Reference: SCIENTOLOGY 8-8008
This paper presents Section 50 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.
.
The whole of
the data covered in this volume is utilized in creative processing. When one
has mastered the component parts of the mind and the inter-relationships of
space, energy, items and experience, he will find creative processing
surprisingly easy to apply and productive of very swift results. The goal of
this process is the rehabilitation of as much of the thetan’s capability as
possible to permit him to utilize or be free of bodies as he chooses and, even
in lesser magnitude, to rid the preclear of psychosomatics, eradicate
compulsions, obsessions and inhibitions, to raise his reaction time and
intelligence level. This process does whatever has been previously intended by
earlier processes—utilizing a knowledge of these in order to assess the state
of the preclear, and in order to parallel this difficulty with creation, change
and destruction of mock-ups.
One should be able to visualize all the components of the mind
and inter-relationships of space, energy, items and experience based on the
principles provided in the book Scientology 8-8008. Creative processing is visualizing
different scenarios on a gradient in the area of difficulty, whether it appears
real or unreal. A person should be able to expand his viewpoint beyond that of
the body.
Gradient
scales are vitally necessary in the application of creative processing. The
term “gradient scale” can apply to anything and means a scale of condition
graduated from zero to infinity. Absolutes are considered to be unobtainable.
Depending on the direction the scale is graduated, there could be an infinity
of wrongness and an infinity of rightness. Thus, the gradient scale of
rightness would run from the theoretical but unobtainable zero of rightness, up
to the theoretical infinity of rightness. A gradient scale of wrongness would
run from a zero of wrongness to an infinity of wrongness. The word “gradient”
is meant to define lessening or increasing degrees of condition. The difference
between one point on a graduated scale and another point could be as different
or as wide as the entire range of the scale itself, or it could be so tiny as
to need the most minute discernment for its establishment. The gradient scale
of the creation of a being could be—but in creative processing generally is
not—concerned with time. In creative processing, the gradient scale, as it
would refer to the creation of a person, could be, first, the envisionment of
an area where the person might have been or might be; then the envisionment of
an area the person commonly frequented; at last, the creation of a footprint
the person had made, and then perhaps some article of apparel or a possession
such as a handkerchief. The creative steps would then continue until more and
more of a person was established, and at last the entire person would have been
created. Likewise, in the destruction of a person, the gradient scale could,
but generally would not, begin with blowing him up or making him grow old. If
the auditor finds the preclear diffident about destroying an illusion of some
person, the environment can first be diminished slightly; then perhaps the
person’s shadow might be shortened, and so on until the entire person could be
destroyed. The essence of gradient scale work is to do as much creation, change
or destruction in terms of illusion as the preclear can accomplish with
confidence, and to go from successful step to greater step until an entire
success in destruction, alteration or creation (or their companion states of
experience, such as start, change and stop) is accomplished.
Gradient scales are vitally necessary in the application of
creative processing. The word “gradient” is meant to define lessening or
increasing degrees of condition. The term “gradient scale” can apply to
anything and means a scale of condition graduated from zero to infinity. The
essence of gradient scale work is to do as much creation, change or destruction
in terms of illusion as the preclear can accomplish with confidence.
The mind works
easily if led through successive successes into a complete confidence. The mind
can be confused and set back enormously by demanding that it do too much too
fast. The same “too much” can be accomplished by requesting of the mind that it
do small portions of the task; this does not mean that processing should go
slowly or that illusions which are easy to create, change or destroy should
have much time spent on them. It does mean that as soon as an auditor has
established a disability on the part of the preclear in creating illusions of
certain places, persons, conditions, things, colors or any other thing in this
or any other universe, he approaches the subject gradually by gradient scale
and by accomplishing repeated successes with the preclear of greater and
greater magnitude, finally achieving a complete banishment of the disability.
As soon as you have discovered a disability in creating
illusions of certain places, persons, conditions, things, colors or any other
thing, you approach the subject gradually by gradient scale and by
accomplishing repeated successes of greater and greater magnitude, finally
achieving a complete banishment of the disability.
The reason a preclear
cannot alter a postulate, or change or start or stop, lies in the influence
upon him of his agreements and experiences in the MEST and other universes. To
run out these agreements and experiences as such would be, in part, to agree
with them over again. The mind is actually quite free to alter postulates and
change its own condition, if permitted to do so at a speed that it finds
comfortable. The mind will not take wide divergences which seem to it to tend
toward its own diminishment or destruction. It was by a gradient scale of
agreement that he came at last to accept and very nearly succumb to the MEST
universe itself. The build-up of illusion was so slow and insidious that only
the closest assessment would reveal to the preclear and the auditor how far
these tiny steps of agreement led at last.
The mind is actually quite free to alter postulates and change
its own condition, if permitted to do so at a speed that it finds comfortable. This
is a valuable principle.
The motto of
the MEST universe could be said to be: “Thou shalt have no force nor illusion,
nor thine own space, nor self-made energy or thing, for all illusion is mine
and with that thou shalt agree. If thou art, I shall not be.” By a series of
minute agreements, the preclear has at last given up all his own belief in his
ability to make a universe, or even to create and maintain minor illusions. He
does not know or even suspect that he is capable of producing illusions
sufficiently strong to be observable by others, and if he thought this were
true, he would attribute it to some mysterious thing and, so short and final
are the punishments of the MEST universe, he would tend to shy away from this;
but upon his ability to create illusion depends the very existence of all his
hopes and dreams and any beauty he will ever see or feel. In truth, all
sensation which he believes to come from these masses of illusory energy known
as the MEST universe, are first implanted through agreement upon what he is to
perceive and then perceived again by himself, with the step hidden that he has
extended his own sensation to be felt and perceived by himself. He is fully
convinced that the MEST universe itself has sensation which it can deliver to
him, whereas all the MEST universe has is an enforced agreement which though of
no substance, yet by a gradient scale came to be an illusion which seems very
masterful to a preclear.
Hubbard’s “MEST universe” is actually the reactive mind, which
bypasses the person’s thinking and controls his actions. The person’s “own
universe” is the fully assimilated mental matrix that is completely rational.
The person has his own rational desires and goals that he must accomplish. His
own energy is diverted by the reactive mind, which makes think that there is another
power.
To prove the
reality and solidity of the MEST universe, the preclear could pound his fist
upon a desk and demonstrate that his fist had met something. He is making again
the error of implanting sensation and not knowing he has implanted it, for the
fist which he pounds on the desk is a MEST universe fist consisting of MEST
universe energy, which is itself a MEST universe agreement, and it is meeting a
desk which is MEST universe; he is only demonstrating that when the MEST
universe is perceived to impact upon the MEST universe, one can then implant a
realistic impact and perceive it for his own wonderful edification. Reality,
then, is a delusion because it is one’s own illusion which has been disowned by
one and is then received by one as being another thing. Only by shedding all
responsibility for one’s own energy can one fall into this covert trap. If one
is unwilling to be responsible for energy, he is capable of using energy and
then not perceiving that he uses it. One who blames others continually can be
discovered to affect most of the things for which he is blaming other people.
There is only one power, and that is his understanding of the
reality out there, and not just some twisted idea of what may be out there. Understanding
requires taking responsibility for what is going on. One drops that
responsibility the moment he blames other people.
In such a way,
an individual with the “very best MEST universe, Mark 10,000 ears” takes no
responsibility for having implanted the sensation of sound in order to receive
the sensation of sound. A preclear as he comes up the tone-scale more and more
often catches himself doing this, and even though he does not know the
principles involved (for no preclear has to be educated in Scientology to
receive benefit from it), he recognizes that even in the case of a loud crash,
his continuation of association from his environment permits him to perceive
with others that a crash has taken place of objects which he with others
continuously recreates solidly, and that he must actually cause for his own
perception the sound of the crash. In that the beingness of an individual is
actually extended for miles in all directions around him, if not much further,
any idea or thought or past thought (as there is no past) is part of his
beingness, and so he must continually strive to be “faithful to his agreements
with the MEST universe.”
What we put out there is what comes back to us transformed. We
just have to understand the principles by which it got transformed. We become
increasingly aware of this as we go up the tone-scale. It is only after
understanding these principles fully that one can mold reality into desirable
forms.
To undo this
state of affairs it is only necessary to rehabilitate the awareness of the
preclear that he himself is capable of creating illusions. As he rehabilitates
this faculty, the preclear, without any coaching or evaluation on the part of
the auditor, begins to recognize that his viewpoint is expanding and that he is
becoming all-pervasive, but that he can collect his awareness at any point, and
that the “brutal reality” all around him is continuously manufactured by
himself out of agreements and association with other viewpoints. So long as he
is fixed in a condition where he is in agreement with all spaces and
viewpoints, he sees and feels automatically with all other such viewpoints. He
is above the level of energy, if one can use the term, on the same wavelength
with all other beingness, a condition which does not permit differentiation. As
he rehabilitates his abilities in independent creation, he can change this
“wavelength” at will, and can go into or out of agreement with all other points
of beingness. The matter of perceiving, then, becomes entirely a matter of self-choice.
It is, for instance, quite startling to a preclear to discover that as soon as
he is free of the ridges of the body (which is to say, when he has discovered
he can change his viewpoint) that he is already partly out of agreement with
other viewpoints, and that the MEST universe becomes slightly jumbled. He is
apt to be very anxious about this, for it is in conflict with the agreements to
which he is subject. He immediately may struggle very hard to regain a state of
affairs whereby he can view the MEST universe as everyone else views it.
Indeed, the auditor must continually be on guard to prevent the preclear from
attempting to re-assume these agreements.
We must realize that we ourselves are capable of creating
illusions. The “brutal reality” all around us is continuously manufactured by
ourselves out of agreements and association with other viewpoints. The matter
of perceiving is entirely a matter of self-choice at higher levels of
understanding. Effort to just be in agreement with others around you is what
causes aberration.
A badly
trained auditor can always be identified by the fact that he shares the
preclear’s anxiety that the preclear view the environment as the environment
“should be.” The reason why a non-cleared auditor does not do well with these
processes is that he is very anxious for the preclear to continue agreement
with all others and to perceive the surroundings as exactly when exteriorized
as he did when he was looking through MEST eyes and perceptions (which is to
say, when the preclear was at his exact, agreed-upon point of viewpoint). The
ability to perceive the MEST universe is the ability to agree. The preclear’s
accuracy of perception of the MEST universe is of no consequence. An auditor can
act to permit or even encourage a preclear to try to see, feel and hear the
MEST universe when exteriorized long before the preclear is prepared to do so
with equanimity. The auditor when doing this, is dramatizing his own urge to
agree with viewpoints and perceive. A preclear who exteriorizes readily may
find with a shock that he is not perceiving the MEST universe as he commonly
supposes it should be perceived and quickly go back into his body to reassure
himself that he is “keeping his contract of agreement.” If the auditor demands
that the preclear perceive the environment when exteriorized, then the auditor
will discover that the preclear will drop in tone and that, when he has gone
into his body once more, a great deal of patient auditing is necessary to
regain the preclear’s confidence in himself. The preclear exteriorizing may
find himself in all sorts of space and time cross-ups, for he has insufficient
command of space and energy to independently sort out viewpoints when
unassisted by the orientation of the MEST body itself, which is, of course, in
debased and degraded agreement of a very set nature.
When person moves beyond the frame of reference provided by the
body he sees things differently from others around him. He must realize this
and assess his own reality. He should not simply get back into agreement with
others again.
There are two
“shuns.” These are invalidation and evaluation. The auditor must eschew them
vigorously. The major invalidation which could be practiced in using
Scientology 8-8008 would be a demand that the preclear see the environment as
it is seen through MEST perception or to criticize him for not being able to do
so. The majority of the preclear’s perceptions may be correct but some
percentage of his perception is going to be enough “off wavelength” with other
agreement viewpoints to cause him to perceive strangely. After a very large
amount of auditing, when the preclear has regained his ability to create with
considerable solidity his own illusions, it will be found that the preclear can
at will perceive the MEST universe and can do so with accuracy. He can further,
without the aid of a body, move objects and do a thousand other “interesting
tricks” which could very well be viewed with considerable awe, for they have
not been seen on earth in recorded history but have lived in legend.
There is nothing wrong with seeing things differently from how
others see them. Others may have their illusions. Hubbard is setting up expectations,
such as, moving objects without the aid of the body. This could simply be his
illusion. A person must gain his own certainty on laws of the universe and seeing
things as they are.
Using Standard
Operating Procedure, Issue 3, as given in this volume, the auditor yet takes a
very thorough assessment of his preclear with an E-Meter. He discovers, in
accordance with information in this book, what the preclear is unable to start,
change, stop; create, alter, destroy; be, do or have; differentiate, associate
or identify; on each and every one of the eight dynamics and their component
parts. The auditor makes a complete list. This is the Can’t list. Exteriorized,
if possible, or interiorized as in the later numbered cases, the preclear is
then made to “mock-up” illusions about each one of these Can’ts and to change
the size, character and position of the illusion or any part thereof in space,
shift it in time simply by knowing it has been shifted by him, until at last
the preclear is able to handle the whole object of the Can’t with complete facility.
Can’ts may be
an inability to destroy women or snakes or specific persons, or create
machinery, or write legibly. The preclear is requested to accomplish by
illusions the smallest gradient of the Can’t with which he can successfully
start; and, under auditor direction, by moving this small portion of the whole
here and there in space, tipping it this way and that and making it, in
particular, disobey “natural laws” in the MEST universe, the preclear is led to
an ability to create, change or destroy the Can’t.
The above explains how creative processing is done in Standard
Operating Procedure, Issue 3. When doing it yourself simply start with your
most obvious difficulties. Visualize those areas, on a gradient where you find
yourself resisting, avoiding or suppressing the various factors listed here.
The person is looking very closely at what he is resisting,
avoiding or suppressing by visualizing the smallest gradients of it. There may
be a natural law underlying it that satisfies the requirements of continuity,
harmony and consistency. Or, there may just be an illusion of some assumption or
fixed idea being natural. One may visualize how it is that way, or not that way
until it seems to fit in the larger context of reality.
The Can’t is
also the Must. Can’t is an inhibition; Must is an enforcement. What must the
preclear do and what must be done to him? By whom? By creative processing and
gradient scales, he achieves mock-ups until each one of these musts becomes a
“Can if I want to, but don’t have to.”
For Can’ts in an area, the person should look for what he must
do and what must be done to him? By whom? Using creative processing, he should then
reduce each of these musts to “Can if I want to, but don’t have to.”
There are also
the Desires. These are the cravings for sensation or possession or
identification which brought the preclear into and made him continue
agreements. Behind every case the Desires are paramount and of greater
importance than the Can’ts. Why does he desire bodies? Why is his second
dynamic aberrated? Why does he feel he cannot be free? Can he differentiate
between his own actual wantingness and the wantingness of MEST itself which is
trying to have him? The desires are resolved by creative processing wherein the
preclear does mock-ups of the necessary acts which he desires or the necessary behaviors
which brought him into agreement until he can at last laugh at them.
For desires, differentiate between your own desire and the
overpowering desire of a reaction. The desires are resolved by creative
processing wherein the preclear does mock-ups of the necessary acts which he
desires or the necessary behaviors which brought him into agreement until he
can at last laugh at them.
In that
creative processing does not take long in terms of time, the assessment list
can afford to be very broad and to cover every possible phase through the
system of the dynamics and the cycles of action.
One can simply apply Creative processing in real time as one is
assessing. This is mindfulness meditation.
This is a list of things the preclear must be able to do with an illusion:
Create the condition, energy or object
Conserve it
Protect it
Control it
Hide it
Change it
Age it
Make it go backwards on a cycle of action
Perceive it with all perceptions
Shift it at will in time
Rearrange it
Duplicate it
Turn it upside down or on the side at will
Make it disobey MEST laws
Be it
Not be it
Destroy it.
A situation that is resisted, avoided or suppressed is an “Illusion”.
It is persisting because it has not been grasped fully. If you visualize that
situation and consciously change it around in realistic and unrealistic ways in
different iterations, then, sooner or later, you will grasp it and it will stop
persisting.
In order to
accomplish these things, if the whole of any condition cannot be fulfilled by
gradient scale some tiny portion of the condition must be fulfilled. When a
small condition has been fulfilled, the condition is then enlarged until the
whole condition can be fulfilled.
It the whole situation is difficult to visualize, then visualize
some tiny portion of it. Start enlarging that tiny portion on a gradient until you
can visualize the whole situation.
That preclear
who cannot get even a shadow of an illusion so that he can perceive it in any
manner must be coaxed to see white spots, black spots, of his own creation, and
to change those in space and time, enlarge and contract them, until he has a
certain command and control of black and white. This must be done with such a
preclear without regard to the number of hours it takes or the patience of the
drill. It can be done with the eyes open or closed, whichever the preclear
finds best.
If you cannot visualize anything then you may try to visualize
just white and black spots and change them in all different ways until you can
do so with confidence.
When the
preclear is discovered to be trying to prevent a motion or condition, the
auditor should magnify that very condition with new mock-ups related to it,
i.e., if objects keep rushing in on the preclear, mock up objects rushing in
until the action is enormously magnified but under the preclear’s complete
control. If the preclear cannot start something, make him stop it. If he cannot
reverse a direction, make him change the nature of the object which he is
trying to reverse enough times to permit him to reverse the original
disability. If the preclear cannot create something, have him create anything even
vaguely associated with it, and by association at last have him mock up the
actual thing.
If you are trying to prevent a condition such fear of heights,
then visualize yourself being at a height that you are comfortable with, then
gradually increasing that height making sure that you are comfortable after
each gradual change. If you cannot start something, such as a car, then
visualize stopping it. If you cannot create something, such as a painting, then
visualize creating anything even vaguely associated with it.
The essence of
creative processing is moving objects in space when they have been mocked up.
They are moved near and far, to the right, left, behind the preclear, below his
feet, above his head and in front of him. He must know that he has changed the
location of the object. If he cannot make a large change, have him do a small
change of location. If he cannot do a small change of location, have him alter
the object by turning it different colors, or by enlarging or contracting it,
or by pushing it away or bringing it near him, until he can make it move
sideways. In failing to do this, have him do a change with some allied object.
The essence of creative processing is moving objects in space
when they have been visualized. You must know that you have changed the
location of the object. The idea is to obtain greater facility of thinking in
the area of difficulty.
The essence of
creative processing is a continuation of success. Be careful not to give the
preclear things which make him fail. Do not let his failures mount up. Estimate
the preclear and pay attention to what he is doing; find out from him
continually the condition of his illusions, if you yourself as an auditor
cannot see them. Putting objects into yesterday or tomorrow or well into the
future or into the past is vitally necessary to processing.
The gradient is used in Creative processing to ensure that there
is no failure of visualization. Any visualization requires the elements of
understanding, certainty and confidence. One must understand what putting
objects into yesterday or tomorrow or well into the future means.
Control of the
illusion is the essence of commands. The preclear must be able to create, grow,
conserve, decay and destroy; start, change and stop; be, do and have; differentiate,
associate and identify; handle in space, with energy and in time, any object,
actual or mythical, in all the eight dynamics, and with high preference given
to anything which disobeys “natural laws” of the MEST universe.
You are using visualization to create, grow, conserve, decay and
destroy; start, change and stop; be, do and have; differentiate, associate and
identify. With visualization, you are practicing how to handle an object in
space with energy and in time. That object can be actual or imaginary. It can
relate to any aspect of life. You deliberately visualize violating the supposed
“natural laws” to develop the ability to think outside the box.
That auditor
with a high order of imagination who is himself clear, finds mock-ups very easy
to “think up” and request of the preclear, but it is not necessary to have such
an imagination, as a routine assessment will discover immediately that the most
ordinary things fall into the Can’t, Must and Desire brackets in the preclear’s
life.
In visualization one focuses on the pressures of Can’t, Must and
Desire that one encounters in an area of difficulty. Imagination helps.
The preclear
will be discovered on the first dynamic, quite ordinarily, not to be able to
create, change or destroy, especially destroy, his own body or bodies in which
he thinks he is encased within his own body (old time-track bodies such as a
Fifth Invader Force body). He will be found to be incapable in many directions
with facsimiles, communication lines and other matters on the first dynamic alone.
On the second dynamic, many incapabilities will come to view, and so on along
all the dynamics. On the fifth dynamic, he will quite ordinarily be found
incapable of handling snakes, spiders, vicious fish, bacteria, wild animals and
domestic pets. On the seventh dynamic he will be discovered unable to handle
other thetans, even in the most elementary fashion of bringing two dots of
light into proximity and then separating them (an exercise which blows head
ridges in many preclears quite explosively). On the eighth dynamic his
limitations quite ordinarily become too obvious for comment, but on each and
every dynamic he must be able to do or fulfill any of the above cycles or
conditions.
The body here means the body’s viewpoint that one is using in evaluating
things. A thetan is basically mind’s viewpoint. You deal with many such
viewpoints around you.
Standard
Operating Procedure tells how to exteriorize a thetan. Creative processing,
rising-scale postulate changing, postulate processing, are then necessary to
bring him toward a state of a cleared theta clear. The state of theta clear
simply demands that the preclear remains outside his body when the body itself
is hurt, and the state is adequate to prevent his being trapped again by a body
except in unusual circumstances. There is no guarantee of long continuance in
the condition. The state of cleared theta clear is, however, another thing, for
it means a person who is able to create his own universe; or, living in the
MEST universe, is able to create illusions perceivable by others at will, to
handle MEST universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no
need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his friends
interested in existence.
The Standard Operating Procedure tells how to move beyond the
fixed viewpoint of the body. Then one moves beyond the fixed viewpoint of the
mind through creative processing, rising scale postulate changing and postulate
processing.
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FINAL COMMENTS
It is interesting to note that Hubbard first focused on
recovering traumas in Dianetics. Then, in Scientology, the first thing he focused
on was visualizing “Can’ts”, “Musts” and
“Desires” in the areas of difficulty using the gradient scales.
The basic problem is the unassimilated nodes in the mental
matrix. These nodes are built around traumas that are deeply buried and cannot
be recalled easily. Their signposts are the difficulties one is having in life.
In scientific terms, these traumas are deep programming in the
mind that could even be genetic in its origin. To access this programming is
not an easy task.
By visualizing and/or modeling the difficulty in ways that are
normal and/or out of the box, one may be able to get glimpses of this programming
and modify it per one’s basic nature.
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