This paper presents Section 43 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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Postulate Processing
Actually energy is produced by the thetan simply by postulating that it will be in existence. What he says will be so, becomes so for him; if he becomes extremely powerful, it becomes so for others. This condition has been misused by most thetans who, often in the past, have been afraid of making postulates that will come true. They believe that if they say a thing will happen, it will then happen—to such an extent that they now revulse against stating anything will happen.
A postulate is a self-created truth based on which further reasoning is done. But a postulate is not arbitrary. To be valid, a postulate must be consistent with other existing postulates. An inconsistent postulate may produce unpredictable effects contrary to one’s intentions. This has made people averse to making postulates.
Another aberrative condition with regard to postulates is that for the sake of randomity, the thetan at some time or another has set up the postulate that every time he makes a postulate a reverse postulate will occur which he will not know about, in such a way that he can “play chess with himself” without spoiling the game by knowing what his left hand is doing when his right makes the move.
A person may decide not to know all the existing postulates for the sake of adventure. This will set up an aberrative condition with regard to postulates.
It is not true that postulates have to be located all through the facsimiles and worn out by repetition. It is just as easy to make new postulates: but first one must recover from the depths to which his postulates have taken him. The most dangerous postulates are those postulates where one decided to agree with something which would become aberrative.
You can see by examining any facsimile in the preclear related to an accident that the most aberrative things in that facsimile are what the preclear himself decided.
A person can always make new postulates that are consistent with reality; and, hopefully, this will automatically bring the inconsistent postulate into focus to be corrected. If he is involved with something aberrative, he should look at what he once postulated about it.
Postulates are accompanied by evaluations and conclusions. It is often possible to “loosen” a postulate by discovering to the preclear why he made it, or what data he was using at the time.
As a preclear becomes very aberrated and believes himself to be more and more MEST, his postulates become as unwieldy to use as actual objects, and he finds them as difficult to change as objects.
A person may be using his postulates very tightly as if they are actual objects. He can “loosen” a postulate by discovering why he made it, and what data he was using at that time.
When doing creative processing and moving objects and energy in created space and time, the preclear is doing this by making postulates. It comes as a shock to some preclears that they are handling time by shifting space. One handles time by simply saying that he had a thing and now he does not have it, or that he will have or will view a thing in the future. One does not shift time by shifting space, nor does one continue to look at something he has put into the past. He says it is in the past and so it becomes in the past.
In creative processing, when a person is visualizing with certainty he is actually doing so by postulating conditions. This may bring inconsistencies into view, which then get handled.
When the thetan is unable to handle postulates about time, the auditor should ask him about some MEST universe incident such as breakfast, and then enquire how he remembered that he had breakfast, and if he will have something to eat on the morrow, and then how he knows he will have something to eat on the morrow. He does not look at his breakfast to find out if he had breakfast, he knows that he ate breakfast; and he does not go into tomorrow to find out if he will probably eat on the morrow, he knows—or, at least, believes it possible—that he will eat on the morrow. Moving time, as in any other postulate is knowingness not viewingness. An object goes into the past in the same space as it was in, in the present; and in the future may be in the same space as it was in in the past. The space does not change the condition of havingness changes, and one estimates this by some degree of knowingness.
When a person cannot put things in past or future, have him remember a past incident and ask him how he knows it is in the past. Similarly, if he knows something will happen in the future, how does he know it? Postulate requires knowingness. It is not just viewingness. An object may remain in the same space while being moved into past or future. It is a change in havingness.
The entire subject of postulates is the subject of certainty and self-belief. That preclear who has a low self-belief finds it difficult first, to make a postulate which he will believe and second, to undo one he has made. Creative processing and postulate processing alike remedy this.
Postulate has to do with total conviction about its consistency with other postulates (reality).
Rising-scale processing is another way of doing postulate processing. One takes any point or column of the Chart of Attitudes as given in this text, which the preclear can reach, and asks the preclear then to shift his postulate upwards toward a higher level.
In order to do this the auditor says, “Now, on the subject of rightness and wrongness, how wrong do you think you generally are?” The preclear tells him. The auditor says, “How high can you shift this attitude toward believing yourself right?” The preclear shifts the attitude as high as he can. The auditor takes this as the next level from which he will work upward until he attains as nearly as possible a postulate which will “hold” to the effect that the preclear believes himself right. Rising-scale processing should not be confused with the processing of flows. One can process all these columns in terms of flows. Rising-scale processing is simply a method of shifting postulates upward toward optimum from where the preclear believes he is on the chart. Rising-scale processing is essentially a process directed toward increasing belief in self by using all the “buttons” on the Chart of Attitudes.
Here we have the instructions for Rising-scale processing. One is deepening one’s convictions by establishing consistency on a gradient basis. One should be able to do so oneself in a meditation session.
The preclear is generally found to be quite uncertain about his postulates. He does not know whether or not what he says will take effect or, if he says it and if it takes effect, if it will not rebound upon him. He becomes afraid to make postulates for fear he will make some postulate destructive to himself or others and may even discover himself making postulates to convince himself he should be ill.
In science, a postulate is tested thoroughly for consistency before it is accepted. This should be the same in life. Testing allows one to discover the inconsistencies and correct them.
One has to tell oneself what to be before one is. Recovery of this ability is the essence of processing a thetan.
One must postulate a certain beingness before one can be that. Just make sure it is consistent.
Postulate processing is a very vital process to apply to the thetan: when he is exteriorized, he can change his postulates rapidly. If he finds himself thinking slowly and doing other things which are not optimum when he is outside, one can better his situation and condition by asking him to change postulates.
A person can postulate very successfully when he is exteriorized (not fixated). “Being exteriorized” means that the person’s attention is completely extroverted.
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FINAL COMMENTS
Here Hubbard is focusing on postulates rather than on facsimiles. A postulate means creating a thought with total conviction in a manner that is consistent with other postulates (reality). If one can do this, one can change his condition rather effortlessly.
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