We have a wonderful young daughter named Odi who’s just over a year old now. She’s doing fantastically well and very intelligent, in no small part due to our use of Scientology principles with her. Everyone she meets falls in love with her. We constantly get comments from others that she is one of the happiest, most cheerful babies they’ve ever seen. She recovers almost immediately from upsets and injuries, and remains quite cheerful in spite of the most trying circumstances (unless, of course, she’s hungry or tired—but who can blame her?).
Some examples of how we use Scientology with Odi:
We give her Locational Assists when she gets upset or injured. (She’s even gotten to the point where she does them herself and even gives us Locationals.) This relaxes her and almost immediately brings her out of the upset.
We get her to to Contact Assists when she gets injured, wherever possible. This can be a bit distressing at first, as it entails doing the same motion that caused the injury, but more slowly. However, once we persuade her to do it, she always feels better and stops crying. (Of course, we would never force her to do the assist.)
We don’t speak when she is injured—or simply crying, since we can’t always be sure an injury isn’t the cause of the crying. This is a Dianetic principle that lessens the effect of any mental trauma caused by such injuries or upsets. In later years she will surely thank us, and her resilience after injury or upset is certainly better because we adhere to this principle.
We try to avoid creating upset or commotion in her environment, such as arguing. Because she is so small compared to the rest of the world, she can be easily overwhelmed. Giving her a calm, safe, loving environment goes a long way toward raising a confident, happy child.
We control her with positive direction, without uncertainty or confusion or conflict. She responds very well to such control, and it makes her more certain and able to control herself and her environment.
But above all, we treat her as a human being—just in a very small body. We respect her wishes and try to fulfill them if possible. We respect her rights and her possessions, and try to avoid intruding upon them. We let her do what she wants with her possessions, even if it means they end up ruined—they are hers, after all. We listen to her when she has something to say and acknowledge it. We never brush off her communication as mere “baby talk.” We talk to her as though she is a sentient being who is capable of fully understanding everything that occurs around her. We have found that it is better to assume she understands everything, even though she can’t yet voice the words, as it encourages her to develop toward adulthood—and besides, I think she understands more than we know.
We firmly believe that anything that is wrong with a child can be traced back to the parents. If we treat our child with respect and dignity, we will get a responsible, happy adult in the end. If we treat her as a “stupid baby” or a nuisance or a possession or a plaything, we will get a brat and an irresponsible liability to society. Our application of Scientology to our child reflects those views, and has resulted in an extremely bright little girl who is happy, intelligent and in-control.