Category Archives: Dianetics

The Anomaly in Hubbard’s Thinking

Hubbard says on OT III,

“Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error.”

He then says on NOTs,

“It’s all on the basis of the misconception that “All is one” and they can’t tell whose picture is whose, or whose somatic is whose. You’re basically trying to untangle this mish-mash. And what’s amazing is that there are as many life beings as there are – there are lots of them.”

In his essay, Keeping Scientology Working, Hubbard says,

“And I don’t see that popular measures, self-abnegation and democracy have done anything for Man but push him further into the mud. Currently, popularity endorses degraded novels, self-abnegation has filled the South East Asian jungles with stone idols and corpses, and democracy has given us inflation and income tax.”

In his essay, Identity versus Individuality, Hubbard says,

“One of the control mechanisms which has been used on thetans is that when they rise in potential they are led to believe themselves one with the universe. This is distinctly untrue. Thetans are individuals. They do not as they rise up the scale, merge with other individualities. They have the power of becoming anything they wish while still retaining their own individuality. They are first and foremost themselves. There is evidently no Nirvana. It is the feeling that one will merge and lose his own individuality that restrains the thetan from attempting to remedy his lot. His merging with the rest of the universe would be his becoming matter. This is the ultimate in cohesiveness and the ultimate in affinity, and is at the lowest point of the tone-scale. One declines into a brotherhood with the universe. When he goes up scale, he becomes more and more an individual capable of creating and maintaining his own universe. In this wise (leading people to believe they had no individuality above that of MEST) the MEST universe cut out all competition.”

So, Hubbard believed whole-heartedly in the supremacy of individuality. He didn’t think much of Nirvana because it amounted to losing individuality. This thinking then influences the upper levels of Scientology.

The facts are: SELF is made up of CONSCIOUSNESS and IDENTITY. Identity (which is characterized by individuality) is, of course, discrete (as strenuously emphasized by Hubbard). But the underlying consciousness is continuous, which we all share.

Hubbard tried to make consciousness individual and discrete also. That is the anomaly in his thinking. The truth is that we all share consciousness. Consciousness may be plotted on a scale that extends from mystery to knowingness. At its highest point, consciousness is the ability to see things as they are. Please see The Static Viewpoint.

The Evolution of Dianetics

Reference: Course on Subject Clearing

Dianetics (from Greek dia, “through”, and nous, “mind”) is a subject that addresses psychosomatic causes of illnesses and aberrations afflicting the human self. In Dianetics therapy, impressions from the periods of unconsciousness (facsimiles) were found to exist in the mind. According to Hubbard’s Dianetics theory, these facsimiles are the source of all psychosomatic illnesses and aberrations. The Dianetics theory was published in 1950 in DIANETICS: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

The actual discovery of Dianetics is that the mind is capable of recording the details of events, such as, severe injury, delirium, or surgical anesthesia, while the person appears to be unconscious. Such recordings normally stay below the level of consciousness, but can be retrieved back into consciousness with some effort.

The existence of facsimiles has been known since ancient times. For example, the facsimile were identified as “samskāra” in Buddha’s time (500 BC). Buddha taught “mindfulness meditation” as the method for dissolving samskāras. He presented it as the route to spiritual progress.

The Dianetic method for the recovery of the contents of facsimiles has been the “repeater technique.” It first established the state of “reverie,” which is like daydreaming. It is similar to a meditative state in which one is not avoiding, resisting, denying or suppressing any thoughts, and allowing free association to take place. A person, however, cannot apply this technique to himself because the mind tends to go “unconscious” as it approaches the facsimile in recall. An “auditor” has to be trained to apply this technique to the person. The drawback is that dianetic reverie acts as a mild form of hypnosis. Though a person in reverie retains enough analytical awareness, any untoward comments from the auditor can penetrate deep in his psyche and affect his later thinking.

The “repeater technique” of Dianetics proved to be quite difficult to apply as it requires great observation and skill, and a misapplication could affect the mind adversely when forced on a person. Hubbard subsequently came up with a more gradient auditing approach under the heading of Scientology. This approach was presented as a series of auditing steps called Scientology Grade Chart. It ended up with a person auditing himself on OT Levels, under the discipline of auditing.

These OT Levels have remained open ended since Hubbard passed away in 1986. The results have not been as spectacular and broad as were hoped. A summary and criticism of these OT Levels is presented at Scientology OT Levels.

Even at OT Levels, where a person is auditing himself, the auditing procedure is fraught with errors. The insertion of an “auditor” has presented its own set of new difficulties, which makes a broader application very expensive and practically unfeasible. The development of Subject Clearing based on Mindfulness approach of Buddha eliminates the need for an auditor, while retaining the workable aspects of Dianetics and Scientology methods. The Subject Clearing is currently under development and can be freely and safely applied on oneself by anybody in its current form.

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DIANETICS: Advice to the Pre-clear 

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Appendix IV, “Advice to the Pre-clear” from DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Appendix IV
Advice to the Pre-clear 

Many of the advices given in this appendix are not applicable when working with the subject clearing approach. The following is noted based on these advices:

The subject clearing approach is quite safe. Take ten to twenty milligrams of vitamin B1 a day while focusing intensely on resolving anomalies.  B1 is intimately connected with the generation of mental energy.

A complete recall of one’s life is not necessary. Take up the memories that keep coming up and examine them for anomalies. Examine the unwanted feelings, emotions and condition. They all are coming from deeply buried impressions (facsimiles), which have not been fully assimilated. Understand that these facsimiles exert hypnotic influence on your thinking. If something about your thinking does not make sense then it is originating from some facsimile yet to be discovered. Realize that you can always raise your necessity level to counter the effects of these facsimiles while you work on discovering them.

You know that you are improving as you are becoming less “push button” in your behavior. Make sure you are totally honest with yourself. Even when you are told things about yourself from your relatives and others, beware of anomalies in that data that may be coming from them. Anybody discouraging you from resolving an anomaly is very likely a part of that anomaly.

The purpose of Subject Clearing is to evolve as a conscious being. No drugs, and only good nutrition is needed to facilitate your effort. Use of drugs would actually be an anomaly.

You may go through some rough spots as you work through your facsimiles, but there are all of passing duration. The progress continues with occasional fantastic gains in between as you keep on resolving anomalies. Don’t put your life on hold while you make this effort. But do make the effort and always thank yourself for the effort you are making in improving yourself.

Do not ignore any anomaly no matter how big or small. Drill that anomaly down to its fundamental aspect that does not make sense. Always follow the discipline of Subject Clearing. The only way out of it is through it! The solution is there within you. You just have to find it. Just follow the process.

Remember the process is to consolidate all your knowledge by drilling all anomalies down to their fundamental level and then keep researching that fundamental level. The key word is ASSIMILATION!

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DIANETICS: Analyzer Schematic

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Appendix III (B), “Analyzer Schematic” from DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Appendix III (B)
Analyzer Schematic

This analyzer schematic deals with the idea of multiple attention. This is pretty much like having multiple windows open on a computer. Each window is set up to do a task. One may switch one window to another depending on the need of the moment. The output from one task may be used in another task. Many tasks may be coordinated in this manner.

In the matrix model of the mind, many different circuits can be activated simultaneously, and started and paused as necessary. An operating system is necessary for this purpose, and that is the function of the C-point, or the “I”. Note that once the circuits for the tasks are defined, these tasks proceed at lightening speed in the assimilated matrix. When a musician is playing the piano, and also singing, listening to the orchestra, aware of audience reaction, etc., we have the “I” coordinating all these different tasks effortlessly. In this example, a lot of practice is needed to define or set up the different circuits. The better the circuits are set up, the easier it becomes to multi-task.

This schematic highlights the function of the operating system, which is spreading its attention over many different tasks and doing them efficiently. The operating system is the “I”, which represents a certain level of consciousness. The life force that energizes this operating system is the same life force that energizes the universe.

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DIANETICS: Mind Schematic

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Appendix III (A), “Mind Schematic” from DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Appendix III (A)
Mind Schematic

This Appendix summarizes how that traditional theory of Dianetics has been updated. According to traditional Dianetics, this block diagram represents three separate behavior patterns as follows:

  1. The basic cycle of automatic physical adjustment
  2. The cycle of reasoned behavior
  3. The cycle of reactive behavior

Dianetics identifies a self-determined “I” with the analyzer and some automatic programming with the reactive behavior. The commands that come out of the analytical and reactive portions of the mind, subsequently, influence the system of the body. This diagram is now updated as follows.

The current view, however, is much simpler. According to this view, the “I”, the mind and the body are three different aspects of the same tightly integrated system. This system is best represented as a matrix of elements that interact with each other in infinitely different permutations and combinations.

The assimilated part of this matrix is streamlined from perception, through computations to action in a smooth flow. The “perceptions” enter through the sense organs of the body. They immediately break down into “perceptual elements”. The finer are these elements the greater consciousness results from them. For example, the perceptions break down into much finer elements in humans than in the animals.

The perceptual elements are assimilated into the matrix in the most efficient way to eliminate all duplicates. The original pattern of “perceptions” is maintained among the elements in the matrix with a time stamp, such that, the memory is reconstructed in the background as and when needed for computations. The computations simply flow through the infinity of circuits of the matrix almost instantaneously. They take time only in identifying and resolving anomalies. The anomalies consist of discontinuities (missing sequences), inconsistencies (contradictions) and disharmonies (arbitrarily added sequences). Most of the time the anomalies are resolved by modifying the flow through the matrix. This produces realizations. However, when the modification requires interaction with the environment to procure more “perceptions”, the circuits of the body are activated. The body then carries out the required action to procure the needed “perceptions”. This cycle repeats and continues.

The matrix may be viewed as a spectrum of activity. In the middle of the spectrum, is the activity of the mental matrix. This activity spurs the activity of the body and its interaction with the environment at one end of the spectrum. At the other end is the state of consciousness that reflects the overall fineness of the matrix elements. This consciousness is increasing with continuous evolution. We may recognize this state of consciousness as the “I” which appears as self-awareness. This “I” has certain position on the consciousness scale, which spans from Mystery to Knowingness. With experience, this “I” is evolving out of a fog of mystery and moving toward a state of knowingness.

The above is the description, in a nutshell, of the consciousness-mind-body system, and its reasoned behavior. The environment present anomalies. The resolution of anomalies provides the path to the evolution of “I”.

The reasoned behavior depends on the degree of breakdown of “perceptions” into perceptual elements of the matrix. The finer is the breakdown, the higher is the consciousness and the more reasoned is the behavior. But, when there is little or no breakdown of the “perception,” as in the case of the traumatic experience, we have a deviation from reasoned behavior into the domain of reactive behavior. 

The trauma exists in the matrix like an encysted tumor. When it is part of circuits in the the matrix, the tumor acts like a “black box.” The awareness of the “perceptions” inside the tumor does not exist because they not assimilated into rest of the matrix. This tumor represents the engram and the unconsciousness associated with it. Restimulation is simply the activation of a circuit that passes through this tumor. The tumor is an encysted recording of the trauma that is interpreted literally by the rest of the matrix. Thus, all circuits that flow through this tumor become aberrated or “infected.” This tumor then starts to infect the circuits connected to it. This infection then starts to spread through the matrix. This leads to aberrated behavior and psychosomatic illnesses.

We may call this tumor and all the infected circuits as the unassimilated parts of the matrix. This is the “reactive mind” of Dianetics. There are no separate “analytical mind,” “reactive mind,” and “memory banks.” There is simply a mental matrix. The assimilated portions of this matrix behave analytically. The unassimilated portions of this matrix behave relatively. 

The above is the description of what makes the consciousness-mind-body system deviate from its proper functioning so that it becomes aberrated and ill.

The solution is to break down the “perceptions” encysted as a tumor in the matrix and assimilate them into the rest of the matrix. There doesn’t appear to be that many tumors and the only route to resolving these tumors appears to be the resolution of the anomalies that emanate from them.

This simplification of the Dianetics model now presents us with a more widely applicable solution like Subject Clearing.

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