Scientology Logic 18
Logic 18 - A postulate is as valuable as it is workable.
Postulate: a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning.
Workable: capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are.
This Logic may seem obvious but how often have we seen some idea put forward and accepted that is completely unworkable.
Blood-letting was a postulate put forward by doctors from antiquity up to the late 19th century. The doctor drained blood (sometimes lots of it) from the victim, oops, I mean patient in the belief that this would cure or prevent disease. Believe it or not this technique actually doesn't work and was what killed George Washington.
Another obviously bogus postulate was that blasting between 180 and 480 volts through the brain would cure a patient of mental problems. The technique was initially so damaging that some patients broke teeth and even sometimes their backs due to the agony caused by the technique. The solution was to tie them down and put a piece of wood or rubber in their mouth. In later years the patient was also given a shot of a muscle relaxant to prevent the broken bones. This obviously damaging practice was in use in the supposedly civilized world of the late 20th century. We look back at it now as simply a means of torturing the patient into a state of apathetic quiet so he won't bother anyone with his ... What was that? It's still in use? No way! Let me see that : Electroshock and Psychosurgery. Well, I guess if we allow such things to go on we aren't as civilized as we thought.