It is also to be noted that, in many of his writings, Hubbard puts in parenthesis after certain words other words with the same or substantially the same meaning for the assistance, so he explains, of translators. In quoting Hubbard's actual texts this Report includes the words which Hubbard has put in parenthesis.
One further preliminary observation should be made: the attempted codification or description of scientology theories in this Chapter - and, indeed, in any other part of this Report - should not be taken as indicating in any way an acceptance of their validity.
Hubbard writes in Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought that fundamental to scientology is what he calls the "Cycle of Action" which is "an apparency as follows: Create, then survive; then destroy; or Creation, Survival, Destruction". Hubbard illustrates the apparent cycle of action by this example: "A child is born, he grows, he reaches manhood, he grows old, he dies". However, he stresses that this is only the apparent cycle of action and that "The actual cycle of action is as follows: Create, create-create-create, create-counter-create, no creation, nothingness": "create-counter-create" being to "create something against a creation", which equals "to create one thing and then create something else against it", which equals to "destroy".
Hubbard says that an actual cycle of action consists of various activities, each of which is creative. By way of illustration he takes a wall which is seen to be standing.
"To be apparent it is necessary that the wall be constantly created. The act of 'destruction' is to exert against the wall another creativeness that of the action or activity of knocking the wall down. Both the wall standing there and the action of knocking it down are 'creative' actions. Because we may object (to argue against, dislike) to a wall being knocked down, we vilify (swear at, scorn) the creativeness involved in knocking it down with the word 'destructive'. Actuality tells us there is no such thing as destruction. There is only creation against a creation. There is another 'type of destruction' and this is no more creation. By no longer being a party to (a member of) the wall's creation, the wall, in theory, can cease to exist for one. This is true in actual practice in Scientology ".
"Reality," writes Hubbard, "is the way things appear. Reality is apparency .... Reality is fundamentally agreement. What we agree to be real is real". This statement and the confusion of the use of the word "create" illustrates the wholesale distortion of the meaning of words in which Hubbard engages. His writings abound in instances of words being assigned meanings different from their accepted or conventional meanings and he frequently invents new words for his purposes. Of course, each branch of learning has its own vocabulary, and a person, whether he be a lay person or the founder of scientology, may make his own dictionary. But Hubbard confuses his followers by the use of common words in a quite artificial and contradictory way, and obscures the meaning which he is endeavouring to convey.
Throughout the Inquiry, the Board has been aware of the difficulty caused by Hubbard's misuse and abuse of common English words, and it has endeavoured to bear in mind the distorted meanings which Hubbard has given to such words. However, allowing for Hubbard's peculiar deviation from standard English meanings, the Board finds no more acceptable to reason the great body of Hubbard's teaching on scientology theory.
The cycle of action thesis which he propounded may appeal to some as an interesting view of life, but one cannot ignore the fallacies which it contains, such as reality being an apparency and the claim that for a thing to exist it must be constantly created, and that in scientology a thing may cease to exist if one ceases to think it exists.
There are three conditions, writes Hubbard, which comprise life, and they are "be, do and have": the conditions of "being" or "beingness", "doing" and "havingness". Hubbard teaches that people's beingness, doing and havingness may vary greatly according to their mental conditions and that scientology processing can produce in a person a greater degree of beingness and havingness, as well as raise his ability to do things.
"This is Life".
One of the highly recommended books on scientology described as standard reading for beginners, is a volume of about 100 pages entitled, This is Life, An Introduction to Scientology by Reg Sharpe, an American. This book was written in 1961 and reprinted on several occasions, including once in Australia. Sharpe somewhat simplifies the cycle of action, stating it to be simply "Create-Survive-Destroy (Decay)" or, as applied to a human body" Birth-Life-Death" and he quotes axiom 13 of the "Axioms of Scientology" in which Hubbard has written "The cycle of action of the physical universe is Create, Survive (persist), Destroy".
This is Life is a simply written book, in which the author takes simple examples to illustrate his points, but lacks logic and assumes a multitude of premises without proving them - in effect, leaving it until later when the student will become more advanced in scientology thought and able then to "cognite" on them without having to be satisfied that such premises are valid.
Stable Datum.
Sharpe stresses the need for a person to have " stable data" in all matters, and he quotes axiom 52 as follows, "A Stable Datum is necessary to the alignment of data". It emerges from a consideration of Hubbard's and Sharpe's writings on stable data that so long as the stable datum is true for you, all is well, even though it may not be true for others ; and, further, if a stable datum which you have chosen turns out to be untrue for you, you start off with a new stable datum and again all will be well. Sharpe readily assumes that the reader will cognite on scientology and requests him to read the book uncritically by the following exhortation
"the reason I have drawn your attention to all this is because in studying this book and, indeed, anything Scientological, I want you to be sure that the data presented is true. If you sit and try to prove it wrong you will be in trouble. On the other hand I do not wish to try to prove it right. I just want you to read it and make up your mind as to its truth or otherwise. I do hope you will neither accept nor reject anything just because you do not understand . . . . Above all I want you to discover for yourself what is true".He then deals with people who are sure of themselves and who, he writes, have "certainty", because they have the most stable data.
"There are so many things on which they are certain. In consequence they are better able to sum up situations and act to the best advantage. At worst we have the insane. There is little if anything that they are certain about. Certainty you will observe is closely allied to sanity. The more certainties a man has the more sane he is."In this insidious way, the reader of This is Life is led to read the rest of the book, always with the subconscious thought that what he is reading is right and that his own deficiencies are the explanation for his failure to understand and accept, and the further subconscious thought that to lack certainty about any proposition in the book is, to that extent, to be insane.
The Eight Dynamics.
In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, Hubbard writes, "As one looks out across the confusion which is life or existence for most people, one can discover eight main divisions to each one of which applies the conditions of existence. Each division contains a cycle of action." These divisions are called "dynamics" and there are eight dynamics which, according to Hubbard, are: -
"THE FIRST DYNAMIC - is the urge towards existence as one's self. Here we have individuality expressed fully. This can be called the self dynamic.THE SECOND DYNAMIC - is the urge toward existence as a sexual or bisexual activity. This dynamic actually has two divisions. Second Dynamic (a) is the sexual act itself and the Second Dynamic (b) is the family unit, including the rearing of children. This can be called the sex dynamic.
"THE THIRD DYNAMIC is the urge toward existence in groups of individuals. Any group or part of an entire class could be considered to be a part of the Third Dynamic. The school, the society, the town, the nation are each part of the Third Dynamic, and each one is a Third Dynamic. This can be called the group dynamic.It will be noted that dianetics had the first four dynamics only. Scientology, so Hubbard writes, "embraces dynamics one through seven as known territory, scientifically demonstrated and classified". This claim is not borne out by any material placed before the Board, whether orally or as written material. Such written material as dealt with dynamics beyond the third dynamic was patently speculative. Indeed, in practice, scientology has rarely, and barely, gone as far as the third dynamic. The self dynamic and the sex dynamic have been the dominant themes, if one wishes to classify scientology processing in Victoria in terms of dynamics.THE FOURTH DYNAMIC is the urge toward mankind whereas the white race would be considered a Third Dynamic. All the races would be considered the Fourth Dynamic. This can be called the mankind dynamic.
THE FIFTH DYNAMIC is the urge toward existence of the animal kingdom. This includes all living things whether vegetable or animal. The fish in the sea, the beasts of the field, or of the forest, grass, trees, flowers or anything directly and intimately motivated by life. This can be called the animal dynamic.
THE SIXTH DYNAMIC is the urge toward existence as the physical universe. The physical universe is composed of matter, energy, space and time. In Scientology we take the first of each of these words and coin a word MEST. This can be called the universe dynamic.
THE SEVENTH DYNAMIC is the urge toward existence as or of spirits. Anything spiritual, with or without identity, would come under the heading of the Seventh Dynamic. This can be called the spiritual dynamic.
THE EIGHTH DYNAMIC is the urge towards existence as Infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being. It is carefully observed here that the science of Scientology does not intrude into the Dynamic of the Supreme Being. This is called the Eighth Dynamic because the symbol of infinity stood upright makes the numeral '8'. This can be called the infinity or God dynamic."
Of the eighth dynamic, Sharpe writes, "The 8th Dynamic. This with all humility I'll leave to you. God. The Supreme Being. The Creator. The Infinite. Nature. But you are certainly interested in It's survival. Nothing would be here without It".
Though Hubbard claims that "the science of scientology does not intrude into the Dynamic of the Supreme Being", this is not so, as Chapter 27, which deals with Hubbard's disparagement of religion, makes clear.
The dynamics are constantly referred to in scientology practice, preclears being processed on, and their aberrations being described as being in respect of, one or more of the dynamics.
ARC Triangle.
In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought Hubbard writes,
"There is a triangle of considerable importance in Scientology and understanding of it gives a much greater understanding of life, and an ability to use it.The ARC triangle is the keystone of living associations. This triangle is the common denominator to all of life's activities. The first corner of the triangle is called Affinity .... The word 'affinity' is here used to mean love, liking or any other emotional attitude ....
The second corner of the triangle is Reality. Reality could be defined as 'that which appears to be. Reality is fundamentally agreement. What we agree to be real is real'.
The third corner of the triangle is Communication. In human relationships this is more important than the other two corners of the triangle in understanding the composition of human relations in this universe. Communication is the solvent for all things. It dissolves all things .....
ARC are understanding. If you would continue a strong and able communication with someone there must be some basis for agreement. There must be some liking for the person and then communication can exist.... Communication is essentially something which is sent and which is received. The intention to send and the intention to receive must both be present in some degree before an actual communication can take place ...."
Original with Scientology, as are all these concepts, the ARC triangle understood is an extremely useful tool or weapon in human relationships. For instance, among the ARC triangle laws, a communication to be received must approximate the affinity level of the person to whom it is directed.
As people descend the tone scale they became more and more difficult to communication with, and things with which they will agree, become more and more solid. Thus we have friendly discourse high on the scale and war at the bottom. Where the affinity level is hate, the agreement is solid matter, and the communication . . . bullets."ARC is stated to be "the component parts of understanding," and in scientology practice great emphasis is placed on the ARC triangle, especially on communication. Several highly placed HASI witnesses explained at great lengths the intricacies of the ARC triangle. Indeed, so detailed and protracted was their evidence on this particular phase that the Board was at first puzzled by the repeated insistence of these witnesses as to the importance of this aspect. It was explained that unless there was affinity, a readiness or willingness to receive the communication, there could be no communication; and, further, unless both the sender and receiver had a reality on what was being communicated the triangle was not functioning and there would be no communication and, of course, if there was no communication there was no triangle. It was said, further, that for the triangle to function effectively there had to be an acknowledgement of the communication by the recipient, and an acknowledgment of the acknowledgment by the sender. For how many stages such acknowledgments should go back and forth was not determined. The acknowledgment could take various forms, and witnesses explained the way in which auditors acknowledged the acknowledgement of preclears to whom they had communicated a reality. Each individual auditor, it was said, had his own pet phrases, such as "good", "right", "O.K.", "beauty", or some other similar pleasantry.
Summary of Scientology by Jack Horner confirms the teaching concerning the travelling back and forth of acknowledgments. He writes, " There are actually five lags in one-half of the cycles; between origination and receipt, between receipt and answer, between answer and its receipt by originator, between receipt of answer and acknowledgment, between acknowledgment and its receipt". In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, Hubbard stipulates the necessity of repetition and of acknowledgments . He writes that auditing ability includes "an ability to place one question worded exactly the same way over and over again to the preclear no matter how many times the preclear has answered the question. It should include the ability to acknowledge with a 'good' and 'all right' every time a preclear executes or completes the execution of a command."
As the Inquiry proceeded it became evident that the scientology witnesses were proceeding on the basis that scientology was real to them but at that stage not real to the Board, and that for the Board to "cognite" on and so understand scientology, it was necessary to establish affinity with the Board and to communicate to the Board the reality which they had on scientology. And so the witnesses sought to indoctrinate the Board, and, as far as circumstances allowed, they applied techniques appropriate to ARC which, however, were merely techniques of salesmanship, whereby they sought to obtain the Board's assent to each statement they made or proposition they advanced. Witnesses even went so far as to seek the Board's actual acknowledgment of each proposition advanced. In this preoccupation to receive the Board's assent to whatever might be said lay the explanation, in part at least, for the thoroughness of their treatment of the ARC triangle.
The Board believes that the processes so practised on it did not extend beyond the elementary personal efficiency course level, probably because graduation or promotion to higher levels in scientology requires a "cognition" on all that has gone before.
When one is in disagreement with the HASI or a person, there is said to have been an "ARC break". A person who endeavours to break away from scientology finds it very difficult to do so, because he has been conditioned to believe that any hostile attitude he develops towards scientology is due to an ARC break for which he must accept responsibility and that it is in his own interests to have the break repaired. If the ARC break is with the HASI, it makes great efforts to repair the break. Frequently many hours of processing are directed towards repairing an ARC break. One very common method by which the preclear is lured back is by the letter writing technique. This technique, devised and directed by Hubbard, involves the writing of letters, sometimes dozens of them to the one person, requesting the recipient to come to the HASI and talk things over and so repair the ARC break.
If a preclear during a course of auditing has an ARC break with HASI it is said that it is because of a "by-passed charge", the auditing being faulty, as for example where the auditor has wrongly found as the "basic" in a chain of engrams an engram later in time than the real basic. In such a case Hubbard directs that the preclear be telephoned and told that there is a more basic incident or RI (reliable item) or GPM (goals-problems-mass), and the rebellious but worried preclear is induced to return for further processing.
Axioms of Scientology.
"Scientology as a science", writes Hubbard in Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, "is composed of many axioms (self-evident truths, as in geometry)". There are 57 axioms in scientology. In dianetics there are 190 axioms. There are also 7 prelogics and 24 logics. Hubbard described the first 10 axioms in scientology as the most fundamental "truths", by which he means "commonly held considerations". In propounding the axioms of scientology Hubbard makes entirely unfounded assumptions and is quite illogical. The whole list of scientology and dianetic axioms and the prelogics and logics appear in various scientology publications, including Ability, issue 80, and the New Zealand Affinity Magazine, issue No. 8: and no good purpose would be served in setting out at length in this Report the text of the axioms, prelogics and logics. It will be sufficient to refer in detail to the first 10 axioms of scientology which Hubbard regards as fundamental, and which he sets out as follows in Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought:
"Axiom 1. . . Life is basically a static. (Definition: A life static has no mass, no motion, no wave-length, no location in space or in time. It has the ability to postulate and to perceive.)The Board heard by way of final address an analysis of the axioms of scientology by Mr. Phillip Wearne. He submitted that a cursory glance at the axioms may give the impression that they are aligned somewhat with early Christian gnostic faith, and the axiomatic thetan-theory may appear to be a statement in Greek symbols of spirit as created of the physical universe, so that axioms 1 and 2 describe God as Spirit and axioms 2 to 10 describe the creation of the physical universe by God and subsequent axioms state the separation of souls from God by the interposition of MEST, the human soul being then finally designated as the "thetan" in axiom 50. Mr. Wearne submitted, however, that Hubbard really means that a life static is an entity which partakes of the quality of thought and not matter, and is not one Supreme Being by which all life and all things were created but that the physical universe was created jointly and severally by a conglomeration of thetans, that is, by individual souls, each of which had the capacity of infinite and eternal intelligence as distinct from temporal and spatial existence of material substance. The concept of a thetan or thetans creating the physical universe is, as Mr. Wearne pointed out, quite the reverse of Christian belief. Mr. Wearne developed this thesis in a way which would be of interest to the philosopher or theologian minded to embark upon controversy with Hubbard. For the purpose of this Report, it is sufficient to say that Hubbard's dogmatic assertions and assumptions as expressed in the axioms, are unsupported by reasons or proof. As axioms they claim to be self evident truths, but they are neither self evident, nor are they true. One scientologist was quite enthusiastic about Hubbard's axioms of scientology which he regarded as "a gem of literary expression", and as being "the finest piece of writing in the English language", but, to use his own words, "I have found that the axioms were very confusing to me for a start and I will say that it was a couple of years before they began to make sense". So much for their self evident qualities! Gillham, co-principal of the Melbourne College of Personal Efficiency, said that after being a scientologist for many years he still did not understand the axioms.Definition: In Scientology, the word ' postulate ' means to cause a thinkingness or consideration. It is a specially applied word and is defined as causative thinkingness.
Axiom 2 . . . The static is capable of considerations, postulates, and opinions.
Axiom 3 . . . Space, energy, objects, form and time are the result of considerations made and/or agreed upon or not by the static, and are perceived solely because the static considers that it can perceive them.
Axiom 4 . . . Space is a viewpoint of dimensions. (Space is caused by looking out from a point. The only actuality of space is the agreed upon consideration that one perceives through something and this we call space.)
Axiom 5. . . Energy consists of postulated particles in space. (One considers that energy exists and that he can perceive energy. One also considers that energy behaves according to certain agreed upon laws. These assumptions or considerations are the totality of energy.)
Axiom 6 . . . Objects consist of grouped particles.
Axiom 7 . . . Time is basically a postulate that space and particles will persist. (The rate of their persistence is what we measure with clocks and the motion of heavenly bodies.)
Axiom 8 . . . The apparency of time is the change of position of particles in space.
Axiom 9 . . . Change is the primary manifestation of time.
Axiom 10 . . . The highest purpose in the universe is the creation of an effect."
Not only do some of the axioms contain startling and unproved assertions, but some of the terms used by Hubbard in the axioms are in effect defined in the axioms themselves, so that one goes round in a circle and finds axioms proving each other but little else and with no acceptable premises as a starting point. Hubbard further confuses himself and the reader by equating concepts to substances. For instance, in axiom 3 Hubbard states that space, energy and time, all of which are concepts, may be perceived, presumably in the same way that objects are perceived, and that all or any of them are the result of considerations made and/or agreed upon or not by the static by which presumably he means they exist, only because they are in any given case considered or agreed upon by the static to exist. In axiom 7 he defines "time" as being basically a postulate that space, which is a concept, and particles, which are substances, will persist. So too, in axiom 5, he writes that energy, which is a concept, consists of postulated particles, which are substances, in space, which is a concept.
In the axioms, Hubbard thus confuses abstract concepts with concrete objects and treats the existence of each as purely subjective to and dependent on the considerations and/or agreements of the individual static.
The Tone Scale.
In scientology, constant reference is made to the tone scale. The tone scale was first developed by Hubbard in dianetics and its purpose was to classify a variety of human emotions in a graduated order from the most dismal or lowest, which is said to be apathy, to the highest which is said to be enthusiasm. Each emotional level is given a number and the emotions are arranged in a descending order of desirability. The tone scale has been produced in various forms and representations of this tone scale have not been entirely consistent one with the other. So far as the numbering is concerned it is said that the numerical gradation of the emotions is incidental and any other set of numbers could equally wel1 have been chosen; the significant feature is that the emotions are in a descending order of desirability. Some representations of the tone scale have been very detailed and comprehensive, one such representation or a variant of it being the "Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluations" which is a chart with 12 columns vertically and about 50 columns horizontally, and reproducing what is, in effect, a detailed table of much of the contents of Science of Survival. In this book of several hundred pages, which is "built around a chart", Hubbard has set out what he considers the significance of the tone scale and the way in which persons rise up the tone scale in response to dianetic processing, and, as he would now have it, in response to scientology processing.
For the purpose of this Report the reproduction of Hubbard's highly elaborate Chart of Human Evaluations is unnecessary. It is sufficient to produce here two variations of the tone scale, one appearing in Scientology: 8-8008, and the other appearing in This is Life.
The thetan tone scale appearing in Scientology: 8-8008 is as follows:
40.0 Serenity of beingness 8.0 Exhilaration 4.0 Enthusiasm 3.0 Conservatism 2.5 Boredom 2.0 Antagonism 1.8 Pain 1.5 Anger 1.2 No-sympathy 1.0 Fear 0.9 Sympathy 0.8 Propitiation 0.5 Grief 0.375 Making amends 0.05 Apathy 0.0 Being a body - 0.2 Being other bodies - 1.0 Punishing other bodies - 1.3 Responsibility as blame - 1.5 Controlling bodies - 2.2 Protecting bodies - 3.0 Owning bodies - 3.5 Approval from bodies - 4.0 Needing bodies - 8.0 HidingThe tone scale appearing in This is Life is in the following form:
4.0 Enthusiasm 3.5 Strong Interest Mild Interest 3.0 Contentment Indifference 2.5 Boredom 2.0 Expressed Hostility 1.5 Anger 1.1 Unexpressed Resentment 1.0 Fear 0.5 Grief 0.1 Apathy
It will be observed that the tone scale as shown in Scientology: 8-8008 is rather more extensive than that shown in This is Life. The reason for this is that the former takes in the "thetan scale range well below body death at '0' down to complete unbeingness as a thetan". Hubbard explains this extension of the tone scale by saying that "This sub-zero tone scale shows that the thetan is several bands below knowingness as a body and so he will be found in the majority of cases. In our homo sapiens he will be discovered to be below zero on the tone scale". This remarkable statement is consistent with Hubbard's proposition that most persons are in such a low state that it is not until they have been processed for a substantial time that they are lifted up the tone scale sufficiently to feel apathy. And Hubbard writes in Scientology: 8-8008 that the auditor must not be dismayed that the preclear, who may be otherwise acting normally, becomes irrational in the course of auditing, but should "persevere until he has the thetan up into rational scale. A raving mad thetan is far more sane than a normal human being". Hubbard used this particular argument to explain and justify what one would normally regard as the reduction of a person's condition to what is sometimes referred to by Hubbard as the "sad effect". This is a condition in which the preclear is in such a depressed state after scientology processing as to be likely to contemplate suicide, yet the preclear has been so conditioned by scientology as to believe that, in reaching this state, he is in fact progressing.
Confusion frequently arises because of the loose way in which the word "preclear" is used. The preclear is the real person, is the thetan, which for the time being is in association with the body which it has picked up. The thetan functions through the reactive mind, not the analytical mind which is the adjunct of the "meat body", the mechanism of the physical object which is visible to the eye. Thus the purist does not say "my thetan", but "the thetan which is I", and such refinement of language is to be kept in mind when considering the adventures of a thetan as it journeys up and down the tone scale and ranges beyond emotions experienced when in the state of body-plus-thetan.
The whole purpose of scientology auditing is said to be to raise a person up the tone scale, and as one rises up the tone scale one is said to shed undesirable qualities and to assume more desirable qualities, not only mental but also physical.
Thus a person at 4.0, which is the conventional number given to enthusiasm on the tone scale, would be, writes Sharpe, "excellent at anything he undertakes", be rarely ill, have a high concept of truth, be a truly courageous man, be very much aware of the existence of any danger in a set of circumstances, have a very high sense of responsibility, be excellent as a friend and liked by many, understand and be understood very well.
A person on 2.5 (boredom), so Sharpe writes, whilst capable of some action, would be relatively inactive, bored or indifferent, be occasionally ill and susceptible to the usual diseases, be insincere and careless of facts, just could not be bothered about the truth, have neither courage nor cowardice, be too careless to be trusted with more responsibility, have only fair friendship value and be liked only by a few, misunderstand and be often misunderstood.
In these days of personal hygiene, Hubbard's note in Science of Survival is of passing interest: "The body is normally sweet-smelling down to 2.0 but begins to exude chronically certain unpleasant effluvia from 2.0 down. Individuals from 2.0 down commonly have bad breath. Their feet may have a considerable odour . . . in the orient wives are commonly selected by the sweetness of their perspiration. This is apparently a very reliable test for position on the tone scale."
As to the unfortunate person who is 1.1 (the quality of unexpressed resentment and fear on Sharpe's scale-fear being shown on Hubbard's scale as 1.0), Sharpe writes that he is "only capable of minor executions," is sulky and has a chip on his shoulder, has frequent illnesses and gives way to them and goes to the doctor for the most trivial reasons, is a plausible liar, is scared of the truth and fearful of the consequences, is definitely cowardly, has an incapacity for responsibility, is in fact utterly irresponsible, is almost certainly unable to cause anything, on the score of friendship is a dangerous liability and usually despised and has no real understanding at all.
The tone scale is a great "conditioner" of preclears: it conditions them to listen to the claims by Hubbard that scientology processing effects personality improvements. The expanded tone scale really incorporates almost all human qualities and defects and is sure to contain some reference to a trait as to which an individual is self-conscious and has a secret fear of inadequacy. The friendless person finds himself classified as perhaps 1.1; he desperately wants to be loved, to be appreciated, to have friends; the scientology practitioner finds him very ready to grasp at the rewards which processing is said to achieve with certainty.
There have been other classifications of human emotions in the past and there will no doubt be others in the future; Hubbard's chart does little more than set out in an expansive way his particular classification of recognized emotions and a variety of other human qualities, real and assumed. The existence of emotions and their graduated classification is one thing. The completely unfounded claims by Hubbard that scientology auditing is capable of producing improvements in any real sense is quite another.
The Thetan. In Science of Survival, Hubbard tells about a life force to which he has assigned the name theta, which is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is symbolized by 8. Theta, he writes, is "thought, life force, elan vital, the spirit, the soul, or any other of the numerous definitions it has had for some thousands of years". Hubbard elsewhere has described theta as life, and it may be one of his quirks that the letter, theta, in ancient Greece was synonymous with death, being the symbol by which the people marked ballots when voting for a verdict of death upon an accused person.
In scientology, the thetan, or theta being, is an individual entity. It is said that there is a thetan in possession of each human being and that the thetan is infinitely more important than the "meat body" with which it is associated in this lifetime. The meat body is frequently referred to as "mest" body, the letters M, E, S, T, standing respectively for matter, energy, space, and time.
When a preclear is audited, the thetan, according to scientology theory, is contacted and it reveals many things which are hidden from the conscious mind. The individual man, so Hubbard claims, is divisible into three parts, "The first of these is the spirit called in Scientology, the Thetan. The second of these parts is the Mind. The third of these parts is the Body".
The thetan is fundamental to scientology. It is described in scientology as having "no mass, no wave-length, no energy and no time or location in space except by consideration or postulate". In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, Hubbard wrote in 1956:
"Probably the greatest discovery of Scientology and its most forceful contribution to the knowledge of mankind has been the isolation, description and handling of the human spirit. Accomplished in July, 1951, in Phoenix, Arizona, I established along scientific rather than religious or humanitarian lines that that thing which is the person, the personality, is separable from the body and the mind at will and without causing bodily death or mental derangement."This thing, the person, the spirit, is the theta being or thetan. Though said by Hubbard to be the spirit, the soul or something like it, it is sui generis and finds no parallel in any other discipline or teaching, sacred or profane. It is said to possess immortality, to have existed from all time and to be destined to exist for ever in the future.
In Scientology: 8-80, first published in 1952, and reprinted as recently as 1957, Hubbard writes:
"Thetan is the word given to the awareness of awareness unit, the life source, the personality, and the beingness of homo sapiens .... It is the person .... The thetan is a glowing unit of energy source. He seems to himself to be anything from a quarter of an inch to two inches in diameter. His capability is knowing and being. He exudes and uses energy in many forms. He can perceive and handle energy flows easily. The thetan enters sometime in early infancy. This may be before, during or following birth. He comes in a state of personal unknowingness, desiring to have an identity which he considers he has not without a body. He throws capping beams at the genetic entity, takes over the body .... The thetan in most preclears is within the skull. It shifts on auditing (which is to say the pc shifts) from behind to in front of the head .... Standing behind anybody the thetan can adjust and change any error in the body at will. He sees these as black spots. To get rid of them one has only to get the flows necessary to make and keep them white .... The thetan collapses into the body when the body feels pain. This was how he got trapped .... A thetan can get partly out of himself on a ridge. Then the preclear seems to be inside himself and yet outside .... The thetan is the preclear. The body-plus-thetan is no increase of personality. The body is a sort of vegetable run by the genetic entity. The thetan can clean up and heal his own body and those of others at will."The thetan "is the 'I', it is WHO the preclear is .... is both outside and inside the mest body". Though the usual residence of the thetan is said to be in the skull or near, it can, so Hubbard explains in Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, be in one of four positions: entirely separate from the body or even from this universe, near the body and knowingly controlling the body, in the body, and compulsively away from the body and unable 0 to approach it.
In A History of Man (originally called What to Audit), Hubbard writes that the "very best place" for the thetan is "out of contact with the mest body entirely and fully alive as 'I'. His worst place is inside the mest body." He further writes that "his second best place is just outside the mest body" and that "the thetan in most cases, is behind and above the mest body". Sometimes, however, he may be in front of the body, and this causes a
"direction reversal on the part of the person so that he doesn't know right from left-people can teach him continually but he will still say his right is his left and his left is his right, and so it is, for 'I' in this person is the thetan and the thetan is in front, facing the mest body and right is the thetan's right, of course."
The thetan has, so Hubbard suggests, remarkable capabilities, all of which, in 1952, he hesitated to enumerate, leaving it to the preclear, who is the thetan, to find out for himself. Some of its skills and attributes he did mention. Thetans communicate by telepathy, they can move material objects by throwing an energy flow at them. They emit a considerable electronic flow, can be rendered unconscious by wave action, can be hypnotized, can be made to sleep. They can quarrel with each other, feel pain, live on some planets.
"A theta body with its alertness restored is capable of remoulding the human body within its field, taking off weight here, restoring it there, changing appearances and even height."Of equal importance to scientology theory and practice is the doctrine of "past lives," in which the thetan had weird experiences, the influences of which are of great significance to the thetan in its present sojourn on earth. In the early stages of the Inquiry the scientologists endeavoured to create the impression that, at the present time, the concept of past lives played very little part in scientology. However, as the Inquiry proceeded, it became evident that past lives were today as significant and important in scientology as they have always been.
In its long existence through the ages, the thetan has been on earth many times before this lifetime and has had many bodies. lt has been picking up bodies and dropping bodies from time immemorial. In scientology it is generally thought that the thetan picks up a body at or about birth but it can be after birth and it can be before birth; in some cases it can even be many months before birth. In his writings Hubbard tells of auditing bringing to light incidents which occurred eight days after conception and even before conception. When one witness, a former scientologist, gave evidence before the Inquiry that in scientology some took the view that sometimes a thetan, looking for a body, would follow around a woman who looked as though she was likely shortly to become pregnant, the Board at first doubted the veracity of the witness; but this witness was later vindicated, for Lake, one of the principals of the Geelong scientology centre, gave evidence that he had experienced two well authenticated cases of this phenomenon.
It is said that a thetan, when it newly picks up a body, is in a state of unknowingness and may be confused because, though it is aware of the body it has taken over operating, it has never been told the identity of its body, and, while there are quite a few adults around, it has not been told that there are specific adults who will care for its body until it can manoeuvre the body thoroughly. So in the ceremonies of the American founding church of scientology there is a "christening" ceremony whereby the thetan is introduced to the human parents of its body. An account of Hubbard's performance of the "christening" ceremony is a travesty.
Apparently, in Hubbard's view, a thetan can take over a body already occupied by another thetan. The extent to which thetans had any choice of bodies did not clearly emerge, though one witness threatened counsel assisting the Board that she would return as his grandson's thetan thirty years hence.
The origin of thetans, whether they reproduce and how many thetans there are, witnesses could not say. Whether there would be sufficient thetans to go around when the population explosion occurs is not known. A scientologist in Hong Kong, corresponding with a highly placed staff member of the Melbourne HASI, has adverted to a gloomy prospect for those thetans which have bodies in this present lifetime. He writes,
"I do know that the population of China is 650 million, and that babies are being born at the rate of 17 million per year. Work this out for the next hundred years keeping in mind that three-quarters of the world's population at present is Chinese .... The chances are that next lifetime one would be a Chinese body, be indoctrinated with Communism from birth, have a minimum of education, be overworked and underfed and eventually die of malnutrition when one should be in the prime of life,"with the prospect, it seems, of picking up yet another Chinese body and repeating the same procedure forever.
When a thetan drops off a body, it goes to an implant station, where it is implanted with various goals, the goal to forget being, if not invariable, very common. The thetan waits until it can pick up another body, for which there is sometimes competition amongst disembodied thetans, for to be without a body can be a some what uncomfortable experience for a thetan. In one of his taped lectures, Hubbard states that the minimum period spent on an implant station is sixty-nine days, though the period was earlier thought to be shorter. Hubbard claims to have visited Venus and to have inspected an implant station there. There are other implant stations throughout the universe to which thetans report. In A History of Man Hubbard writes,
"The report area for most has been Mars. Some women report to stations elsewhere in the Solar System. There are occasional incidents about Earth report stations. The report stations are protected by screens. The last Martian report station on Earth was established in the Pyrenees."Hubbard has worked out processes which he claims will rehabilitate the thetan by removing all aberrations. If this is achieved in this lifetime, the thetan will be able to enjoy future lives without being troubled by problems. if the aberrations are only "keyed out" the death of
the present meat body will still leave the thetan subject to a recurrence of the aberrations; but, if a thetan is properly rehabilitated by scientology processing, Hubbard's teaching is that it will not have to go back to an implant station, where those who have not been properly rehabilitated are required to go and where there awaits the dreadful fate of having goals implanted by electric shocks, the passing of currents, "raw electricity" and a variety of other terrifying procedures. It is to escape such experiences as these that preclears, believing completely in Hubbard's teachings, seek desperately to be processed to clear and beyond, so as to avoid such experiences in the "between lives" periods.
Auditing makes contact with the thetan, and its past experiences are brought to light. A great amount of theory has been propounded concerning the thetan, much of which is not material to this Inquiry. It is sufficient to mention some of the more significant aspects of the thetan.
In scientology auditing, an attempt is made to locate and remove the aberration which is preventing the enjoyment of the optimum quality of being clear. The search is for the "basic-basic" which in dianetics and early scientology was the engram. However, in Scientology: 8-80, first published in 1951, "facsimile one" was stated to be
"the one basic engram, on top of which all this-life engrams are mere locks. It was received by the human race many, many centuries ago, and probably was a supersonic shot in the forehead, chest, and stomach, incapacitating, and reducing, the size and function of the pineal gland."Implants.
Subsequently, Hubbard made a dramatic "breakthrough," and the basic cause of aberrations was said to be implants. Thetans, it seemed, had a variety of goals implanted in previous lives. A goal common to many thetans was found to be the goal "to forget." The unhappy lot of the thetan is that it does not remember its past, because in a past age it has been implanted with this goal to forget. This appears to have been done on the planet Helatrobus between 38 trillion and 43 trillion years ago. The hostile work of implanting in thetans the goal "to forget" and other goals was done by implanters, generally referred to as "they," who by electronic means and with great ferocity assailed the unfortunate thetans. Other implants have been inflicted on thetans, such as the gorilla implants, the aircraft door implants, the train implants, the bear implants and the glade implants. These implants were inflicted upon thetans at points earlier in time than the helatrobus implants. In HCO Bull. of the 24th July, AD 13 (1963), Hubbard set out a table of periods as "verified" by his "research," showing the times between which the different types of implants were implanted:-
Helatrobus Implants | 382 trillion years ago to 52 trillion years ago. |
Aircraft Door Implants | 216 trillion years ago to 315 trillion years ago. |
The Gorilla Goals | 319 trillion years ago to 83 trillion trillion trillion years ago. |
The Bear Goals | 83 trillion trillion trillion years ago to about 40.7 trillion trillion trillion trillion years ago. |
The Glade Implants (formerly called Black Thetan) |
40.7 trillion trillion trillion trillion years ago to 5.9 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years ago. |
The Invisible Picture Goals | 5.9 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years to a date not fully determined. |
The Minion Implants | Not yet determined. |
The Story of Creation Implants | 70 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years. |
The last mentioned, writes Hubbard, is the earliest date yet found, "but an earlier incident is known to exist."
In HCO Bull. of the 14th July, AD 13 (1963), Hubbard gives intriguing details of the manner in which the various goals were "laid in." The "aircraft door" goal "was given in the mocked up fuselage of an aircraft with the thetan fixed before an aircraft door. (There are also two or more aircraft fuselages used in the Helatrobus Implants, but the preclear moved through them, was not fixed in them)." The "gorilla goals" were
"given in an amusement park with a single tunnel, a roller coaster and a ferris wheel .... The symbol of a Gorilla was always present in the place the goal was given. Sometimes a large gorilla, black, was seen elsewhere than the park. A Mechanical or a live gorilla was always seen in the park. This activity was conducted by the Hoipolloi, a group of operators in meat body societies. They were typical carnival people. They let out Concessions for these Implant 'Amusement Parks.' A pink-striped white shirt with sleeve garters was the uniform of the Hoipolloi. Such a figure often rode on the roller coaster cars. Monkeys were also used on the cars. Elephants sometimes formed part of the equipment. The Hoipolloi or Gorilla goals were laid in with fantastic motion. Blasts of raw electricity and explosions were both used to lay the Items in."The bear goals were handled by a group called
" 'The Brothers of the Bear' and were the ancestors of the Hoipolloi." The black thetan goals "were given in a glade surrounded by the stone heads of 'black thetans' who spat white energy at the trapped thetan. The trapped thetan was motionless."
The experiences of thetans for countless ages in the past have the quality of the ultimate in science fiction, with wars between galaxies, machines with minds, and celestial travel between universes whose existence was not even suspected before Hubbard's time.
A History of Man was one of the earliest books on scientology; it was first published in 1952 in America with subsequent editions in 1954 and 1957. Its author is Hubbard in whom the copyright of the book resides. It is still recommended reading for scientologists, but HASI witnesses endeavoured, while not disowning the book, to create the impression that it was really not now of any significance. This attempt was belied by the evidence of many scientology witnesses which showed that they were well acquainted with and accepted many of the theories propounded in A History of Man, many of which Hubbard has repeated and endorsed in more recent writings.
To say it is an astonishing publication does not convey adequately the peculiar qualities or contents of A History of Man. Its style is slapdash and its contents bizarre. It is in the tradition of science fiction and for compressed nonsense and fantasy it must surpass anything theretofore written. Yet in the first sentence of the Foreword the claim is made that "This is a cold-blooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years." The third paragraph proclaims,
"This is useful knowledge. With it the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner. By its use the thousand abilities Man has sought to recover become his once more."This may seem laughable nonsense, but the tragedy is that so many people, reading uncritically and wanting to believe in something, have accepted the validity of these fantastic claims and the contents of the book and a great mass of similar and, if it were possible, more ludicrous nonsense. None of this nonsense which Hubbard has propounded has been repealed or repudiated. A very large part of it has been repeated in later writings and on tapes, much of it quite recently.
This book is concerned particularly with the development of the "whole track" and past life concepts. The contents of the book and the date of the first edition suggest that it was written about the time Hubbard broke with the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation which looked with disfavour on his theory of past lives. Hubbard claimed that by auditing the time track over the whole span of the track-at that time considered to be about sixty trillion years-he obtained excellent results, whereas in auditing only the current lifetime one could only obtain slow and mediocre results. "Further," he writes,
"it is very hard to argue with a miracle. Today, Eleanor has arthritis. She is audited 'whole track' with 1952 techniques. Tonight she doesn't have arthritis. Miracles, using 'whole track' are plentiful. By using this data an auditor can obtain a Mest clear rather easily."Hubbard revealed then that with the invention of the Electropsychometer, commonly called the E-meter, great advances in processing were made. He greatly extended the time track, and sixty trillion years is but the yesterday of the time track which now, seemingly, extends back to the beginning of time and, if possible, even beyond that - one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years or less, according to HCO Bull. of the 24th July AD 13 (1963).
The Genetic Entity.
In A History of Man, Hubbard tells of the "genetic entity" or GE. A human body has both a thetan and a GE. The GE is the entity which carries forward from the earliest formation of the mest body and is located more or less in the centre of the body, the stomach. It was formerly referred to as the somatic mind in dianetics.
"The GE facsimiles include a transfer of somatics from past theta beings, for it is not common for a GE to have the same theta being twice .... A GE departs from the body much later than the theta beings abandon one, sees it through the death to the end and only then leaves to join the line once more some two or three days before conception."Hubbard then develops the thesis that the GE "carries on through the evolutionary line, parallel with the protoplasmic line, generation to generation, usually on the same planet," whereas the theta being comes into the line from various quarters, with the result that a theta being lives each life with a different GE.
"The genetic entity apparently enters the protoplasm line some two days or a week prior to conception. There is some evidence that the GE is actually double, one entering on the sperm side, one entering on the ovum side ....
Pre-sperm recordings are quite ordinary .... Pre-ovum sequences are on record but are not common .... Conception and the impulses generated answer the conditions for one type of cancer, embryonic .... Cancer has been eradicated by auditing out conception and mitosis. The theta being apparently joins the track immediately prior to birth. Its sequence, for itself, is death, between-lives, birth, all in a few minutes according to some findings, a sequence which is quite aberrative .... Birth is a very aberrative affair .... 'Facsimile one' had as many as eighty-thousand births on it as locks. Birth presents itself to be audited much of the time because Mother, complaining of how difficult the preclear's birth was, makes it an overt act. This overt act had birth as a motivator .... The genetic line consists of the total of incidents which have occurred during the evolution of the Mest body itself. The composite of these facsimiles has the semblance of a being,"the GE. The discovery of the GE, writes Hubbard,
"makes it possible at last to vindicate the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin .... You as a theta being, may or may not have seen Greece or Rome. Your Mest GE has probably activated a body there, just as it has been .... an anthropoid in the deep forests of forgotten continents or a mollusc seeking to survive on the shore of some lost sea."Hubbard then tells of various things the auditor will meet in processing. For instance, there is the clam. Millions of years ago the clam had many troubles, the first of which was the double hinge problem. One hinge wanted to stay open, the other wanted to close and so conflict occurred which was resolved by one hinge overcoming the other with the result that the latter suffered pain. In present time, so Hubbard claims, all you need do with certain people to restimulate the tragic defeat of the weaker hinge is to ask such a person, "Can you imagine a clam sitting on the beach, opening and closing its shell very rapidly ?" at the same time making a motion with thumb and forefinger of a rapid opening and closing, whereupon the victim may grip his jaw with his hands and feel quite upset. He may, writes Hubbard, even have a few teeth pulled mistaking for toothache the restimulation of the engram suffered by the vanquished clam shell hinge.
How silly can people be? Yet, one woman, who told of benefits which scientology had given her, said in evidence that when counsel assisting the Board mentioned "clam" to her, she had a pain in her jaw.
Then there is the Weeper, originally, so Hubbard writes, called the "Grim Weeper," or the "Boohoo," a truly pathetic case. "After leaving the sea," writes Hubbard, "the GE spent a half a million years on the beach." In this state it needed food from the sea, but also air to breathe. It would open up to get food and get a wave in the shell. But as it had to breathe it had to pump sea water out, hence the name "the weeper." "The inability of a preclear to cry is partly a hang-up in the Weeper," Hubbard writes. "He is about to be hit by a wave, has his eyes full of sand or is frightened about opening his shell because he may be hit. An occluded case is sometimes merely a case of 'shell-shut' ". Hubbard tells, too, of engrams about birds and bats, of being eaten and of the sloth, the latter being responsible for fear of snakes and falling, and of the caveman and the Piltdown man, the latter being responsible so writes Hubbard, for "Obsessions about biting, efforts to hide the mouth and early familial troubles," for "the Piltdown teeth were ENORMOUS and he was quite careless as to whom and what he bit and often very surprised at the resulting damage".
The meeting of the GE and the theta body often led to great confusion because, "A theta being takes a picture of the memory of a GE and carries it as a record. A GE takes a picture of the memories of theta being and carries those." A consequence of these developments is that in auditing it is quite a problem whether it is the experiences of the theta being then being audited that come up or those of a theta being whose memories were carried by a GE, whose memory was being carried by a theta being, whose memory in turn was being carried by a GE, from which the theta being then being audited acquired it.
The GE also finds prominent and important mention in Scientology: 8-80 and other scientology publications by Hubbard. Williams said that the GE is not now the subject of scientology teaching, is not now known and practised, and if revived as an active study would require some modification. The GE, however, appears still to be part of the actual structure of scientology theory; it is referred to in axiom 55 of scientology by Hubbard, and has not been abandoned, repudiated or substantially modified since the first occasion when Hubbard wrote in the early fifties of the thetan "playing games" with it. Hubbard's practice is not to acknowledge that anything in his pronouncements ever requires modification or recantation. Earlier inconsistencies and contradictions are glossed over or ignored.
The Clear and The Preclear.
The concept of "clear" is one of the fundamentals of scientology. The word "clear", used as a verb, an adjective and a noun, is the mainspring of scientology; for the principal purpose of scientology auditing is to clear the "preclear" so that he attains to the state of being "clear",
and is thus a "clear", shedding the prefix "pre" as he sheds the last of the aberrations from which auditing is said to free him. Everyone who is not a "complete clear" is said to be a "preclear".
On the way to clear is said to be the "release"; this is a person, according to Scientology: 8-80, "who has reached a point in processing where he no longer is suffering from a psychosomatic illness, or who has been freed of his chronic mental and physical difficulties and painful emotions. While he is far from being a 'clear', he is above normal, has good stability, and can enjoy life." A release is said to be a case which will not get worse.
The concept of clear was not developed in Hubbard's first work on dianetics, Dianetics: The Original Thesis, published in 1948, though reference was made therein to an individual who had been "cleared of engrams and chains and who has achieved a general tone four."
The first extensive references to "clear" appeared in Dianetics: MSMH, published in 1950, and it has been constantly referred to in dianetic and scientology publications since that time.
The "clear" is derived from the language of computers and adding machines. Hubbard used the calculating machine as an analogy to the mind. The action of "clearing" was said to be concerned with the clearing of various zones of thinking and to be the removing of some old unwanted computations from the mind, so that the mind could think and act freshly and clearly on some particular problem.
Originally, "clear" as a noun attempted to describe someone who was said to be "cleared of neurotic, psychotic and suboptimum patterns and thoughts and actions that would arise from these."
In Dianetics: MSMH, a "clear" was said to be "an individual who, as a result of dianetic therapy, has neither active nor potential psychosomatic illness or aberration", and "to clear" meant "to release all the physical pain and painful emotion from the life of an individual or, as in Political Dianetics, a society."
Williams accepted as an adequate current description of clear the following: "A clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repress ions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any autogenic (self-generated) diseases referred to as psychosomatic aberrations." An almost identical definition appears in Dianetics: MSMH. Hubbard wrote in Dianetics: MSMH that tests on such a person "confirm the clear to be entirely without such ills or aberrations." Williams claimed that he was a clear, and he has in fact been awarded a silver bracelet by Hubbard to prove it. Hubbard has even said that Williams is well beyond clear, but attaining to such an exalted and supposedly sickness-free level did not protect him from a common cold which he sustained during the Inquiry.
Williams said that by clearing in the mental field scientologists meant the removal of some unwanted fixed thought, idea, consideration, motivation or goal that was interfering with the individual's ability to think clearly and rationally about a particular subject. However, the prospect of attaining to clear seems depressingly remote, in spite of Hubbard's promises, for Williams pointed out that "a large mental difficulty is often composed of several difficulties, or several different subjects which have to be cleared separately." Processing is so manipulated that the final difficulty is never reached and cleared; fresh difficulties are constantly discovered as part of the "large mental difficulty", and the preclear is kept always expectant but never attaining to the goal of clear.
A clear was said to be produced by erasing some aberrative materials and keying out others. This state, when all the aberration has not been erased, is called, a "keyed out clear" or "mest clear" or just "clear". There were also "theta clears" and "cleared theta clears".
Theta clears were said to be superior to mest or keyed out or just plain clears. At one stage those beyond theta clear were described as "cleared theta clears." Theta clears are an intermediate step between mest clears and operating thetan. Williams told the Board that Hubbard's teaching was that theta clears could operate outside their bodies, and in The Creation of Human Ability, Hubbard defines "theta clear" as being "An individual who, as a thetan, is certain of his identity apart from that of his body, and who habitually operates the body from outside." Williams said he had witnessed Hubbard read a plaque on a wall some distance away. Williams considered that Hubbard might well be clear, but HCO has no doubt about Hubbard's state, for HCO Infm. Lr. of the 24th November, 1963, states, "He [Hubbard] was clear before 1962, and is now, at this writing, four goals down from present time toward OT, scientology's highest state. He badly needs a vacation." In A History of Man, Hubbard wrote that the first stable clears, produced in 1947, were in reality theta clears, not mest clears. In 1963, the terms "first goal clear", "second goal clear", &c., were used to indicate that that particular number of goals were cleared away from the person's mind.
Over the years the concept of clear has developed, and though the general nature of the concept is indicated in many writings, some of the expositions are contradictory and the boundaries between the various kinds of clears are confused. In some advertisements and elsewhere Hubbard has defined a clear as "a person at willing and knowing cause over his own life, his body and his surroundings and without a reactive or subconscious mind". A clear is credited with having a happy well-balanced personality, with efficiency and intelligence above the average and with an IQ of 135 plus.
Some of the descriptions of "clear" confuse the lower grade clear with the operating thetan, who, however, is also a type of clear. A person who has been "cleared" but is still being audited is still regarded as a preclear and is properly described as "pre-OT (pre-operating thetan)", according to Certainty Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 7. The suggestion that there may even be a "super clear" does not make for clarity.
Operating Thetan.
In Com. Mag. Vol. 5. No. 5, May, 1963, it is said that there are three grades of clears, namely, mest clear, theta clear, and operating thetan, the operating thetan being "a rather esoteric level, hard to reach and hard to describe in full."
An operating thetan, frequently referred to as "OT", is said to be a thetan with restored ability to control or "be at cause" over matter, energy, space, time, life and form. An operating thetan has the ability to knock off hats at 50 yards, to lift telephone receivers from a distance and to read a book some distance away. The ultimate goal in scientology is to become OT. There is an award of a gold bracelet to anyone who becomes OT. Williams hopes to achieve this state and he has been undergoing processing to that end. Remarkable attributes are claimed for the state of OT. In Certainty Magazine, Vol. 5. No. 10, appears the statement that,
"Every operating thetan has outsight. Some of the qualities prominent are:-High ethical level; enthusiasm; accident-proof; fast reaction times; theta communication; ability to move at will throughout all universes; high creative ability; self mastery, grants beingness; high truth and courage level; strong sense of responsibility on all dynamics."Hubbard's enthusiasm about the state of OT is equalled only by the extravagance of his boasts and predictions. In Scientology, issue 15G, Hubbard writes, "There is no excuse now not to be clear. A good thorough-going operating thetan should not take more than fifty hours of auditing."..
In HCO Infm. Lr. of the 24th November, 1963, it is written, "He [Hubbard] considers the research part of his task concluded in August of 1963, since all targets ever envisioned were realized as of that date and only codification and recording remained .... Now that the skills for OT are achieved they are found to be very precise."
Ron's Journal, No. 7, which is HCO Infm. Lr. of the 17th December AD 13 (1963), reads, "Well, here we go into AD 14, with all our technology assembled, with a complete bridge, with OT's emerging."
HCO Infm. Lr. of the 5th February, 1964, reads,
"OT course open to all auditors who have good basic training. I have kicked the doors open on Class VI. training at Saint Hill. All auditors who have good basic training are eligible for enrolment at once in running Actual GPM's. I am just completing a full training course for the Instructors and we are making OT's at Saint Mill smoothly after three years of hard and arduous research .... This news should tell you quite obviously that we have won all the way. And it's waiting for you at Saint Hill."Though, as earlier indicated, Hubbard considered that 50 hours auditing could produce operating thetans he has now somewhat revised that estimate, and in HCO Bull. of the 9th July, 1963, he states that he himself is "definitely on the easy last half to OT" and that he considers "that OT lies on the sunny side of 1,000 hours of processing now for cases that can be audited"
Mrs. Williams was present in the 1964 classes at Saint Hill as one of the advanced students, but she did not become an OT, not even clear, and she did not make the acquaintance of any OT's and did not know of any OT's being produced. But that OT is a desirable state is evident, for in Certainty Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 10, Hubbard writes,
"the state of operating thetan is about 50 million miles higher than clear, if we put it into symbolic form. There is actually no comparison. A clear can still be invalidated; a clear can still make effect in the face of overwhelming odds. An OT, well, I don't know: for OT, read 'God' and that's just about it. But one thing is certain you cannot be OT without passing through clear first .... Faster routes to OT are envisaged."
Hubbard attributes his failure to produce OT's, after promising for so many years to do so, to the incapacity of auditors to audit properly. His repeated complaint is that he has devised techniques which are certain to produce clears and OTs, and the fault lies not with his techniques but with auditors who are unable to apply the techniques and operate the E-meter.
In HCO Bull. of the 9th July, 1963, Hubbard typically complains,
"It is no longer a question of whether Scientology works, it is only a question of whether the auditor can work Scientology. If he or she can't, then the trouble lies in one or more of these basics [i.e., the auditor's basic skills]. The trouble does not lie with the procedure or with the pc."Hubbard is endeavouring to produce an OT meter, superior to any E-meter, which will, he claims, make possible auditing to OT.
From time to time Hubbard has made claims implying that OTs were being made or had been made. In reply to a pointed inquiry by a rebellious scientologist, Hubbard wrote that, "Our theta clears and operating thetans are for the present remaining incognito." The Board is therefore unable to report upon the identity of any person claimed as OT. It would seem, however, that if Hubbard is to be believed, an OT is "just around the corner", like the fulfilment of so many of his other extravagant promises.
Overt Motivator.
The Overt Act-Motivator in scientology is a principle or working hypothesis, not invariably applicable, that if a person does harm to an area, he will be likely to receive harm from that area.
Williams explained that the principle is that one does an overt act, something bad, harms some part of life, breaches some moral code, and thereafter, because of regret, guilt, &c., and variously associated phenomena, lays oneself open to be hurt by whatever it is against which the overt was committed. The response is called the "motivator," but opinions fluctuate as to which comes first, the overt act or the motivator. People may even be "motivator hungry," and an example was given by Williams in these words: "If you had a lawyer who kept on doing things which caused the judge to scream at him, you would have a lawyer, who in the field of jurisprudence (if that is the word) would be 'motivator hungry' and the assumption would be that he had committed an overt against the judge."
Reference is sometimes made in scientology to "victim," the victim being a person suffering from a run of bad luck or persistent misfortune of any kind, including illness, who, however, is entirely responsible for his own misfortunes, even though it be deliberately inflicted on him by another. As it is a scientology principle that man is good and can be made better, the fault is said to lie with the individual himself, the emphasis in scientology being to make the individual conscious of his complete responsibility for his own condition, whatever it is, and to find out by auditing just what it is in the preclear's own behaviour which has laid the foundation for his present aberrations and misfortune.
Goals-Problems-Mass.
Probably the latest "breakthrough" by Hubbard is the "goals-problems-mass" or GPM, which he now appears to regard as the "basic-basic" cause of all aberration. The GPM is associated with the time track, implants, past lives and OT's.
In scientology it is said that a person's problems have weight which can be measured. As early as Dianetics: 1955, Hubbard wrote,
"If there were no energy being created by the awareness of awareness unit, then one would be at a loss to account for mental energy pictures, for these things, being made at a tremendously rapid rate, have considerable mass in them-mass which is measurable on a thing which is as common and everyday as a pair of bathroom scales."In evidence, Williams defined GPM as being "the mass of stored mental energy which has accumulated following the setting of a goal." He explained how a person
"sets himself a goal, and in his attempt to succeed in that goal, he acquires the problem, and the problem is trying to achieve the goal, on the one side, and forces opposing that, on the other, and there is conflict giving us the idea of mass."It means, he said, "a mental mass .... which certainly has mental weight, but whether it is discernible or not, that could be debatable." "Mentally speaking," he said, "it has thickness and other dimensions like that." There was further evidence that, according to scientology, the mind could mock up a mass - a black mass floating in front of the individual but really invisible - which he could then bring into his body and thereby increase his weight by up to thirty pounds, and, by further thinking, he could expel this same weight. Whether a person could, by thought, permanently expel weight from the body was not clearly determined, and scientology has not yet emerged as an alternative to dieting.
During the Inquiry the scientology interests were invited on several occasions to demonstrate how a mass could be mocked up and brought into the body and how the increase of the body weight could be measured on a scales, which was the claim Hubbard made, and which Williams asserted could be relatively easily done. The invitation was not accepted, although it was made clear that the Board would be greatly impressed by any such demonstration.
However, strange physical developments are attributed to processing. In Ability Magazine, issue major 2, is a testimonial from a young lady who writes, " Before starting on these sessions my breasts were unusually small. In fact I wore a size 32A brassiere .... I am now wearing a size 34c, and from all indications will wear still larger." Possibly inspired by such a report, two prominent female members of the Melbourne HASI staff, each with the same male auditor, set goals which were quite opposite. One set as her goal to have a smaller bust, and the other to have a larger bust. Whether the first attained her goal through auditing did not clearly appear in evidence. However, the second woman considered that she had attained her goal through auditing, because formerly she walked round-shouldered, but now she stands up straight and holds her shoulders back.
In HCO Bull. of the 23rd September, 1963, Hubbard tells of implant GPM's and writes that these
"have only passing importance as a pc's Actual Goals and GPM's are a thousand thousand times more aberrative and important than Implants. But one has to know the extent and nature of Implant GPM's in order not to get them confused with Actual GPM's."In HCO Bull. of the 28th September 1963, Hubbard writes, "Confusion between Implants and Actual GPM's occurs because the implanters used types of goals and patterns found in actual GPM's. Implanters obviously had a knowledge, from historical record or even research, of what a thetan's own goals look like but obviously they never developed the data to a workable therapy or they probably would not have continued to be driven to such costly expedients as continuous implanting, between lives installations, &c.
The highest level of treatment technology known to exist in the universe before Scientology was Pictureology wherein, at a signal from the therapist, the thetan crunched up the engram. This is currently in use (and has been for many trillions of years) in the Galactic Confederation." The latest information available to the Board is that work on GPMs is still in the developmental stage. In HCO Infm. Lr. of the 5th February, 1964, Hubbard writes,
"You can't run an Actual GPM unless you're trained to Class VI. You'd kill somebody. The new technology has not been released and will not be. It is too exacting. We can do it safely at Saint Hill".Though Hubbard in the same information letter stated in effect that by the running of Actual GPM's "we are making OT's at Saint Hill smoothly" the scientology interests did not produce to the Board an OT or anyone who had seen an OT, and in this respect Mrs. Williams, who was a Saint Hill student during the first half of 1964, disappointed many who had hoped to see an OT when she gave evidence before the Board in September, 1964.
The foregoing summary does not exhaust the content of scientology theories but is sufficient to illustrate their general nature.
Last updated 21 February 1997
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