This paper presents Section 17 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.
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Assist Processing
An “assist” is the processing given to a recently injured human being or thetan in order to relieve the stress of live energy which is holding the injury in suspension. The direct running-out of the energy contained in the recent facsimile is done by continually running through the incident as though it were just that moment happening to the preclear and recovering from it all his desire to have it and to not have it. And when this has been done to an extent where the energy is desensitized and the injury less painful, the preclear is led to handle it as energy, placing it in different places and times and reversing it and doing other things with it.
The being or “thetan” is best described as the identity of the assimilated mental matrix. The trauma of the injury exists as an unassimilated facsimile. The purpose of assist is to help assimilate the newly formed facsimile due to the injury. This is done by re-experiencing the incident in “slow motion” again and again until the person becomes fully aware of each moment of it and what led to it. The person then identifies the whole facsimile as a unit by placing it in different places, for example, imagining that the incident occurred in a different city at a different time.
The assist is very important, as it can cause an injury to resolve or a person to recover in a fraction of the time which would otherwise be required and, in many cases, it may save the life of the individual and has done so many times in the past. The auditor must know facsimile processing primarily to run an assist and in order to know more about the anatomy of the human mind.
This assist is an activity which handles the shock of the injury and assimilates the facsimile by breaking it down into its fine details. This speeds up the recovery from the injury.
As noted earlier under Terminals, an assist can be rendered by mocking-up the injured part or the scene of injury as two terminals and holding or recreating these mock-ups until the injury abates. While doing this it will be noted particularly that the mock-ups are at first uncontrollable in most cases and then become much more easily controlled. The uncontrollable factor of the mock-ups is answered by this; whenever a pair of mock-ups or a single mock-up misbehaves, which is to say, acts without the specific command of the person getting the mock-up, the person doing the mockup should simply abandon the pair or single mock-up and put into its place again one which is doing what he wants it to do; in other words, a disobedient mock-up or pair of mockups is either put away or moved to the right or left or forced into control, and in its place the individual simply puts a mock-up which is obedient to his control. An auditor should be careful on this point, for an individual getting mock-ups will strain and worry and eventually discover, he thinks, that it is impossible for him to control his mock-ups.
If the person is unable to recall, let him mock up (imagine) the injured part or the scene of injury as to what might have happened. Let him hold on to those mock ups in his mind. Gradually the details shall start to emerge and the mock ups will shift. Let the person continue to mock up newly again and again until he becomes confident of all the details. This should be done naturally and without strain.
Using effort to control one’s mock-ups is of little avail; one simply creates them. Where mock-ups are absent, one will appear if the individual will simply keep putting the thought forward that it will appear. If he puts forward the thought often enough and long enough, he will get such a mock-up. Where he can get only one of a pair of mock-ups, if he will keep putting the second one in it will eventually appear. What one is facing in double terminalling here is so much charge on a single subject that the charge dissipates the mock-up before the mock-up can be adequately perceived. No matter how briefly, when an individual has said a mock-up will be there a mock-up has appeared; that it has disappeared promptly does not mean that he cannot put a second mock-up there. Particular attention should be given to this in assists because an assist is essentially dealing with an injured member or a scene which contains pain.
Pain is the intense confusion in the perceptions of the facsimile. The person imagines the key aspects of the incident in different ways (putting the mock ups side by side) until something makes sense. He then keeps building up the mock ups on what makes sense. This is done systematically with least effort until the injury starts to abate.
In double-terminalling assists it will be found that the preclear becomes ill or in pain in spite of how innocent he may feel it is to hold two terminals out in front of him. The remedy for this is simply to hold the two terminals (or replace them if they disappear or misbehave) until the illness or feeling has abated.
One can handle worries in this fashion. One simply puts up one worry and then duplicates it facing itself out in front of him and the thought discharges against the thought until the worry and the emotion connected with the worry disappear. Thought, emotion, and effort can be dissipated by double-terminalling in this fashion. It is again remarked that this is a limited technique and should not be continued endlessly as an end in itself. Thirty or forty hours of double-terminalling is much more than enough. The route pointed out by Scientology 8-8008 is a better route than double-terminalling. Double-terminalling is relegated to the level of assist and changing one’s state of mind. Double-terminalling doubt against doubt undermines and gets at the bottom of every circuit; thus, it, as a technique, should not be entirely neglected.
On can handle worries in this fashion too. He mocks up the key aspects of the worry in different ways and compares them by putting those mock ups side by side. Certain discharges shall take place. In other words, the person shall start to realize what is really going on.
One simply focuses on an injury or a worry, experiencing it as best as one can, effortlessly without avoiding, suppressing or resisting whatever comes up. It is important that one does not look for answers or be judgmental in any way.
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FINAL COMMENTS
The purpose of assist is to help assimilate the newly formed facsimile due to the injury. This is the trauma. It is handled by re-experiencing the incident in “slow motion” again and again until the person becomes fully aware of each moment and what led to it.
The core of the trauma is its shock. This shock needs to be located first and then details are built around it. The details may be recalled or, otherwise, mocked up. This speeds up the recovery from the injury.
The most important part of recall or mock up is the consistency of the details. The more sense it makes, the more one is confident of what happened. The lesser confusion and pain there is. It means that the facsimile is getting assimilated.
A worry may be handled the same way.
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