Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH
These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 4, “The ‘Demons’” from DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.
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Comments on
The “Demons”
KEY WORDS: Demon, Demon circuit
A bona-fide demon is one who gives thoughts voice, or echoes the spoken word interiorly, or who gives all sorts of complicated advice like a real, live voice exteriorly. Such “demons” appeared in Dianetics research. This was a strange phenomenon, which Hubbard found to be pretty common among people. He found that a dianetic demon is a parasitic mental circuit that is derived entirely from words contained in engrams.
What appears as a demon possessing a person is actually an engram of that person dramatizing itself.
Many people, when they look inward for some answer, hear a voice inside their head that seem to answer their question. This is an engram (unassimilated trauma) demanding the person to listen and obey its orders. Such “listen to me” demon is common in the society, which is to say this, engram circulates widely. After it is keyed-in, the individual thinks “out loud,” which is to say, he puts his thoughts into language. Some people find a voice inside their head criticizing them all the time.
All the chatter going inside one’s head is the result of mental circuits set up by the engrams.
These circuits are formed when the engram compartments off part of the mental matrix. The engram reduces the intellect of the person. When a person resists the actions of the engram, it eventually makes him ill one way or another.
According to Hubbard, there is another class of demons that don’t permit certain things to be said or done. These are parasitic circuits that are created from phrases contained in engrams, such as, “Never say can’t!” “Never talk back to your elders,” or “You can’t talk here. Who said you could talk?”
Any of these engramic phrases that create “demons” (parasitic circuits) might produce a stammerer.
There are thousands of cliches in any language which, when literally taken, mean quite the opposite from what the speaker intends. Such cliches can enter engrams and enforce themselves on the behavior of the person with moronic literalness under the threat of pain, emotion, and “unconsciousness.” Phrases in engrams, such as, “you can’t see,” “you can’t hear,” can inhibit or obstruct that ability. Any perception can be occluded in recall by engrams.
According to Hubbard, any disability can be traced back to phrases in the engrams.
This is the dianetic theory of Hubbard. This theory is found to be limited when applied. However, there is no doubt that there are unassimilated perceptions that can corrupt the circuits of the mental matrix, and seriously affect a person’s thinking, behavior and well-beingness. When such perceptions are finally assimilated, miraculous improvements can occur in a person’s condition.
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