Maybe L. Ron Had Something After All

I have recently finished reading "Dianetics" (I know it should be underlined Mr. Bergan but I couldn't figure out how to make it work) by L. Ron Hubbard. It's the book that started him on his path towards writing the foundations for the Church of Scientology. The basic premise is that people behave irrationally because they have "engrams." These are imprinted in your brain during times of injury or unconsciousness. When restimulated they cause irrational behavior and many types of physical illnesses. For example, if you received a concussion and while you were more or less unconscious somebody said, "I'll take care of you," that's an engram. When properly restimulated by events or people similar to those involved in the concussion incident, you might have migraine headaches. If a person undergoes Dianetic Therapy, now mostly at Scientology Churches, he can be cleared of his engrams, and therefore function at a much higher mental level, complete with full perceptive recall of all moments of one's life. It gets a lot crazier if you read more about his later works that lay out the premises of Scientology (mostly about aliens and the beginning of the universe). So, it was an interesting read, but of course I dismissed most of it as just another get-rich-quick self-help scam.

Kim at Fischer's Tower

Trying to decide which path to take

A View of Lake Naivasha from above Hell's Gate National Park

However, after a day of cycling through Hell's Gate National Park, I'm beginning to wonder if L. Ron had something after all. You see, I've never really seen Kim get nervous about physical danger before, and I certainly didn't think that riding a mountain bike would qualify as dangerous. She wasn't nervous about white water rafting, and I know she has been bungee jumping and sky diving among other things adrenaline related. But after a seriously difficult climb to about the highest point in the park, which included several instances of pushing the bikes up the hill, we started our descent. It was at this point I saw the look in her eyes that I'd never seen before. She looked terrified of going too fast down the rocky path! There was some danger involved here, losing control and flying off the cliff for example, but nothing to justify that look. Hmm???

Scaring away some zebras

Admiring the gazelles

Thirsty giraffes

It turns out that at six years of age she had a bicycle accident that resulted in the loss of four teeth. That got me thinking, "Engrams!" What else could cause that "irrational" fear of falling to her death? Maybe I'll read another of Hubbard's books, but I'm not quite ready to start her into Dianetic Therapy just yet!

The result of a 35km bike ride!