Interesting New Site

My dad sent this link to me and I think I should share it with you: Religious Freedom Watch. This site gives up to the minute information on some of the stuff that's been in the news or on the internet about Scientology. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions. I'll try to answer them as best I can.

Purpose of this Blog

I had someone ask me why I write in this blog and share Scientology with people. I thought I should share the answer with everyone.

I have been a Scientologist my whole life. I have studied a lot of the principles of Scientology, but I am still learning. So, it's nice to have a place to share my favorite quotes and principles.

Also, (and this is really the bigger reason) I have found the principles of Scientology to be extremely workable in life. They have helped me get through some rough times. Scientology is a religion that accepts people of all faiths because it is an applied religious philosophy (meaning it deals in application of its axioms and principles to life). Anyone can use it and, from what I've seen, it doesn't matter what your religion is, you can use Scientology to better your life.

I think there's a lot of crap out on the Internet about my religion and I think it's time somebody gave some true information to people that helps them better their life, not just invalidate things. I know bad news and conflict draw more attention than good, simple solutions to life, but I don't think it should be that way.

So, that may have been a little long winded, but I hope it answers any questions. I'll leave you with a quote from A New Slant on Life:

"The true story of Scientology is simple, concise and direct. It is quickly told:

"1. A philosopher developed a philosophy about life and death.

"2. People find it interesting.

"3. People find it works.

"4. People pass it along to others.

"5. It grows."

-L. Ron Hubbard

Self Determinism

This comes from the book Advanced Procedures and Axioms - Chapter An Analysis of Self Determinism:

"Self-Determinism is that state of being wherein the individual can or cannot be controlled by his environment according to his choice. In that state, the individual has self-confidence in his control of the material universe and the organisms within it along every dynamic. He is confident about any and all abilities or talents he may possess. He is confident in his interpersonal relationships. He reasons, but does not need to react." - L. Ron Hubbard

I am currently reading Advanced Procedures and Axioms and so far am totally loving it. It's all about helping people become self-determined and responsible. That can seem like a daunting task, but the book really lays it out for you. I think reading Dianetics and Science of Survival (the books written previous to Advanced Procedures and Axioms) has helped my understanding tremendously.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about self-determinism. I've had questions about personal integrity in Scientology - questions about whether we are really allowed to think for ourselves basically. I think the above quote says it all. There's a little more I can say, just to clear things up further:

"The goal of the auditor with his preclear is not the release of a "psychosomatic", not the improvement of appearance, not greater efficiency or better interpersonal relations. These are incidental.

"THE GOAL OF THE AUDITOR WITH THE PRECLEAR IS THE REHABILITATION OF THE PRECLEAR'S SELF-DETERMINISM." - L. Ron Hubbard

The above quote is also taken from the book Advanced Procedures and Axioms - Chapter An Analysis of Self Determinism.

So, what do you think Scientology counseling (also called "auditing" or "processing) is trying to do?

PS: I tried to make it super easy for you to clear up any misunderstandings with regard to Scientology words. They are all linked to glossaries in the Scientology website, or to other posts that explain them.

3/14/09: I misquoted "THE GOAL OF THE AUDITOR WITH THE PRECLEAR IS THE REHABILITATION OF THE PRECLEAR'S SELF-DETERMINISM." - L. Ron Hubbard
and have now corrected the quote. Sorry to everyone and thanks to SomethingNice for correcting it!

Sanity

This is an awesome quote:

"Sanity is dependent upon computation into the future." - L. Ron Hubbard

I thought that was pretty fascinating.  I mean, think about it.  Your sanity depends upon your ability to think about and plan the future.  

Have you ever had a back bill or deadlines that seem to rush up to you?  That's not planning the future.  Feels pretty insane, right?

What do you think?

How People Treat Each Other

I read a great quote the other day that I thought you'd all like:

"An individual will start to treat himself like others have treated him! And you can put that down as a law.  He'll treat himself as others have treated him.  And he will also treat others as he treats himself. Works both ways." - L. Ron Hubbard

I can think of many times I've acted how others said or expected I'd act - even if I didn't really want to.  I've then treated others in the same way.  It's pretty interesting how this vicious circle occurs - you treat someone poorly, they treat another poorly, etc.

Have you ever encountered this?

Criminon

I've begun to get involved with a program called Criminon. It's a criminal reform program and a lot of the program is done via extension course. So far I've found helping the Criminon group fascinating. The whole idea is that criminals can actually reform, which I think is pretty unusual (at least, it's a foreign idea to me. I always thought that once you were in the system, you were pretty much screwed.)

The whole idea of the program is to allow the criminal to once again feel self respect, because at that point, they no longer need to be criminal. It's very successful. Criminon has been known to drop the recidivism rate (the rate of people returning to jail) down to between 10%-6%. I think that's pretty cool.

Anyway, I just wanted put a plug in, since I'm involved with it now. If you want to help out, you can go to www.criminon.org, or if you know someone who could be helped by this program, get them on it! It's super cool and I'm having a great time volunteering.

A Holiday Message

There is a great quote that I always like to look at during the holiday season. Here it is:

"The hardest task one can have is to continue to love his fellows despite all reasons he should not.

"And a true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue.

"For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant hope.

"For those who cannot, there is only sorrow, hatred and despair. And these are not the things of which greatness - or sanity or happiness are made.

"A primary trap is to succumb to invitations to hate."

- Excerpted from the book Scientology - A New Slant on Life by L.Ron Hubbard

As you move through the holidays, you may encounter family who you do not generally see. Perhaps you don't normally speak with them or you don't like them. I know I usually end up seeing "friends" at holiday parties who aren't really friends at all but are people I am not fond of. The idea of loving in spite of reasons you should not is profound and inspiring every holiday season. It helps me get through those awkward moments and usually helps me have a better holiday season, with more peace and love to bask in then if I decided to hate.

Let me know if you've ever experienced a bad holiday - bad blood or whatever - and how you got through it.

A Quote about War

I though this quote is particularly applicable to our current situation:

"A society which advances into a war as a solution of its problems cannot but depress its own survival potential." - L. Ron Hubbard.

That one's pretty interesting. We've been at war for several years now, and I haven't seen the state of the US improve. What about you?

Sanity

I read this great quote in Dianetics and I thought it was pretty darn applicable to just about everything in life. Here it is:

"Sanity is the ability to tell differences. The better one can tell differences, no matter how minute, and know the width of those differences, the more rational he is." - L. Ron Hubbard

It's a pretty cool definition and even works with the court idea of insanity - that the person is unable to tell that his actions were wrong. He's unable to differentiate right from wrong.

I recently started working for a lawyer and after reading this definition of sanity, his insistence on details and understanding the differences in cases makes more sense than ever. It's helped me work out differences in cases that I wouldn't otherwise have looked for.

What about you? What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving all! Every Thanksgiving someone asks me what I am thankful for and I can never pick just one thing. I know I am thankful for everything in my life - for all I've experienced and have yet to experience. With regard to this blog, I am thankful to have all of you. You have helped me discuss my religion, have asked intelligent and interesting questions, have brought forth some interesting observations and I hope I have helped you too.

Thanks and have a happy and safe turkey day!

The Wrong Thing to Do

There have been several sets of fires here in SoCal these last couple weeks and a question that's gone through the minds of many is: "What (if anything) can I do?"

Well, there's a great quote by L. Ron Hubbard that can answer that question:

"There's one positive certainty that you can have: that it's wrong to do nothing."

That really hit home for me this weekend. I have two sets of family that live up by the fires and a good friend who's home got burned down. At first I felt helpless - what can I do about a whole house burning down? What can I do about my evacuated family? I discovered what I could do on an immediate basis was call them, let them know I loved them and that I'd help them if they needed me. I rallied some friends to call up my buddy who's home was burned down. I've never experienced something as shocking as my home burning down - I hope I never do - but I hope words of comfort and offers to help eased the burden.

So, no matter what you do, remember to do something. If it's calling friends or loved ones just to let them know you care - if it's resolving a family argument that has strained your relationship, or if it's donating money or items to charity. The wrong thing to do is nothing - so do the right thing and do something.

Meet a Scientologist

There's a cool new function on the Scientology.org site. If you go to the video channel and click "Beliefs and Practices", you can "meet a Scientologist". It's basically a group of videos real-life Scientologists made to tell you about them, their lives and generally what they do. Anyway, it's cool, so check it out

Developing Dianetics

Someone asked me about Dianetics (which is defined in an earlier post) and how it was developed. While there is a 400+ page book on this called Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, there is a small paragraph in Dianetics that might help answer the question. So, here's the quote, it's from the chapter "The Goal of Man":

"Consider all knowledge to fall above or below a *line of demarcation. Everything above this line is not necessary to the solutions of Man's **aberrations and general shortcomings and is inexactly known. Such a field of thought could be considered to embrace such things as metaphysics and mysticism. Below this line of demarcation could be considered to lie the finite universe.... The known data in the finite universe can be classified as scientific truth when it has been sensed, experienced and measured. All factors necessary to the resolution of a science of the mind were found within the finite universe and were discovered, sensed, measured and experienced, and became scientific truth." - L. Ron Hubbard

To me, this statement shows that the discovery of Dianetics was done in a completely scientific way. I mean, it seems pretty darn logical to classify your information and delineate what it is will resolved your problem from what won't resolve it.


*Line of Demarcation means: that which marks the boundaries or limits of, or divides something so that its divided parts are separate and identifiable.

**Aberration means: Any deviation or departure from rationality.

The Aims of Scientology

I've never posted the Aims of Scientology, which are covered in Scientology 0-8 - The Book of Basics (can you tell I like that book? It's a plethora of information). Anyway, here are the aims:

"A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology."

I really like that quote. It's such a simple sentence that lays out what many people want in their heart of hearts. What do you think?

The Scientology Code of Honor

I was reminded of The Code of Honor the other day and I thought I might share it with you guys. I've always found it a useful guide for living. So, here's The Code of Honor as given in Scientology 0-8 The Book of Basics:

"1. Never desert a comrade in need, in danger or in trouble.
"2. Never withdraw allegiance once granted.
"3. Never desert a group to which you owe your support.
"4. Never disparage yourself or minimize your strength or power.
"5. Never need praise, approval or sympathy.
"6. Never compromise with your own reality.
"7. Never permit your affinity to be alloyed.
"8. Do not give or receive communication unless you yourself desire it.
"9. Your self-determinism and your honor are more important than your immediate life.
"10. Your integrity to yourself is more important than your body.
"11. Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today and you make your tomorrow.
"12. Never fear to hurt another in a just cause.
"13. Don't desire to be liked or admired.
"14. Be your own adviser, keep your own counsel and select your own decisions.
"15. Be true to your own goals."

The above code is considered an ethical code in Scientology, which means it's your decision whether or not you follow it.

I've always liked that about this code because for me (for example) I love #11 (Never regret yesterday...) because it's so freeing. I love the idea that I make my own tomorrow. However, #12 (Never fear to hurt...) I've never seen as necessary - because I have never run across a situation in which hurting another would be for a just cause. I can certainly see an example of a cause in which it's just to hurt another (someone trying to kill you, for example), but happily I've never had to deal with something like that.

One thing I love about this code, and really about Scientology, is that I've always been encouraged to make my own decisions. And from my point of view, that's extremely important.

Tell me what you think about the Scientology Code of Honor.

A Professional

I seem to be into quotes lately, so forgive me if you're sick of them. No, scratch that, tell me if you're sick of them and I'll figure out something else to write about. Otherwise, speak now or forever hold your peace. :)

Now, since I'm speaking of quotes, here's a great one about being a professional:

"A professional is somebody that can produce a high-quality product. A professional is not an audience, and when he views things, he looks for what's good in them and neglects the poor, low-grade things. The reason he does this is so he has an ideal scene. Without an ideal scene, he just operates off technical data and produces, artwise, a low-quality product and isn't professional. For instance, without an ideal scene, a director can never get a preconception of the shot.

"In viewing things that approach an ideal scene, the true professional works out how they did it and when presented with similar tasks of production can bring off things which approach an ideal scene in his own work." - L. Ron Hubbard

I really like the kind of quote that you can apply to your own life instantly. This is one such quote to me. I feel as if I can easily work at professionalism by always deciding on the ideal situation or scene and comparing what is currently there to that. In this way, I can make my product better, I can make my life better.

What do you guys think?

The Two Rules for Happy Living

I have always enjoyed the book Scientology A New Slant on Life. It's very simple and insightful . Two thing I've learned from it that I've found invaluable are the Two Rules for Happy Living. These are:

"1. Be able to experience anything.
"2. Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily."

That's pretty deep, huh? When I first read number 1, I was like "no way can I be able to experience anything. Who would want to do that anyway? Well, L. Ron Hubbard further explains:

"To be happy one only must be able to confront (which is to say, experience) those things that are. Unhappiness is only this: The inability to confront that which is. Hence 1. Be able to experience anything."

Well, that doesn't seem to bad. I can face the nitty gritty of how things are.

The second rule isn't so hard. I can understand that causing others to experience things they don't want to experience can upset them. In the book, L. Ron Hubbard puts it like this:

"All bad acts, then, are those acts which cannot be easily experienced on the target end."

That makes sense to me. In an extreme example, shooting a person is something they can't easily experience, thus it's not a good act to do. Not so extreme - you're mom isn't will to experience you sugar high, so when you take a cookie without permission, she's likely to get upset. You know you're not supposed to do it, so you don't feel so hot either.

So, try out the two rules and see if they make your life happier. Let me know how it goes.

Dianetics - What's it really all about?

I've been asked to do an overview of Dianetics, and I wanted to start by reiterating that I have written a few posts on this already so, if something doesn't make sense, please check them out or comment. Another great resource is the Dianetics website.

Here's what L. Ron Hubbard has to say about Dianetics:

"The history of Dianetics would be the history of a voyage of discovery, of an exploration into new and nearly uncharted realms, Terra Incognita, the Human Mind, a land which lies an inch behind your forehead."

I've spoken earlier about the mind and about engrams, but I haven't really talked a whole lot about how Dianetics works.

The basic idea is that you have two parts of your mind, the analyzer - which records your conscious thinking and memories and aides that thinking, and the reactive mind - which records unconscious memory. When some situation similar to a painful or unconscious experience you've had before comes up, you begin to think illogically, using your reactive or stimulus-response mind.

Dianetics allows you to look at those painful experiences and memories. It allows you to then move them from the reactive mind to the analytical mind, where they no longer cause you to react in a stimulus-response manner - rather, you respond rationally. Once you've completed this process, you have achieved the state of Clear. You can reason with your analytical mind without any unnecessary stimulus response reactions getting in your way.

There is a ton more data on this with great examples and real-life experiences in the Dianetics website, but that's the basic gist. Any questions?

What is squirrelling?

Most religions get altered in some way by someone. In Scientology, we have a word for this. It's called "squirrelling".

The Scientology definition of "squirrelling" is: "Squirrelling (going off into weird practices or altering Scientology) only comes about from noncomprehension."

It's interesting to look at, because you see this happening with other religions a lot. People interpret what others have said differently, the religions branch out and end up saying something very different from what the original said. It makes sense that this would all stem from someone not understanding why something is that way, then changing it.

Scientology and Life

I've had some accusatory comments (which I haven't posted - it's my blog, right?) about the quote regarding personal integrity. The quote is very simple and succinct:

"Nothing in Dianetics and Scientology is true for you unless you have observed it and it is true according to your observation. That is all." - L. Ron Hubbard

I've gotten comments saying that is a scapegoat for Scientologists, saying that we use it too freely. So, I thought I'd dredge up another quote about Scientology and life. I sincerely hope this helps people understand how Scientologists feel about their religion and about life in general:

"...But just because you know Scientology is no reason or license to stop living. You should be able to live much more fully. But you feel very free to use or not use exactly what you know, to use it as you think it ought to be used, to create the effect you want to create or just to create a random effect. That's a wide license, isn't it? The material is yours. Go ahead and take it." - L. Ron Hubbard

I think that's pretty clear. You can study the material of Dianetics and Scientology, then decide if you want to use it in life and how much you'd like to use it in life. Just like every other religion, you have the choice of when and how to use the information you've studied.

Any questions?

PS: Please, if you do have a question, frame it nicely and politely or it won't be published. If you accuse me or my religion of anything, I won't be publishing your comment. If you have a question about something that has nothing to do with this post, I'll try to answer it or give you a link that will answer it. I think these are pretty reasonable requests and most readers do the above naturally - but some don't and may wonder why they aren't getting their comments published.