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The Dianetics of Grief By L. Ron Hubbard Throughout the ages grief has been one of the heaviest and most painful burdens to be carried by Mankind. It is to these countless sufferers, present and future, that Dianetics brings hope. For Dianetics eases the load not by sealing off a painful past, but by opening it to the light, by discharging pent-up feelings so that all is free and healthy again. When Shakespeare said, “No longer mourn for me when I am dead, than you shall hear the surly sullen bell give warning to the world that I am fled,” he was recognizing the unnaturalness of excessive grief. A maiming accident, a business failure, the death of a loved one—all are real experiences, all are real losses, and each of them does carry with it a reduction in the survival potential, a small piece of death. That is why people can become so overwhelmed by grief that they decline and even die. But since life must go on regardless of losses or catastrophes, it is much better for it to do so happily. How much better to be able to look back with pleasure and be able to say, “It sure was swell while it lasted!” The individual does more for himself and his environment when he achieves a calm retrospect, without aching heart or tear-dimmed eye. In the science of Dianetics we find the key for unlocking and draining the reservoirs of destructive emotion. And the techniques of Dianetics are simple—as simple as going back to last night’s supper. They form a method of tapping tears at their source so that dreaded memories will no longer be painful. It is a clean, simple scientific method of accomplishing an end which has been the aim of grief rituals of many religions and many peoples-- the reaching of peace, harmony and a reorientation toward the future without denying or negating the past. It is wonderful to see what influence the discharge of pent-up grief has on a personality, to see an individual become radiantly and vibrantly alive, to see him turn toward normal living and good, healthy relationships. It is almost like a miracle to see his physical tone rise as the debilitating effects of grief are repaired and his emotional tone lift as he finds new hope in life. The technique of Dianetic processing is a simple one. It consists of closing the eyes to assist in withdrawing the attention from present surroundings and returning the attention to past incidents of grief or fear or pain. These incidents are then recounted in detail with the aid of a Dianetic auditor who supervises the process, bringing to it technique and perspective. By repeated recounting of such a past experience, the tension is discharged from it and it is reduced to calm, matter-of-fact reality. It is important to note that the recounting of pleasant experiences by this same technique enhances their pleasure and renders them more brilliant in recall. That is because the mind is self-protecting. It is oriented toward the survival of the individual and the triumph of pleasure over pain. Indeed, exploration of supposedly unpleasant experiences frequently discovers in them pleasure previously concealed. The basis for the power of grief over the mind and body lies in the nature of the reactive mind. The reactive mind is a newly discovered part of our mental function. It is not a mind which thinks. It is a mind which reacts blindly and irrationally. The reactive mind is composed of the memory recordings of those things which happened during unconsciousness. And the function of the reactive mind is to energize in our behavior actual dramatizations of those experiences during future emergency situations of a similar nature. It is to these memories of moments of unconsciousness (or engrams, as we call them) that the charges of grief attach themselves, intensifying their dramatization. Experiences during unconsciousness of small or large degree are found recorded over the entire time track of a person’s life, even in the prenatal period. Their presence at such an early period does not imply hearing or understanding by the fetus any more than a phonograph record hears or understands. In later life, however, whenever the environment reminds one vigorously of these recordings, the reactive mind springs into action. The mind replays the recordings in the form of bodily ills, in mental processes such as anxiety and worry, and in our actual physical behavior. And just as the replay dramatization of worry is worry, so the dramatization of pain is pain, the dramatization of tears is tears. The type of compulsive behavior which people find themselves engaged in when they say, “I don’t know why I act like that” is usually the dramatization of material from one of these engrams. Those sudden thrusts and twists of painful emotion which clutch the heart at a poignant scene in a movie are old grief in restimulation. Those rushes of tears and sadness which cloud the mind when familiar scenes and phrases again meet the eyes and ears are old grief in dramatization. The tears of sympathy, the tears of compassion, all are tears of grief. They are the outward signs of feelings imprisoned in grief engrams, feelings which need only to be released for mental tranquility. The releasing of grief often requires the recounting and reduction of pain engrams which underlie the grief. The return to these engrams and their verbal recounting is handled by the same processes as the discharge of the grief itself, and the Dianetic auditor must be skilled in handling this work precisely and sympathetically. Dianetics gives him a scientific method for the deepest insight into the human mind yet discovered.
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