Continuing from my last post, let's get into another controversial highlight from Dianetics, and see how it stacks up against popular science 60 years later.
2. That the reactive mind can command people to behave irrationally based on recordings (which may include more than sights and sounds) that were stored in a person's mind several years ago is another major concept of Dianetics. Even more controversial was the idea that these reactive mind commands were often found to come from recordings taken around - and before - the time of birth.
- You might observe that even a modern reality TV show doesn't have time to play everything that is recorded in the lives of it's participants. Since it takes more time to describe what happens in your life, than it takes to live through it, we can't test whether someone's mind can retrieve every piece of information it ever perceived. However, let's take a look at what modern science has to say about how long we can store information:
Thomas R. Verny writes in "The Secret Life of the Unborn Child", "The fetus can see, hear, experience, taste and, on a primitive level, even learn in utero..."
Research, experiments, and even courses proving the existence of prenatal memory have become available through professionals such as Rene Van de Carr, Dr. Anthony DeCasper and Professor Makoto Shichida.
Kim Peek (Rest in Peace), who was the inspiration for the movie "Rain Man" (starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise), was able to give the correct answers to questions asked at random, regarding anything he'd read about, as well as the dates of his own life experiences.
Brad Williams , Bob Petrella, and Jill Price (who was featured on NPR) are others who have recently been proven to have total recall of experiences dating back to the beginning of their lives.
Those interested kind find out more about the scientific research regarding the above cases. This second point seems to be valid under science after 60 years:
Modern science, through the research of doctors and professors, has proven that a human being can accurately store and recall facts (as well as events and the dates on which they occurred) for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, science has also shown that a human being can begin learning and responding to what is learned prenatally (before birth). As I previously mentioned, this post only touches on a small bit of what is contained in Dianetics, but it is significant to note that Dianetics doesn't refer to memories per se. Rather, it refers to the recordings of painful moments that make up the "reactive mind" (and force people to do irrational things in the presence of a perceived threat) as "engrams". An "engram" is not recorded or remembered in the way that a normal memory is.
According to Dianetics, the part of the mind that functions rationally, the "analytical mind", cannot access "engrams" as it can standard memory. When the "reactive mind" takes over, contacting an engram, it simultaneously shuts down the "analytical mind". Dianetics describes a method for accessing these "engrams" (which can be stored and hidden from one's awareness for as long as they are alive) and making them available to the "analytical mind" as standard mental image pictures, so they can no longer compel irrational behavior.
I'll save my third interesting highlight of Dianetics for the next post, where we'll see what else modern science has to say regarding these controversial statements made 60 years ago...
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