Vinaire's Blog

This following may be a controversial treatise on the subject of Scientology. It comments on the basic principles that Hubbard introduced at a time of transition from Dianetics to Scientology.

This time of transition was in 1952 when Hubbard formally introduced the THETA-MEST theory and Creative Processing at the Philadelphia Doctorate Course. The textbook used for this course was SCIENTOLOGY 8-8008. This is where Hubbard introduced the spiritual dimension of THETA and the goal of thetan, which was the beginning of Scientology.

The key process which was highlighted in the Philadelphia Doctorate Course was Creative Processing. I have reproduced below the original text on Creative Processing, and used it as the background for my critique of Scientology premise forwarded by Hubbard.

Hubbard’s text is in black, and my comments are in blue. These comments highlight the brilliance of Hubbard and also his fixations that undermine Scientology.

NOTE: If a comment does not represent Hubbard’s ideas accurately then it is open to correction after appropriate discussion.

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CREATIVE PROCESSING (a section from the book Scientology 8-8008 by L. Ron Hubbard)

The whole of the data covered in this volume is utilized in creative processing. When one has mastered the component parts of the mind and the inter-relationships of space, energy, items and experience, he will find creative processing surprisingly easy to apply and productive of very swift results. The goal of this process is the rehabilitation of as much of the thetan’s capability as possible to permit him to utilize or be free of bodies as he chooses and, even in lesser magnitude, to rid the preclear of psychosomatics, eradicate compulsions, obsessions and inhibitions, to raise his reaction time and intelligence level.

In Scientology, the preclear is a person who is undergoing scientology processing to clear self of unwanted conditions. The function of processing is to move the preclear toward the cleared state of THETA CLEAR that is beyond matter, energy, space and time. A thetan as THETA CLEAR is capable of controlling every aspect of the MEST universe. The word MEST is created from the first letters of matter, energy, space and time. It refers to the physical universe.

After Creative Processing the preclear is expected to operate as a thetan with or without a body. He would be free of psychosomatics, compulsions, obsessions, and inhibitions. His reaction time and intelligence will be way above normal.

These goals are still sold in the Church of Scientology, but, after decades of such promises, increasing disillusionment is becoming visible broadly among the Scientology public.

NOTE (12/06/19):

This process does whatever has been previously intended by earlier processes—utilizing a knowledge of these in order to assess the state of the preclear, and in order to parallel this difficulty with creation, change and destruction of mock-ups.

In Creative Processing, one mocks up (creates in imagination) the unwanted condition in detail.  Here we get a glimpse of the genius of Hubbard. Mocking up the unwanted condition is an interesting way of sorting it out in a very intimate way.

Gradient scales are vitally necessary in the application of creative processing. The term “gradient scale” can apply to anything, and means a scale of condition graduated from zero to infinity. Absolutes are considered to be unobtainable. Depending on the direction the scale is graduated, there could be infinity of wrongness and infinity of rightness. Thus the gradient scale of rightness would run from the theoretical but unobtainable zero of rightness, up to the theoretical infinity of rightness. A gradient scale of wrongness would run from a zero of wrongness to infinity of wrongness. The word “gradient” is meant to define lessening or increasing degrees of condition. The difference between one point on a graduated scale and another point could be as different or as wide as the entire range of the scale itself, or it could be so tiny as to need the minutest discernment for its establishment.

The principle of gradient scales, as laid out above by Hubbard, is insightful. The idea of applying this principle to understand and diffuse one’s unwanted condition is simply brilliant.

The gradient scale of the creation of a being could be—but in creative processing generally is not—concerned with time. In creative processing, the gradient scale, as it would refer to the creation of a person, could be, first, the envisioning of an area where the person might have been or might be; then the envisioning of an area the person commonly frequented; at last, the creation of a footprint the person had made, and then perhaps some article of apparel or a possession such as a handkerchief. The creative steps would then continue until more and more of a person was established, and at last the entire person would have been created. Likewise in the destruction of a person, the gradient scale could, but generally would not, begin with blowing him up or making him grow old. If the auditor finds the preclear diffident about destroying an illusion of some person, the environment can first be diminished slightly; then perhaps the person’s shadow might be shortened, and so on until the entire person could be destroyed. The essence of gradient scale work is to do as much creation, change or destruction in terms of illusion as the preclear can accomplish with confidence, and to go from successful step to greater step until an entire success in destruction, alteration or creation (or their companion states of experience, such as start, change and stop) is accomplished.

The above is a good description of how gradient scale work is accomplished in creative processing. Hubbard advised that this technique be used to create, alter and destroy the illusion of “I” (the idea that one is this body and the mind), and to reestablish one’s awareness as a thetan (the essential spiritual “individuality”).

Here we find a deep fixation in Hubbard’s thinking.  He could not imagine the destruction of individuality. He negated Buddhism by saying, “There is evidently no Nirvana.” (see Identity versus Individuality)

To Hubbard, the destruction of individuality leads inevitably to the state of automaton in the MEST universe. Hubbard could not conceive of a state higher than individuality, as Buddha did. Thus, the goal of Scientology became the attainment of ultimate individuality as represented by the concept of thetan.

The mind works easily if led through successive successes into a complete confidence. The mind can be confused and set back enormously by demanding that it do too much too fast. The same “too much” can be accomplished by requesting of the mind that it do small portions of the task; this does not mean that processing should go slowly or that illusions which are easy to create, change or destroy should have much time spent on them. It does mean that as soon as an auditor has established a disability on the part of the preclear in creating illusions of certain places, persons, conditions, things, colors or any other thing in this or any other universe, he approaches the subject gradually by gradient scale and by accomplishing repeated successes with the preclear of greater and greater magnitude, finally achieving a complete banishment of the disability.

Hubbard makes the excellent observation that a disability, or an unwanted condition, could be resolved effectively by addressing it in gradient steps. The person is asked to imagine (in small steps) a situation involving the unwanted condition. Discomfort in imagining a step then provides a clue as to what should be imagined in greater detail to sort out that area.

The person then focuses on the area that is hard to imagine. He uses gradient steps until he succeeds in mocking it up. During this process he may gain insight into the unwanted condition. As he proceeds with this technique he may gain understanding of the mental factors contributing to the unwanted condition such that the whole condition blows away.

The reason a preclear cannot alter a postulate, or change or start or stop, lies in the influence upon him of his agreements and experiences in the MEST and other universes. To run out these agreements and experiences as such would be, in part, to agree with them over again. The mind is actually quite free to alter postulates and change its own condition, if permitted to do so at a speed that it finds comfortable. The mind will not take wide divergences which seem to it to tend toward its own diminishment or destruction. It was by a gradient scale of agreement that he came at last to accept and very nearly succumb to the MEST universe itself. The build-up of illusion was so slow and insidious that only the closest assessment would reveal to the preclear and the auditor how far these tiny steps of agreement led at last.

Hubbard advances an interesting theory of agreement. Supposedly, agreement is something accepted without examination. This puts the person in a state of relative delusion because he has accepted things that are not there. Now it is uncomfortable for him to admit that he is deluded about certain things.

This technique of gradient steps allows one to examine what is really there. One may then discover the mental underpinnings of one’s unwanted condition. This discovery cannot be disputed because it is arrived through direct inspection. The person can then deconstruct the unwanted condition.

Interestingly enough, agreements may also be built up using this technique of gradient steps. One could make a person believe in some desired “reality” by molding his existing ideas, biases, fixations, etc., in gradient steps. But that will require somebody giving suggestions to the person in gradient steps. Therefore no suggestions are allowed in creative processing. 

The motto of the MEST universe could be said to be: “Thou shalt have no force nor illusion, nor thine own space, nor self-made energy or thing, for all illusion is mine and with that thou shalt agree. If thou art, I shall not be.” By a series of minute agreements, the preclear has at last given up all his own belief in his ability to make a universe, or even to create and maintain minor illusions. He does not know or even suspect that he is capable of producing illusions sufficiently strong to be observable by others, and if he thought this were true, he would attribute it to some mysterious thing and, so short and final are the punishments of the MEST universe, he would tend to shy away from this; but upon his ability to create illusion depends the very existence of all his hopes and dreams and any beauty he will ever see or feel.

Hubbard looks at THETA (the essence of individuality) and MEST (matter, energy, space and time) as two vectors diametrically opposed to each other. He casts MEST as being inherently inimical to THETA. According to Hubbard, the person was reduced to his present condition by agreeing to the illusion of MEST in gradient steps. To recover that person’s native abilities, the detrimental influence of MEST needs to be nullified.

To Buddha, spirituality and physicality were simply two different aspects of existence. One cannot blame existence for one’s condition. It is the lack of mindfulness that brings about unwanted conditions. Interestingly, creative processing restores mindfulness. This is what leads to the resolution of unwanted conditions, and not the THETA-MEST theory of Hubbard. That theory, however, acts as a covert suggestion running in tandem with any processing applied in Scientology.

In truth, all sensation which he believes to come from these masses of illusory energy known as the MEST universe, are first implanted through agreement upon what he is to perceive and then perceived again by himself, with the step hidden that he has extended his own sensation to be felt and perceived by himself. He is fully convinced that the MEST universe itself has sensation which it can deliver to him, whereas all the MEST universe has is an enforced agreement which though of no substance, yet by a gradient scale came to be an illusion which seems very masterful to a preclear.

Hubbard declares that THETA (the individuality of thetans) is  the source of all MEST (which is existence). Sensations may appear to come from MEST but they actually come from the thetan (which is the individual). MEST uses sensations to trap the thetan. Thus, Hubbard seems to blame the environment for unwanted conditions. He then claims that processing shall improve a person’s ability to handle that environment.

It is the principle of mindfulness embedded in those processes that helps a person improve his condition. But Hubbard does not highlight mindfulness. Instead he pounds away on a theory, which implants the sense of “I” as the ultimate reality. It was mindfulness that led Buddha beyond “I” to Nirvana. However, Hubbard’s goal of achieving assumed superhuman capabilities for “I” as thetan cuts across that mindfulness.

This is a built-in conflict in Scientology.

To prove the reality and solidity of the MEST universe, the preclear could pound his fist upon a desk and demonstrate that his fist had met something. He is making again the error of implanting sensation and not knowing he has implanted it, for the fist which he pounds on the desk is a MEST universe fist consisting of MEST universe energy, which is itself a MEST universe agreement, and it is meeting a desk which is MEST universe; he is only demonstrating that when the MEST universe is perceived to impact upon the MEST universe, one can then implant a realistic impact and perceive it for his own wonderful edification. Reality, then, is a delusion because it is one’s own illusion which has been disowned by one and is then received by one as being another thing. Only by shedding all responsibility for one’s own energy can one fall into this covert trap. If one is unwilling to be responsible for energy, he is capable of using energy and then not perceiving that he uses it. One who blames others continually can be discovered to affect most of the things for which he is blaming other people. In such a way, an individual with the “very best MEST universe, Mark 10,000 ears” takes no responsibility for having implanted the sensation of sound in order to receive the sensation of sound.

Hubbard claims that reality is a delusion, because one basically perceives one’s disowned illusions. But, according to mindfulness, reality is what one perceives directly. It does not require proof. But delusion comes from assuming things and assigning relationships that are not there. Such assumptions require proof.

We perceive solidity and sensations directly. These things do not have to be proved. But the claim that solidity and sensations are one’s disowned illusions needs to be proved. Is there such a cause and effect relationship as assumed by Hubbard?

Cause and effect are associations that can be perceived directly. When lightning strikes a forest in hot dry summer, and there is a forest fire, we can make a cause-effect association between lightning and fire. Can we make a similar association between the sensations we perceive, and the actions we engage in? Does perception depend on the action of perceiving?  

A preclear as he comes up the tone-scale more and more often catches himself doing this, and even though he does not know the principles involved (for no preclear has to be educated in Scientology to receive benefit from it), he recognizes that even in the case of a loud crash, his continuation of association from his environment permits him to perceive with others that a crash has taken place of objects which he with others continuously recreates solidly, and that he must actually cause for his own perception the sound of the crash. In that the beingness of an individual is actually extended for miles in all directions around him, if not much further, any idea or thought or past thought (as there is no past) is part of his beingness, and so he must continually strive to be “faithful to his agreements with the MEST universe.”

Evidently there is perception and awareness. Does that imply that there must be a “who” that is the “cause” of awareness? Can awareness be there without the considerations of “who” and “cause”? Can perception and awareness be properties of things like color and size?

In physics, we have the concept of “center of mass” that mathematically accounts for the mass of a system of particles. It makes mathematical computations simple. Could “who” (“I”, “you”, “he”, “self” and “others”) be a center for a system of thought particles in a similar way?

The concepts of “I” and “cause” are deeply ingrained in human psyche.  They may be useful or even essential to keep order in the human society, but when we look closely at these concepts in the manner of creative processing, we do not see an absolute or permanent reality.

We have Buddha’s observation: “What we call a ‘being’ or an ‘individual’, or ‘I’, is only a combination of ever-changing physical and mental forces or energies.” Thus, ‘being’, ‘individual’, or, ‘I’, is a convenient name or a label given to the combination of particles of matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. They are all impermanent, all constantly changing. They are not the same for two consecutive moments. Here A is not equal to A. They are in a flux of momentary arising and disappearing.

“I” is basically a reference point for body and mind. The significance of individuality as ultimate reality seems to be something assumed. There appears to be a reality beyond the concepts of “I” and “cause.”

To undo this state of affairs it is only necessary to rehabilitate the awareness of the preclear that he himself is capable of creating illusions. As he rehabilitates this faculty, the preclear, without any coaching or evaluation on the part of the auditor, begins to recognize that his viewpoint is expanding and that he is becoming all-pervasive, but that he can collect his awareness at any point, and that the “brutal reality” all around him is continuously manufactured by himself out of agreements and association with other viewpoints. So long as he is fixed in a condition where he is in agreement with all spaces and viewpoints, he sees and feels automatically with all other such viewpoints. He is above the level of energy, if one can use the term, on the same wavelength with all other beingness, a condition which does not permit differentiation.

Hubbard declares that thetan, or the sense of “I,” is the only true reality, and that everything else is an illusion created by the “I”. All MEST (matter, energy, space and time) is part of this illusion. “I” is in a deathly struggle with the illusion of MEST. Thus Hubbard took a direction completely opposite to the teachings of Buddha, whom he referred to often in his writings.

Hubbard’s theory stops a person from looking beyond the concepts of “I” and “cause” in creative processing. Creative processing works because it makes one perceive directly what is there, and what is not there. One comes face to face with one’s assumptions and recognizes them for what they are.

A person is limited by his assumptions and fixed ideas. This seems to be the case with Hubbard, which makes Scientology an ideology and limits its success.

As he rehabilitates his abilities in independent creation, he can change this “wavelength” at will, and can go into or out of agreement with all other points of beingness. The matter of perceiving, then, becomes entirely a matter of self-choice. It is, for instance, quite startling to a preclear to discover that as soon as he is free of the ridges of the body (which is to say, when he has discovered he can change his viewpoint) that he is already partly out of agreement with other viewpoints, and that the MEST universe becomes slightly jumbled. He is apt to be very anxious about this, for it is in conflict with the agreements to which he is subject. He immediately may struggle very hard to regain a state of affairs whereby he can view the MEST universe as everyone else views it.

To Hubbard, it is the agreement with others, which keeps the illusion of MEST there. Only the immediate “I” is real. All else is being mocked up. But this premise seems to be flawed. The idea of “I” is derived from the assumption that there must be a self to perceive MEST. If MEST is illusion then “I” is illusion too.

Direct perception is the primary reality. Anything derived from has to be secondary. Sensation and its perception are there. They do not have to be proved. It is the idea, “There must be an ‘I’ to perceive and be aware!” that needs to be proved.

Hubbard assumes “I” in the form of thetan, assigns super capabilities to it, and makes it the ultimate reality. This shuts off the possibility of further fundamental research in Scientology.

Indeed, the auditor must continually be on guard to prevent the preclear from attempting to re-assume these agreements. A badly trained auditor can always be identified by the fact that he shares the preclear’s anxiety that the preclear view the environment as the environment “should be.” The reason why a non-cleared auditor does not do well with these processes is that he is very anxious for the preclear to continue agreement with all others and to perceive the surroundings as exactly when exteriorized as he did when he was looking through MEST eyes and perceptions (which is to say, when the preclear was at his exact, agreed-upon point of viewpoint).

An auditor’s role is simply to get a person to look at his difficulty by mocking it up in gradient steps. An auditor is not supposed to give positive suggestions even in the way of forwarding a theory as Hubbard does.

Creative processing helps one see what is inconsistent about one’s unwanted condition, and helps resolve assumptions and fixed ideas. There is no danger of reverting back to some “agreement” after one has spotted what was assumed.

Truth sets one free.

The ability to perceive the MEST universe is the ability to agree. The preclear’s accuracy of perception of the MEST universe is of no consequence. An auditor can act to permit or even encourage a preclear to try to see, feel and hear the MEST universe when exteriorized long before the preclear is prepared to do so with equanimity. The auditor when doing this is dramatizing his own urge to agree with viewpoints and perceive. A preclear who exteriorizes readily may find with a shock that he is not perceiving the MEST universe as he commonly supposes it should be perceived and quickly go back into his body to reassure himself that he is “keeping his contract of agreement.” If the auditor demands that the preclear perceive the environment when exteriorized, then the auditor will discover that the preclear will drop in tone and that, when he has gone into his body once more, a great deal of patient auditing is necessary to regain the preclear’s confidence in himself. The preclear exteriorizing may find himself in all sorts of space and time cross-ups, for he has insufficient command of space and energy to independently sort out viewpoints when unassisted by the orientation of the MEST body itself, which is, of course, in debased and degraded agreement of a very set nature.

The physical senses help one perceive the physicality of the universe. The mental sense helps one perceive the underlying abstraction and relationships. “Exteriorized” one is looking at that abstraction and the relationships of the universe. The more he looks at the abstraction without the distortion of assumptions the more exterior he is.

Exteriorization seems to occur in gradient steps as one frees oneself of assumptions and fixed ideas. We hear about people experiencing sudden shifts in awareness accompanied by wonderful imagery. Such experiences are thrilling but which do not last long. These experiences are the manifestations of internal shifts as deep assumptions disappear. The increased awareness remain even when the imagery of the shift disappears.

Agreement is what one accepts without examination. Agreement sorts itself out as one becomes aware of the assumptions. The auditor should not be suggesting an “exteriorized” person on what to perceive. The “exteriorized” person should be encouraged to simply perceive whatever appears. It will all sort itself out.

There are two “shuns.” These are invalidation and evaluation. The auditor must eschew them vigorously. The major invalidation which could be practised in using Scientology 8—8008 would be a demand that the preclear see the environment as it is seen through MEST perception or to criticize him for not being able to do so. The majority of the preclear’s perceptions may be correct but some percentage of his perception is going to be enough “off wavelength” with other agreement viewpoints to cause him to perceive strangely. After a very large amount of auditing, when the preclear has regained his ability to create with considerable solidity his own illusions, it will be found that the preclear can at will perceive the MEST universe and can do so with accuracy. He can further, without the aid of a body, move objects and do a thousand other “interesting tricks” which could very well be viewed with considerable awe, for they have not been seen on earth in recorded history but have lived in legend.

Of course, when the creative processing is being applied to a person, no comments or suggestions should be made by the auditor. A person seeing “exteriorized imagery” is undergoing a change in awareness as deep assumptions are shifting. That process should be left to conclude by itself. Sooner or later the person returns to normal awareness of physicality, but now accompanied with a deeper understanding of the underlying abstraction and relationships.

The person should be allowed to develop his own reality. Ideas, such as, remote viewing, telepathy, moving objects without the aid of the body, should be left to develop by themselves. No agreement should be demanded with ideas and theories, such as those forwarded by Hubbard.

Using Standard Operating Procedure, Issue 3, as given in this volume, the auditor yet takes a very thorough assessment of his preclear with an E-Meter. He discovers, in accordance with information in this book, what the preclear is unable to start, change, stop; create, alter, destroy; be, do or have; differentiate, associate or identify; on each and every one of the eight dynamics and their component parts. The auditor makes a complete list. This is the Can’t list. Exteriorized, if possible, or interiorized as in the later numbered cases, the preclear is then made to “mock-up” illusions about each one of these Can’ts and to change the size, character and position of the illusion or any part thereof in space, shift it in time simply by knowing it has been shifted by him, until at last the preclear is able to handle the whole object of the Can’t with complete facility.

Here we see the brilliance of Hubbard. At the root of all unwanted conditions there seems to be fixations. A person should be able to imagine anything. Those things that a person is unable to imagine give a clue to fixations in that person’s psyche. So, by discovering and removing fixations, one can make considerable improvements in the condition of a person.

The person may provide a list of his unwanted conditions to the auditor, but it is easy to determine what is bothering the person the most. The auditor should take up that unwanted condition first.

Can’ts may be an inability to destroy women or snakes or specific persons, or create machinery, or write legibly. The preclear is requested to accomplish by illusions the smallest gradient of the Can’t with which he can successfully start; and, under auditor direction, by moving this small portion of the whole here and there in space, tipping it this way and that and making it, in particular, disobey “natural laws” in the MEST universe, the preclear is led to an ability to create, change or destroy the Can’t.

The Can’t is also the Must. Can’t is an inhibition; Must is an enforcement. What must the preclear do and what must be done to him? By whom? By creative processing and gradient scales, he achieves mock-ups until each one of these musts becomes a “Can if I want to, but don’t have to.”

The person starts with mocking up a situation involving an aspect of the unwanted condition. If that aspect is too much to handle then he mocks up the part that is easy to handle and then proceeds to mock up the rest in small gradient steps. At each step he moves the mock up around in space and time and varies it in shape, color, distance, orientation, etc. until all viewpoints have been examined.

By imagining associations that go against natural laws, a person gains confidence that he can potentially imagine or mock up anything, even when he doesn’t have to do it. This confidence then helps him examine his unwanted condition with the thoroughness demanded of gradient scales. It then becomes possible to mock up all aspects of that unwanted condition and gain insights into it, which may then help resolve it.

There are also the Desires. These are the cravings for sensation or possession or identification which brought the preclear into and made him continue agreements. Behind every case the Desires are paramount and of greater importance than the Can’ts. Why does he desire bodies? Why is his second dynamic aberrated? Why does he feel he cannot be free? Can he differentiate between his own actual wantingness and the wantingness of MEST itself which is trying to have him? The desires are resolved by creative processing wherein the preclear does mock-ups of the necessary acts which he desires or the necessary behaviours which brought him into agreement until he can at last laugh at them. 

The desire is the pressure to know what is there. Assumptions are the quickie method of handling that pressure. It is this quickie handling of desire, which leads to the assumptions, such as those of “who” and “cause.” These assumptions then prevent one from accurately perceiving what is there.

Thus, it is the desire that makes the person, who is not mindful, assume. These assumptions then trap the person. Mindfulness helps control the pressure exerted by desire. When a person controls that pressure of desire using the gradient steps of creative processing, he can see things as they are.

In that creative processing does not take long in terms of time, the assessment list can afford to be very broad and to cover every possible phase through the system of the dynamics and the cycles of action. This is a list of things the preclear must be able to do with an illusion:

• Create the condition, energy or object
• Conserve it
• Protect it
• Control it
• Hide it
• Change it
• Age it
• Make it go backwards on a cycle of action
• Perceive it with all perceptions
• Shift it at will in time
• Rearrange it
• Duplicate it
• Turn it upside down or on the side at will
• Make it disobey MEST laws
• Be it
• Not be it
• Destroy it.

In order to accomplish these things, if the whole of any condition cannot be fulfilled by gradient scale some tiny portion of the condition must be fulfilled. When a small condition has been fulfilled, the condition is then enlarged until the whole condition can be fulfilled.

In Creative Processing, one can start from any aspect of the unwanted condition and start mocking it up. One is looking for internal resistance to mocking up. When such an aspect is discovered then one can work on overcoming the internal resistance by mocking up that aspect of the unwanted condition in gradient steps.

The above assessment may help uncover internal resistance on a broad basis. If an unwanted condition is evident, then it is better to start with whatever is bothering the person the most.

That preclear who cannot get even a shadow of an illusion so that he can perceive it in any manner must be coaxed to see white spots, black spots, of his own creation, and to change those in space and time, enlarge and contract them, until he has a certain command and control of black and white. This must be done with such a preclear without regard to the number of hours it takes or the patience of the drill. It can be done with the eyes open or closed, whichever the preclear finds best.

Yes, the above procedure may be used.

A person can certainly perceive an unwanted condition if he is complaining about it. He can then run Creative Processing on it. If a person is not even aware of an unwanted condition that he obviously has, then one needs to rehabilitate the ability to perceive. Start with whatever he can perceive, such as, mimicking, and then expand upon it with Creative Processing.

When the preclear is discovered to be trying to prevent a motion or condition, the auditor should magnify that very condition with new mock-ups related to it, i.e., if objects keep rushing in on the preclear, mock up objects rushing in until the action is enormously magnified but under the preclear’s complete control. If the preclear cannot start something, make him stop it. If he cannot reverse a direction, make him change the nature of the object which he is trying to reverse enough times to permit him to reverse the original disability. If the preclear cannot create something, have him create anything even vaguely associated with it, and by association at last have him mock up the actual thing.

This is the heart of creative processing. The idea is to discover those areas where mental resistance exists, and overcoming that mental resistance by mocking up that area on a gradient. The stress is on discovering those elements that are causing the mental resistance and examining them thoroughly. These would be things that are accepted without thorough examination, i.e. agreed or assumed.

The essence of creative processing is moving objects in space when they have been mocked up. They are moved near and far, to the right, left, behind the preclear, below his feet, above his head and in front of him. He must know that he has changed the location of the object. If he cannot make a large change, have him do a small change of location. If he cannot do a small change of location, have him alter the object by turning it different colors, or by enlarging or contracting it, or by pushing it away or bringing it near him, until he can make it move sideways. In failing to do this, have him do a change with some allied object.

The essence of creative processing is a continuation of success. Be careful not to give the preclear things which make him fail. Do not let his failures mount up. Estimate the preclear and pay attention to what he is doing; find out from him continually the condition of his illusions, if you yourself as an auditor cannot see them. Putting objects into yesterday or tomorrow or well into the future or into the past is vitally necessary to processing.

In creative processing, the imagination or mocking up of a difficulty involves the following.

1. Mock up an aspect of that condition. Cut it back if it is too much to handle.

2. Move it around in space and time until all viewpoints have been examined.

3. Vary it in shape, color, distance, orientation, etc. until all viewpoints have been examined.

4. Continually observe what appears inconsistent or consistent without assuming anything.

5. Examine that aspect of condition until there is no inconsistency left unexamined.

6. Now take up another aspect of the difficulty as in Step 1.

7. Do this until the whole difficulty is sorted out, and there is no inconsistency left unexamined.

8. Review the whole difficulty (unwanted condition) to gain understanding from it.

Control of the illusion is the essence of commands. The preclear must be able to create, grow, conserve, decay and destroy; start, change and stop; be, do and have; differentiate, associate and identify; handle in space, with energy and in time, any object, actual or mythical, in all the eight dynamics, and with high preference given to anything which disobeys “natural laws” of the MEST universe.

That auditor with a high order of imagination who is himself clear, finds mock-ups very easy to “think up” and request of the preclear, but it is not necessary to have such an imagination, as a routine assessment will discover immediately that the most ordinary things fall into the Can’t, Must and Desire brackets in the preclear’s life.

The feedback from Creative Processing can be quite interesting. It becomes vital to treat that feedback with mindfulness. Please see THE 12 ASPECTS OF MINDFULNESS.

Note that the assessment of the various aspects of a difficulty can be as simple as taking up the first item that appears in the mind as unwanted condition. It usually is the item that concerns one the most. It is at the top of the mental stack. Run that item through the steps 1 to 5 above, before assessing the mental stack for the next item.

The preclear will be discovered on the first dynamic, quite ordinarily, not to be able to create, change or destroy, especially destroy, his own body or bodies in which he thinks he is encased within his own body (old time-track bodies such as a Fifth Invader Force body). He will be found to be incapable in many directions with facsimiles, communication lines and other matters on the first dynamic alone. On the second dynamic, many incapabilities will come to view, and so on along all the dynamics. On the fifth dynamic, he will quite ordinarily be found incapable of handling snakes, spiders, vicious fish, bacteria, wild animals and domestic pets. On the seventh dynamic he will be discovered unable to handle other thetans, even in the most elementary fashion of bringing two dots of light into proximity and then separating them (an exercise which blows head ridges in many preclears quite explosively). On the eighth dynamic his limitations quite ordinarily become too obvious for comment, but on each and every dynamic he must be able to do or fulfill any of the above cycles or conditions.

Hubbard often adds data which is extraneous to the process, such as, the mention of Fifth Invader Force body above. Such data can be safely ignored.  Getting into agreement with extraneous data will have adverse consequences. One should simply understand the Creative Processing in its purity and follow its steps as given above in the comments. 

Standard Operating Procedure tells how to exteriorize a thetan. Creative processing, rising-scale postulate changing, postulate processing, are then necessary to bring him toward a state of a cleared theta clear. The state of theta clear simply demands that the preclear remains outside his body when the body itself is hurt, and the state is adequate to prevent his being trapped again by a body except in unusual circumstances. There is no guarantee of long continuance in the condition. The state of cleared theta clear is, however, another thing, for it means a person who is able to create his own universe; or, living in the MEST universe, is able to create illusions perceivable by others at will, to handle MEST universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his friends interested in existence.

Hubbard’s idea of clearing came from clearing of ‘bugs’ from a computer (or computer programming). He reasoned that when such ‘bugs’ are removed from a person, he will operate in a perfect manner. That was his idea of thetan.

Hubbard describes thetan as individuality that is beyond matter, energy, space, and time. However, when it comes to exteriorization from a body, he treats thetan as a thing, and not some abstract concept. This is the basic inconsistency in Hubbard’s thinking.

The thing that traps a person is not the body but his own assumptions and fixations. A person is not a thing that comes out of the body at the moment of exteriorization. He basically comes out of the trap of his assumptions and fixations.

Hubbard looked at universal reality (MEST) as a trap and the source of all unwanted conditions. His goal became clearing the universal reality as an illusion, and reestablishing the person’s own reality in its place. But a person is trapped not by the universal reality, but by things that he is not mindful about.

The truth is that it is not the universal reality that needs to be cleared. It is a person’s own assumptions and fixations that need to be cleared.

Hubbard had it backwards.

NOTE (12/06/19): Creative processing is simply an approach to clear up a person’s difficulties by paralleling it on a gradient with creation, change and destruction of mock-ups. It requires understanding of the component parts of the mind and the inter-relationships of space, energy, items and experience. Such mock-ups must be accomplished confidently at each point on the gradient. 

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