I would have bolded the SOME RESEARCHERS bit, personally. There is no concensus.
A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. While no one can prove the existence of past lives, you cannot provide superior evidence to refute their existence.
I'm sure you were exaggerating for effect when you said that everyone but Mark and Panda see mental image pictures as delusion. You can't possible know what everyone else on the planet is thinking, else you're far more in need of help than any of us addle-brained exes. To believe you can speak for the rest of the world is, well, delusional. I offer my own disagreement with your statements as superior proof that this is so.
There will never be true consensus on "what is real"?
However, I do understand your point, but you seem to be missing mine. Please do not twist my words or put words in my mouth, thank you.
You said:"I'm sure
you were exaggerating for effect when you said that everyone but Mark and Panda see mental image pictures as delusion. You can't possible know what everyone else on the planet is thinking, else you're far more in need of help than any of us addle-brained exes. To believe you can speak for the rest of the world is, well, delusional. I offer my own disagreement with your statements as superior proof that this is so."
Let me be very clear about my meaning...I'm not talking about our ability to "see" mental image pictures or our imaginations, I don't equate that very delightful ability with being delusional or having hallucinations, as you are implying. It's when a person believes what they are imagining, and are "seeing" in their imagination to be real, and acts upon it as if it is reality, that's delusional. When they falsely experience it through their physical senses, see it, touch it, taste it, feel it, etc. when it is not there and not real, THAT is a hallucination. "Turned on with full perceptics".
We nearly all (excepting some folks with certain kinds of brain damage or mental retardation who don't, their thinking processes are very, very concrete, in that what is "real" to them is only what they can experience with their physical senses) can and do get "mental image pictures" on a regular basis, in all sorts of contexts, and that's a good thing!
I happen to think our brains evolved this way as part of our survival mechanisms and coping skills which enabled us to live and learn about dangers from others, learn from other people's descriptions, without having to experience those dangers personally ourselves. Storytelling would not work without this, the enjoyment would be gone from listening to a great radio drama or stage play, etc. and even great music for those of us who are highly visually oriented!
I want to make it clear that I don't think that simply having, or
using mental image pictures makes one delusional...(as I think
is clear to most readers here). As a painter, I rely upon my own "mental image pictures" to create artwork. All good writers rely on mental image pictures to create characters, dialog, setting and plot, or storyline. I could go on giving many other examples.
What I am talking about is the loss of ability to tell fact from fiction, or to discern the real from the unreal, because the PC believes that they are re-experiencing the memory of an actual event which really happened to them,
when it did not.
I stand by these words, when I said this: "it is not just a picture, or considered to be a picture, by the PC, it is considered to be a memory of something "real" that happened in the PC's past life, (or earlier in this life), which is actually a false memory. In other words, an illusion, a delusion, something which is not real. BY DEFINITION, a hallucination."
I was referring to the example given twice on this thread now by Demented LRH- "But if a PC says that she was raped by a demon in her past life (I described such incident at this thread), this is hardly an attempt to spice up her life -- the incident is too traumatic for her to derive any pleasure from it. This is, undoubtedly, a hallucination caused by Dianetics auditing."
I remember a similar story related by Alanzo regarding his own auditing, where he "relived" or "recounted" committing a violent rape (and murder, I think...) and then was himself tortured and killed because of it. He got all this from "seeing" a swath of something white, when the Auditor identified a needle read and then asked him something like, there, what was that just now? None of that was real, but he thought it was real, because it came up in an Auditing session and he believed that Scientology Auditing would help him to uncover the hidden reasons for his problems or lack of success in life.
I know of other examples told to me by the people who experienced them, and who are still, years later, being negatively affected by them, and are still working on trying to get over them. (I won't go into specific details because I do not want to break their confidences in me, and I respect their privacy as they are working on healing and recovery from their Cult experiences.)
I'm not saying that this sort of thing happens with every Auditing action and in every session. But there is ample prima facie evidence that Scientology Auditing does cause damage and harm to people, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
I know some of you will put your hand over your hearts and say, but I've had hundreds/thousands of hours of Auditing, and I'm not damaged... good for you! But sadly, many ARE harmed. Many actually believe themselves to BE "degraded beings", because of these false memories they have "experienced" during Auditing.
Or, like the poor woman Demented LRH has referred to, they are damaged by their "experience" of being victimized and injured or harmed in some way when that "incident" never really happened. But it is REAL to them, and they never get over it. Or not without lots of therapy, medication...often self-medication with drugs and alcohol. I think that many of the Scientology suicides are poor folks who are stuck in this mindset with no relief.
I know when I say that this is criminal behavior, there is implied criticism of everyone who has ever Audited. I realize that this is a very touchy subject, emotionally, and I don't mean to give offense or to accuse any and all Auditors of being criminals. Many of you have had the experience of both being helped by, and helping others via Auditing. I think most Auditors were/are truly motivated to help people and want to heal the world.
I think it is a tremendous waste and a loss to society, to our communities, that these same people over decades of time did not become counselors, ministers/priests, social workers, teachers, or medical professionals, really go into a helping profession and spend their lives really helping people, as they might have, if not for getting waylaid by the trap of COS and Scientology. (I know that some of you are cynical and jaded and will argue that people serving in the helping professions don't really help people either...)
Maybe we're comparing apples to oranges when we just use the broad term, "Auditing". Maybe I should be referring to a specific type or "level" of Auditing only.
How do we separate the harm from the helpful? I have heard some much experienced, excellent old Auditors say...stop at the L's. Others say, lower level training is okay, upper level is harmful. Others say, put down the cans and walk away from the whole thing! :confused2:
COS party line for folks who go insane due to their Auditing processes is that they were insane already.
What do you think? Those of you who have experience with this?
Thanks for answering. I still think that "hallucination" is the wrong word but I've said all I'm going to say about it. 
