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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

A Quote about Life

Here's a great quote from L. Ron Hubbard's book A New Slant on Life:

"Life is an interdependent, cooperative effort. Each and every living organism has a part to play in the survival of other organisms."

That quote effects me more than ever this week, because not only have I gone to two weddings this month (so far), but I adopted a puppy. Each living organism that these actions involved made me supremely happy. In fact, I've started to lose weight (yay!) and get more exercise because of one of these organisms (the puppy) and actually got to dance with my boyfriend because of the other organisms (the people at my friend's weddings). So, thank goodness for other people, for plants and animals! Without the variety we cultivate, this world would be very boring and (in my humble opinion) no one would survive well.

Anyone want to add anything to this? Does anyone else have a real life example of other organisms aiding their survival?

More on Clear

I'm a bit late on this post... sorry about that. I just got back in town and adopted a puppy - so you can imagine that I have a lot on my plate at present! Anyway, I wanted to talk about something I just reread in Dianetics, The Original Thesis. It's all about the state of Clear, which I went over a bit in a previous post. I found another great quote about Clear that I'd like to share:

"The entire intent and technique of Dianetics is to break the partial or complete suppression of the analytical mind by the exhaustion of the false data contained in the engrams which compose the reactive mind. When this is done, the analytical mind begins to clear itself somewhat on the order of an automatic computer which makes way for new problems." - L. Ron Hubbard

I thought that was a pretty neat quote - it gives a better idea of what you are really trying to do in Dianetics, and what someone is talking about when the speak of "Clear". I've seen a lot of uncertainty and, frankly, false information about this state online and I think it's interesting to look at the person who first talked about the state to find out what the real deal is.

Let me know if you have any questions, or want to discuss the state of Clear.

The Scientology Video Channel

The Scientology Video Channel just got two new videos - one is a look inside a Scientology Church and the other is all about L. Ron Hubbard. Check 'em out.

A Note about Clear

I have recently been re-reading some of the books on Dianetics - which is the methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard to address and handle the effects of the spirit on the body.

One of the many reasons I have been re-reading these books is to find a good definition of Clear. I've been asked many questions about this subject, and it seems that a lot of people think that achieving Clear means that the person who has achieved this is no longer him or herself - that they no longer have their own memories. This is not the case.

The basic idea is that there are two parts of the mind. One part contains the ability to reason, the other contains all of the times that a person was unconscious and/or felt a lot of pain. The first part is called the analytical mind - because it can analyze. The second is the reactive mind - because it causes the person to react to certain stimuli that that particular part of the mind considers dangerous - whether it is really dangerous or not.

Basically a Clear has had all of the moments in his reactive mind re-filed into his analytical mind. This means that all of those points of pain or unconsciousness are not able to be consciously accessed by the analytical mind and evaluated for validity. This restores the "Basic Individual" to his full consciousness and makes him more himself. In Dianetics the Original Thesis L. Ron Hubbard states:

"Man is not a reactive animal. He is capable of self-determinism. He has willpower. He ordinarily has high analytical ability. He is rational and he is happy and integrated only when he is his own basic personality.
"The most desirable state in an individual is complete self-determinism."

So far I have found that the best way of really understanding what Dianetics is and what a Clear is would be to read L. Ron Hubbard's books on Dianetics. They are really extremely interesting and I've found that the development of Dianetics is best understood when these books are read in order.

Do you have any questions about Dianetics I could help you with?

Challenging Environments

I read an interesting piece of information today. Here's the quote:

"Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment. That isn't my theory. It's a fact." - L. Ron Hubbard.

I find it interesting because I cannot think of one environment that man has not strived to overcome, and all environments are challenging. It's pretty thought provoking. I mean, what if we had a completely unchallenging environment? Would we make up something to make the environment challenging or would we let it be and enjoy it. I think man would invent something to make it challenging, but that's just me. What do you think?

Personal Integrity

Hey! I'm back from vacation. :)

This post is about something I should have gone over earlier - Personal Integrity.

In Scientology, personal integrity is defined like this: "knowing what you know, what you know is what you know - and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed. And that is integrity and there is no other integrity."

In the article (called Personal Integrity) written by L. Ron Hubbard, he goes on to say, "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."

This is one of the things I think is so cool about Scientology. You are not asked to take anything on faith, but you are asked to apply the information in Scientology and see if it works. If it does, they you'll know it's true.

What do you think about this?

Four Words You Need to Know to Understand Scientology

Here are some words that I've seen mis-defined all around the Internet:

Scientology n. A religious practice developed by L. Ron Hubbard which applied to man's spirit and his spiritual freedom. It is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.
The word Scientology comes from Latin scio which means knowing in the fullest sense of the word and Greek logos, study of. In itself the word Scientology means "knowing how to know". Scientology is a route, a way rather than a dissertation or an assertive body of knowledge. Through its drills and studies, one may find the truth for himself. The technology is therefore not something to believe, but something to do.
(as excerpted from The Creation of Human Ability, Scientololgy 8-8008, Scientology, the Fundamentals of Thought, Scientology 0-8: The Book of Basics and other writings by L. Ron Hubbard.)

Dianetics n. A methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard to address and handle the effects of the spirit on the body. Its application can help alleviate such ailments as unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and psychosomatic illnesses.
Dianetics comes from the Greek word dia, meaning through and nous, meaning soul.
It is most accurately described as "what the soul is doing to the body through the mind".
(as excerpted from Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Handbook for Preclears, Scientology, the Fundamentals of Thought, and other writings by L. Ron Hubbard)

Thetan n. The person himself - not his body or his name or his mind or anything else; that which is aware of being aware; the identity which is individual. The term was coined to eliminate any possible confusion with older, invalid concepts. It comes from the Greek letter theta, which the ancient Greeks used to represent thought or perhaps spirit, to which an "n" is added to make a noun in the modern style. It is also "theta to the nth degree", meaning unlimited or vast.
(as excerpted from The Creation of Human Ability, Scientololgy 8-8008, Book of Case Remedies and other writings by L. Ron Hubbard)

Mind n. A communication and control system between the thetan and his environment. The mind is a network of communications and pictures, energies and masses which are brought into being by the activities of the thetan versus the physical universe or other thetans. It is not the brain. It is everything used as part of the individual's thinking process, plus the thetan. A mind has to be alive to be considered a mind. Thus, a computer or electronic brain cannot be a mind; it can only be a thinking machine, as there is no life connected to it.
(as excerpted from Handbook for Preclears, Scientology, the Fundamentals of Thought, and other writings by L. Ron Hubbard)

An easy way to prove the difference between the brain, the mind and the thetan is: Think of a cat (you actually have to try this now...). So, you've got a picture of a cat? Who's looking at it? Where is it located?
Let me know what happens when you do the above.

Scientology: A Short History

Here's another question that could fall under the heading of "What is Scientology?" and that is, "How did Scientology Start?" Here's a short history of Scientology:

Basically, L. Ron Hubbard was an engineer who had traveled the world and began studying the mind in 1923. In 1947 he wrote a manuscript laying out some of his discoveries and that manuscript was circulated around by friends, who copied it and passed it along. (This manuscript is now published and is called Dianetics, The Original Thesis.) As copies of the manuscript got passed around more and more broadly, L. Ron Hubbard received more and more letters asking him questions about his discoveries. He decided to write a comprehensive text on the subject to answer all those questions. This is where the book, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health sprang up from.

When Dianetics was published, people all across the world began to put the techniques that L. Ron Hubbard lays out into practice and after thousands of hours of Dianetics counseling was conducted, evidence had been gathered about the fundamentally spiritual nature of man. L. Ron Hubbard had discovered that man was a spiritual being, inhabiting a body and using a mind. These discoveries made him realize that he had entered the realm of religion.

In 1954, the first church of Scientology was formed in Los Angeles by a group of Scientologists. Within a few years churches had been formed across the country and around the world.

In the years between 1950 and 1986, L. Ron Hubbard finished his research on the spiritual nature of man. These writings are available in most libraries across the US. Further writings are available at Scientology churches.

Fun Links for the Week

Here are some great links to end your week with (or start your new week with... depends on how you look at it):

It seems that everyone is talking about the new Scientology Video Channel.
Here are some links with what bloggers have to say:

Philosopher L. Ron Hubbard posted about it
The Scientology Religon Blog posted about it
Celebrity Scientologists posted about it

Code Simplicity blogs about Creation in Programming

The Scientology Religion blog posts about where to get L. Ron Hubbard's books for free