This paper presents Chapter 16
from the book DIANETICS: THE ORIGINAL THESIS by L.
RON HUBBARD. The contents are from the original
publication of this book by The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc. (1948).
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.
.
By
aberration is meant the aberree’s reactions to and difficulties with his
current environment.
By somatic
is meant any physical or physically sensory abnormality which the preclear
manifests generally or sporadically in his environment, or any such
manifestation encountered and re-experienced during auditing.
The
aberration is the mental error caused by engrams and the somatic is the
physical error occasioned by the same source.
According
to Dianetics, the source of all aberrations and somatics are engrams.
The auditor
follows the general rule that no aberrations or somatics exist in a subject
which cannot be accounted for by engrams. He may ordinarily be expected to
discover that anything which reduces the physical or mental perfection of the
subject is engramic. He applies this rule first and in practice admits no
organic trouble of any character. Only when he has obviously obtained a Clear
and when he has observed and has had that Clear medically examined after a
period of sixty days to six months from the end of auditing should he be
content to assign anything to organic origin. He cannot be expected to know
until the final examination exactly what somatic was not engramic. In other
words he must persistently adhere to one line of thought (that the preclear can
be brought to mental and physical perfection) before he resigns any mental or
physical error in the preclear to a purely organic category. Too little is
known at this writing of the recoverability of the mind and body for a dianeticist
to deny that ability to recover. Since primary research, considerable practice
has demonstrated that this ability to reconstruct and recover is enormous, far
beyond anything previously conceived possible.
Dianetics
assumes that all psychiatric and medical problems arise from engrams only.
Therefore, it does not recommend any medical or psychiatric treatment.
Exceptions are medical treatments for obvious injuries like cuts, broken bones,
etc.
Essentially,
the Dianetic thesis is saying that the aberrated electric signals from the mind
bring about aberrated chemical changes in the body; and the focus should be on fixing
the aberrated electric signals.
Dianetics
accounts for all faith healing phenomena on an entirely scientific basis and
the dianeticist can expect himself to consort daily in his practice with what
appear to be miracles.
In addition
to knowledge of his subject, considerable intelligence and imagination, and a
personality which inspires confidence, the dianetic auditor must possess
persistency to a remarkable degree. In other words, his drives must be
phenomenally high. There is no substitute for the auditor’s having been
cleared. It is possible for an individual to operate with Dianetics without
having been released and he may do so for some time without repercussion, but
as he audits he will most certainly encounter the perceptics contained in some
of his own engrams time after time until these engrams are so restimulated that
he will become mentally or physically ill.
When an
auditor is handling the auditee, it is basically a mind handling another mind.
It is difficult for an aberrated mind to handle the aberrations of the mind.
So, the auditor must somehow prevent his own aberrated circuits from getting
activated while trying to fix another mind’s aberrated circuits.
In
psychoanalysis it was possible for the analyst to escape this fate because he
dealt primarily with locks occurring in the post-speech life. The analyst might
even experience relief from operating on patients since it might clarify his
own locks which always had been more or less completely available to his
analytical mind. This is very far from the case with the dianeticist who
handles continually the vital and highly charged data which cause physical and
mental aberrations. An auditor in Dianetics may work with impunity for a very
short time only before his own condition demands that he himself be audited.
While this is aside from the main subject of auditing, it has been too often
observed to be neglected.
Very
often the auditor’s aberrated circuits get activated when addressing the
aberrated circuits of the auditee. This is a problem often observed in
Dianetics. It is a problem observed in most professions dealing with the mind.
It mainly manifests itself as sexual abuse. Look at the Catholic Church.
Every engram
possesses some quality which denies it to the analytical mind. There are
several types. First there is the “denyer” engram which contains the species of
phrase, “Frank will never know about this,” “Forget it!” “Cannot remember it!”
and so forth. Second is the self-invalidating engram which contains the
phrases, “Never happened,” “Can’t believe it,” “Wouldn’t possibly imagine it,”
and so on.
Third is the
“bouncer” engram which contains the species of phrase, “Can’t stay here,” “Get
out!” and other phrases which will not permit the preclear to remain in its
vicinity but return him to present time. A fourth is the “holder” engram which
contains “Stay here,” “Hold still,” “Can’t get out,” and so on.
These are
four of the general types which the dianeticist will find occasion him the
greatest difficulty. The type of phrase being encountered, however, is easily
diagnosed from preclear reaction.
There are
many other types of engrams and phrases which will be encountered. There is the
self-perpetuating engram which implies that, “It will always be this way,” and
“It happens all the time.” The auditor will soon learn to recognize them,
forming lists of his own.
An
aberrated mind cannot fully identity similar aberrations in another mind. For
the same reason, a mind cannot identify its own aberrations. Therefore,
Dianetics uses repetition of certain “engramic phrases” used by the auditee to,
hopefully, bring up the engramic incident.
An engram
would not be an engram unless it had strong compulsive or repressive data
contained in it. All engrams are self-locking to some degree, being well off
the time track and touching it slightly, if at all, with some minor and
apparently innocuous bit of information which the analytical mind disregards as
unimportant. Classed with the denyer variety are those phrases which deny
perception of any kind. The dianetic auditor will continually encounter
perception denial and will find it one of the primary reasons the preclear
cannot recall and articulate the engram. “Can’t see,” “Can’t hear,” “Can’t
feel,” and “Isn’t alive” tend to deny the whole engram containing any such
phrases.
Dianetics
thesis views “engramic phrases” as hypnotic commands that need to be defused by
uncovering the moment when they were received.
As the
engram is a powerful surcharge of physical pain, it will without any phrases
whatsoever deny itself to the analytical mind which, in seeking to scan the
engram, is repelled by the operating principle that it must avoid pain for the
organism. As has already been covered, there are five ways the organism can
handle a source of pain. It can neglect it, attack it, succumb to it, flee from
it, or avoid it. As the entire organism handles exterior pain sources, so does
the analytical mind tend to react to engrams. There is an exterior world
reaction of the organism to pain sources then. This is approximated when the
analytical mind is addressed in regard to engrams. There is an excellent reason
for this. Everything contained in the reactive mind is exterior source
material. The analytical mind went out of circuit and was recording imperfectly
if at all in the time period when the exterior source was entered into the
reactive mind.
Dianetics
points out that there are five ways the organism can handle a source of
pain—neglect it, attack it, succumb to it, flee from it, or avoid it. The
dianetic procedure attacks the engram. This requires facing the pain of the
engram.
An
analytical mind when asked to approach an engram reacts as it would have had it
been present, which is to say, in circuit, at the moment when the engram was
being received. Therefore, an artificial approach to the engram must be made
which will permit the auditor to direct the subject’s analytical mind into but
one source of action: Attack.
The actual
incident must be located and re-experienced. In that the analytical mind has
five possible ways of reacting to the engram and in that the auditor desires
that only one of these—attack—be used, the preclear must be persuaded from
using the remaining four.
Then
mental matrix was overwhelmed when the engram was received. It has been
overwhelmed by the irrational actions of the engram since. The dianetic
solution is to push through the pain to locate and re-experience the engram.
This has led to many difficulties.
On this
general principle can be created many types of approach to the problem of
obtaining a Clear. The one which is offered in this manual is that one which
has met with quicker and more predictable results than others researched at
this time. It has given, in use, one hundred per cent results. In the
beginning, at this time, an auditor should not attempt to stray far from this
offered technique. He should attempt to vary it only when he himself has had
extensive and sufficient practice which will enable him to be very conversant
with the nature of engrams. Better techniques will undoubtedly be established
which will provide swifter exhaustion of the reactive mind. The offered
technique has produced results in all types of cases so far encountered.
The
technique offered in THE ORIGINAL THESIS requires cleverly using Dianetic
phrases to access and re-experience the engrams. This technique requires lot of
skill and is limited in its scope. It only gets the low hanging fruits. The
researcher, however, is overly optimistic.
There are
three equations which demonstrate how and why the auditor and preclear can
reach engrams and exhaust them:
I. The
auditor’s dynamics are equal to or less than the engramic surcharge in the
preclear.
II. The
preclear’s dynamics are less than the engramic surcharge.
III. The
auditor’s dynamics plus the preclear’s dynamics are greater than the engramic
surcharge.
When the
preclear’s dynamics are entirely or almost entirely reduced, as in the case of
amnesia trance, drug trances and so forth, the auditor’s dynamics are not
always sufficient to force the preclear’s analytical mind into an attack upon
the engram.
Only
the auditee can handle his aberrations. The auditor can do no more than
supporting him.
The
auditor’s dynamics directed against an engram in a preclear who has not been
subjected to a process which will inhibit the free play of his reactive mind
and concentrate it, ordinarily provokes the preclear into one of the four
unusable methods of succumbing, fleeing, avoiding or neglecting the engram.
Demanding that the preclear “face reality,” or “see reason,” or that he “stop
his foolish actions” falls precisely into this category. The auditor’s dynamics
operating against an awake preclear can produce an “insanity break,” temporary
or of considerable duration in the preclear.
You
cannot force the auditee to resolve his irrationality.
When the
preclear is in reverie some of his own dynamics are present and the auditor’s
dynamics added to these make a combination sufficient to overcome the engramic
surcharge.
If the
auditor releases his dynamics against the analytical mind of the preclear,
which is to say, the person of the preclear, while an attempt is being made to
reach an engram (in violation of the auditor’s code, or with some erroneous
idea that the whole person of the preclear is confronting him) he will receive
in return all the fury of the engramic surcharge.
The
auditee is, at least, restraining his engram from dramatizing itself. That
restrain may go away if the auditor gets upset with the auditee.
An engram
can be dramatized innumerable times, for such is the character of the reactive
mind that the surcharge of the engram cannot exhaust itself and will not
exhaust itself regardless of its age or the number of times dramatized until it
has been approached by the analytical mind of the subject.
The additive
dynamic drive law must be made to apply before engrams are reached. It is
occasionally very necessary to change dianetic auditors, for some preclears
will work well only with either a male or a female auditor, or with one or
another individual auditor. This will not be found necessary in many cases.
Three cases are on record where the preclear was definitely antipathetic toward
the auditor throughout the entire course of auditing. The dianeticist was found
to be a restimulator for one or more of the persons contained in the engrams.
Even so, these persons responded. Greater patience was required on the part of
the auditor. Closer observance of the auditor’s code was necessary and a longer
time was required for auditing. It will be discovered that once the preclear
understands what is desired of him and why, his basic personality is aroused to
the extent that it will cooperate with any auditor in order to be free. It will
suffer through many violations of the auditor’s code. Once a preclear has
started his auditing he will ordinarily continue to cooperate in the major
requirements to the fullest extent, no matter what apparent antagonisms he may
display in minor matters.
In
Dianetics, if the auditor is not the right one for the auditee the auditing may
not work or progress may become very slow.
Reverie is a
method that has been used with success. The analytical mind of the preclear,
while reduced in its potential and under direction, is still capable of
thinking its own thoughts and forming its own opinions. Implicit obedience to
whatever the auditor suggests is not desirable as the preclear will inject
extraneous material at the faintest suggestion of the auditor. Drugs inhibit
the somatic and have no use in entering a case.
Regression
reduces the minds ability to think its own thoughts. Drugs inhibit the somatic.
The fact
that the dianeticist is interested solely in what has been done to the preclear
and is not at all interested in what the preclear himself has done to others
greatly facilitates auditing since there is no social disgrace in having been
an unwitting victim.
Dianetics
only looks at what has been done to the person.
In reverie
the preclear is placed in a light state of “concentration” which is not to be
confused with hypnosis. In the state of alliance, therefore, the mind of the
preclear will be found to be, to some degree, detachable from his surroundings
and directed interiorly. The first thing that the dianeticist will discover in
most preclears is aberration of the sense of time. There are various ways that
he can circumvent this and construct a time track along which he can cause the
preclear’s mind to travel. Various early experiences which are easily reached
are examined and an early diagnosis can be formed. Then begins an immediate
effort to reach basic, with attempted abortion or prenatal accident
predominating. Failures on the first attempts to reach prenatal experiences
should not discourage the dianetic auditor since many hours may be consumed and
many false basics reached and exhausted before the true prenatal basic is
attained.
In
Dianetics, the auditor puts the person in reverie and sends him back on the
time track and examines various early experiences. After that he makes
immediate effort to reach the basic.
In this type
of reverie the dianeticist can use and will observe certain apparently natural
laws in force. They are as follows: The difficulties the analytical mind
encounters when returned to or searching for an engram are identical to the
command content of that engram.
An aberree in
adult life is more or less obeying, as restimulated, the composite experiences
contained in his engrams.
The
preclear’s behavior in reverie is regulated by the commands contained in the
engram to which he is returned and is modified by the composite of chronologically
preceding engrams on his time track.
The somatics
of a preclear are at their highest in an engram where they were received and at
the moment of reception in that experience.
When
returned to a point prior to an engram, the commands and somatics of that
engram are not effective on the preclear. As he is returned to the moment of an
engram, the preclear experiences, as the common denominator of all engrams, a
considerable lessening of his analytical potential. He speaks and acts in a
modified version of the engram. All complaints he makes to the auditor should
be regarded as possibly being verbatim from, first, the engram that he is re-experiencing
or, second, from prior engrams.
At the
precise moment of an engramic command the preclear experiences obedience to
that command. The emotion a preclear experiences when regressed to an engram is
identical to the emotional tone of that engram. Excesses of emotion will be
found to be contained in the word content of the engram as commands.
Dianetics
thesis is that a person is generally behaving hypnotically as dictated by his
engrams. Such hypnotic behavior increases when he is returned in auditing and
approaches his engrams. He speaks and acts in a modified version of the engram.
The somatics are highest when he accesses the engram.
When a
preclear is returned to before the moment of reception of an engram he is not
subject to any part of that engram, emotionally, aberrationally, or
somatically.
When the
time track is found to contain loops or is blurred in any portion, its
crossings or confusions are directly attributable to engramic commands which
precisely state the confusion.
Any
difficulty a preclear may experience with returning, reaching engrams,
perceiving, or recounting, is directly and precisely commanded by engrams.
An engram
would not be an engram were it easy to reach or if it gave the preclear no difficulty
and contained no physical pain.
Dianetics
believes that engram can be located by moving the auditee up and down on his
time track, but even this may become confused by engramic commands. The auditor
may guess the engramic commands by observing this confusion.
The
characteristic of engrams is confusion. First, the confusion of the time track;
second, the confusion of an engramic chain wherein similar words or somatics
mix incidents; third, confusion of incidents with engrams.
This
confusion is occasioned by the disconnected state of the analytical mind during
the receipt of the engram. Auditing by location and identification of hidden
incidents, first rebuilds at least the early part of the time track, locates
and fixes engrams in relation to one another in time, and then locates the
basic of the basic chain and exhausts it. The remainder of the chain must also
be exhausted. Other engrams and incidents exhaust with ease after the erasure
of the basic or the basic of any chain (within that chain). Locks vanish
without being located. A tone four gained on basic permits the subsequent erasure
on the time track to go forward with ease. A whole chain may rise to four
without the basic chain having been located.
Dianetics
believes that once the basic engram is contacted and relieved, the rest of the
chain of aberration can be relieved much easily. However, in practice this is
relative and not absolute.
Any
perception of pre-speech life during reverie denotes the existence of engramic
experience as far back as the time track is open.
Photographic
memory of early moments of one’s life means that there could be engrams hidden
in those moments.
If the
individual’s general tone is clearly not tone four, if he is still interested
in his engrams, another more basic chain than the one found still exists.
When a
person has no engrams his attention will be totally extroverted. He will be rationally
considering broader problems beyond himself.
Engramic
patterns tend to form an avoidance pattern for the preclear. From basic outward
there is an observable and progressive divergence between the person himself
and his returned self. In the basic engram of the basic chain and for a few
subsequent incidents on that chain, he will be found within and receiving the
experiences as himself. In subsequent incidents cleavage is observable, and in
late engrams the preclear is found to be observing the action from outside of
himself, almost as a disinterested party. This forms the principal primary test
for the basic of the basic chain. Another test for basic is “sag.”
In
Dianetics, a person recounts the incident after being returned to it. But if he
is recounting the incident without experiencing it, it won’t produce any
positive and permanent results.
Any engram
may be exhausted to a point where it will recede without reaching tone four.
Although it is temporarily and momentarily lost to the individual and
apparently does not trouble him, that engram which has been exhausted in a
chain without the basic having been reached will “sag” or reappear within
twenty-four to sixty hours. Basic on any chain will not “sag” but will lift on
a number of recountings, rise to tone four and will remain erased. Another test
for basic is whether or not it begins to lift with ease. If an engram does not
intensify or remain static after many recountings, it can be conceived to be at
least a basic on some chain. Locks will lift and disappear without returning as
they are not fixed by physical pain. Large numbers of locks can be exhausted
bringing an alleviation of the preclear’s difficulties and such a course may
occasionally be pursued in the entrance of a case. The discovery and lifting of
the basic to which the locks are appended removes the locks automatically.
The
Dianetic procedure is all about accessing engramic incidents and recounting
them. Upon recounting the engram disappears only when it is experienced and its
contents assimilate into the mental matrix. Many a time this does not happen.
These rules
and laws even if modified in their statement will be found invariable.
Incompetent auditing cannot be excused by the supposed discovery of a special case
or exception. A physical derangement must be in the category of actually
missing parts of the organism which cause permanent disability, and instances
of this are not common.
This Dianetic
thesis seems to blame the lack of success in applying the dianetic procedure to
incompetent auditing, which does not fully understand these laws.
.
FINAL COMMENTS
This
Dianetic procedure needs to be examined closely if its application does not
produce results in the hands of others. Apparently, the author of this thesis
is able to produce results where others run into difficulty. In my observation,
many difficulties arise because of the violation of the gradient in approaching
the engram.
According
to the laws of returning, the analytical awareness starts to shut down as one
approaches the engram, and the thinking increasingly dramatizes the content of
the engram. The person is not aware of this change but the auditor is. The
auditor is then required to navigate the auditee through it skillfully.
According
to the thesis, the auditor’s dynamic assists the auditee’s dynamic in
overcoming the effects of the laws of returning. But in practice, the auditor
takes over the awareness of the auditee instead of assisting it. Even the use
of E-meter brings awareness to the auditor only. The auditee is simply being
told what to do, and he is never in command of himself while approaching the
engram. He mechanically obeys either the engram or the auditor.
Only
the auditee can handle his aberrations. The auditor can only support, encourage
and guide him but he can’t approach and assimilate the engram for the auditee. The
only solution is for the auditee to remain in control of his awareness while
approaching the engram and assimilating its content. This requires the auditee
to overcome the effects of the law of returning. Can he approach and assimilate
the contents of the engram without returning?
It is
important to remember that Hubbard was an expert hypnotist and he thought in
terms of returning. So, he may not have even considered the possibility of
neutralizing the short-circuiting of the mental matrix by the engram without
returning.
In
hypnotism, the hypnotist installs a hypnotic command. That command can be
neutralized by recalling the moment that command was installed. Hypnotist can
easily do it because he knows when he installed that command. But the situation
is very different in life. One suspects that there is a painful incident, which
installed an engram in the mind but nothing is known about it. Engram is not
like a simple hypnotic command. It has many tentacles reaching into many logic
circuits of the mental matrix. Its relationship with the mind is much more
complex compared to that of a simple hypnotic command.
The
dianetic approach is to attack the source of pain (the engram). It tries to
push through the pain to locate and re-experience the engram. It neglects the very
many and much finer relationships that need to be straightened out in the
process of neutralizing the engram. Thus it violates the principle of gradient.
The more the gradient is violated, the more forceful is the reaction of the
engram. The laws of returning are simply the result of violating the gradient. There
are no such laws in play when the engram is approached on a gradient.
The
mindfulness approach allows the engram to unwind itself through free
association on its own natural gradient. The auditee simply focuses on the
aberration that is bothering him. He examines that aberration in detail. He
lets all data that comes up associate non-judgmentally in the context of that aberration.
He watches objectively the reactions and even strong emotions that come up. He
lets all such reactions run out as they may. He doesn’t interfere even when the
awareness seems to attenuate as in falling asleep. These are contents of the
engramic node getting released to the mental matrix.
It does
not matter what the auditee has done or what has been done to him. He does not
guess or search for the contents of the engram. If a phrase is running around
in his head he simply focuses on it. He experiences whatever comes up without
resisting. He may be supported, encouraged and guided by a mindfulness auditor.
But it is the auditee’s dynamic that lies behind this free association. Using
the gradient of free association any engram can be reached safely and easily.
The
Dianetic thesis seems to blame any lack of success on incompetent auditing. It
is noted that a proper procedure would be effective and easy to apply at the
same time. Hopefully, the mindfulness auditing approach shall be able to
overcome the difficulties that have plagued the dianetic procedure.
The out-gradient in dianetic procedure ends up in the auditor taking over the awareness of the auditee instead of assisting it. This seems to have become ingrained so much so that the auditee is expected to submit to the dictates of the organization delivering auditing. This organization is presently the “Church of Scientology”, which closely monitors all its parishioners and expects them to comply with its “code of ethics”. It keeps them in line through a system of reward and punishment. Anyone who rebels against the control of the Church is declared a “potential trouble source” or a “suppressive person”.
Fortunately, with mindfulness approach one can audit oneself to great improvement. He can then help others get started with their auditing. Only this way can a grass roots movement be started which is up to meeting the demands of the society.
.