The pseudoscience invented by L. Ron Hubbard and used to give a thin veneer of plausability to
Scientology. Dianetics claims to be "the modern
science of mental health" but in reality is little more than ridiculous claims with no or fraudulent evidence to back them up. The basic principle of Dianetics is that by "auditing", which is like talking to someone, but much more expensive, you can be freed of your "reactive mind", the area of your mind that, according to
Scientology, is out to make you fail at life. The concept of a reactive mind is of course completely false and was only invented to convince
people that all their problems in life could be attributed to a
single source which could only be cured by Scientology. As if that wasn't enough bullshit for one day, Dianetics and Scientology also claim to be able to cure you of other things besides your reactive mind, such as toxins, drug residues and radiation stored in your body, although any sort of reliable medical evidence that their methods work in any way at all is sadly lacking.
According to L. Ron Hubbard, taking
huge doses of niacin can flush radiation and sunburn out of your body. He "discovered" this when he noticed that when
people took
large quantities of niacin, they experienced a
red flush in areas where they had previously been sunburnt. If they regularly took niacin, the flush would lessen and lessen until eventually it stopped altogether. Hubbard concluded that the flush was radiation leaving the body, and that it stopped because all the radiation had been flushed out. Funnily enough, if you ask a medical professional, he'll tell you that a known side-effect of niacin overdoses is that they cause the cells in the body to release histamine, and that histamine can cause a
strange red flush. He'll also tell you that when you'
re sunburnt, your capillaries - the tiny blood vessels in your
skin become damaged, that when they heal they heal into a different structure than undamaged capillaries, and that in the event of a histamine release caused by overdoses of niacin, the
red flush would look much different in areas with these damaged capillaries. Strange coincidence, eh?
