Reference: The Book of Scientology
Faith-Distrust
Please see the original section at the link above.
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Summary
Faith has to do with trust in one’s observation. Even when a person is agreeing with another it is because he sees no anomalies in another’s observation. Distrust is not necessarily opposite of faith. Distrust is the alertness that helps one see anomalies. When a person recognizes anomalies and resolves them, his faith in his observation gets strengthened.
When one is accepting another’s observation on its face value, it is not faith but a hypnotic agreement. It is true that hypnotic agreement may be confused with faith. Faith builds up as anomalies are spotted and resolved. Hypnotic agreement, on the other hand, plays on a person’s existing views, and prevents him from seeing anomalies.
Hubbard calls the hypnotic agreement “faith-in;” and describes it as “inflow of agreement.” To him, the reality of the MEST universe is an inflow of agreement that demands “faith-in.” Hubbard identifies it as the key mechanism that induces aberration in a person.
Hubbard says, “Faith itself would be without flow where one was in a full state of beingness.” Beingness may be defined as that state of a person who is fully aware without fixation; and, therefore, who is able to spot anomalies.
Hubbard says, “The auditor will find one of the more aberrative phases of the preclear in his failure to obtain from others faith in himself.” But the very desire that others have faith in him is an aberration, because it shows that the person is fixated on himself. If the person’s observations and conclusion are found to be trustworthy by others, they would naturally have faith in him.
“Going deeper into the MEST universe” means that a person is becoming increasingly fixated and his behavior is becoming more stimulus-response. A person may feel “revulsion for the MEST universe,” when he discovers how has been deceived in his understanding of some MEST phenomenon.
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Comments
Hypnotic agreement is more common in the society than generally known. It is confused with faith. It is, therefore, very important that the difference between faith and hypnotic agreement is properly understood.
Distrust is not necessarily bad. It means that there is an unhandled doubt. A person should make every effort to resolve it.