Category Archives: Self-Improvement

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

DIANETICS: Keying-in the Engram

July 5, 2021 – 4:41 AM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 9, “Keying-in the Engram” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Keying-in the Engram

KEY WORDS: Key-in

The aberrations and the psychosomatic illness of the organism persist simply because their source is not known. The individual attributes his troubles to certain known incidents, because he cannot perceive the actual source—the hidden engrams. He does so because the known incidents are the key-ins.

The key-in is a mild incident that activates a dormant engram. 

The engram was received some time in the past. But it was dormant waiting to be processed. Now it is activated by an incident that contains something similar to the content of the engram. There could  be many more similar incidents, but none of them are the source of his troubles. The individual is not “conditioned” to act in a certain way because of these “memories.” All such incidents stay in his memory only because of the hidden engram. Nothing short of the processing of the hidden engram shall handle his troubles. When the engram is finally processed and assimilated, all these troubling memories also go away and become a part of experience.

The conscious level incidents described as the causes of trouble, are never the actual cause.

A person may spend an entire youth without displaying any aberration. Then a normal event, such as, marriage and having children, takes place. And, suddenly, we find him acting in a very abberated manner. Maybe something happened when he was weary or ill, that keyed-in the first engram. This may then have the effect of keying-in more engrams. 

We are looking at a key-in when a sudden decline occurs without a traumatic incident present.

Any operation under anaesthetic, any drugging, or hypnotizing of a patient may bring about the keying-in of engrams. Any time the body is tired and weary, an engram may be keyed-in. It is possible that a new engram may key-in old engrams. Engrams are timeless things unless they are arranged properly on the time track. 

These conscious-level experiences are at best guide-posts leading toward the actual seat of trouble.

Corporal punishment shuts down the consciousness to some extent. It restimulates old punishments as minor engrams, which rest usually on major engrams. Punishment only causes reactions, which take one of five forms: attack, flee, avoid, neglect or succumb. Man is usually quite resilient  and acts rationally in spite of engrams. But only when the law of affinity begins to be broken and becomes part of engrams, do human beings become a punishment source and make matters worse in the long run.

Keep up the punishment cycle and the prisons will get more numerous and more full.

The cycle begins with a large number of engrams before birth. It gathers more in the dependent and rather helpless condition post-birth. Punishments of various kinds during childhood key-in the engrams. New engrams enter that also involve the earlier ones. Similar incidents accumulate. Illness occur, and aberrated actions set in.

Short of processing the engrams, some relief may be brought about through environmental change, education and physical treatment. 

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

DIANETICS: Contagion of Aberration

June 26, 2021 – 1:18 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 8, “Contagion of Aberration” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Contagion of Aberration

KEY WORDS: Aberration

Aberrations are contagious. They are passed along through dramatizations of engrams just like disease are carried by germs. The common source of contagion is somebody dramatizing his engram around an “unconscious” person; for example, on operating table under anaesthetic, after an accident, or when sick or injured. The father and mother, in dramatizing their own engrams around sick or injured children, pass them along just as certainly as if those engrams were bacteria. This is how misconceptions and poor data also gets manifested in a society’s culture.

Aberration passes from people to other people in a society like a communicable disease does.

Aberration is also passed through the programming recorded on the genes. Birth itself may contribute to contagion as it can be a very painful experience for both mother and child that causes unconsciousness. Mother and child can then become mutually restimulative to each other. If the husband has been aberrated, he will have aberrated or restimulated his wife and children in one way or another, even when he used no physical violence upon them.

Aberration passes from parents to children in a family.

In the larger sphere of society contagion of aberration is extremely dangerous and cannot but be considered as a vital factor in undermining the health of that society. A society which practices punishment of any kind against any of its members is carrying on a contagion of aberration. Contagion of aberration is never more apparent than in that social insanity called war.

Engrams enter from the exterior world into the hidden recesses below rational thinking and prevent rational answers being reached. This is exterior-determinism. Any interference with self-determinism cannot but lead to wrong computations. Forced groups are invariably less efficient than free groups working for the common good. 

In a society, the passing of aberration has much more severe consequences than the passing of misinformation alone.

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

DIANETICS: Prenatal Experience and Birth

June 8, 2021 – 2:04 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 7, “Prenatal Experience and Birth” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Prenatal Experience and Birth

KEY WORDS: Unconsciousness, Earlier similar, Birth, Prenatals

It has long been believed that mother influences the child even before it is born. Dianetics have discovered the exact role prenatal experience and birth play in aberration and psycho-somatic ills. 

Underlying aberrations and psycho-somatic ills is unconsciousness. During unconsciousness the mental matrix is dissociated from the normal perceptions. The perceptions recorded during the period of unconsciousness do not get assimilated in the mental matrix, but stay in a holding area. They then cause later aberrations and psycho-somatic ills.

Unconsciousness prevents incoming perceptions from getting assimilated in the mental matrix.

Unconsciousness is caused by major illness, accident or injury. Usually the brain is affected by a lack of blood flow or oxygen. There might be infection, blood clots, swelling or damage to the brain. Levels of impaired consciousness include confusion, disorientation, delirium, lethargy, stupor, and coma. Narco-synthesis is a treatment for psychiatric disturbances that uses narcotics. Narcotics are drugs that cause unconsciousness. 

Unconsciousness is caused by major illness, accident, injury or drugs.

The narcotics depress awareness by dissociating the mental matrix from normal perceptions. Under their influence the aberrative circuits are bypassed and the assimilated portion of the mental matrix may be accessed. Hubbard figured out a way to reach very early incidents using narco-synthesis and could uncover their content. But the patient could not assimilate the contents of those incidents unless they were very early. It seemed that the assimilation of later engrams depended on the assimilation of earlier engrams. 

Perceptions from earlier periods of unconsciousness are easier to assimilate than those from later periods of unconsciousness.

When an engram could not be assimilated, an earlier similar engram was looked for. When birth was accessed and recounted, assimilation took place. That meant that there were real perceptions from birth that existed in the patient. In some cases, when birth could not be assimilated, earlier similar painful incidents were looked for and were found to exist in the prenatal area. We now know that a great deal of recoding takes place in the child when he is in the womb.

Periods of unconsciousness happen as early as during the prenatal period. Birth itself can be such a period.

Dianetics believes that the recordings exists in the cells since cell is the basic building block of life organisms. However, modern studies show that engrams are more likely to exist in the electromagnetic aura within and around the body. The Dianetics reactive bank is the sum total of the unassimilated perceptions that are situated in this aura.

The mental matrix and the reactive bank most likely exists as a field of thought, which is much finer than an electromagnetic field.

The electromagnetic aura is a natural extension of a cell. Dianetics has discovered that impressions exist in this aura as far back as the sperm and zygote. An engram is an impression that contains enough disturbance not to get assimilated in the mental matrix. For practical purposes the mental matrix may be considered to be the electromagnetic aura itself. 

The mental matrix is the seat of awareness. An unassimilated perception represents a point of unconsciousness.

The natural programming in the mind is the result of assimilated perceptions. The unassimilated perceptions of engrams impose another layer of programming that causes aberrations and psychosomatic ills. The engrams parasitically use the circuits of the mental matrix. Therefore, the language contained in prenatal engrams may not cause aberrations and illness until the child has learned the language.

Failed abortion attempts are the most important factor in aberration. 

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

DIANETICS: Emotion and the Dynamics

May 31, 2021 – 9:23 AM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 6, “Emotion and the Dynamics” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Emotion and the Dynamics

KEY WORDS: Emotion, Suppressors

Emotion seems to be inextricably connected up with the actual force of life. When an individual’s dynamics are increasingly suppressed he descends into the emotions of hostility, anger, rage, fear, terror, and apathy. In this range of emotions he starts to become increasing irrational and reactive in his behavior.

The life force when suppressed produces various emotions.

Under normal circumstances, perceptions get continually assimilated in the mental matrix. The inherent impulse continually running through the mental matrix becomes the response as the perceptions are assimilated. It is similar to the electrical impulse that moves through the circuits of a computer naturally without effort, and forms a response. The response from mental matrix then directs the organism in real time. This function is natural and lightening fast. The situations are assessed and acted upon based on assimilated experience. There is imagination and prediction. The necessity level is brought up, as needed, to handle the situation. Adrenalin helps. So there is learning. It is all very rational and straightforward. The emotion associated with it is calm and serene. 

Emotion breaks down in terms of the endocrine system and the surging of life force to handle the situation.

But when there are engrams hooked up into the circuits there is dimming of awareness and precipitation of reactive behavior, since the traumatic perceptions are not assimilated in the mental matrix. Not having access to the engrams, the mental matrix is forced to make projections and come up with justifications for the irrational reactive behavior. There is attention and additional effort involved to figure out the reasons. Such justifications, obviously, are approximations in the absence of the actual truth. Therefore, they corrupt the experience and pose problems for the future, generating anxiety. 

The life force that is normally calm and serene becomes agitated and turbulent In the presence of engrams.

The incidents encountered by the organism, which generate engrams are called external suppressors. These suppressors then continue to influence the organism through dramatization of the trauma and the corruption of experience. These influences then become internal suppressors that reduce the person’s ability to handle external suppressors. Thus, a dwindling spiral ensues throughout one’s life. These suppressors push the person down in the emotions of hostility, anger, rage, fear, terror, until he becomes apathetic. 

The turbulence of life force ultimately ends up in the condition of apathy.

When a person dramatizes an engram he may express the emotion of different valences in that engram. These emotions are acute as they last only for the duration of the dramatization. But underlying such outbursts is the chronic emotion of the person, which depends on the accumulated internal suppressors influencing that person.

Emotion may then be seen as a personal condition resulting from the damming of the life force.

When this dammed up life force is released in any amount there is always relief followed by laughter. Thus, laughter is the relief of painful emotion. 

A person who is calm and serene with no internal suppressors is called a “clear” in Dianetics. 

A “clear” can handle external suppressors with greater ability. He can keep himself cleared of any residual influence of trauma that he encounters. Dianetic procedure may handle some internal suppressors through an auditor, but not all, as they do not train a person to handle himself.

In Dianetics, an auditor, in the long run, introduces more complications than it resolves in another person.

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

DIANETICS: Psycho-somatic Illness

May 28, 2021 – 11:20 AM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 5, “Psycho-somatic Illness” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Psycho-somatic Illness

KEY WORDS: Psychosomatic illness, Sympathy engram

Psycho, of course, refers to mind and somatic refers to body; the term psycho-somatic means the mind making the body ill or illnesses which have been created physically within the body by derangement of the mind. 

Psycho-somatic illness are generated by the body-mind system. 

There are three stages of pathology: predisposition, by which is meant the factors which prepared the body for sickness, precipitation, by which is meant the factors which cause the sickness to manifest itself, and perpetuation, by which is meant the factors which cause the sickness to continue. A number of germ diseases are predisposed and perpetuated by engrams. Almost all accidents are to be traced to dramatization of engrams. Thousands and thousands of conditions result from engrams to disturb or derange the body. 

Engrams predispose the body for illness, precipitate accidents, and perpetuate the sickness.

The senses can be tuned up or down by hypnotic suggestion. Here we have simply the spoken word going into the mind and causing physical function to change. The verbal suggestions through hypnosis can even interrupt the blood flow. 

The body-mind system is very susceptible to the words in engrams. 

Mental tone makes body tone go down. Body tone, then being down, makes mental tone go down. A dwindling spiral ensues until stopped. Many drugs and treatments simply move the individual from one chronic engram into another. They don’t rid the person of his engrams.

There is no known treatment to rid a person of his engrams. 

Hubbard lists a whole lot of common ailments, such as, arthritis, blood pressure, bizarre pains, malformations, liver and kidney troubles, which, he claims, can be traced back to engrams. As the engram goes away, so goes the pain, so vanishes the arthritis. There is reason to believe that childhood illnesses are in themselves extremely mild and are complicated only by the restimulation of engrams. The germs may not be a serious problem in the absence of engrams.

Permanent solution lies in resolving the engram somehow.

Derangement falls sharply into two categories: mental (called aberration) and physical (called somatic). Both aberration and the somatic are present in every engram; but the engram can manifest itself chronically as either a somatic or as an aberration. When somatic is manifested, the person is in his own valence in the engram. When aberration is manifested, the person is in another valence.

Whether the derangement is mental (aberration) or physical (somatic) depends on how the engram is being dramatized.

Hubbard found that chronic psycho-somatic ills existed only when they had a sympathy engram behind them. A person is usually in his own valence when a sympathy engram is received. The psychosomatic illness is used to attract affinity (sympathy). Resistance to past therapies has resulted from these sympathy engrams.

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