Anyone who has read anything about hypnosis from a source other than L Ron Hubbard can see that auditing produces a hypnotic state and makes a Scientologist highly suggestible. Heres a good place to start to learn about what hypnosis really is:
Scientific American
And heres a good definition of the term by the
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis:
From their website:
Definition of Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a state of inner absorption, concentration and focused attention. It is like using a magnifying glass to focus the rays of the sun and make them more powerful. Similarly, when our minds are concentrated and focused, we are able to use our minds more powerfully. Because hypnosis allows people to use more of their potential, learning self-hypnosis is the ultimate act of self-control.
Practitioners use clinical hypnosis in three main ways. First, they encourage the use of imagination. Mental imagery is very powerful, especially in a focused state of attention. The mind seems capable of using imagery, even if it is only symbolic, to assist us in bringing about the things we are imagining. For example, a patient with ulcerative colitis may be asked to imagine what his/her distressed colon looks like. If she imagines it as being like a tunnel, with very red, inflamed walls that are rough in texture, the patient may be encouraged in hypnosis (and in self-hypnosis) to imagine this image changing to a healthy one.
A second basic hypnotic method is to present ideas or suggestions to the patient. In a state of concentrated attention, ideas and suggestions that are compatible with what the patient wants seem to have a more powerful impact on the mind.
Finally, hypnosis may be used for unconscious exploration, to better understand underlying motivations or identify whether past events or experiences are associated with causing a problem. Hypnosis avoids the critical censor of the conscious mind, which often defeats what we know to be in our best interests. The effectiveness of hypnosis appears to lie in the way in which it bypasses the critical observation and interference of the conscious mind, allowing the clients intentions for change to take effect.
A Scientologist will recognize each of those applications above as very familiar parts of auditing.
Hubbard mis-defined hypnosis and made it this VERY BAD thing over there, while making auditing very different and a VERY GOOD thing over here.
This is using misdirection, which Hubbard was very good at and used often in Scientology materials.
Auditing came straight from techniques of hypnosis, and auditing, I believe, is correctly categorized as a highly developed form of hypno-therapy.
The trouble in recognizing this while being a Scientologist lies in these misdirections. Hubbard told them that hypnosis was a state of
unconsciousness and that during hypnosis you would not remember what the hypnotist did or said. This only happens very occasionally during hypnosis sessions. Most often during hypnosis, the client is completely awake and aware, and able to recall everything that went on in the session.
That fact is that during many auditing sessions, the same thing happens to the PC. But Hubbard explained this away by calling these times of unconsciousness during auditing sessions boil off. He told Scientologists that they were boiling off deposits of unconsciousness out of their minds during these periods in auditing and it was very therapeutic for them. He masked what was going on by assigning a different cause to it another misdirection.
Hubbard told Scientologist that hypnosis makes you more and more unconscious and auditing makes you more and more awake and aware. So Scientologists believe that hypnosis is a robot-making procedure with all kinds of woo-woo weirdo feelings and states of mind.
The fact is that hypnotic states arent weirdo woo-woo states at all.
Anyone is very familiar with them.
For instance, have you ever become totally absorbed in a really good movie? It could be three hours long and, when the movie is over, you had no idea the time had passed. You kind of wake up when the movie ends and start looking around and realize that you have been somewhere else the whole time.
That is a characteristic of a hypnotic state.
In that state of mind, you are not unaware, or unconscious, at all.
Instead, you are VERY aware and VERY conscious of ONE THING, to the exclusion of ALL OTHER THINGS in the environment.
Just like being really IN SESSION with a good auditor.
Thats why LRH isolated the Training Routines (TRs), which are communication skills that auditors use to keep a pc in session and placed so much emphasis on them. They were so important because TRs serve as the vital skill necessary to keep the pc interested in own case and willing to talk to the auditor (the definition of IN SESSION).
So, the state of being IN SESSION is a trance or hypnotic state.
Along with the social coercion techniques that Hubbard built into Scientology like:
- The emphasis on statistics and tying these to your ethical state
- The enforced disconnection from dissidents
- The screaming at juniors
- The elitist hierarchies which can not be questioned
- The forced confessionals for any doubt or dissidence
I think that the hypnotic nature of auditing served to
soften up Scientologists so that his positive suggestions, and enforced suggestions, would take hold more deeply.
Hubbard was a hypnotist.
He knew what he was doing...
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