Scientology and New Year Resolutions - Part 3 - Want Your Product

The next thing to examine in making your New Year Resolutions become a reality is "want". Do you really want the product you have named?

I strongly recommend that you read the article "Want Your Product". It is dated 7 August 1976 and can be found in the Admin Know-How Series of articles in Management Series Volume 1.

Sometimes people make a New Year Resolution because of pressure from relatives or peers. "I'm going to give up smoking!" Is that your choice or is it a choice that has been forced on you by others? If it is not your choice then it won't happen. You have to make the decision for yourself and not because others are forcing you.

Another possibility is that although the resolution is a good idea and is something you should want, your "want" seems either not be there or comes and goes. One day you want it and the next you don't care. The usual reason for this is that someone in your environment is an anti-social personality and is not interested in you improving. This can be handled by understanding the situation and becoming knowledgeable in how to deal with such people. There is a course called "Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life" that gives you the knowledge and tools to handle the situation.

The other possibility is a tough one to face. If a resolution is a positive thing that will help you or others and you still don't want it, then it is possible you have a problem with personal integrity. You've done things (or are doing things) that are harming yourself or others and deep down you don't think you deserve to improve. This is the toughest one for a person to face because we usually have such actions very well explained and justified or we just want to forget that we ever did them. The husband who cheated on his wife, the employee who stole from his employer, etc., etc. We live in a rather unethical society where "everyone does it, so why shouldn't I?" But deep down we know something is wrong. Well, luckily there is an answer for this condition too. The Personal Values and Integrity Course can help. It gives you practical methods to handle the situation and regain your personal integrity.

Now that you want the resolution you have named you can go on to the next step ...

Scientology and New Year Resolutions - Part 2 - Name Your Product

I strongly recommend that you read the article "Name Your Product". It is dated 7 August 1976 and can be found in the Admin Know-How Series of articles in Management Series Volume 1. Mr. Hubbard explains it much better than I can. Anyway, here is my attempt:

If you want to achieve something then the first step is to name it fully and completely and to the level of detail necessary to really know what you are going for. Maybe that sounds obvious, but let's look at a common New Year Resolution: "I'm going to lose weight". Okay, so you lose an ounce - resolution achieved, you lost weight. Hmmm, perhaps you were intending more than that. How about "I'm going to lose 10 pounds." So you go on a diet for 2 months and lose 10 pounds but by the end of the year you've put the 10 lbs back on. Well, how about this wording, "I am going to reduce my Body Mass Index to 23 and I am going to keep it at or below that level permanently." Now you have taken the first step in achieving your goal, you have accurately named the state or thing you are going to create.

One last important point - you are naming something you are going to have, not what you are going to do. "I'm going to eat less" is not a product, it is not something you can have, it is something you are going to do to achieve the thing you are going to have. In this first step you don't look at what you are going to do, you look at what you want to have. Doing comes later.

Scientology and New Year Resolutions - Part 1

How many times have you looked back at the New Year Resolutions you made last year only to see that they were not achieved? For some people it's gotten so bad that they don't even bother with resolutions because they know they'll never keep them. Often it becomes a joke: "I've given up smoking 16 times."

Well, there is a way to make your resolutions happen. In 1976, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a series of articles on how to get things achieved. They were titled "Name Your Product", "Want Your Product" and "To Get You have To Know How To Organize." They are found in The Management Series Volume 1. They cover the three basic steps needed to achieve anything and in the next three days I'll tell you how they can be used to make your resolutions happen.

Christmas Day

Well, all that I can say today is: Merry Christmas!

A Scientologist's Take on Christmas

In Scientology we don't have any traditional special dates such as the winter solstice/Christmas/Chanukha or the spring equinox/Easter. We have our own special dates such as the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the religion, the date of the founding of the International Association of Scientologists and a few others like that. However, being a happy bunch we are pleased to celebrate the same traditional holidays as everyone else in the societies in which we live. So, for example, tomorrow I'll be giving and receiving gifts over at our in-laws (who are Jewish but celebrate Christmas anyway).

Tonight my wife and I and our kids will be meeting some close friends at a superb local restaurant where there will be carolers and traditional Christmas fare available. We'll be singing along and having a good time getting into the Christmas spirit.

As I've said before in my Scientology Blog, to me, when you are trying to get at the commonalities between religions, religious philosophy is more important than religious practice. The philosophy behind Christmas is hope for the future, helping others less fortunate and goodwill to all mankind. So for me that is what Christmas represents and based on that I try to "practice" Christmas according to those three ideas. For example, I give gifts to the kids and a few close friends and family, but most of my gift giving consists of donations to charitable organizations that are doing something to help others less fortunate and protect human rights.

Several years ago I began making donations to such organizations on behalf of family members. I thought, why give some meaningless present to a family member who you maybe see two or three times a year, or who perhaps lives far away and you see once or twice in a decade? So I made the donations, created fancy certificates to represent them and gave the certificates as presents. I was very surprised at how well this was received. And with my more distant family this has become our own Christmas tradition. For example, my dad gives to a cancer research organization and to Oxfam on my behalf and I give to The World Literacy Crusade and The Citizens Commission on Human Rights and others for him.

So whatever your religion, or lack thereof, you can still get into the spirit of the season by using the philosophy behind Christmas to guide your actions.

Christmas

Staying on the topic of Religious Philosophy versus Religious Practice let's look at the ideas behind Christmas.

The history of Christmas is quite fascinating. Since our earliest recorded history the time of year when the days stop getting shorter and the sun "returns" (the Winter Solstice) has been celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere.

No matter what the practice surrounding the celebration (whether sacrificing the mock king to assist the god Marduk in his battle against the forces of evil, the sending of scouts to report the return of the sun to the dark northern skies or what looks like just plain ole partying by the Romans during "Saturnalia") the essential message was one of hope for the future.

It wasn't until the 19th Century that what we now think of as the Christmas tradition began. What happened essentially was that by creating popular literature about a "tradition" that didn't really exist, the tradition was brought into being. This new "tradition" stressed the importance of helping others not so fortunate as ourselves and good will towards all mankind.

Despite the commercialism of modern day Christmas, I think those three messages of hope for the future, helping others and good will towards all, still manage to cause good things to happen at this time of year.

So no matter what your religion, if you recognize the philosophy behind the practice called "Christmas", you can join in a celebration of those three messages and better yet, you can practice them in whatever way you wish according to your beliefs.

Scientology as a Religion - Part 4

Exclusivity

Another difference in Scientology is that it does not regard itself as the only way to spiritual improvement but merely as a workable way. It contains practical, workable philosophy and methods of application of the philosophy which have been tried, tested, improved and validated over a period of more than 50 years.

Theology

Theology means "a particular system or school of religious beliefs and teachings". So if Scientology is a religion what is the theology behind it? Well you can read a book on the subject online in HTML or PDF format:

• HTML: "Theology & Practice of a Contemporary Religion"
• PDF: "Theology & Practice of a Contemporary Religion" (large file so the link may take a little time to load)

Scientology as a Religion - Part 3

Scientology is Applied Religious Philosophy

Scientology is something rare in the field of religion, it is an applied religious philosophy. It is religious philosophy that is aimed at application in everyday life and in helping ones fellow man attain spiritual freedom. Unlike most religions it does not encapsulate its philosophy in allegorical stories or religious practices, instead it presents its spiritual ideas and practical methods for spiritual improvement directly.

That is not to say there is anything wrong with allegorical stories or religious practices because there isn't, Scientology simply takes another approach. In the religious field the earliest example of this approach that I know of was in the original form of Buddhism. Gautama Siddhartha developed a philosophy, a set of rules to live by, a set of techniques for spiritual improvement and taught them as-is with no embellishment.

The Scientology Logics, which I wrote a set of articles on over the past few weeks, are good examples of the religious philosophy of Scientology. They are very practical. Thus Scientology presents itself on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis. A piece of practical philosophy is presented, the individual studies it, understands it and then uses it. In this way he can observe for himself if it is true by whether it worked for him or not. If he decides it is not true then as far as he is concerned it isn't true and no one is going to force him to believe it.

This method of presentation of the Scientology religion means that it can be approached by people of any religion without compromising their own beliefs.

Scientology as a Religion - Part 2

Religious Philosophy and Religious Practice

There is an important distinction in religion between religious philosophy and religions practice. In the west a religion is usually thought of as a set of beliefs and methods of worship relating to a god. For example, many people think of Christianity as simply being a belief system with various methods of worshiping a supreme being called "God". In other words they think of it merely as a religious practice. What they miss by this limited understanding is the rich religious philosophy of Christianity. They read a biblical story and think it's just a story or a piece of history and completely miss the philosophic message contained in it. For example, the story of the Good Samaritan encapsulates the idea that there is good in everyone.

The religious philosophy contained in the Christian Bible has led to literally thousands of different religious practices: the Catholics, the Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc., etc.

As I will explain in more detail tomorrow, Scientology is mainly a religious philosophy with relatively little religious practice.

Scientology as a Religion - Part 1

How Scientology is a religion is sometimes difficult for a westerner to grasp because of some western religious traditions that Scientology does not conform to. In the next few days I'll go over how Scientology differs from the traditional western view of religion and how it is nevertheless a religion.

All Denominational

Being a Scientologist does not prevent a person from joining or remaining in another religion. A man or woman can be a Scientologist and a member of any other religion. I personally know Scientologists who are also Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Methodists and Buddhists.

Dogma regarding the Supreme Being

Scientology does not intrude into the realm of the Supreme Being. The individual is allowed to have his own beliefs and faith regarding the Supreme Being. Scientology regards each individual as a spiritual being (an idea held in common by all religions) and its applied religious philosophy revolves around this concept of an individual spiritual being.

Your Chance to Apply the Scientology Logics

I found a site that contains some interesting data on Scientology and people who don't like it. So here is your chance to apply the Logics to the evaluation of some knowledge

Have a read of this page: "Scientology" and as you go through it evaluate the data. You can use all the Logics, but the main ones in this case are Logics 6 - 8, Logics 9 - 13, Logics 14 - 18 and Logics 19 - 22.

Have fun.

Scientology Logic 24

Logic 24 - The resolution of the philosophical, scientific and human studies (such as economics, politics, sociology, medicine, criminology, etc.) depends primarily upon the resolution of the problems of the human mind.

Which explains why philosophy has fallen into disrepute (being viewed by the common man as so much vacuous mumbo-jumbo), economics has created an almost slave society were the average family needs two bread-winners to survive, why politics has decayed into some sort of sporting event, why sociology seems to be a mere gathering of statistics, medicine kills more patients annually than an average war, criminology is a dismal failure that is unable to predict criminal behavior with any level of accuracy and psychology and psychiatry have become methods of selling drugs and torturing restrained patients.

Until now the problems of the human mind have never been solved. Now that Dianetics has solved those problems the humanities have a chance to be the solutions for man that they have long promised, but never managed, to be.

Scientology Logic 23 (continued)

The corollary to Logic 23 states: The human mind is capable of resolving the problem of the human mind. The borderline of solution of this science lies between why life is surviving and how life is surviving. It is possible to resolve how life is surviving without resolving why life is surviving.

This is another very bold statement which flies in the teeth of the failures and excuses of psychology and psychiatry. Those two fields have so dismally and completely failed to resolve the problem of the human mind that they now resort to drugs, shocks and surgery. They "know" that nothing can be done about it so it doesn't matter what they do. Their treatments add up to profits for them and brain damage for the patient.

The problem of the human mind not only can be solved but has been in Dianetics, the first workable science of the mind. The therapy is easy to administer and has been validated over a 54 year period. I recommend you find out about it.

Scientology Logic 23 (continued)

In Logic 23 a postulate is put forward which could be easily passed over without realizing its importance. The postulate is: The human mind and inventions of the human mind are capable of resolving any and all problems which can be sensed, measured or experienced directly or indirectly.

This is a very bold statement. How many times in the past have we been told that some problem is unsolvable or that man will never understand some area of knowledge? This postulate shoots an arrow straight into the heart of the superstition, apathy and excuses which need to justify themselves by saying man will never know or will never resolve some mystery. It lays bare the intentions of the high priests of ignorance who wish to rule and profit from the currency of unknowingness in their pathetic kingdoms. It is also a direct attack on those who use the "you can never solve this problem" idea to trap men in lives of economic and social slavery.

The human mind and inventions of the human mind are capable of resolving any and all problems which can be sensed, measured or experienced directly or indirectly. I don't know if this is the first time in the field of philosophy that someone has said that man can know and can solve any problem he can be aware of, but I think it is the first time it has been stated so boldly and unequivocally.

Scientology Logic 23

Logic 23 - The human mind is a servomechanism to any mathematics evolved or employed by the human mind.

POSTULATE: The human mind and inventions of the human mind are capable of resolving any and all problems which can be sensed, measured or experienced directly or indirectly.

COROLLARY: The human mind is capable of resolving the problem of the human mind. The borderline of solution of this science lies between why life is surviving and how life is surviving. It is possible to resolve how life is surviving without resolving why life is surviving.

This can be a tough logic to get your wits around if you don't have a good concept of two things: 1) What is a "servomechanism" and 2) who creates the mathematics in the first place?

1) A servomechanism is a device that monitors the performance of another device and causes adjustments in the running of that device to bring it closer to an optimal performance.

2) The logic itself answers this one: Mathematics are created by the human mind.

To make Logic 23 more concrete let's take an example. We have to calculate the cost of items we are selling. The total is the cost of the item plus the sales tax which has a rate of 8%. We figure out a formula (mathematics) to calculate this as total = cost * 1.08. We use this successfully for some time then the state decides that the rate must increase to 8 1/4%. So we adjust the formula to total = cost * 1.0825. It's as simple as that. The human mind in this case evolved the mathematics (the first formula) and then acted as a servomechanism by monitoring the mathematics and adjusting it to make it produce correct results.

More on this Logic tomorrow.

Scientology Logic 22

Logic 22 - The human mind is an observer, postulator, creator and storage place of knowledge.

The human mind by definition includes the awareness unit of the living organism, the observer, the computer of data, the spirit, the memory storage, the life force and the individual motivator of the living organism. It is used as distinct from the brain which can be considered to be motivated by the mind.

Usually when the mind gets a mention in the media or in a book it is to show how crazy it is. The subjects of psychiatry and psychology have been so obsessed with the study of deranged minds that it seems they have never looked at functioning, sane minds. Here at last, in Logic 22, is a look at the mind as something positive and vital to mankind.

The story of civilization has so often been a battle between the great minds and the deranged. So let's recognize the fact that, although things are far from perfect, the great minds are winning. If you compare the state of the world 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago or 3,000 years ago to how it is now you will see a steady improvement. For example in Hellenic Greece at the height of its "Golden Age" (5th Century BC) slavery was a normal part of society and so accepted that it was rarely if ever questioned. Although slavery still exists it is now an illegal and debased activity and the concerned institutions of our civilization fight against slavery.

The human mind has been able to observe, postulate, create and store more and more knowledge as the centuries have gone by. The knowledge we need to overcome the challenges that face us and create an even better civilization exists but we must use the other logics to evaluate the vast amount of knowledge we now have so we can select out the true from the false, the vital from the dross and the survival data from the destructive.

Scientology Logic 21

Logic 21 - Mathematics are methods of postulating or resolving real or abstract data in any universe and integrating by symbolization of data, postulates and resolutions.

Mathematics is a very broad subject and it is important to understand from the outset that it is not just arithmetic and algebra. There is an excellent description of mathematics on Wikipedia. That article begins with "Mathematics is commonly defined as the study of patterns of structure, change, and space." Math (American abbreviation) or Maths (rest of the English speaking world abbreviation) has been used not only to figure out your taxes but also to figure out complex physical universe laws (such as relativity). Once you have an understanding of the wide field of Math, you will see that Logic 21 is a pretty good definition of the subject that successfully covers all its aspects.

It's also important to realize that mathematics is more logic than counting. An example is working out the tip to pay your waiter. Even if you use a calculator there is a sequence with decisions (both elements of logic) in which you do things: 1. take the sales tax from the total cost, 2. get the actual cost of the food, 3. if the service was exceptional then multiply by 20%, 4. if the service was average then multiply by 15%, 5. if the service was less than average then multiply by 10%, 6. if the service sucked then multiply by 0%.

In order to generalize this formula to take into account fluctuations in tipping amounts we could create this formula:

t = f * s
where t is the tip amount, f is the cost of the food and s is the value of the service,

s = v - q
where s is the value of the service, v is the highest service value (in our example 20%) and q is a factor depending on the quality of the service (in our example, average service would have a q value of -5%, terrible service would have a value of -20%)

f = b - e
where f is the cost of the food, b is the total on the bill and e is the extras such as sales tax or other fees not related to the cost of food.

Now we have a general formula for calculating the amount of the tip and if you compare what we did to Logic 21 you will see that many of the elements of the logic were used to do this.

Scientology Logic 20

Logic 20 - A science may be considered to be a large body of aligned data which has similarity in application and which has been deduced or induced from basic postulates.

This may seem like "just a definition for science" but if it is applied to a field claiming to be a science then we can validate if the field really is a science.

Take Physics as an example. It is a large body of data which is aligned, e.g., what Einstein says doesn't disagree with what Newton says, they both apply and fit together. There is similarity in application - if scientist X applies theory A and scientists Y also applies theory A then they get the same results. We can also look at the basic principles of Physics, its basic postulates, and we can see how later data derives from them. So we can say that Physics is a science.

Now let's take a look at psychology and psychiatry. Well, first we have Wundt's theories, which contradict Adler, who disagreed with Freud. We see that Dr. Phil's latest ideas are different to Dr. Laura's whose are different to Dr. Kinsey. There is no alignment except perhaps around money. If psychiatrist A gives drug X to patient Q the patient becomes very docile. If psychiatrist A gives drug X to patient R the patient becomes psychotic and kills his wife. If psychiatrist A gives drug X to patient S the patient commits suicide. There is no similarity in application. When we look for basic postulates in these subjects we don't really find any. So it is clear that psychology and psychiatry are not sciences but pseudo-sciences - i.e., frauds.

Scientology Logic 19

Logic 19 - The workability of a postulate is established by the degree to which it explains existing phenomena already known, by the degree that it predicts new phenomena which when looked for will be found to exist, and by the degree that it does not require that phenomena which do not exist in fact be called into existence for its explanation.

If I tell you that the United Nations is about to take over the USA (an idea I have actually heard) then to tell how workable this postulate is you would look for existing, known phenomena that it explains. Personally I can't think of any, so let's look for phenomena it predicts. Well first of all, if the UN was that powerful militarily then if some small country were having a war and the UN told it to stop and it didn't stop, you would expect to hear that the UN's mighty military arm had gone in and blasted the miscreants out of existence. Hmmm, the last I heard the UN was pretty useless in anything that involved military action - look at the Balkans for example, the UN was so ineffective that NATO had to go in to stop the genocide. So lacking actual phenomena and lacking phenomena which can be predicted and found to exist, the "the UN is coming! The UN is coming!" theorists then call into existence phenomena which do not exist - for example the silent "black helicopters" (so cleverly used in the movie "Conspiracy Theory"). Now notice that per the definition of "knowledge" in Logic 1, the idea itself is a piece of knowledge but when we evaluate it we find that it is not a workable piece of knowledge - except perhaps for a Hollywood script writer.

Now you may think the postulate "Santa Claus exists and all the stories surrounding him are true" is similarly unworkable merely because he has no physical existence, but if you look at the Santa Claus story as a myth containing philosophical ideas then it starts to have workability. For example, the story contains the idea that if you give to others without expecting anything material in return you will be rewarded spiritually. We look at this and we see that people give to charities and donate food so poor people can enjoy a good meal at Christmas and poor children can receive presents. They receive nothing in return but they feel better about themselves and others. So that part of the Santa Claus story is a workable postulate.

Now we can predict that if there is a disaster and homes and businesses are destroyed, people will pitch in to help those in trouble. And sure enough we see this all the time, the California Wild Fires were a recent example of this.

So remember Logic 12: "The value of a datum or a field of data is modified by the viewpoint of the observer." And realize that sometimes if you change your viewpoint an apparently unworkable postulate can become workable.

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.

Scientology Logic 17

Logic 17 - Those fields which most depend upon authoritative opinion for their data least contain known natural law.

If a scientist comes along and gives an authoritative opinion about the stress bearing capabilities of concrete and then the bridge that was built using this opinion falls down, it is clear his opinion was wrong. The fields of physics and engineering are fields containing a great deal of known natural law so the accuracy of authoritative opinions can rapidly be established and thus these fields suffer less than most others from this disease.

But what about art? "That is a great painting," asserts one man. "It's a piece of crap," asserts another. Then an art critic gives his authoritative opinion and the picture becomes worth millions. How can that be? It is because there is little or no known natural law in the field.

What about the field of the mind? In the 19th Century there was a well known disease called "Brain Fever". If you look up the term in a current dictionary it now has a meaningful definition, but in the 19th Century it was used as a catch-all to explain any kind of "mentally fevered" reaction or state. As a Sherlock Holmes fan I can recall three stories where characters had "brain fever", it seemed to be a combination of nervous breakdown and fever - very handy for a writer who needed a character to be incapacitated for a while. Of course now we know there is no such thing as "brain fever" as it was defined back then.

Earlier than the 19th Century everyone knew that mental derangement was cause by demonic possession and the cure was exorcism.

We look back at these ideas which were put forward by the very best authorities of the time and perhaps we shudder at the thought of how the poor patient was treated or perhaps we laugh at the idiocy of it. The thing to realize is that the field of the mind contains no known natural law and so "authorities" can get away with such nonsense.

Of course nowadays we are so advanced in this field that we know for certain that all mental derangement comes from a chemical imbalance in the brain. And instead of paying lots of money to exorcists to remove the demons we pay lots of money to psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies who provide addictive mind-altering drugs to cure the imbalance. I wonder what they'll be saying in a hundred years about that authoritative opinion?

Scientology Logic 16

Logic 16 - An abstract postulate must be compared to the universe to which it applies and brought into the category of things which can be sensed, measured or experienced in that universe before such postulate can be considered workable.

This is an important datum. This is where a lot of people go wrong. They come up with a solution to a problem and then without comparing it to reality and without bringing it into the realm of reality, they try to implement it.

A horrible and highly damaging example of this is the psychiatric theory that insanity is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. To compared that theory to the universe to which it applies and bring it into the category of things which can be sensed, measured or experienced we would have to have a test that could be performed that would show the imbalance. No such test exists, so this theory has never been validated, yet the theory is used daily to "treat" people with "mental problems" by filling them up with drugs whose adverse side-effects include psychotic behavior and suicide. The consequences are profits for the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries and immeasurable harm to the patient.

Scientology Logic 15

Logic 15 - The introduction of an arbitrary into a problem or solution invites the further introduction of arbitraries into problems and solutions.

An arbitrary is defined as "something which is introduced into a situation without regard to the data of the situation".

Unfortunately many laws are arbitraries. They are a solution which has little or nothing to do with the problem they are supposed to solve, so they cause more problems which then have to be solved with more laws.

Income tax is a prime example. Forced through to "tax the rich" it has never done this because the rich can pay for the tax attorneys to work out ways around the tax laws and can pay the lobbyists to get loop holes created.

The income tax actually penalizes the average man or woman and has little or no impact on the rich. Because it is an arbitrary it has meant that more and more laws have had to be passed to try and solve the "problem" of "tax the rich". It now takes CPAs and attorneys who are specialists in the field to figure it all out. We have specialists in personal income taxes, specialists in corporate taxes, specialists in partnership taxes, etc., etc.

And this is all because the law was an arbitrary in the first place and caused more arbitraries to be introduced to solve the problems it caused. A national sales tax would be a much simpler solution to the true problem which is "How to fund the government".

Happy Thanksgiving

I guess a billion bloggers today have probably sent out that message to a billion surfers, but hey, it is Thanksgiving and it's a time for celebrating what we have and being thankful to whatever we consider is the source of the many good things in our lives.

I had a great day and am stuffed full of turkey and pumpkin pie. I hope y'all had a great day too and are just as stuffed :)

Scientology Logic 14

Logic 14 - Factors introduced into a problem or solution which do not derive from natural law but only from authoritarian command aberrate that problem or solution.

Note: aberrate means to depart from rationality. See "aberration" for a full definition.

I guess the best known example of this was the Prohibition Law in 1920's America. Drinking alcohol was a normal part of life for many people and suddenly it was made illegal as a solution to the perception by a minority of the population that drinking alcohol caused crime and affected the efficiency of workers. In other words the banning of alcohol was not derived from the customs of the people (natural law of sorts) so it had to be enforced by authoritarian command which then aberrate things further: Organized crime expanded, people died from drinking contaminated liquor, law enforcement became very unpopular, the rule of law fell into disrepute because prominent citizens and politicians violated the Prohibition Law, etc., etc.

Enforcing a solution that violates natural law is going to get you, and anyone else involved, into big trouble.

Scientology Logic 13

Logic 13 - Problems are resolved by compartmenting them into areas of similar magnitude and data, comparing them to data already known or partially known, and resolving each area. Data which cannot be known immediately may be resolved by addressing what is known and using its solution to resolve the remainder.

Example

There is a business that is not doing well. We want to help the owner improve things so he can be successful and bring prosperity to the town and his employees. So where do we start? Let's chop up the business into related areas and then analyze each area to find out what's going on.

How should we compartment it? Well, put related areas together (areas of similar magnitude and data). So for example, we would not put the sales force with the janitor, but we would probably put staff training with quality control because how well trained the staff are has a major impact on the quality of what is produced by the company.

The area that looks the worst is credit collections - they are very low. We look into the area and find that customers are refusing to pay because they claim that what they are receiving is defective. We contact some customers to make sure this is true and not just an excuse by collections. We find it is true and that the customers have sent in complaints. So the credit collection area is now resolved as far as our investigation is concerned - we have resolved it by comparing the data in the area (collections are low) to data known (customers are complaining).

Now we go to quality control to find out why they have not responded to the complaints and find that the complaints file is empty. How come? The head of QC claims he has never received any complaints. Whether this is true or not cannot be immediately known because there is an absence of proof (no complaint letters). But, based on past experience, we know that the head of QC is a truthful guy so, for the moment, we regard QC as resolved and now go to the communications department to see what happened to the letters.

We find that the communications department is a complete mess with correspondence and internal memos piled up all over the place. Suddenly a lot of other situations we have observed in the company make sense because they can be explained by a lack of internal and external communication (Logic 10 - The value of a datum is established by the amount of alignment (relationship) it imparts to other data).

So we give our attention to fixing up the communications department and the company starts doing better.

Now that may seem simple and logical, but what happens in a normal company?

• The credit collections are down - fire the credit collection clerks and hire some better people.
  
• Customers are refusing to pay - sue 'em.
  
• We hear that there are lots of complaints from customers - fire the head of manufacturing.
  
• The company is doing poorly - take out a loan to get us through the lean period.
  

Not using Logic 13 would have failed to get to the core of the problem and things would have just gotten worse.

Evaluation of Data - Scientology Logics 7 through 12

Logics 7 through 12 are all about evaluating data so let's see them in action.

Mom observes that the apple pie is missing from the stove top and that the empty pie dish is lying by the dog's bowl.

She puts forth the hypothesis that the dog ate the apple pie. She attempts to apply Logic 10 to this: "The value of a datum is established by the amount of alignment (relationship) it imparts to other data." It doesn't fit too well because another datum is: between the edge of the stove top and the pie was another pan which was not displaced. The dog hypothesis doesn't align with that because the dog would have knocked the other pan out of the way.

She now applies Logic 8 "A datum can be evaluated only by a datum of comparable magnitude." A datum of comparable magnitude would be who has the capability to lift the pie dish from the stove and put it by the dog's bowl. Possibilities: husband or son.

Now she applies the 2nd corollary of Logic 7 "Truth is relative to environments, experience and truth." From her experience if husband had wanted to eat some of the pie he would have simply eaten it.

This leaves her with the hypothesis that son ate the pie and tried to frame the dog. She goes to son's room and finds crumbs under the bed. To gather more data she finds son and asks him if he'd like a sandwich because from her experience (2nd corollary of Logic 7) she knows that he is usually hungry at this time of day. He says no thanks, he's not hungry. She applies Logic 10 again and sees that the datum of the crumbs and the not being hungry align with the "son did it" hypothesis.

She asks him if he ate the pie. He denies it. She notes that he can't meet her eye-to-eye and, again, from experience knows that this is usually a sign of son not telling the truth.

Now she has to decide what to do. She uses Logic 11: "The value of a datum or field of data can be established by its degree of assistance in survival or its inhibition to survival" and Logic 7 "Gradient scales are necessary to the evaluation of problems and their data." She evaluates that this is extremely serious and that son should be grounded for the rest of his life. Then she recalls Logic 12: "The value of a datum or a field of data is modified by the viewpoint of the observer" and realizes that her viewpoint is affecting her decision. She then re-evaluates and decides that the pie eating was bad, but not terrible, the lying was worse and the framing of poor Rover was the worst. On a scale of offences from 1 (minor) to 10 (severe) she decides that son's actions end up at about 7 and that his future survival (Logic 11) is endangered by him having the viewpoint that it's okay to do such things.

She assigns him menial house cleaning and trash disposal duties for a week and requires that he study "The Way to Happiness" so that he understands for himself why lying is not a good idea and what the consequences of unethical behavior are, not only to other but to him personally.

So there you have a very down-to-earth (and hopefully humorous) example of how to evaluate data and come up with logical solutions using Logics 7 through 12.

Scientology Logic 12

Logic 12 - The value of a datum or a field of data is modified by the viewpoint of the observer.

To a hunter a rifle is good, to a duck a rifle sucks.

When a new idea is first put forth, no matter how true or obvious it may seem, it's originator is usually vilified by his peers and others because their viewpoint is so fixed. When Copernicus had the nerve to suggest that the Earth revolved around the Sun, his theory was attacked as heresy and at one point his book was withdrawn from circulation by the Inquisition so it could be censored. When Galileo had the gall to not only forward these outlandish ideas but even claim to be able to prove them by observation the Catholic Church (after forcing him to recant his claims) put him under lifelong house arrest.

From the viewpoint of the Church "observers" the data was not, as Copernicus and Galileo saw it, something that could assist the survival of mankind but heresy that would condemn mankind to eternal damnation (i.e., it inhibited survival), which was a complete reversal of the value of the data.

See "Galileo - Church controversy" for an idea of just how "impossible" the theory was from their fixed viewpoint.

Scientology Logic 11

Logic 11 - The value of a datum or field of data can be established by its degree of assistance in survival or its inhibition to survival.

This logic brings us back down to the practicalities of everyday existence. So you have data? So what? Does it help us survive or not?

Obviously data on diseases such as SARS has a high value because SARS kills.

Unfortunately for many Americans the antics of your favorite sitcom characters does not have much value and (don't tell them this) the evening news is also pretty low on the value scale. If you doubt it then next time you watch the news figure out how much assistance or inhibition to survival what you are being fed actually has. Perhaps all you'll come up with is that watching the news brings you down - that's inhibiting to survival.

Scientology Logic 10

Logic 10 - The value of a datum is established by the amount of alignment (relationship) it imparts to other data.

How many times in history has a nation been losing a war when low and behold a high up commander is found to be in the pay of the enemy? Suddenly a thousand seemingly incomprehensible occurrences - lost battles, spies captured by the enemy, etc. - are explained. Suddenly alignment is given to all that data.

Another example is the idea that psychiatrists are really trying to help people recover. If we attempt to align other data in the field around that theory then we have trouble. Example: Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) causes brain damage and most patients die after a few years. Example: mind-altering stimulant drugs such as Ritalin have been shown to cause brain shrinkage after prolonged use and studies have shown that over 90% of children taking Ritalin move on to street drugs. Example: Two side-effects of drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil are psychosis and suicide and thousands of apparently pointless acts of murder followed by suicide have been perpetrated by people on these drugs.

Now lets assume the datum "psychiatrists are in it for the money" is true. Suddenly we see these other data come into alignment. ECT is a big money maker - easy to administer and it can be billed against insurance. When retirees hit 65 their medicare coverage increases and the amount of ECT they are given vastly increases. If a psychiatrist can keep a patient on his list and see them regularly, even though all he does is prescribe more drugs, then he can continue to bill their insurance and continue to get kick-backs in the form of expense paid trips to luxury resorts (for seminars of course) from drug companies.

Scientology Logic 9

Logic 9 - A datum is as valuable as it has been evaluated.

The fact that things fall when you drop them was known to many generations of people but until Sir Isaac Newton evaluated it no one knew how valuable the datum (called "gravity") was. Once it was evaluated bridges and buildings could be better built and man could even figure out how to fly.

Another example - prior to Louis Pasteur if a limb was damaged then the only way to prevent it becoming infected and eventually killing the injured person was to hack it off. When Pasteur figured out that micro-organisms caused the infection and that the infection was spread by doctors with filthy hands, suddenly the value of cleanliness was realized because it could be evaluated with a datum of comparable magnitude: dirtiness spreads disease.

Scientology Logic 8

Logic 8 - A datum can be evaluated only by a datum of comparable magnitude.

Once you think up some examples this logic is "obvious" but like so many things it isn't actually "obvious" until you understand it.

Your friend has just been on a mountaineering trip. "So Joe, how big was that mountain you just climbed?" Which answer makes sense?
- Answer 1: "Well, see this grain of sand? The mountain was much much bigger."
- Answer 2: "Almost as high as the Matterhorn"

Answer 2 makes the most sense because the Matterhorn and Joe's mountain are of comparable magnitude, whereas a grain of sand and Joe's mountain are not of comparable magnitude.

A less obvious example would be this: Bill is extremely sick and has a temperature of 102F. The doctor tells him to take an aspirin. This makes no sense because an aspirin is an answer to something with the order of magnitude of a headache not a raging fever.

Scientology Logic 7

Logic 7 - Gradient scales are necessary to the evaluation of problems and their data.

This is the tool of infinity-valued logic: Absolutes are unobtainable. Terms such as good and bad, alive and dead, right and wrong are used only in conjunction with gradient scales. On the scale of right and wrong, everything above zero or center would be more and more right, approaching an infinite rightness, and everything below center would be more and more wrong, approaching infinite wrongness. All things assisting the survival of the survivor are considered to be right for the survivor. All things inhibiting survival from the viewpoint of the survivor can be considered wrong for the survivor. The more a thing assists survival, the more it can be considered right for the survivor; the more a thing or action inhibits survival, the more it is wrong from the viewpoint of the intended survivor.

COROLLARY: Any datum has only relative truth.

COROLLARY: Truth is relative to environments, experience and truth.

This is one of the most important of the Logics. A gradient scale is a scale going from a theoretical minus infinity, through zero to a theoretical plus infinity. The scale is divided into small steps or gradients. An example would be if you were trying to decide which applicant to accept for a job. You would create a scale with perhaps -100 on the left, 0 in the middle and +100 on the right. You could divide the scale into steps of 1. The "absolutely perfect" applicant would be rated at +100 and the "absolutely unacceptable" applicant would be rated at -100. Now you evaluate the applicants giving them a number of positive points for attributes that you want and negative points for attributes you don't want. After doing this you will find your applicants somewhere on your scale and you'd choose the one with the highest rating.

Using such a method you avoid the errors of two-valued logic - "Is this applicant perfect for the job or not? No, then reject him." Using that method you will never find anyone because, as we learned from Logic 6, "Absolutes are unobtainable."

It also avoids the errors of single-valued logic - "Whoever we choose our fate is predetermined so it doesn't matter who we choose, Just pick anyone."

The two corollaries are also important. "Any datum has only relative truth." If I say "I live on planet Earth," that is true, and if I say, "I live in the USA," that is also true. Both statements have relative truth. How relatively true does a datum need to be? My answer would be look at the 2nd corollary, "Truth is relative to environments, experience and truth." If you want to visit me at home then, "I live in the USA" doesn't get the product, it's not relatively true enough for the environment it is being applied to.

Another example would be if you told me "I need six screws to fix this door." I give you six screws but they are all too small. So you say "I need six screws bigger than these to fix this door." So I give you six screws that are too big. Well, both requests were true but they were not relatively true enough to get the door fixed. Now you say, "I need six screws, two inches long and 3/8 inches in diameter." Now we have a fixed door.

Without infinity-valued logic and gradient scales decision making becomes more guesswork or luck than logic.

Scientology Logic 6

Logic 6 - Absolutes are unobtainable.

Everyday in the news, especially when one political party is attacking another, we are told that something is "absolutely" wrong. The Democrats/Republicans seem to think that everything the Republicans/Democrats say is absolutely wrong but to most people, when they stand back and don't take sides, it is clear that some of what both sides say makes sense and some doesn't. Neither is totally right nor totally wrong.

There seems to be a human tenancy to go to extremes, to see everything in terms of black and white when in fact there is no absolute black or absolute white but only (as we shall see while examining the next logic) shades of gray.

Scientology Logic 5 (continued)

To follow up on yesterday's post: Beware of a field of knowledge that doesn't have clear definitions for its terms. You will often find that such a field is purposely unclear and the reasons are often for control, power and/or money.

A prime example of this is the field of psychiatry. What is the definition of "schizophrenia"? Most people will say "split personality" but that is not the psychiatric definition. Wikipedia defines it as "Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion." It goes on to broaden the definition to such a degree that it can mean any type of behavior you want it to mean. This indefinite definition was routinely used in countries such as Communist Russia to labelled dissidents as mentally ill so they could be locked up and electro-shocked to help "cure" them.

In the modern United States and Europe children are labelled as having "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" but the definition is so general that it covers normal childhood behavior and indeed the definition even states that the condition will go away as the child gets older. The result is millions of children taking mind altering drugs with the pharmaceutical industry making billions of dollars every year out of them.

So a field with unclear, imprecise definitions can be very dangerous.

Demanding "Action Definitions" for terms in a field is the solution to this. Action definition: one which delineates cause and potential change of state of being by cause of existence, inexistence, action, inaction, purpose or lack of purpose.. An action definition demands that "cause" be clearly stated. So for example in the definition of a medical condition such as measles one can name the cause as the measles virus, one can state the effect that cause has upon the body (produces spots, fever, etc.) and one can then state what will change the condition (the vaccine) by its effect upon that cause. There is no question, ambiguity or uncertainty when an action definition is used.

Action definitions would destroy the field of psychiatry because there are no causes in psychiatry. To determine if a person is schizophrenic a psychiatrist subjectively evaluates the person's behavior. There is no objective test to find the cause. No blood is tested, no x-rays are taken, no medical tests of any kind are made because there is no cause for the condition. The same applies to the entire list of psychiatry's mental illnesses. Sometimes they make up a cause, such as "a chemical imbalance in the brain" but there are no tests to show that such a condition exists.

If you have measles a medical doctor can take a blood sample and detect the virus causing the condition, he can give you a shot and kill the virus so you recover and don't have the disease anymore. In other words the treatment ends because the cause has been handled.

In psychiatry there is no test (because there is no cause), the psychiatrist makes a subjective determination and then prescribes one or more drugs which don't handle the cause and therefore have to be taken forever to keep the "condition" at bay. But a lot of money is made from the never-ending treatment by both the psychiatrist and the drug company.

So the moral of the story is, "demand action definitions."

Scientology Logic 5

Logic 5 - A definition of terms is necessary to the alignment, statement and resolution of suppositions, observations, problems and solutions and their communication.

DEFINITION: Descriptive definition: one which classifies by characteristics, by describing existing states of being.

DEFINITION: Differentiative definition: one which compares unlikeness to existing states of being or not-being.

DEFINITION: Associative definition: one which declares likeness to existing states of being or not-being.

DEFINITION: Action definition: one which delineates cause and potential change of state of being by cause of existence, inexistence, action, inaction, purpose or lack of purpose.

The 18th Century French philosopher Voltaire said very wisely, "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms." Logic 5 not only agrees with Voltaire but goes on to define how to define your terms.

Let's start with the obvious. If we have fuzzy definitions of what we are trying to reason about or solve then we are going to come up with fuzzy conclusions. Example: if a mechanic doesn't know what a carburetor is then asking him to change the carburetor on your car is going to end up with some interesting results, but none of them are going to include a successfully changed carburetor.

It may seem obvious that we need to understand the words we use, hear or read but how many of us actually use a dictionary when we are studying? My work often requires me to figure out the business rules of a particular area of a company or even of the whole company. I'm constantly bombarded with new terms and I have to ask for definitions from the people I'm interviewing. It's amazing how often I find they don't really understand the words themselves.

The worst example of this was when I was designing the new deal entry software for a particular business group. The deals were complex with all the possible variations that their sales force and lawyers could dreamed up. I spent months working out the business, the business rules and designing the application, then we spent many more months building it and integrating it with the existing systems. About a month before we were due to go into production almost the entire group was fired and replaced because they were doing such a poor job. While working with the new people I realized that the fired people had actually not understood the words they were dealing with everyday in their jobs, because they'd given me wrong definitions.

What this meant was that the new application was about 30% usable. 70% of the requirements were wrong because the people giving the requirements did not understand the words describing the business they were in. This also explained why they got fired: they didn't understand what they were doing and so they were doing a lousy job.

Not having a definition or having the wrong definition for a word is actually the most important barrier to study. Not only does it kill your understanding of what you are reading but it produces physical reactions - well known to every student, but until now assumed to be a normal part of study. This is fully covered in the Hubbard Study Technology.

References:
Study Trouble; Difficulty Learning and Retaining Things?
The Third - and Most Important - Barrier: The Misunderstood Word
The Basic Study Manual
Education & Learning
Applied Scholastics - Effective Education Solutions

As I said, it may seem obvious that you have to understand the words you are using. It may seem like common sense, but let me leave you with two thoughts: First from Voltaire: "Common sense is not so common." and second a question for you that (I hope) will bring about a new awareness of how important it is to fully understand the words we use - "What is the definition of the word 'is'?"

Scientology Logics - Part 4

Logic 4 - A datum is a symbol of matter, energy, space or time, or any combination thereof, in any universe, or the matter, energy, space or time itself, or any combination thereof, in any universe.

You'll remember from Logic 1 - "Knowledge is a whole group or subdivision of a group of data or speculations or conclusions on data or methods of gaining data.". Logic 4 now gives us the definition of data and you'll notice that it is not speculation or conclusions. Data is real, concrete, objective or a symbol for something real, concrete and objective. So once again Mr. Hubbard points out the difference between facts (data) and opinions (speculations or conclusions on data), which is an important distinction as I pointed out in the first part of this series of articles.

Logic 4 also clarifies what is meant by "methods of gaining data". These must be methods that deal with symbols of matter, energy, space or time, or any combination thereof, in any universe, or the matter, energy, space or time itself, or any combination thereof, in any universe. So simple observation would fit into this as would a technique that assisted memory (your memories are symbols of matter, energy, space and time). So whatever technique the philosopher Hegel used to determine that there could only be 7 planets going around the sun (this was at a time when an astronomer had just observed the 8th planet) can be thrown out as not a valid method of gaining data. His theory was perfectly acceptable under the definition of "knowledge" as it was "speculation" or maybe "conclusions", but it is important if you want to be able to think straight to realize that it was not "data."

Mathematics can now be seen to be a valid method of gaining data, and indeed has been used for centuries for just that. However, it must be said that it is only valid when its symbol are symbols of matter, energy, space or time, or any combination thereof, in any universe. If it starts getting into the area of speculation and conclusions then it may be knowledge but it may or may not be data.

This Logic also demonstrates that although the field of psychiatry is a body of knowledge, that knowledge is not "data" but "speculation" or "conclusions", in other words, "opinion". An example of this is the theory used to justify the use of highly profitable mind altering drugs. "There is a chemical imbalance in the brain that these drugs correct." is the theory. However, there are no actual objective tests to back this up. When brains are tested for the mythical "chemical imbalance" it is never found and people are prescribed these drugs without any objective physical test being done. The fraud of ADHD is a prime example of this.

One of the few objective tests ever done to show differences between "hyperactive brains" and "normal brains" only succeeded in showing that the brains of hyperactive patients who had been on psych drugs (like Ritalin) for some years had shrunk. The moral of this story is be very wary of bodies of knowledge that contains little or no "data" and a preponderance of "speculations and conclusions on data".

Scientology Logics - Part 3

Logic 3 - Any knowledge which can be sensed, measured or experienced by any entity is capable of influencing that entity.

COROLLARY: That knowledge which cannot be sensed, measured or experienced by any entity or type of entity cannot influence that entity or type of entity.

With Logic 3 we get into the first of the intensely workable rules of logic. The corollary is rather a slap in the face for transcendental philosophy which puts forth the idea that something exists "independent of human experience of phenomena but within the range of knowledge." What I'd like to know is if it exists independent of human experience then how do the transcendentalists know it exists at all? The corollary to Logic 3 demonstrates the irrelevance of transcendentalism.

On a more practical basis let's say I look after the computer system that handles payroll (PR) at a large company. There is going to be an upgrade to the Accounts Receivable (AR) system. Will I need to make any changes to the PR system because of this? An easy way to answer this is to see if the PR system can sense, measure or experience the AR system in any way. Let's say that it cannot. Then the AR system can be changed without any impact on PR.

Now here is an example that impacts anyone living in the USA. When the Patriot Act was passed by Congress, "everyone knew" it was only going to be used to fight terrorism so of course ordinary citizens didn't have to worry about the curtailing of civil rights contained in it. But just yesterday I came across this article: reviewjournal.com -- News: PATRIOT ACT: Law's use causing concerns. Now you could say, "Well, it was used to catch criminals and I'm not a criminal so I'm okay." But the question you really have to answer is: "Can I sense, measure or experience the powers the Patriot Act gives to government agencies?" And if the answer is "yes" then it really doesn't matter if you are a criminal or an upstanding member of society, the act can be used against you.

Scientology Logics - Part 2

Logic 2 - A body of knowledge is a body of data, aligned or unaligned, or methods of gaining data.

Logic 2, like Logic 1, is a basic that simply defines what a body of knowledge is. The fact that the knowledge can be aligned or unaligned doesn't prevent it from being knowledge. For example, physics is an area where the data is aligned and people recognize it as a body of knowledge, but what about some relatively unaligned field such as art? There is a body of knowledge there, it contains some data, many, many speculations and many conclusions. Understanding this can be to your advantage if you want to invest in the area. If you realize that the value of a painting is almost purely based on opinion and you know whose opinion is the most valuable then you can determine which picture to buy and for how much.

Contrast that to buying a house where the body of knowledge (physics) is aligned. You will check known principles and laws to make sure the house is a sound investment: Does it follow the building codes? Is it structurally sound? You will use little or no opinion in deciding to buy the house because the body of knowledge is aligned.

You can also look at an apparently unaligned body of knowledge and look to see if it is aligned. For example the subject of psychiatry seems completely unaligned. It contains no science and even determines if a "mental illness" exists by vote of it's members - that's how their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which lists all the official mental illnesses, keeps getting bigger and bigger. In court case after court case psychiatrist A, working for the defense, says the accused is insane while psychiatrist B, working for the prosecution, says he's sane.

However if you realize that psychiatry is aligned around money then their practices make complete sense. Psychiatrist A says the guy is insane because the defense is paying him, psychiatrist B says he's sane because the prosecution is paying him.

Why do psychiatrists still use Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) when it has been proven time and time again that it causes brain damage and that the majority of people who receive it die within a couple of years. If you are operating on the idea that psychiatry is aligned around the benefiting of mankind then it makes no sense, but if you realize that ECT is a big money maker then all is explained.

Again in this Logic we have "methods of gaining data" as being a body of knowledge in itself and, again, this makes knowledge a living, breathing, evolving entity.

The Scientology Logics

The Scientology Logics are a favorite of mine, probably because they are so useful in my job and I get to use them every day. You could call them "how to think" or "how to solve problems", things that we all need to be able to do effectively to succeed in life.

So I'm going to examine them one-by-one over the next several days.

Logic 1: Knowledge is a whole group or subdivision of a group of data or speculations or conclusions on data or methods of gaining data.

This is the first of the Logics because it is a basic to all logic. You are dealing with knowledge in thinking and problem solving so you have to know what it is. The fact that knowledge contains "data" and "speculations" is important to know because a fact (data) can lead to a solution whereas an opinion (speculation) usually only leads to more opinions and often to an impasse (argument).

So when you are examining a body of knowledge you should divide it up into data (facts), speculations (opinions) and conclusions (always evaluating how correct or incorrect the conclusion is and how it was evolved). Now you can think with it.

The inclusion of "methods of gaining data" in the definition of knowledge greatly expands the entire concept of knowledge and makes it into a living, breathing entity. So often we think of knowledge as something in dried up old books written down centuries ago by some mysterious savant. There are even philosophies founded on the idea that all worthwhile knowledge is beyond human comprehension. Well, if you have a method of gaining data you no longer have to blindly believe what was written by "authorities", because you can find out for yourself.

To me, a method of gaining data is of more value than the data itself, because if you forget some piece of data you can always find it again, but if you forget the method, you're back to accepting what "authority" tells you.

The simplest, but for many most difficult, method of gaining data is observation. The article "Personal Integrity" by L. Ron Hubbard contains vital data on how to observe.

Second hand observation adds the complexity of the reliability and accuracy of the source. Some of the later Logics provide methods for evaluating such.

The Logics themselves contain methods of gaining data so stay tuned. I'll be back with more tomorrow.

Scientology Yahoo Group

I just found out there is a Yahoo group about Scientology. This may be a place to find out more if you are interested.

Help with trauma

One of the simplest and most effective ways to help a person who has their attention fixed on something unpleasant, such as an accident or disaster, is the Locational Assist.

I've used it many times to help people in such a condition and it never fails. Just a couple of weeks ago I helped a guy who was having a panic attack. It took about 30 minutes but at the end of the assist the attack had gone and he was bright and smiling.

Southern California Wild Fires

When the wild fires struck Southern California a call went out to Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Los Angeles to mobilize and give assistance to the Red Cross. A group immediately went out to the evacuation area at San Bernardino Airport giving comfort and help to the people who had lost their homes or were waiting to see if they still had a home to return to. More help is on-going and I'll post it here as I learn more.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are experienced in disaster relief having assisted in rescue and relief operations all over the world. They not only give the sort of physical help people need, such as providing food and shelter, but they also provide the practical spiritual help needed to overcome the stress and trauma of disaster situations.

If you or someone you know needs help with the stress or trauma of a disaster, or even of a small disaster of everyday life then call 1 800 HELP 4 YU.

Contributions to Disaster Relief

To donate to the Volunteer Minister Program call Volunteer Ministers International at 1-800-435-7498 or (323) 960-3560 or sent to Volunteer Ministers International, 6331 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 708, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

For details on how to donate to the Red Cross in Southern California go to http://www.acrossla.org/

You can also donate via "Operation: Lend-A-Hand", being run by a local radio station. Just go to http://www.kabc.com/viewentry.asp?id=285197&pt=detailed%20information.

All the above donations are tax deductible.

What is Truth?

Now that is quite a philosophical question isn't it? Well, it is answered in the Scientology Axioms. By-the-way, Axiom has various definitions, the one being used here is "an established rule or principle or a self-evident truth."

In Axiom 38 Truth is defined as:
   1. Truth is the exact consideration.
   2. Truth is the exact time, place, form and event.

(My note: A consideration is a thought or idea about something, so this definition covers both the subjective and objective spheres.)

This definition has many applications in life. Example: a friend of mine was very nervous when it came to speaking in front of groups. Using a technique in Scientology called "false data stripping," I helped him to find the idea (consideration) he had about groups that was causing this. It turned out he had a fixed idea that groups always heckled speakers. This came from a difficult situation he'd been in with a group and shortly after, while still under a great deal of stress, someone had said to him that groups always heckled speakers. He had taken this as true and as the explanation for his difficulties. Later he forgot that he'd accepted this idea but it hung around and caused him endless problems. Getting the exact consideration he had about groups (the truth in other words) enabled him to change his mind and the problem with groups ended right there and then.

Another, more objective example, and something I do almost every day is finding and correcting bugs in computer programs. "It's hanging up" says the user. So I get her to define this more exactly - When does it hang up? Where in the program? What does the screen show at the time? What happens exactly? I get the exact time, place, form and event of the problem then I know where to look in the program and can solve it.

So this is a very practical definition of truth.

Scientology and Metaphysics

I've been gradually moving through the branches of philosophy and showing how Scientology encompasses each. Now we come to metaphysics. This is probably the most difficult branch of philosophy to define. Wikipedia gives a long definition while Webster's 1828 dictionary gives a simpler one.

Originally metaphysics was used to describe the books (and hence the subjects in those books) by Aristotle that came after (meta) his books about physics. Metaphysics has expanded over the centuries to include anything that doesn't fit into the rest of philosophy, so in a way it still lives up to its original definition although it could now be called meta-philosophy. To keep it simple, or as simple as I can, I'll define it like this: it covers the basic concepts of what underlies existence. Concepts such as being, existence, causation, space, time, knowledge, mind, spirit and many more fall into metaphysics. Unfortunately the more you dig into what it means the more complicated and convoluted it becomes. So I'll stop there.

Scientology covers the area of metaphysics in its usual practical way. The Prelogics are probably the first summation of L. Ron Hubbard's discoveries in this area, defining the common denominator of all life impulses and how universes are created. Next came the Factors which cover being, existence, causation and much more. Finally the Scientology Axioms sum up everything (literally).

These fundamentals are given very concisely and when you first read them may be too concentrated to easily digest, so in the next couple of days I'll give you examples of how they can be used in life.

Rekindle the failed purpose

While researching how to get things done (as part of the organizational philosophy of Scientology) L. Ron Hubbard hit the problem of mankind's tendency to stop things. For example stressing what shouldn't be done rather than what should be done - most laws epitomize this.

From this research he discovered that behind every stop there is a failed purpose. An example of this was a friend of mine who just couldn't seem to have a successful relationship, everything he did in the area seemed to hit a barrier - a stop - and he was very apathetic about the whole thing. When I was helping him it turned out that he'd had the purpose to have a successful marriage but his first marriage had failed dismally.

The solution? Mr. Hubbard discovered a law - "All you have to do to restore life and action is to rekindle the failed purpose. The stops will at once blow." ("blow" = go away). I had my friend look at his original purpose and times when he'd had success with it and he once more got the idea that the purpose could be attained. Within a week or two he was dating and a year later had remarried - a big improvement over 3-years of nothing happening.

The data on failed purposes can be found in Organization Executive Course Volume 0.

Scientology Philosophy - The Basic Formula of Living

People tend to think of politics as the bickering of politicians rather than ideas about social organization, administration and forms of civilization, so using the term "politics" could easily be misunderstood. The religion of Scientology is very careful to stay out of politics as it is most often defined. Scientologists very much agree with the US constitution on that one - Church and State should be separate. Therefore I will use the term "social organization" to name the branch of philosophy that Will Durant calls "politics".

Something L. Ron Hubbard discovered in his research into social organization was the Basic Formula of Living. The basic formula of Living is : HAVING AND FOLLOWING A BASIC PURPOSE.

That may sound simple, but it has very wide ramifications. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to observe that people with no purpose in life drift along getting nowhere, the aimless teenager getting into drugs and gangs is a prime example of this. If you observe a successful man or woman you will see a person who knows what their purpose is and is going for it. When you read of successful people and their habits you will see the same thing - they know what their goals are and they are working toward them.

This simple formula can be applied by any individual to better their own life. For example, if you are not enjoying your life, you feel you are drifting or living is not much fun then ask yourself what your basic purpose is. Do you have one? If you do is it actually something you want to follow?

If you find that your basic purpose is nonexistent or you have one you don't want then create or choose a new one. It could be your very own purpose you dream up or it could be a purpose that already exists that you adopt as your own.

Now you have a purpose the second part of the formula is to follow it. What do you need to do to achieve it? In what sequence must you carry out these actions? Make plans and then carry them out.

Applying the Basic Formula of Living to your own life can have exciting and far reaching effects.

The Basic Formula of Living and many other such discoveries can be found in The Organization Executive Course Volume 0 available in 15 languages.

Scientology and Organization

In an earlier post I mentioned the five rough divisions of philosophy and described "Politics" as "the subject of social organization - not just how to get elected". How to organize everything from your own life to an international religion is covered in Scientology. As always it is covered in a very practical manner.

What is the ideal form that an organization should take? How do you help people to be effective on the job? How do you choose who should be in charge? How do you fairly and equitably administer justice to the individuals in the group? How do you measure how successful a person is at their job and how successful the organization is? How do you effectively manage a group? How do you as an individual or as a manager plan and carry out the plan to achieve your goals? All these questions and more are answered in the several volumes of the encyclopedic Organization Executive Course and Management Series. These books can be found here: Scientology Administration.

Another useful reference containing the most important basics of this technology of how to organize and handle groups is contained in the Scientology Handbook.

Scientology and Aesthetics

As I blogged a couple of days ago, aesthetics is one branch of philosophy and Scientology has quite a lot to say about it. One very famous quote by L. Ron Hubbard is "A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists." Mr. Hubbard wrote many articles on the subject of art, beauty and ideal form from a very practical viewpoint and these were gathered together into an excellent book called Art. It really takes the mystery out of art and has even enabled a clod like me to produce something aesthetic now and then - and that's quite a feat.

There are Scientology churches that specializes in delivering Dianetics and Scientology services to celebrities, professionals, leaders and promising new-comers in the fields of the arts, sports, management and government. They are called Celebrity Centres and the most beautiful one in the world (and the one I go to, so it must be good) is Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International. Check it out!

Scientology Ethics: Integrity, Honesty and Self-Esteem

How can an individual maintain his integrity and honesty so as to attain self-esteem in modern society? This is well covered in Scientology not only in theory but also in a very practical way that an individual can apply to his or her life. Some articles with workable data and methods can be found here: Scientology Handbook: Integrity, honesty and self-esteem.

My wife has been very successful in using this data with individuals having difficulties in their lives. She's worked with hundreds of people dealing with everything from failing marriages to failing businesses. One interesting example was a businessman trying to solve some serious problems with his business. Applying the principles given in these articles my wife helped him not only make his business successful but, as a side benefit, he realized that his lack of integrity and honesty in business had slopped over into his marriage, almost destroying it. He was very happy that he was able to save his marriage, his livelihood and his self-respect.

Scientology Ethics

The next part of philosophy that Scientology covers is the subject of Ethics. Most modern dictionaries mis-define it as a code of morality or the study of moral standards and how they affect conduct. To see how complex the area has become and the large number of competing theories check out this article about Ethics on Wikipedia. The intro seems simple but then we get into "Major doctrines of ethics" and at that point you can wave goodbye to common sense.

The big difference in Scientology Ethics is that it is aimed at use in everyday life. It gives simple, common sense and very workable methods to make the correct decision and proven formulas for changing conditions in life for the better.

The entire subject is very well covered in the book Introduction to Scientology Ethics. I use this book all the time and highly recommend it.

Use of Scientology Logic in Everyday Life

After my blog entry yesterday I started to notice how much I use the logic methods of Scientology in my everyday life.

For example, just today in a meeting, a colleague mentioned a problem he was having with some software. From my knowledge of logic it was clear to me that he was looking in the wrong place for the source of the problem. I told him where I thought the root of the problem lay and explained my reasoning at which point another person in the meeting realized that a change had been made in that very area the day the problem was first noticed. Addressing that change fixed the original problem.

Now I could just go around telling people I'm a genius (hmm, not a bad idea) but truthfully it's the Scientology Logic I've learned that helps me to solve this and many other problems. The definitive work on Scientology Logic is in a series of articles by L. Ron Hubbard called the "Data Series". These can be found in Volume One of the three volume Management Series. A more concise version can be found in the investigations chapter of the Scientology Handbook.

Scientology is practical philosophy

I highly recommend Will Durant's revolutionary work on philosophy, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers. I call it revolutionary because, for the first time in about 200 years, it presented philosophy to the common man. It made philosophy understandable and made it seem practical and applicable to everyday life.

In the introduction to the book he explains what philosophy is and splits it into five parts. They are logic, aesthetics, ethics, politics and metaphysics. He defines logic as ways of thinking, problem solving and reaching conclusions. Aesthetics is the subject of beauty, ideal form and art. Ethics is about ideals of behavior. Politics is the subject of social organization - not just how to get elected :). Metaphysics deals with the underlying concepts behind the nature of existence, reality and being and the interaction of mind and reality via perceptions.

When I first read this I realized that Scientology not only covers all those things but it contains actual workable methods of applying the theory and principles of its philosophy in everyday life. For example the subject of logic is covered in "The Logics" which can be found in Scientology 0 to 8: The Book of Basics. How to easily and successfully apply this is covered in the investigations chapter of The Scientology Handbook. I personally have used these methods to solve many problems in my own life and in the lives of family and friends.

One particularly successful application was to a friend who had ended a disastrous marriage about a year earlier and was having a terrible time establishing a new relationship. Using the procedure given in the handbook we found the underlying reason for his difficulty and came up with a solution. A week later he started dating a woman whom he would never have considered asking out in the past because of the fixed ideas he had had before we applied Scientology logic to his situation. A couple of years later I found myself being asked to be the best-man at their wedding and now, 7-years later, they are still very happily married.

More Resources

Here the site of a fellow in India that has a list of Scientology Resources.

Scientology Resources Site

Beliefnet has a page of links to sites about Scientology and related subjects. Click here for Scientology and Related Subjects.

My first step in Scientology

Scientology caused great changes in my life. Before I came across it I was a very shy, introverted guy. I would get depressed often and although I would have times of happiness, most of the time life wasn't very enjoyable. The first course I did in Scientology was called the Communication Course. The course promised to improve my ability to communicate with others and my ability to be the one who could start the conversation. What I got out of it was a lot more than that - much, much more than I ever imagined. I found my shyness decreased tremendously, I could actually talk to girls without blushing and stumbling and sounding like an idiot, I could go places by myself without feeling nervous and my introversion disappeared completely. The difference that one course made in my life was so great that I was determined to do more.

You can find out about the communications course and all the other beginning courses and services of Scientology by clicking this link: Introductory Services.