Scientology\u2019s power over its followers is coming under new scrutiny because of the HBO documentary \u201cGoing Clear,\u201d\u009d which premieres March 29 and is based on Lawrence Wright\u2019s 2013 book of the same name. As Wright reported, Scientology has long relied on an arcane lingo that helps induct adherents into founder L. Ron Hubbard\u2019s complex mythology while also isolating them from the outside world. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of former Scientologists tell me,\u201d\u009d Wright said to me, \u201cthat it took quite a while for them to sort out what was a real word and what was a Scientology term.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Hubbard began his superlatively prolific writing career in the 1930s as a sci-fi author for pulp magazines like Astounding Science-Fiction. At the time he started work on \u201cDianetics,\u201d\u009d the ur-text of Scientology, he was corresponding with a group of prominent sci-fi writers who were all influenced by the ideas of Polish-American philosopher Alfred Korzybski. Korzybski believed that semantic training \u201d\u201d correcting the flaws in abstract language that block one\u2019s understanding of concrete things \u201d\u201d could help cure various emotional and physical disorders. In part inspired by Korzybski, \u201cDianetics,\u201d\u009d published in 1950, introduced a wide array of neologisms, jargon, and acronyms designed specifically for Hubbard\u2019s new program.<\/p>\n
Hubbard liked putting quirky twists on existing words: \u201cEnturbulate,\u201d\u009d using the Latin root from \u201cdisturb,\u201d\u009d means \u201cto upset\u201d\u009d; to \u201chat,\u201d\u009d as a verb, is to train for something; \u201chavingness,\u201d\u009d \u201cbeingness,\u201d\u009d and \u201cas-ising\u201d\u009d (making something vanish) also pop up frequently. Many of his terms describe the central practice of Scientology: the \u201caudit,\u201d\u009d a space-age twist on Freudian psychoanalytic therapy. An \u201cauditor\u201d\u009d questions the subject, called the \u201cpreclear\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d who is held back from spiritual progress by the \u201cengrams,\u201d\u009d or recordings of traumatic memories, in his \u201creactive mind,\u201d\u009d a negative unconscious contrasted with the \u201canalytic mind.\u201d\u009d The goal is to discover the \u201cbasic-basic,\u201d\u009d the subject\u2019s original harmful memory, which sometimes dates back to before birth.<\/p>\n