Can you explain what the negative effects of speech on the neonate might be?

If you have experience with the method of Dianetics, you’ll see that, for instance, if someone is screaming loudly, “Push! Push!” while the child is being born, it may not be obviously right away but maybe years later the child is in a situation and someone is yelling “Push! Push!” about a bicycle, “Push harder on the bicycle!” the kid all of a sudden really doesn’t like the situation — maybe he has a headache and feels tired.

The principle that you’ll read in Dianetics is that words entered into a time of pain and unconsciousness do not enter as data that an individual can use to think with. Instead, these words are entered as commands into the reactive mind not possible to easily access but able to affect the individual.

On what basis did Hubbard reach these conclusions?

From thousands of cases.

People who have gone through the process of Dianetics no longer have the reactive influence and, as a result, find themselves happier, with greater respect for themselves; they can solve their own problems more easily. That’s what I think all Scientology mothers, in fact all parents, want to see for their children, that the child will grow up able to be independent, able to be ethical, be able to make decisions for themselves, and to be able to solve their own problems. All that is hindered by the reactive mind. — Beliefnet.com (concluded)