Dianetics

Form of psychotherapy developed by the US science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), which formed the basis for Scientology. Hubbard believed that all mental illness and certain forms of physical illness are caused by ‘engrams’, or incompletely assimilated traumatic experiences, both pre- and postnatal. These engrams can be confronted during therapy with an auditor and thus exorcised. An individual free from engrams would be a ‘Clear’ and perfectly healthy.

Hubbard later expanded this theory: behind each mind is a being, the Thetan, which is neither physical nor mental, and which has forgotten its true nature and is therefore trapped in a cycle of reincarnation, accumulating engrams with each lifetime. If these engrams are cleared, the individual will become an Operating Thetan, with quasi-miraculous powers.