Editing Auditing (Scientology) (section)

=== Claimed benefits ===

L. Ron Hubbard claimed benefits from auditing including improved [[IQ]], improved ability to communicate, enhanced memory and alleviation of issues such as [[psychosis]], [[dyslexia]] and [[attention deficit disorder]].<ref name="IQ etc">{{Cite web |url=http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/02/08/archives/scientology-expose-new-yorker.html |title=The Original Scientology Exposé |publisher=[[The Saturday Evening Post]] |date=February 8, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=2016-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220144327/http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/02/08/archives/scientology-expose-new-yorker.html |archive-date=December 20, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/have-you-ever-been-a-boo-hoo-by-hames-phelan-saturday-evening-post.pdf |title=Have You Ever Been a Boo-Hoo? |access-date=2016-12-13}}</ref> Some people have alleged that auditing amounts to medical treatment without a license, and in the 1950s, some auditors were arrested on the charge.{{r|urban|page=62}} The Church of Scientology disputes that it is practicing medicine, and it has successfully established in United States courts of law that auditing addresses only spiritual relief.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|last1 = Wright|first1 = Skelley|title = Opinion|url = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=18407779340802616532|publisher = United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia|access-date = 10 April 2015|location = Washington, DC|date = February 5, 1969|page = 1154}}</ref> According to the Church,{{Efn|Use of "Church" or "the Church" is a common shortened form of "Church of Scientology"; see [[The Church (Scientology)]].}} the psychotherapist treats mental health and the Church treats the spiritual being. Hubbard clarified the difference between the two:

{{quotation|If we processed a specific type of aberration, we of course would be in the field of mental healing, and so forth. But long ago we actually discovered that we must not process specific aberrations, which takes us out of the field of mental healing.
It is quite fatal to do this because in the first place it's an evaluation for the case. In the second place, it's a negative type process; you're condemning the individual for hitting girls. Doesn't validate the individual at all. Do you follow? And if carried on very long, does not result in the betterment of an individual. All we're interested in is the spiritual betterment of the individual[.]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hubbard|first=L Ron|title=Scientology Definitions II|journal=Tape 6612C06|date=6 Dec 1966|series=SHSBC 83(446)}}</ref> }}

In 1971, a ruling of the United States District Court, District of Columbia (333 F. Supp. 357), specifically stated that the [[E-meter]] "has no proven usefulness in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease, nor is it medically or scientifically capable of improving any bodily function."<ref name="www-2.cs.cmu.edu">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/E-Meter/Mark-VII/|title=Secrets of Scientology: The E-Meter|website=www.cs.cmu.edu}}</ref> As a result of this ruling, Scientology now publishes disclaimers in its books and publications declaring that the E-meter "by itself does nothing" and that it is used specifically for spiritual purposes.<ref name="www-2.cs.cmu.edu" />