Posts tagged ‘Salvation’
This glossary contains the Dianetics and Scientology terms appearing in What Is Scientology?
A
Definition: aberration: a departure from rational thought or behavior. It means basically to err, to make mistakes, or more specifically to have fixed ideas which are not true. The word is also used in its scientific sense. It means departure from a straight line. If a line should go from A to B, then if it is aberrated it would go from A to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, and finally arrive at B. Taken in this sense, it would also mean the lack of straightness or to see crookedly as, for example, a man sees a horse but thinks he sees an elephant. Aberrated conduct would be wrong conduct, or conduct not supported by reason. When a person has engrams, these tend to deflect what would be his normal ability to perceive truth and bring about an aberrated view of situations which then would cause an aberrated reaction to them. Aberration is opposed to sanity, which would be its opposite. From the Latin, aberrare, to wander from; Latin, ab, away, errare, to wander.
Definition: ABLE: an acronym for Association for Better Living and Education International.
Definition: action phrases: word phrases contained as part of the content of engrams which dictate some type of “action” in the mind.
Definition: affinity: the degree of liking or affection or lack of it. It is the feeling of love or liking for something or someone.
Definition: affinity-reality-communication (ARC) triangle: a triangle which is a symbol of the fact that affinity, reality and communication act together to bring about understanding. No point of the triangle can be raised without also raising the other two points, and no point of it can be lowered without also lowering the other two points.
Definition: analytical mind: that part of the mind which one consciously uses and is aware of. It is the portion of the mind which thinks, observes data, remembers it and resolves problems.
Definition: antisocial personality: a person who possesses a distinct set of characteristics and mental attitudes that cause him to suppress other people in his vicinity. This is the person whose behavior is calculated to be disastrous. Also called suppressive person.
Definition: AO: abbreviation for Advanced Organization.
Definition: apparency: something that seems to be, that appears to be a certain way; something that appears to be but is different from the way it looks. In Dianetics and Scientology apparency is used to mean something that looks one way but is, in actual fact, something else. For example, a person “gives an apparency of health,” whereas he is actually sick. From the Latin, apparere, to appear.
Definition: ARC: a word coined from the initial letters of affinity, reality and communication.
Definition: ARC break: a sudden drop or cutting of affinity, reality or communication with someone or something. Upsets with people or things (ARC breaks) come about because of a lessening or sundering of affinity, reality or communication or understanding. Scientologists usually use the term ARC break instead of upset, because if one discovers which of the three points of understanding have been cut, one can bring about a rapid recovery in the person’s state of mind.
Definition: assessment: an auditing technique which helps to isolate specific areas or subjects on which a preclear has charge so that they can be addressed in auditing.
Definition: auditing: Scientology counseling, taken from the Latin word audire which means “to hear or listen.” Auditing is a very unique form of personal counseling which helps an individual look at his own existence and improves his ability to confront what he is and where he is.
Definition: Auditing by List: a technique used in certain auditing procedures.
Definition: auditor: a minister or minister-in-training of the Church of Scientology. Auditor means one who listens, from the Latin audire meaning “to hear or listen.” An auditor is a person trained and qualified in applying auditing to individuals for their betterment. An auditor does not do anything to a preclear, he works together with the preclear to help the preclear defeat his reactive mind.
B
Definition: beingness: the assumption or choosing of a category of identity. Beingness can be assumed by oneself or given to oneself or attained. Examples of beingness would be one’s own name, one’s profession, one’s physical characteristics, one’s role in a game – each or all of these could be called one’s beingness.
Definition: Book One: a colloquial term for the first book published on the subject of Dianetics, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. A Book One Auditor is someone who knows the data in this book and uses it to audit others.
C
Definition: case: a general term for a person being treated or helped. It is also used to mean the entire accumulation of upsets, pain, failures, etc., residing in a preclear’s reactive mind.
Definition: case gains: the improvements and resurgences a person experiences from auditing; any case betterment according to the preclear.
Definition: Case Supervisor: a highly trained auditor who is also trained in the technology of supervising auditing. The Case Supervisor reviews all auditing sessions done by auditors under his charge. His purpose is to see that the technology is standardly applied for the greatest possible benefit for the preclear.
Definition: CCHR: abbreviation for Citizens Commission on Human Rights.
Definition: charge: harmful energy or force contained in mental image pictures of experiences painful or upsetting to the person, which is handled in auditing.
Definition: Claims Verification Board: an official group within the Church of Scientology which facilitates refund requests.
Definition: Clay Table Processing: a particular process used in certain types of auditing.
Definition: Clear: a highly desirable state for the individual, achieved through auditing, which was never attainable before Dianetics. A Clear is a person who no longer has his own reactive mind and therefore suffers none of the ill effects that the reactive mind can cause. The Clear has no engrams which, when restimulated, throw out the correctness of his computations by entering hidden and false data.
Definition: control: the ability to start, change and stop something. One is successful in his life to the degree that he can start or change or stop the things and people within his environment. For example, a driver who cannot exert control over a car by making it start, move about and stop when he wants it to is quite likely to have accidents. A person who can control a car, on the other hand, will be able to arrive where he intends to.
Definition: counter-effort: an effort of something or someone in a person’s environment against that person.
Definition: C/S: abbreviation for Case Supervisor. Also used to designate a Case Supervisor direction of what to audit on a preclear (as in “he was given a new C/S”), or the giving of such a direction by the Case Supervisor (as in “the preclear was C/Sed for his next action”). See also Case Supervisor in this glossary.
Definition: CSI: abbreviation for Church of Scientology International.
D
Definition: Data Series: a series of policy letters written by L. Ron Hubbard which deal with logic, illogic, proper evaluation of data and how to detect and handle the causes of good and bad situations within groups and organizations.
Definition: determinism: the ability to direct or determine the actions of someone or something. Thus something done “on one’s own determinism” would be caused by the person himself, not by a force exterior to him.
Definition: Dianetics: comes from the Greek words dia, meaning “through” and nous, meaning “soul.” Dianetics is a methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard which can help alleviate unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and psychosomatic illnesses. It is most accurately described as what the soul is doing to the body through the mind.
Definition: dramatization: the acting out of an engram in its entirety or in part by an aberrated person in his current environment. Aberrated conduct is entirely dramatization. For example, a woman receives an engram in which she is kicked in the side and told that she is no good, that she is always changing her mind. At some time in the future, this engram could be reactivated and the woman might experience a pain in her side, feel that she is no good or get the idea that she is always changing her mind. This would be a dramatization of the engram.
Definition: dwindling spiral: a condition characterized by continuous worsening, decreasing or shrinking.
Definition: dynamics: the eight urges, drives or impulses of life.
E
Definition: E-Meter: short for Electropsychometer, a specially designed instrument which helps the auditor and preclear locate areas of spiritual distress or travail. The E-Meter is a religious artifact and can only be used by Scientology ministers or ministers-in-training. It does not diagnose or cure anything. It measures the mental state or change of state of a person and thus is of benefit to the auditor in helping the preclear locate areas to be handled.
Definition: engram: a recording made by the reactive mind when a person is “unconscious.” An engram is not a memory – it is a particular type of mental image picture which is a complete recording, down to the last accurate detail, of every perception present in a moment of partial or full “unconsciousness.”
Definition: enturbulence: turbulence or agitation and disturbance.
Definition: Est Repair Rundown: an auditing action designed to repair the damage done to a person mentally and spiritually by the practice of est (Erhard Seminars Training). Est was an offbeat group which used destructive techniques, and some people new to Scientology are found to have been previously involved with est. It is necessary to undo the harmful effects of est before such persons can make adequate progress in Scientology auditing.
Definition: exteriorization: the state of the thetan being outside his body with or without full perception, but still able to control and handle the body. When a person goes exterior, he achieves a certainty that he is himself and not his body.
F
Definition: floating needle: a rhythmic sweep of the needle on an E-Meter dial at a slow, even pace, back and forth, back and forth. A floating needle means that the charge on a subject being audited has dissipated, and is one of the indications of a process being complete.
Definition: FSO: abbreviation for Flag Service Organization.
Definition: FSSO: abbreviation for Flag Ship Service Organization.
G
Definition: genetic entity: a term coined in early Dianetics research to denote that part of a human being which takes care of the automatic mechanisms of the body, such as heartbeat, respiration, etc.
Definition: gradient: a gradual approach to something, taken step by step, so that, finally, quite complicated and difficult activities or concepts can be achieved with relative ease.
Definition: grant beingness: to let someone else be what he is. Listening to what someone has to say and taking care to understand them, being courteous, refraining from needless criticism, expressing admiration or affinity are examples of the actions of someone who can grant others beingness.
H
Definition: HASI: an acronym for Hubbard Association of Scientologists International.
Definition: hat: a Scientology slang term for a particular job, taken from the fact that in many professions, such as railroading, the type of hat worn is the badge of the job. The term hat is also used to describe the write-ups, checksheets and packs that outline the purposes, know-how and duties of a job in a Scientology organization.
Definition: hatting: the training given to a person so that he or she can successfully perform the functions and produce the products of a specific job, duty or activity. See also hat in this glossary.
Definition: havingness: the concept of being able to reach. By havingness we mean owning, possessing, being capable of commanding, taking charge of objects, energies and spaces. Specific processes exist in Scientology to help a preclear increase his havingness, and these are appropriately called Havingness Processes.
Definition: HCO: abbreviation for Hubbard Communications Office.
Definition: HGC: abbreviation for Hubbard Guidance Center.
Definition: Hubbard Consultant Outpoint-Pluspoint List: a list of illogics (outpoints) and logics (pluspoints) used in an auditing process to help the preclear locate and handle illogical thinking in the area being addressed.
I
Definition: lAS: abbreviation for International Association of Scientologists.
Definition: I HELP: an acronym for International Hubbard Ecclesiastical League of Pastors.
Definition: INCOMM: an acronym for International Network of Computer Organized Management.
Definition: int: short for interiorization, the action of going into something too fixedly and becoming part of it too fixedly. Int is also used to refer to the auditing procedure which handles the adverse mental and spiritual effects of interiorization.
Definition: invalidate: refute, degrade, discredit or deny something someone else considers to be fact.
J
K
Definition: knowledge-responsibility-control (KRC) triangle: a triangle which is a symbol of the fact that knowledge, responsibility and control act together as a whole entity. In order to handle any area of one’s life, it is necessary to know something about it, take some responsibility for it and control it to the degree necessary to achieve the desired result. This triangle interacts best when used with high ARC, thus it interlocks with the ARC triangle. See also affinity-reality-communication (ARC) triangle and control in this glossary.
L
Definition: Listing and Nulling: a specialized technique used in certain auditing processes.
Definition: lock: a mental image picture of an experience where one was knowingly or unknowingly reminded of an engram. It does not itself contain a blow or a burn or impact and is not any major cause of upset. It does not contain unconsciousness. It may contain a feeling of pain or illness, etc., but is not itself the source of it. For example, a person sees a cake and feels sick. This is a lock on an engram of being made sick by eating cake. The picture of seeing a cake and feeling sick is a lock on (is locked to) the incident (unseen at the moment) of getting sick eating cake.
M
Definition: mental image pictures: three-dimensional pictures which are continuously made by the mind, moment by moment, containing color, sound and smell, as well as other perceptions. They also include the conclusions or speculations of the individual. Mental image pictures are composed of energy, have mass, exist in space and follow definite routines of behavior, the most interesting of which is the fact that they appear when somebody thinks of something.
Definition: mest: a word coined from the initial letters of matter, energy, space and time, which are the component parts (elements) of the physical universe.
Definition: meter: short for E-Meter. See E-Meter in this glossary.
Definition: missed withhold: a withhold which has almost been found out by another, that leaves the person who has the withhold in a state of wondering whether or not his hidden deed is known. See also withhold in this glossary.
N
Definition: NCLE: abbreviation for National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice.
Definition: NED: an acronym for New Era Dianetics.
Definition: New Era Dianetics for OTs (NOTs): a series of auditing actions, delivered as part of the OT levels, developed by L. Ron Hubbard during his research into New Era Dianetics in the late 1970s.
Definition: NOTs: an acronym for New Era Dianetics for OTs. See New Era Dianetics for OTs (NOTs) in this glossary.
O
Definition: Objectives: short for Objective Processing, an auditing action which helps a person to look or place his attention outward from himself.
Definition: OCA: abbreviation for Oxford Capacity Analysis.
Definition: Operating Thetan: a state of being above Clear, in which the Clear has become refamiliarized with his native capabilities.
Definition: organizing board: a pattern of organization which expresses every function a Scientology church needs to attend to in order to minister to its congregation.
Definition: OSA: an acronym for Office of Special Affairs.
Definition: OT: abbreviation for Operating Thetan. See Operating Thetan in this glossary.
Definition: overrun: continue an auditing process or a series of processes past the point of completion.
Definition: overt: a harmful act or a transgression against the moral code of a group. When a person does something that is contrary to the moral code he has agreed to, or when he omits to do something that he should have done per that moral code, he has committed an overt. An overt violates what was agreed upon. An overt can be intentional or unintentional.
P
Definition: pan-determined: able to view both sides. Pan-determinism is across determinism or determinism of two sides. If a person were playing both sides of a chess game, he would be exercising pan-determinism. See also determinism in this glossary.
Definition: PDH: abbreviation for pain-drug-hypnosis, a behavioral modification technique used by military and intelligence services in which pain, drugs or hypnosis, or any combination of these, are administered to drive an individual into a state whereby he can be given suggestions or commands subconsciously. Dianetics auditing can undo the effects of PDH. For more information,
Definition: perceptic: any sense message such as sight, sound, smell, etc.
Definition: postulate: a conclusion, decision or resolution made by the individual himself to resolve a problem or to set a pattern for the future or to nullify a pattern of the past. For example, a person says, “I like Model T Fords. I am never going to drive another car.” Years later, no longer consciously aware of this postulate, he will wonder why he is having so much trouble with his Buick; it’s because he has made an earlier promise to himself. In order to change he has to change that postulate.
Definition: potential trouble source: a person who is in some way connected to and being adversely affected by a suppressive person. Such a person is called a potential trouble source because he can be a lot of trouble to himself and to others. See also suppressive person in this glossary.
Definition: preclear: a person who is receiving Scientology or Dianetics auditing on his way to becoming Clear, hence pre-Clear. Through auditing he is finding out more about himself and life.
Definition: process: an exact set of questions asked or directions given by an auditor to help a person locate areas of spiritual distress, find out things about himself and improve his condition.
Definition: processing: another word for auditing. See auditing in this glossary.
Definition: PTS: abbreviation for potential trouble source. See potential trouble source in this glossary.
Q
Definition: Qual: short for Qualifications Division.
R
Definition: RD: abbreviation for rundown. See rundown in this glossary.
Definition: reactive mind: that part of the mind which works on a totally stimulus-response basis, which is not under a person’s volitional control, and which exerts force and the power of command over his awareness, purposes, thoughts, body and actions.
Definition: reality: that which appears to be. Reality is fundamentally agreement — what we agree to be real is real.
Definition: rehab: short for rehabilitation, an auditing action which is used to help a person regain a former ability, state of being or more optimum condition which has been discredited, denied or suppressed.
Definition: restimulation: the “awakening” of an old engram, which occurs when a person’s present environment contains enough similarities to the elements found in the engram to cause a reactivation of it. When an engram is restimulated, a person can experience similar pains and emotions to those contained in the original incident.
Definition: R6EW: the designation for the auditing process used on Grade VI.
Definition: RTC: abbreviation for Religious Technology Center.
Definition: rundown: a series of related actions in Scientology which culminate in a specific end result. For example, the Drug Rundown consists of several different auditing processes and actions which, done fully and in sequence, result in the freeing of a person from the mental and spiritual effects of drugs.
S
Definition: Scientology: comes from the Latin scio, which means “know” and the Greek word logos, meaning “the word or outward form by which the inward thought is expressed and made known.” Thus, Scientology means knowing about knowing. Scientology is an applied religious philosophy developed by L. Ron Hubbard. It is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.
Definition: Sea Org: short for Sea Organization.
Definition: self-determinism: the condition of determining the actions of self; the ability to direct oneself. See also determinism in this glossary.
Definition: service facsimile: a consideration that one must be consistently in a certain state in order to survive. This consideration will cause the individual to deliberately hold in restimulation selected parts of his reactive mind to explain his failures in life. For example, a person may keep an old injury in restimulation so that his family has to look after him.
Definition: SHSBC: abbreviation for Saint Hill Special Briefing Course.
Definition: SMI: an acronym for Scientology Missions International.
Definition: SP: abbreviation for suppressive person. See suppressive person in this glossary.
Definition: stable terminal: someone who is reliable, responsible and who can be depended upon to competently perform the duties of his job.
Definition: standard memory banks: recordings in the analytical mind of everything perceived throughout the lifetime up to the present by the individual except painful emotion and physical pain, which are recorded in the reactive mind.
Definition: suppressive person: a person who possesses a distinct set of characteristics and mental attitudes that cause him to suppress other people in his vicinity. This is the person whose behavior is calculated to be disastrous. Also called antisocial personality.
T
Definition: theta: energy peculiar to life which acts upon material in the physical universe and animates it, mobilizes it and changes it; natural creative energy of a being which he is free to direct toward survival goals. The term comes from the Greek letter theta (Theta), which the Greeks used to represent thought.
Definition: thetan: an immortal spiritual being; the human soul. The term soul is not used because it has developed so many other meanings from use in other religions and practices that it doesn’t describe precisely what was discovered in Scientology. We use the term thetan instead, from the Greek letter theta (Theta), the traditional symbol for thought or life. One does not have a thetan, something one keeps somewhere apart from oneself; one is a thetan. The thetan is the person himself, not his body or his name or the physical universe, his mind or anything else. It is that which is aware of being aware; the identity which IS the individual.
Definition: time track: the consecutive record of mental image pictures which accumulates through a person’s life. It is a very accurate record of a person’s past. As a rough analogy, the time track could be likened to a motion-picture film — if that film were three-dimensional, had fifty-seven perceptions and could fully react upon the observer.
Definition: TRs: abbreviation for training routines, practical drills which can greatly increase a student’s ability in essential Definition: auditing skills, such as communication.
U
Definition: unmock: become nothing, disappear, cease to exist.
V
W
Definition: whole track: the whole span of the time track. See also time track in this glossary.
Definition: WISE: an acronym for World Institute of Scientology Enterprises.
Definition: withhold: an overt a person has committed but is not talking about; an unspoken, unannounced transgression against a moral code by which a person was bound. Any withhold comes after an overt. See also overt in this glossary.
Definition: WW: abbreviation for Worldwide – the worldwide headquarters of the Church of Scientology at Saint Hill, where management was located until the early 1970s.
X
Y
Z
October 26, 2007 at 9:08 am
The auditor maintains and practices a code of conduct toward his preclear known as the “Auditor’s Code.” This is a doctrine of rules which must be strictly followed to ensure a preclear receives the greatest possible spiritual gain from auditing, and was evolved over many years of observation. It is the code of ethics which governs an auditor’s actions.
For example, in keeping with the Auditor’s Code, an auditor promises never to use the secrets divulged by a preclear in an auditing session. Traditionally, all communications between a minister and his parishioners have been privileged and confidential, and such is the case in auditing. The confidences given in trust during an auditing session are considered sacrosanct by the Church, and are never betrayed.
Auditing is only successful when the auditor conducts himself in accordance with the Code. An auditor never tells the preclear what he should think about himself, nor offers his opinion about what is being audited.
A goal of auditing is to restore the preclear’s certainty in his own viewpoint; evaluation for the preclear only inhibits attainment of this goal. Hence, such evaluation is prohibited by the Code.
The qualities instilled by the Auditor’s Code are essentially those held to be the best in people. An auditor shows his preclear kindness, affinity, patience and other such virtues, to assist the preclear in confronting areas of spiritual upset or difficulty.
The Auditor’s Code, by L. Ron Hubbard, is a fundamental tool of auditing (Auditing: Scientology counseling, taken from the Latin word audire which means “to hear or listen.” Auditing is a very unique form of personal counseling which helps an individual look at his own existence and improves his ability to confront what he is and where he is) and of life.
As L. Ron Hubbard wrote in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, “The Auditor’s Code outlines . . . the survival conduct pattern of man. The Clear operates more or less automatically on this code.” Because the basic axioms of Dianetics and Scientology comprise the fundamentals of thought itself, what works in auditing also works in life.
This code first appeared as a chapter in the book Dianetics: The Original Thesis written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1947 and published in 1951.
Subsequently, many hours of auditing ministered by auditors other than L. Ron Hubbard provided him with information he was able to apply to refine the code and thus improve the discipline of auditing.
The Auditor’s Code was revised in 1954, appearing in Professional Auditor’s Bulletins 38 and 39.
Over the next four years, several additions were made to the 1954 Code, one of which appeared in the book Dianetics 55! Another was released in Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin of 1 July 1957, ADDITION TO THE AUDITOR’S CODE, and two more items were added when the Auditor’s Code of 1958 was published.
The Auditor’s Code 1968, released in October of that year, was issued as a Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter. It was released in celebration of the 100 percent gains attainable by standard tech.
Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter 2 November 1968, AUDITOR’S CODE, added three more clauses to the Code.The final version of the Code was published by Mr. Hubbard on 19 June 1980.
The Auditor’s Code is a fundamental tool of auditing and of life. As L. Ron Hubbard wrote in Dianetics, “The Auditor’s Code outlines . . . the survival conduct pattern of man. The Clear operates more or less automatically on this code.” Because the basic axioms of Dianetics and Scientology comprise the fundamentals of thought itself, what works in auditing also works in life.
I hereby promise as an auditor to follow the Auditor’s Code.
1. I promise not to evaluate for the preclear or tell him what he should think about his case in session.
2. I promise not to invalidate the preclear’s case or gains in or out of session.
3. I promise to administer only standard tech to a preclear in the standard way.
4. I promise to keep all auditing appointments once made.
5. I promise not to process a preclear who has not had sufficient rest and who is physically tired.
6. I promise not to process a preclear who is improperly fed or hungry.
7. I promise not to permit a frequent change of auditors.
8. I promise not to sympathize with a preclear but to be effective.
9. I promise not to let the preclear end session on his own determinism but to finish off those cycles I have begun.
10. I promise never to walk off from a preclear in session.
11. I promise never to get angry with a preclear in session.
12. I promise to run every major case action to a floating needle.
13. I promise never to run any one action beyond its floating needle.
14. I promise to grant beingness to the preclear in session.
15. I promise not to mix the processes of Scientology with other practices except when the preclear is physically ill and only medical means will serve.
16. I promise to maintain communication with the preclear and not to cut his communication or permit him to overrun in session.
17. I promise not to enter comments, expressions or enturbulence into a session that distract a preclear from his case.
18. I promise to continue to give the preclear the process or auditing command when needed in the session.
19. I promise not to let a preclear run a wrongly understood command.
20. I promise not to explain, justify or make excuses in session for any auditor mistakes whether real or imagined.
21. I promise to estimate the current case state of a preclear only by standard case supervision data and not to diverge because of some imagined difference in the case.
22. I promise never to use the secrets of a preclear divulged in session for punishment or personal gain.
23. I promise to never falsify worksheets of sessions.
24. I promise to see that any donation received for processing is refunded, following the policies of the Claims Verification Board, if the preclear is dissatisfied and demands it within three months after the processing, the only condition being that he may not again be processed or trained.
25. I promise not to advocate Dianetics or Scientology only to cure illness or only to treat the insane, knowing well they were intended for spiritual gain.
26. I promise to cooperate fully with the authorized organizations of Dianetics and Scientology in safeguarding the ethical use and practice of those subjects.
27. I promise to refuse to permit any being to be physically injured, violently damaged, operated on or killed in the name of “mental treatment.”
28. I promise not to permit sexual liberties or violations of patients.
29. I promise to refuse to admit to the ranks of practitioners any being who is insane.
October 26, 2007 at 5:39 am
Another fundamental practice of the Scientology religion is training — the study of Scientology principles. Many courses of training are available in the Scientology religion because a person can, as stated, use the truths found in Scientology to improve conditions in every area of life. However, the most important training courses are those through which one learns to become an auditor. That is because the overriding principle in all courses is that Scientology is an applied religious philosophy, and all training emphasizes application.
The broad path the Scientologist follows through auditing and the study of Scientology materials is known as The Bridge. This embodies an ancient concept — a long-envisioned route across a chasm between man’s present state and vastly higher levels of awareness. The Bridge is comprised of gradient steps so that gains are incremental, predictable and apparent.
There are two sides to this Bridge: On one side, by receiving auditing, one reaches the highest states of awareness as a spiritual being; on the other, one studies the axioms and principles of Scientology and learns to become an auditor, ultimately advancing to the highest levels of auditor skill. The freedom available through Scientology requires passage along both these paths. For while one becomes free through auditing, this must be augmented by knowledge of how to stay free. Knowing the mechanisms by which spiritual freedom can be lost is itself a freedom, and places one outside their influence. All told, then, The Bridge constitutes a route upward from the lowest states of human existence to hitherto unimagined spiritual heights. And in that respect, it represents a spiritual dream that is as old as man himself.
October 26, 2007 at 5:15 am
The primary means by which the basic truths of Scientology are applied to the rehabilitation of the human spirit is called auditing. It is the central practice of Scientology, and it is delivered by an auditor, from the Latin word audire, “one who listens.”
An auditor does not engage in some vague form of mental exploration, nor does an auditor offer solutions, advice or evaluation. One of the fundamental principles of the Scientology faith is the truism that an individual can improve his conditions only if he is allowed to find his own answers to life’s problems. Scientology auditors help individuals to accomplish this goal by guiding them to examine their existence through a carefully structured series of steps that Mr. Hubbard developed. By following this gradient process, individuals can thereby improve their ability to face what they are and where they are — peeling away the layers of experience that have weighed so heavily upon them.
Auditing, then, is not something that is done to a person. Its benefits can be achieved only through active participation and good communication.
October 26, 2007 at 5:01 am
The state of Operating Thetan—a being able to operate free of the encumbrances of the material universe—is a central part of the ultimate salvation sought in the Scientology religion. This state is represented by a symbol consisting of the letters OT with the T inside the O and each of the points of the T ending at the O’s circumference.
October 26, 2007 at 4:52 am
The Scientology symbol consists of the S for Scientology and two triangles. The lower of the triangles is the ARC triangle, described above. The top triangle is called the KRC triangle. The K stands for knowledge, the R for responsibility and C for control. As with ARC, these three elements interact; increasing one’s sense of responsibility for something will lead to one’s ability to increase his knowledge and will then result in an increased ability to control. In that manner, by raising each point of the KRC triangle, the individual is able to be in control of his or her life in all of its aspects.
Thus, the Scientology symbol shows that through participation in the Scientology religion, one can continually raise his ARC or understanding for life and also his sense of responsibility, his knowledge of and ability to control his life. Thus, through Scientology he is on an ascending path that will ultimately result in spiritual freedom and salvation.
October 26, 2007 at 4:29 am
The cross, a symbol which predates Christianity by thousands of years, and versions of which have been used by such diverse ancient peoples as the Phoenicians, Hindus, Navajos and Aztecs, has a special design and significance in the Scientology religion.
The Scientology religion divides the life force of the thetan into eight subdivisions called dynamics. Thus, in addition to the four arms of the cross, the Scientology cross also has four rays which emanate diagonally from the center. Together, the arms and rays symbolize the eight dynamics.
The most basic religious significance of the Scientology cross is that of the spirit and the difficulties of its progression through the material universe. The horizontal bar represents the material universe, and the vertical bar represents the spirit. Thus, the spirit is seen to be rising triumphantly, ultimately transcending the turmoil of the physical universe to achieve salvation.
The cross has other messages as well. The four arms point to the four main points of the compass and thus symbolize the idea that spiritual development extends in all directions and encompasses all of life. Both the horizontal and vertical arms end in the standard heraldic symbols for leaves and flowers, known as the “Cross Fleury” or “Flowery Cross”. This symbolizes the full flowering of the individual.
October 26, 2007 at 3:29 am
While Scientology owes a spiritual debt to the Eastern faiths, it was born in the West and its beliefs are expressed in the technological language of the mid-Twentieth Century. Scientology adds to these spiritual concepts, a precise and workable technology for applying those concepts to life.
Scientology religious doctrine includes certain fundamental truths. Prime among them are that man is a spiritual being whose existence spans more than one life and who is endowed with abilities well beyond those which he normally considers he possesses. He is not only able to solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but also to achieve new states of spiritual awareness he may never have dreamed possible.
Scientology holds that man is basically good, and that his spiritual salvation depends upon himself, his relationships with his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe. In that regard, Scientology is a religious philosophy in the most profound sense of the word, for it is concerned with no less than the full rehabilitation of man’s innate spiritual self—his capabilities, his awareness, and his certainty of his own immortality.
And, in the wider arena, through the spiritual salvation of the individual, Scientology seeks the ultimate transformation—”a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights.”
In one form or another, all great religions have held the hope of spiritual freedom—a condition free of material limitations and suffering. Scientology offers a very practical approach to attaining this spiritual aim. Of this, L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “For countless ages a goal of religion has been the salvage of the human spirit. Man has tried by many practices to find the pathway to salvation. He has held the imperishable hope that someday in some way he would be free.” Mr. Hubbard continued, “And here, after these ages of grief and suffering, through terrible wars and catastrophe, the hope still lives—and with that hope, accomplishment.”
Thus, while the hope for such freedom is ancient, what Scientology is doing to bring about that freedom is new. And the technologies with which it can bring about a new state of being in man are likewise new. An understanding of these beliefs will illustrate how Scientology fits within the religious and spiritual traditions of the world.
DIANETICS
L. Ron Hubbard’s path to the founding of the Scientology religion began with certain discoveries he made in his research into the nature of man. He announced his findings in 1948 as “Dianetics,” a word which means “through the soul” or what the spirit is doing to the body.
With Dianetics, Mr. Hubbard discovered a previously unknown and harmful part of the mind which contains recordings of past experiences of loss, pain and unconsciousness in the form of mental image pictures. These incidents of spiritual trauma are recorded along with all other experiences of one’s life in sequential order on what Scientologists call the time track. The painful incidents recorded on this time track exist below a person’s level of awareness and collectively accumulate to make up what is called the reactive mind, the source of all travail, unwanted fears, emotions, pains, and psychosomatic illnesses—as distinct from the analytical mind, that portion of the mind which thinks, observes data, remembers it and resolves problems.
Dianetics provided a method to address the reactive mind by uncovering this previously unknown spiritual trauma and erasing its harmful effects on an individual. When this occurs, one has achieved a new state of spiritual awareness called Clear. One’s basic and fundamental spirituality, personality, his artistry, personal force and individual character, his inherent goodness and decency, are all restored.
While the Clear is analogous to the state of awareness in Buddhism call the Bodhi, or enlightened one, the Clear is a permanent level of spiritual awareness never attainable prior to Dianetics and Scientology.
THE THETAN
For all that Dianetics resolved, the actual nature of the spiritual being was still unknown, even though it was apparent from the beginning that this was a question which would one day need resolution. The breakthrough from Dianetics to Scientology came in the autumn of 1951, after Mr. Hubbard observed many people practicing Dianetics and found a commonality of experience and phenomena which were of a profoundly spiritual nature—contact with past-life experiences. After carefully reviewing all relevant research data, Mr. Hubbard isolated the answer: Man had been misled by the idea that he had a soul. In fact, man is a spiritual being, who has a mind and a body. The spirit is the source of all that is good, decent and creative in the world: it is the individual being himself. With this discovery, Mr. Hubbard founded the religion of Scientology, for he had moved firmly into the field traditionally belonging to religion—the realm of the human spirit.
Awareness of the human spirit has existed as a universal ingredient of almost every religion in every culture. However, each defined the spiritual essence of man differently. Terms such as “spirit” and “soul” were encumbered by centuries of various meanings. A new word was needed. Mr. Hubbard adopted the Greek letter theta ( * ), which he had assigned in 1950 to represent the transcendent “life force.” By adding an “n,” the word “thetan” thus described the individual unit of “life force”—the spiritual being—which is the person.
THETA AND MEST
In more general terms, the term theta describes the life force which animates all living things. This life force is separate from, but acts upon, the physical universe, which consists of matter, energy, space and time (called “MEST” in Scientology). Scientology is built on a series of fundamental truths called the Axioms, which define theta and MEST and describe how the two interrelate to form life as we know it. The Axioms comprise the fundamental elements of the beliefs of the Scientology religion.
First published in 1954, the Axioms of Scientology present this doctrinal foundation with a definition of theta as a “life static” which has no mass, no wavelength, no location in space or in time. It has the ability to influence and change its environment and achieve total knowingness.
CREATION
Scientology holds that it is the action of this non-material life static, playing upon the kinetic of the physical universe, which results in the manifestation of life. All living organisms are composed of matter and energy existing in space and time, animated by theta.
To a Scientologist, life is thus neither accidental nor purposeless, and the answers to questions of creation and evolution are found in Scientology. Materialists have sought to explain life as a spontaneous accident and evolution as a haphazard process of “natural selection.” But these theories never ruled out that additional factors may be merely using such processes as evolution.
Most of the world’s religions express some view of the creation of the world. Some religious traditions, such as Hindu and Buddhist, see the universe as essentially eternal, without beginning or end in the stream of time as we perceive it. The first books of the Bible contain an account of the creation of the universe which some Christian faiths hold to be allegorical and some hold to be an expression of literal fact. Other religious traditions have other views, but each attempts to explain this ultimate question of where we came from and how it occurred. In Scientology, this view flows from the theory of theta creating MEST; in fact, it could be said that the creation of the universe is an inseparable part of that theory. The origins of theta and the creation of the physical universe set forth in Scientology are described in The Factors, written by Mr. Hubbard in 1954.
In the Scientology view, as expressed in the Axioms and the Factors, if there was a “spark” that brought a first primeval brew of chemicals to life, that spark was not the MEST energy of electricity, mindlessly contributing some “lucky” voltage, but the volitional, spiritual element of theta taking an elemental step in the creation and conquest of MEST.
Just as the combination of theta and MEST produces life, their separation is synonymous with death of the organism. The human body, like all life forms, follows a cycle of birth, growth and survival, and ultimately death. The thetan, however—the individualized “unit” of life energy which is the person—is not of the universe of matter, energy, space and time and thus does not cease to exist when the body dies. It is immortal.
As Mr. Hubbard observed, “A Scientologist, before he has gone very far, begins to realize the nature of the universe. He realizes this didn’t all just occur spontaneously one fine day out of some scientific formula, and he realizes there must have been an Author to all of these things. And he also realizes, oddly enough, in his own participation.”
SPIRITUAL ENTRAPMENT BY MEST
The creation and animation of life forms is part of the process by which theta accomplishes its goal in the physical universe, which is the conquest of MEST—expressed in some religions as a conflict between order and chaos. This goal is made necessary by the fact that the physical universe—MEST—tends to encumber the thetan and cause it to act contrary to its true spiritual nature.
Although Scientologists hold that the immortal thetan is intrinsically good, Scientology posits that he has lost his spiritual identity and operates at a small fraction of his natural ability. It is this loss of spiritual identity that causes man to be unhappy or to act irrationally and with evil intent, even though he is inherently good and highly ethical.
This “fall from perfection” is not due to Satan’s intervention or man’s natural evil impulses, as Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious theology maintains. Rather, Scientology postulates that it is caused by the thetan’s own experiences, whether in current or prior lives. As these experiences accumulate over time, they cause the thetan to become enmeshed with the material universe.
It is through Scientology’s central religious practices that the thetan is able to extricate himself from this entrapment. This is analogous to the concept of salvation found in other religions.
SALVATION
Scientology’s path to spiritual salvation differs from that taken by religions of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In part, this is due to Mr. Hubbard’s discovery of the thetan’s immortality and its separateness from the mind and the body. This fact aligns Scientology much more to Eastern traditions of religious thought in many ways, including their concepts of salvation.
Jews and Christians believe the soul lives only once, and Christians believe that upon death the soul is resurrected as a spiritual body in heaven or hell. Like the Buddhist, the Hindu, and even some early Christians, Scientologists believe that the thetan assumes many bodies through its repeated contacts with the physical universe.
Scientologists also believe that the thetan, and therefore man, is basically good. In contrast, Jews and Christians follow the Old Testament teaching that man has two intrinsic impulses—one good and the other evil—that are constantly competing, just as the perceived cosmic struggle between God and Satan.
According to this Judeo-Christian framework, man’s plight is to overcome his evil side. Jewish theology states he can do this by observing the finely crafted rules of the Torah. Christian theology teaches he must, at minimum, accept Christ’s resurrection as a matter of faith. In either case, the promise of salvation is not realized until death.
Salvation in the Scientology religion is much different and much more immediate. In the tradition of certain Eastern religions, Scientology teaches that salvation is attained through increasing one’s spiritual awareness. The complete salvation of the thetan, called “Total Freedom” in Scientology, is attainable through the practice of Scientology religious services.
As one’s spiritual awareness grows through practicing Scientology, so does his ability to determine his own answers and solutions about life, the spirit and eternity, and to know them with absolute certainty. Ultimately, the individual is aware of himself as a spirit, independent of the flesh, and that he will survive with memory and identity intact.
THE EIGHT DYNAMICS
One fundamental and unifying factor that runs throughout Scientology’s view of the universe is that the primary goal of all life forms – including the thetan—is towards infinite survival. The urge is so powerful and so universal that it is known as the “dynamic principle of existence.” This dynamic principle of existence is itself divided into eight distinct parts, called the “eight dynamics,” each representing one aspect of the survival dynamic. Viewed as concentric circles expanding outward from a common center, the eight dynamics represent an increasing awareness of and participation in all of life’s elements. These dynamics represent Scientology’s view of the cosmos.
The first dynamic is SELF. This is the urge toward existence and survival as an individual, to be an individual, and to attain the highest level of survival for the longest possible time for self. Here we have individuality expressed fully.
The second dynamic is FAMILY. This is the urge toward existence and survival through sex and the rearing of children. It stands for creativity, for making things for the future, and it includes the family unit.
The third dynamic is GROUPS. This is the urge toward existence and survival through a group of individuals, with the group tending to take on a life and existence of its own. A group can be a club, friends, a community, a company, a social lodge, a state, a nation, or even a race.
The fourth dynamic is SPECIES. This is the urge toward existence and survival through all mankind and as all mankind.
The fifth dynamic is LIFE FORMS. This is the urge toward existence and survival as life forms and with the help of life forms such as all animals, birds, insects, fish and vegetation, or anything motivated by life. It is, in short, the effort to survive for any and every form of life. It is the interest in life as such.
The sixth dynamic is PHYSICAL UNIVERSE. This is the urge toward existence and survival of the physical universe, by the physical universe itself and with the help of the physical universe and each one of its component parts—matter, energy, space and time.
The seventh dynamic is SPIRITS. This is the urge toward existence and survival as spiritual beings or the urge for life itself to survive. Anything spiritual, with or without identity, would come under the heading of the seventh dynamic. The seventh dynamic is the life source, or theta. This is separate from the physical universe and is the source of life itself. Thus, there is an effort for the survival of theta as theta.
The eighth dynamic is the urge toward existence and survival as INFINITY. The eighth dynamic also is commonly called God, the Supreme Being or Creator, but it is correctly defined as infinity. It actually embraces the “All-ness” of All.
Mr. Hubbard wrote about the interrelationship of the sixth, seventh and eighth dynamics:
“The theta universe is a postulated reality for which there exists much evidence. If one were going to draw a diagram of this, it would be a triangle with the Supreme Being at one corner, the MEST universe at another and the theta universe at the third. Too much evidence is forthcoming in research to permit us to overlook this reality. Indeed, the assumption of this reality is solving some of the major problems of the humanities….”
Because the fundamentals upon which Scientology rests embrace all aspects of life, certain key principles which permeate the religion can also be broadly employed to better any aspect of life. Moreover, the principles greatly clarify what is so often confusing and bewildering. And, through Scientology, a person realizes that his life and influence extend far beyond himself. He becomes aware also of the necessity to participate in a much broader spectrum. By understanding each of these dynamics and their relationship, one to the other, he is able to do so, and thus increase survival on and participation in all these dynamics.
Thus, as a Scientologist expands his awareness, participation and responsibility outward along the dynamics, he will ultimately arrive at the eighth dynamic, survival through Infinity, or the Supreme Being. That is why, according to Mr. Hubbard, “When the seventh dynamic is reached in its entirety, one will only then discover the true eighth dynamic.”
SUPREME BEING
There are probably at least as many concepts of the Supreme Being or ultimate reality as there are religions. Christianity is monotheistic. Hinduism is a polytheistic faith. Branches of Buddhism do not believe in a Supreme Being in any form whatsoever. As many religious scholars note, Scientology in this respect is more like Western religions and shares their view that places the Supreme Being at the pinnacle of the cosmos.
According to Mr. Hubbard, a man who does not share a belief in a Supreme Being is not really a man. Mr. Hubbard wrote:
“No culture in the history of the world, save the thoroughly depraved and expiring ones, has failed to affirm the existence of a Supreme Being. It is an empirical observation that men without a strong and lasting faith in a Supreme Being are less capable, less ethical and less valuable to themselves and society. … A man without an abiding faith is, by observation alone, more a thing than a man.”
Many religions characterize the Supreme Being (whether called Yahweh, God, Allah, or something else) in such terms as omnipotent, omniscient, beneficent, judgmental, demanding, or attribute to the Supreme Being other generally anthropomorphic qualities.
Scientology differs from these other religions in that it makes no effort to describe the exact nature or character of God. In Scientology, each individual is expected to reach his own personal conclusions regarding all eight dynamics, including God, through the practice of the religion. Thus, an individual’s understanding as to his relationship with the Supreme Being is developed over time as he comes to understand and participate more fully in each of the preceding seven dynamics.
This is a necessary approach, for in Scientology no one is asked to accept anything on faith. Instead, everyone is expected to test beliefs for themselves, on a purely personal level. A belief—or knowledge—will be true for someone only when that person actually observes it and determines that it is true according to his own observation. Thus, by following the Scientology religious path, one comes to a relationship with the Supreme Being that is truly personal and individual. In this regard, Scientology is in some respects similar to those religions such as Unitarianism and other faiths which are wary of providing dogmatic definitions or descriptions of God.
SCIENTOLOGY ETHICS
Scientology shares the view of many religions that no person can be spiritually free—or even successful in everyday life—if he is only interested in himself, his first dynamic. From a Scientology perspective, such a person would be considered to have lost his native spiritual awareness of and responsibility for the other seven dynamics.
As a person becomes more spiritually aware through Scientology, he inevitably experiences a reawakening of his own interests and responsibilities in these other areas of life. Thus, as one progresses in Scientology, one normally develops a stronger sense of the importance of the family, and the need to contribute to one’s community and take part in activities that assist mankind as a whole. Rather than accepting such duties as a burden, the Scientologist sees responsibility on the eight dynamics as a natural and necessary progression of his own spiritual growth.
Scientology teaches that one must always take these dynamics into account in deciding any course of action, even in seemingly mundane, day-to-day matters. Indeed, one of the cardinal pillars of Scientology thought and the standard by which it encourages individuals to guide their conduct is that the “optimum solution” for any problem is the one that does the “greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.”
It is this interrelationship of the eight dynamics which provides the foundation of Scientology’s system of ethics. Indeed, in Scientology, ethical conduct is defined as conduct which maximizes one’s growth and participation along each of the dynamics, the most ethical action being that action which enhances the survival and growth of all dynamics, and the least ethical action being that which causes the most destruction along the dynamics, with infinite gradations in between. Good and evil are thus defined, and from them a system of right conduct which enables an individual to maximize the survival of himself, his family, community and society as a whole.
Ethics plays a large role in the life of a Scientologist, as these beliefs govern conduct. Having embraced a yardstick by which to gauge their conduct, Scientologists strive to live honest, ethical lives, to better conditions not only as far as their own lives are concerned, but for their family, community, nation, and all of society. A Scientologist is not following his religion if he is seeking only his own spiritual enhancement. Thus, Scientology doctrine repeatedly emphasizes the need for individuals to apply its religious wisdom to better the conditions of their family, neighbors, their friends and society at large.
Scientology encourages its members to take the principles they have learned through the practice of the religion and apply them to help others to have a better life. Moreover, according to Scientology doctrine, the individual bears a responsibility for bettering the community as surely as he is responsible for taking care of himself, for the Scientologist knows his spiritual salvation depends on it.
UNDERSTANDING LIFE
Because the ultimate goal of an immortal spiritual being—infinite survival—can be attained only by maximizing one’s participation along all eight dynamics, the question arises as to how, then, an individual accomplishes this.
Scientology teaches that by increasing understanding along all eight dynamics, the thetan can increase his participation and survival potential. Scientology defines understanding as being composed of three elements: affinity, reality and communication. These three interdependent factors may be expressed as a triangle and are examined at great length in Scientology Scripture. Each element occupies a corner of the triangle, known as the ARC triangle.
The first element is affinity, which is the degree of liking or affection. It is the emotional state of the individual, the feeling of love or liking for something or someone. The second element is called reality, which could be defined as “that which appears to be.” At bottom, reality is actually a form of agreement. What we agree to be real is real. The third element is communication, the interchange of ideas. These three concepts—affinity, reality and communication—are the component parts of understanding. They are interdependent one upon the other, and when one drops, the other two drop; when one rises, the other two also rise.
Of the three elements, communication is by far the most important, and a substantial portion of the Scientology Scriptures are devoted to the understanding and application of communication.
An individual’s communication level is a primary index of his spiritual state. To the degree that a person is withdrawn, introverted or uncommunicative he may have many problems in life. Experience shows that many of these problems can be alleviated simply by knowing the various components of communication, thus raising one’s ability to communicate.
In Scientology, as a person’s spiritual awareness increases, his level of affinity, reality and communication—and thus his understanding—expands. Indeed, Scientology teaches that when a thetan has total affinity, reality and communication across all eight dynamics, complete understanding of the entirety of life and full spiritual awareness follow.
Thus it can be seen that the doctrines of Scientology address ultimate concerns—the relationship of man as a spiritual being to all aspects of life and the universe, and finally his salvation through a route to higher states of spiritual existence.
October 24, 2007 at 5:57 am
SALVATION
Scientology’s path to spiritual salvation differs from that taken by religions of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In part, this is due to Mr. Hubbard’s discovery of the thetan’s immortality and its separateness from the mind and the body. This fact aligns Scientology much more to Eastern traditions of religious thought in many ways, including their concepts of salvation.
Jews and Christians believe the soul lives only once, and Christians believe that upon death the soul is resurrected as a spiritual body in heaven or hell. Like the Buddhist, the Hindu, and even some early Christians, Scientologists believe that the thetan assumes many bodies through its repeated contacts with the physical universe.
Scientologists also believe that the thetan, and therefore man, is basically good. In contrast, Jews and Christians follow the Old Testament teaching that man has two intrinsic impulses—one good and the other evil—that are constantly competing, just as the perceived cosmic struggle between God and Satan.
According to this Judeo-Christian framework, man’s plight is to overcome his evil side. Jewish theology states he can do this by observing the finely crafted rules of the Torah. Christian theology teaches he must, at minimum, accept Christ’s resurrection as a matter of faith. In either case, the promise of salvation is not realized until death.
Salvation in the Scientology religion is much different and much more immediate. In the tradition of certain Eastern religions, Scientology teaches that salvation is attained through increasing one’s spiritual awareness. The complete salvation of the thetan, called “Total Freedom” in Scientology, is attainable through the practice of Scientology religious services.
As one’s spiritual awareness grows through practicing Scientology, so does his ability to determine his own answers and solutions about life, the spirit and eternity, and to know them with absolute certainty. Ultimately, the individual is aware of himself as a spirit, independent of the flesh, and that he will survive with memory and identity intact.
October 16, 2007 at 4:52 am
Scientology Answers 