Category Archives: Self-Improvement

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

DIANETICS: The Cell and the Organism

May 17, 2021 – 8:02 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 3, “The Cell and the Organism” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Comments on
The Cell and the Organism

KEY WORDS: Sentient, Unconsciousness, lock, Justification, Dramatization, Valences

Hubbard postulates that humans are sentient because each individual cell of the body is sentient. This sentience enters the body when a human soul enters the sperm and ovum at conception. 

According to Hubbard, the source of sentience is the human soul.

Hubbard postulates that the cell being sentient retains imprints (engrams) of painful events. The reactive mind is the combined cellular intelligence. The primitive intelligence of the reactive mind takes over when the analytical mind fails. It uses pain to whip the body into performing the most basic survival actions.

According to Hubbard, the primitive sentience is devoted to ensuring the survival of the cells and the body.

But human soul is a mystical concept. Sentience can be explained in terms of greater sophistication of the human organism. The body is an electro-chemical system. There is an inherent impulse unique to the electromagnetic field that surrounds the body of the person. This is the soul. The mind is a phenomenon of this electromagnetic field. It controls the activity of the body by manipulating its chemistry through electrical signals.  

The human soul is the inherent impulse unique to the electromagnetic field of the sperm and ovum at conception. 

Perceptions are continually reaching the mind as electromagnetic signals originating from the sense organs. The cells, of course, have their role to play. These perceptions get differentiated into fine perceptual elements and get assimilated into the mental matrix. The organism does not become aware of these perceptions until they are assimilated. 

Ideally all incoming perceptions get assimilated in the mental matrix at which point the organism becomes aware of them.

Assimilation means differentiating perceptions into fine perceptual elements and associating them so they are continuous, consistent and harmonious throughout the mental matrix. When the incoming perceptions cannot be assimilated they are queued in a holding area for gradient assimilation. 

When a perception cannot be assimilated it is queued in a holding area for later gradient assimilation.

A person experiences shock and pain, because the perceptions pack too much information in too little time and space to be differentiated. There are simply too many moving pieces to differentiate. This is called high RANDOMITY. As a result the assimilation of such perception (and its awareness) suffers.

When the randomness is so high that the assimilation stops, we have UNCONSCIOUSNESS. 

These unassimilated perceptions appear as literal recordings. The organism is not conscious of these recordings because they are unassimilated. In Hubbard’s terminology, these unassimilated perceptions are ENGRAMS, and their holding area is REACTIVE BANK. 

Engram and the Reactive mind are most likely situated in the body’s electromagnetic field (aura).

When the person experiences something similar to the engram its perceptions get associated with those of the engram. When this experience is mild it gets assimilated, but then it forms a bridge to the engram. This gives the engram access to the mental circuits. The mild incident that helps the engram this way, is called a LOCK.  The person is aware of the lock, but he is not aware of the engram.

A LOCK is a mild incident that serves to hook the engram to the circuits of the mental matrix.

A RESTIMULATOR is something in the environment, which is similar to the recording of the engram. When a restimulator is present, the engram gets KEYED IN the mental circuit. This makes the body act out the recording of the engram. The person does not know why he is acting that way. He feels stupid.

When the engram keys in, the person acts out the engram without knowing why he is acting that way.

People who make us feel stupid are in some manner using words, voice tones, music, etc. that “restimulate” our engrams. An engram, even when slightly restimulated, reduces our ability to discriminate and makes us feel stupid. This is the reason why many young boys get very confused in the presence of a beautiful girl. 

When a person does not know why he is acting the way he is, he makes up some explanation. This is called a JUSTIFICATION. 

Hubbard refers to the acting out of an engram as DRAMATIZATION. In a dramatization a person may do and say exactly the same things done and said to him or her. 

Usually there are multiple dramatic personnel in an engram. Hubbard refers to such “personalities” as VALENCES. When the engram is keyed in the person dramatizes one of these valences. Usually, he dramatizes the winning valence. If the winning valence cannot be dramatized then he may dramatize another valence, which could be his own losing valence in the engram.

Hubbard says, “If one set out to resolve the problem of aberration by a system of cataloguing everything he observed and were unaware of the basic source, he would end up with as many separate insanities, neuroses, psychoses, compulsions, repressions, obsessions and disabilities as there are combinations of words in the English language.”

The natural solution is, of course, doing what was missed—the assimilation of the engram into the mental matrix.

Hubbard says, “The cells evolved into an organism and in the evolution created what was once a necessary condition of mind. Man has grown up to a point where he creates now the means of overcoming that evolutionary blunder.”

This is not an evolutionary blunder. Man has gained sentience only because of the evolution of a very fine mental matrix. Now he must learn how to assimilate painful traumas.

Hubbard’s technique of auditing requires dependence on another person.

It is now possible for an individual to assimilate his engrams (traumas) all by himself.

This is covered in later chapters.

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

DIANETICS: The Reactive Mind

May 10, 2021 – 7:56 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 2, “The Reactive Mind” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Comments on
The Reactive Mind

KEY WORDS: Engram, Restimulator

It is observed that when a person is unconscious he is not aware of his surroundings, and when he returns to consciousness he cannot recall the events from that period of unconsciousness. Therefore, it has long been assumed that nothing gets recorded in the mind during the periods of unconsciousness, such as, those caused by anesthesia, drugs, injury or shock. 

Hubbard discovered that the mind not only records data during the periods of unconsciousness, but such data acts like hypnotic commands later in that person’s life. More exactly, this data containing painful emotion and physical pain is recorded below the level of “consciousness.” It is called engram. It gets triggered when something similar appears in the environment. 

The engram makes a person act according to its recording. Such action is “rational” in the context of the recording, but it is irrational in the broader context, but the person feels forced to follow it.

These engrams define the contents of the reactive mind. The whole effort in Dianetics is to discharge this content.

Hubbard concludes,

“1. The mind records on some level continuously during the entire life of the organism.”

The mind does not record, but it breaks down the incoming perceptions into data elements and assimilates them in a mental matrix. Only engrams exist as recordings because they do not  break down and get assimilated. 

“2. All recordings of the lifetime are available.”

All perceptions that were assimilated are available as memories. Only recordings are the engrams, and they are not available as memories.

“3. ‘Unconsciousness,’ in which the mind is oblivious of its surroundings, is possible only in death and does not exist as total amnesia in life.”

“Unconsciousness” occurs when perceptions are not getting assimilated. Upon death, the mind disintegrates, and neither consciousness nor unconsciousness remains.

“4. All mental and physical derangements of a psychic nature come about from moments of ‘unconsciousness’.”

All perceptions are assimilated with other data. Therefore, they can be differentiated and understood in a wider context. Engrams are not assimilated. 

“Unconsciousness” is the single source of aberration simply because it is accompanied by non-assimilation of data.

“5. Such moments can be reached and drained of charge with the result of returning the mind to optimum operating condition.”

Hubbard says,

“There is no such action as ‘mental conditioning’ except on a conscious training level (where it exists only with the consent of the person).”

A person holding fixed ideas, prejudices or biases is “mentally conditioned.”  He is fixated on the narrow context of his ideas and is broadly “unconscious.” This is the case with all “mental conditioning,” including training patterns. 

“Mental conditioning” is “rational” in a narrow context only. It generates errors in thinking and behavior in a wider context.

Hypnotic suggestions are also rational within a narrow context, and appear normal to the person. Different people may act differently upon that suggestion, but they see their actions as rational. However, other people, viewing those actions in a broader context, see them as irrational.

A hypnotic suggestion makes a person act irrationally, though he thinks he is acting rationally. 

Engrams are “hypnotic suggestions” that are almost hard wired into the body-mind system. Originally, simple engrams provided the organism with an ability to react fast under certain situations so the organism could survive. Engram that include language are a lot more complicated and they have a lot more power to aberrate the person. Homonymic words are supposed to be interpreted in terms of their context. But the context of the engram being fixed, the homonymic words lead to the strangest behavior.

Language gives engrams a lot more power to aberrate.

Painful emotion and physical pain makes the engram. Pain is a measure of the misalignment in perception. It makes the perception difficult to break down and assimilate in the mental matrix. The shock of accidents, the anesthetics used for operations, the pain of injuries and the deliriums of illness are the principal sources of engrams. Once an engram gets activated by a similar experience it get its hooks into the circuits of the mental matrix and aberrates them.

Aberration starts and spreads through the body-mind system as engrams gets hooked up into the mental matrix.

Engrams may be categorized as follows:

Contra-survival engram — contains apparent or actual antagonism to the organism.
Pro-survival engram (Sympathy engram) — a sympathetic address to an artificially unconscious subject.
Painful emotion engram — caused by the shock of sudden loss such as the death of a loved one.

The most dangerous category is the “sympathy engram” as it pretends to support the person’s survival. This is the mechanism used in hypnotism. This engram may be installed when sympathy is shown to a sick person.

A sick person should be tended to efficiently with compassion, but without verbal sympathy.

“Unconsciousness” is related to the body, and “unawareness” is related to the mind, but the common denominator of both is inability to differentiate. Under this condition the mind associates different things as being identical to each other. Thus, under the influence of the engram, the body-mind system operates on much simpler, rugged principle. 

Pain knocks out the ability to differentiate and keeps the engram out of sight and moored below the level of “consciousness.” The pain also drives the actions of the engram. If the command of the engram is resisted, the pain overwhelms the organism.

Engram retains its power as long as it stays below awareness. Engrams are not really deleted; they are resolved by bringing them up to awareness and assimilating them in the mental matrix. No engram has any constructive value until it is assimilated. 

Engrams do not become part of the experience until they are assimilated.

Hubbard says,

“It is not very complicated to understand what these engrams do. They are simply moments of physical pain strong enough to throw part or all the analytical machinery out of circuit; they are antagonism to the survival of the organism or pretended sympathy to the organism’s survival. That is the entire definition… The engram is the single and sole source of aberration and psycho-somatic illness.” 

Any material that has not been fully assimilated in the mental matrix functions like an engram to greater or lesser degree.

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By vinaire | Also posted in Dianetics | Comments (24)

DIANETICS: The Analytical Mind and the Standard Memory Banks

May 8, 2021 – 7:24 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book Two, Chapter 1, “The Analytical Mind and the Standard Memory Banks” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Comments on
The Analytical Mind and the Standard Memory Banks

KEY WORDS: Monitor, Memory, Thinking, Training pattern

The mind computes in a wide range—from analytically computing with full differentiation to simply reacting to a stimuli. The resulting signals then influence the activity within the body. Hubbard presents this spectrum of mental activity as the analytical mind, the reactive mind, and the somatic mind respectively.

The “monitor,” or the “person,” is actually the consciousness of the body-mind system operating as a single unit. It refers to itself as the “I”. Later, in Scientology, Hubbard assigned to it the symbol “thetan.”

The “I” is the consciousness of the body-mind system operating as a single unit.

The mind computes by freely associating all relevant data in the desired direction. When there are gaps in data it uses assumptions and projections to maintain consistency, continuity and harmony. 

The mind is as analytical as the data is finely differentiated and complete.

Hubbard’s ideas of different “memory banks” can be replaced more logically by a mental matrix of data elements. The data elements are produced when the incoming perceptions are finely differentiated. These data elements are then assimilated in the mental matrix such that all duplications are purged, and all possible associations among data elements are established. The mind appears to have an infinite capacity for differentiating and assimilating perceptions.

The mental matrix provides the most efficient system of data storage in real time. 

The body perceives, and the mind differentiates and assimilates the perceptions. Perceptions are still received when the “I” is unconscious, but they are recorded instead of being differentiated and assimilated. The capture of data is thus perfect. It is limited only when the sense organs are defective as with blindness or deafness. 

It is rare that the data is missing in the mental matrix, but not all of it is necessarily assimilated.

The mind produces memories, visualizations and computations by establishing association among the data elements. The primary source of error in “rational” computation comes under the headings of insufficient differentiation and incorrect associations.

We have rationality when the associations among data elements are continuous, consistent and harmonious. Irrationality enters with incorrect associations due to insufficient differentiation.

At a deeper level, the mind is wired into the body to regulate the mechanical functions of living, such as, the heart beat, the endocrines, selective blood flow, muscles, urine, excreta, etc. These functions may, therefore, be influenced through the mind, or modified through training patterns. Such training patterns may be annulled or updated consciously.

Training patterns are considered rational because they are consciously set up even when they are very close to being stimulus-response.

Rationality depends on free association among data elements as determined by the dynamics of a situation. When there are fixations (fixed ideas, bias, prejudice, etc.) the free associations are limited, and the ability to differentiate suffers. 

Rationality depends on the ability of the mind to associate data freely. Any fixations lead to “conditioning,” that can interfere with rationality.

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

DIANETICS: Summary

May 6, 2021 – 9:20 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book One, Chapter 5, “Summary” from  DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Comments on
Summary

KEY WORDS: Analytical Mind, Reactive Mind, Somatic Mind

Dianetics needs an update after seventy years. To do so, we need  to move from a human-centric approach to a universal one. The universe has been evolving all along; man is part of that evolution.

Therefore, we need to revise the dynamic principle of existence from survival to evolution.

The goal of man is not necessarily to seek immortally. From a universal point of view, the goal of man becomes the broadening of the consciousness to be able to understand the whole universe as it truly is.

Therefore, we need to revise the goal of man from immortality to a STATIC viewpoint from which all MOTION can be viewed as-is.

This requires expanding the viewpoint from self to a universal viewpoint that encompasses the family, the society, the race, mankind, all life, matter and energy.

The update of above fundamental postulates, in alignment with Buddhism, brings many changes to the subject of Dianetics.

The cycle of birth and death is natural in the course of evolution. A life organism must die in order to evolve into a higher form. The natural process of death due to old age need not be painful. Upon death, the body disintegrates into organic molecules. The molecules come together to form the next iteration of the BODY. The mind also disintegrate into patterns that reside in the organic molecules. These impressions also come together to form the mental matrix in the next iteration of the MIND. The “spirit” is the innate impulse of energy. It animates the next iteration of the BODY-MIND SYSTEM as it did the previous one. Any individuality is part of the body-mind system. It evolves as the body and mind evolve.

The individual is not immortal. The individuality evolves as the body-mind system evolves. The only eternal element is the subtle energy that energizes the body-mind system and its consciousness.

The urges of man are expressed as the dynamics of self, family, society, race, and mankind. These dynamics evolve from the innate impulse of energy that we see in the properties of matter and in the life activities of all different organisms, such as, plants, insects and animals.

The dynamics align naturally in man as he puts his attention on evolution.

The human mind is engaged in resolving anomalies (inconsistencies, discontinuities and disharmonies). It breaks the incoming perceptions into perceptual elements. These perceptual elements get assimilated into a mental matrix. Thinking occurs as the perceptual elements freely associate themselves in the desired direction. The more assimilated are the perceptual elements, the more analytical is the mind. The perceptions of painful shocks and disorientations are difficult to reduce and assimilate. They fuse themselves with other perceptual elements of the mental matrix. The greater is the fusion of perceptual elements, the more reactive is the mind.

Intelligence is the ability of the mind to perceive, pose and resolve anomalies. Alignment of dynamics determines the persistency of the organism in it course of evolution. Both intelligence and the alignment of dynamics get inhibited by the fusion of perceptual elements; this is the core of aberration. Aberrations are special type of anomalies because they reduce the ability of the mind to resolve anomalies.

All aberrations arise from the reactivity of the mind, which is caused by the fusing of perceptual elements in the mental matrix due to painful shocks and disorientations.

The somatic mind translates the signals from the mind to the body. Reactive signals generate aberrated behavior and psychosomatic illnesses in the body. A training pattern is not an aberration because it is not reactive; it can be changed at will. A habit, on the other hand, is reactive; it is difficult to overcome. Aberrations result in irrational computations and activities. Not all destructive activities are necessarily irrational.

The mind is capable of resolving its aberrations and the anomalies in the environment.

As the aberrations are resolved the viewpoint expands. The person moves on the tone scale from apathy to violent effort to mediocre success to overall success and happiness.

Happiness is the joy that comes from resolving aberrations and anomalies.

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

DIANETICS: The Four Dynamics

May 2, 2021 – 8:44 PM

Reference: Hubbard 1950: Dianetics TMSMH

These are some comments on Book One, Chapter 4, “The Four Dynamics” from DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

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Comments on
The Four Dynamics

KEY WORDS: Dynamic, The dynamics

Man’s behavior can be explained fully only in terms of his brotherhood with the Universe. Man is the result of the evolution of the universe, and now he is acting as a catalyst to further evolution. Man’s behavior cannot be explained by focusing just on self, sex, group or even mankind. 

Hubbard asks, “Exactly for what is man surviving?” He then comes up with four dynamics.

[NOTE: Hubbard’s earlier writing on these Dynamics appears at The Dynamics. DYNAMIC = “innate impulse or urge”. SYMBIOTE = “any or all life or energy forms which are mutually dependent for survival.”]

“DYNAMIC ONE is the urge toward ultimate survival on the part of the individual and for himself. It includes his immediate symbiotes, the extension of culture for his own benefit, and name immortality.

“DYNAMIC TWO is the urge of the individual toward ultimate survival via the sex act, the creation of and the rearing of children. It includes their symbiotes, the extension of culture for them, and their future provision. 

“DYNAMIC THREE is the urge of the individual toward ultimate survival for the group. It includes the symbiotes of the group and the extension of its culture. 

“DYNAMIC FOUR includes the urge of the individual toward ultimate survival for all Mankind. It includes the symbiotes of Mankind and the extension of its culture.”

As explained in the previous chapter, this “ultimate survival” is not immortality but attainment of a STATIC viewpoint from which further evolution of the universe may be catalyzed.

Attainment of STATIC viewpoint requires Man to expand his viewpoint from self to families, to groups, to species, and to all mutually dependent entities.

As a person grows up, his viewpoint naturally expands from dynamic one to dynamic two, three and four. A higher dynamic is naturally inclusive of the lower dynamics. Any exception would only mean fixation on a dynamic to the exclusion of other dynamics. A fixation would simply amount to the aberration defined as a “narrow viewpoint.” A rational person shall be operating harmoniously on all dynamics.

Any competition among dynamics, if not harmonious, would constitute an anomaly that needs to be resolved. An anomaly, if considered to be something normal, shall be an aberration.

Any solution must resolve the anomaly completely, and that would bring about an optimum scene. The categorization into four dynamics is for the sake of dealing with the complexity of a situation only. 

Hubbard says, “The case of a sailor giving his own life to save his ship answers the group dynamic. Such an action is a valid solution to a problem. But it violates the optimum solution because it did not answer for Dynamic One: self.”

Of course, it would be optimum to save oneself while also saving the group, but the safety of the group comes first, and the group must be saved even at the expense of self, depending on its value to mankind.

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