This paper presents Section 13 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) based on the present understanding. Feedback on these comments is appreciated.
The heading below is linked to the original materials.
.
Terminals
At every turn in the examination of the MEST universe we discover that it is a two-terminal universe. In the manufacture of electricity it is necessary to have two terminals. In order to have an opinion evaluated, it is necessary to have an opinion against which the first can be evaluated. A datum can be understood in the MEST universe only when it is compared to a datum of comparable magnitude. This is two terminals operating in terms of thought. Two MEST universe terminals which are similar, placed side by side will discharge to some degree against each other. This is observable in gravity as well as in electricity.
There are always similarities and differences between two things. One becomes aware of those when they are compared. Similarly, two terminals placed next to each other discharge to some degree. The discharge means that a relationship comes into focus.
A primary difference between the MEST universe and one’s own universe is that one’s own universe is not a two-terminal universe necessarily. One can mock up in one’s own universe two terminals which will discharge against each other, but he can also at will mock up two terminals which are identical which will not discharge against each other.
Terminals are where communication lines end. One may imagine two identical terminals that may not discharge against each other. In other words, the only awareness they generate is that they are the same.
There are a number of processes which could include double terminals. One terminal made to face another terminal (in terms of mock-up) can be discharged one against the other in such a way as to relieve aberration connected with things similar to the terminal thus mocked up. However, these two terminals do not furnish a double terminal of a communication line. A communication line is more important than a communication point. Thus, if one wished to discharge anything, he would desire to discharge the communication line. The MEST universe is intensely dependent upon communication lines rather than communication terminals. One takes two pairs of such terminals then, and standing them in relationship to each other, discovers that he has now four terminals but these four terminals furnish only two lines. These two lines will discharge one against the other.
This, as a limited process, should not be continued very long. It is of greatest interest in rendering assistance after an accident where it is only necessary to mock up the accident twice, or indeed, to mock up something similar to an injured limb, to have the pain and discomfort and aberration discharged. Should one burn one’s fingers, it is necessary only to mock up his fingers twice side by side and then twice again, making four mock ups with two communication lines, to have the pain in the finger subside. The mock-ups discharge at the same time as one’s injured finger re-experiences the incident. This manifestation is the manifestation of the MEST universe, it is not a manifestation of one’s own universe and if practiced over a long period of time is essentially an agreement with the MEST universe, a thing which should be avoided; thus it is a limited process.
When a proper terminal is mocked up side by side with an aberrated terminal, it may bring the aberration into focus, and thus relieve it. The discharge of a communication line, however, is more important. A communication line exists between two terminals. Two communication lines shall require four terminals. They shall then discharge against each other momentarily.
A terminal is, in essence, any point of no form or any form or dimension from which energy can flow or by which energy can be received. A viewpoint then, is a sort of terminal, but a terminal must have a particle in order to do automatic interchanges and one finds that a viewpoint can be affected by the MEST universe only when the viewpoint has identified itself with some MEST universe article, such as a body. The rehabilitation of the viewpoint’s ability to be, or not be, at will is essential in order that a viewpoint be self-determined about what is affecting him and what is not affecting him. This depends, of course then, upon what a viewpoint identifies himself with and depends upon the ability of the viewpoint to un-identify himself rapidly.
A human viewpoint is structurally based in the human body but its form can be narrow or broad based on its thoughts. It does act as a terminal as it may be compared with another viewpoint. The rehabilitation of a viewpoint occurs when it recognizes the considerations limiting it.
Terminals are anywhere in the MEST universe and can be manufactured, of course, in one’s own universe. The difference is that any bit of solid, even on the level of an electron in the MEST universe, is, willy-nilly, a terminal; it is affected in certain ways, whether it likes it or not. Any particle in any object or any flow of energy is in itself a terminal. A terminal can be affected by any other terminal or can affect, to some degree, other terminals.
All dimension points are terminals and so are their combinations. A terminal has properties that are affected by the natural laws. The terminals affect each other through such laws.
This cross-relationship of terminals in the MEST universe is MEST universe communication. In one’s own universe a flow is not necessary for the production of energy or potentials.
The physical terminals communicate with each other through physical laws. The imaginary terminals communicate with each other through spiritual laws, such as, consistency, harmony and continuity.
It is one of the sources of aberration that the scarcity of things in the MEST universe causes one to own only one of things; this is aberrative, since that one can gather into itself charges which are not discharged since there is nothing immediately similar to it. If one owned two of everything he had and if these two things were nearly identical, he would find that his worry and concern about these objects was greatly decreased. A child, for instance, should have two dolls alike, not simply one doll. The reason for this is that two terminals will discharge, one against the other. The thetan is capable of mocking himself up to be exactly like everything he sees. As a matter of fact, whatever a thetan can see, he can be. Thus, the thetan makes himself into a terminal for everything he sees whenever there is an absence of a duplicate. Thus the thetan is in the danger of having everything in the MEST universe discharging against him the moment he alters his relationship to the MEST universe. This fixes him in the belief that he cannot alter his relationship to the MEST universe. Actually he is rather rapidly disabused of this conception by processing. It is rather interesting to “double-terminal” in mock-up form the childhood toys of an individual. He will find there is an enormous amount of charge simply in the fact that these toys were made out of MEST. The favourite doll has a gravitic influence upon him.
Scarcity causes a person to own only one thing of a kind. Anxiety is much less when one owns two things of the same kind because then they can discharge against each other. A person may get attached to what is scarce and become fixed in relation to the universe. This fixedness can be resolved by mocking up things in abundance that are scarce.
Completely aside from the terminals one finds in an electric motor and which produce so much current by reason of being separated by the base of the motor, the subject of terminals goes into behaviour and explains in a great measure behaviour on a stimulus-response basis in the MEST universe. Indeed, it could be said that the MEST universe came into being by one terminal demanding attention from another terminal and these two terminals thereafter facing each other continuing a discharge one to the other. With very aberrated people, one cannot long discuss things with them without getting the manifestation of terminals, for the very aberrated fix on a terminal easily.
The behavior in the physical universe is viewed as stimulus-response because it can be predicted per the physical laws. This applies to the interaction between two terminals when they are maintained at different potentials. Very aberrated people have their viewpoints fixed like terminals at a certain potential.
It could be said that the MEST universe is the average of agreement amongst viewpoints and that the laws of the MEST universe, no matter how physical, are the result of this agreement; and, indeed, this definition suffices for those conditions which are supposed to be “reality.” The MEST universe is very real, but any hypnotist can instruct a hypnotized subject into the construction of a universe which has tactile, sight, sound and any other manifestation possessed by the MEST universe, and who is to say then, that the hypnotized subject is not perceiving a universe? For one’s own perception of the MEST universe consists of his placing an object in proximity to or against another object, and both of these objects are found to be objects of the MEST universe. This is overlooked by individuals when they, for instance, strike a desk with their fist. It is the favourite declaration of the materialist (that individual who is in a frantic state of insistence upon the existence of the MEST universe) that “this is real.” The effects he is creating are being created by a hand that is made out of MEST on an object which is MEST. The individual has overlooked the fact that the hand with which he is doing the pounding is itself MEST and that his knowledge of that hand is actually no more than his perception of it. This is a problem in two terminals.
According to Hubbard the MEST universe is the average of agreement amongst viewpoints. A physical object is understood only in its relationship to another physical object. The understanding of such relationship may be manipulated through hypnotism. All reality is, therefore, subjective. There is no objective reality. The goal of Scientology, therefore, is to bring a desired subjective reality.
.
FINAL COMMENTS
Hubbard does not define objective reality. He has no criterion for it. To him all reality is subjective. To understand something one compares it with similar things and observes the relationship. Thus, there are physical laws that govern such relationships, but, according to Hubbard, even those laws are subjective. The proof of that is all reality can be manipulated through hypnotism.
Hubbard does not realize that a hypnotist simply manipulates the filters of a person to manipulate his reality. If there are no filters to manipulate, the hypnotist can do nothing.
Hubbard’s believes in a reality of shared filters instead of the reality of absence of filters. His goal was to generate a “desired” reality that could be shared by everybody. This, obviously required the manipulation of filters en masse. This has been the goal of Scientology auditing, especially at the OT levels.
But there is a reality in the absence of filters, which has been the goal of Buddhism.
.
