This paper presents Section 35 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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Faith-Distrust
There is no more over-rated quality in existence than faith.
The subject who, under the hands of a hypnotist operator, conceives an enormous agreement with the hypnotist, is experiencing faith as it is commonly understood. In this state the subject can perceive anything which the hypnotist may direct.
Hypnotism requires faith in the hypnotist. Such faith suppresses any awareness of inconsistencies.
In order to understand faith, one must be able to differentiate between faith-in and faith. The difference between these two conditions is a direction of flow which earlier we found to be reality itself. Faith-in is an inflow of agreement and the placing of one’s beingness and doingness under the control of another, and is, in other words, the sacrifice of one’s universe. This is the basic mechanism wherein, all along the whole track, thetans have been recruited in some cause or mystery, and have surrendered to this their own identity and ability. A little of this goes a very long distance. It is in essence the basic trick of hypnotism and by it one can convert and reduce the abilities of a subject for any purpose.
Having faith in somebody means that you accept what that person says. It does not mean that you are not evaluating properly, but you are limiting your evaluation to the context which that person provides. Your own universe is built on you evaluating freely in the widest context possible.
Faith-in is an inflow and brings about the acceptance of reality other than one’s own. Faith itself would be without flow where one was in a full state of beingness and, with this condition, one could occasion faith itself to occur within his own universe, or could occasion people to have faith in him.
True faith comes from evaluating in the universal context. It allows one to consider all different perspectives.
The auditor will find one of the more aberrative phases of the preclear in his failure to obtain from others faith in himself, and his acquiescence to their demands on any dynamic that he have faith in them.
Aberration comes from not being able to evaluate in a universal context.
Because it is entirely true that a being lacking in faith is low in tone, the fact can be traded upon with great ease.
A person who does not have faith in his own judgments is low in tone.
Distrust is not the lowest end of the scale, but begins to set in as a neurotic or psychotic condition at about 1.5. Actually faith interchanges with distrust in gradient levels all the way down the tone-scale and they alternate one with the other as one goes deeper and deeper into the MEST universe. The lowest level of this scale is not distrust but complete faith-in, which is the condition held by MEST which is supine to any sculptor.
Faith is what one sees as consistent with one’s beingness. This occurs at any place on the tone scale. Distrust comes in when that faith is broken.
This column might also be called the column of belief- disbelief or the column of reality-unreality. The auditor can expect the preclear as he rises up the tone-scale to pass through the various shades of distrust and the various shades of faith. This is often quite upsetting to the preclear for he cannot conceive himself to be rising in tone.
In auditing the person will discover moments of betrayal when distrust had set in.
It is very noteworthy that a preclear, when low in tone at the beginning, will pass inevitably through various strata of revulsion for the MEST universe and then for his own universe. The revulsion he can conceive for the MEST universe objects and for being in the MEST universe can become unthinkably distressing to him. When this condition has occurred, the auditor can be reassured by the fact that the preclear is rising in scale but has hit upon one of the levels of this column, and that a higher level and a more comfortable one immediately succeeds as processing is continued. This is simply a problem of reversing directions of flow. If the auditor is running flows he will find that an inflow is shortly succeeded by an out-flow and this out-flow is shortly succeeded by another in-flow. These are in essence agreements and disagreements alternating one after the other and each one is slightly higher on the tone-scale than the last.
The MEST universe provides external reality. One’s own universe provides the internal reality. Both are sorted out in one’s auditing. One looks at these realities from different perspectives. Faith and distrust may alternate as a person improves.
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FINAL COMMENTS
Conditioning takes place as one goes through life. Such conditioning is very much like hypnotism. It engenders faith in people and things, that is apt to get betrayed. This messes up a person. All this comes up in auditing.
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