Death: The Undiscovered Country

Just over a month ago, a good friend of ours was rushed to hospital with what looked like a mild heart attack. He was kept in for a couple of days while the doctor ran various tests. After the results came back he learned that he not only had pancreatic cancer, one of the most virulent sorts, but it had spread to his liver. It must have been there for quite some time and it was surprising that the first sign of it, the mild heart attack, had occurred so late.

That was shock enough, but then the doctor told him that he could be given chemotherapy but the cancer was so far advanced that it was unlikely it would do him any good and and would probably kill him faster. So he would be better off spending his remaining days in what comfort he could. The doctor also gave his wife the contact information for the local hospice.

Can you imagine being in that situation? To suddenly find out that you have only a few weeks left to live? It's a sobering thought.

Our friend is over seventy years old, and he has had a good life. He is also a Scientologist and so has the certainty that the death of his body is not the end for him. He knows that he is a spiritual being and that he will continue to exist when his body is gone.

Still, it isn't easy. My wife and his are very good friends and my wife is giving as much help and support as possible. Other friends are pitching in to help and make his last few weeks as comfortable as possible.

He seems to be reconciled with the death of his body and his biggest concern is not for himself but for his wife. How will she manage without him?

This sad situation caused me to wonder what the prospect of death is like for people of other religions and for atheists?

For me personally, because of Scientology, I don't have a fear of death. After my body dies, I will continue to live as a spiritual entity. My identity will not vanish. My memories will not be erased. My friends and loved ones won't be cut off from me forever. I know I'll be back in another body, living another life. So to me death is not the end of consciousness and awareness. Everything won't suddenly go black and silent. (See: The Parts of Man video for more information.)

People of other religions usually have some idea that they won't just cease to be, but what of the poor atheist? To him death is the "undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns" (from Hamlet by William Shakespeare). Death must scare the pants off of atheists. Or at least it would me, if I were such.

I'd like to hear from anyone who reads this blog what they think of death and what they think is going to happen to them when their body finally gives out.

The Mind and Improving it

When I was a kid in England, the BBC (ad free TV) and ITV (ad supported TV) had quite a rivalry going on. I especially remember one week when the BBC had a documentary about the wonders of the brain and how it was the source of all intelligence and creativity and just two nights later ITV had a documentary that showed how the brain probably didn't have anything to do with these things. (For example, they showed how one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the day had a shrunken brain, how people with brain damage produced amazing art, how there was little evidence to back up various theories about the brain, etc., etc.)

The reason I bring this up is to demonstrate that when it comes to the mind, very little is known about structure. There are a lot of theories out there (left brain/right brain, etc.) but they are soon replaced by the next great fad. And theories based on fad don't get results. Look at the increasing statistics of crime and mental problems.

The great thing about the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is that it doesn't get bogged down in arguments about structure. It looks at things like: What is the purpose of the mind? How does the mind go about achieving that purpose? What stops it?

Because its approach is so practical it can answer such questions as:

- Why do people act irrationally?
- What is the source of unchanging behavior?
- Why do I get into stupid arguments with my husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend?
- What causes compulsions and repressions that I can't control?
- Why did my last relationship fail?

And, more than just answering why, it provides a workable way to solve these problems.

When it was researched and developed, L. Ron Hubbard, the originator of Dianetics, was looking for results, not fancy sounding theories. Because of this, the book is just as applicable today as it was when it was written in 1950.

I recommend it as a great way to start learning about and helping yourself, your friends, your family and anyone else you come into contact with.

Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

Scientology Basics

A year ago all the basic books of Scientology were re-released after an enormous project to correct long term editorial errors and get the texts to match the original manuscripts and include changes that the author, L. Ron Hubbard, had made post-publication.

Not only were the new books easier to read because of formatting changes (new fonts, new layout, etc.), not only were they easier to read because grammatical and punctuation errors had been fixed but they were also a lot easier to read because omitted section, sections in the wrong order and other major errors were fixed.

So now the actual basics of Scientology are available in an easily readable form. So for all you curious people out there who want to know what this thing "Scientology" is, you can! Go to your local library and check out a copy of a book such as "Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought" or "Scientology: A New Slant on Life." Or click on the links to the Scientology Basic Books link on the right.

Scientology Secrets

I have answered a lot of questions about Scientology. I'm willing to answer lots more, so don't stop asking.

But there is a better way than getting second-hand information and that is ... get it first-hand.

Many of the questions I've received about aliens and other weird beliefs that Scientologists are supposed to have are answered by reading a book on the subject. The books of Scientology and Dianetics are the source of the subject. They tell you what it is all about.

So, I recommend curling up on the couch with a nice warm book and reading to your heart's content.

In my next few posts I'll be talking about the books and what is in them. But if you don't want to wait you can check them out for yourself: Basic Books of Dianetics and Scientology.

Have fun!

Scientology In Libraries

I just got the "Scientology News" magazine and I thought I'd pass on some of the great things from it.

Since the new Basic books were released last July, the two Scientology Publications organizations (Bridge Publications in the US and New Era Publications in Europe) have had to increase their production capacity by four times!

The project to get the Basics into all libraries all around the world is running in high gear and the stats (percentage of libraries with Basics packages) looked like this as of mid-March:

Africa: 12%
Australia, New Zealand and Oceania: 18%
Canada 55%
Europe: 19%
Latin America: 22%
United Kingdom: 22%
USA: 100%

You can see what is in a Basics package here: Full Scientology Basics Package

Scientology and Relationships

How do you understand others so you can have successful relationships with them? How do you improve an existing relationship? How do you fix a failing or broken relationship? These are questions that many people ask themselves daily. Unfortunately few people know the answers, but the good news is that there are answers and you can find them.

The Scientology Handbook contains an entire chapter on what underlies relationships and an extract from the chapter is online: How can Scientology help me with Relationships?. There are several sections from the chapter available online and they will explain to you things about life and relationships that will make a huge difference to your life. So what are you waiting for? Click the link and check it out!

Reply to a Comment from "Titch"

Here is my reply to a comment from Titch. He had the goodness to actually include his name and location in the post, which I appreciate because it says to me that here is someone who is willing to engage in a real dialog and not cower behind anonymity.

Titch: im 18years old and happy to say ive read everything i can get my hands on to do with scientology. Could you tell me which Scientology books you've read?

Titch: i believe we all look for answers to do with the universe and the meaning of life and so forth. but i cant help but think scientology isnt the answer. i do not wish to harm your faith or your beliefs but a man has a right to free speech in this world.

grahame: I have no problem with that. The right to believe as one decides for himself is a basic human right. (Human Right #18: Freedom of thought)

Titch then went on to relate a story that anti-Scientologists claim is the basis of Scientology.

grahame: That is not the basis of Scientology. Actual Scientology is what you read in the Basic Scientology Books. But even if that story were the basis of Scientology then we are just as entitled to believe it as you are to disbelieve it. Human Rights are a two way street. If you allow a right to others then you also get that right yourself. Take a right away from others and you lose it too.

Titch: i do not wish to harm your faith, or your beliefs. but i do not agree with your "religion" forcing scientology on everyone else. a man must make up his own mind about how he lives, and he must change in ways himself, not be indoctrinated into doing something because one of your fellow scientologist says so.

grahame: At this point I would make a guess that when you said "everything i can get my hands on to do with scientology", you didn't mean actual data on Scientology or what Scientologists do in the world (e.g., human rights, drug abuse, illiteracy, disaster relief) but that you have been reading anti-Scientology propaganda that accuses the Church and its members of all sorts of outrageous things. If you had read actual Scientology, then you'd know that it is not something you can "force" onto anyone and I personally don't know any Scientologist who would ever think of doing such a thing. Look at the bloodshed and suffering caused in the last couple of thousand years by people trying to force their beliefs onto others. Every person must make up his or her own mind when it comes to religion. There is a quote in this blog post, Scientology - What got me interested, from L. Ron Hubbard which says what the Scientology attitude is about forcing beliefs onto someone. Please take a look at it.

Titch: i also dont agree with the fact that as a religion you make people spend money to help themselves and become part of your community

grahame: Once again Titch, you have not been reading facts about Scientology. Please look at the posts on my site relating to the cost of Scientology. This should cover them: Scientology Donations, Why do you have to pay for Scientology?, Question about cost of Advanced Levels in Scientology, Questions regarding the cost of Scientology. And just to address what you said specifically: no one is "made" to spend money to help themselves or become Scientologists. If anyone told you this then you have been misinformed.

Titch: i will understand if you do not wish to approve my comment, but i wish people to know that all things in life has a choice and that covering up peoples right to free speech and indoctrinating them into your society is wrong, if people wish to join you, i say let them, but not by cohertion but by choice, and let it be free.

grahame: I absolutely agree with you. Something you have probably not read about Scientology in the places you've been looking, is that a person is not allowed to take part in Scientology services unless they are doing it under their own determinism. It's something that gets checked every time you start any course or counseling in Scientology. If you are there because someone made you then you can't do the service. You have to make up your own mind and decide you want to do it yourself.

Free speech is also looked upon as very important in Scientology. The right to free speech is actually part of the Creed of the Church of Scientology. If you have been told that Scientologists are somehow against free speech then you have been misinformed.

Thanks a lot for your questions. I do appreciate them. If you (or anyone else) have more questions then feel free to post them. See the link at the top of this page.

Scientology - How to join a Church

bookslave had a question about joining a Church of Scientology.

I answered the question in a comment, but I thought it might be of interest to the causal browser so here it is repeated:

Hey bookslave, All you have to do to join the Church is: find a Church of Scientology, walk in the front door and say "Hello." :)

About the only other thing I'd suggest is to finish the books you are reading so you know what Scientology is. It is important to understand a subject before taking any serious steps in it.

Scientology Beliefs

areynolds1 asked questions about Scientology beliefs.

Here is what we believe in Scientology: The Creed of the Church of Scientology and that is it as far as beliefs go. You see, Scientology is not founded on belief. It is based on studying the principles, applying them correctly and then seeing for yourself if it works or not. This is what makes Scientology different from other religions. You don't have to have faith. You don't have to take anyone's word for anything. You can make up your own mind. This article describes the mindset one should have in approaching Scientology and it's also a great way to approach life: Personal Integrity by L. Ron Hubbard.

The core, most important data of Scientology, the things that the religion is based upon, can be found in the books written by L. Ron Hubbard, all of which are available here: Scientology Basics Books and Lectures. When you go to the page you can click on the graphic of a book and you'll see what the book is about and how much it costs. These books and lectures form the foundation of Scientology. They are the core, they are the important data. If you want to know what Scientology is then this is where to look. (The best book to start with is either "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" or "Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought".)

areynolds1 said something about "the Scientology world-creation story" and then quoted some nonsense from the Internet. Let me tell you right here and now that if there is such a thing in Scientology as a "world-creation story" (although I've never heard the term used in the Church) then the place to find it is here: The Scientology Factors.

If you want to know about something then I say, don't mess around, go to the source. Probably the reason you can find so much BS about what Scientologists believe is that the people writing the nonsense don't understand the actual core data of Scientology and so go find a rumor they can understand and repeat it, ad nauseam.

More on Scientology Beliefs:
- Scientology at its most practical level
- A Description Of Scientology
- The Axioms Of Dianetics And Scientology
- Theology and Practice of Scientology
- Free eBook: Theology & Practice of a Contemporary Religion - Scientology (PDF Format)
Articles by Religious Experts:
- Scientology: Its Cosmology, Anthropology, System of Ethics & Methodologies
- Scientology: An Analysis and Comparison of its Religious Systems and Doctrines
- Scientology: The Marks of Religion
- Scientology: An Analysis and Review of a New Religion

Answer to a question about "critics"

This answer can also be found on my "Questions about Scientology" page.

SouthernBread said:
I support the progression of man-kind, and the resolution of one's problems by being totally honest and dealing with them head-on. I support the many charitable acts the church has done. I do not support the way the church has treated critics.

Grahame replied:
Thank you for recognizing that the Church of Scientology and Scientologists do a great deal of charitable work. Also I agree with you about honesty and dealing with things head-on.

On the "way the church has treated critics". First of all, this is a generality. To answer the charge we need to know which specific individual or individuals treated which specific critics in what specific way?

On a more "general" note, I'm afraid the complaints of "critics" just don't hold water as far as I am concerned. If a tenth of the claims of these people were true then half the management of the Church would be in jail right now.

I think Andrew Morton is a great example of a "critic" who claimed he was being harassed and it turned out he was lying. In November of 2007, Morton was quoted in the British paper, Sunday Express, alleging harassment by the Church. He stated "I have received threats from the Scientologists and things have become pretty heavy - to the extent that it is more than my lawyers can handle. I have sold my flat and I am not telling anyone where I am moving. I intend to disappear for a while." This statement was a total lie and the Church had never threatened Mr. Morton in any way. So great was the evidence of the falsity of Morton’s claim that the newspaper printed a retraction and apologized to the Church for the falsehood. See The Church of Scientology: An Apology

More data: Church of Scientology statement: Response to Andrew Morton's unauthorized Tom Cruise biography see "8. Are Scientologists taught to harass people who oppose them?"

Related data:
Anti-Religious Extremists - including some "critics" of Scientology
What does the term "fair game" refer to?
What does "suppressive person" mean?
Why do some people oppose Scientology?
Why do some people oppose Scientology? (2)
Can Scientologists come and go as members of the Church if they wish?
Why has Scientology been to court a lot of times?
What is Scientology’s view of democracy?

Work is crazy

I have the sort of job that is always busy, but sometimes it gets BUSY!!! That's how it is just now - crazzzy. So to the guys waiting for answers to their questions, please be patient. Although I'd like it to be, this blog is not my full-time occupation and the job that puts the bread and butter on the table is yelling for my attention.

All I can say is thank goodness I've read Problems of Work so I can handle all this madness.

Scientology Books Site

Here's a new site I just found. It is a site of Scientology quotes and articles. Check it out. Here is one of the articles:

Communicating with others is a vital part of your life and if you have difficulty with it, you can feel "left out of life". What is it that keeps you from saying the things you want to say?

Solving the Problems of Work

As you will have noticed I've not made many blog posts recently. Truth is I've been flat out on a project at work. Getting a piece of commercial software completed and packaged up is a major undertaking. There are so many "little details" that have to be handled properly and many of which turn out not to be so "little" after all.

If I were not familiar with the solutions to the many problems one hits at work that are given in the book "The Problems of Work", I think I'd have curled up into a little ball of quivering jelly by now.

The book is a lifesaver and contains such things as how to handle confusion (like the many demands from a client coming at you all at once), how to overcome exhaustion (very useful after 11 straight hours of banging away at it) and how to keep all the many elements of a job under control.

It's a great book, and really easy to read, especially with the new edition and its incredible glossary. So go get it!

Prediction of Human Behavior

I recently saw the movie Breach, inspired by the true story of the greatest security breach in U.S. history. What I found most interesting was the fact that this guy, Robert Hanssen, was able to go undetected for about 20 years, all the while passing US secrets to the USSR and later to post-communist Russia. He was responsible for the deaths of at least 50 US agents and handed over huge amounts of other extremely sensitive information which caused so much damage that it still can't be estimated.

There is a book by L. Ron Hubbard on the prediction of human behavior, called "Science of Survival", in which Ron goes into great detail on how to predict who you can trust, what you can expect from people and how you can help them improve.

In watching the movie and observing the characters it was obvious to me that if anyone in the FBI, who worked with Hanssen for all those years, had read Science of Survival, they would have spotted him long ago. He had many characteristics of the sort of person you cannot trust and I thought it was kind of sad that so many people died and so much damage was done by this guy when a little knowledge could have prevented him from carrying out his destructive impulses and he could probably have been helped to lead a better life.

So if you don't want to be caught out by a Robert Hanssen, read Science of Survival and listen to the accompanying lectures: Science of Survival - Prediction of Human Behavior.

Scientology Basics Like You've Never Seen Them Before

The basics of Scientology are available, not only in their original form but with incredible glossaries and accompanying lectures. These new editions are the original writings of L. Ron Hubbard, without editorial alterations. They've never been available in this way before.

Unless you saw the event where they were introduced, which contained the full explanation of what happened and what was done to correct it, you won't appreciate the importance of these new editions.

If you are new to Scientology then you don't even need to know what I'm talking about above, you just need to go get a basic book and read it. If you want to know what Scientology is then read a book on it!

Basic Scientology Books

Scientology Solutions from the Scientology Handbook

I was hunting for an online reference to an article by L. Ron Hubbard and I remembered that the article is in the Scientology Handbook. I went to the book's web site and found an index of online articles from the Scientology Handbook. It's not the entire book, the book is huge, but there is a tremendous amount of the book on the site.

It also made me think that this would be a good starting place for someone who wants to know what Scientology is. Because Scientology is a practical religion, a religion that is all about living, solving the problems of life and improving situations, the best way to find out more about it is to read the actual methods it provides for handling life and its situations. The index on the Scientology Handbook site is a perfect place to start.

Scientology Solutions From the Scientology Handbook

Tennis and the Conditions (States of Operation)

I just saw the romantic comedy "Wimbledon". A cute little movie that is a slight variation on the usual theme: in this one there is no other man or other woman. Anyway, in the special features of the DVD there is a "making of" featurette that touches on the superstitions of tennis players.

The main superstition, and one that you see in the movie, is that if the player wins a match then he or she will try to keep everything the same in the next game. They'll try to use the same racket, have the same ball-boy on their court, if they arrived late they'll try to arrive late again, etc., etc.

Although this was called superstition in the featurette, in actual fact they are trying to follow a formula for success that they have a vague inkling exists. They don't really know the mechanics but they know that if they keep things the same then the same outcome should happen. Of course, because they don't have the exact formula and they don't understand what the phenomena is that they are dealing with they don't always have the success they were hoping for in the next game.

What they are missing is something that L. Ron Hubbard discovered in the mid-1960s, namely the conditions or states of operation of existence and the formulas for improving them. It is pretty obvious that everything in this universe is in some sort of state or condition but is that condition something random and unpredictable or are there specific predictable conditions? And if one can determine which condition something is in then are their steps one can take to improve the condition?

The answers are: no, yes, yes and yes. No, the conditions are not random. Yes, they are predictable (and there are only a few of them). Yes, you can determine what condition you are in. Yes, there are steps you can take to improve your condition.

There is more data on this discovery here: Improving Conditions in Life

And in this booklet: Ethics and The Conditions

Happiness and Interest

I just heard a lecture by L. Ron Hubbard in which he is talking about happiness and interest:

The clue to happiness is being interested in life. And their happiness is as great as they create it. ... They'll get the amount of happiness that they can generate. But this happiness is not itself an emotion. It is a word which states a condition and the anatomy of that condition is interest.

This is a very practical piece of data. If you are feeling unhappy with your life then you need to create more interest in your life. Find a job you are more interested in. Take up a hobby that you are interested in. And don't forget that it is you who creates the interest, it doesn't just spring into being, it requires you to create it.

There are many tools provided in Scientology to help you create and maintain interest in life. The basic ones can be found here: Tools to Achieve Happiness

Achieving Your New Years Resolutions

A resolution is a sort of plan. For example, the resolution "I will lose 20lbs" is a basic statement of a plan to lose 20lbs. So if there were a way to make planning become a reality, then that would be the way to make your resolutions come about for real.

Well, the good news is that such a way exists. Here is an article all about it: Making Planning An Actuality.