[note: this was sent to me by an ex-member who read my post about the word "dianetics"] I would like to point out an interesting tactic used by the Church of Scientology to forward its metamorphosis from a "Science of the Mind"

to an "Applied Religious Philosophy" to an outright religion. Those of you who have studied this chameleon-like organization for fifteen years or more may realize that there have been subtle changes to the "tech" over time. One of the most striking changes involves word one of "book one": Dianetics.

In the earliest printings of "Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health," the word Dianetics is defined in the glossary thus:

"DIANETICS: Greek, dianoua -- thought. See any large dictionary."

On page ix of the synopsis of these early books, it is again defined as: "Dianetics (Gr., dianoua -- thought) is the science of mind," and a couple of paragraphs later the definition is expanded upon as "...an exact science and its application is on the order of, but simpler than, engineering." (Which is a complete falsehood based apparently upon Hubbard's two less-than-stellar years of study at George Washington Univ., but that's another topic.)

Early versions of "Science of Survival" define Dianetics as ". . . is science of thought. The word is from the Greek "dianoua" (through mind.)" {SOS 1967}. The dust jacket for this book (the one with the black tree and green print on a white background) again says "Dianetics means "through thought". {sic} "Dianetics is Man's {sic} most advanced school of the mind."

Moving forward to 1981, we see a shift in the glossary definition of Dianetics. In DMSMH it now reads: "DIANETICS: Greek, dianoua -- thought -- or more correctly, DIA (Greek) "through," NOUS (Greek) "soul," and the 1993 edition of "What Is Scientology" uses this same definition.

Thus we see that the definition of the word Dianetics has been changed from meaning "through thought" to meaning "through soul," and today the word Dianetics is defined in all "church" publications as meaning "through soul."

I don't think I need to point out why the definition of this word was changed {Can you say 501(C)(3)?}; but I would like to state that it is an incorrect definition. Per the Oxford "Greek-English Lexicon"

dictionary, the Greek "Dia" is indeed defined as meaning "through,"

however "nous," is defined as: "MIND, PERCEPTION," and further, "to have sense, be sensible," "to have one's mind directed to something,"

and in the only usage that can even be considered close to "soul":

"the mind, heart" as in "with all his heart and soul."

So, interestingly enough, the Scientology organization has not only changed its definition of the word "Dianetics," it has changed the definition of the Greek from which the word is derived. Further, the true Greek word for "soul" is "psyche." That's right, "psyche." Now, remember way back when LRH first started slamming the evil psychiatrists, he would reference this derivation while pointing out that the word psychology originally meant "study of the spirit" but that over time psychologists and psychiatrists not only stopped treating people like spiritual beings, they stopped believing in man's spiritually at all. You don't remember? Well, let's look at the tech dictionary circa 1975.

On page 322 of the "Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary,"

the word "Psychology" is defined as: "1. defined this way:

psyche-ology; spirit, study of. (AHMC 1 6012C31)".* Definition two is quite hilarious and I will take it up at a different time, but now, let's skip to definition " 3. the study of the spirit (or mind) that came into the peculiar position of being a study of the spirit which denied the spirit. (PAB {Professional Auditor's Bulletin} 82)."

These definitions are interesting for a number of reasons. First, they prove my point. "Psyche" is indeed the Greek word for "soul" or "spirit," not "nous" or "noua." Secondly, definition 3 seems to confuse the words "spirit" and "mind." In fact, it seems to indicate that they are synonymous, unless the word "mind" in parenthesis is supposed to mean that Psychology is a study of either the spirit or the mind; or perhaps it means it is the study of both the spirit and the mind (you go ahead and figure it out.) If it is indicating that the spirit and the mind are the same thing, how does that fit in with the definition of the "Parts Of Man" as found of page 294 of this same dictionary: 1. the individual man is divisible (separable) into three parts (divisions).* The first of these is the spirit, called in Scn the Thetan. The second of these parts is the Mind. The third of these parts is the Body. (FOT, {Fundamentals of Thought} p. 54).

The third most interesting thing about this definition is that it leads me to ask the question: If psychology became a study of the spirit which denied the spirit, does that mean that Dianetics has become a study of the mind that denies the mind?

Grab a Greek dictionary folks and clear it up for yourselves. Someone in that organization has a giant MU!

COMING NEXT: WHAT "THETA" REALLY MEANS IN GREEK

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