Reference: Scientology 8-8008
This paper presents Section 37 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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Cause-Full Effect
Above the level of all else on the Chart of Attitudes is Cause. Causation is the highest attainment which can be envisaged by the thetan, but this is not necessarily the highest possible attainment, and much higher levels may be envisionable by the thetan when he has attained high on the level of causation.
Cause and effect always occur in pair. Neither can be there without the other. One cannot be cause without also being the effect at the same time.
To be Full Cause, one would have to be able to cause space and many other manifestations. Everyone, to a greater or lesser degree, attempts to be cause until he is at last the full effect. The fullest effect in this universe is to be MEST itself.
To be a full cause one has to be aware of all aspects of the effect one is causing. For example, to be full cause of a meal, one would have to be aware not only of the quantity and mixing of all the ingredients, but also how to acquire them in time. Once you have mapped out the whole effect, you are locked into it. You are part of the effect you are causing.
One of the principles of causation is outlined in the cycle of action, but it is not necessarily true that one can only cause a cycle of this pattern or that one must cause cycles at all, for it is excellent processing to mock-up with reverse cycles going from death back to creation with objects which one has mocked up.
An effect has a structure and a sequence of putting it together. It is good processing to mock-up that structure and sequence forward and backward to become fully aware of it.
It is one of the “facts” of objects that space and energy must have been caused before the object could exist in the MEST universe. Thus any object has prior cause. For this reason when anyone in the MEST universe begins to study in order to resolve some of the riddles of the MEST universe, he falls into the trap of supposing all cause to be prior and time itself to exist. This would make one the later effect of everything he caused. In other words, if he made a postulate, he would then immediately afterwards become the effect of that postulate. Causes motivated by “future” desire, enforcement and inhibition of havingness, do not lie in the past but only in the condition of havingness in this universe which states that any object must have had a “prior” cause.
An object comes about by moulding the substance in a certain sequence, as in making pottery. The cause and effect are simultaneous and continuous. When a person makes a decision he is bound by it as he wills it. There is karma (you reap as you sow), but the effect was established at the moment of cause. If there is a chain reaction, it was already programmed that way. Cause does not lie in the past; it is present in the condition of effect. To consider that cause precedes effect is an error.
The preclear has become aberrated by the process of making an effect out of him and taking from him the ability to be cause by convincing him that it is better to be an effect.
When a person has become aberrated he has agreed with that condition out of ignorance in a sequence of gradient steps. This is exactly what has happened when one is hypnotized.
Freud had one of the major aberrations in view when he declared his libido theory in 1894 and decided therein that sex was the only aberration. It is certainly a major one in homo sapiens, for in sex one desires to be the cause of little or nothing and desires to be the effect of pleasurable sensation.
Freud’s libido theory almost nailed the nature of aberration. In sexual stimulation there is activation of a programming that influences thinking and behavior. Once activated this programming takes it course, overcoming any rational thinking and behavior.
Anything in the MEST universe which one desires, he desires because it will have a pleasant effect on him. Thus he is searching for sensation caused exterior to himself which will make on him an effect. How much of an effect can he become? MEST! The snare of pleasurable sensation leads one to accept energy other than one’s own. Desire for this energy or objects then puts one in the condition of being an effect. When one is surrounded by as many powerful possible energy sources as one finds in the MEST universe, he cannot but become a low level cause.
Desire comes from programming. There is certain programming built in every person. Thus environment has an effect on the person. If he totally succumbs to the programming he has become robotic like an animal. His cause potential depends on how much of his programming he can influence.
When a preclear is at a level on the tone-scale where he is concerned with bad and good (above 8.0 both these are seen broadly enough to understand that they are viewpoints) he is very concerned if he thinks that he is or could be bad cause and is desirous of being what he considers good cause. He judges these things by moral codes and so bends his conduct as to make bad cause antipathetic to himself and others. Thus he gives away responsibility for bad cause and in that very action becomes the effect of bad cause. When he has found himself to be what he considers bad cause, he ceases to “trust” himself and begins to blame himself and then others.
Morality of good and bad is a type of programming. It overcomes the rationality of a person who is low on the tone scale, and makes him act robotically.
All angels have two faces. They are commonly represented in mythology as having a black and white face. To be complete cause, theoretically, a person would have to be willing to be bad cause and good cause. Only in this wise, in the MEST universe, could he escape the liability of becoming the effect of bad cause.
It is possible to hold on to rationality in the face of any programming whether it is sex or morality. Then one has become objective and causative.
The criminal who has elected himself bad cause through having found it impossible to trust himself (and a criminal career always begins at the moment when the criminal-to-be loses his self-respect; a career of prostitution cannot begin until self-respect is lost; and self-respect is only lost when one considers himself to be bad cause) can only escape becoming an effect by fighting all good cause. The reformation or reclamation of the criminal does not depend upon punishment, which only seeks to make him more MEST than he is, nor yet upon good cause, which he must fight, but upon the reestablishment of the criminal’s self-respect; for only after this is he capable of being good cause.
Before rationality can take over there is confusion with “good-bad” programming. A person may react to that programming by engaging in criminal actions. But he becomes criminal only when he has lost trust in himself. A criminal can be reformed only by restoring his self-respect. Punishment does not work.
An entire process evolves around “what would you cause on (each one of the dynamics)?” An assessment of the preclear with a meter should seek to establish where the preclear feels he would be bad cause, for it is on this point that he will be found to have lost his self-respect and where it will be discovered why he cannot trust himself. Self-trust, self- respect and the ability to be cause are conditions in the same order of magnitude and can be interchangeably approached.
A person may recover self-trust, self-respect and the ability to be cause by meditating on, “What would I cause on ______ (different areas of life)?” This may bring up areas where he feels he would be a bad cause because he cannot trust himself. He may then discover some experience where he lost his self-respect. By assimilating that experience realizations shall take place and his ability to be cause in that area shall be restored.
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FINAL COMMENTS
To be cause you have to carefully map out the whole effect. Creating effect randomly is not being cause. It is being part of some programming. The effect may be a programmed chain reaction. That chain reaction could exist naturally in the form of “karma”.
Cause appears to be in the past only when one is looking at the tail end of some effect. In truth cause and effect occur simultaneously. The effect may simply get extended as a chain reaction. Cause does not lie in the past; it is present in the condition of effect. To consider that cause precedes effect is an error.
In sexual stimulation there is activation of a programmed chain reaction that influences thinking and behavior. The programming controls the desire. Once activated this desire takes it course, overcoming any rational thinking and behavior. The same can be said for moral thinking. When restimulated it also overcomes the rationality of a person and makes him act robotically.
Before rationality can take over, the confusion caused by programming must be resolved. The programming makes one lose trust in oneself. The solution is to restore that trust and self-respect.
A solution is to meditate on the question, “WHAT WOULD I CAUSE ON ______ (AN AREA OF LIFE)?”
This may bring up an aspect of life or a situation where the person cannot trust himself. Underlying that aspect would be some experience where he lost his self-respect. There may be a chain of such experiences going far back. By assimilating those experiences one may gain realizations and the ability to be cause in that area.
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