ever I bought. thanks

I have been searching for answers and couldn't find in many books now found it and it help me a lot and it totally works when I use its technique.

3 of 8 people found this review helpful

Great book

Great book about the mind. Very interesting points. About to start the next book. N

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Love This Book.

A really great book to listen to, so much to learn from this. Narrated Perfectly.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful