Category Archives: Self-Improvement

These are exercises that one may apply to oneself to improve.

OT 1948: Auditing

April 18, 2019 – 1:21 PM
Reference: DIANETICS: The Original Thesis

This paper presents Chapter 11 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.

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Auditing

The auditing technique consists of assisting the preclear’s analytical mind or some part of it with the auditor’s analytical mind. The auditor then functions during each successive period of auditing, and only during the periods themselves, as an extra analytical mind of the preclear.

The mindfulness auditing technique consists of concentrating on a clearly recognized aberration while letting the mind unwind through free association.

The job of the auditor is to help the auditee find the aberration that is real and ready to be concentrated on. He then encourages the auditee to apply the auditing technique as above. He simply listens to and acknowledges the auditee and does not interfere otherwise. In mindfulness meditation, the auditee is the auditor.

The reactive mind was received during the dispersal or inactivity of the analytical mind. The reactive mind is removed by “returning” the preclear to the engram, and laying its contents before the scrutiny of the analytical mind.

The “engram” is the clearly recognized aberration. The mind is allowed to freely associate all experiences related to that aberration.

This technique may be considered the lowest common denominator of a number of techniques. Anything which will serve this purpose and permit auditing to be accomplished efficiently is valid technique.

The optimum is purely personal affinity brought about by understanding and communication with the preclear on agreeable subjects. Another and almost useless method is narcosynthesis together with the various drugs and hypnotics used to produce sleep. Methods can be found such as faith healing, books on medical hypnosis, the techniques of Indian medicine men and so forth. It is pointless to delineate these methods here. They are currently available under the name of hypnotism but a caution should be enjoined that hypnosis as itself is not at all acceptable to Dianetics and indeed has extremely limited use. Briefly, however, it must be remarked that if hypnotism is studied to advance these techniques, all positive suggestion and post-hypnotic suggestion must be avoided as these suggestions depend for their effectiveness upon the already existing content of the reactive mind and will only form additional locks.

Drugs, hypnosis, faith healing, suggestions, etc., are not part of this procedure. The auditor never suggests anything to the auditee (preclear). He helps the auditee isolate the aberration through objective observation and discussion.

Any and all so-called hypnotic drugs have definite drawbacks since they, like so many other things, may be termed “shot-gun” methods. These paralyze not only the analytical mind but the remainder of the organism so that it is nearly impossible to obtain the proper somatic reaction in the preclear. They are not anesthetics but anesthesias. By using them the auditor instantly denies himself the main material which will lead him to the engram, which is to say, restimulated physical pain. Such restimulated pain is never of very great magnitude and is obliterated by the use of anesthesias.

Drugs may interfere with the free association ability of the mind. Free association is key to the success of this auditing procedure. Free association may bring up hard to face realities and physical pain, but it is never of great magnitude.

At no time should the auditor permit the preclear to be under the delusion that he is being hypnotized. This is mentioned because hypnotism is a current fad and the principles of Dianetics have nothing whatever to do with hypnotism. Both are based upon simple natural laws but have between them an enormous gulf. One is the tool of the charlatan and the other is the science of the human mind.

Regression in its simplest form, hereafter called return, is employed in dianetic auditing. It would be an extraordinary case which required revivification. Return is the method of retaining the body and the awareness of the subject in present time while he is told to go back to a certain incident. Dates are not mentioned. His size is not mentioned. Various means are used to restimulate his memory. Any of the perceptics may be employed to return him to some period of his past. He is told simply to “go back to the time when_________.” He is asked to recount what he can of the incident. He is told that he is “right there” and that he can “recall this.” Little else is said by the auditor save those hints necessary to return the preclear to the proper time.

Hypnotism and regression are a substitute for concentration of the mind. They are externally controlled procedures, whereas, concentration is exercised by the person himself. Dianetic technique of “return” also falls under the category of external control, and it is not allowed in the mindfulness auditing procedure.

The preclear is not allowed at any moment to revivify in that period since the data is drained as a surcharge from his time track to present time. He is told that he can remember this in present time since that will occasion the somatics to return to present time. Most of the data is located by observing some somatic pain in the individual or some somatic aberration and seeking to discover wherein it was received.

In free association the mental matrix associates the data elements in the present. Any past memory is reconstructed in the present. Free association is releasing the tension in the mind. Any effort to forcibly associate data only generates more tension in the mind.

The somatics are employed primarily because the motor controls possess a less disturbed time track than the sensory strip. Anything which tends to lighten these somatics is then antipathetic to auditing. It must be remembered that there is no aberration without an accompanying somatic. The somatics alone, being physical ills of one sort or another, hold the aberrated content of the reactive mind in place. The motor controls can be returned to a period although the conscious or analytical mind believes itself to be entirely in present time. By talking to the muscles or motor controls or various bodily aches and pains, the auditor can shift them at will up and down their time track. This time track is not connected to the analytical mind and speech, but is apparently a parallel time track with greater reliability than the sensory track. The precision of data contained in the motor control time track is enormous. Muscles can be made to tense or relax. Coughs, aches, and pains can be made to come and go simply by uttering the right words for the engrams, or the wrong words.

One may concentrate on the somatic aspect of the aberration, such as, “pain in the _______”. Somatic may be defined as part of a larger aberration which is a sort of confusion. Dianetics believes in controlling the attention and the autonomic responses of the auditee but that is not necessary to accomplish the purpose of auditing.

It is the primary task of the auditor to cause the time tracks of the motor strip and the sensory strip to come into parallel. That the time track exists in the strips has not been proven but they can so be considered for the purposes of this explanation. That they exist is extremely apparent. The motor strip time track can be asked questions down to the smallest moment of time, and the area of an engram can be so located and its character determined.

There is no simple time track. The primary task of the auditor is to help the auditee find the right aberration to concentrate on. The auditor does not do the auditing for the auditee. If the auditee runs into difficulty, the auditor’s task is to discuss the aberration objectively until the auditee understands what to concentrate on.

As an analogy, a dream may be considered as the reception by the remaining analytical mind of a distortedly reflected and indirectly received picture of the engrams. This applies only when the dream is specifically directed at the reactive mind. It will be found that a preclear with a large and active reactive mind does not dream to any great extent in normal sleep but that a release may dream pleasantly and consistently. A dream in its normal function is that powerful and original mechanism called the imagination compositing or creating new pictures.

The use of the dream is not highly technical and has little value in Dianetics. The auditor gleans data from the preclear by his own remarks about any subject, or by the preclear’s illogicalness on a subject. The auditor tells the preclear to dream about this data. When the preclear has had the dream he is directed to go back to the engram causing the dream. Quite often he will do so. If he does not, or if he becomes hostile, it is certain that an engram exists on the subject.

A Dianetic auditor observes what the auditee says and how he acts, to guess at the content of his engramic node. He then asks the auditee to concentrate on it. But this can get very complicated.

The Mindfulness auditor simply finds the area about the auditee that naturally draws auditee’s attention. The auditor then discusses it with the auditee to isolate what the auditee wants most to concentrate on. Only that aberration can be audited that is real to the auditee. The auditee may have a glaring aberration, but if it not real to him, it cannot be audited.

The lie detector, the encephalograph and many other means are of limited usefulness in determining both the character and the extent of the engrams since into these as into the dreams can be fed the restimulators of the preclear. A codified restimulator list can be created which will be found to be common to most preclears. It should include all types of illnesses, accidents, the common trite phrases of the society, and names of various persons who commonly surround a child during his childhood. Such a codified restimulator list would be interesting for experiment and every auditor can compose his own. These are best composed after auditing the individual preclear and after inquiry into his life to determine the various irrationalities of thought. In that engrams are identity thought, the remarks of the preclear about his engrams will be found to be included in the content of those engrams. When the preclear is asked to imagine a bad situation at certain ages and under hypnotic conditions, he will very often deliver up a complete engram. The auditor must realize that every remark that a preclear makes while he is going over his reactive mind is probably some part of the content of that reactive mind. That mind is literal. The words the preclear uses when referring to it must be literally evaluated.

Dianetics uses a lie-detector type instrument called “E-meter” as an aid in auditing. The auditor uses it to note the subtle reactions of the auditee, and to guide the auditee’s attention accordingly. The E-meter has been misused greatly by interpreting its reaction in such a way that it goes against what the auditee thinks and feels. Such a dependence on a mechanical instrument can greatly retard the progress in auditing and can even be harmful.

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Final Comments

KEY WORDS: Reverie, Returning, Repeater Technique

Hubbard was an accomplished hypnotist. It is obvious from reading his ORIGINAL THESIS (1948) that the Dianetics procedure is derived from his experience with the mind as a hypnotist. I have no doubt that Hubbard’s intention was to undo hypnotic effects using his knowledge of hypnotism. That is how the Dianetic procedure came about. But in spite of all his precautions the Dianetic procedure is not totally clean of hypnotic elements. The primary hypnotic element in Dianetic procedure is ‘returning’ that digs into the mind.

We know through mindfulness that the mind shall immediately present the data asked for, if it is available. Some more data may come up with contemplation based on free association. But if certain data asked for is not coming up then there is a reason for it. That reason has to do with mind’s self-protective mechanism. Some other data needs to be unwound first before this data could be made available.

Digging into the mind forcefully can upset the matrix of the mind, rearranging it in unpredictable ways that could be damaging to the mind. Dianetics procedure does require forceful probing. In defense, It is said that the E-meter tells the auditor if the data is available or not and this makes the Dianetic procedure safe. But there are innumerable accounts of misinterpretation of e-meter. The reaction of e-meter is not always what it is interpreted to mean.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (0)

OT 1948: The Auditor’s Code

April 17, 2019 – 8:40 AM
Reference: DIANETICS: The Original Thesis

This paper presents Chapter 10 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.

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The Auditor’s Code

Not because it is a pleasant thing to do or because it is a noble idea, the auditor must always treat a preclear in a certain definite way which can be outlined as the auditor’s code. Failure to follow this code will cause trouble to the auditor, will considerably lengthen and disturb his work and may endanger the preclear. The auditor in the first place, at the optimum, should be himself cleared; otherwise he will find that many of his own engrams are restimulated as he listens to the engrams of his preclears. This restimulation may cause his own engrams to become chronic, victimizing him with various allergies and delusions and causing him to be, at best, extremely uncomfortable. An auditor can audit while he himself is being cleared as this is a peculiar and special method of locating his own engrams, since they become restimulated. Becoming painful to him, they can be found and speedily removed. Even if he is not himself cleared, the auditor must act like a Clear towards the preclear. The auditor’s code is the natural activity of a Clear.

In mindfulness meditation, a person is both the auditee and the auditor. In place of the auditor’s code he uses the discipline of mindfulness. An auditor must apply this code to oneself and others for the benefit of all.

The auditor must act toward the preclear exactly in the way that the preclear as an organism would desire that his own conscious analytical mind would react to and consider the organism. An affinity must therefore be maintained at all costs.

The analytical mind is made up of the fully assimilated mental matrix. Its effort is to assimilate the engramic and aberrated nodes. This is accomplished by recognizing the aberration and following it to fully recognize its source. The auditor supports this effort fully. He does not deviate from this effort by adding other considerations.

The auditor must never permit himself to lose his temper, become aggravated, to scold or badger or antagonize the preclear in any way. To do so would not merely disturb the comfort of the preclear but might additionally derange him and might even prohibit further beneficial therapy by the auditor.

The code is nearly “Christlike.”

The auditor approaches the situation objectively and does not become rattled. He maintains his own mental matrix in an assimilated state. He becomes aware when his own aberrated nodes are activated, and uses the discipline of mindfulness to defuse them.

The auditor must be confident in that he must continually reassure the preclear when restimulated engrams cause despondency on the preclear’s part. A cheerful optimistic presence encourages the preclear through his most painful experiences.

The auditor is confident in the application of mindfulness and is continually reassuring others of its success in a cheerful and optimistic manner. He keeps the attention extroverted and objective.

The auditor must be courageous, never permitting himself to be intimidated by either the aggression or hostility of the preclear.

The auditor recognizes any aggression or hostility to be due to dramatizations and does not react to them. He courageously applies mindfulness to defuse that behavior.

The auditor must be kind, never indulging in hostilities or personal prejudices. The auditor must be trustworthy, never betraying or capriciously denying a preclear and above all never breaking his word to the preclear. An auditor must be clean, for personal odors or bad breath may be restimulators to the preclear or may disturb him. The auditor must take care not to offend the concepts or sensibilities of the preclear.

The auditor is kind and aware of the needs that are there. He can be trusted for his skills and actions to bring assimilation to the mental matrix. He keeps good hygiene. His approach is just right to help overcome a difficulty.

The auditor must be persistent, never permitting the case of the preclear to either resist him or to remain unsolved until it is in a proper tone four, since the restimulation of engrams is a malady unto itself unless they are being properly exhausted.

The auditor proceeds systematically with the help of the assimilated mental matrix to resolve the aberrated nodes as aberrations are presented. He never gives up.

The auditor must be patient, never hurrying or harassing the preclear beyond the needs of stirring an engram into view. He must be willing to work at any and all times necessary and for the length of time necessary to exhaust the engrams in process of elimination.

The auditor approaches the aberrated node on a gradient by letting the mind unwind as it may. He handles the aberrated node as soon as it becomes available. He is patient and willing to work whenever and as long as needed.

In addition to these things it may be remarked that a definite affinity is established between the auditor and preclear during the auditing. In the case of opposite sexes this affinity may amount to an infatuation. The auditor must remain aware of this and know that he can and should redirect the infatuation to some person or activity other than himself when auditing is at an end. Not to do so is to produce an eventual situation wherein the preclear may have to be rebuffed with consequent trouble for the auditor.

Over time there is a deep and mutual understanding established between the auditor and the auditee. The auditor respects this trust and understanding and never takes advantage of it for personal gains.

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Final Comments

KEY WORDS: Auditor, Preclear, E-meter, Auditor’s Code

The auditor has the responsibility of keeping his own mental matrix well assimilated and not disturbed by his own aberrated nodes, while helping others assimilate their aberrated and engramic nodes.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (0)

OT 1948: Dramatization

April 15, 2019 – 10:11 PM
Reference: DIANETICS: The Original Thesis

This paper presents Chapter 9 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.

.

Dramatization

Dramatization is the duplication of an engramic content, entire or in part, by an aberree in his present time environment. Aberrated conduct is entirely dramatization. Aberrated conduct will occur only when and if an engram exists in the reactive mind of the aberree. That conduct will be a duplication of such an engram. The degree of dramatization is in direct ratio to the degree of restimulation of the engrams causing it. A mild dramatization would be a similarity to the engram. A severe dramatization would be an identity with the engram.

The aberrated conduct provides a clue to the content of the engram.

The general tone of an aberree, when high—when his person is unwearied and he is well and not directly menaced in his environment—does not permit as great an influence by the reactive mind, since the tone level of the entire individual possesses too great a differential from the tone of the engram. As the general tone of the individual approaches the tone level of the engram under restimulation, dramatization becomes more severe.

The analytical mind is present to the degree that the general tone of the aberree is high. As this general tone lowers through ill health, reverses, or constant restimulation of the reactive mind, the analytical mind is proportionately less aware. Dramatization is demonstrated by the aberree in inverse ratio to the potential of the analytical mind. A geometrical progression is entered as general tone lowers to cause the analytical mind to lose its entire awareness potential.

Dramatization indicates that the person is in weakened state of mind due to weariness.

Once every engram contains, as the common denominator of all engrams, the unconsciousness of the organ which is the analytical mind, dramatizations gain rapidly as this interaction progresses.

In the presence of a relatively high analytical mind awareness-potential, dramatization takes the form of similarity. The data of the engram is present but is interspersed with or modified by justified thought. The physical pain which is always present as part of the dramatization is equally mild, a duplication of the pain which was present during the engram. The awareness potential of the analytical mind reduces in the restimulation of the engram which again reduces the general tone.

When a person is not so weary, the dramatization is more in the form of justified thought.

The aberree is subject to almost continuous dramatization of one engram or another as the restimulators appear in his vicinity. (Although the aberration may be so mild as to include only some chronically affected organ.) Complete dramatization is complete identity. It is the engram in full force in present time with the aberree taking one or more parts of the dramatis personae present in the engram. He may dramatize all the actors or merely one of them. His dramatization is identity, is unreasoned and always entirely reactive. When the analytical mind reaches the low point of awareness potential it held during the engramic incident, that point is also forced upon the aberree as a part of the dramatization. The aberree may also dramatize himself as he was at the moment of the engram’s receipt.

The words, physical actions, expressions, and emotions of an aberree undergoing an identity dramatization are those of the single or various dramatis personae present in the engram.

When less weary, the person is more himself, but he is introverted and trying to figure out his own behavior. Under greater weariness, the person behaves more like the impressions from other personalities.

An engram, which can be dramatized, may at any time in an aberree’s future be dramatized as an identity dramatization, when and if his general tone is low and his environment becomes infiltrated by restimulators.

An aberree, because of high general tone and other factors, may not suffer the restimulation of an engram for a number of years after its receipt. A large number of engrams may be present and undramatized in any aberree, if he has never been presented with their particular restimulators in an optimum moment for restimulation. The common denominator of all insanity is the absence of all or almost all awareness potential in the analytical mind. Insanity can be acute or chronic. Any identity dramatization is insanity, by which is meant the entire absence of rationality.

Any identity dramatization is insanity, by which is meant the entire absence of rationality.

The aberree commonly and chronically dramatizes locks. The engramic content may compel or repress the aberree whenever restimulated. An irrational person is irrational to the degree that he dramatizes or succumbs to engramic content in his reactive mind. The computations which can be made on the basis of dramatization are infinite. The reactive mind thinks in identities. Dramatizations are severe as they approach identity with the engrams which force them into being in the conduct of the aberree. The Dianeticist can profit in many ways by these principles of dramatization. By examination of the rage or apathy or hysteria patterns of the preclear, the Dianeticist will find himself in possession of the exact character of the engrams for which he is searching.

The impressions repress a person’s own personality and force other personalities on him.

In the case of the manic, the fanatic, or the zealot an engram has entirely blocked at least one of the purpose lines deriving from a dynamic. The engram may be called an “assist engram.” Its own surcharge (not the dynamic force) leads the individual to believe that he has a high purpose which will permit him to escape pain. This “purpose” is a false purpose not ordinarily sympathetic with the organism, having a hectic quality derived from the pain which is part of it, even though that pain is not wittingly experienced. This “assist engram” is using the native ability of the organism to accomplish its false “purpose” and brings about a furious and destructive effort on the part of the individual who, without this “assist engram” could have better accomplished the same goal. The worst feature of the “assist engram” is that the effort it commands is engramic dramatization of a particular sort, and if the engram itself is restimulated the individual becomes subject to the physical pain and fear which the entire experience contained. Therefore, the false purpose itself is subject to sporadic “sag.” This sag becomes longer and longer in duration between periods of false thrust. It is easy to confuse, in casual observation, an “assist engram” and an actual, valid drive, unless one also observes the interspersed periods of “sag.” The “assist engram” may or may not occasionally accomplish something, but it does accomplish a confusion in the society that the dynamics of the individual are derived from his bad experiences. This is a thing which is emphatically untrue.

The unassimilated impressions divert the natural drive of the person. He sags when he resists this diversion.

Inherently the individual has great will power. This however can be aberrated. Will power or its absence occasions the attitude of the aberree toward his reactive mind.

The prevention of the dramatization of an engram or a lock further reduces dynamic thrust of the aberree. Chronic prevention lowers his general tone toward the break point. Unhampered dramatization, as it contains restimulation of a physical pain and the reduced potential of the analytical mind, produces other harmful effects.

Unhampered dramatization introduces irrationality in high drive. Prevention of dramatization, as through punishment, lowers the drive and pushes the person into apathy.

Necessity can and does render inactive the entire reactive mind. Dramatization occurs most often in the absence of necessity or when the reactive mind has obscured the presence of necessity.

Rationality may be restored under necessity.

Dramatization is residual in the motor controls including speech and can be allayed by the physical exhaustion of the individual. The organism during dramatization tends to revivify toward the moment of the engram’s occurrence—the engram containing, as one of its identity parts, the complete physical condition of the organism as at the moment of laying-in of the engram.

Dramatization can be allayed by the physical exhaustion of the individual.

There is no folly or facet of human activity which cannot be dramatized. An immediate alleviation can be achieved when addressing an aberree who is in identity dramatization by acting upon the fact that the conditions of auditing, with no exception, already exist; i.e., the preclear returned to the moment of occurrence. Affinity may be established and dianetic auditing begun at once. He can be persuaded to listen for the phrases he is uttering and they can be alleviated by exhaustion on routine procedure.

Recognition of engramic phrases uttered during dramatization may be used through dianetic procedure to reduce the pressure to dramatize.

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Final Comments

KEY WORDS: Anaten, Justification, Introversion, Engramic phrases.

The main points of this chapter are as follows:

The contents of the engramic node are dramatized when that node is activated by similar content appearing in the environment. There is no aspect of human activity, which cannot be dramatized.

A person is more prone to dramatization when he is sick, tired or worn out. Rest, sleep, nutritious food, and change of environment may help reduce the dramatization.

He may be persuaded to listen to the phrases he is uttering as part of the dramatization. He may then meditate on those phrases with mindfulness and see what comes up. As the understanding about those phrases dawns, it diffuses the engramic node.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (0)

OT 1948: The Character of Engrams

April 14, 2019 – 11:12 AM
Reference: DIANETICS: The Original Thesis

This paper presents Chapter 8 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.

.

The Character of Engrams

There are several general types of engrams. It must be understood that the mind possesses a time track of one sort or another and that this track is a specific thing. The time track of an individual will include all those things available to his analytical mind when in a light trance or during regression. However, a person can be regressed and the data which he can easily contact along his time track is definitely not engramic even if it possesses an emotional charge. Everything on this track will be rational or justified experience. It will not include engrams. It may include locks—which is to say that it may include moments of mental anguish or antagonism and may even include instants of unconsciousness which have some slight engramic command value.

The matrix model of mindfulness is more comprehensive than the time track model of Dianetics. All data merged into the mental matrix is analytical and it is available to the individual. Dianetics uses regression but there is no need for regression in mindfulness meditation. Data relevant to contemplation comes up automatically when the mind is not interfered with, and allowed to unwind at its own pace. Well-focused attention is adequate.

The content of the aberrated node is not significant. What is significant is the inconsistency which that node presents to rest of the mental matrix. In other words, the significant aspect is anything that does not make sense. As the mind sorts out the inconsistencies, charge (tension) blows off. Locks-secondary-engram is simply the gradient in which inconsistencies present themselves to be resolved. Resolution comes about as the node under attention unwinds. The contents of the node then assimilate into the matrix.

An engram has several specific, positive characteristics. It is received by the individual at some moment of physical pain. It is not available to the analyzer and it includes conceived or actual antagonism to the survival of the organism. Certain mechanics such as “forget it” may swerve a minimumly painful or unconscious experience off the time track. In that case it becomes possessed of engramic command value.

All engrams with power to derange the analytical mind and aberrate the physical body, lie off the time track and are not available to the analytical mind.

By reason of its disorganization during the moment the engram was received, or because it has been forcibly instructed that the data in the engram is not to be recalled, the analyzer cannot reach the engram by ordinary means because the data has been erroneously labelled “dangerous,” “important,” or “too painful to touch.” The engram then, by a bypass circuit, feeds hidden commands into the analyzer. By a direct instantaneous circuit it is permanently connected to the motor controls, all perceptic channels, the glands, and heart. It is awaiting a moment of low general tone, weariness, or injury when the analytical mind has reduced powers. It is also awaiting the perception of one or more of the engram’s restimulators in the environment of the organism.

At the root of engram is a shock or pain that translates as intense confusion to the mind. When the engram is received the mind is unable to process that confusion on the spot. This confusion releases when there is adequate attention and enough time to let it unwind. An individual should never be forced into the engram, especially when he is weak and tired. That will only bring the “hypnotic” effects of the engram into play.

Continuous restimulation of the engrams can, in itself, cause a low general tone which in its turn permits more engrams to become restimulated. As the reactive mind comes into a more or less completely chronic state of restimulation, the individual becomes more and more governed by this mind. His thought becomes more and more engramic and he can be seen to drop in general tone on the tone scale down to the break point which may be arbitrarily placed somewhere between 2 and 2.5 and below which lies the region of insanity.

If a person is low on the Tone Scale, and he is behaving irrationally then he has many engrams that are in an activated state. He may not be able to concentrate on them and let his mind unwind.

Engramic thought is irrational identity-thought by which the mind is made to conceive identities where only vague similarities may exist. It is necessary that the auditor thoroughly understand engramic thought, for it is with this complete irrationality of identity that he will basically deal. As he works with any preclear, he must continually employ in the bulk of his computation on the case the equation of engramic thinking.

Engramic thinking can be stated by: A equals A equals A equals A equals A.

The engram, when one or more of its restimulators is perceived in the environment during a moment of low general tone, may dramatize. The dramatization is the precise content of the engram. The aberration is the precise content of the engram. The reaction of an individual’s analytical mind when an engram is reactivated is justification.

There is reason to believe that part of this survival mechanism consists of the axiom: The analyzer must never permit an incorrect solution. The engram brings about many incorrect solutions. The analyzer may very well become entirely involved with the attempt to discover and deliver to a society, or to itself, adequate rational reasons for the behavior of the organism.

A person is irrational to the degree he is unable to differentiate among things. Since he is unable to perceive his irrationality he justifies his behavior. His irrationality may be traced through his justifications.

The analytical mind, though working from the command of the engram itself, is unaware of the source of the command. Not being able to discover the source, it introverts more and more in an effort to solve a problem which contains danger to the organism. The analytical mind tends to find the danger without and within the organism.

When a person senses that something is wrong with him, and he can’t find the reason, then he increasingly introverts.

There are five ways that the organism can react to a danger in its vicinity. It can attack it, avoid it, neglect it, run from it, or succumb to it. In just these ways can the analytical mind, which, it must be remembered, is possessed of self-determinism and will power, react to the reactive mind. As the general tone lowers, as the analytical mind becomes less and less powerful through weariness, continual reverses in general health, etc., the more and more heed it must give to the problems unsolved in the reactive mind. These are in essence unsolved problems. As such, they contain their own solutions. The analytical mind, unable to reach them, justifies the organism’s reaction to them (succumbs to them), causes the organism to attempt to flee from them, apathetically may neglect them (as in prefrontal lobotomy), avoids them in many intricate ways, or attacks them. The analytical mind is not only not certain where the experience lies on the time track, it also does not know whether the menace is within the organism or without it. So it can become entirely indiscriminate, and eventually it may achieve highly irrational solutions by which it seeks to solve the problems of the highly irrational reactive mind.

There are five ways that a person deals with a threat: attack it, avoid it, neglect it, run from it, or succumb to it. His handling of threat may become highly irrational too.

The deep sensory perception channel entering the mind is evidently equipped with an “appreciator” which sorts according to the momentary general tone or potential of the analytical mind. The higher the general tone or potential of the analytical mind the better the data in the appreciator is sorted. The appreciator circuits are evidently fully apprised of engramic content in the reactive mind and evaluate restimulators perceived in the environment against the general tone of the analytical mind. When that is low, restimulators route more or less directly to the reactive mind which instantly responds by fixed connections into the motor controls. Commands to the various members, muscles, glands and organs of the body may be sporadic or constant, producing a high variety of responses in the body. Entire vocabularies are fed into the voice circuits directly from the reactive mind when an engram is restimulated. Orders to be active or inactive are fed to other portions. The individual time track of the engram spaces the commands to the organism and a dramatization is accomplished which may contain a portion or all of the content of the engram as governed by the situation. Psychosomatic ills, hysterias, rages, tantrums, criminal acts and any and all content prejudicial to the survival of the organism in which the organism is seen to be indulging has as its source the reactive mind.

The sole and only content of the reactive mind is what exterior sources have done to the organism.

None of the content of the reactive mind is self-motivated. The auditor is then interested only in what is done to the person, not what the person himself has done, since, for purposes of auditing, the acts of the organism in its society can be discounted beyond diagnosis. Even then they are of small importance to the auditor.

The engramic node short circuits the mind when activated. Its content causes psychosomatic illnesses as well as irrational behavior. It is a systemic problem. The person cannot be blamed for it. What needs to be resolved is why the person is behaving the way he is.

An organism possessed of an analytical mind, not victimized by incapacitating disease or injury (and unimpeded) will commit no act knowingly prejudicial to the survival of the organism or other facets within the dynamics. It will combat only those dangers in society, which are actual menaces.

Whatever may be the status of the “innate moral sense,” the basic intent of the basic personality is to further various energy forms along the dynamics toward the goal. Only moments of actual dispersal of the awareness of the analytical mind permit data to be received which is prejudicial to the intent of the dynamics. Only from these “unconscious” moments can the basically stable and enormously powerful and able analytical mind be aberrated through the implantation of unanalyzed, painfully administered, and antagonistic information. It is the purpose of the auditor to find and exhaust these moments from the life of the individual. Dianetic auditing includes therefore, as its basic principle, the exhaustion of all the painfully unconscious moments of a subject’s life. By eradicating pain from the life of an individual, the auditor returns the individual to complete rationality and sanity.

The auditor should never be content with merely bringing the person back to normal. He should achieve with the person a tone 4 even though this is far in advance of the average state of society at this time. A tone 4 with his drives intact and powerful, with his rationality and intelligence increased to the optimum, becomes extremely valuable to the society, whatever his past.

Knowing this the auditor can expect a maximum result of lasting duration with any preclear not physically hopeless.

Dianetics proposes to remove all the painfully unconscious moments of a person’s life. Mindfulness focuses on the removal of all confusions. When one does the latter all painfully unconscious moments also come out in the wash. The outcome is a person who is way above normal.

The entire purpose of the auditor is to rehabilitate the basic dynamic and the normal purpose or profession of the individual whom he audits. Anything implanted by positive suggestion or “education” in the course of auditing is harmful and must be cancelled if delivered. Only the basic personality of the individual can decide and evaluate things in his environment. Therefore, hypnotism as practiced with positive suggestions should be shunned since any and all hypnotic commands with the attendant forgetter mechanisms are no more than artificially implanted engrams. Indeed, it is quite usual for the auditor to have to exhaust hypnotically implanted material received either from some hypnotist or from the analytical mind itself when the person has been operating under auto-control. Hypnotism as such does not work, and a study and short practice in Dianetics will reveal exactly why.

Any “positive suggestion” implanted in the mind through hypnotism, indoctrination or education is harmful to the individual, as it bypasses understanding and is not fully integrated into the mental matrix.

The auditor is attempting to delete the reactive mind from the individual. This reactive mind is an infestation of foreign, careless and unreasoning commands which disrupt the self-determinism of the individual to such an extent that he no longer has charge, through his analytical mind, of the organism itself but finds himself under the continual and chronic orders of unseen, never reviewed exterior forces, often and usually antipathetic to the survival of the organism.

Engrams deal with identities where no identities exist. They therefore pose many strange and irrational problems which are seen as aberrations in preclears. If a human being has been born, he can be supposed to have at least one engram. Anyone who has a birth which has not been cleared by therapy has therefore a reactive mind. There is no disgrace attached to having a reactive mind since it was thrust without his consent and without his knowledge upon an unconscious and helpless individual. Sometimes this was done by persons with the best of imaginable intentions. A person not possessed of a rational mind cannot be rationally considered to be morally responsible, no matter the demands of the current society which hitherto lacked any method of determining responsibility.

The process of birth may result in an engramic node.

The pain contained in the reactive mind is normally severe. The usual parental punishments, family complications, reprimands, minor accidents and the battle of the individual with his environment, influence but do not cause a reactive mind, nor do these things have the power to change materially the reactions of an individual.

In the background of any individual exist many hidden personalities contained in the reactive mind. Dealing in identities, the reactive mind often confuses identities of individuals. Therefore, irrational attachments and antipathies are formed by aberrated individuals who can often find no reason for such attachments or antipathies in their contemporary environment.

The content of an engram is literally interpreted, not as it was stated to the “unconscious” subject, but as it was received in its most literal phraseology and perception.

The organism possesses many inherent mechanisms and abilities by which it can learn or preserve or forward itself along the dynamics. Any one of them may be exaggerated by engrams to a point where it becomes an actual threat to the organism or impedes it. Engrams can and do aberrate all the sensory perceptions, any and all parts of the body, and the mind itself. By demanding suicide the engram can destroy the entire organism.

The error of the reactive mind was introduced by the evolution of speech, for which the basic mechanism was not designed. When all perceptics save speech formed the reactive mind, it was to some degree serviceable. With speech came such complexities of perception and such interchanges of ideas that a whole series of illusions and delusions could be derived from the reactive mind’s necessity to determine identities for purposes of emergency.

With speech the reactive mind came to possess far more power and extensive content. The analytical mind, being a delicate mechanism in some respects no matter how rugged and capable in others, then could become subjected to delusions and illusions which, however shadowy and unreal, must nevertheless be obeyed. By stripping the reactive mind of its past painful content the analytical mind may be placed in complete command of the organism.

The evolution of speech has greatly contributed to the aberrations generated by the engramic node.

The moment a man or a group becomes possessed of this ability, it becomes possessed of self-determinism. So long as these possess reactive minds, irrationalities will persist. Because it contains literal speech, no reactive mind can be conceived to be of any value whatsoever to the rational organism since the methods of that reactive mind remain intact and will continue to act to preserve the organism in times of “unconsciousness” of the analytical mind. There is no residual good in any reactive mind. It is capable of any illusion. It has no assist power along the dynamics save only to cancel or modify other reactive mind content. The source of the individual’s power and purpose is not derived from the reactive mind but from the Basic Dynamic and its eight divisions. Any auditor will establish this to his own satisfaction after he has run a very few cases.

When an individual during auditing is attempting to “hold on to his aberrations,” the auditor may be assured that that person has as part of the content of the reactive mind such phrases as, “don’t dare get rid of it,” which, identically translated, apparently applies to aberrations. It may, in fact, apply in an engram containing an attempted abortion.

The identity factor in the reactive mind may cause the analytical mind to respond irrationally in auditing and to justify the aberrations in many irrational ways. Whatever means he uses or statements he makes to avoid the exhaustion of his reactive mind is contained exactly in the reactive mind as a positive suggestion and has no application whatsoever in rational thought.

Individuality (if by that is meant a man’s desires and habits) is not traced to the reactive mind save when by individuality is meant those flagrant eccentricities which pass in Dickens for characters.

A man is much more an individual after his reactive mind has been cleared.

An individual becomes himself or herself after the confusions and flaws in the mind are cleared.

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Final Comments

KEY WORDS: Time Track, Locks, Black Panther mechanism, birth.

The Dianetic theory says that engrams (perceptions congealed due to shock and pain and stored) are the source of all aberrations. Engram resolves when one becomes aware of its contents. Engramic content may be accessed by guessing and mimicking it. The Dianetic approach tries to dig into the mind and is dangerous. It can have unintended consequences resulting in mental conditioning.

Mindfulness says that all aberrations are caused by perceptions that could not be assimilated into the mental matrix. Such perceptions remain as unassimilated nodes, among which are engramic nodes. Such nodes may be assimilated by letting the mind unwind without interfering with it. The mindfulness approach is a more gradient approach.

Shock corrupts the functioning of the mind by congealing the perceptions of painful experience into engramic nodes. Such nodes take time to unwind. But with mindfulness approach combined with intense focus these engramic nodes may be diffused relatively quickly.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (0)

OT 1948: The Tone Scale

April 10, 2019 – 12:57 PM
Reference: DIANETICS: The Original Thesis

This paper presents Chapter 7 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.

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The Tone Scale

The tone scale denotes numerically, first the status of an engram in the reactive mind, next its erasure or reduction, and provides a measure for sanity in an individual.

The derivation of this scale is clinical and is based upon observation of engrams being worked. When an engram is located and developed, the extreme range it can follow begins with apathy, develops into anger (or the various facets of antagonism), proceeds into boredom, and arrives at last in cheerfulness or vanishes utterly.

The tone scale is essentially an assignation of numerical value by which individuals can be numerically classified. It is not arbitrary but will be found to approximate some actual governing law in nature.

Zero is equivalent to death. An individual with a zero tone would be dead.

Ranging upwards from zero to one then is that emotional bracket which may be denoted as apathy along its graduated scale from death to the beginnings of apathetic resentment.

From one to two is the range of antagonism, including suspicion, resentment, and anger.

Boredom and its equivalents, by which is denoted minor annoyance, begin at two and end at three.

From three to four are the emotions which range from carelessness to cheerfulness.

The term tone four denotes a person who has achieved rationality and cheerfulness.

Each engram residual in the reactive mind has its own independent tonal value. Serious engrams will be found in the apathy range. Dangerous engrams will be found in the anger range. Above two point five an engram could not be considered to have any great power to affect the analytical mind. Each engram in the reactive mind then can be said to possess a tone value. The composite sum of these engrams will give, if added, a numerical value to the reactive mind.

Engrams can be computed as they lie along the dynamics, and to each dynamic may be assigned a tone. The sum of the tones of the dynamics, divided by the number of the dynamics, will give a potential numerical value for an individual. This, of course, is variable depending on the existence of restimulators in his environment to reactivate the engrams.

The probable average of mankind at this writing may be in the vicinity of 3.0. Complete rationality depends upon exhaustion of the reactive mind and complete rationality is invariably the result of reaching tone four.

The initial diagnosis is done by the assignation of a general tone to denote the condition of an individual’s reactive mind. His methods of meeting life, his emotional reaction to the problems in his environment, can be evaluated by the use of the tone scale.

In auditing, as will be covered later, an engram normally can be expected to run from its initial value in the apathy or anger range to tone four. Very shortly after it reaches tone four it should vanish. If it vanishes without attaining the laughter of tone four it can be assumed that the individual’s basic engram has not been erased.

The tone scale has value in auditing and should be thoroughly understood.

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Final Comments

KEY WORDS: Tone, Tone Scale, Tone Four.

A person’s tone generally changes in the following sequence as he improves:

0 to 1 ………. Range of Apathy
1 to 2 ………. Range of Antagonism
2 to 3 ………. Range of Boredom
3 to 4 ………. Range of Cheerfulness

A dead person is assigned a tone level of 0. A person who has achieved rationality and cheerfulness is assigned the tone level of 4. In general, a person has a chronic tone level somewhere between 0 and 4. His actual tone fluctuates around this chronic tone level. The chronic tone level can be improved with mindfulness meditation. Dianetics auditing is a form of guided meditation.

When you are handling an engramic node in meditation or in auditing, your tone may reflect the tone of the painful experience but it will soon discharge with the real tone taking its place. The more the tones from the painful incidents are discharged, the greater is the improvement in the real tone. Progress may be measured by the improvement in the real tone.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (0)