John Travolta, Tom Cruise and other Hollywood celebrities have credited the Church of Scientology with correcting their dyslexia reading problems. How did the church do it? I am not and have not been a member of the Church of Scientology. I have read excerpts from L. Ron Hubbard’s books and other Church of Scientology courses, but that does not make me an authority on the Church. In today’s society, the Church of Scientology seems to be frowned upon by most theologians and scholars. So why do Cruise, Travolta, and others stand firm on the church’s successes with dyslexia and its “healing” methods? The Church of Scientology is very secretive, but future writers must address what, when, where, and how this was accomplished not only with Hollywood stars, but with other members of the church as well. About 10 years ago I did some research and this is what I found out:

It was not a spiritual transformation that took place within Cruise, Travolta, and others. They simply went through an intensive academic study program called the Super Literacy Course. In my opinion, this 3-D / multisensory course was a pioneer in correcting reading and writing disabilities. Of course, many academic and learning disability experts would disagree with me.

The super literacy course was the first reading disability program to focus and correct reading disability symptoms. When reading aloud, if the reader hesitated, inserted a word, skipped a word, replaced a word, or skipped a line, they should focus on the particular word that caused the confusion and unwanted stimuli and learn three basic aspects of the word: what it looks like, what it sounds like and what it means. The primary 3-D medium that the Super Literacy Course used to resolve unwanted confusion was sculpture clay. So there is nothing mystical about curing dyslexia. It was a simple and basic educational course that was used to remedy reading disability symptoms associated with words and symbols in the English language.

The super literacy course has been updated and changed several times in the last two decades. What is available today is a watered-down version of that course. Rather than following the Church of Scientology and trying to locate the original version of this course, I would recommend that one follow a 3-D program whose first and foremost priority is mastering abstract words and symbols. This is the key to eliminating more than 90% of the reading disability symptoms associated with dyslexia or any three-dimensional learning disability.