On E-meter:
The E-meter reacts to both reactive and analytical thought. In the beginning it picks up the obvious reactive thoughts connected with an unwanted condition. But once the inconsistencies associated with these thoughts are resolved, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reactive thoughts from analytical thoughts. This makes Scientology approach to case resolution uncertain.
One effect of this uncertainty is endless ‘auditing of entities’ that occurs on OT levels. The other effect is conditioning where one believes that one is getting better and powerful while unwanted conditions persist.
Thus, an E-meter may appear to be helpful in the beginning, but on a long term basis it creates dependency and leads to conditioning.
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On “Source” of life:
We observe that man has both physical and spiritual attributes that exist side by side. The claim that man is a physical organism, which is animated by an individual source called ‘thetan’, is highly speculative.
This speculation identifies self with ‘thetan’ and claims that self exists independent of the physical body. This speculation goes further to claim that the basis of thetan (self) is theta (spirit) which produces everything physical.
A life organism is evidently made up of physical and spiritual attributes. Both seems to have existed side by side since millennia. However, there is no evidence that the spiritual attributes came first and they produced the physical attributes.
From actual observations, body grows and so does self. The atoms and molecules, which make up the body, are changing continually. Similarly, the factors (consideration, desires and impulses), which make up the self, are also changing continually. There is nothing about the body or the self, which remains constant for ever.
Memories of past does not necessarily mean that the body and self of the past is also the body and self of the present. There is no permanent or unchanging body, self, or individual “source” of life.
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On Time Track:
When we talk about having a childhood, birth etc., we are talking about a sequence of memories attached to our present identity, individuality or self. Memories are impressions. These impressions may be collected together in some manner as a set. This set may be called a time track.
As the make-up of self is changing from moment to moment, self is also a part of the time track. There is no permanent ‘element’ of self owning the time track. So, any talk, such as a ‘thetan’ having a time track, is superfluous.
It is not necessary to have a moment to moment record stored somewhere. A recall could be a reconfiguration of memory from stored basic patterns, similar to visualization.
Any process to handle unwanted condition should address things that are in restimulation. These would be inconsistencies impinging on the person in present time. What needs to be sorted out is always there. There is no need to dig into the ‘memories’ or keep any notes. This makes the need for a time-track unnecessary.
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On Clearing:
What Hubbard called Clear in Scientology is a relative condition. There may be a major release. But clearing continues as new inconsistencie comes to view in present time. Thus, the “clearing” is never absolute.
Any erasure is relative to its context. It is the resolution of inconsistency. Only thing that disappears is the inconsistency. There is no absolute erasure of actual matter, energy, space or time.
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On Past Lives:
When a ‘memory’ does not seem to be consistent with ‘current life’, it is relegated to the category of ‘past life’. When a ‘past life’ incident presents itself in sufficient detail, accompanied by a release from some unwanted condition, it seems to lend credibility to the notion of past lives.
However, such incidents are isolated. They are reconfigured memories triggered by some inconsistency impinging on the person in present time. It may be called a reactive visualization that resolves the inconsistency. This is similar to analytical visualizations used consciously to solve problems of science and engineering. The contents of such visualizations are significant only to the degree that they resolve the problem. They are neither true nor false in some absolute sense.
One may then speculate past lives based on such isolated reactive visualizations, but such speculations do not lead to further resolution of unwanted conditions.
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On Death:
Death has been the most fascinating subject in human history. It has spawned religions. What is observed is a sudden cessation of body’s animation.
But this cessation is not so sudden. The circulatory system fails first, which is followed almost immediately by the failure of the respiratory system. The usual chemical operations in the body starts to get suspended. The physical organs start to shut down one by one. There is a chain reaction. This is not much different from powering down a computer.
The body is a much more complex system than a computer. There are more fundamental systems underlying its electrochemical system that are yet to be fully explored. It is true that the spirit has left the body, but this is a poetic expression only. We do not fully understand how the body begins to power down at death. In spite of it suddenness, it takes a finite amount of time.
There is a similar curiosity about how a body powers up at birth. But the process of fertilization to birth is not so sudden and fascinating. There are a whole lot of connections going on in the body during this period. We do not have a clear demarkation of the moment at which the spirit enters the body.
Of course there is a spiritual aspect to the process of birth and death, but it is not so simplistic as visualized in terms of a thetan entering or leaving the body.
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On Mental Image Pictures:
Scientology talks about a person’s having mental image pictures of the past. Such pictures are supposedly recordings of the physical universe as it goes by. All memory is supposed to be made up of such pictures. According to Dianetics the pictures of painful and unconscious moments are stored in a reactive bank in the mind. It is necessary to recall such pictures to handle one’s unwanted condition.
Is this premise of stored mental image pictures correct? Could it be possible that there is no such storage of pictures, and that the mind simply visualizes to handle inconsistencies as and when needed!
Mind processes incoming perceptions directly into action. As long as the mind is able to process data perfectly one continues to act without thinking. But the moment mind is unable to process the incoming data, an inconsistency is formed and the mind gets wound up.
Thus, winding up of the mind occurs due to stacking up of such inconsistencies. Later, when attention is put on inconsistencies, and the mind is allowed to unwind itself, it creates the visualization necessary to resolve those inconsistencies. This is very plausible because, normally, we use visualization to solve our problems.
To unwind itself, the mind may go through thousands of visualization rapidly to find the one that resolves an inconsistency. It is like Alan Turing’s machine that broke the code generated by German enigma machine through rapid iteration of computation based only on a few clues.
In short, there are no mental image pictures that are continually being recorded. There are only present time visualizations in the mind to resolve the inconsistencies impinging on a person. Resolution occurs to the degree mind is able to visualize correctly.
The chances of resolutions of inconsistencies increase as mindfulness is practiced.
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Comments
I discovered this morning that we do not need the model of recorded mental image pictures in mindfulness or KHTK.
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Yes that is correct to me. This is kind of funny if It weren’t so inefficient and wasteful. If one is not already doing this, Scientology teaches one to mock up these visualizations in order to take credit for teaching one that they are doing it.
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If looking at your past directly is a problem, then look for the inconsistencies related to pictures, memories, mass, mental machinery, tools to do your work for you,created entities. Once these mechanisms are understood, and why you employed them are known, a whole new vista of knowledge opens up.
But as I mentioned to The Oracle, “I try not to dwell on the past, there’s no future in it. But those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.”
Mark
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MNR: If looking at your past directly is a problem, then look for the inconsistencies related to pictures, memories, mass, mental machinery, tools to do your work for you,created entities.
CT: When I got into Scientology, though young, I was already familiar with creating with my own mind. Scientology devalued that ability, invalidated my “glibly high” OCA, and replaced my own determinism with their ideology. Decades later I am learning how that mind-fuck was constructed. The subject of psychology which is utterly disregarded and degraded by Scientology as quackery is an actual social science. It is huge and explains the illusion of control that Scientology preaches as both science and scripture.
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CT: “When I got into Scientology, though young, I was already familiar with creating with my own mind. Scientology devalued that ability, invalidated my “glibly high” OCA, and replaced my own determinism with their ideology.”
MNR: I guess I was lucky in that after meeting a few Scientologists and noticing some outpoints that didn’t align with what I had learned, I didn’t equate them with Scientology.
Mark
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Ideologies as an assembly of ideas, a model, a construct are not intrinsically “bad.” But they are intrinsically lending themselves as a catch all hamper where assumptions can fester. KHTK is an ideology. Will it become more than an assembly of our blog posts? I don’t know. I have not invested my ego in KHTK that way. KHTK should filter the ego but will it? I don’t know. I am not up to the point of desiring to assemble yet one more ideology. Vinaire has it all over me on this point. His ability and willingness to keep notes on this research is in the good tradition of science. Hubbard did this but was not a scientist, therefore did not use the discipline of the Scientific Method, therefore his results are not scientific. A lifetime of research is being collated under KHTK. It is a distillation that may leave gaps since it is the work of a lifetime.
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Conclusions arrived through the use of KHTK are not themselves part of KHTK, because KHTK is simply a method of looking.
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Good difference. I want that to remain so.
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MNR: But as I mentioned to The Oracle, “I try not to dwell on the past, there’s no future in it. But those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.”
CT: Though man can learn within certain parameters, I see no particular evidence around me that man learns from the past. Possibly there is a strata of man that is evolving beyond his Neanderthal mindset. I do not think this is true of mankind as a whole.
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There is no need to look at the past except to resolve an inconsistency. And in that case past is already there as part of the inconsistency.
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On Mental Image Pictures:
In Scientology, we have a fundamental concept of mental image picture. All memory is made up of mental image pictures. It is a recording of the physical universe as it goes by. It is what one recalls in auditing to erase unwanted conditions.
Scientology talks about a person’s having his own pictures, and pictures borrowed from others. But it is possible that there are no mental image pictures of the past that are stored in some reactive bank in the mind.
Mind processes incoming perceptual data. As long as the mind is able to process data perfectly the organism continues to act without thinking. The conversion of thought into action occurs flawlessly and consistently. But the moment mind is unable to process incoming data, this consistency is compromised. The mind then gets wound up.
Thus, winding up of the mind occurs due to stacking up of such inconsistencies in the processing of data. Later, when the attention is put in this area, and the mind is allowed to sort itself out, it creates the visualization necessary to resolve the tension in the mind.
The mind may go through thousands of visualization in rapid succession until it finds the one that resolves the inconsistencies encountered. It is like Alan Turing’s machine that broke the code generated by German enigma machine through rapid computation based only on a few clues.
In short, there are no mental image pictures that are continually being recorded. There are only present time visualizations in the mind to resolve inconsistencies impinging on a person. Resolution occurs to the degree mind is able to visualize correctly.
The chances of such resolutions increase with the practice of mindfulness.
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Vin: “In Scientology, we have a fundamental concept of mental image picture. All memory is made up of mental image pictures.”
Mark: My mind is a machine I developed to do work for me. I instructed it to record events and continually compare them to the present. It was an effort to know, after I had put up barriers within myself to not know, in order to have randomity. It has been in conflict ever since. I thought I could always keep it in balance and maintain control, but I forgot to, sometimes, then often, then all the time.
I forgot that everything in the mind, I knew, and I could do myself. But there were previous decisions to not know and not do.
Mental image pictures are not exactly stored by me, they are re-created as needed. But I have given my mind the primary responsibility of doing this on a continual basis. My mind is actually a part of me that I deny is me and treat as a separate entity.
One definition of responsibility is becoming increasingly clear to me.
“That IS me. I did that. I’m doing that.”
This definition is becoming very important to me.
Hope this helps to explain some of my comments.
Mark
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I am getting away from too much emphasis on “I”.
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I have added a modified version of the comments on Mental Image Pictures above to the OP.
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Scientology hypothesizes:
Things turn a trifle more difficult for the auditor when the pc takes his pictures from somebody else’s timetrack. To give one example of many: Mrs. Dimple spends the night in a room where someone was stabbed to death years before, semi-consciously perceives the pictures that person made and has a nightmare. As her perceptions weren’t made in a calm and collected frame of mind but in a state of attenuated consciousness and terror, Mrs. Dimple got tied up with these pictures without her knowing or wanting to do so. And so she keeps having the occasional nightmare whenever those pictures get restimulated. Or she finds herself – sitting at her desk in the office – having daydreams of bloody daggers and black-hooded villains.
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Such significances have really no bearing on handling a person’s unwanted condition. At the bottom of improvement is the ability to spot and resolve inconsistencies. This requires the ability to be mindful.
In the case above, the unwanted condition is that Mrs. Dimple is having nightmares. The correct action for Mrs. Dimple is to look at this condition more closely. Is there more information surrounding this situation? When did the nightmares start? what locations and people are associated with these nightmares. What are the inconsistencies?
Keep looking at whatever comes up. Let the mind associate freely, guided by inconsistencies. Don’t resist. Experience fully. Let the mind unstack. In short, apply the 12 aspects of mindfulness.
The nightmares shall soon alleviate. It doesn’t matter if those pictures are one’s own or borrowed from somebody else.
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Perhaps I have been fortunate in that I have not been particularly bothered by others pictures, others bank, facsimiles stuck in the physical universe, body Thetans etc. Not all are so fortunate. From reports floating around the internet (ha ha) Ron was plagued by BTs till the end. I realized a few years ago that comm. lines , whether real or imagined, are invented by and held in place by myself. They can be mindfully confronted and simply released.
Incidents which are not from my own track have a different feel, a different flavor than others. Meter actions are slightly different and inconsistent. Incidents which are not on one’s own track may restimulate reactive chains, but do not follow chains of their own and will not lead to resolutions. Once this is well recognized and understood, it ceases to be a problem. One can view them with curiosity and interest, say “cool”, smile and move on.
Finding others pictures for a specific purpose can be useful in resolving a confusion. Something I have touched on but not mastered.
I had a dream last night which carried some bothersome emotions. Upon awakening, I knew it was imaginary, but the mis-emotion was real. Using techniques learned from you, I allowed the ‘incident’ to discharge and wash itself. There was no need to follow it further.
Mark
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Cool post. Handling ones own discomfort Until comfortable.
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There is no sharp divide between reactive and analytical thoughts in reality. These are terms devised by LRH for explaining two ends of a thought scale. This is a dichotomy like survive-succumb or good-evil that can be plotted on a graduated scale.
What reads on the e-meter is charge (tension like in a coiled spring). When there is an unwanted condition that is bothering a person, and he is tracking it down to its cause, it easy to get reads on an e-meter. When the most major tensions are resolved, we do not have sharp gradients left to be detected. For example, when one is tracking down outpoints in one’s thinking it is not that easy to get the reads. At high sensitivity, you can have analytical thoughts reading too, because any thought has slight tension.
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And there are not only negative thoughts which hold tension but also memories of positive, pleasurable thoughts. Moments of exhilaration read just fine. I believe that the sum of one’s gross intellectual inconsistencies are creating the physical condition that causes the galvanic skin response. When one’s attention scans areas of calm, consistent and harmonious thought, one’s needle “floats.” Likewise, when one’s thoughts are disharmonious, one’s resistance increases. It is an interesting study in its own right.
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Yup!
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As a Word Clearer and Admin cramming officer at Flag, I always found that I could do better without the e-meter. In fact, I found the e-meter to slow me down. I always got fantastic results on either post. I could just feel what was going on with the other person and instinctively take the right action.
Again, as an Idenics practitioner, I got fantastic results without using the e-meter. In my own auditing, I didn’t find e-meter to be useful either. What I found very important was to distinguish between the response that was appearing in the mind from what I was thinking or imagining.
To me that is the test of valid response to a question or item – did the response appear in the mind without me interfering in any way? That is what I used to tell also to the person I was working with – Just be there, like in TR0, and see what comes up. Do not interfere with your mind. Let the mind respond to the question.
That is the concept built into the file clerk.
I think that this recognition of a valid response is all that one needs. No need to depend on the e-meter. When one is working with a pc in the right area, the valid response is always there. Absence of valid response simply means that the question being asked is out-gradient.
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The idea of “instant read” of an E-meter is the reason why many valid responses from the mind are ignored. Because of this rule many cases routinely get messed up in Scientology.
A valid response from the mind is a response that is straight from the mind without the interference that comes from thinking or imagining.
An instant response is likely to be a valid response, but not all valid responses may be instant. A valid response could be slightly delayed if it has to come through other things that are stacked upon what the question is addressing. Sometimes a valid response occurs days later.
This is the key area where mindfulness is more appropriate than the e-meter. Please see Memory Recall
This is an error that is as destructive as a “false read.”
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