About 70% of illnesses are psychosomatic; perhaps more will be discovered to be so once Dianetics has been in use for a while.
That all illnesses are psychosomatic is absurd because germs have their survival dynamic too.
The germ (bacteria and viruses) theory of disease (from Louis Pasteur) (exogenetic) plus the non-germ theory of disease from Dianetics (autogenetic) plus biochemistry cover all of pathology.
Three stages of pathology: predisposition, precipitation, perpetuation.
Treatment of genetic malformations and damage from injuries are outside the scope of Dianetics (but note that Clears rarely have accidents).
The common cold is psychosomatic. It is usually generated by one engram suggesting it and another confirming/reinforcing it be creation of actual mucus.
Engrams, inherited disabilities, accidents and germs are the four causes that reduce the organism physically from its optimum state.
- Some "inherited" disabilities turn out to be engramic.
- Engrams predispose people to accidents.
- Engrams predispose people to and perpetuate infection.
Theoretically, cancer and diabetes are engramic in cause, particularly malignant cancer. This theory has not yet been tested; arthritis, dermatitis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers and sinusitis are all psychosomatic.
Verbal suggestion in drugged subjects can turn the senses up or down in volume. E.g. to make a person see "almost as well as a cat" or (by turning sight down) able to read through the glare of almost blinding light with apparent comfort.
Hypnosis transfers analytic power from the "I" to the operator through the law of affinity (man must be in affinity with man to survive). This effect would have survival value in animals which run in packs.
The heart can be speeded up or slowed down by positive suggestion alone. Blood flow can be restricted in a nominated part of the body, so that e.g. a cut hand can be made to bleed little or not at all.
I.e. words spoken into the deep strata of the mind can cause physical effects in the body, including the endocrine system (as evidenced by watching it rebalance after the removal of engrams) and the autonomic nervous system.
I.e. the mind controls the glands, not vice-versa.
E.g. the following engram content would inhibit testosterone production in a man: "Sex is horrible, really nasty; I hate it."
(Note the semantic analysis needed; what we consider "higher" mental activities, i.e. words and concepts, have a very deep connection within the organism.)
There is a dwindling spiral here: engrams reduce physical tone through malfunction in the life function regulator. Reduced body tone makes mental tone go down. Reduced mental tone makes body tone go down. "A man starts to get sick and, having engrams, he gets sicker."
Psychosomatic illness is very superficial and is the first thing to lift in auditing. It can be alleviated without clearing.
Hormone injections have more effect when inhibitory engrams have been removed. Drugs don't have consistent effects because the engrams put the "survival" illness back into place.
ACTH and perhaps others in its category shift the individual on the time track, moving from one chronic engram to another.
Violent treatments (e.g. electric shock and surgical treatment of psychosomatic illness) appear to work when they do because they give an additional shock which changes the effect of the engram bank on the body. This aside, treatment of psychosomatic illness by removal of tissue, whether in the brain or some other body part, is not effective in any way. (It is sometimes requested by a patient in response to a "get rid of it" engram.)
There are five classes of psychosomatic illness (all of which cross-class in one way or another):
| 1a | Inhibition of fluid flow (e.g. constipation, arthritis) |
| 1b | Magnification of fluid flow (e.g. high blood pressure, diarrhoea, sinusitis, priapism) |
| 2a | Inhibition of physical growth |
| 2b | Magnification of physical growth (possibly includes cancer, as over-healing) |
| 3 | Predisposition to disease caused by chronic psychosomatic pain (e.g. some tuberculosis, liver and kidney troubles, rashes, common cold) |
| 4 | Perpetuation of actual disease caused by chronic psychosomatic pain (e.g. some tuberculosis, conjunctivitis, running sores, any non-healing condition, bizarre pains with no pathology) |
| 5 | Verbal engram command (any of a vast array of possible conditions, e.g. "I have bad feet") |
In class 4, an actual injury or condition can accidentally fix on a previously-injured area and keep an associated engram keyed in, making the condition chronic.
There can be psychosomatic "pain" (due to the injury in the engram incident) which is not felt due to an anaesthetic command such as "he won't feel a thing".
Engrams can allow precipitation of germ-based disease by command (e.g. "I feel sick") or by general lowering of physical tone and therefore resistance.
Given the action of engrams, especially in children, in the predisposition, precipitation and perpetuation of disease, and the worsening of effects due to restimulation, one wonders what the effects of disease would be without all this.
Evolution theory misses change due to survival necessity when talking only of random mutation.
A Clear is not easily made ill, virus or no; in an aberree, illness closely follows depression of the mental tone level.
Psychosomatic illness includes actual pathology, not just hypochondriacal tendencies (which is a special case of class 5).
Psychosomatic illness has little to do with sanity level, as it requires only one or two engrams of a specific nature to become manifest.
A aberration is a mental derangement; a somatic is a physical derangement. Both are present in an engram.
An individual will not manifest somatics if he is in the winning valence, but he will harm others (the winning valence delivered the engram). If this is repressed (by self, others or society) he will switch to own valence and will manifest the somatics as well as the aberration.
Sexual perversion (including homosexuality) is classified as a psychosomatic illness based on vicious engrams. A pervert is always ill in some way or another.
Due to engramic nature, a pervert is so extremely dangerous to society that tolerance is as bad for the society as punishment.
Manichaeism preached that all mental illness came from sex, which is evil (I though LRH was describing Freudism!)
Prevention of blasphemy has value because, entered into engrams, blasphemy makes the insane zealot and the murderous atheist.
Only pro-survival engrams become chronic. Therefore chronic psychosomatic illnesses have a sympathy (pro-survival) engram or engrams behind them. This is because:
- In them, one usually adopts one's own valence (it is the survival valence, as nice things are said to self).
- The reactive mind (in which the law of affinity also operates) puts forward the somatic to attract affinity (the illness is a "precious possession").
It is not possible to "spoil" a child with love and affection; they need all that they can get. An unattended sick child gets sicker.
The second the analyzer identifies an engram as such, it loses 20% of its power to aberrate and usually 100% of its value to cause psychosomatic illness.
Lifting of locks can alleviate a condition, until the reactive mind digs up another engram.
Drugs can temporarily alleviate a condition until the body, at the command of the reactive mind, finds a way round them.
Psycho-surgery and ECT can "cure" a psychosomatic illness, along with the personality, the intellect, and often life itself.
Pleasurable (or even neutral) memories are permanent; pain is perishable. Locks disappear like chaff when the underlying engram is gone.
Pro-survival engrams are much harder to remove than contra-survival engrams, though they are at least easier to find: they're right there in the surface as psychosomatic illnesses.
(Contra-survival: "here's a valence I can use to survive"; pro-survival: this engram guarantees own valence survival.)
All psychosomatic illnesses can be cured with Dianetics.
