...AND THEN THERE WAS SCIENTOLOGY!
As Dianetics was taken up with great enthusiasm around the world in the early fifties, the research and monitoring of results by Hubbard and others went on. The object was always to free the patient from the fixed mental conditions that many people were set in, and thereby remove their anxieties and those physical illnesses that had a mental origin.
The continuing research and development of Dianetics produced new techniques but also went deeper into the human mind. By 1952 it was evident that the starting question about mental causes for physical ailments had been broadened to a much bigger question and answer. That answer was the beginning of Scientology!
The action of searching through the mind for lost or hidden memories that caused the patient upset or distress was termed 'clearing' the mind. At the end of the process the person whose mind contained no more aberrative material, namely memories capable of upsetting the person and making him behave irrationally, was termed a 'Clear'.
The concept of Clear is very important, not least because one of the many jargon terms to emerge is the description 'Pre-Clear' for someone who had not yet reached that happy state. The words are often shortened to PC.
For many people compulsions and irrational needs exert a major driving force on the way they live their lives and the goals they strive for. When such a person's mind has been cleared of this aberrative material, the question can then be asked-What or Who drives the person now?
Thus in solving the problem of why many people behave or think irrationally a bigger problem emerges. Once the mind is clear and operating rationally, who controls it? To return to the analogy of the mind being a machine, if the motor car is freed of its faults and is working smoothly, who decides when and where it should go?
The answer to this question emerges as the spirit or soul. Hubbard used the word 'Thetan' to describe the essential being which each of us is. It follows then that each individual human being consists of three elements, a body, a mind, and a life-giving spirit.
While many people do have an innate conviction of the existence of the spirit or soul, it is not a popular belief for the second half of the
8 THE SAD TALE OF SCIENTOLOGY
twentieth century. Psychology is taken to mean the study of the mind The term Psyche is however derived from the Greek word that means Soul or Spirit. The substitution of Mind for Spirit came about around the middle of the last century. Among the possible reasons for this was that it permitted the study of human behaviour to free itself from the remaining vestiges of religious control. If philosophers of those times could claim there was no spirit or soul, then they could disregard criticism by the Churches.
With the emergence in Hubbard's work of a definite spiritual entity. as distinct from the body and mind, we get the beginning of Scientology The shortest definitions of Scientology are the 'Science of Knowledge or 'Knowing about Knowing'. What is referred to as knowledge here is the awareness of the underlying truths of life and existence.
Since there has been a steady effort by man over many centuries to find the certain truths of life, it is understandable that yet another contender would be treated with some scepticism. Once again however we can see Hubbard's severely practical approach. He says that if the truths that emerge do not help people to live better and happier lives, there isn't much point in knowing them. He also says that for most people the surest way for them to prove whether ideas are valid is to apply them to their own lives by a gradual step-by step process.
As in Dianetics, there is at least as much emphasis on effective therapy as discussion of theory. Scientology therapy serves to let a person become more aware of his existence as a spiritual being and a little less cramped and constrained by the circumstances of his day to-day life. The gradual step-by-step approach enables a person who is burdened by many worries and seemingly intractable problems to win back control of his life. The progress is usually for people first to see their problems as they are, then to realise that they can handle them, and finally to take the concrete action necessary to do so.
The mechanism by which Scientology brings about this effect is twofold. Both parts need to be undertaken to achieve the personal gains that the individual can make.
First there is the need to read and study the principles involved. Much medical therapy surrounds itself in mystique and discourages the patient from asking questions. Quite the reverse is true in Scientology, although the patient is only required to study and understand sufficient material for their next processing step.
Processing is the second part of Scientology therapy. Once again it involves working with another person, an Auditor. The Auditor takes the patient through a series of drills, usually in the form of questions. The
CHAPTER THREE 9
person being Audited takes as long as he or she needs to find the answer to each question and then tells the Auditor.
Because of its apparent simplicity it has been difficult for authoritative medical bodies, or even sophisticated lay people, to believe that Scientology therapy could be so beneficial to an individual. The greatest benefits have often therefore come to those people with sufficient humility or courage to try it. By their own accounts and those of their friends and relatives, those people who have tried it have usually been able to change their own lives significantly for the better.
To summarise, Dianetics started off by examining how malfunctions of the mind and irrational thinking often caused physical ailments and distress. It came up with plausible reasons as to why these things happened, and evolved a workable therapy to correct them. During the course of this work concrete evidence emerged of the existence of the individual spirit or soul. Many cultures and religions have claimed that a Soul or spirit does exist in each of us, but could never prove it!
Having identified this individual spirit it was then found that its self awareness and abilities could be significantly enhanced by Scientology Auditing. This included enabling it to become more effective in its relationships with other people and coping with the day-to-day pressures of living. In fact increasing an individual's ability to deal with life was found to be a necessary precondition for the more advanced steps of spirit enhancement.
It is obvious that a person who may be having difficulty holding job, whose marriage is in jeopardy, who can't communicate with children, or who is in a financial mess, is not likely to be receptive to ideas of spiritual enhancement. It became apparent that physical improvement from Dianetics were also dependent on a person getting his life into so order. Dianetics could not usually help him much until he had been helped by Scientology to get in more control of his day-to day life an circumstances.
Thus we end up with two closely related subjects which can best be defined as follows.
DIANETICS derived from the Greek words for through (DIA) an, soul (NOUS). This addresses the body and deals with its problem concerning behaviour and psychosomatic illnesses, which are seen a largely created by mental states,
SCIENTOLOGY derived from Latin for to know (SCIO) and the Greek for inward thought or reason ( LOGOS). This is a philosophy of the spirit which. through applying its principles and practices, can bring about desirable changes in the conditions of life.
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