The Basic Individual

Here's a quote I really like from the book Dianetics: The Original Thesis.

The basic individual is not a buried, unknown or different person, but an intensity of all that is best and most able in the person.

This is not just an opinion, but is what was actually discovered during the early days of Dianetics research.  The basic individual is you once the traumas, large and small, have been released from your life.  That's something you can achieve through Dianetics and Scientology.

Acting Contrary to Survival - Why?

I'm currently studying the fundamentals of Scientology. What we call the "Basics". What I'm doing is studying everything chronologically. I started with the book "Dianetics: The Original Thesis", which was the first description of Dianetics, passed around from hand-to-hand first by friends of L. Ron Hubbard and then by many more interested people.

I'm well past Original Thesis now, but today I was looking back at some of my notes and I found some things that I thought I'd share.

This first quote explains what is behind actions that you or others have taken that didn't make any sense.  For example, with all we know now about the damage drugs such as cocaine and heroine can do, why is it that people still take them?  Why is it that a suicide bomber does what he does?  Why is it that Joe yelled at Mary when in fact he loves her?  Why on earth did a seemingly successful marriage suddenly break up?

The explanation is in this first quote.  And it leads to solutions for all of the examples I gave and for any other behavior that just doesn't seem to make any sense.  Those solutions can all be found in Scientology.

Here is the quote from the book Dianetics: The Original Thesis:

When the individual is acting contrary to the survival of himself, his group, progeny, race, mankind or life, he can be considered to be unintelligent, uninformed or aberrated.

Unintelligent and uninformed are relatively easy to handle, but "aberrated" can be much more difficult.  The good new is that it is what Scientology and Dianetics handle successfully every day.

Meet a Scientologist Video: My Friend Cindy

There are now over 200 videos in the Meet a Scientologist series. These are short (1 - 2 minutes) videos of everyday Scientologists who tell you a bit about their lives and the difference Scientology has made to them.

There is a new one out featuring a friend of mine: Cindy Gainsforth. Check it out and see what she has to say about Scientology (or in this case Dianetics) and what it has done for her.

It's appropriate that in her video Cindy is talking about Dianetics, because the 61st anniversary of the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is rapidly approaching.

Dianetics: 61st Anniversary

May 9th is the 61st anniversary of the publication of the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

If you've never read the book then you don't have a sufficient understanding of your greatest asset so that you can use it to its fullest extent. So what is your greatest asset? Your mind.

The human mind is an amazing thing. Just take a look around you right at this minute and notice how much of what you see was created by the human mind. From where I sit at the kitchen table I see the walls, floor and ceiling. I see the fridge, the stove, the table, the lamps, the cupboards, etc., etc. About the only things not created by the human mind are the potted plants, and even they were put there by the human mind.

You use your mind 365/24/7. It is needed for your livelihood, for your fun, for your dreams and even to tie your shoes. So it seems that this mind of yours is pretty important.

So how much do you know about it? Do you know as much about it as you do your car or your computer or even your fridge? The answer is most likely: no. In fact you probably know very little about your mind.

Do you know:
- How your mind works?
- How to use it effectively?
- How to repair and maintain it?

If your answer is "no", "sort of", "maybe", "I guess", anything other than a 100% certain "yes" then you need to read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, because that is where the answers lie.

Dianetics: Purpose of the Mind

The next axiom of Dianetics is:

The purpose of the mind is to solve problems relating to survival - L. Ron Hubbard

Think about that one for a moment. What are you using your mind for every second of every day?

Just deciding what to have for lunch is solving a problem relating to survival:
- Maybe you are on a restricted budget and must decide where to go that will give you the most food for the few dollars you have.
- Maybe you brought your lunch with you because you want to eat healthy fresh food and restaurants in the area don't impress you as healthy.
- Maybe you eat junk food because you like how it tastes and you have no idea of how unhealthy it is.
- Maybe you eat junk food because you have been given false information that it is fine to eat and has no bad health effects.
You see, the mind works on data and sometimes the data it has is wrong. In Dianetics this is sometimes called "didn't know the gun was loaded".

So now you know the purpose of the mind so how does it achieve that purpose? Stay tuned for tomorrow's article.

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Dianetics: The Basics

As I posted yesterday, in its original form, Dianetics was a family of sciences addressing humanity and its betterment. The form of Dianetics that most people are familiar with and that was covered in the best known book on the subject, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was first covered in the book, Dianetics: The Original Thesis.

This form of Dianetics was described as:

A science of thought applicable to psychosomatic ills and individual aberrations - L. Ron Hubbard

It was based on a few important axioms (established rules or principles), the first and most important of which is that the lowest common denominator of the finite universe is SURVIVE!

The activities of the finite universe can be seen to obey this axiom as though it were a command. All works and energies can be considered to be motivated by it. The various kingdoms have this as their lowest common denominator, for animals, vegetables and minerals are all striving for survival. - L. Ron Hubbard

Think carefully and you will see the truth in that statement. Every living thing and all forms of energy are attempting to survive. Even if they are unsuccessful, they are still attempting in their own way to survive.

And don't think of survival as just for oneself. Survival is a broader concept than just survival of self. Look at the selflessness of a firefighter who puts himself in danger saving others. Clearly he sees survival as more than just "looking out for number one."

Even when a person attempts suicide they are doing it out of an idea that it will aid survival in some way. The idea could be completely crazy, but survival of someone or something will be found at the bottom of it.

This primary axiom leads us to the second which will be discussed tomorrow.

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Dianetics: 60th Anniversary

May 9th, 1950 was the day that the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published.

Who would have thought, when it was published, that this book would become the genesis of a world-wide religion with over 8,600 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups, spanning 165 countries?

So what is Dianetics?

The earliest writings on the subject described it like this:

Derived from the Greek word for thought, dianoia. A term employed to embrace the science of thought and including a family of sub-sciences by which the individual and collective activities of mankind may be understood and predicted and bettered. - L. Ron Hubbard

The discoveries that came out of Dianetics led to the applied religious philosophy of Scientology and all the expansion described above.

To celebrate the anniversary, for the next few days I will be writing about Dianetics so you gain a deeper understanding of what it is and how it might help you and those you love.

Reference: Scientology Churches Celebrate Dianetics 60th Anniversary.

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Dianetics: Personal Stories

Here is a video of people talking about their experiences with Dianetics:

Dianetics week

May the 9th was the 59th anniversary of the publication of the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, so to celebrate I'm having a Dianetics week on this blog. Here is the first post - a video introduction to Dianetics:

Scientology & Dianetics Holiday Catalog

It is easy to buy Dianetics and Scientology Books this holiday season. Everything is available online. A fellow blogger posted this great article giving all the data and links you need to find what you want:

2008 Scientology & Dianetics Holiday Catalog « Scientology Organizations Around the World

You may notice that I also have some links to basic and intro books in my right-hand sidebar, just in case you want to go directly. If you want to browse you can click the link to the article or you can try this one: Scientology Books.

New Dianetics Site for London

London, England now has its own Dianetics website. You can find it here: Dianetics London.

For those of you who are not familiar with Dianetics here is one description of it that I like:

There's been a discovery about the human mind that is so simple, so incredible and so powerful that it makes psychiatry, psychology and self-hypnosis obsolete.

A nice simple, to-the-point definition.

Weird ideas about Scientology

A friend of mine who is not a Scientologist recently encountered someone who claimed to be a member of "Anonymous". This person had even demonstrated outside a Scientology Church.

The subject came up when the person was critical of Star Trek because (according to him) it had been written by L. Ron Hubbard. When my friend told him that wasn't true the anonymite insisted it was.

Next he told my friend that Scientologists worship Dianetics or something to do with Dianetics (it was hard to understand what he was meaning). When my friend told him this was not correct he still insisted it was.

He said a bunch of other incorrect things, one of which is a misconception I've come across a lot in comments that have been made on my blog - he completely misunderstood the term "thetan". (I cover what it really means here: The Secrets of Scientology, the anonymite had the same weird "alien ghosts" idea that I cover in the linked post.)

The bottom line is that this anonymous guy has fallen into the same trap that people have been falling into for millennia: Someone doesn't like some other person or group so he tells lies about them and tries to make them seem weird so that others will help him to attack them.

Unfortunately there are many people out there who are easily led. When they encounter a group being demonized they just join in. If I were to be kind I would excuse them by saying that maybe they don't have any concept of history and how often this "demonizing" method has been used in the past or maybe they are not very bright and can't easily tell truth from lies. If I were to be less charitable then I would say it is just an excuse to unleash their hatred and if it wasn't Scientology then they'd find something else to attack.

But whatever the reason behind it, I would request of these people that they at least find out what they are attacking before they attack it.

War with Iran

I just read an article that says to me that the current administration in the US is hell-bent on a war with Iran (Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran).

I talked about war a year ago in this post: The Insanity of War. My attitude has not changed and what I quoted in that post still applies:

Back in 1950, in the book Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard said something about war that is 100% applicable today: Wars never solve the need of wars. Fight to save the world for democracy or save it from Confucianism and the fight is inevitably lost by all. War has become associated in the past with competition, and it has been believed, therefore, by shifty logic, that wars were necessary. A society which advances into a war as a solution of its problems cannot but depress its own survival potential. No government was ever permitted to enter a war without costing its people some of their liberties. ... A democracy engaging in war has always lost some of its democratic rights. As it engages in more and more wars, it eventually comes under the command of a dictator. ... So went Greece, so went Rome. So goes England. So goes Russia. And so goes the United States and with it goes mankind.

What do you think of the warlike activities of the current US government? What effect is it having on our liberties?

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

Are you more than a body?

I came across a video (see below) about a new book by a brain surgeon. He has come across something we've known about in Scientology for a long time.

In Scientology we know that the spirit (or "thetan" as we call it) and the body are two separate entities. The phenomenon of exteriorization was discovered in the early 1950's and led to the discovery that man was indeed a spiritual being and not just a conglomerations of meat and bones. More can be found on this in the book Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, Chapter 7: The Parts of Man.

In his book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," published 58 years ago, L. Ron Hubbard noted the fact that people undergoing operations record everything that was going on.

So here is the video:

Happy Birthday L. Ron Hubbard

Well, today is the day. The man himself, the dude who started it all, was born this day in 1911.

Whenever I finish something in Scientology, be it auditing or training, I write a success story so I can share the wins and gains I've had with others. Very often, as I write down my successes, I realize that my tremendous gains all came about because of the work of one man! Amazing.

Now Ron himself would probably tell me that he couldn't have done it without help. In fact, in his famous article "Keeping Scientology Working" he says, "The contributions that were worthwhile in this period of forming the technology were help in the form of friendship, of defense, of organization, of dissemination, of applicaiton, of advices on results and of finance. These were great contributions and were and are appreciated. Many thousands contributed in this way and made us what we are."

But, nevertheless, it was Ron himself who made the discoveries of Dianetics and Scientology and it was Ron who developed the technology of spiritual freedom that we benefit from today.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Ron:

"I have lived no cloistered life
and hold in contempt the
wise man who has not lived
and the scholar who will not share.

"There have been many wiser men than I,
but few have traveled as much road.

"I have seen life from the
top down and the bottom up.
I know how it looks both ways.
And I know there is wisdom
and there is hope."

L. Ron Hubbard

So, let me end by giving you more info about Ron. Check out these links:
-- All About L. Rob Hubbard
-- L. Ron Hubbard: The Founder of Scientology

Anatomy of the Human Mind Course

Wow! I just found this awesome site that has 21 videos covering the Anatomy of the Human Mind Course. This isn't some dry academic presentation; it's alive and interesting.

Check it out! Anatomy of the Human Mind Course.

The Insanity of War

I just saw a rather controversial documentary about 9/11 and the subsequent war in Iraq. The documentary is called Fahrenheit 9/11, an alteration of the title of the book by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451. My guess is that the director of the movie, Michael Moore, probably wanted to draw parallels between the society depicted in the book and what has happened in our society since 9/11.

There has been great controversy over the movie with a great deal of political polarization. Unfortunately politics has become a spectator sport and if something is perceived to be critical of one side then all the supporters of that side defend their team to the last breath, no matter what.
So having said all that, I'm not going to pass any public judgement on the movie. Like every other source of information you should evaluate it carefully - not just blindly accept or reject it.

What I do want to say in this post is that back in 1950, in the book Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard said something about war that is 100% applicable today:

Wars never solve the need of wars. Fight to save the world for democracy or save it from Confucianism and the fight is inevitably lost by all. War has become associated in the past with competition, and it has been believed, therefore, by shifty logic, that wars were necessary. A society which advances into a war as a solution of its problems cannot but depress its own survival potential. No government was ever permitted to enter a war without costing its people some of their liberties. ... A democracy engaging in war has always lost some of its democratic rights. As it engages in more and more wars, it eventually comes under the command of a dictator. ... So went Greece, so went Rome. So goes England. So goes Russia. And so goes the United States and with it goes mankind.

Technology changes, times moves forward, perhaps societal attitudes change, but man basically is man and what was said over 50 years ago is just as applicable today. Mankind MUST stop engaging in war. When the Iraq war began it was heralded as a "conflict" that would be over soon and was being engaged upon to "save the world from WMDs." Back then it was obvious to those supporting the war that it would be a short war and we'd be out of Iraq in just a few months. Several years later we see that the reasons given for the war were ... how shall I put it? ... inaccurate and the idea that any war can be over in a few months is, to put it mildly, short sighted.

Before the war we were told that it was a solution to certain problems and now we are told we can't pull out because it would create even bigger problems. I think anyone who has studied history would have seen the inevitability of this mess from the start.

There is a solution to the insanity of war. It's a solution that will take a lot of work and effort, but I think any amount of effort is better than the millions of deaths that accompany a war.

As L. Ron Hubbard said:

Man is now faced with weapons so powerful that man himself may vanish from the Earth. There is no problem in the control of these weapons. They explode when and where man tells them to explode. The problem is in the control of man.
...
There is a higher goal, a better goal, a more glorious victory than gutted towns and radiation-burned dead. There is freedom and happiness and plenty and a whole universe to be won.

Dianetics has the tools to bring rationality to man. It is the answer to war. Learn about Dianetics and use it and let's make this world a better, saner place!

More on the Dianetics Anniversary

Here is another announcement about the 57th Anniversary of Dianetics:

Published 57 years ago today, "Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health" ignited an entire movement which now spans 5 continents and 160 nations, and comprises over 7500 Scientology churches, missions and groups.
Celebrating the 57th Anniversary of Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health.

Blog Post on Dianetics

Here is what a Scientologist from the UK has to say about Dianetics and the 57th Anniversary:

Dianetics Volcano Still Erupting!