Scientology Directory

Here's a good directory of Scientology related stuff from LookSmart UK: Scientology

It contains a lot of good links. Highly informative if you want to find out more.

Great Article

Here's a great article about the naming of a street in LA after Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard. It also covers other recognitions he has received for his many accomplishments in improving the world for all mankind.

Interesting Site

In hunting around the net I've found some interesting sites, so I'm going to feature them, one per day.

The first is the web site of a The Calcioli Life Improvement Centre in England. Their motto is "Something CAN be done about it," and they help people who can answer "Yes" to any of these questions:

• Are you on an emotional roller coaster ride?
  
• Having trouble maintaining relationships?
  
• Lacking confidence?
  
• Has the spark gone out of your marriage?
  
• Low self-esteem?
  
• Having trouble with the kids?
  
• Things not going right at work?
  

Check out the site at www.calcioli.com/ and if you live in the south-east of England then you can visit them

Scientology
Dianetics

Scientology Life Improvement Courses

There are a series of courses that have been developed using basic Dianetics and Scientology that address many areas of life where people have difficulties. They cover relationships, marriage, children, money, personal integrity, ups and downs in life and more.

These are courses that can be done in a week or two, part-time. They all include practical use of what is covered so you can complete the course knowing how to successfully use what you have learned.

I highly recommend them all. I personally have done the following:

• Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life Course
  
• Personal Values and Integrity Course
  
• How to Improve Relationships with Others Course
  
• How to Improve Conditions in Life Course
  
• Starting a Successful Marriage Course
  
• How to Improve Your Marriage Course
  
• How to Be a Successful Parent Course
  
• How to Maintain a Successful Marriage Course
  
• Financial Success Course
  
• How to Make Work Easier Course
  
• The Dynamics of Money Course
  

Scientology Basics - The Eight Dynamics

In the development of Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard discovered that the dynamic principle of existence was survival. It's as if at the beginning of time an order was given to life and that order was "Survive!" Survival however is not just a "looking out for number one" proposition. In his book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" Mr. Hubbard explains how he determined that the urge toward survival was much more broad than merely an urge toward survival for self. He also determined what gets in the way of survival and how to overcome it.

In his further research which resulted in Scientology, Mr. Hubbard expanded the idea of the dynamics from the four covered by Dianetics into the eight dynamics of Scientology. Understanding the eight dynamics can help you in understanding your life, in understanding other people, in making decisions and much more.

Resources:

How the dynamic principle of existence was found: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science - Chapter 2 (the entire book can be read online here: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science)

Description of and practical use of The Eight Dynamics in The Scientology Handbook.

Scientology Basics - The Parts Of Man

For the purposes of understanding an area it is helpful to break it down into parts so they can be studied separately. In Scientology we break a human being down into 3 parts.

When you look at a person you see the most obvious part - the body. But, this is not actually the most important part. The next part is the mind. Now, notice I don't say the brain, which is just another piece of meat. The mind is something else entirely, you can read all about it here: The Mind. Finally the most important of the three parts is what we call in Scientology, the Thetan. So what is a thetan? It could be called an awareness of awareness unit, because it is aware of being aware. It is the controller of the mind and body. Or a simpler definition is that it's you.

Another way to think of it is that it's the Scientology word for soul or spirit. But it is a slightly different concept: In other religions people say "I have a soul" as if it is something other than you, in Scientology we say "I am a thetan," because it's what you are.

For more data read this page: The Parts of Man.

Read this book:
Scientology - The Fundamentals of Thought (in 15 languages)

On Amazon: Scientology - The Fundamentals of Thought

Scientology Basics - Knowledge, Control and Responsibility

When you were first learning to drive how was your control of the car? How willing were you to be the one in charge of the car? Your Control and Responsibility were low because you didn't know much about the car - your Knowledge was low. But as your knowledge increased you became more able to control the car and more willing to be responsible for it.

These three factors operate in a similar way to Affinity, Reality and Communication. Raise one and the other two will increase, decrease one and the other two will decrease. For example, let's say you are a very good driver, but you break your arm. While your arm is out of commission you are probably not going to be willing to drive your family around - you are not willing to take the responsibility, because your control is way down.

The principle is often referred to as the KRC Triangle and is covered in the book Scientology 0-8, the Book of Basics.

Scientology 0-8: The Book of Basics in 9 languages.

Scientology Basics - Affinity, Reality and Communication

The next basic of Scientology is the heart and soul of relationships, study, ability and a lot more.

Rather than tell you all about it, I'll direct you to where you can read about it online at Scientology Handbook - Affinity, Reality and Communication.

It is also covered in the book Fundamentals of Thought, which I gave you links to yesterday.

Scientology Basics - Cycle of Action

One method of finding fundamental principles of existence is by observing the physical universe, picking out recurring patterns and examining them to see if they lead to such principles. Several thousand years ago this method was used to isolate what we call in Scientology the Cycle of Action. It was first mentioned in the Vedic Hymns (I think the Hymn to the Dawn Child) and later expressed allegorically in Hinduism as the three gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and in Christianity as the Holy Trinity.

In Scientology we bypass the allegory and simply state that the Cycle of Action of the physical universe consists of Create, Survive and Destroy. This is very easy to observe: A child is conceived (create), he is born, grows and matures (survive), then at a certain age he stops growing and begins to survive less well eventually dying (destroy). Another example would be: a car is built (create), it is sold to a man who drives it for a few months (survive) then he crashes it into a wall and it goes to the wrecking yard (destroy).

You can see this cycle all over the universe, but what can you do with it? Well, an example would be if you were looking for a marriage partner. Ask yourself where they are on the cycle: Look at their belongings, their appearance, the effects they create on others, etc. Are these things in a creative state, a surviving state or a decaying state? What about their conversation? Are they creative and constructive in what they talk about? (Create.) Are they content with how things are, doubtful of change, preferring the status quo? (Survive.) Or do they find fault with others, criticizing, nit picking, talking behind their backs or offering "advice" that is really just veiled criticism? (Destroy.) Well, figure it out and avoid those who are in "destroy".

The cycle of action can be analyzed further in an extremely useful way that opens it up to even more practical use in life. This is fully covered in the book Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard. Click the links below to check it out:

Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard in 15 languages.

Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard on Amazon.

Scientology Basics

My next few articles will cover some basic concepts of Scientology. All of these concepts can be tried out to test their workability. This is the essence of Scientology - workability. You don't have to believe anything in Scientology because you can try it out and see for yourself.

Government of The Church of Scientology

I've been reading quite a bit of history recently and have paid special attention to the various forms of government man has tried over the years and their results. Many historians agree that one of the most successful periods of history was during the reign of the "Five Good Emperors" of the Roman Empire. These emperors (except for the last one) chose their successors according to merit, that is they found the man they thought was the best for the job, had him work with them as a sort of apprentice emperor and then adopted him as their son so he could "succeed" them. This method of government is usually called a meritocracy, which is defined as a leader or group of leaders selected on the basis of individual ability or achievement.

How good a meritocracy is depends on the criteria used to determine merit and what methods and policies the individuals chosen decide to follow. For example, in the United States it is vaguely assumed that the populous will select the best man for the job based on his past record and how well he campaigns, so it is a sort of meritocracy with public relations ability as the main criterion. What methods the selected person uses to govern are determined to a large degree by the US constitution and existing law. This gives a certain continuity to the government and prevents radical changes from occurring during one President's term.

In the Church of Scientology we have a sort of constitutional meritocracy. Every job in a church has a method of measuring what the incumbent produces and this is used to tell how well or poorly a person is doing and promotion is very dependent on this. In addition to that the Church runs on policy set down by the founder L. Ron Hubbard.

So people in leadership positions within the Church of Scientology are selected by merit and follow the policies originated by Mr. Hubbard or based on fundamentals laid down by him. This is a very successful form of ecclesiastical government as demonstrated by the huge expansion of Scientology in the 18 years since Mr. Hubbard departed.

Study Technology

In the early 1960's L.Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, wanted to improve the training of Scientology practitioners so he began researching the field of study. He began by taking a correspondence course in photography and used this as his test case. His findings were then applied and refined and ended up as what is called "Study Technology" or "Study Tech".

Mr. Hubbard achieved his goal and Scientology training became extremely effective. It also became clear that this method of study could be applied to any subject. In order to help educators, trainers, parents, children and other concerned individuals, a secular organization called "Applied Scholastics" was formed with the mission "to provide effective education services and materials that help people learn how to learn and thereby work effectively to achieve their goals and realize their full potential."

The study method of Mr. Hubbard has proven so successful that it is now used in schools, corporations, universities and even entire countries all over the world.

The Scientology Code of Honor

The Code of Honor is an interesting concept. It is a code of ethical behavior. This is very different to a moral code because you can enforce a moral code but you can't enforce an ethical code. The moment you do you've destroyed it as an ethical code because the following of an ethical code is entirely up to the individual. This is fully explained on the Code of Honor site. Just go to the home page (Code of Honor), read it and click on the "next" link.

If many people followed this code, the world would be a much better place because "The only difference between paradise on Earth and hell on Earth is whether or not you believe your fellow man worthy of receiving from you the friendship and devotion called for in this Code of Honor."

Scientology and New Year Resolutions - Part 4 - Get Your Product

The penultimate step in making your New Year Resolutions become reality is summarized in the title of the third L. Ron Hubbard article of 7 Aug 1976: "To get you have to know how to organize."

You have to organize the things needed to help you achieve the resolution. So how do you organize? It is very well covered in a series of articles called the "Org Series" (org is short for organizing) which can be found in Management Series Volume 2. You can find some of these articles on line at Planning for the Future. The Scientology Handbook also contains a couple of chapters on organizing.

Firstly you need to have some idea of what actions are needed to get your product. For example, the resolution about weight that we used as an example in my article of Dec 30, 2003 requires that you know what is needed to get and maintain a healthy weight. That will require research and reading of the appropriate books (I recommend In Fitness and In Health by Dr. Phil Maffetone).

Now that you know what is needed you must arrange the actions you will need to do into a sensible sequence, including acquiring the resources you will need. In our example that would mean getting correct foods, recipes, exercise equipment, etc. and then listing out the steps needed in correct sequence (such as 1. Cut out all high-carbohydrate foods for two-weeks, etc.)

Now you must arrange your schedule so these actions will occur and then plan out where they are going to occur (when and where will you exercise, etc?)

Now that you know what you have to do, have the resources needed, have listed out what the actions are and when and where they will occur, you are ready for the final step in making your resolution become a reality ... DO IT!