Dianetic and Scientology started with the publication of THE ORIGINAL THESIS by L. Ron Hubbard in 1948. There are useful insights in this thesis. I wish Hubbard had used scientific method to develop them further.
Here is the last chapter of this book with my comments (indented in different color) from the viewpoint of mindfulness.
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THE “LAWS” OF RETURNING
By aberration is meant the aberree’s reactions to and difficulties with his current environment.
Aberrations spring from the discontinuities, disharmonies and inconsistencies in the mental matrix.
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.
Somatics spring from the discontinuities, disharmonies and inconsistencies in the cellular matrix.
The aberration is the mental error caused by engrams and the somatic is the physical error occasioned by the same source.
The abnormalities in mental matrix lead to the abnormalities in the cellular matrix and vice versa.
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.
In mindfulness contemplation one should start with the idea that it is possible to clear most aberrations and somatics through this process.
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.
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.
All one needs is the discipline of mindfulness.
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.
Hubbard is categorizing his speculations about the difficulty in discovering engrams. All his difficulties really came from digging into the mind instead of letting it unwind.
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 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.
See above. Force begets force.
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.
Pain is force. A person may forcefully react to a source of pain as follows.
Avoid……………………….….Self-invalidate
Neglect………………………..Deny
Flee…………………………… Bounce
Succumb……………………..Be Held
Attack………………………….Confront
But a person may also let the mind unwind itself on a smooth gradient. This option is not considered in Dianetics.
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 dianetic approach is to attack the source of pain (the engram).
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.
The person must be persuaded not to neglect, succumb, flee or avoid.
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.
There are three equations which demonstrate how and why the auditor and preclear can reach engrams and exhaust them:
- The auditor’s dynamics are equal to or less than the engramic surcharge in the preclear.
- The preclear’s dynamics are less than the engramic surcharge.
- 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.
There must be enough of preclear dynamic that is further boosted by the discipline of mindfulness. A mindfulness counselor may be needed to assist a willing person when the person’s dynamic is very low.
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.
The person must understand the discipline of mindfulness before the mindfulness counselor can help him.
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.
Reverie is not used in mindfulness, only an awareness of the discipline.
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.
Preclear’s dynamics are at least restraining the dramatization to some degree. This restraint is gone if preclear’s dynamics are opposed.
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.
In the absence of analytical awareness the engram dramatizes itself without weakening.
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.
Instead of the additive dynamic law, one should think in terms of the law of non-interference of the mind that allows the mind to unwind.
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.
Instead of reverie one should practice non-interference of the mind. During this practice the person should be left alone to observe his mind.
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.
It is not a matter of what the person has done or what has been done to him. It is simply a matter of looking at the mind objectively without interference.
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 mindfulness approach, no interference with the mind is allowed either from the counselor or from the person himself. There is only objective observation of the mind. The mind will chart its own “time track”. The mind will decide how to approach 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.
In mindfulness we are not guessing at the content of the engram.
An aberree in adult life is more or less obeying, as restimulated, the composite experiences contained in his engrams.
Let the person come up with that conclusion by himself or herself through actual observation.
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 person simply observes how the mind is unwinding.
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 reexperiencing or, second, from prior engrams.
Nobody is returning the person anywhere in mindfulness. The idea of returning in the dianetic procedure comes from hypnosis.
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.
This does not happen during the unwinding of the mind in mindfulness.
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.
This is an assessment based on the theory of hypnosis.
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.
In reality there is no linear time track. There are only the relationships of the mental matrix.
Any difficulty a preclear may experience with returning, reaching engrams, perceiving, or recounting, is directly and precisely commanded by engrams.
This happens only when force is used to return the person, as in hypnosis.
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.
Resolving a person’s case is like untying a knot.
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.
Yes, there is confusion, but the best way to navigate through this confusion is by letting the mind unwind naturally.
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.
The whole process is letting the unassimilated nodes assimilate back into the mental matrix.
Any perception of pre-speech life during reverie denotes the existence of engramic experience as far back as the time track is open.
When there is a mental-cellular matrix there is also perceptic experience.
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.
If the person is introverted, there are unassimilated nodes to be sorted out.
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 mindfulness, the person should be fully experiencing the unwinding of the mind at every point.
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.
Such considerations do not arise when the mind is unwound with mindfulness.
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.
The dianetic procedure encounters many difficulties because it is digging into the mind using force. Force begets force in return. This does not happen in the mindfulness procedure where the mind is allowed to unwind naturally as it may.
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