Vinaire's Blog

Reference: Scientology 8-8008

This paper presents Section 3 from the book SCIENTOLOGY 8-8008 by L. RON HUBBARD. The contents are from the original publication of this book by The Church of Scientology (1952).

The paragraphs of the original material (in black) are accompanied by brief comments (in color).

The heading below is linked to the original materials.

.

The Beingness of Man

Any study of knowledge could not but be intimately connected with the beingness of Man and the earliest axioms of Scientology began to predict and the later developments eventually discovered the highest level data so far obtained on the identity and capability of life.

The highest capability of life is the ability to postulate. The beingness of man depends on bringing the universe into clear focus through this ability.

The well-beingness and, indeed, the continued survival of mankind depend upon an exact knowledge of his own capabilities; and thus, more particularly, of his own relationship to knowledge itself.

Complete freedom shall be attained only when mankind fully understands the postulates underlying this universe.

The basic goal of Man which embraces all his activities is apparently survival. Survival might be defined as an impulse to persist through time, in space, as matter and energy.

The basic goal of Man is to go free. Freedom may be defined as having the awareness of the postulates underlying this universe.

The impulse to survival is found to contain eight sub-impulses. These are, first, the urge to survive as self; second, the urge to survive through sex in the procreation of children; third, the impulse to survive as a group; fourth, the impulse to survive as mankind itself; fifth, the urge to survive as animal life; sixth, the impulse to survive as the material universe of matter, energy, space and time; seventh, the impulse to survive as a spirit; and eighth, the impulse to survive as what may be called Supreme Being.

The postulates underlying this universe may be divided into eight dynamics. The earliest postulates form the eighth dynamic of supreme beingness of the Unknowable. As postulates evolve, we get the dynamics seven to one. The first dynamic of self comprises of the latest postulates. See The Eight Dynamics. 

The above sub-impulses are called dynamics; combined, they form the overall urge towards survival, but each one of itself plays its important role, both in the individual and in the wider sphere named as a part of each impulse. Thus we see the inter-dependency of the individual with the family, with the group, with the species, with life-forms, with the material universe itself, with spirits, and with God; and we see the dependency of each one of these entities upon the individual as a part of it.

The individual is a system of postulates that is part of the overall system of postulates that comprise the universe.

The human mind might be conceived to be the recorder, computer and solver of problems relating to survival.

The human mind is the tool that resolves the anomalies towards the goal to go free. See Mind: The Tool for Resolving Anomalies.

Scientology introduces new and more workable ways of thinking about things. It has found that an absolute is unobtainable: neither zero nor infinity are as themselves discoverable in a real universe but, as absolutes, may be posed as symbols for an abstraction which could be supposed to exist but which does not exist in fact. Therefore, there would be no absolute good and no absolute evil. A thing to be “good” would depend on the viewpoint of the observer, and the same condition would exist for “bad.”

Definitions come closest to recognizing the postulates. Scientology has introduced new and more workable definitions. However, these definitions are not absolute. By removing anomalies, we may improve upon these definitions. This is being done through Subject Clearing, the result of which is KHTK.

Several new concepts germane to the fields of science and humanities almost independent of its own work have been introduced by Scientology. The first of these is the proper definition of a static. The next is the first actual definition of zero and its differentiation from infinity in terms of mathematics. Another is the basic definition of space which hitherto was omitted from the field of physics except in terms of time and energy.

Scientology claims to have improved upon the definitions of “static,” “zero and its differentiation from infinity,” and “space.”

An optimum solution to any problem would be that solution which brought the greatest benefits to the greatest number of dynamics. The poorest solution would be that solution which brought the fewest benefits to the least number of dynamics. And here a benefit would be defined as that which would enhance survival. Activities which brought minimal survival to a lesser number of dynamics and damaged the survival of a greater number of dynamics could not be considered rational activities.

While there could be no absolute right or absolute wrong, a right action would depend upon its assisting the survival of the dynamics immediately concerned; a wrong action would impede the survival of the dynamics concerned.

The idea of survival is tricky and it can be deceptive. An optimum solution to any problem would be that solution from which all anomalies have been removed. Such a solution would be most consistent with reality, 

Thought is sub-divisible into data. A datum would be anything of which one could become aware, whether the thing existed or whether he created it.

Thought may be broken down into data, which can then be examined for anomalies.

Creativeness could be found to exceed existence itself; by observation and definition it is discoverable that thought does not necessarily have to be preceded by data, but can create data. Imagination can then create without reference to preexisting states, and is not necessarily dependent upon experience or data and does not necessarily combine these for its products. Imagination could be classified as the ability to create or forecast a future or to create, change or destroy a present or past.

A postulate goes beyond the reality of present existence. The whole purpose of postulate is to bring greater consistency among the reality of present existence.

Cause is motivated by the future.

Scientology as it applies to life is seen as a study in statics and kinetics, which is to say a study of the interplay between no motion and all motion, or less motion and more motion.

Scientology sees all activities of life to be generated from an interplay between no motion and all motion. The purpose here is to bring greater consistency in our view of the activities of life by establishing a continuous, consistent and harmonious gradient among them.

In thought itself at its highest range, we discover the only true static known. In physics a static is represented as a body at rest but it is known in physics that a body at rest is yet an equilibrium of forces and is itself in motion if only on the level of molecular motion. A true static would contain no motion, no time, no space and no wavelength. To this static in Scientology is assigned the mathematical symbol theta. This designation means solely a theoretical static of distinct and precisely defined qualities with certain potentials.

The all-motion or more-motion kinetic is termed MEST. This word represents the material universe, or any universe. It is combined from the first letters of the four words: matter, energy, space and time.

The interplay between theta and mest results in activities known as life, and causes the animation of living life forms. In the absence of an interplay, the life form is dead.

The beingness of Man, by which is meant Homo sapiens, derives its impulse toward thought and action from theta and takes its material form in mest.

Essentially, Hubbard is looking at the dichotomy of “static – motion” to explain all life activities. He expands this dichotomy into a scale with one end being “pure static (THETA)” and the other end being “pure motion (MEST).” Between these two ends, we have gradients of motion representing all the activities known as life. Hubbard is associating all life impulses with THETA (no motion); and all material forms with MEST (all motion). When we look for consistency between THETA and MEST, we find it in the gradients of motion. On these gradients THETA and MEST are integrated in different degrees. 

On a scale, both ends extend to infinity. There are no absolutes. Therefore, no matter how pure THETA is, there is infinitesimal degree of MEST in it. Similarly, no matter how pure MEST is, there is infinitesimal degree of THETA in it. We cannot treat THETA and MEST as absolutes, as Hubbard explains in the Logics. The beingness of Man consists of an integration of THETA and MEST.

Man, Homo sapiens, is a composite being of four distinct and divisible actualities: these parts are termed the thetan, the memory banks, the genetic entity and the body.

The thetan, which will be described later in greater detail, has the impulse of theta itself and can exist in matter, energy, space and time, but derives its impulse from the potential of theta itself and has certain definite goals and behavior characteristics of its own.

According to Hubbard, the beingness of Man is made up of (1) Thetan, (2) Memory banks, (3) Genetic Entity, and (4) Body. All these parts lie on the THETA-MEST scale. This means that these parts contain THETA and MEST integrated in different degrees. None of these parts can be separate or independent of each other.

The standard memory banks and the reactive memory banks compose the memory banks of Homo sapiens. These in the analogy of an electronic computer, are the file system. The standard banks can be said to contain data of which Man is easily and analytically aware and the reactive banks are those which contain stimulus-response, in other words experience the action of which is below the level of his awareness. The content of the reactive banks was received during moments of lessened awareness such as the unconsciousness of early life in times of weariness, severe pain or heavy emotional stress, such data operating automatically thereafter to command the person without his consent. The standard memory banks are those in which experience is stored for use in the estimation of the effort necessary for survival and are concerned with analytical thought. There is an additional storage of memory itself in a purer form than in these banks, but this memory is contained in the capabilities of the thetan.

The standard and reactive banks may be sketched separately on a chart, but they are well integrated with the beingness. Their counterparts in an electric computer are integrated also. If we look at all memory as a single matrix, the well-assimilated parts process data analytically; only the pockets of unassimilated parts process data reactively. There are partially assimilated regions that provide conclusions that are neither wholly analytical nor wholly reactive.

The genetic entity is that beingness not dissimilar to the thetan which has carried forward and developed the body from its earliest moments along the evolutionary line on earth and which through experience, necessity and natural selection, has employed the counter-efforts of the environment to fashion an organism of the type best fitted for survival, limited only by the abilities of the genetic entity. The goal of the genetic entity is survival on a much grosser plane of materiality.

Through later scientific developments we know that this description of “genetic entity” matches the programming that is passed through the DNA molecules.

The body itself is a carbon-oxygen engine which runs at a temperature of 98.6°F on low combustion fuel, generally derived from other life forms. The body is directly monitored by the genetic entity in activities such as respiration, heart-beat and endocrine secretions; but these activities may be modified by the thetan.

Body is the most researched part of the beingness, and considerable knowledge about it exists in the medical profession.

The human mind could be said to be the primary activity of the thetan with his own memory and ability plus the analytical standard memory banks, modified by the reactive memory banks of the genetic entity, and limited by the mechanical abilities and adaptabilities in action of the body itself.

These four parts of Homo sapiens are detachable one from the other.

According to prior postulates these four parts are supposed to be integrated with each other. Hubbard’s theory that they are detachable from each other presents an anomaly.

The personality and beingness which actually is the individual and is aware of being aware and is ordinarily and normally the “person” and who the individual thinks he is, is the thetan; and this awareness can continue, is clarified and is not interrupted by a detachment from the body which is accomplished by standard processing.

The beingness is integrated with the body, and it cannot survive without the body. Any perception of “detachment from the body” is an anomaly and there must exist a better explanation. There is evidence that body extends beyond its visible solid part as an aura, which explains such detachment. Past life memories can also be explained through the DNA mechanism. However, no evidence exists of awareness of individuality or identity after body death. 

The thetan is immortal and is possessed of capabilities well in excess of those hitherto predicted for Man and the detachment accomplishes in the sober practice of science the realization of goals envisioned but questionably, if ever, obtained in spiritualism, mysticism and allied fields.

The conclusion by Hubbard that thetan is immortal contradicts earlier postulates. By no means is it a scientific fact. The valid conclusion is that an individual beingness ends when the body dies.

The anatomy of the beingness of Man is one of the lesser studies of Scientology where the beingness relates only to Homo sapiens, for the detachment of the thetan by standard operating procedure is in common practice a simplicity, and it is therefore unrewarding to explore to much greater depths the remaining combination of the standard and reactive banks, the genetic entity and the body, since the last three are a specialized combination. Nevertheless the development of the technology necessary to bring about a complete state of beingness of that which a man actually is found to be, has provided considerable data and technology in the field of memory recordings, the peculiarities of energy behavior around and about the body, the history of the evolutionary line, the identity of the genetic entity and much of the construction of the body itself, as well as the construction of the real universe. The bulk of the data which concerns Homo sapiens, other than the beingness of the thetan, has been covered adequately earlier and elsewhere. [See Foreword.]

Any feeling of detachment occurs only when the body is alive; and it can be explained through extension of body through aura, which is physical but not material or mystical. No such detachment occurs when the body dies. Any identity or individuality snuffs out upon body death. No soul or thetan continues.

The beingness of Man is essentially the beingness of theta itself acting in the mest and other universes in the accomplishment of the goals of theta and under the determination of a specific individual and particular personality for each being.

As explained above, THETA cannot be pure or absolute. Any beingness is always an integration of THETA and MEST. Upon death both THETA and MEST reduce to their atomic and molecular forms. The beingness that was there before death now ceases to exist. Of course, the impressions of individual beingness upon the social beingness, and on the beingness of mankind continue.

Scientology is the science of knowing how to know.

Scientology is the science of knowing sciences. It seeks to embrace the sciences and humanities as a clarification of knowledge itself.

One studies to know a science. His study is without avail when he does not know the science of study.

Scientology did bring about many breakthroughs but its theory can be greatly improved through Subject Clearing.

One lives and learns of life but life is not comprehensible to him, no matter how much he lives, unless he knows the science of life itself.

One studies the humanities. If he does not know how to study the humanities he often fails.

The physicist and the fission bomb expert know physics but not the humanities. They do not conceive the relationship and thus physics itself fails.

Scientology’s great contribution has been study tech, but study tech cannot correct flawed definitions. For that you need Subject Clearing.

Into all these things—biology, physics, psychology and life itself—the skills of Scientology can bring order and simplification.

One lives better with Scientology since life, understood and controlled, becomes liveable.

A civilization could fare better with Scientology since that would not be pock-marked with unknowns and rendered null with chaos.

The only richness there is is understanding. That is all that Scientology has to give.

Scientology did bring about certain effective progress, but it is now due for further refinement.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Footnote

In earlier efforts to better his state of beingness, Man has considered Homo sapiens as an inseparable unit which was either alive or dead. Further, Man has thought it necessary, when he thought about it at all, to address and reduce the inroads of the past before the individual could assume any high level of beingness in the present.

What Scientology considers to be the “separation of THETA from MEST” is, in actual fact, a reduction of fixation of a person’s attention on his body and self.

In Dianetics it was found that the mind was sub divisible into two parts, the first was the analytical mind which did the actual thinking and computing for the individual but which, in the present civilized state of Man, was almost submerged.

The second was the reactive mind. The reactive mind was considered to be a stimulus-response mechanism which derived and acted upon the data of experience without thought. The content of the reactive mind was found to be the accumulated bad experiences of the organism not only in its current lifetime, but in the other lifetimes which it apparently had led in order to accomplish the task of evolution and to arrive at its present state of structural beingness. The reactive mind was the blueprint but it was also the stimulus-response dictator of action. The formula which described the reactive mind was that everything is identified with everything.

The “experiences” from other lifetimes are, actually, “ancestral memories” that are passed through the DNA mechanism to be assimilated.

Dianetics accomplished a great deal in the elevation of beingness by reducing the most violent incidents in the reactive mind by a process known as the erasure of engrams.

An engram was a period of momentary or long pain and unconsciousness such as would occur in an injury, operation or illness. Such incidents could be reduced simply by “returning” the individual to the moment of the accident and then going over the accident step by step, perceptic by perceptic, as though it was happening again. After this had been done several times, the accident was found to have no more command value upon the individual.

Dianetics accomplished a great deal by making it possible to assimilate engrams. But there is a lot more aberration from sources other than simple engrams that needs to be assimilated.

The reduction of the command value of the reactive mind was found to be necessary to a proper resolution of aberration. Understand that the reduction of the command value of the reactive mind was the goal, not merely the reduction of the reactive mind. When one is addressing the problems of an individual or group of men, the reduction of the command value of the reactive mind is still the goal where Scientology is used as a process to eradicate aberration.

But two other methods are available for reducing this command value.

The first of these lies in the removal of the analytical mind from proximity to the reactive mind and the increase then of the potential of the analytical mind until it can command and handle any reactive mind with ease.

The second is simply the rehabilitation of the analytical mind by permitting it to use its creative ability in the construction of a universe of its own.

The analytical mind needs to be strengthened to fully reduce the command value of the reactive mind. This is where Scientology comes in beyond Dianetics.

It was found that there was no purpose in reducing incidents out of the reactive mind beyond the point where the analytical mind could step apart from the reactive mind, and then command it. Dianetics is a science which addresses itself directly to the reactive mind to reduce the command value of that reactive mind. Scientology is an embracive subject, much wider in application. It has as its goal the beingness that can exist without an energy or matter, which is to say, without time, whether Homo sapiens or not. Dianetics was an evolutionary step, a tool which had use in arriving at a higher level of knowledge; its use, however, produced slower results and much lower goals.

Hubbard’s theory of Scientology is that the analytical mind can be strengthened by separating “thetan” from other parts of beingness (memory banks, genetic entity, and body); but this theory leads to anomalies, and a better theory is needed.

Once the obvious engrams are assimilated through Dianetics, one simply goes through life, discovering and assimilating anomalies as they come up. This is the broader area of Subject Clearing. The goal at this level is to become aware of all the postulates underlying this universe.

Further, Dianetic processes were limited in that they could not be applied more than a few hundred hours without the reactive mind assuming a very high command level over the analytical mind due to the fact that the reactive mind was being validated continually in the process, whereas the better process was to validate the analytical mind.

Engrams are not that many, and they are quickly handled through Dianetics. The postulate of Dianetics that the source of all aberrations are engrams was not entirely correct.

Medicine and psychology, as practiced today, have, absorbed and are using many of the principles of Dianetics without caring to be aware of the later developments in the field of the mind as represented here. Thus, the society absorbs and very often misunderstands knowledge.

The postulate of an immortal “thetan” in Scientology is not entirely correct either. The path beyond Scientology is Subject Clearing.

.

FINAL COMMENTS

The highest capability of life is the ability to postulate. The beingness of man depends on bringing the universe into clear focus through this ability. Complete freedom shall be attained only when mankind fully understands the postulates underlying this universe.

Essentially, Hubbard is looking at the dichotomy of “static-motion” to explain all life activities. He expands this dichotomy into a scale with one end being “pure static (THETA)” and the other end being “pure motion (MEST).” Between these two ends, we have gradients of motion representing all the activities known as life. Using Hubbard’s terminology, the beingness of Man consists of an integration of THETA and MEST.

According to Hubbard, the beingness of Man may be divided into (1) Thetan, (2) Memory banks, (3) Genetic Entity, and (4) Body. Memory is the data in the computing circuits of the body. Genetic entity consists of memory that is passed through the DNA molecules. All these parts are well-integrated, and they cannot be separated from each other.

However, Hubbard theorizes that pure beingness consists of thetan only and it is detachable from the body, which weighs it down by all its machinery. Therefore, the ultimate resolution of all aberrations lies in the separation of the thetan from the body.”

There is evidence of a feeling of detachment while the person is alive; but this comes from a reduction of the person’s fixation on his body and self. There is no evidence that the individual beingness gets detached from the body upon death, and exists independently. From all evidence, the individual beingness ceases to exist after death. Of course, the impressions of individual beingness continue to exist upon the social beingness, and on the beingness of mankind.

Known data suggests that, upon death, both THETA and MEST reduce to their atomic and molecular forms. Certain unassimilated impression are passed on from one life to the next through DNA molecules in the form of “ancestral memories” or “genetic entity” along with the assimilated blueprint.

Hubbard’s theory cannot be verified and the practice of Scientology does not lead to the resolution of all aberrations.

The path beyond Scientology is Subject Clearing.

.