Category Archives: Scientology

Scientology and the Ultimate Reality

February 27, 2014 – 9:47 PM
Field2

To understand the essence and scope of a subject one must start with an examination of its basic postulates. To understand how ultimate reality is viewed in Scientology one must examine the following postulates.

  1. Scientology Axiom #1: Life is basically a static. DEFINITION: a life static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time. It has the ability to postulate and to perceive.

  2. Scientology Factor #1: Before the beginning was a Cause and the entire purpose of the Cause was the creation of effect.

  3. Scientology Pre-Logics #1: Self-determinism is the common denominator of all life impulses.

Axiom #1 claims that a Life Static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time, yet it has the ability to postulate and to perceive. It is Aristotle’s unmoved mover, Factor #1 simply posits the same concept as uncaused cause. Here it is an abstract capability from which all creation pours forth. In religion, we are familiar with this concept as God. Pre-logics #1 puts this capability to be the essence of all human and other beings.

Scientology essentially makes people believe that the characteristics associated with God are within the reach of every individual, and that one can actually achieve the state of Godhood through the processing available in Scientology.

The ultimate reality in Scientology is the attaining of beingness, which hitherto was exclusively associated with God.

Thus, a Scientologist believes that he is creating this universe continually in agreement with everyone else; and to enforce his will he must get everyone to agree with him. He entertains the ideal scene of a being who is cause over “matter, energy, space, time and all life.” In other words, his ideal scene is to act like God.

It is very hard to visualize a universe where everyone is acting like God. Such a universe is going to be highly unstable. To get the universe going, all the Gods must agree with each other. And when that happens then there remains no individual will. It becomes a collective like the Borg species of Star Trek.

The other alternative is for each “God” to postulate and perceive one’s own universe in which one can do whatever one wants. Such a “God” becomes out of touch with the physical universe. The physical universe simply does not exist for such a “God.”

At this moment the effort of the Church of Scientology is to survive as a collective in a physical universe that is unknowingly being created by unenlightened WOGS. The “solution” therefore is to assimilate all WOGS into the collective of Scientology by enlightening them the Scientology way. If this effort fails then the alternative would be for Scientology to get absorbed completely in a self-created universe and become totally dissociated with the “physical universe.” These are the ultimate realities in Scientology caused by the desire to identify oneself with a Godlike beingness that can have its way in spite of matter, energy, space, time and other life.

The source of this reality may be traced back to the theistic view prevalent in Abrahamic religions that God is a being, and that one is created in the image of God. When we take this view literally then the pursuit in Scientology starts to make sense.

In Scientology we see the theistic view being taken literally, and being pursued relentlessly.

Let’s look at the alternate view, where God is not viewed as a “being.” This is the atheistic view of the Eastern religions. In this view, God is seen as a power that underlies all manifestations. God is understood to be like a field similar to an electric or a magnetic field, but much more basic. It is from the condensation of such a field that self emerges. This is the field into which self ultimately dissolves.

In this view of God, there is no individuality that creates anything. Things just come together due to underlying laws. Here the ultimate reality is neti-neti (not this, not that), meaning that there is always something beyond to be understood. All phenomena are relative. Nothing can be pinned down in an absolute sense like the last digit of pi. There is no absolute God like that of the theists.

We can postulate anything but the postulate must be consistent with the existing reality to be real. The reality of the universe cannot be ignored. The thrust should always be to understand the reality, which is the universe. That is the thrust of science.

Spiritual and physical are two different aspects of this universe. These aspects do not exist independent of each other. “God” and the “physical universe” exist together. The physical universe may be looked upon as a form of God; and God may be looked upon as the essence of the physical universe. Scientology veers off this philosophy when it postulates “The origin of MEST lies with theta itself, and that MEST, as we know the physical universe, is a product of theta.” This postulate is not real.

Cause and effect do not exist outside this universe. Cause is as much a part of this universe as the effect. There is no uncaused Cause or unmoved mover. Cause and effect are always associated and should be viewed as a single phenomenon.

My view of God fundamentals is as follows:

Underlying all reality there seems to be a primordial field, which when disturbed by a primordial energy, gives rise to awareness. The undisturbed primordial field is the theoretical ground state for this universe. The primordial energy is what generates disturbance in this field. The disturbance arises as awareness that gradually condenses as self. The outer form of this disturbance is electromagnetism that gradually condenses as matter. Life has the characteristics of both awareness (spirituality) and electromagnetism (physicality).

Can the ultimate reality be ever defined? I believe that the pleasure of defining the ultimate reality more accurately will always be there.

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By vinaire | Comments (58)

Comments on Concepts in Scientology

December 25, 2013 – 1:00 AM

Scientology

On E-meter:

The E-meter reacts to both reactive and analytical thought. In the beginning it picks up the obvious reactive thoughts connected with an unwanted condition. But once the inconsistencies associated with these thoughts are resolved, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reactive thoughts from analytical thoughts. This makes Scientology approach to case resolution uncertain.

One effect of this uncertainty is endless ‘auditing of entities’ that occurs on OT levels. The other effect is conditioning where one believes that one is getting better and powerful while unwanted conditions persist.

Thus, an E-meter may appear to be helpful in the beginning, but on a long term basis it creates dependency and leads to conditioning.

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On “Source” of life:

We observe that man has both physical and spiritual attributes that exist side by side. The claim that man is a physical organism, which is animated by an individual source called ‘thetan’, is highly speculative.

This speculation identifies self with ‘thetan’ and claims that self exists independent of the physical body. This speculation goes further to claim that the basis of thetan (self) is theta (spirit) which produces everything physical.

A life organism is evidently made up of physical and spiritual attributes. Both seems to have existed side by side since millennia. However, there is no evidence that the spiritual attributes came first and they produced the physical attributes.

From actual observations, body grows and so does self. The atoms and molecules, which make up the body, are changing continually. Similarly,  the factors (consideration, desires and impulses), which make up the self, are also changing continually. There is nothing about the body or the self, which remains constant for ever.

Memories of past does not necessarily mean that the body and self of the past is also the body and self of the present. There is no permanent or unchanging body, self, or individual “source” of life.

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On Time Track:

When we talk about having a childhood, birth etc., we are talking about a sequence of memories attached to our present identity, individuality or self. Memories are impressions. These impressions may be collected together in some manner as a set. This set may be called a time track.

As the make-up of self is changing from moment to moment, self is also a part of the time track. There is no permanent ‘element’ of self owning the time track. So, any talk, such as a ‘thetan’ having a time track, is superfluous.

It is not necessary to have a moment to moment record stored somewhere. A recall could be a reconfiguration of memory from stored basic patterns, similar to visualization.

Any process to handle unwanted condition should address things that are in restimulation. These would be inconsistencies impinging on the person in present time. What needs to be sorted out is always there. There is no need to dig into the ‘memories’ or keep any notes. This makes the need for a time-track unnecessary.

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On Clearing:

What Hubbard called Clear in Scientology is a relative condition. There may be a major release. But clearing continues as new inconsistencie comes to view in present time. Thus, the “clearing” is never absolute.

Any erasure is relative to its context. It is the resolution of inconsistency. Only thing that disappears is the inconsistency. There is no absolute erasure of actual matter, energy, space or time.

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On Past Lives:

When a ‘memory’ does not seem to be consistent with ‘current life’, it is relegated to the category of ‘past life’. When a ‘past life’ incident presents itself in sufficient detail, accompanied by a release from some unwanted condition, it seems to lend credibility to the notion of past lives.

However, such incidents are isolated. They are reconfigured memories triggered by some inconsistency impinging on the person in present time. It may be called a reactive visualization that resolves the inconsistency. This is similar to analytical visualizations used consciously to solve problems of science and engineering. The contents of such visualizations are significant only to the degree that they resolve the problem. They are neither true nor false in some absolute sense.

One may then speculate past lives based on such isolated reactive visualizations, but such speculations do not lead to further resolution of unwanted conditions.

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On Death:

Death has been the most fascinating subject in human history. It has spawned religions. What is observed is a sudden cessation of body’s animation.

But this cessation is not so sudden. The circulatory system fails first, which is followed almost immediately by the failure of the respiratory system. The usual chemical operations in the body starts to get suspended. The physical organs start to shut down one by one. There is a chain reaction. This is not much different from powering down a computer.

The body is a much more complex system than a computer. There are more fundamental systems underlying its electrochemical system that are yet to be fully explored. It is true that the spirit has left the body, but this is a poetic expression only. We do not fully understand how the body begins to power down at death. In spite of it suddenness, it takes a finite amount of time.

There is a similar curiosity about how a body powers up at birth. But the process of fertilization to birth is not so sudden and fascinating. There are a whole lot of connections going on in the body during this period. We do not have a clear demarkation of the moment at which the spirit enters the body.

Of course there is a spiritual aspect to the process of birth and death, but it is not so simplistic as visualized in terms of a thetan entering or leaving the body.

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On Mental Image Pictures:

Scientology talks about a person’s having mental image pictures of the past. Such pictures are supposedly recordings of the physical universe as it goes by. All memory is supposed to be made up of such pictures. According to Dianetics the pictures of painful and unconscious moments are stored in a reactive bank in the mind. It is necessary to recall such pictures to handle one’s unwanted condition.

Is this premise of stored mental image pictures correct? Could it be possible that there is no such storage of pictures, and that the mind simply visualizes to handle inconsistencies as and when needed!

Mind processes incoming perceptions directly into action. As long as the mind is able to process data perfectly one continues to act without thinking. But the moment mind is unable to process the incoming data, an inconsistency is formed and the mind gets wound up.

Thus, winding up of the mind occurs due to stacking up of such inconsistencies. Later, when attention is put on inconsistencies, and the mind is allowed to  unwind itself, it creates the visualization necessary to resolve those inconsistencies. This is very plausible because, normally, we use visualization to solve our problems.

To unwind itself, the mind may go through thousands of visualization rapidly to find the one that resolves an inconsistency. It is like Alan Turing’s machine that broke the code generated by German enigma machine through rapid iteration of computation based only on a few clues.

In short, there are no mental image pictures that are continually being recorded. There are only present time visualizations in the mind to resolve the inconsistencies impinging on a person. Resolution occurs to the degree mind is able to visualize correctly.

The chances of resolutions of inconsistencies increase as mindfulness is practiced.

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By vinaire | Comments (69)

The Structure of a Thetan

December 12, 2013 – 6:37 AM
thetan
Reference: Scientology Fundamentals

Please see The Definition of THETAN

A “photon” is an outcome of an electromagnetic wave acquiring particle like properties. Similarly, thetan seems to be an outcome of theta acquiring individuality.

A particle acquires an identity through its discreteness, form and inertia. Similarly, a thetan seems to acquire a definition through its “discreteness” of individuality and “inertia” of identity.

The wave properties of electromagnetism seem to condense into the form of a particle. Similarly, the awareness properties of theta seem to condense into the form of a thetan.

The thetan seems to be the resultant of awareness vectors formed by considerations, desires and impulses. Thus, a thetan may be defined in terms of complex interactions among the elemental vectors of considerations, desires and impulses.

These elemental vectors seem to make up the thetan’s intention, thetan’s will, and the thetan itself. Their source seems to be beyond the thetan.

Thetan is the resultant identity. An identity has a localized form, and also a localized occurrence. Thus, a thetan has a location in space and time (see the picture above).

The thetan is considered to be the spirit, which is basically the aliveness of the body.

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By vinaire | Comments (87)

Scientology and Star Trek

December 11, 2013 – 1:22 PM
Borg-children

From Scientology Technical Dictionary:

INDIVIDUAL: When we say the individual we are talking about something as precise as an apple. We are not talking about a collection of behavior patterns which we all learned about in the study of rats. We are talking about something that is finite. We are talking about somebody. The somethingness that you are and the capabilities you can be and this is what we are talking about. We are not talking about the color of your hair or the length of your feet. We are talking about you.

INDIVIDUATION: A separation from knowingness.

In Scientology, you are an individual with self-determinism, but to individuate is bad. It is assumed that the ideal knowingness is contained in the words of Hubbard that comprise the subject of Scientology. Per “KSW1” (Keeping Scientology Working series 1) one must not deviate from this knowingness.

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From Star Trek:

“The Borg are a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones of the Collective, or the hive.” ~ Borg (Star Trek)

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SCIENTOLOGY holds:

You are individuals. However, you are not allowed to individuate from the collective of the Church of Scientology. You are to be assimilated.

If you separate, you are an enemy of Scientology.

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By vinaire | Comments (1)

Thetan and Identity

December 11, 2013 – 6:35 AM

identity

Reference: Scientology Fundamentals

Please see The Definition of THETAN

Individuality is not something different from identity.

Individuality is an aspect of identity.

Anything that creates a unit

Is part of the identity of that unit.

If thetan is an awareness of awareness unit,

Then it is a bundled up awareness.

That bundled up awareness is an identity.

Thetan itself is an identity.

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In the book Scientology 8-8008, Hubbard wrote:

Identity versus Individuality
The most common confusion on the part of a preclear is between himself as an identified object and his beingness. One’s beingness depends upon the amount of space which he can create or command, not upon his identification or any label. Identity as we know it in the MEST universe is much the same as identification, which is the lowest form of thought. When one is an object and is himself an effect, he believes that his ability to be cause is dependent upon his having a specific and finite identity. This is an aberration; as his beingness increases his individuality increases, and he quickly rises above the level of necessity for identity for he is himself self-sufficient with his own identity.
The first question a preclear undergoing theta clearing asks himself is quite often: “How will I establish my identity if I have no body?” There are many remedies for this. The worst method of having an identity is having a body. As his individuality increases and his beingness expands—these two being almost synonymous—he is less and less concerned with this problem; that he is concerned with the problem tells the auditor where he is on the tone-scale.
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.

Hubbard threw a curve by describing individuality as something good and identity as something bad. He derided the goal of Nirvana in Buddhism. Nirvana is to extinguish self or individuality.

Being a fundamental datum of Scientology, this worship of individuality puts up a filter that distorts the subject of Scientology. Even though, Scientology contains some brilliant new technology to address the subject of mind, it ends up producing “scientologists who are assimilated into the world view of Hubbard“ as its valuable final product:

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By vinaire | Comments (14)