SCI ENCE
OF
SURVIVAL
Prediction of Human Behavior
by
L. Ron Hubbard
296.297
Dedicated to
DIANA HUBBARD
297.298
Acknowledgement is made to fifty-thousand years of thinking men without whose speculations
and observations the creation and construction of Dianetics would not have been possible.
Credit in particular is due to:
Anaxagoras Thomas Paine
Aristotle Thomas Jefferson
Socrates Rene Descartes
PlatoJames Clerk Maxwell
Euclid Charcot
Lucretius Herbert Spencer
Roger Bacon William James
Isaac Newton Francis Bacon
van Leeuwenhoek Sigmund Freud
Voltaire William A. White
Cmdr Thompson (MC) USN Will Durant
Count Alfred Korzybski
and my instructors in atomic and molecular phenomena, mathematics and the humanities at
George Washington University and at Princeton.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Goal of Dianetics 6
Introduction 16
BOOK ONE: The Dynamics of Behavior
Chapter Column Page
One A The Tone Scale 19
Two B Dianetic Evaluation 26
Three C Physiology and Behavior 29
Four D Psychiatric Range 31
Five E Medical Range 34
Six The Basic Laws of Theta
Affinity-Reality-Communication 36
Seven F Emotion 42
Eight G Affinity 45
Nine Communication and Reality 47
Ten H Sonic 50
Eleven I Visio 54
Twelve J Somatics 57
Thirteen K Speech, Talks; Speech, Listens 60
Fourteen L Subject’s Handling of Written or
Spoken communication when
Acting as a Relay Point 63
Fifteen M Reality (Agreement) 65
Sixteen N Condition of Track and Valences 68
Seventeen O Manifestation of Engrams
and Locks 72
Eighteen P Sexual Behavior, Attitude
Toward Children 74
Nineteen Q Command Over Environment 78
Twenty R Actual Worth to Society
Compared to Apparent Worth 81
Twenty-one S Ethic Level 83
Twenty-two T The Handling of Truth 85
Twenty-three U Courage Level 88
Twenty-four V Ability to Handle Responsibility 90
Twenty-five W Persistence on a Given Course 93
Twenty-six X Literalness with which Statements
or Remarks are Received 95
Twenty-seven Y Methods Used by Subject to
Handle Others 96
Twenty-eight Z Command Value of Action
Phrases 108
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BOOK TWO: Dianetic Processing
Chapter Column Page
One The Basic Principles of
Processing 111
114
Two The Auditor’s Code 117
Three The Mechanics of Aberration 120
Four The Dynamics of Existence 125
Five General Description of
Processing 128
Six AB Present Time 134
Seven AC Straight Memory 141
Eight AD Pleasure Moments 150
Nine AE Imaginary Incidents
The Pre-Clear and Auditor
as a Group 158
Ten AF Locks 165
Eleven AG Scanning Locks 168
Twelve AH Secondary Engrams 174
Thirteen AI Engrams 183
Fourteen AJ Chains of Engrams 200
Fifteen AK Circuits 202
Sixteen AL Condition of File Clerk 208
Seventeen AM Hypnotic Level 212
Eighteen AN Level of Mind Alert 217
Nineteen AO Relative Entheta on Case 224
Twenty AQ Tone Level of Auditor
Necessary to Handle Case 232
Twenty-one AR How to Audit the case 235
Appendix Axioms and Definitions 243
INSERT HUBBARD CHART OF HUMAN
EVALUATION AND DIANETIC PROCESSING
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The Goal of Dianetics
A world without insanity, without criminals and without war -- this is the goal of
Dianetics.
For thousands of years man has struggled forward with his conquest of the material
universe but he has known almost nothing about his most important weapon, his most valuable
possession, the human mind. Despite this obstacle of ignorance he has made progress, but
because of this obstacle he has accumulated unto himself not only the penalties of madness and
disease but more important, the threat of destruction for all his works -- modern war.
Dianetics is the science of thought. The word is from the Greek “dianoua” (through
mind). The scope of Dianetics includes all valid data pertaining to thought. Far simpler than
Man supposed, the workings of the human mind and knowledge itself became, in Dianetics, a
body of knowledge with which any reasonably intelligent individual can work.
No civilization can progress to the stability of continuous survival without certain and
sure command of knowledge such as that contained in Dianetics. For Dianetics, skillfully used,
can do exactly what it claims. It can, in the realm of the Individual, prevent or alleviate insanity,
neurosis, compulsions and obsessions and it can bring about physical well being, removing the
basic cause of some seventy percent of Man’s illnesses. It can, in the field of the family, bring
about better accord and harmony. It can, in the field of nations or smaller groups such as those
of industry, improve management to a point where these pitifully inadequate ideologies for
which men fight and die with such frightening earnestness, can be laid aside in favor of a
workable technology.
Perhaps our present generation is too benighted for a new science. It would be very
sad if it were true, for atom bombs are quite destructive to people and to town and might well
obliterate whole cultures. Perhaps the vendors of crack-pot ideologies and destructive therapies
are too rich and too powerful and too selfish to permit a ray of hope upon our generation’s
stage. Perhaps it will be tomorrow -- if tomorrow is let come -- before Dianetics is used and
widely applied.
Dianetics was asked to vindicate itself in 1950. It did, as you will see in the publisher’s
introduction. This was very tolerant of Dianetics for no existing “ology” pertaining to the
human mind has ever been validated or has been called upon to validate itself. The entrenched
therapies, flatly do not work. Their results are much the same as those which would have been
achieved had no work been done. What sort of a society is this in which we live where
pretence is accepted as validity against all opposing facts?
Dianetics works. None who have spent any time around the Foundation can doubt that.
It even works in relatively unskilled hands. Daily, it does its miracles. And this is not very
strange, for Dianetics is root knowledge of human activity.
But Dianetics is not a psychotherapy and it is not psychosomatic medicine. Those who
want and need these things find Dianetics swiftly efficacious in these fields and so think of it as
a psychotherapy. Those whose “field” it invades would love to have it outlawed before their
boxes of beautiful “Snake Root Oil” have been discredited.
Preventive Dianetics means more for humanity in the long run than Dianetic processing.
Group Dianetics means more for these war-torn societies than any number of arthritis cures.
Dianetics is the basic science of human thought. It embraces human activity and arranges a
body of hitherto uncoordinated knowledge. Dianetics has a basic goal, a good goal, a goal
which should not be discounted or thrown aside because some quack will lose his income or
because some revolutionary will lose his crack-pot cause. The goal of Dianetics is a sane world
-- a world without insanity, without criminals and without war. If our generations live to write
history, let them sadly give a page to those who, in this chaotic and dark age, sought, through
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personal profit and through hate, to bring a truly humanitarian science down. The goal of
Dianetics is sanity. It would be stopped only by the insane.
From Funk and Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary, Supplement No. 5: di.a.net’ics
noun: A system for the analysis, control and development of human thought evolved from a set
of coordinated axioms which also provide techniques for the treatment of a wide range of
mental disorders and organic diseases: term and doctrines introduced by L. Ron Hubbard,
American engineer. (Gr. dianoetikos - dia, through plus noos, mind) -- di.a net’.ic adj.
Dianetics is the science of survival. Although it is much simpler than the physical sciences of
physics and chemistry, it compares with them in the preciseness of its results. The source of
psychosomatic illness and human aberration has been discovered, and in Dianetics skills exist,
for the first time, with which to resolve them. An understanding of human behavior is made
possible by Dianetics. The precision of science is brought by Dianetics into the broad fields of
the humanities. It is actually a family of sciences, and enlarges the humanities beyond previous
understanding. The present volume deals with human evaluation and with dianetic processing.
With it the behavior of human beings can be estimated and predicted with exactness. Although
Dianetics is a broad subject and should never be limited to the field of mental healing, any true
science which embraced man’s activities could not but touch upon and resolve neurosis,
criminality, insanity and psychosomatic illness.
Application of the human evaluation chart contained in this volume permits the student
to estimate with some exactness the behavior and reactions he can expect from the human
beings around him and what can happen to him as a result of association with various persons.
Additionally, the use of human evaluation permits the individual to handle and better live with
other human beings.
Man has known many portions of Dianetics in the past thousands of years, but not until
now has this data been organised into a body of precision knowledge. Dianetics, as a master
science, embraces psychology, psychometry, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and any other field
of mental healing or evaluation but goes on, more importantly, to predict human behavior
precisely and to delineate the causes of that behavior, to enhance the field of politics and to
enlarge all other activities of man. Despite this scope, Dianetics is simple enough to be easily
understood by the intelligent layman, and after a study of this volume many of its lesser
techniques can be employed by the layman to better and increase the life potential of individuals
with whom he associates.
The first law of Dianetics is the dynamic principle of existence: THE DYNAMIC
PRINCIPLE OF EXISTENCE IS SURVIVE! OR SUCCUMB! No activity of living
organisms has been found to exist without this principle. It is not meant here that survival
should be in terms of barest necessity, since one of the best guarantees of survival is
abundance.
In Dianetics, survival is understood to be the basic single thrust of life through time and
space, energy and matter. Survival is subdivided into eight dynamics. Man does not survive
for self alone, nor yet for sex, nor yet for groups, nor yet only for the species of man. Man
apparently survives, as do other living organisms, along eight separate channels. These
channels are called the dynamics, and these eight represent the eight fundamental urges or
drives which motivate conduct.
Dynamic one is the urge of the individual to survive as himself.
Dynamic two is the urge of the individual to survive through his progeny. The second
dynamic has two main subdivisions, the sexual act and the creation of children and their
rearing.
Dynamic three is the urge of the individual to survive as a member of a group, whether
civil, political, racial, or just a number of individuals who compose a group.
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Dynamic four is the urge of the individual to reach the highest survival in terms of
mankind and is the urge of mankind to survive as man.
Dynamic five is the urge to survive as a life organism and embraces all living
organisms.
Dynamic six is the urge to survive as part of the physical universe and includes the
survival of the physical universe.
Dynamic seven is the urge toward survival in a spiritual sense.
Dynamic eight is the urge toward survival as a part of or ward of a Supreme Being.
The number eight, laid on its side, gives us the symbol -oo- for infinity.
With these various drives, all the behavior and activities of individuals or groups can be
integrated, evaluated and understood. With all of these dynamics in full play in the individual, a
high level of sanity and optimum conduct is obtainable.
Dianetic processing attempts to give the individual the highest possible potential of
survival and the happiest possible life. Severely tested and evaluated, dianetic processing has
been found to deliver, in the hands of a competent dianetic practitioner, a considerably
heightened productivity and happiness to the individual, as will be shown below.
Without using hypnotism, drugs, surgery, shock or other artificial means, Dianetics
unblocks the flow of these dynamics and considerably enhances the ability of the individual to
act in life and enjoy it. The source of mental disturbance and psychosomatic illness and
irrational conduct is one of the basic discoveries of Dianetics. This source remained unknown
and unsuspected for thousands of years, although relentlessly sought by the thinkers and
philosophers of all ages.
That this source is the valid source has been rigorously tested and has been proven
beyond doubt by the best authorities. The source of aberration lies in a hitherto unknown sub-mind
which, with its recordings, underlies what man understands to be his “conscious” and.
The concept of the “unconscious” is re-evaluated in Dianetics by the discovery that the
“unconscious” mind is the only mind which is always conscious. This submind is called the
reactive mind.
A holdover from an earlier step in evolution, the reactive mind is able to command the
conscious mind without the individual suspecting he is being so ordered about. Hidden and
mysterious impulses, obsessions, delusions and other unwanted ideas are able to manifest
themselves against the conscious mind of the individual without his suspecting what is
happening. These compulsions and obsessions and irrationalities greatly reduce an individual’s
survival potential as well as his energy and physical health. The reactive mind takes any and all
of the data which it contains from moments of physical pain or painful emotion which have
been experienced by the individual in the course of life. When an individual is unconscious,
which is to say when he is drugged or knocked out by shock, injury or illness, the reactive
mind is wide open to receive recordings.
Previously it was not known that an individual who was unconscious could and did
record those things which were said and done around him. For instance, during an operation
while the patient lies on the table under ether, his reactive mind records everything that is said
and done around him and records additionally the physical pain and the drugged feeling of the
anaesthesia. All these perceptions combine together to create what is known in Dianetics as an
engram. An individual, then, has an engram for every moment during his entire lifetime when
he has been Knocked out or severely injured. Everything which occurs in these moments lies
dormant in the reactive mind.
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Further, every moment of great emotional shock, where loss occasions near
unconsciousness, is fully recorded in the reactive mind. These shocks of loss are known as
Secondaries. For instance, the death of a loved one brings about a state of near
unconsciousness, and everything which is said or done around a person in such a state is
recorded and becomes compulsive as part of the reactive mind. The reactive mind is composed
solely of these experiences.
Later on, when an individual is tired or only slightly ill, similar circumstances or voices
in his surrounding may restimulate one of the engrams or secondaries and so cause him to react
according to its commands upon him. This is called, dianetically, a lock and is a conscious-level
irrational reaction. In the reactive mind there exists, thus, an interior world of force which
acts upon the individual. This is aberration, and it is caused by what has been done to not done
by the individual, during moments when he was unconscious. The eradication of the content of
the reactive mind is made possible by dianetic processing. One would agree that if the entire
physical pain and painful emotion of a lifetime were eradicated from his life he would be saner
and happier. Dianetic processing does just this. Dianetic processing is very simple in its
elements.
Several new things have been learned in Dianetics about the human mind. One is the
time track. Every moment of consciousness, from an individual’s earliest instant of life to
present time, constitutes what may be called a track of time. During these consecutive moments
in time, everything the individual has heard, seen, felt or smelled is recorded faithfully. These
recordings may not be available instantly to every human being, but in dianetic processing they
become available.
This time track, then, is a record not only of the life span of the individual but also of
everything which has happened within that span. When something is forgotten it does not
disappear from this time track but is only denied to the individual by an occlusion occasioned
by some physical or emotional pain. This pain makes it difficult for the individual to reach the
data without re-experiencing the pain, and so the data becomes lost to him until he is processed.
Processing is done by recovering data on the time track. Wide awake, without hypnotism,
drugs or other artificial means any individual can be sent down the time track to earlier
moments.
The preciseness with which he will go to these moments is astonishing. Many people
are held in these moments by some past physical pain to such a degree that they are actually not
in present time. When an individual is somewhere on the time track other than in present time
he can be said to be out of present time. He will be experiencing some of the pain and will be
reacting to the commands of the moment. If you were to ask one of your friends how old he is
and request that he give you the first figure that flashed into his mind you would be astonished
how often that figure would not be his proper age but an earlier age. If you pursued the quest
you would find, by enlarging his memory, that he had been injured or had experienced some
painful event at the age which he gave you in lieu of his own. This individual would be out of
present time.
It is a primary purpose of dianetic processing to bring the individual wholly into present
time. Processing is simply done. The auditor (as the processor is called) directs the attention of
“I” back along the time track. The preclear (the person who is undergoing processing) is wide
awake, knows everything which is taking place, is in full control of himself and is able to bring
himself to the present whenever he likes. In a fully returned state, wherein the auditor has
directed that “I” go back to a certain moment in the preclear’s life, the preclear can be seen to
approximate, involuntarily, the state he was in at some earlier period of his life. There exist,
however, many severly occluded cases which cannot easily reach moments on the time track
and there exist people who are stuck on the time track so thoroughly that they cannot reach
earlier or later moments easily.
Lighter methods of dianetic processing have been devised to free those individuals in
such a way that their recall becomes much more adequate. Psychosomatic illness, as it is called
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in the field of medicine, is named in Dianetics a chronic somatic, since it is not an illness and
cannot be diagnosed as such but is only some former pain which is in restimulation. For
instance, the individual who has what a physician may have diagnosed as arthritis of the elbow
is really suffering from the restimulation of an actual pain or series of pains he has received at
some much earlier time in that very elbow.
In other words, a child which breaks its elbow at the age of three may at the age of
thirty experience a rheumatic pain in that elbow. The test of all dianetic processing is whether or
not it works. In the case of the chronic somatic, which accounts for some seventy percent of
man’s illnesses, the pain and discomfort of the “psychosomatic illness” vanishes when dianetic
processing reaches and eradicates the recording of the original injury or illness. No
pharmaceutical, mental, surgical or other medical treatment has been able to resolve or even
vaguely control psychosomatic illness -- a thing which dianetic processing does easily as
routine.
That Dianetics must be vastly successful in eradicating these chronic somatics is attested
by the hysterical violence expressed against it by some members of past healing arts. Dianetics
relegates psychosomatic surgery into nearly the same category as bloodletting. Occasionally,
chronic somatics surrender in a matter of an hour or two. However, for the most part, highly
competent auditing and many hours of work are necessary to resolve things which have been
classified as arthritis, sinusitis, rheumatism, conjunctivitis, or any of the thousands of names
assigned to these chronic somatics. The auditor in no case diagnoses the chronic somatic as an
illness and does not need to make such diagnosis to resolve the chronic somatic. Beyond the
resolution of psychosomatic illness and human aberration, Dianetics, even more importantly,
encompasses human behavior.
Various specific states of being are occasioned by the amount of pain or painful emotion
stored in the reactive mind, as are certain set mechanical reactions in the behavior of
individuals. Groups as well can be found to react in this way. These mechanical reactions to
life and the environment are represented by the tone scale, a full copy of which is included in
this volume. By finding one or two manifestations of an individual one can go on to predict the
remainder of his characteristic reactions toward his associates and his environment. One can
discover what will interest him, what will depress him, how ethical he is, and what he will do
in various situations.
The reader should not confuse Dianetics with the arts of mental healing or with schools
of thought on the subject of thought. Dianetics is truly a science. It is new and it is young, but
it fulfils the true requirements for a science in that it is “an organized body of knowledge that
has been accumulated on a subject.” According to some of the best known critics in America,
Dianetics is considered to be the foremost advance of man, certainly during this century. Its
conclusions are derived from the discovery of natural laws concerning thought, organisms, and
the physical universe, and it is a bold strike toward further knowledge and the enhancement of
man. Its limitations at this time are not even vaguely known. What it can do for the individual
and the world cannot be estimated. According to Walter Winchell, the creation of Dianetics is a
milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the
wheel and the arch. Any project or any set of discoveries as vast as Dianetics cannot but
challenge the citadels of conservatism, but these are easily challenged.
In the book, Albert Einstein (page 120), L. Infeld states, “In 1921, when I went to
study in Berlin, I saw with amazement the disgraceful spectacle which attended Einstein’s
fame.” Editorials attacked Einstein, and mathematics professors in one of Berlin’s greatest halls
told a large audience that Einstein’s theory was “the greatest hoax in the history of science.”
From Albert Einstein we have the direct bequeathment of atomic fission. From Dianetics and
the brilliant mind of its discoverer and originator, L. Ron Hubbard, we may have the sanity and
salvation of our future race. The advent of Dianetics into a lethargic society last May, 1950,
created a stir which spread around the world.
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There were those who believed Dianetics implicitly and to whose searching minds it
seemed the final answer both for their personal problems and for the problems of the entire
world. To those who did not share this hearty acceptance of its revolutionary tenets it was a
fad, a cult, or even a blasphemy. Loudly this faction clamored for “validation,” demanding that
Dianetics prove its startling claims. It did not matter to them that never, before Dianetics, had
any claims concerning “cures” or remissions of mental illnesses been validated, or that no
formal attempt by any psychotherapy had ever been made toward this end. They sought, for
one reason or another, to make Dianetics either prove its claims of what to them were fantastic
cures of psychoses, or to withdraw once and for all into the obscurity of admitted defeat.
Dianetics accepted the challenge.
The ardent enthusiasts and practitioners of the new science provided a fertile field for
obtaining the demanded “validation.” Prospective students, flocking to the Foundation and its
branches from all walks of life and all levels of mental and physical health, were required to
take psychometry before attending classes. Those who appeared at the Foundation for clinical
processing were likewise given psychometry both before processing began and after
processing was completed. The psychometry given one and all was the standard testing of
established schools of psychology under the direction of fully qualified psychologists.
Dianetics had not yet developed its own batteries of tests; but even had this been accomplished
at that time, it would not have been acceptable to those who sought to discredit the budding
science. They would have shouted that anyone could pass a test of his own making. Thus, in
one more way, did Dianetics meet its critics on their own
The Minnesota Multiphasic Test is well known among psychometrists, college and
industrial personnel. It has specific advantages and disadvantages, as have all modes of mental
testing, but it is popular because of its simplicity and ease of scoring, and because of the
relative ease of picturing the mental state of the testee which it affords. Therefore, in picking a
“scientific” standard psychometric test, the Foundations chose as one of its tests the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Among professional people the Wechsler-Bellevue
Intelligence Scale stands in high esteem, since it reveals more about the pattern of an
individual’s mental functioning than do similar tests. Originally, it was designed because its
author felt that other tests existing at the time were more fitting for children. Early in the war
the War Department requested that this test be used for channelling recruits into the services,
and the particular Wechsler-Bellevue which was used became known as Form B. Its special
characteristics include the Point Scale as contrasted to others using an I.Q. scale; each item is
credited with a certain number of points, and the total points determine the score.
The Wechsler-Bellevue is divided into eleven sub-tests, and it affords separate scoring
of eleven types of behavior. Sub-tests are grouped into two series, one yielding a “Verbal I.Q.”
and the other a “Performance I.Q.” This feature alone makes the Wechsler (pronounced “wex-ler”)
of outstanding value in the measuring of rises in mental performance and activity. In the
field of testing itself a favorite method of “validating” a mental test is simply by correlation with
other tests.
Dianetics has undertaken to give a broad picture of the improvement afforded in human
behavior by using more than one test. Thus, it is impossible to level a finger of criticism at a
specific test in order to belittle the unprecedented improvement which is brought about in an
individual by dianetic processing. It must be remembered however that testing takes up a lot of
valuable time. Except for this reason hundreds of tests might have been given these 88 testees,
to satisfy each and every one of the critics of Dianetics.
Those who are not satisfied with the results obtained from the tests which were chosen
are cordially invited to set up a testing programme of their own; to send for a Hubbard Dianetic
Auditor to audit the chosen preclears, and to draw their own conclusions from the results which
accrue. The results of the “befores” were quite within keeping of the general average results
any psychometrist would expect from a cross-section of the population. But the results of the
“afters” were completely bewildering to those dyed-in-the wool doubters who hesitate to
believe evidence seen with their own eyes.
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The signatures of the examining psychometrists Gordon Southon, Peggy Southon and
Dalmyra Ibanez, Ph.D., Ed D., are affixed to each bank of tests, and witnessed. These
psychometrists are registered professional personnel whose honesty and standing in the field of
psychology is above question. In past comparative testing, it has been quite within the keeping
of those conducting mental research to choose about five persons for examination, retaining an
equal number as a “control” group. Dianetics has built this particular validation programme
around 88 persons. Never before has such an astounding number participated in tests to show
improvement in mental health, specifically in the testing of increase in mental ability and
reduction of psychoses and psychosomatic illnesses. A vast backlog of psychometry has since
been accumulated, many times outnumbering this original 88. Dianetics is now in a position to
do the challenging, and the following charts are submitted as proof of the efficacious results of
processing. Dianetics was challenged to prove the claim of increased I.Q. and that dianetic
processing has as two of its by-products the relief of psychoses and psychosomatic illnesses.
Had the challengers any idea that this proof could be presented they might not have been so
blatant in their demands, and had they any inkling that the results would be so completely in
Dianetics’ favor they might have withheld them completely.
However, Dianetics has met the challenge.
The arbitrary measure of human intelligence popularly known as the individual’s “I.Q.”
is not a measure of how well a person remembers. Neither is it a measure of how much he has
learned over a period of a lifetime. I.Q. ratings are a measure of an individual’s capacity for
learning something new; they are scales based upon how old in years a person has become
compared to how “old” he is mentally. One might be 30 years of age and yet have an equivalent
mental capacity of an average 15-year-old school boy. On the other hand, a particularly adept
pupil of grade school, perhaps 8 years of age, might have a mental capacity equivalent to
someone ten years his senior.
It has become a cliche that an individual’s I.Q. rating does not change throughout his
lifetime. Indeed, until Dianetics, a gain in I.Q. scoring from one test to another was greeted
with astonishment and an immediate assertion that a mistake had been made by the
psychometrist scoring the tests.
When Dianetics made the statement that a person’s Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.)
increased remarkably following a few hours of dianetic processing, the clamor for “proof”
began. The Foundation has this proof, in abundance. As shown on the bar graph one group
of 88 persons was given standard I.Q. tests, and their scores plotted along the horizontal bar,
regardless of whether these particular scores were 50 I.Q. or 150 I.Q. One month passed, a
month in which the preclears received about 60 hours of dianetic processing. Then they were
given a second I.Q. test. The score on the second test was then plotted on the vertical bar at the
point which represents the points of gain or loss.
Let’s call the vertical bar on the extreme right of the graph by the name John Smith.
John appeared at the Foundation for training in Dianetic Auditing, and before being permitted to
attend classes, was given a group of tests, among which was an “I.Q.” test. He was found to
have, according to the standards set forth by the originators of the test, an I.Q. of 125. He
went to class, learned dianetic theory, learned to audit effectively, and during the course
received 65 hours of dianetic processing from classmates. On Certification Day, he was given
a second block of tests containing a standard follow-up of the I.Q. test he had taken a month
before. His rating on the second test was 151. Thus, John Smith gained 26 points in I.Q in a
period of one month, and these 26 points are plotted on the graph as a vertical bar.
Among the tests in the block taken by John Smith was the California Test of
Personality. Various aspects of his social and individual personality were determined by use of
this test. One of his most marked improvements was in his occupational relations (he had lost
job after job because he couldn’t get along with his boss and fellow workers). His second
greatest personality change was in his feeling of personal worth; prior to his processing he had
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considered himself as incapable of handling a foreman’s position, or of leading a group. The
after-processing test showed that he had acquired a much deeper feeling of personal worth, and
that he would rate highly with his fellow workers.
The Summary of Average Percentile Scores as shown on the Personality Bar Graph is a
display of the results showing increases in the twelve categories listed. Seventy-six individuals
were given before-and-after-psychometry which included the California Test of Personality,
and their average is displayed in graphic form. To obtain the “average” score of all 76 persons,
it is necessary to total their scores and divide the result by 76. The average scores of the 76
individuals on the first test are shown by the height of the shaded bars. The average scores of
the 76 persons after they had received dianetic processing of about 60 hours each is shown by
the height of the solid bars. In each case, there is an evident increase.
Two graphs display the results obtained with use of the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory test. As in the preceding graph, these show the averaged scores of a
number of individuals, divided into two displays: 21 cases, all male, and 7 cases, all female.
The graphs are marked off in arbitrary scale form, beginning with 40 and ending with
100, and the averaged results of the first tests taken by the individual concerned are located
where the dotted line crosses each sub-title line. The averaged results of the second tests taken
after the persons had received about 60 hours of dianetic processing are located where the solid
black line crosses each sub-title line.
The first sub-title, “Manic Tendencies,” means that a person is to a measurable degree
influenced by compulsions which cause him to feel, for example, that he has to conquer the
world, as Napoleon or Alexander set out to do. The averages of both the before- and the after-processing
tests came out practically at the same point on the scale, about 59. Although this
indicates that as a group there was no decrease in maladjustment, a few individuals within the
group may have adjusted remarkably in this category.
The second sub-title, “Schizoid Tendencies,” means roughly that a person might be
suffering from what Dianetics defines as a valence shift or the assumption of a second or third
personality which is not inherently the individual’s own. The average for the group in the pre-test
was about 76 toward maladjustment. The after-processing test shows that the group as an
average decreased in maladjustment or, in other words, adjusted toward gaining and
recognizing their own personality.
Under the sub-title “Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies” might be placed those who
“just have to wash their hands” after every tiny chore, or those who, before they turn a written
page they have just completed, are compelled to dot every “i” or else be completely unable to
continue writing. Persons in this category are compelled to carry out some routine, idiotic or
otherwise, regardless of what might be more important at the moment.
The remainder of the sub-titles refer to various conditions evident in individuals, such
as the feeling that “everybody’s against me” and the tendency for a man to feel somewhat
feminine, as well as the extreme anti-socialness of hermits and pyromaniacs. Psychosomatic
symptoms are evidences of bodily discomfort or disease which have no physical origin, while
the Undue Bodily concern category represents the degree of obsession regarding sickness,
referred to by the medical profession as “hypochondria.”
Although there are hundreds of individual cases to choose from, the test results of the
individual displayed in the graph entitled Typical Test Results of One Individual are average,
hence typical. Case No. 446 from the California files shows that according to the results
obtained from the California Test of Personality this person became very much better adjusted
than he had been before processing. His social adjustment, or the manner in which he gets
along with groups, became more acceptable. The third bar in the first section of the graph
merely shows the average of the previous two factors and is entitled Total Adjustment.
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As shown by the Mental Health Analysis test, he adjusted his liabilities toward
usefulness, and increased his assets. His total adjustment is shown on the third bar column.
In the third test, the Johnson Temperament Analysis Profile, there are nine categories of
test results, graded on a scale of Excellent, Satisfactory, Fair and Poor. The greatest
improvement shown on this test was in the energy he evidenced in the tackling of a problem,
and in his congeniality among people. His relaxation and buoyancy categories already
satisfactory when he took the first test, increased to a rating of Excellent.
When this man first came to the Foundation, he was not particularly liked by his
classmates and others who came in contact with him. He was often morose, sullen,
uncommunicative and, as one classmate put it, “downright unfriendly.” A noticeable change in
his social awareness came about within the first week of his processing, and by the time he had
finished his training he had reached an overall adjustment to an extent that he was congenial to
everyone, and was well liked in return.
Physicians interested in Dianetics generally desire that several months of observation
follow the release of a “psychosomatic illness” during the course of dianetic processing, before
the results are pronounced permanent. Accordingly, the Foundation has not released
information on any but remarkable recoveries (which seem to make themselves known
automatically) until after this waiting period has elapsed. The cases which are mentioned in the
second paragraph which follows are all, except the last case, more than six months completed.
Dianetic processing does not set out to cure any physical ailment, but it happens in the
course of bringing a preclear up the tone scale that all the chronic somatics of engrams from
which the preclear has been suffering will disappear -- often with startling suddenness. Since
these chronic somatics account for at least seventy percent of man’s “illnesses,” many many
people who have considered themselves ill for years have “gotten well” during dianetic
processing.
Among the chronic somatic conditions from which our present available records show
complete recovery are some which have been diagnosed by physicians as follows: bursitis,
osteoarthritis, migraine headaches, thyroid complications, chronic headaches, chronic
backaches, chronic indigestion, constant fatigue, chronic colitis, and near-sightedness. Almost
every chronic condition commonly known has been relieved or alleviated during the course of
dianetic processing. These are only some of the cases on which we have careful records. One
gentleman had suffered from a chronic somatic which had been diagnosed by no less than 10
physicians as “psoriasis” or “psoriatic arthritis”. None of them had offered him any hope of
cure. For three years he was periodically disfigured by lesions which covered nine tenths of
his skin area. During dianetic processing the lesions healed so rapidly that fellow employees
inquired as to the reason for his sudden change in appearance. Time will tell whether this
recovery is permanent, but there seems to be no valid reason for thinking that it is not.
Alcoholism is considered by some to be a physical condition and by others a mental
one. Dianetics is not prepared to arbitrate the mind-body ratio of alcoholism, but the
Foundation can report that alcoholism responds just as favorably to dianetic processing as any
other aberration.
Aberrations which are apparently physical are easier to measure, and improvement in
them is easier to judge than in mental aberrations. However, the main goal of dianetic
processing is not the alleviation of chronic somatics, but the erasure of irrational components in
the thoughts of the preclear. The apparently physical results are a by-product of this.
The Foundation presents this report as a brief survey of some of the work done by the
Foundation during its first year of operation. Obviously, research in such a broad field as
Dianetics requires time and careful, thorough planning. Studies which measure clinical
improvement in individuals and groups are usually extended not over months, but over years.
Even though a preclear himself can give a glowing subjective report, and though change in his
abilities and behavior is easily seen by friends and family, it is difficult to measure
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improvement adequately. Tests which measure all the various improvements in a preclear do
not as yet exist, and those which we have used in order to meet the challenge to Dianetics are
actually admittedly inadequate even within their own fields.
We in the Foundation urge scientists in all fields, particularly those working in biology
and the social sciences, to test dianetic theory and technique in their own laboratories and under
their own controlled conditions. Dianeticists are eager to co-operate with any worker who
would like to test or explore Dianetics. Dianetic theory and technique can be applied in many
areas. We wish to thank those scientists and institutions who have already participated in
dianetic research and have applied it in their own fields. They have been of great assistance to
the Foundation and to the science of Dianetics.
We who are working with Dianetics have seen so much of what it can do, and have
become so enthusiastic about its effects and possibilities, that it is difficult to moderate our
statements about it or our expressions of eagerness to see it develop further. We hope that more
and more people, from all fields, will join us in our exploration and our work.
-- Editorial Staff
Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 1951
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Introduction
This book is built around a chart. On the many columns of this chart we find the
majority of the components of the human mind and all those necessary to process an individual.
In this book we will take up these columns one by one from left to right, and explain
each column. When this has been done, and you have read the book and thoroughly examined
the chart, you will at least have the rudiments you need to process people. If you desire to
process individuals on a limited basis, you may specialize in straight memory, lock reduction
and lock scanning. This can be done to almost anyone you would ordinarily contact without
any harm and with a great deal of improvement in his general tone. If you feel a little more
adventurous, you can learn how to audit secondary engrams and so become proficient in
discharging grief and fear from a case. Should you desire to go the whole way and feel
yourself competent, you can try running engrams on a case, with a very close regard to the
kind of case on which you try to run them.
For a full education in dianetic processing the elements are here. But just as you went
to high school to learn algebra or physics, you should take a Foundation course in order to
become a truly proficient auditor. Qualification at the Foundation, coupled with any other
training you may have, will permit you to become a professional practitioner. Most people,
however, take a Foundation course because they want to be better educated and to function
better in their own professions, for Dianetics is not just processing. That’s not a thousandth of
it. Dianetics deals with thought and the behavior of men and groups; and those who know the
subject thoroughly survive better.
Simply reading this book then, although it contains all the basic information, does not
qualify an individual to practise professionally. But once he has thoroughly studied this book,
he should be able to handle routine cases without difficulty. He should not try Dianetics on
insane or severely neurotic person unless he feels himself especially gifted in understanding or
unless he has taken a qualification course at the Foundation. This particularly applies to
analyzts and psychiatrists and medical doctors who, having concourse with the insane and the
chronically ill, could achieve remarkably better and faster results with a knowledge of
Dianetics. The science was made available to them in the past, and it is again urged that they
take advantage of its techniques in the best interest of mankind and the advancement of their
professions. Many physicians and psychologists have already been trained by the Foundation
and they, experience shows, have made good auditors.
In the same vein, the layman should be very careful whom he allows to practise
Dianetics upon him. Before submitting to dianetic processing, the individual should either look
for the auditor’s certificate on the wall and see that it is in good order or demand the right to
give his auditor a test as to the various definitions contained in this volume. The individual
who desires processing should not submit himself to a psychiatrist or a psychoanalyzt or
medical doctor for dianetic treatment in the belief that they, as practitioners, know Dianetics.
Only those psychoanalyzts, medical doctors and psychiatrists trained by the Foundation are
fully qualified to handle the whole parade of skills necessary in an auditor. If your auditor is
not qualified by the Foundation, then let him run straight memory, locks and chains of locks on
you until you are entirely satisfied he knows what he is doing.
An auditor, by diligent study of this volume and by entering slowly into the use of his
tools, making sure he understands each one of them progressively before using the next, can
achieve great skill in processing. These cautionary remarks are addressed to those who, by
haphazard reading of the volume may attempt to plunge into the whole array of skills at once.
This would be like trying to take a plane off the ground before one learns where the throttle is
located and how to bank. Dianetics is not as difficult as flying a plane but it is a technical
subject.
311.312
You can’t drive anybody mad with dianetic processing. Cases driven mad by dianetic
processing do not exist. Cases do exist where reversed techniques have been criminally used
on persons. Pain-drug-hypnosis can deliver anybody into a straightjacket with greater neatness
and despatch than anything hitherto known. Dianetic processing, however, has nothing to do
with restimulating or planting engrams.
So read what is written and get to know your chart. You will know more about men
and women and their behavior when you have finished. If you feel you could stand some
processing, come to the Foundation, or team up with somebody on whom you can rely,
starting in with straight memory and locks and studying as you work. If possible, get
supervision from a Foundation-trained auditor or take a basic or professional course. You
can’t know too much about this subject.
No attempt is made in this volume to be literary or academic. I would happily take off a
couple of years and write you something highly polished, but we’re trying to get where we’re
going before the atom bomb gets there, and navigating the course takes a little time. So I’ve
just written here what I know about this chart in a way I think you’ll understand. The book is
organized around the chart, not around the longest words in the dictionary: this is made
possible by a certain difference between Dianetics and some other subjects -- in those, the
author has to make up in complication what he lacks in understanding of his subject, so the
critics will be impressed.
Damn the critics, let’s get down to paragraph one and open up to flank speed. There’s a
sane world to be won.
L. Ron Hubbard January, 1951
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BOOK ONE:
The Dynamics of Behavior
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CHAPTER ONE
COLUMN A
The Tone Scale
From Funk and Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary, Supplement No. 5:
di.a.net’ics noun:
A system for the analysis, control and development of human thought evolved from a
set of coordinated axioms which also provide techniques for the treatment of a wide
range of mental disorders and organic diseases: term and doctrines introduced by L.
Ron Hubbard, American engineer. (Gr. dianoetikos - dia, through plus noos, mind) --
di.a.net.ic adj. Assuming the basic idea that the sole fundamental of existence is
survival, the problems of man’s behavior apparently resolve rapidly. His interpersonal
relations, the operation and purposes of his organizations and groups become
understandable.
Science is, to many people, a sacred cow. Actually, by definition, science is only the
organization of apparently disrelated facts into a useful whole. Aligned on certain basic axioms
(which can be found in the appendix) Dianetics is a useful body of knowledge by which may
be resolved the puzzle of man and his behavior.
A search for an energy of life begun in 1930 has been partially resolved by the
discovery of the lowest common denominator of existence: SURVIVE.
A gross error has been made by scientists in the past who sought, materialistically, to
explain life on the basis of mud, chemicals and electricity. It was the contention of these
individuals that matter, electrical energy, operating in space and time, combined in some
incredibly lucky moment to form a self-perpetuating unit and that this item fortuitously grew
and grew and one day man appeared on the scene. This child-like logic breaks down if only on
the basis of the odds against it. It breaks down again when evolution, as postulated, is seen to
be of only limited usefulness, being actually as full of holes as an ocarina. The main test of any
“scientific” hodgepodge, is its usefulness to man. The mud-to-man theory, and it is just a
crude theory, has not resolved man’s behavior. These schools of thought gave man unlimited
weapons such as the atomic bomb and yet failed to give man sanity enough to regulate his own
affairs or use the type of energy released by that bomb for purposes other than destroying
towns. So we can conclude and lay in a quiet grave any and all scientific theories which have
not led to peace on earth or have failed to give us a predominance of men of good will. Of
course there are lots of individuals who would like to go on having man believe he is basically
mud but to those we bequeath the electric shock machine and the prefrontal lobotomy, the
highest level of operation to which the mud-to-man theory led.
An examination of existence and the fondest hopes to which man has clung discovers
for us the possibility that the energy of life is a different thing from the current flowing in a
power line or the energy radiated by atomic fission. It is not necessary to have a vast
knowledge of physics to conclude that life is something more than a mechanical contrivance
rigged out of atoms and chemicals. In the first place, it follows only a few of the electro-magnetic-
gravitic laws and at best only vaguely parallels these. Life has its own performance
rules.
A further examination of life demonstrates that it is undoubtedly made up in part of
matter and that it exists in space and time. This is quite certain because a dead organism
disintegrates into dust. Something has obviously ceased to be a part of this organism,
however, the moment it fully died. This “something” has variously been called the human
soul, the spirit, the life force. Bergson called it “elan vital.”
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The scientist who deals constantly with machines and chemical reactions has for some
decades looked on a life organism as an oxygen-carbon motor, a heat energy machine which
operated not unlike a steam locomotive. He dismissed the wild variables this introduced into
any attempted solution to life and living by the expansive statement that life was simply more
complicated than machines men built but that it was actually just another machine. A “too-complicated”
school of thought, masquerading as science, took up this argument, seeing that it
obfuscated any real explanation, or reason for one, and began to say that the human mind,
being part of a machine which was too complicated for biology and biochemistry, was of
course too complicated to understand. It is felt that this waving aside of the problems of mind
operation, this acting on the defeatist principle that the problem could not be solved, introduced
“therapies” which were “too complicated.” It took four to twelve years to get an inkling of these
therapies and all evidence to hand, carefully compiled, shows that they do not work, that the
problems of criminality, insanity and war still remained, with these systems of “therapy,” far
out of control. The too-complicated school of life and mind operation gives us a picture of a
group of demon exorcists rushing around plague-ridden London a couple of centuries ago,
telling everyone they had the solution to the plague, while some hundreds of thousands of
Englishmen died the black death.
Let us look for a simpler solution, one which does not require twelve years of
schooling and practice to learn, one which will deliver to us a therapy and, more important, an
understanding of life, man, and mind operation which can resolve the 19,000,000 insane, our
millions of criminals, and international madness.
We find the first leg of this solution in considering life force, elan vital, or what have
you, as an energy dissimilar to electrons and molecules and mud. The laws of this “energy,”
once they are isolated and stated, are found to be parallel to, but dissimilar to the laws of the
physical universe.
Let us call this life energy by a symbol in order to identify it. We will assign to it the
Greek letter theta and distinguish it as an energy existing separate and distinct from the physical
universe as we know it.
The physical universe would be the universe of matter, energy, space and time. It
would be the universe of the planets, their rocks, rivers, and oceans, the universe of stars and
galaxies, the universe of burning suns and time. In this universe we would not include theta as
an integral portion, although theta obviously impinges upon it as life. From the first letters of
the words matter, energy, space, and time, we can composite a new word: MEST.
In Dianetics we are dealing then with theta and MEST. Theta 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.
As soon as we separate the two entities, a host of problems heretofore quite complex
resolve into simplicity. Theta, we could say, comes from the universe of theta, which is
different from the MEST universe. Theta has its own matter -- ideas; it has its own energy and
the characteristics of that energy; it has its own space of operation, as distinct from MEST
space; and it has its own time.
There is an enormous amount of evidence to support theta as a postulate. Thought is
instantaneous in the MEST universe so far as can be discovered. The flow of energy along
nerves in an organism does not travel at light speed. Time and past, of the MEST universe, do
not exist for theta.
Considering theta one finds that it, alone of observable energies, motivates and activates
MEST matter and energy through space and time. Further, it computes, reasons, learns and
retains what it learns. Men, building a computer with electronics which would do only a part
of what the human mind can do would have to use enough electrical power to light New York
City, enough cooling system to absorb Niagara Falls, and enough vacuum tubes, if they cost a
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cent apiece, to run up a bill of a million dollars. And the apparatus so rigged, under the
existing life terms of tubes, would run a split second before stopping for tube replacement.
The human mind does more than such a clumsy machine, does it better, last a lifetime and, to
cap it, is portable.
Now all a student of Dianetics needs to know and understand about all this is that theta
plus MEST equals life; that theta and MEST have a natural affinity for each other and combine,
linking the two universes, so to speak; that theta and MEST coming together too hard get into a
turmoil which we call pain; and that the turbulence of theta and MEST under the duress of too
much impact gives us a tone scale.
Theta crushed too hard into MEST becomes entheta. MEST crushed too hard into theta
becomes enMEST. Entheta is simply a compound word meaning “enturbulated theta.” And
enMEST is another word meaning “enturbulated MEST.”
Consider that theta in its native state is pure reason or at least pure potential reason.
Consider that MEST in its native state is simply the chaotic physical universe, its chemicals and
energies active in space and time.
The cycle of existence for theta consists of a disorganized and painful smash into MEST
and then a withdrawal with a knowledge of some of the laws of MEST, to come back and
smash into MEST again.
MEST could be considered to be under onslaught by theta. Theta could be considered
to have as one of its missions, and its only mission where MEST is concerned, the conquest of
the physical universe. MEST is under raid. Theta is doing the raiding.
Theta survives by conquering MEST and retaining the conquest. Theta may have
numerous other methods of survival but they do not apply to this particular physical universe
where we are situate.
The survival of theta depends, as it applies to this universe, on changing MEST and
organizing MEST.
Life is a manifestation of theta-conquered MEST. Theta has conquered and organized
with high complexity certain MEST chemicals and energies into life forms. These forms are
very diverse. They progress from the lowest orders, such as the lichens and moss, through the
entire vegetable kingdom, through the animal kingdom and up to man. Each form evolved
from the initial impact of theta against MEST, and each form on a higher level is supported by
lower-level forms.
Without the lichen and the moss to make soil, no plant life could grow. Without plant
life converting sunlight and chemical into cellular food, no animal could live. Without the array
of life forms below him, man could not support himself as an intelligent organism. Intelligence
would be more or less wasted in lower forms. Evolution from lesser forms to greater forms
exists in present time and wholly in present time. Evolution traced back along the time span is
evolution traced through the MEST remaining after the theta had passed over it.
Man alone of the animal and vegetable kingdom possesses the potential power of
changing MEST in wholesale lots into something theta can use. Man can, by steam shovel and
dynamite, move mountains and perhaps -- who knows? -- conquer agalaxy. Theta thus
evolves toward higher and higher reason and a higher and higher ability to conquer and change
the physical universe -- MEST.
If we grant the cycle of re-creation, growth and decay and the postulate that theta
conquers MEST by first impinging solidly into it and learning about it and then withdrawing to
come back with what it has learned, we can see that theta learns by becoming enturbulated and
then straightening itself out as an endless process. People have known this for a long while --
316.317
one learns, they say, by hard knocks. That would be a simple way of saying that theta gets
painfully mingled with MEST and withdraws to come back for an orderly conquest.
If this is the cycle -- and this assumption solves problems which were never solved
before -- then we can see that theta would have to have a withdrawal mechanism, and so it
does. Death is that mechanism. Theta and MEST are attached to each other but when they
become painfully mixed up, they become entheta and enMEST. Entheta rejects MEST.
EnMEST rejects theta. Theta combines with theta or MEST. MEST combines with theta or
MEST.
Here we have something not unlike a chemical reaction. Two chemicals reside placidly
with each other until stirred up.
Stirred they blow apart. Or we could liken this to a characteristic of some energies
which, when they have their wavelengths changed, reject each other. This is death. Theta and
MEST get too enturbulated and the organism dies, the remaining theta rejecting the MEST
body, the MEST body rejecting the theta.
There is nothing very complicated about this postulate, even though it solves a great
many problems. One could say that when life becomes too painful, the body sickens and
withers and the soul departs.
Man has for many ages inclined to a belief in free theta. Science became very
unpopular when it sought to break down and abolish, by logarithmic decree, the human soul.
However, we do not need a human soul to explain the theta-MEST separation called
death even though evidence is growing -- good evidence of a highly scientific nature on a much
more practical level than parapsychology -- that the human soul does exist in fact.
Recently at a major university a group of well done experiments demonstrated that
living organisms had about them a field of energy which had a point source. If the energy
radiated from the cells alone, according to past theory, the picture presented would have been
quite different. Free theta, then, could be postulated to exist. The usual genetic line of
generations begetting generations of like organisms explains, in accepted biological terms, the
traverse of theta through generations.
It seems inevitable that, as theta conquered MEST and made it into higher and more
complex organisms, the problem of getting enturbulated theta and MEST separated for the next
generation would be resolved, at last, on an intellectual level and within one generation; theta
mastering the problem of smoothing itself out within the organism itself Actually, at a swift
glance, this is Dianetics.
The defeat of death entirely is not wholly desirable. Evolution is set up to provide
better and better organisms, better able to survive. Without death, all existing planetary space
would soon be glutted with life which could not be supported. Death can take no holiday. But
life can be much more effective at least for the species called Man.
The cycle of conception, growth, decay, and death, according to our postulate of theta
and MEST, would be the cycle of pleasure-and-pain learning by which the organism is refined
so that the new generation it begets is better able to cope with the environment and conquer
MEST than was the older generation. In one lifetime, there is much accumulated pain. The
cells are subjected to pain by continual forceful contact with MEST as in accidents, or by
collision with other life forms. The whole organism as an organism is subjected to pain with
every defeat in its efforts to fulfil its purposes of survival by a conquest of MEST. By pain the
cells learn new methods of construction for better survival. Out of organism pain, the
organism learns new skills and methods of surviving.
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The hitch has been that once an organism was subjected to pain, it accumulated some
knowledge but it also accumulated some entheta and enMEST. When it had accumulated
enough to be highly ineffective it died, leaving the next generation to carry on. For a man, this
is not efficient. There is nothing wrong with his learning by pain and pleasure what is bad and
good about existence, but there is a great deal in error with his having to carry with him an
excess of entheta and enMEST which hide knowledge from him and cut down his ability to
function in his proper role.
Inevitably a high form of life could be expected to resolve this entheta-enMEST
problem without an intervening death cycle.
The enMEST-entheta turbulence is called in Dianetics an engram. An engram is an area
in time when theta and MEST have come forcefully together and have intermingled
“permanently.”
A small boy falls and hits his head. He is for an instant unconscious. As soon as he
gets up he may think he has a complete memory of what happened to him. But there is an
instant which is occluded from his consciousness. That instant contains a turbulent area of
entheta and enMEST. A tiny bit of his theta and a small portion of MEST have become a part
of his unreasoning mind. This moment is an engram.
There are two minds, for our purposes. One is the analytical mind, the other is the
reactive mind. The analytical mind is where theta coordinates and reasons for the organism.
The reactive mind is where theta and MEST have become enturbulated. The analytical mind
operates by reason. The reactive mind operates by reaction.
The reactive mind, having a different polarity than the analytical mind, has the capacity
of compelling or inhibiting the organism in regard to certain of its actions. Lower forms of
animals have this as their main method of thought.
The reactive mind was once called the “unconscious” mind. It is a tough, rugged mind
which is alert during any moment of life, regardless of the presence of pain, and which records
everything with idiotic faithfulness. It stores up the entheta and enMEST of an accident with all
the perceptics (sense messages) present during the “unconsciousness” resulting from the
accident. Thus the small boy who hit his head on the rock knows analytically that he fell and hit
his head, perhaps, but he “knows” better with his reactive mind. Suppose the smell of dust was
present in the accident. The reactive mind has stored the perceptic of the smell of dust. The
boy one day happens to be weary and to smell this identical smell. He becomes a little
nervous. This is the reactive mind telling him to react and get out of here because when this
smell is present, one gets a bump on the head. That is not logical, but that is the way the
reactive mind operates. If the boy does not leave the area and the smell of dust, the reactive
mind turns on the pain, in an effort to force him to leave. Finally, the boy learns to avoid the
smell of dust because when he is tired this smell makes his head ache. He does not like the
smell of dust, because to the reactive mind the smell of dust equals a bump on the head.
With an analytical mind, the organism can think complex thought and is aware of being
alive. With the reactive mind, the organism reacts in accordance with data received during the
highest threat to survival -- unconsciousness.
So long as the reactive mind functioned in organisms which had not evolved language it
was a very workable mechanism. When an animal was injured, his reactive mind picked up all
the perceptics regarding this injury -- sounds, smells, tactile, sights -- and whenever these
appeared in the environment of the animal his mind would make him run or fight. Thus he was
safeguarded by past moments of pain. It is a sort of shotgun method and has a thorough
workability which, while it would deny the animal pleasure at times, at least kept him alive in a
tooth and claw environment. When man evolved his analytical mind into a high enough level
of action to need language, trouble set in, for the reactive mind could also contain words.
Words heard during moments of unconsciousness, such as those spoken during operations or
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around a very ill or severely injured person, are faithfully recorded along with their pain. Like
hypnotic suggestions, these recordings can be brought into play by asimilar word or
environment and cause the individual to act as though in the presence of danger. Restimulated
by the environment, these past moments of physical pain and unconsciousness force the
individual into obedience.
Engrams, these moments of pain and unconsciousness stored in the reactive mind, act
like hidden command posts in the mind, forcing the individual into patterns of thinking and
behavior which are not called for by a reasonable appraisal of the situation. For the engram is
not reasonable. It is simply a recording which has the sole purpose of steering the individual
through supposed but usually non-existent dangers.
Until Dianetics, the engram was not suspected for it was well hidden as an entity. The
word, engram, is an old one, borrowed from biology. It means simply, “a lasting memory
trace on a cell.” It may be engraved on more than the cell. But, up against dianetic processing,
it is not very lasting.
Here, then, is a piece of entheta-enMEST -- the engram. MEST and theta, coming
together too forcefully, as in an impact or injury, or getting enturbulated through illness, are
stored in the reactive mind and from three mechanically enturbulate the theta of the analytical
mind into compulsive or obsessive action or enturbulate the MEST of the body into pain,
deformity or psychosomatic illness (chronic somatics, as they are called in Dianetics).
Accumulate enough entheta in the reactive mind, and the analytical mind becomes
aberrated enough to commit suicide or to undertake non-survival activities in order to remove
the organism from the world of organisms and let another generation take up the work. Let
enough enMEST accumulate in the reactive mind and the MEST of the body will enturbulate
into pains and illnesses which will kill the organism and serve the same purpose.
This, then, is the basic assumption on which we are operating in Dianetics. The
assumption is a workable postulate in that its application produces very advantageous results.
The relatively sane person becomes more sane. The psychosomatically ill become well. The
unhappy become able to obtain pleasure and lead happy lives, and we have a chance to bring
about enough sanity amongst men to stop the mass murder of war. We can resolve the usual
problems of behavior and set up a better organization.
The person undertaking to process another individual dianetically is seeking only to
raise the “tone” of that individual -- in other words to increase his survival potential. In order
to do this, the processor simply regains for the other the theta involved in the reactive mind as
entheta. Theta is restored to the analytical and, the reactive mind is left without its destructive
store of turbulence and the individual being processed becomes a dianetic release or clear.
Column A on the chart is graduated as a tone scale. Actually this scale has many more
heights and levels than those we can now measure and use. How high it actually goes we have
no way of knowing at this time. For our purposes, it is put to use here between the levels of -3
and 4.0.
It is different from other MEST only in that it has been organized by theta into new
chemicals and compounds, for MEST is evolved into new complexities by theta just as
organisms are evolved by theta.
At -1, for a short time after death, we have body cells alive. Some of these cells live for
as much as a year after organism death, according to some investigators. This is, in any event,
the band of cellular life, as different from organism life.
At 0.0 we have death at the moment the theta withdraws from the organism.
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From 0.0 to 2.0 we have the band of operation of the reactive mind. Between these
points on the tone scale, the reactive mind is in command of the organism. The reactive mind,
in this band, directs the organism according to stored engrams and the analytical equivalent of
the engram, the lock.
From 2.0 to 4.0 we have the band of operation of the analytical mind.
Above 4.0 we could postulate other mind levels such as the aesthetic mind, through
other minds, to the free theta mind, if such things exist.
This tone scale shows the current level of survival of the organism. It shows also the
potential of survival in terms of longevity of the organism (unless processing intervenes, of
course).
The higher the individual is upon the tone scale, the better chance he has of obtaining
the wherewithal of living, the happier he is, the healthier his body will be.
Actually a person fluctuates on this scale from hour to hour and day to day. He
receives good news, he goes momentarily to tone 3.0. He receives bad news, he may sink for
a moment to tone 1.0. He falls in love and for a month he is at level 3.5. His girl leaves him
and for a week he is at tone 0.5. When he is very young he rides around tone 3.5. As he
grows older his tone drifts down to 2.5. As an old man he may drift down to 0.0 and death
either slowly or swiftly.
We are interested in the average level for the individual for the period of life we are
addressing. The average is fairly constant. An individual’s average place on the chart can be
gauged by inspecting the other columns. Thus he may be an average 2.7 on the tone scale and
yet reach 3.5 on occasion, and yet sink to 0.5 on other occasions but only for a short time.
The constant position on the tone scale is determined by three factors. The first is the
accumulated entheta in the person -- how much of his theta is enturbulated in engrams and
analytical locks and so strikes back against him, forcing him into non-survival activities or
compelling him or inhibiting him in environments containing imagined dangers.
The second factor is the amount of theta the person has as life force. This would be his
volume of theta. It is another dimension on the chart. Terror is fear with lots of volume. One
person has more volume of theta than another and can thus stand to have more enturbulence,
more engrams. One may have so little native theta that half a dozen engrams will convert it all
into entheta, leaving the person insane. Another may have so much theta that thousands of
engrams still leave him with enough actual theta to go on living aproductive life in the 2.0-plus
zone.
The third factor is a ratio between the analytical mind and the reactive mind. An
individual may have a reactive level of 1.0 and an analytical level of 3.5. The result is that
when he is in a restimulative environment he may be covertly hostile but in a more favorable
environment he may be analytically very productive. These two minds average out to a
constant. All the person doing processing -- an auditor, he is called in Dianetics -- needs to
know about this tone scale is that it gives the percentage of theta of the case which by engrams
and locks has become chronically entheta.
To raise a person on this tone scale it is only necessary to recover or convert theta from
entheta. Remove, in other words, the stores of turbulence from a person’s life or render them
unrestimulated.
An auditor is not trying to cure anything. He is simply raising tone. Incidental to a
raised tone, psychosomatic ills commonly vanish and aberrations disappear. But this is
incidental. The task is to make a human being happier, more effective, better able to accept
responsibility and aid his fellow man. That the person being processed gets “well” in the
period and stays “well’ is a bonus. Anything which raises a person’s tone can be considered
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legitimate processing. This includes, of course, nutrition, environment, and education, as well
as processing. Simply taking the person to see a movie he wants to see may raise his tone.
Processing achieves permanent rises in tone. If it is illegal anywhere to process people, then it
must also, sequitur, be illegal to make people happy.
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CHAPTER TWO
COLUMN B
Dianetic Evaluation
The goals of dianetic processing form a graduated scale. Actually this scale is also the
scale of sanity, for there is a parallel between the amount of life force (theta) in the individual
available for his survival and the amount of sanity he displays. Turbulence of this life force
decreases not only his sanity but his level of survival. The life expectancy of the individual is
also proportional to his physical well being (absence of factors which predispose him to illness)
and his mental well being. In other words, dianetic processing is directly concerned with
increasing the ability of the individual to survive, with increasing his sanity or ability to reason,
his physical ability, and his general enjoyment of life.
As we look at this scale, we are also looking at the emotional tones of the individual as
he reduces an engram. There is a very direct relation between this scale and natural
performance. As the individual reduces an engram under processing, he may begin in an
apathy tone; as he recounts it the second or third time, he is found to be hostile to the personnel
in the engram but will not express that hostility. Then he begins to get angry with the
personnel who have done this to him. The anger fades to antagonism. Then he becomes bored
with the whole thing. Further recounting brings him into a cheerful frame of mind about it and
finally he simply laughs over it. It was this sequence of behavior, of an engram being reduced
with processing, which gave the clue to the existence of these points on the tone scale. At the
top of the chart we have levels of possible well being which we have not yet explored and
which, while we have hopes, cannot at this time be reached. Our technology does not extend as
far as derivation and observation say the individual may be able to go. In this range from 4.0
to 40.0 on the tone scale lie many possible states of being. What is the theta being? How
much can man attain toward spirituality? How can full theta perceptics be best uncovered if
they actually exist? These are some of the questions. The technology may possibly be
developed which will permit man to reach a higher state than he can now attain by our current
techniques of dianetic processing.
The highest point we can at this time reach with dianetic processing is what is called
here the MEST clear. There are probably several kinds of clears and several conditions of
being clear. A MEST clear would be an individual who no longer retained engrams or locks,
these having been erased by dianetic processing. The erasure of all engrams and locks in an
individual restores to him a full play of his endowment of theta. His store of theta may or may
not be increased by other means. That would be a matter for solution above this level on the
tone scale.
A clear in Dianetics, then, is simply one whose engrams and locks are erased and who
does not become confused, obsessed or impelled by past moments of physical pain. This goal
is far, far beyond anything envisioned by such investigators as Freud. There may be goals far
beyond the state of MEST clear.
Currently a clear will do. Psychometry and all tests for aberration demonstrate the clear
to be unaberrated. His recalls are excellent. His mental stability is very good since
environmental circumstances cannot cause him to act irrationally by reason of aberrations. His
emotion and ability to enjoy life is free. By becoming clear the individual attains an intelligence
quotient far in excess of what he enjoyed before processing. A clear does not instantly grow
wings or sprout a ten-kilowatt aura. He is not superman. But he has his advantages. He has
fewer accidents, and none because of his own doing. He is healthy. His education and
experience are available for his use as he needs them. He acts on reason and he reasons swiftly.
His reaction time is about half the normal. What his longevity is we have no way of knowing
at this time but we can only suppose that it is higher than if he had remained aberrated.
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A general tendency is to regard a clear as a sideshow piece. True, he is better than men
have ever been before. But too much emphasis has been laid upon mental tricks a clear may be
able to do, his ability to recall accurately, his ability to see again anything at which he has
gazed. In the business of living these things are not important.
Happiness is important. The ability to arrange life and the environment so that living
can be better enjoyed, the ability to tolerate the foibles of one’s fellow humans, the ability to see
the true factors in a situation and resolve problems of living with accuracy, the ability to accept
and execute responsibility, these things are important. Life is not much worth living if it cannot
be enjoyed. The clear enjoys living to a very full extent. He can stand up to situations which
before he was cleared, would have reduced him to a shambles. The ability to live well and
fully and to enjoy that living is the gift of the clear. Anyone looking for tricks can best find
them in vaudeville.
The clear has the advantage of not retaining, hidden from himself, pain and painful
situations in his past which, being restimulated by the environment, enturbulate his reason and
sicken his body. The clear is produced by simply erasing all the engrams and locks -- the pain
and painful moments of the past. He is the current technical goal of dianetic processing.
He is called a “clear” because his basic personality, his self determinism, his education
and experience have been cleared of aberrative shadows.
Actual experience demonstrates that man, once socially imposed controls and
domination by others have been cleared away, is basically good. He is evil only when he is
aberrated. Reduction of his aberrations discovers man to be well intended toward his fellows.
The highest reason, in this world of complex interdependencies, depends upon the highest
cooperation of the individual with his fellows and his environment and a constructive attitude
toward life. The more aberration (engrams and locks) cleared from an individual, the more
independent and the more cooperative he is. There are four valid therapies, if we wish to use
the term loosely. First there is dianetic processing. This rids the individual of the pain and
painful emotion which aberrates his reason. Second there is education. This indoctrinates the
individual with the culture in which he lives and gives him the skills of survival, better enabling
him to survive. The third is changing his environment into one which is less restimulative, is
happier for him and in which he can better survive. This would include nutrition, medical care,
and recreation. The fourth is regulating the amount of MEST which the individual should
control. He can be given less if he has too much, he can be given more MEST if he has not
enough for his ratio of theta, or the MEST which he is trying to control may be changed for
him into another kind of MEST (sublimation).
All four of these therapies do the same thing: they enhance the survival of the individual
by giving him better tools of survival, better conditions in which to survive, better reasons for
surviving. Any of these do one basic thing: they raise the individual on the tone scale. The
reward of survival being pleasure, for instance, giving the individual pleasure raises his
survival level. However, the last three of these are relatively ineffective if the individual has
aberrations against pleasure or changing his environment or learning from life, and so we come
to the conclusion that the first step toward a higher survival level would be ridding the
individual of his aberrations. Within reasonable limits the rest should follow.
The auditor who is doing processing regularly and has been trained for it will use any
method to raise the tone of his preclear*, for when the tone is raised, processing is easier.
About all one can do with a thoroughly apathetic person is raise his tone by one of the last three
methods; that done, he can be processed.
Thus we have the current final goal of processing: the clear. This is the long range
goal. It is not swiftly reached. It is reached, evidently, only by very good auditing and in the
hands of an auditor who is somewhat higher on the tone scale than the preclear.
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A considerably nearer goal is the dianetic release. The release has reached a point
where he no longer has psychosomatic illnesses, where he has good stability and where he can
enjoy life. If one simply took all the secondary engrams off a case, one would have a dianetic
release. The dianetic release is very high
above normal and, itself, has not been attained before by any past known methods of therapy.
The psychometric testing of the usual dianetic release shows him to be in very superior mental
condition. An even nearer goal to the start of processing is the very high normal. By this is
meant a person who is well above the current level of average intellect and behavior. One
attains, in processing, levels one is capable of reaching by reason of genetic endowment,
education, and current physical potentials. One becomes the best that can be made of what one
is natively. Thus, a moron by genetic endowment would reach the level of moron when
processed -- but he would have been, by reason of aberration, around the level of idiot when he
started. An average intellect, by processing, reaches a level of stability and capability very high
above the average. Hence, to reach a very high normal, one would have had to be not too
much below average to begin. The use of the term “average” or “normal” is susceptible to
considerable misunderstanding. It simply means the average of the population’s intelligence
and ability. It is remarkably low in the United States compared to what it could be. But the
United States’ average is considerably higher than that, for instance, of Panama.
The next level is boredom. This is borderline between what is called neurotic and what
is called normal. Moderate but unused ambition, a state of mind toward life which is not
discontented nor yet contented, a purposelessness in living, these mark this stratum. It is a
rather sorry stratum, actually, but is so superior to what lies below it that the auditor who can
get an anger case up to boredom considers he has done very well indeed, and so he has.
Below this we have the level of overt hostility. Here is the occasional grouch, the
complaining individual who yet makes no mistake about what he finds wrong. The “blunt,
honest” type who tactlessly tears up the tenderer feelings of his companions is found in this
band.
At 2.0 we cross the borderline between the reactive mind and the analytical mind
control. And just below this we get the anger band. Here is the person of rather continuous
hatred. Here we have impulsive and destructive action.
Below anger we go into a slightly sorrier level, covert hostility. Here is the person who
hates but is afraid to say he hates, who deals in treachery and who yet expects to be forgiven.
At the lower end of covert or hidden hostility we have the continually frightened person, the
individual ridden by fears, the person who is afraid to be or to own anything. A far more
serious level is the apathy level. Here is the suicide. Here is the person who has lost so much
in life that he cannot rise to any situation but simply gives up about everything. If the auditor
can bring the apathy to covert hostility he has accomplished a rise in tone. But overt acts by the
auditor are likely to drive the apathy case down toward complete paralysis or death itself. This
is a very dangerous state of mind, bordering next door to death.
Finally we have the lowest band of organic life, pretended death. Some animals have
developed pretended death into a survival mechanism. Pretended death says, “I am not
dangerous. I am dead. Go away and leave me alone.” The soldier on the battlefield who
suddenly becomes paralyzed is using this mechanism. Some races, the Chinese in particular,
descend into this stratum and actually die as a form of suicide self-willed. The auditor who can
get a pretended death case to open and close its eyes is achieving remarkable results. Finally we
have the band below death and the MEST body and on these we can do nothing, of course. The
rightest right a man can have is to survive to infinity. The 0.0 level is death. How wrong can a
person be? Dead!
The higher a person can rise on this scale, the righter he is in terms of reason, in terms
of survival, and in terms of general well being. The higher he is, the happier. The lower he is,
the sadder. The whole intent of processing is to raise the individual from lower to higher strata
on this scale.
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CHAPTER THREE
COLUMN C
Physiology and Behavior
Under this column we have data which is considerably more complex than any other
section of this book but which is of considerable interest to biologists and other scientists. The
auditor need not suppose he needs to know it by heart, or even understand its terms.
What one should understand about this column is that it gives a clue to behavior and to
physiology in an individual or, in reverse, permits the auditor better to locate his preclear on the
chart -- which, indeed, is the purpose of many of these columns.
There are three main actions by which life handles itself and MEST. These are 1.
Attack, 2. Retreat,3. Neglect. These are broken down into their relative positions on the tone
scale.
Tone Behavior Physiology
4.0 Motion toward, Full control of autonomic by cortex, both cranio-swift
approach sacral and thoracolumbar systems of autonomic
functioning at optimum under direction of cortex;
muscle tone excellent; reactions excellent; energy
level high.
3.5 Motion toward, Moderate control of autonomic by cortex; cranio-approach
sacral functioning well, thoracolumbar slightly
depressed; muscle tone good; reactions good;
energy level moderate.
Motion toward, Autonomic functioning independent of cortex; cranio-slow
approach sacral functioning well, slight activity in
thoracolumbar; muscle tone fair; reactions fair; energy
level fair.
3.0 No motion, Autonomic independent of cortex; cranio-sacral
stay functioning well, but no activity in thoracolumbar
muscle tone, reaction time, and energy level poor.
2.5 Motion away, Autonomic begins to take over control; cranio-sacral
recede slowly inhibited, thoracolumbar up; slight restlessness,
heightened activity, wavering attention.
Motion away, Increased activity thoracolumbar, cranio-sacral more
recede quickly suppressed; increased restlessness, wavering of
attention, inability to concentrate.
2.0 Motion toward, Increased activity of thoracolumbar; inhibition of
slow attack cranio-sacral; irritability; increased heart action,
spasmodic contractions of gastro-intestinal tract,
respiration increased.
1.5 Motion toward, Full autonomic mobilization for violent attack
violent attack complete inhibition of craniosacral, thoracolumbar in
full action; respiration and pulse fast and deep; stasis
of gastro-intestinal tract; blood to peripheral vascular
system.
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1.1 Motion away, Autonomic settles down to chronic rage reaction,
slow retreat inhibition of craniosacral; imperfect gastro-intestinal
action; increased peripheral vascular
circulation; increased pulse and respiration.
0.9 Motion away, Autonomic mobilization for full flight reaction; laxity
violent flight of gastro-intestinal tract; all blood to peripheral vascular
system, especially muscles for rapid flight; breathing and
pulse rapid and shallow.
0.5 Slight motion, Autonomic mobilized for cry for help, grief; cranio-agitation
in sacral on full; thoracolumbar, inhibited; deep, sobbing
one place, breathing; pulse hard and irregular; discharge of tears
suffer and other bodily secretions.
0.1 No motion, Shock reaction; thoracolumbar inhibited; cranio-sacral
apparent death full on, gradually decreasing as organism approaches
death; breathing shallow and irregular; pulse thready;
blood pooled in internal organs; muscles limp, lacking
tone; pallor.
0.0 Death Cessation of organic function.
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CHAPTER FOUR
COLUMN D
Psychiatric Range
The auditor should know three psychiatric terms, the only psychiatric terms he will find
used in Dianetics as they are used in psychiatry.
These terms are: 1. Psychotic, 2. Neurotic, and 3. Psychosomatic.
Psychotic is really not a noun but an adjective. However, psychiatry uses it as a noun
to mean an individual afflicted with psychosis. A psychosis is any major form of mental
affliction or disease. In other words, a psychotic, so far as we are concerned, is an individual
who cannot handle himself or his environment well enough to survive and who must be cared
for to protect others from him or to protect him from himself.
The psychotic state which receives the most interest is that one which threatens the
survival of the individual himself or of those around him. Such a psychotic is placed in an
institution -- when there is room for him. Otherwise, he roams the town or country. However,
many other persons are psychotics but are not sufficiently alarming as a menace to themselves
or others to be placed in an institution.
The next classification is simply a matter of degree. The neurotic individual is one who
is afflicted mentally but can perform some reasonable function or other.
The term, psychosomatic, has meant an illness caused by or notably influenced by --
the emotional state of the patient.” Actually, more practically, one could say that it is an illness
caused by the mind. About seventy percent of man’s ills are psychosomatic.
In Dianetics we use these terms as follows: Psychotic: A person who is physically or
mentally harmful to those about him out of proportion to the amount of use he is to them.
Neurotic: A person who is mainly harmful to himself by reason of his aberrations, but not to
the point of suicide.
Chronic somatic: A psychosomatic illness, since it is discovered that psychosomatic
illness is only the restimulated somatic of some engram and goes away when the engram is
contacted and reduced or erased.
This current chart gives a scale by which psychosis and neurosis can be accurately
classified and described for the first time. Dianetics does not need a more complex terminology
than it has. Definition of individual tone level by numbers, plus the citing of obviously
manifested engrams, give adequate clue to what should be done for the preclear.
The individualities of psychosis and neurosis are occasioned by the engrams of a
particular psychotic or neurotic. These peculiarities of behavior have as their root certain
engramic commands -- words contained in past moments of pain and unconsciousness. An
engram can bring about a manic state wherein the individual declares hysterically and
continually that he is happy or strong and yet is very low on the scale. Such a condition is
brought into view by the auditor’s inspecting the chart for various other manifestations of the
preclear. Any one column or characteristic of the chart can be altered by a pattern of engrams
or severe education, but the other portions of the chart will remain constant for that level. For
instance, as in the case of a manic engram, the individual appears to be happy at first glance,
even says so repeatedly. But further inspection demonstrates that this person is very shy, that
he gives presents to buy people off, that he is given to suspicion and hurtful lies about people.
The manic engram demands a tone 3.5 be manifested, but this does not alter the position of the
preclear on the chart.
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This is not very complicated and it is very important. To establish the level of sanity on
the chart, the auditor must only locate the level which contains a majority of the manifestations
of the preclear. Almost every case will have a place on the chart which does not hold true on
the chart for the majority of characteristics named. In other words, look for the majority of
characteristics, the level where the preclear is found in most of the columns. Do not be upset if
the preclear fails to hold true in one or two columns. A chain of engrams may command a
manic or a depressive aspect in the preclear for a particular subject or column. Engrams which
command, for one subject on the chart or one characteristic in life, a tone lower than the actual
tone of the preclear may be hard cn the preclear but they have a certain safety factor for the
auditor. It is the manic, which commands by engrams a higher tone in one or two columns
than the actual tone, that is dangerous; for then the auditor may try to use a level of processing
too high on the chart for his case. If in doubt, work the preclear a tone or two lower than you
estimate him by the chart. The potential manic-depressive psychotic can be hammered into a
psychotic break by being worked too forcefully too high on the chart. A saving grace in
diagnosis is that a manic-depressive is not always a manic or above tone but is often depressive
and well below tone. None but a qualified auditor has any business working with a psychotic.
The danger in handling psychotics is very great. This danger did not originate with Dianetics.
From the beginning of man’s efforts to solve the riddle of insanity, the psychotic has been a
great liability to the practitioner. The percentage of psychotics who commit suicide during
ordinary treatment is vastly larger than the percentage of suicides of psychotics during dianetic
processing. The conclusion one reaches is that psychotics commit suicide easily. They commit
suicide oftener when in the hands of other practitioners than in the hands of those who know
Dianetics.
When a person drops below the 2.0 level he has so much entheta compared to his theta
that a sudden shock may simply enturbulate the remaining theta and send him into a psychotic
break. When all the theta is enturbulated, its reaction is to kick apart theta and MEST, in other
words, cause death and remove the organism from the path of other organisms. Suicides are
assisted normally by engrams which specifically demand suicide. But suicide is a natural
manifestation, apparently, a fast means of separating theta and MEST and gaining death
quickly. Suicide is always psychotic.
People below the 2.0 level, no matter their avowed intention, will bring death or injury
to persons, things and organizations around them, if in the anger bracket, or death to
themselves, if in the apathy bracket. Anyone below the 2.0 level is a potential suicide. The
fascist, for instance, is almost always, in the face of any severe reverse, a sure suicide, fascism
being below the 2.0 line.
A psychotic is a threat of death for somebody or something, if not for himself. A
manic-depressive, sometimes cheerful and apparently only neurotic, is actually very low on the
scale and may suddenly commit suicide without any real warning.
The psychotic is a definite liability to the auditor, not so much because of processing or
what unskilled processing may do, but because some factor may come suddenly into the
environment of the psychotic which causes him to commit murder or suicide. This can then be
laid to the processing. Every such action on the part of psychiatric patients is forgiven
psychiatry as a natural consequence of handling psychotics. Handle one gently and keep him
out of a non-survival environment and the psychotic may be very successfully treated by
Dianetics. But do not be amazed if your preclear seems cheerful today and goes into a psychotic
break tonight and commits suicide tomorrow, after murdering the family. Below 2.0 on the
tone scale we have theta and MEST trying to kick apart and bring about death.* * One of our
most brilliant instructors, David Cary, in the Los Angeles Foundation, had married, long
before Dianetics, a psychotic girl. He went into Dianetics first trying to help her. He persuaded
her to take a course with him at the Foundation. He tried in every way he could to give her
processing but as she was actually there under protest she would not accept processing from
him. Cary went on to become an instructor, having an excellent background for teaching and a
skill in it, while she separated herself from him. She was not obviously psychotic, although the
training department at Los Angeles had refused her as far below student calibre on the grounds
328.329
of her psychometry and a former suicide attempt and was only persuaded to take her as a favor
to Cary. Some time later, in an effort to bring her some relief, Cary took a leave of absence and
went home. There he was murdered by his wife, who then committed suicide. His devotion
and his efforts to assist her had been mistakable. She had been intensely inaccessible. He had
been told many times by his friends in Dianetics that she was dangerous. But that danger was
hidden. Cary’s devotion cost him his life and cost Dianetics a brilliant instructor and a man
well-loved by all who had a chance to know him. This footnote is included here not simply as a
memorial to David Cary, but as information which will give pause to husbands or wives who
are seeking to assist a psychotic spouse. Husband and wife is difficult at best, the partners
being usually very restimulative to each other. As husband and wife they will do better to make
an arrangement for auditing with another couple. If one of them is psychotic, they should seek
the best professional auditor Dianetics can give them.
In treating psychotics, always remember that one is working with minimal theta present
and maximal entheta. Thus, a sudden shock may so restimulate an engram that the remaining
theta enturbulates and vanishes, leaving a lock composed of entheta. There goes sanity.
Approach the lock gently and turn it back into theta with great care and caution.
No mixture of Dianetics with old treatments or practices of any kind are recommended
to the auditor. Electric shock has been found to lay a severe engram into an already
overcrowded reactive mind and is not successful in any way, other than making a few patients
so apathetic that they are barely acceptable to society. Psycho-surgery, removing pieces of the
brain, has long been acknowledged an entire failure so far as any actual “cure” is concerned.
Free association is a long drawn-out procedure which is, at best, of very questionable value.
Restraints and cold packs only succeed in shocking the patient into a deeper state of lethargy.
Do not condone such methods nor permit them to be used on your preclears, for the simple
reason that they do not work.
Handle the psychotic gently. Respect his rights to a whole brain and a future. Do not
consider that he is your toy or your experimental animal. Above all, when you are auditing, be
a civilized human being. Don’t try to punish your patient because he “refuses to get well.” His
engrams and general turbulence make your preclear very hard to reach. His basic personality is
in there trying to help you. Smooth out entheta and make theta out of it and do it as gently as
you can. Don’t lose your temper or resort to drastic methods. Be civilized. Man can be
handled only with reason, not by Hitlerianistic force. You can’t beat a man into sanity. If you
feel so exasperated by a preclear that you would like to scold him or hit him, stop the session
and go cool down. Don’t fill him full of sedatives or put him in restraints. By being as
gracious and serene as you possibly can be, you will greatly increase your success in treating
your fellow man. And you have to be first cousin to a saint to get the best results with
psychotics. Any effort made to hammer a patient or scold a patient into sanity will meet with
failure. The proof of that is the 19,000,000 insane, institutionalized or at liberty, in the United
States alone. Don’t be convinced that you have rights of ownership or life-and-death powers
over your fellow man. Leave that to the accomplished authoritarians, of whom we,
unfortunately, have so many.
Be a human being and you’ll get good results.
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CHAPTER FIVE
COLUMN E
Medical Range
The medical doctor a short time ago seldom thought of his patients in terms of mental
disorder. Recently he realized that some seventy percent of man’s ills are of mental origin --
which is to say, psychosomatic illnesses account for a high majority of sicknesses.
In addition to those commonly listed as psychosomatic illnesses many others must be
suspected, because of another factor. Bacterial infection itself is assisted by the presence of
engrams. Thus the percentage is possibly higher.
The engram assists bacteria and viruses in this fashion. The physical injury (the
enMEST of the engram) resides in a certain portion of the body, that portion which was
injured. Let us say an engram is received by reason of a severe chest injury. This engram may
not become active for many years. But keyed-in then, it brings about a chest weakness in that
the blood and endocrine fluids tend to avoid the area as though it were just now injured. Into
this weakened area may come bacteria of one kind or another such as those of pneumonia or
tuberculosis. This is a temporary infection. But now the area is restimulated by the pain of the
infection and so the engram is further keyed-in and reinforced and the area of the chest cannot
become resistant enough to throw aside the infection. Thus we get the chronic infections, the
lasting illnesses.
Technically one can say there are three phases in a disease: 1. predisposition, 2.
precipitation, and 3. perpetuation. The engram accounts for these in that it renders an area of
the body, or an organ such as the heart, weak, then by the key-in of the engram brings about
the illness and finally, because the keyed-in pain keeps on being restimulated, makes the illness
continue.
As far as injuries are concerned, engrams apparently cause the accident prone. The
engram may command the person to injure himself or others. One such engram restimulated in
a preclear caused him to “unwittingly” injure his hand severely three times in one week. The
engram was found and reduced and the preclear has not since injured that hand. Thus accidents
of major and minor character may be chalked up to engrams. A command in an engram such as
“I always have to hurt myself” will cause the individual to do just that.
The endocrine system is very sensitive to thought and is under the control of thought.
A doctor who attended a series of lectures on Dianetics at length came forward and, rather
disturbed, said, “For forty years of study and practice I have been using the standard concept
that structure controls function. I finally see what you are saying. It is the other way around.
Function controls structure. Now maybe we can solve a few more problems.”
Endocrine imbalances such as reduced thyroid, over-weight, reduced sexual capability,
sterility, and numerous others are monitored by engrams. The proof of this is simply that
when engrams are reduced the glandular imbalances tend to correct themselves. Also, engrams
reduce the acceptance by the body of artificial hormones, for when engrams are reduced
artificial hormones can be administered with benefit.
There is a direct index between the amount of entheta in an individual and his physical
health. This is manifest when one examines the state of health of the psychotic. A pretended
death case is almost impossible to keep alive. Apathy cases starve and develop illnesses and
cannot resist the smallest infections, just as grief shocks are so often followed by illness. The
covertly hostile individual is usually a hypochondriac, is continually developing illnesses which
even he knows to be false. The anger case suffers from all manner of ills, particularly arthritis
and other illnesses which settle as chronic somatics and develop deposits, which enlarge
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glands, which alter the condition of the heart, and so forth. From there on up the scale, the less
entheta and the more theta, the greater the physical health of the individual.
As an example, a young girl was in a hospital recovering from appendicitis. She was
running a fever, a very serious thing in such a case. An auditor was called in and by a few
questions found out she was stuck on the time track in an earlier mumps engram. He brought
her up to present time and the temperature dropped to normal within the next ten minutes and
recovery then proceeded uneventfully.
A usually well but temporarily ill person slides down the tone scale because of
temporarily restimulated engrams. Getting him into present time will often materially shorten
any course of illness.
Another part of Medical Dianetics is the dianetic assist. Any very recent engram can be
run with impunity. Picking up engrams of injuries which have just happened demonstrably
shortens the term of recovery and increases life potential threatened because of the accident.
Shock occasioned by operations and accidents is rendered less dangerous, according to
observation, by the dianetic assist.
In preventative Dianetics, the first rule is to maintain silence around an injured or ill
person. This prevents the engram from having words in it and reduces its dangerousness
markedly. Several hospitals now practice this. Doctors in other hospitals would find their
work much easier and more successful if they would simply make standard the practice of
complete silence around operating tables.
It should not be overlooked by the auditor, regardless of his ability to do near miracles
in the face of physical malady, that virus, bacteria and broken legs still exist. The auditor
would do well to recognize the function of the medical doctor as a primary necessity in a
society. When an artery is pumping the life of the patient out upon the ground, the engram
being received is the least important part of the circumstance. The important thing is to inhibit
the artery. Picking up an engram will not heal but will only assist the healing of broken bones.
While most surgery, by the admission of surgeons themselves, is unnecessary, only surgery
can effect emergency repairs. The field of the medical doctor is evidently the field of the
acutely ill, and it is a wise auditor who works smoothly and harmoniously with medical doctors
in the full recognition that medicine is often the only means of preserving or extending life.
The auditor’s job is to shorten the course of any illness, to assist the healing of any injury, and
particularly, to bring people up the tone scale to a level where they will seldom fall victim to
accident or illness.
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CHAPTER SIX
The Basic Laws of Theta
Affinity - Reality - Communication
There is in Dianetics a triangle of great importance. Theta, the energy of thought and
life, has as primary manifestations affinity, reality, and communication.
This is the peculiarity of theta: in lieu of the cohesion, matter, and force laws of the
physical universe (MEST), thought (theta) has to have affinity, reality, and communication to
survive. MEST requires certain laws to survive -- or obeys those laws in the business of
surviving. Energy and matter in space and time hang together in a certain fashion, governed by
certain laws. The discovery and use of those MEST laws make up the science of physics. Theta
also hangs together in a certain fashion, and the discovery and use of those laws make up the
science of Dianetics.
We do not know nearly as much about theta as we know about atoms and electrons, the
probable parallel entity in the physical universe. Electrons, protons, neutrons and various other
parts of physical-universe energy flow at certain speeds and, in various combinations, exist and
function in the physical universe. There is, for instance, the speed of light; there is the
composition of atoms and molecules. Theta probably has various similar laws, and at this time
we do not know much about them; but we know enough to know that there is a difference
between theta’s laws of function and those of the energies in the physical universe.
Primary amongst the laws of theta is that it has a fundamental Goal, the changing of
MEST. It changes MEST by constructing it into mobile units we know as life organisms and,
through those, making MEST into various forms and objects or destroying those forms and
objects.
Theta uses an evolutionary scale in present time. Lower forms of life support higher
forms of life. We have thought of evolution in the past as something stretched back along the
eons, as a graduated scale of various species which changed as the ages progressed down to
our present life forms. This concept of evolution has many limitations and gaps and is not very
workable. In Dianetics, using the theta theory, we see that all theta is actually in present time
and that no action is possible except in present time and that present time is a continuing series
of instants in which, moment to moment, theta goes on changing MEST. It is not very
complicated to see that right here in present time we have evolution operating. The lichen and
moss convert crude MEST ash and rock into soil. On this soil higher forms of plant life can
grow.
Vegetable life, however, is not very mobile. Theta animates organisms which are
composed of theta and MEST. But trees change very little MEST. Thus, following up the
scale, we find theta involved with making animals and insects. And the larger animals, unable
to live on soil and sunlight, live on vegetable forms which are themselves the converters of soil
and sunlight into comestibles for higher forms.
As soon as we get up to the very complex forms of life such as the mammal, we find a
very large amount of MEST being converted. When we arrive at the level of man we begin to
see that theta can create or destroy vast forms of MEST.
A man damming a river and installing a hydroelectric plant is, for his own survival,
changing MEST. Another man turning a switch and lighting an electric bulb, is shifting and
altering MEST.
Theta, on this chain of evolution right in present time, exists in a state which can change
a very great deal of MEST. As we learn more and more about MEST we can change more
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MEST. And as we learn more about theta we can control and Change more MEST. The atom
bomb is a case of changing a great deal of MEST in a direction which defeats a great deal of
theta -- thus we consider the bomb wrong. It fails to enhance survival.
Man can reasonably change large amounts of MEST. Therefore he can be considered a
sort of intermediate goal. Lower life forms cannot change MEST on any grand scale. Man,
potentially, can build or blow up planets. Man will evolve into more than man, probably.
Educationally, he evolves a long distance when he begins to understand something about his
own purpose of being.
The cycle by which theta understands MEST is a very simple one. Theta impinges
heavily against MEST. This causes a turbulence. But from that confusion theta extracts some
tiny law of MEST and withdraws to apply to MEST this newly learned law for the conquest of
MEST. No knowledge exists without a
primary enturbulation. MEST is conquered by theta’s taking successive laws of MEST
and turning MEST against MEST to change it.
Theta, with this mechanism of turbulence, can learn much about MEST. But if theta is
going to be embroiled with MEST in a disorderly fashion, then theta must have some means of
becoming unenturbulated so as to profit by what it has learned through the confusion. Theta
has to be able to withdraw in order to come back for an orderly conquest of MEST, using the
laws of the physical universe to conquer the physical universe.
The basic mechanism theta had in the past was death. The cycle of creation, growth,
decay, and death was one and is one which applies to a species as a species, to an organism as
an organism, or to a group of organisms. The only way theta could get free, evidently, was
through death.
With the advent of a science of thought, whereby some of the natural laws of theta are
understood, man can in one lifetime disenturbulate his theta and MEST and benefit from the
experience gained by the enturbulence. What Dianetics does to longevity has not even been
surveyed, but it certainly upsets the evident purpose of the death cycle.
In Dianetics we have much to do with affinity, reality, and communication. Whatever
the accuracy of the basic postulates, it becomes evident to the auditor as he uses these three
points of the triangle that he has a highly useful tool.
The triangle of affinity, reality, and communication could be called an interactive
triangle in that no point of it can be raised without affecting the other two points and raising
them, and no point of it can be lowered without affecting the other two points. The postulated
reason for this is that affinity, reality, and communication are component parts of theta, and
thus affinity, reality, and communication are three manifestations of the same thing.
This has a very high usefulness to the auditor. For instance, when his preclear has a
very thorough sonic shutoff the auditor knows that he can regain some sonic either by
increasing the present-time affinity of the preclear or by raising the level of reality of the
preclear. Likewise, if the affinity of the preclear is markedly low, the auditor can raise that
affinity by bettering the communication and reality concepts of the preclear. And finally, when
the reality of the preclear is low, it can be raised by increasing affinity and communication.
This is highly useful because often the auditor cannot directly discover the suppressor
on one point of the triangle. By blowing locks on the other two points he can make this
suppressor accessible.
Whether or not one either understands or agrees with the theta-MEST theory of
Dianetics, the affinity, reality and communication postulate which derives directly from it is of
infinite use.
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It is very difficult to suppress the affinity of an individual, his capacity, that is, to
receive or give love, without also suppressing his communication and reality factors.
Likewise, one cannot suppress the communication factor without also suppressing the affinity
and reality factor. And finally, one cannot suppress reality without suppressing affinity and
communication. For instance, a mother telling a child that she does not love it is also
forbidding the child to speak and is blunting the child’s reality, since the child normally expects
to be loved. To tell the child to keep quiet is also to reject the child and is to offend the child’s
concept of what the real world should contain. Contradicting one of the child’s statements or
beliefs, which is to say his reality, is also to break affinity with him and suppress his
communication. One cannot touch this triangle at any point without affecting the other two
points; and yet each point is highly specific and has its own characteristics.
One must also consider in a discussion of theta that theta is measured on a gradient tone
scale from 0.0 upwards to 40.0. At the highest range, theta could be considered to be in a pure
state. It would be a clear, even-flowing river. It would be reason at its highest. It would be
complete rationality. It would be complete reality. It could accomplish complete
communication in its own level. And it would be pure affinity.
Descending down the tone scale, greater and greater dissonance could be considered to
be introduced into theta. The stream, so to speak, becomes more and more tumultuous, more
and more fixed within narrow banks, flowing over heavier rocks and then shoals. As a
musical analogy, one could say that the note was becoming less and less a pure and
harmonious vibration and was becoming more and more off-key from itself.
Descending down the tone scale, affinity, reality, and communication form in
themselves a dissonance one with the other. Also, theta is in more and more tumultuous
confusion with MEST. Instead of an orderly and harmonious conquest of MEST by theta, one
sees, as the tone scale is descended toward death, greater and greater turbulence.
The sudden impact of theta and MEST together could be considered a turbulence which
creates dissonance in theta. This is registered and recorded as pain. Theta and MEST so
impacted together, the characteristics of the theta are changed, according to theory and
observation, and theta below 2.0 on the tone scale can be considered enturbulated theta -- theta
which has been confused and chaotically mixed with the material universe and which will lie in
this confusion until death or some other process disenturbulates it. Theta below 2.0 we call
entheta.
The mechanism here is a simple one. MEST, in a life form, is an orderly array above
2.0 on the tone scale; below 2.0 MEST is considered to be confused and enturbulated and is
referred to as enMEST.
We could draw a diagram which would show theta and MEST appearing above 2.0 and
entheta and enMEST appearing below 2.0. From 2.0 upwards, theta and MEST are more and
more orderly mingled until MEST is left behind entirely and theta exists in its pure stage.
Below 2.0, entheta and enMEST are more and more enturbulated in the life form until the point
of death and below is reached.
We could consider that theta gradually reverses polarity as it descends the tone scale
toward 0.0. We could consider that MEST reverses its polarity when it rises up the tone scale
from -3. Entheta has a very repelling effect upon theta and MEST. EnMEST has a repelling
effect upon theta and MEST. Below 2.0, MEST and theta are at best turbulently united.
Above, they are united more and more smoothly as they rise up the scale, the MEST more and
more under the influence of theta, the theta more and more able to do things with the MEST.
Below 2.0, the theta is less and less able to do anything with the MEST. Entheta becomes as
chaotic as MEST in its pure state.
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Here is the mechanism of death, then: entheta and enMEST driving out from the
organism the remaining theta and MEST. This is an important postulate in Dianetics, since from
this can be derived the entire tone scale and all the manifestations.
It may occur to someone to ask “What is the difference between MEST and enMEST, if
both are without order or plan?” The answer is both simple and important. Pure MEST may be
said to be virgin chaos, entirely innocent of plan. An organism at tone 4.0 may be said to
contain MEST harmoniously planned and organized by theta. But enMEST is neither of these:
it is neither organized nor virginal it is confused and embroiled with entheta in a twisted
disorganized plan of human behavior and aberrations. These postulates are what an engineer
calls a highly workable truth -- for to all engineer, truth is not the absolute of the metaphysician;
it is simply something which has a relatively high workability.
From the theta-MEST theory also may be derived an explanation of faith healing --
which is more than an explanation, being a very workable tenet for the auditor. It has been
many times noted in the course of man’s adventures in the realm of mental and physical healing
that one individual or another, merely by his presence, or an area, by its sanctity or the belief of
people in it, could accomplish the nearly entire de-aberration of mentally or physically ill human
beings. In South America there is a church outside of which stands a small mountain of
crutches cast away by cripples who became well merely by approaching the altar; and in
Bethany, some years ago a man named Lazarus came forth from his tomb.
It is an axiom in Dianetics that a sufficient quantity of theta brought into proximity with
entheta will disenturbulate the entheta and convert it into theta. This is important enough to
form the basic axiom of processing. It explains to the auditor why he cannot take a psychotic
who has practically no remaining theta and successfully send that psychotic into the entheta of
an engram. The remaining theta of the psychotic would itself merely become enturbulated, not
being sufficient in quantity, and the psychotic could theoretically become worse. Thus the
second axiom: Entheta in sufficient quantity brought into proximity with theta will enturbulate
that theta.
Here we have a matter of quantity. When there is a great deal of theta present a lesser
amount of entheta will disenturbulate and become theta. But when we have more entheta than
theta, the theta is likely to become entheta. This is the contagion factor of aberration. Theta
itself could be called reason; entheta could be called unreason. Reason in sufficient quantity
brought into the presence of a lesser quantity of unreason will cause reason to prevail.
Unreason in sufficient quantity brought into the presence of a lesser quantity of reason will
cause that reason to become unreason. Hence the restimulative character of processing to the
auditor. Hence also the various kinds of processing which must be used on various cases.
The purer the theta, the more MEST will be attracted under it. Theta attempting a
conquest of enMEST will become in itself enturbulated. Entheta applied to MEST will make it
into enMEST.
Entheta will tend and act in the direction of death. EnMEST tends and acts in the
direction of death. Theta tends and acts in the direction of survival; and MEST tends and acts
in the direction of survival when it has been conquered in an orderly fashion, in an organism or
by a theta organism.
As an example of entheta consider the thief. A thief is chiefly entheta and prefers
enMEST to MEST. A thief will make enMEST out of the MEST he steals, which is to say
cloud its title and possibly injure its form or substance. EnMEST, possessed by theta, has a
tendency to enturbulate the theta. Thus, an honest man attempting to own a confused and
dishonest property will himself become enturbulated. A whole series of axioms and optimum
conduct codes can be derived from these principles.
It is also observable that a high-theta-volume individual can conquer and handle more
MEST than a low-theta-volume individual or an entheta individual. The psychotic, for instance,
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will ruin any MEST he contacts; whereas the highly reasonable man will enhance the MEST he
contacts.
Here also we apparently have some small clue as to what “luck” is. MEST moves in
automatically under good theta. MEST moves out from under entheta.
When we speak of affinity, reality, and communication we are talking about the three
component parts of theta. These three quantities in combination playing upon MEST give us the
manifestation we might call computation, or understanding. One has to have some affinity for
an object, some communication with it, and some concept of its reality, before he can
understand it. His ability to understand any thought or object depends upon his affinity, his
communication, and his reality. All mathematics can be derived from affinity, communication,
and reality playing upon MEST.
Because affinity, reality, and communication are three component parts of the same
thing, namely theta, it would be difficult to increase one component without increasing the
other two.
The physical universe and what we have called the theta universe are each based upon
the principle of survive and succumb. So far as life is concerned, everything above the 2.0
level is survive, and everything below the 2.0 level is succumb. Above the 2.0 level, the
organism tends toward life; below the 2.0 level, the organism tends only toward death. The
dynamics could actually be considered as theta applied to various subjects and in different
manifestations. Any individual, even an aberree, has occasional moments of functioning as a
clear. When he is not restimulated -- when his engrams, locks, and secondaries are not
forcefully restimulated by his environment -- the theta gradually disenturbulates, and he
becomes possessed of a higher level of reason. Most people reach 3.0 part of the time, as a
normal course of events. Some rare people behave and reason like MEST clears. Hardly
anyone has failed to have moments when he approximated the condition of clear. Being clear is
a state of being possessed of all available theta, which in an aberree would be partially trapped
in engrams and locks. The ordinary person, with his engrams and locks, is rarely in the happy
and reasonable state of a release or a clear. The release or clear is in that desirable state rather
constantly; but this does not mean that the release or clear are not, in the presence of an
overwhelming amount of entheta in the environment, susceptible to enturbulation, for they are.
They, however, do not greatly retain the enturbulence, and as soon as they are free from such
an entheta environment they restore immediately to a cleared state. Further, they do not sink
very far down the tone scale. This case is very different from that of an individual who has
relatively little theta left to enturbulate and who in even a mild entheta environment sinks rapidly
down the tone scale. It is a question of resilience and recovery ability, as well as the ability to
reason constantly and clearly in most situations.
The chart should be read with the understanding that nearly everyone who does not
have to be put away in a sanatorium, wholly bereft of his senses, has some available theta.
There are many persons possessed of a high volume of theta but whose aberrations bring them
down chronically below the level of 2.0, who can yet function, having some theta available.
These people enturbulate rapidly. There are many people who are not classified as psychotic
ordinarily, who demonstrate considerable quantities of theta, and who yet, on some slight set-back,
enturbulate rapidly down to 1.1 or 0.5 on the tone scale and remain there for some time
after the enturbulence. These people, rested, and not in immediate contact with the
restimulative situation, regain some of the theta from the turbulent area.
The strength of the dynamics of an individual could be considered to be determined,
first, by the native volume of theta possessed by the individual and, second, by the impeding
effect of his engrams, as restimulated in the environment. One could, then, have a very high
dynamic individual who yet has been so thoroughly aberrated that on the least set-back he
would fall rapidly down the tone scale below 2.0. People like this, having high dynamics,
attempt naturally to conquer a great deal of MEST, but in the process of conquering it are
enturbulated by the MEST, the society, and the environment, so that they accumulate enormous
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quantities of locks. And if such a person has hidden within him many engrams these will
rapidly become charged, and the person will become highly concluded and intensely aberrated,
but will yet be able to function sometimes on a creative and constructive level. The system of
dynamics is a method of subdividing the theta of an individual to show how much theta he has
available in any one sphere of activity. These divisions could be made as follows: First: the
dynamic of self, the urge for individual survival, reason toward individual survival for one’s
self;
Second: the dynamic of survival through sex and children; Third: the urge to survive
through groups, as a member of the group, or for the survival of the group itself; Fourth: the
urge of the individual to survive for mankind, or the urge of all mankind to survive; Fifth: the
urge of the individual to survive for life, or of life to survive for itself,;
Sixth: the urge of the individual to promote the survival of MEST, either for his own
benefit or for the benefit of MEST itself (manifested in the preservation of property, as such,
no matter to whom it belongs); Seventh: the urge of theta to survive, the urge of the individual
to promote the survival of theta and to survive through the survival of theta. Any of these
dynamics can be broken down into the three component parts of affinity, communication, and
reality. On the first dynamic, one has the affinity for self the concept of the reality of self and
the ability to communicate with memory of self.
The second dynamic would concern itself with the affinity for a mate or children for the
future of a race, the communication with a mate or children, and a concept of the reality of
these.
In the third dynamic lies the affinity of the individual for the group, or the affinity of the
group for itself; the ability of the individual and the group to communicate; the general reality or
agreement existing in the group and between the individual and the group.
The fourth dynamic, as ARC, would mean the affinity of the individual for all man, and
of mankind for the individual; it would include the communication of man with man, and the
reality concepts or agreements of men with mankind.
The fifth dynamic would include the affinity of the individual for life, or the affinity of
life for other life; the ability of life to communicate with life, or with the individual; and the
concept of agreement and reality of life.
The sixth dynamic would include the affinity, communication, and reality of MEST as
itself within its own laws as expressed in the physical sciences; but more important for our
purposes, the feeling of the individual for MEST, to know it, to use it, and to preserve it. The
seventh dynamic would be that of theta itself which is composed in its component parts,
according to our postulates, of affinity, reality, and communication.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
COLUMN F
Emotion
Emotion could be called the energy manifestation of affinity. They are listed in two
columns because emotion may be treated as a subdivision of the more general subject of
affinity.
Emotion is not synonymous with life energy but is evidently only a part of one of the
points of the triangle of affinity, communication, and reality. Emotion, however, furnishes an
obvious index to the psychic state, and is the quantity most easily observed by the auditor. As
used in Dianetics, emotion could be called the index of the state of being.
The development of a new science naturally means the development of many new
terms; and as new data is discovered, old definitions are often found to be inadequate. Thus it
is with emotion. In the English language “emotional” is often considered synonymous with
“irrational.” One often hears the statement, “Don’t be so emotional, be reasonable.” This would
seem to assume that if one is emotional one cannot be reasonable. No more unreasonable
assumption could possibly be made.
Engrams have, each one of them, their own emotional tones, just as each engram has a
somatic. This is false emotional tone which is foisted upon the aberree in lieu of natural and
reasonable emotion. Because emotion has a strong manifestation and because the less desirable
kinds of emotion are displayed by people in highly tense states, emotion has been clouded as a
desirable quantity.
A fully reasonable human displays the emotion called for, rationally, by the
circumstances with which he is confronted in present time. Thus if the present time
circumstance requires grief a rational and reasonable person is apt to display grief. If the
present-time situation demands anger, the rational human being will display anger. Irrational
emotion could manifest itself irrationally for any given situation. If the present-time
circumstances required grief yet the individual displayed no grief this would be irrational. If
the present-time situation seemed to indicate, because of happy circumstances, happiness, and
yet the individual remained apathetic, this would be irrational.
Emotion, then, is neither rational nor irrational except as it is displayed. An aberrated
person seldom displays the type of emotion rationally called for by any given circumstance. To
describe this we would actually need a new word, perhaps “misemotional.” Such a word
would indicate that a person did not display the emotion called for by the actual circumstances
of the situation. This would indicate that his aberrated condition caused him to display an
emotional reaction inappropriate to the present-time situation. Being misemotional would then
be synonymous with being irrational. Being emotional, however, would indicate, if the
emotionality agreed with current circumstances, a rational state of being.
One can fairly judge the rationality of any individual by the correctness of the emotion
he displays in a given set of circumstances. To be joyful and happy when circumstances call
for joy and happiness would be rational. To display grief without sufficient present-time cause
would be irrational.
Engrams, and the generally aberrated state of a being, generally deny emotion.
Happiness and cheerfulness being the very trademark of survival, one could expect with
considerable justification that as an individual became more and more aberrated he would be
less and less able to be happy. Such is the case. From happiness, at the top, down the
dwindling spiral through anger, grief and apathy to no reaction whatever would run not only
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emotion but the life potential of the individual. And thus live have a direct index of
measurement of the aberrated state of the person.
One must remember that even a very aberrated person, in relatively unenturbulated
present-time moments, has considerable free theta. The fact that a person enturbulates readily,
for instance, to the 1.1. level and thus reacts along that level does not mean that every waking
moment finds him reacting on such a level. Until he is entirely psychotic in the face of present-time
enturbulation, he quite ordinarily demonstrates a great deal of free theta. The danger of his
condition does not lie in the fact that he is always psychotic; it lies in the fact that when he
becomes enturbulated, his existing free theta, which itself is capable of happiness and reason,
will enturbulate down the tone scale to 1.1. As this individual lives longer and becomes more
aberrated, when a trying situation confronts him, a situation which enturbulates his free theta,
he will drop not only to the 1.1 level but below that, to the 0.5 level. Once the dwindling spiral
has set in, from year to year the environment of the aberree remaining more or less unchanged,
he can be expected, when enturbulated, to drop lower and lower on the tone scale. Dianetics
can interrupt this dwindling spiral; it can restore free theta to the mind, it can erase the traps
which wait for the individual when his free theta is enturbulated. Thus, a person who is a
dianetic release or a MEST clear is extremely resilient. Trying present-time circumstances do
not form heavy locks. He has no irrational reasons to experience grief or fear, but when
present-time circumstances strongly call for these emotions, he will display them, and yet soon
afterwards be fully recovered. The only thing which can enturbulate his theta and cause him to
drop any distance down the tone scale momentarily is some circumstance in the immediate
environment strong enough to influence and affect him. A person who has been freed of
engrams, secondaries, and locks should not be expected to remain in a state of idiotic
cheerfulness in the face of any and all circumstances. This in itself would be a very aberrated
type of conduct. There are certain manic individuals who do this, and they, unfortunately, are
quite insane.
One of the primary things which dianetic processing does is free the emotions of the
individual so that he can experience emotion ranging from happiness, eagerness, and
exhilaration, down to anger, fear, and grief when these emotions are called for by present-time
circumstances.
Emotion is a primary index of the tone scale. This does not mean that emotion is all
there is to theta. Emotion is used as a primary clue to the auditor of the preclear’s position on
the tone scale because it is so easily recognized. The two gradient systems, however, on the
margin of the chart, one from zero to 1000, and the other from -3 to 40.0 are both arbitrary
number systems. The zero-to-1000 scale exists so that psychometric percentiles can be
computed on the chart. The -3 to 40.0 scale is the original tone scale of Dianetics. This original
scale is preserved because it is handy for the auditor to use and is a basic part of dianetic
terminology. One quite commonly hears auditors speaking of a “1.5 case,” meaning a case of
chronic anger or one which enturbulates easily into anger. Or one may hear an auditor speak of
a “2.5 case,” which tells his indoctrinated listener that this case is rather bored with the whole
thing, but is fairly well advanced and comes up easily to what is known as “false four.”
The tone scale is not a derived scale, but one which has been constructed after
observation of many preclears. An auditor can very easily observe this. Suppose he discovers
his preclear to be in an anger tone as he runs an incident. The auditor can expect that the anger
will generally, on one recounting, abate; and on the second recounting, that the preclear will
begin to express resentment; on the third recounting, or fourth, or fifth, the preclear may come
to boredom; then to indifference; and on subsequent recountings, rise up to perfect cheerfulness
about the incident. If the auditor were to discover an incident where the preclear was in the
deepest apathy, the tone of the preclear would be seen to rise during auditing through the whole
span of the tone scale, step by step.
First, the preclear would be in very deep apathy, not knowing or caring whether this
incident would resolve or not. He would then go up the scale to apathy, then to grief. He
would express some fear and apprehension. He would become sullen. Finally he would
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become angry. Then he would express resentment, and through boredom, would gradually
rise up to “false four.”
Not all incidents, of course, find the preclear going up the scale step by step. He
follows exactly the same scale, but he may skip or omit various stages of the emotion. Starting
an incident at grief, the preclear may come to boredom, and thus to complete carelessness about
the incident. Thus, the tone scale is based upon observation. It is a very valuable index to the
state of an engram. If the preclear enters the engram in anger -- is made angry by it, that is --
the auditor knows that the incident will be relatively easy to run on up the line. But if the
preclear is found to be in very deep apathy, the auditor knows that he has a long way to travel
with this incident before he can bring the preclear entirely out of it up the tone scale.
Finding the preclear in deep apathy in an incident should alert the auditor to the fact that
he must handle this situation with the greatest care, that he must request subsequent recountings
very gently, so that the apathy will gradually rise, with repeated recountings of the incident, up
to grief; so that the grief can release and so bring the preclear up to the top of the scale,
concerning this incident.
The emotional tone scale introduces something else as an auditor’s tool. When the
auditor discovers he cannot run grief out of a case, he should examine the preclear’s bank; little
more carefully to discover what emotional tone he can turn on in the preclear, since he can turn
on at least one emotional tone. If he cannot turn on grief, he may be able to turn on anger; and
once he has taken some of the anger off the case perhaps he can run some of the lower levels
such as fear. Having run several incidents which have fear in them, the auditor may discover
that he can run grief off the case.
Sometimes a case will fall so easily into apathy that the auditor has to be very alert in
order to unburden some of the higher-level emotions before he attempts to run the incidents of
deepest apathy which he finds in the case.
As a working rule, an auditor can always find some emotional tone to run on a case.
He should make it his business to discover what emotional tone is easiest to run on the case and
run some incidents of that tone. There have been instances when merely running happy
incidents on a case recovered theta from the lower strata of tones of the scale that sufficient
attention units were made available to turn on sonic and visio. This trick of running pleasure
moments is easily the best way to get a preclear up to present time. One runs the pleasure
moment just as though it were an engram, and the attention of the preclear can be attracted to
this incident so strongly that attention units are recovered from other incidents in the past.
Emotion is an integral part of every engram; but it will stand by itself in what is called a
“secondary engram.” There are actually three kinds of secondary engrams: affinity break or
enforcement engrams; reality break or enforcement engrams; and communication break or
enforcement engrams. These are called secondary engrams because they do not contain
physical pain but depend, for their permanence, on a physical pain engram earlier in the bank.
Thus the words, “secondary engram,” mean a highly charged moment in the analytical mind of
the preclear which depends for its force on a physical pain engram lower in the bank. In
running secondary engrams, or painful emotion, the auditor must develop considerable skill.
One cannot, for instance, bluntly demand grief; nor can one bluntly demand fear. Skill and tact
are required to reach the necessary incident to resolve the case.
It is a working rule of the auditor that a case must always be unburdened of some
emotion. Only cases in a very high range of the tone scale can have physical pain engrams run
on them without running some secondary engrams. If one could run off a case all painful
emotion -- all unexpressed resentment, anger, fear, grief and apathy -- one would have a
dianetic release whether he touched physical pain engrams or not. This is theoretically true but
practically almost impossible, since, when he starts to run various secondary engrams, the
auditor will often find the case sliding back into the supporting physical pain engram, which
must then be run.
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Running the painful emotion off a case produces the most signal improvements that are
obtained in dianetic processing.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
COLUMN G
Affinity
In view of the fact that the word “love” has at least two outstanding meanings in the
English language, a misunderstanding could result if it were employed to represent this factor
in theta.
“Affinity” is a broad term and means simply a sympathy of feeling, an affection, the
feeling of one person for another, as we use it in Dianetics. Affinity, in the theta sense,
dianetically, might be compared to cohesion and adhesion in the physical universe, as applied
to energy. There are degrees of affinity, according to our definition, as represented by the tone
scale. These range from a feeling of well being along all the dynamics down the various stages
of emotion to severance of feeling from any and all of the dynamics. Affinity broadly includes
emotion.
The tone scale of affinity, as represented on the chart, refers to the reaction of the
individual at any particular time to just one or to a small number of people. But as affinity is
suppressed repeatedly, the individual will begin to take on an habitual level on the affinity
scale, an habitual reaction to almost all people. This is also true of the affinity scale of groups,
and one can find on this scale the tone level of any nation or, indeed, of mankind for any given
period, which would be the averaging out of the general reaction of mankind to mankind.
At the top of the scale around tone four, the individual experiences love, strong and
outgoing; he experiences friendliness, this is an extroversion of affinity. One commonly finds
this in children, who when growing older and receiving rejections and rebuffs, first from one
or two people and then from many, will gradually experience the blunting of their affinity.
Around tone three, we have the individual experiencing tolerance, without much
outgoing action. The individual at this level will accept advances offered but does not readily
make such advances himself.
Around 2.5 the individual begins to neglect his own person, or people in general. He
may even dislike them as a general rule and attempt to get away from them.
At the level of tone 2.0, the affinity is expressed as antagonism, a feeling of annoyance
and irritation caused by the advances of other people toward the individual. Love is received
with suspicion; it is seriously questioned, and may gain as its return distaste.
Around 1.5, affinity has almost reversed itself. Its dissonance has become hate, which
can be violent and is so expressed. Love offered to such a person may excite him into violent
acts of repulsion. Here, actually, we have a factor of entheta repelling theta, since theta itself
contains, as one of its components, love.
Around 1.1, we reach the level of covert hostility. Here the hatred of the individual has
been socially and individually censured to a point where it has been suppressed, and the
individual no longer dares demonstrate hate as such. He yet possesses sufficient energy to
express some feeling on the matter, and so what hatred he feels comes forth covertly. All
manner of subterfuges may be resorted to. The person may claim to love others and to have the
good of others as his foremost interest; yet, at the same moment, he works, unconsciously or
otherwise, to injure or destroy the lives and reputations of people and also to destroy property.
Below 1.0 we reach fear, which is expressed on its highest level as acute shyness, stage fright,
extreme modesty, being tongue-tied among other people, being easily frightened by proffered
affection. Here also we reach the strange manifestation of the individual attempting to buy off
the imagined danger by propitiation. We have an interesting example of this in processing.
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Cases which are far down on the tone scale will, when they reach 1.0, quite commonly offer
the auditor presents and attempt to do things for him. A crude description of this was once
contained in the idea of transference. At this level we have withdrawal from people. At 0.5, we
reach the level of grief, wherein we have supplications by the individual, his pleas for pity, his
desperate efforts to win support by tears. We may even have at this level extremely strange
perversions of truth intended to achieve the pity and support of others. For instance, the
rejected sweetheart, reaching this level of grief may invent all manner of odd and peculiar
incidents of cruelty on the part of the last lover in order to win the sympathy of those around
her.
Sinking below grief, one reaches apathy, wherein affinity is expressed by complete
withdrawal from person or people. There is, in apathy, no real attempt to contact one’s self
and no attempt to contact others. Here we have a null point of dissonance which is on the
threshold of death.
The auditor has a handy measuring stick with the affinity scale, since he can, by
observing the preclear, establish the position of the preclear on the chart. Further, by watching
preclear’s attitude toward people or groups he can see the improvement of the relations of the
preclear. With others and, he can see the gradual rise in tone of the case.
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CHAPTER NINE
Communication and Reality
The overall subject of communication covers far more than the exchange of intelligence.
Basically, communication could be called the science of perceptions. As general semantics is
organized on the subject of words and ideas; so can be organized, and so has been organized in
Dianetics, the entire subject of perception.
Everything which we know of the physical universe and, possibly, anything which we
can know of theta universe, allowing that it exists, could be said to be embraced by perception,
computation, and imagination.
By perception we mean the perceiving of entities or existences. We achieve what we
know of reality by perceiving entities and existences in the physical universe, and possibly the
theta universe, by combining these perceptions and computing or imagining results not in
disagreement with the results obtained by others.
The channels of our perception of the physical universe are twenty-six in number. The
most important of these are sonic, vision, tactile, olfactory, kinesthesia, thermal, joint position,
body position, moisture, organic perceptions, and, adding one more discovered in Dianetics,
perception of movement on the time track. It is with these that the auditor most vitally concerns
himself as it is through these that we learn the most of the physical universe.
With sonic we perceive, by mental mechanism, the sound waves of the physical
universe, and by comparison and experience, both genetic and environmental, interpret them.
With visio we perceive light waves, which, as sight, are compared with experience and
evaluated. By tactile we perceive the shape and texture of surfaces and compounds. With
olfactory perception we perceive the minute particles of matter which register as smell.
By kinesthesia we perceive motion through space and time.
By thermal we perceive temperature, hotness and coldness, and so can evaluate further
our current environment by comparing it to past environments. By perceiving joint position we
can measure space and the size of objects and know more about our physical situation. By
perceiving body position we sense our relationship with our immediate environment. Moisture
perception permits us to sense the dampness or dryness of the atmosphere and so judge further
our environment.
Through organic perceptions we perceive the states of our own bodies, internally.
These and other sense messages combine to make up a body of experience. Just how
much of this experience is genetic and how much of it is carried in the theta body, if that exists,
we cannot at this time accurately measure. In our environment, however, by the various sense
channels we gain experience and can act in the present-time environment or plan for the future.
It might be said that we have potentially a sensory reception mechanism for every type of sense
message which can be radiated or delivered to us from the physical universe, and from the theta
universe. Thus, we have hearing because there are sound waves which can be registered and
interpreted; we have sight because light waves exist to be registered; and so forth. A very
interesting paper could be prepared upon the probable evolution of our senses. Theta,
combining with MEST to make life, reaches out in its conquest of MEST, via the sense
perceptions, to exist within and control the environment and to some degree regulate the future
-- and, particularly in man, to adjust the environment to the organism, the species, or the race.
Just what theta-universe perceptics are is a subject at this time so diffuse that one cannot
even be sure there is a theta universe. Such manifestations as extra-sensory perception,
intuition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and others make up a body of quasi-knowledge which is
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normally relegated to the field of psychic phenomena. The existence of God and spiritual
manifestations could be classified as theta universe; contact with these would be considered a
use of theta perceptics. Oddly enough, in Dianetics considerable evidence, whether we wish it
or not, is accumulating in favor of not only a theta universe and a theta body but of theta
perceptics, as well.
This has proceeded far enough to contain some evidence that certain techniques of
application, already partially formed, exist by which the theta perceptics can be cleared, raising
the prediction potentiality of the individual, amongst other things. Judging solely on the
evidence at hand, one would say that more evidence existed in favor of the theta universe, the
theta body, and theta perceptics than existed to deny them. This evidence has accumulated to a
sufficient extent to cast extreme doubt on the “scientific” postulate that all man would ever
know was the physical universe.
Indeed, science was unable to resolve mental problems and forecast behavior and invent
better human technologies so long as it assumed that life and man rose from compounds and
clay of the physical universe, with no other ingredient. This line of reasoning led to no
advances in technology and, indeed, permitted the physical sciences to outstrip all knowledge
of human behavior. This would seem more or less inevitable, however, if one considered that
the primary mission of theta was to conquer the physical universe, at least insofar as the branch
of theta which ourselves is currently concerned. With such a mission, the physical would, of
course, become the best-known sphere of reality. Perhaps theta is now in a position where it
can understand more of itself. By this one does not urge upon the reader that Dianetics
concerns itself vitally at this time with psychic phenomena, but it is mentioned in passing that in
the course of investigation data continues to accumulate against the idea that man is a creature of
the physical universe alone.
The auditor, working case after case, cannot but run upon evidence strongly in favor of
a relatively timeless theta body existing as a personal identity, running parallel to the genetic
line of species; and if he ignores this he may bog down some of his cases. Specifically, I refer
to the continuing and growing volume of reports from auditors on the subject of past deaths
and past lives. This subject needs to be warily and thoroughly examined; but it remains that the
auditor who runs into a past death and does not reduce it properly by standard procedure will
find his case thoroughly bogged down; and, indeed, some cases cannot be run and will not
move on the time track until these factors are taken into consideration. Some of this data has
been known for two years, but a diffidence to comment upon it until the evidence was
overwhelming has suppressed and continues to suppress the knowledge.
As it develops, Dianetics more and more seems potentially able eventually to contact the
often-postulated but never thoroughly sensed, measured, and experienced human soul. The
subject of past deaths and past lives is so full of tension that as early as last July (1950 -- Ed.)
the board of trustees of the Foundation sought to pass a resolution banning the entire subject.
And I have been many times requested to omit any reference to these in the present work or in
public for fear that a general impression would get out that Dianetics had something to do with
spiritualism.
Further, the view has been many times expressed that in view of the fact that prenatals
are so “controversial” the introduction of past lives and past deaths into Dianetics, even as an
experimental investigation, would permit old schools of therapy to persist in their delusion that
all is delusion. This would hardly be a scientific way of handling a science. A true scientist
boldly and fearlessly reports that which he finds. A famous writer told me, a short time ago, a
story about Thomas Carlyle, who upon hearing that an American lady writer named Margaret
Fuller had said, “I accept the universe,” said only, “By God! she’d better!” The auditor who
runs his preclear down the track and suddenly finds the preclear possessed of strong somatics
and a visio of 1210 A.D. scenery had better reduce the incident as an engram. Failing to get a
proper reduction, the auditor had better ask for the incident necessary to resolve this weird
manifestation. If the auditor is dull indeed he will invalidate the incident to the preclear and pass
up running it, at which point his preclear will bog down.
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There are evidently three kinds of these experiences: (1) those which are dub-in and
which occur only in cases which dub in in the present life; (2) fantasies built upon reading and
imagination, but without somatics; and (3) what seem to be valid and real experiences. If this
data of past lives and past deaths in the theta body continues to stand up and becomes
susceptible to exacting proof, it certainly threatens to alter our culture radically. At the present
time all we can do is gather evidence. The Foundation would be glad to have any and all such
evidence which auditors may discover and care to submit. Never invalidate a past life of a past
death, and never fail to run such somatics as actual experiences: failure to observe this
enjoinder may seriously harm the case. I have given you this information because I do not
believe that helping the auditor to audit and helping cases to run can seriously hurt Dianetics.
To unburden a case to the point where the individual is a MEST clear it is only necessary to
work with the avenues of perception to the physical universe.
What we conceive to be reality is actually agreed upon perception of the physical
universe. There is an endless philosophic wrangle as to whether or not our perceptions
perceive anything, or whether or not our perceptions are merely an illusion themselves. True
enough, the physical universe can be reduced down to zero mathematically. Matter, energy,
space and time could be said to be the result of certain motions. The moment we go off into the
by-road of wondering whether the physical universe is real or not we come rapidly upon many
philosophic imponderables. What we know as reality, however, is an agreed-upon conception
of the physical universe in which we live. You and I agree that a table exists in the center of the
room; we can see it, and feel it, and when we rap it with our knuckles we can hear that
something is there. You and I have agreed upon the reality of the table, mainly because each of
us agrees that he perceives it via his senses. Should someone come up and say that not a table
but a black cat stood there, you and I would consider the man mad. Indeed, by a sort of natural
selection we remove such “madnesses” from our society. When someone is in disagreement
with the majority as to the sense perceptions of the physical universe, the first reaction of the
majority is to have this person pronounced mad and locked up. Locked up, he does not
procreate and so breaks the genetic line. This happens often enough to select out of the human
race those who do not agree on the nature of the physical universe via sense perceptions. Many
amusing and entertaining postulates can be formed on the subject of reality.
Certain it is that by communication -- by the group of sense perceptions which make up
communication -- we know reality. Our affinity with that reality -- our admission that we are a
part of that reality, and our acceptance of our participation in it -- is necessary to our
communication with it, and thus we have the triangle of Dianetics: affinity, reality, and
communication. One cannot stand without the other two. There cannot, for instance, be
communication and affinity alone; these two things would result in an agreement of some sort,
which agreement would be reality. If communication exists, some agreement can be reached,
and as soon as an agreement is reached between two people or by a man with himself, there is
some affinity. If affinity and reality exist, then a communication must ensue or must already
exist in order to act as a channel of expression and recognition of the agreement. An auditor,
knowing the trio -- affinity, reality, and communication -- can use any point of the triangle as a
point of attack in order to enhance the other two corners of the triangle. The overall subject of
communication, as we have seen, contains all avenues of sense perception: sonic, visio, tactile,
olfactory, and the rest. It includes, as well, the perception of too strong a contact with the
MEST universe -- pain, which is itself less directly, a form of communication. The receipt of
perceptions of the real universe and the purpose of theta come about as a computation.
Computation creates ideas concerning reality, and this creation of ideas leads to the type of
communication which is commonly and ordinarily classified as communication -- conversation,
messages, and other methods of exchange of ideas.
The auditor must appreciate the value of communication; since if his preclear cannot
communicate with his own past he cannot make an accurate adjudication of his own present and
he certainly cannot compute his own future. When a man is unable to contact the reality of the
present or appreciate it, and when he cannot compute his own future and act upon that
computation, that man is considered in varying degrees neurotic or psychotic. The auditor,
then, does well who knows this subject thoroughly.
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CHAPTER TEN
COLUMN H
Sonic
By the word sonic in Dianetics is usually meant sonic recall, rather than hearing sounds
outside the body. Sonic means hearing the sounds which have been remembered. Those sound
whichs the individual has heard in the past are all recorded, either in the analytical standard
memory bank or in the reactive bank. Those which were recorded in the analytical standard
memory bank are all available to the recall mechanisms of the individual -- to his “I.” Those
which have been recorded in the reactive bank have been received by the individual while he
was unconscious -- in a hypnotic state, while drugged, while delirious, while unconscious
from a severe injury, or even while unconscious momentarily because of a light injury. Such
perceptics as sonic were not thought, before Dianetics, to be recorded at all during a period of
unconsciousness. One of the basic discoveries of Dianetics was that these perceptics were
recorded during the periods of unconsciousness of an individual, and that this material was
available for recovery, and that this material, so recorded, had an aberrative effect on the
individual.
Whether the sound has been heard while the person was awake, or asleep, or
unconscious, that sound is available to the recall mechanism of I. The fantastic storage capacity
of the mind has no structural explanation at this time. But every sound, whether a voice, an
auto horn, the click of table ware, footsteps, the wind, every sound which the individual has
heard in his lifetime is recorded. Thus recorded, it is available to the “I” of the individual.
Dianetic technique sends the individual back through his life, and by the perceptics of sonic,
visio, and so forth, enables him to recover information which has been occluded from him.
There are very many gradations of the quality of sonic. A case on which there is much
grief and other types of charge may or may not have sonic recall. A case which is generally
occluded from one end of the track to the other may be so occluded by charge, valence trouble,
sonic command shut-offs or being stuck out of present time, that it has no sonic at all. This
condition may be so bad that it renders the individual unable to remember anything that has
been said even shortly after it has been uttered, as well as back along the time track. The
charge, valence troubles, and command shut-offs of sonic may be relatively light, under which
circumstances the individual will receive what are known as sonic impressions; he can get
impressions of the voice tones in which the words are being uttered, as he travels along the
track, but he does not hear the sounds clearly. The case may have, however, so little sonic
shut-off, valence trouble, and charge that clear sonic, just as it was heard in the first place, is
available as the person travels on the time track, as well as near present time.
Sonic shut-off may be quite selective: the individual may be able to hear sounds but not
voices; he may be able to hear an entire symphony orchestra and yet be unable to hear again
what his wife asked him to bring home for dinner. Selective shut-offs are caused both by
charge on the case and by selective sonic shut-off commands, such as “You cannot hear your
wife,” or “You pay no attention to me.”
A primary concern of the auditor is the turning on of sonic; therefore he must know
what turns it off. According to present theory, which works out relatively well in practice, the
most severe source of sonic shut-off is being stuck on the track: in that the individual cannot
move on the track, he cannot, of course, move through incidents and hear them. The next most
severe interference with sonic comes from valence shifters; the person’s identity is confused
with that of another person; he is not in his own valence, and he is off his own time track. The
next most severe source of sonic shut-off is the command phrase which says specifically “You
can’t hear anything,” “You never listen to a word I say,” “You have to keep still,” “I’m as deaf
as a post,” etc., etc. Sonic is additionally affected somewhat by grief and charge on the case,
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but not as much as might be expected, since cases which have enormous grief and charge on
them in general yet retain sonic recall in the absence of valence shifters.
The most severe sonic shut-off would be that caused by a combination of factors,
which would include not only being stuck on the track in an engram but also having the track
itself collapsed by groupers. There are cases which have fake sonic -- sonic dub-in. According
to theory, this dub-in is caused by demon circuits which is to say, heavily charged portions of
the analytical mind which have been captured by the reactive mind and do its bidding, walled-off
by charge into separate entities. These are very easy to spot, however, since dub-in sonic
usually is inane. Furthermore, when the individual with dub-in has gone through an incident
once, he cannot return through the incident with the same words. One should not regard a dub-in
recall case as something hard to detect; it is very simple, even for the beginner to detect dub-in,
since it will not repeat or bear repetition but alters markedly, and it is not particularly
sensible, and it does not run at all like an engram. The dub-in sonic case, after it has been
worked for a short time, can be expected to lose the dub-in, once the circuit causing it is
contacted or when the tone of the case rises. A non-sonic case results. This should not be
confused with a case which has sonic but which has experienced severe auditor code breaks,
has had engrams run partially but not reduced and has had groupers triggered so that the time
track is collapsed. The way to differentiate these is that the case which had dub-in that has
turned off will still run as easily and ably on the time track as formerly; from a non-sonic
condition, as valence shifters and sonic shut-off commands are run out of the case, sonic
impressions will become available, and then sonic itself should return. The subject of sonic
recall is one which requires an enormous amount of study before final adjudication can be made
by anyone as to its total ramifications. Experience in Dianetics has demonstrated that recalls in
general are very fully recovered by the clear, and this is true of sonic. As may be seen on the
chart, the gradient scale of sonic does not show it to be a phenomenon by which the position of
the preclear on the chart may be established, save only in the broadest sense. The clear, at the
top of the scale, has, ordinarily full sonic recall. But such may have been his aberrated
condition that over large areas of the track his analytical memory bank has received no adequate
or sharp recordings. From the moment a person is clear or nearly clear, on forward in his life,
he will have sonic recall; during his period of aberration, however, he may not have registered
sounds here and there on the track.
There is much misunderstanding about sonic and vision recalls in the state of clear.
These recalls are not eidetic in all cases, as photographic or phonographic recall are a matter of
training, and a person not trained into them will not necessarily register sights and sounds with
sufficient concentration to have all the material available for immediate recall. A very large
number of tests must be undertaken on the whole subject of recalls and a great number of cases
must be observed before we can clearly and scientifically evaluate recall potentials in every
individual when cleared. The recalls, however, are good in those cases so far observed but are
not necessarily eidetic. A person may have sonic recall of an accurate nature at any place on the
tone scale, providing the person can move freely on the track and is in valence. Ability to recall
in sonic is not an index of neurosis or psychosis. Sonic recall is affected by factors which, in
themselves, are not such an index. The amount of free theta available for analytical perception
and computation is itself actually the only index.
However, in the lower portions of the tone scale one ordinarily expects the reasonable
person not to have sonic recall or any other recall and one expects the true psychotic or neurotic
individual to have sonic recall. This has misled practitioners and authorities in the past into
believing that sonic recall was only to be found in idiots and morons, an entire falsity based on
limited observation.
The influencing mechanism on sonic recall is whether or not the mind has sufficient
power (structurally, most likely) to cut off and wall up charge and the general results of
engrams and still reserve a portion of the analyzer for free thought with the remaining free
theta. The psychotic or neurotic individual does not have the power to reserve for clear
thinking some portion of the analyzer, and so, when enturbulated by engrams but still in
valence, becomes analytically completely and wholly enturbulated, with no reserved portion of
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the analyzer not subject to that enturbulation. Where a person has a psychosomatic illness and
sonic recall one should expect to find a near-psychotic individual, the psychosomatic illnesses
telling of many engrams and the sonic recall stating that the analyzer has not the power to wall
up unhappy and painful memories. Where one finds psychosomatic illnesses and a sonic shut-off,
one may find a person who is potentially low on the tone scale but who yet has enough
free theta to respond on a high analytical level -- and yet who may perform in life in a very
aberrated fashion, for all this.
The thinking on this subject in the past has been entirely too short. The strange belief
has been held in the past that a great deal of aberration meant a
great deal of thrust and drive and, therefore, that an individual who was neurotic could
be expected to perform in the arts and in other directions more ably than a person who was
sane. This, by derivation and observation and much experience, is an outright fallacy. The
individual with a great deal of free theta is apt to be more robust than his fellows. He may or
may not have more engrams; but he tries, from his earliest days, to take in more area than his
fellows and to adjust his environment to him rather than follow the sheep-like course of trying
to adjust himself to the environment. He is, therefore, continually rebuffed, and his engrams
will gradually charge up, by the process of affinity, reality, and communication breaks, until he
responds rather neurotically to his environment. Such a person is, normally, rather thoroughly
shut off so far as sonic and visio are concerned. His theta, what is left of it in a free state,
operating in what small portion of his analyzer is still available, is still greater than the theta
available to the average human being. When we take this individual and dianetically process
him and turn the entheta into theta, he becomes more and more powerful and able to cope with
and adjust his environment. He will not have sonic and visio until he reaches a released or a
cleared state. Such individuals are difficult to process only because the mind has so expertly
walled itself in from the charge on the case. However, such an individual is very worthwhile to
process, since when the auditor has finished, or even if the auditor never does finish, one has
left a strong, creative asset to the society. The auditor who, because they seem easy, works
near-psychotic or psychotic cases which have sonic, may have when he is through an
individual who, no matter if structurally intelligent, is yet possessed of so little theta that his
worth to the society is small. These conclusions are highly generalized, but have been borne
out in a large number of cases.
Cases exist in which the individual is so unaberrated that, though he is endowed with
enough free theta to make him a tremendous asset to the society, he still has sonic and visio,
being already at the 3.5 range on the tone scale. It is far from true that a person, to be of worth
to the society, must be highly aberrated and must have his recalls cut off; since in such an
aberrated state he is likely to be so low on the tone scale that his positive worth to the society,
which would be realized were he at 3.0 on the tone scale or above, becomes a liability, and his
aberrations violently affect his environment and bring about his destruction. Such persons are
the dictators who lead their countries to ruin through war; the artists who, through their
grossness and vulgarity, destroy the more’s of a race, and so destroy the race.
What the auditor should know, principally, about sonic recall is that it makes a case
easier to run, and that a case without it, properly processed, will eventually pick it up. The
auditor should never despair of sonic recall shut-off cases; impressions will get stronger; and
sonic recall will eventually turn on. But the individual has to be very high on the tone scale
before he regains sonic, if he began with complete shutoffs. Further, there is a technique,
which sometimes turns on sonic, known as running pleasure moments.
Pleasure moments can be run on a case just as the auditor runs engrams, going through
the moment over and over again. Attention units are attracted to the pleasure moment, since it
is one of the missions of the mind to attain happiness and pleasure along the various dynamics.
By returning the preclear to a moment of pleasure and running that moment, the auditor will be
able to regain a few attention units out of areas of enturbulence; this will make it a little easier
for the preclear to move on the track, and in so moving he may pick up sonic recall. In any
event, the running of pleasure moments is highly beneficial to a case.
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The running of future pleasure moments sometimes tunes up the perceptics. These are
actually imaginary incidents, so far as can be told. The tone of the individual goes up when
running moments of pleasure, and so when moments of pleasure in the future are imagined, the
tone of any individual may be expected to rise.
Affinity breaks often depress sonic; so that a preclear who has sonic on Monday and a
quarrel with his sweetheart on Tuesday, may be found to have much less sonic recall on
Wednesday. Further, when the sonic recall of an individual is invalidated, his reality is
depressed, so the recall reduces. ARC locks and secondaries markedly influence sonic or any
other type of recall. Heightened affinity, reality, and communication may, by themselves, turn
on sonic.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
COLUMN I
Visio
Recalling a scene by seeing it again is called, in Dianetics, visio, by which is meant
visual recall.
There are two kinds of visio which the individual may encounter. One is imaginary
visio, by which is meant the scenery imagination constructs. The other is actual visio, by
which is meant recall of actual and authentic scenes. In dianetic terminology, visio usually
means valid recall of past scenes; the word dub-in is used to characterize visio which is
imaginary.
Visio may occur in present time, of past scenes, which would be the process of visually
remembering. Or it may occur as the preclear is returned on the track, seeing again in recall
scenes which he has recorded in his past. Dub-in visio may work in much the same way.
Possibly the most exact borderline between sanity and insanity would be that between
knowing that one was imagining what had happened and not knowing that one was imagining.
All recalls can become short-circuited through the imagination, so that the “I” is led to believe
that it is recalling an actuality when really it is having furnished to it from the memory banks an
imaginary sequence. When ARC is very low on a case, usually below the 2.0 range, the
condition obtains with the case that many of his recalls, no matter how authentic “I” considers
them, are imaginary. As an example of this, consider the person in an anger state who is
recounting a conversation or a quarrel he has had. People who are angry almost never tell the
truth. People who have sunk to the covert hostility range become so confused between reality
and imagination that even their small talk is utterly untrustworthy, and yet these people may
believe they are telling the truth. This is a case of recall being short-circuited through the
imagination and “I” being furnished imaginary data which is yet labelled as authentic data.
Possibly the most flagrant breach of truth occurs in the apathy range or slightly above it, where
fear, mingled with grief can cause the wildest perversion of recall.
The best example of dub-in visio would be the scenery which the preclear gets when he
is returned on the track into the prenatal area. He may get very clear and active, but
exteriorized, pictures of the scenery around his mother -- which views and scenes are entirely
false and are not to be attributed by the auditor to extra-sensory perception. They denote a 1.3
to 1.0 position on the tone scale. Circuitry, about which much will be said later, is the cause of
this visio. When the case has been unburdened of many secondary engrams this visio will
cease, and the actual visio of the pre-natal will take its place. Actual pre-natal visio, of course,
is black, except at such times when a light may be entered into the area for surgical purposes, at
which times the light is sometimes recorded. A person who is found to be on the tone scale
between 1.5 and 0.5 should not be expected to have accurate visio -- or any visio at all, as in
the occluded case.
Visio and all other recalls follow the same pattern as sonic, and in considering any recall
the data which is given on sonic may be used interchangeably.
In the 4.0 range the individual, when in present time, sees what he remembers, and
when returned on the track, gets accurate and clear pictures of the scenery just as he saw it
when he was looking at it. He is inside himself which is to say, in valence, and does not get a
view of himself as a part of the scenery. The condition normally obtains down to the 3.0 band.
Here we begin to get occlusions and exteriorizations in areas which contain highly-charged
engrams which themselves contain command phrases that shift the person out of his own
valence, such as “I can’t be myself around you,” etc. Around 3.0 the person is, in most cases,
on the track; he can get visio on pleasure moments, and he is able to be inside himself except
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when in secondary engrams. Around 2.5 the occlusion becomes marked. Large areas of the
track may be missing because of charge and valence-shifter engrams.
From 4.0 down to 2.0 it is relatively easy to run out occluded areas and discharge
secondaries so that visio returns easily. Below 2.0 the auditor begins to get into trouble and
must use a great deal of patience with his preclear, because the visio may be either absent or
exteriorized. The auditor, when working such a case, should be very careful at all times never
to call any of these oddities to the preclear’s attention, as this would be an invalidation of the
preclear and would do him much damage. The trouble with a preclear from 2.5 down is that
life has invalidated him too often. When the auditor, who is attempting to maintain high ARC
with the preclear, seems to rank himself with those factors in life which have already
suppressed and hurt the preclear, what little visio has survived may very easily fold up, so that
the auditor causes himself a great deal of work in rehabilitating the ARC and getting the visio or
other recalls back.
Around the anger band we begin to enter the potentially psychotic area. This does not
mean that a person who is at 2.0 is a psychotic. It means that when the free theta of the
individual enturbulates momentarily, he finds himself easily along the 2.0 band, and that he
conducts himself generally, in his reactions toward life, along this band. It is possible for a
case to be in valence all the way down the track and to get good, moving visios and still be in
the 2.0, 1.5, 1.1 band, and be thoroughly psychotic. Here again we have an individual whose
structural mechanisms are insufficient to bar out existing charge on the case; thus the person’s
theta is continually and entirely enturbulated, having no free portion of the analyzer in which to
operate. His theta is always under the influence of the charge on the case because he has made
for it no protecting partitions. By partition, compartmentation, and occlusion are not meant
valence walls; these are something else. The valence wall can actually exist in the individual to
a point where he can be either one of two persons, himself and another person. In the very
highly-charged case, in the case of the obvious psychotic, these valence walls are so well
defined that the auditor can almost watch the person click from one valence to another. The
schizophrenic of psychiatry -- the person who shifts from one identity to another -- is called in
Dianetics a valence case. And when these valence walls are so well defined that a whole new
personality emerges with the shift, we have a person, of course, below the 2.0 band. Such
people ordinarily “run” (undergo processing) in Dianetics quite noisily and are called
screamers. The visio of such people is normally present for the valence in which the preclear is
at the moment. If he is in father’s valence, he will get the same view of the scenery that father
would get. Or he may be in mother’s valence, in which case he would have a view of the scene
just as mother would see it. Or he may be in a synthetic valence, the valence of no actual
person, which might give him a view of the scene looking down from the ceiling. Such cases
almost never have their own point of view.
Even valence walls are a sort of protective mechanism by which the charge of the case
is compartmented to permit the individual to work at least some of the time. The truly low
power individual merely continues to accumulate charge until he is suppressed to the near
bottom of the scale without ever developing a mechanism to overcome the charge. As far as his
recalls are concerned, he is continually in his own valence.
Just as in sonic, visio manifests itself all the way down to the bottom of the case when
the mental structure is insufficient to compartment off for the use of “I”, any portion of the
analyzer.
Dub-in visio actually has two subdivisions: (1) where the actual scenery is
approximated, and (2) where entirely new scenery is substituted. The first is caused by valence
shifts; the visio the person gets of the scene when he is being acted upon by a valence shifter,
highly charged up as in any secondary engram, is exteriorized -- which is to say, he sees
himself as part of the scene; he may be in the valence of another person, or he may be merely
out in the blue, looking at the scene. When the charge is run off of this particular scene by
repeating it over several times (providing any release takes place in the first four or five
recountings) the engram on which this secondary is depending and which, of necessity if it
creates such an illusion, must contain a valence shifter command, loses some of its charge, and
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the individual is then able to get inside himself and get a view of the scene as he saw it at the
time. Any engram in which the preclear is exteriorized cannot be fully discharged until the visio
is restored to the scene as it was viewed by the preclear. In other words, if the preclear
continues to be exteriorized, the whole charge is not off the engram. However, if any charge at
all can be gotten off a secondary, the auditor should run it to exhaust all possible charge.
If visio persists in being exteriorized in spite of many runnings of the incident, there is
usually later charge on the case, a later secondary which has to be tapped and discharged first;
since physical pain runs from early to late, and secondaries have to be discharged from late
back to early.
Imaginary exteriorizations are most chronic around 1.1. In such cases the auditor may
sometimes use the mechanism of running the preclear on somebody else’s track, which is to
say, on father’s track or mother’s track or grandfather’s track, in order to contact scenes. In
such cases it is as if the person’s track had been swallowed up, leaving available only the tracks
of other valences around the individual. This mechanism is of very limited use. In any apathy
secondary the preclear may commonly be found to be outside himself until the charge is off the
incident, at which time he becomes interiorized. There is always a valence shifter somewhere
in a physical pain engram which creates this illusion. Charge itself will not cause a person to
be exteriorized, as evidenced by people who have highly charged tracks and who yet remain in
valence all the way to the bottom of the scale.
In the very occluded case, visio is the most notably absent thing. The preclear may
think that visio is necessary for him to scan locks; but this is not true. He can scan through
locks “in the dark,” with no visio whatever, and yet bring to his consciousness phrases or
incidents which can be run. The auditor must not make the mistake of believing that visio is
necessary for the individual to move on his track.
Very little is known of the reasons for visio, and no large body of observation exists to
determine the state of visio in all persons that have been cleared of their engrams. This much
has been observed, however, that visio does return in a clear; and any effort to palm off as a
clear an individual who does not have an interiorized visio on his track is a dishonest one.
Most children have visio, for the simple reason that their engrams are not yet charged
up to a point where secondaries can be formed and so occlude visio or thrust the child out of
valence. In a case which has many valence shifters, affinity, reality and communication
secondaries will bring about a chronic exteriorized visio. In a case which has an analyzer
sufficiently able to block off charge, visio starts to disappear in the presence of repeated
secondaries. After a major ARC break, such as the loss of a sweetheart, visio may cut out, in
such a case, entirely. Also, in the case of an individual who is stuck in a prenatal engram, visio
is blocked off by the simple fact that the prenatal visio of black is present through all of his
memories. He is not, of course, moving on the track, and so cannot pick up the scenery of any
incidents but those in which he is stuck.
Visio is not a good test of the tone level of a case except in the generality that when
visio is present and accurate, and other columns on the tone scale agree, the person can be said
to be above the 2.0 line. But in view of the fact that visio can exist all the way down the track,
such a test must be considered only cursory.
Note: Discussion of reactive exteriorization phenomena as found here should not be confused
with exteriorization as a theta activity, which is covered in Scientology 8-8008 (1953) by L.
Ron Hubbard, and later works.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
COLUMN J
Somatics
The word somatic means, actually, bodily or Physical. Because the word pain is
restimulative, and because the word pain has in the past led to a confusion between physical
pain and mental pain, the word somatic is used in Dianetics to denote physical pain or
discomfort of any kind. It can mean actual pain, such as that caused by a cut or a blow; or it
can mean discomfort, as from heat or cold; it can mean itching -- in short, anything physically
uncomfortable. It does not include mental discomfort such as grief. Hard breathing would not
be a somatic; it would be a symptom of misemotion suppression. Somatic means a non-survival
physical state of being. It is distinguished, on the one hand, from a nonsurvival
mental state of being and, on the other hand, from a physical action or pro-survival perceptic,
such as kinesthesia or tactile, or visio.
An engram has several component parts: the two main components, of course, are
entheta and enMEST. Free theta has come into collision with MEST, with resultant
enturbulation. In a living organism, the enMEST component would be the manifested somatic.
The chief difference between the analytical and reactive minds, aside from their
functions, is that the reactive mind registers pain, and the analytical mind merely records the
fact that pain exists. This gives the reactive mind an additional perceptic; this perceptic is called
a somatic.
In the presence of any physical pain the analyzer goes off. Even if the pain is very mild
and brief there is still a moment of analytical shut-off. In Dianetics this is called anaten, an
engineering type of abbreviation for “analytical attenuation.” The anaten buries the somatic,
and, unfortunately, buries with it all the perceptics present when the somatic was received. It
may be difficult to realize that anaten is present with every somatic, until one has mildly injured
his finger, for example, and has gone back over the incident a few times. He will discover that
there was an incident during the injury which became occluded because of anaten; and by
running the incident two or three times, he will find some additional perceptics which he may
not before have noted. Thus the somatic is buried by this mechanism of anaten. This is a
workable mechanism in a life organism which is not analytically capable of recovering pain and
running it out; but it is not workable in a rational organism possessed of considerable analytical
power, since the perceptics of the painful moment can then react back against the analytical
power, and the organism is then victimized by its somatics rather than trained into the
avoidance of danger by the avoidance of pain-the evident primary use of somatics. A severe
physical pain causes considerable analytical attenuation, shutting off the analyzer thoroughly
for a period of time. This, technically, is an engram, although any incident, painful or not,
contained in the reactive mind and occluded by anaten can be considered an engram.
Once an engram exists, analytical experiences can restimulate it by approximating its
perceptics or breaking the dramatization demanded by the engram. These analytical moments
are called locks, and they charge up the engram. There are, technically speaking, two types of
such locks: those which merely restimulate the engram, which is then dramatized by the
individual; and those which break the dramatization. The first type are not as severe as the
second type; since the second type, by making it impossible for the individual to obey the
“mandates” of the engrams, cause the physical pain to turn on, and the individual gets what has
been known as a psychosomatic illness.
A psychosomatic illness, according to dianetic findings, is the somatic side of the
engram, turned on by continual suppression of the dramatization. Thus, in Dianetics,
psychosomatic illnesses are not regarded as such but are called chronic somatics, since they
disappear once the engram and its locks are discharged from the case.
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Another manifestation than anaten occurs with regard to a physical pain. The somatic
enturbulates theta, and if the analytical incident which forms a lock on this engram contains
considerable misemotion, as caused by fear or loss, the presence of the physical pain earlier in
the bank makes it possible for a secondary engram to be formed. Misemotion is actually a
conversion of physical pain, according to dianetic findings. There is much more that could be
discovered about this mechanism or conversion of physical pain to, for instance, terror or grief
or apathy; and the discovery probably lies in the field of further examination and understanding
of free theta; but it is certain that secondary engrams, with their misemotion, occlude somatics.
When the misemotion is discharged, the engram itself then becomes available.
Indeed, so intimate is the relationship between misemotion and physical pain, that the
case is run by “layers.” One may discover, early in the case, many physical pain engrams
which easily discharge when recounted. This brings to light a long series of secondary
engrams, later in the case. One is unable to find any further physical pain engrams until one
has discharged these secondaries of their fear, grief and apathy. Having done this, the auditor
will find that he has a new series of physical pain engrams available for running.
A somatic, then, may be said to be buried beneath anaten and beneath misemotion or
secondary engrams. Thus, somatics in a case can be seen to “hide.”
Somatics can be turned on by dianetic auditing only when the anaten and the
misemotion are not too heavy for the particular somatic the auditor is trying to reach. A very
heavily charged case (by which is meant a case with a very heavy burden of secondaries) may
be found to have no somatics available for auditing. A very occluded case, in which the mind
has compartmented off charge, will also have blocked off the majority of the somatics.
The case which is stuck thoroughly on the time track may have in constant restimulation
the somatic which was present at the moment he received the engram in which he is stuck. The
characteristic of the psychotic is that the entheta side of the engram is in constant action and that
the somatic side of the engram is not particularly active.
The case which was formerly referred to as the psychosomatically ill case would be said
to be one in which the entheta side of the engram is suppressed and the somatic side of the
engram is in restimulation. These chronic somatic cases are usually found to be cases which
have been subjected throughout life to breaking of each and every dramatization, cases, in other
words, which have been denied the MEST control irrationally directed by the engrams, as well
as the MEST control rationally directed by theta. The tone scale of somatics could begin, at the
top, with the MEST clear at 4.0, who would have no somatics left to be run. This is the
technical definition of the MEST clear, that each and every incidence that contained physical
pain, during his entire lifetime from conception forward to the present time, has been erased,
thus freeing the theta which has been held as entheta in the bank by freeing the body of pain or
potential pain. This does not mean, by the way, that the clear cannot receive new pain and new
engrams. It does mean that new incidents of pain will have much less effect on him than they
would were he not a clear; and he can ordinarily run out such incidents by himself unless he
has been from the start a very low theta-power individual.
In the 3.5, 3.0, and 2.5 bands, somatics are sharp and readily available to the auditor.
Almost any engram on the case can be run, providing the basic on its chain and other preceding
engrams have been erased before it. Slightly over 2.0, engrams begin to be suppressed by
charge and anaten on the case.
In a heavily occluded case, who is yet in the 2.0 band, somatics may all but be absent.
In a less occluded case in the 2.0 band somatics may be very light. In a case which is in
valence, and yet in the 2.0 band, and which can move on the track, somatics are available and
can be run.
Around 1.1, the heavily occluded case will have no somatics available. The auditor
must here work solely for the discharge of locks and secondaries before he can find somatics
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on the case. in the less occluded case, however, some extremely light somatics will be found
available. And in the un-occluded case, which is yet at 1.1, somatics will be found to be light,
and, again, will not discharge adequately until locks and secondaries are run.
At the 0.5 level, somatics in the occluded case, the partially occluded case, or the wide
open case will be found to be so light as to be practically non-existent, according to usual
experience.
Below this level somatics do not exist at all.
The auditor should very thoroughly recognize somatics for what they are -the physical
pain of past injuries. He should recognize, further, that it is the somatic, in the first place,
which makes locks and secondaries possible. And he must further realize that somatics are
buried beneath anaten and misemotion, when these are present. He must not believe, however,
that just because somatics make locks and secondaries possible, his primary mission is to run
somatics off the case, but where somatics are not easily available he must be very chary of
trying to find them, and should devote himself to locks and secondaries rather than somatics.
He will discover that by discharging locks and secondaries he can very often relieve what have
been called psychosomatic illnesses.
Running somatics is the act of putting the case into permanent good shape. Running
locks and secondaries is a much more rapid way of raising the tone of the case; however, that
tone can fall again so long as engrams remain. It is theoretically possible to bring a case up to
3.0 or 3.5 without ever running a somatic; but this is not possible in common experience, and
one has to run physical pain engrams when they offer themselves, save in those cases where so
little free theta is available that by running a somatic the remaining free theta may become
enturbulated and involved with the engram, forming a new lock in auditing. Such an act can
take the borderline psychotic down into the psychotic band. This is prevented by addressing
locks and secondaries on the borderline case, rather than somatics. The auditor should not try
for specific somatics in the case in the hope of relieving chronic illnesses. He can best address
a specific chronic somatic by running locks and secondaries involved with that somatic.
Merely by running the preclear through various parts of his life, up and down the track,
the auditor may relieve enough anaten and misemotion from the case to permit somatics to
occur. This was once upon a time known as “greasing the track.” However one should not run
a preclear into a somatic unless one intends to reduce it or to discover the basic on the chain and
reduce that. Once somatics are contacted they must be reduced; if they do not easily reduce on
a few recountings, an earlier engram or a chain of locks or a secondary should be found which
inhibits the somatic from reducing.
It is the somatic which predisposes a case to illness. An old physical pain in an area of
the body weakens that area, to the extent that there is a remembered injury in it; body fluids
approach the area with caution. When that old injury is restimulated, the approach of body
fluids is inhibited even more, and so the area is denied, more and more, the nourishment,
support, repair, and protection which the general flow of fluids in the body is designed to bring
about. Bacteria are then able to enter the area and maintain themselves, and an illness can
result, according to theory and according to what has been observed while working with
Dianetics on many people. If the somatic in the area is heavy, the presence of bacteria may
further restimulate it, and so the illness is perpetuated and becomes a chronic infection. In the
case of a simple pain -- known to doctors as “strange, bizarre pains” -- or of rheumatoid
arthritis, it may only be that the somatic itself is restimulated, and the reduction of the somatic is
often attended by the sudden loss of the psychosomatic illness. This is not to make the claim
that removing the somatic cures a psychosomatic illness: such a claim is specifically forbidden
by law, as applied to past healing arts. Clinical experience, however, law or no law,
demonstrates this to be a workable theory in practice. Any law which would seek to force
people to remain ill when they might be well would be an evil law. Furthermore, the laws of
man have never been able to do much to suppress the laws of God.
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
COLUMN K
Speech, Talks
Speech, Listens
Probably the most accurate index for the auditor of the preclear’s position on the tone
scale is speech. Here is a generalized manifestation of perceptic communication.
Engrams can induce, by specific command, too much talking, too little talking, too
much listening to other people, or too little listening. Throughout the chart there is this liability
that the individual is operating upon compulsive or obsessive commands regarding one or more
of the columns. The average position on the columns is the most important. A manic, telling a
person to talk continuously, or a suppressive engram, requiring a person to do nothing but
listen, will produce such behavior; but unless a person talks openly and listens receptively he
cannot be considered very high on the tone scale. There are double boxes in the speech column:
one set referring to talking, the other to listening. It may not have occurred to some people that
communication is both outgo and income. An observation of how a person both listens and
talks will make it possible to form an opinion as to whether or not the person is operating on an
engramic command either about listening or about talking: because usually one or the other,
talking to or listening, will be an accurate indication of his position on the tone scale. A person
who is not operating on engramic commands which deny or enforce either talking or listening,
will talk and listen more or less equally. Mind operation being what it is, as a person drops
lower and lower on the tone scale his affinity potential, his reality potential, and his
communication potential also drop. Thus, by entirely mechanical means, we get reduction of
visio, sonic, somatic recall, all other perceptics, and talking and listening. The highest level of
the scale contains the faculty of communicating completely and withholding nothing; also the
ability to communicate with complete rational selectivity, also the ability to be conversationally
creative and constructive.
At this high level of the scale, the individual is able to listen to everything which is said
and evaluate it rationally. He can listen to entheta communications without becoming severely
enturbulated. He can receive ideas without making critical or derogatory comments. And,
while receiving another person’s ideas, he can greatly aid that person’s thinking and talking.
At the level of 3.5, the individual is capable of communicating deeply-felt beliefs and
ideas to others and can communicate with others selectively, which is to say, he can cut off
entheta lines, and hold back or give forth conversation according to the rational or pleasant
circumstances of the moment. The individual at this level can listen without becoming critical
and can aid and assist others in conversation, but he is apt to become enturbulated slightly if
given entheta conversation.
Between 3.5 and 3.0, the ability of a person to talk to others decreases to a tentative
expression of a limited number of beliefs and ideals and borders on the conservative. He may
have a very conservative reaction toward people who have highly creative and constructive
ideas. He is critical of flagrant irrationalities. In other words, from 3.5 down to 3.0 we are in
a band where injury from life has created a defensiveness on the part of the individual.
At 3.0, the speech of the individual becomes more casual and reserved. Here is the
level of small talk, about weather and good roads. At this level the individual has a resistance
toward ideas which are too massive. An analytical fear is expressed here of being not quite at
ease. At 2.5, we have the level of indifference to conversation with others, a “let’s not argue
about it” attitude, a dismissal of communication, a carelessness as to whether one’s
conversation is being received or is even understandable. Between 2.5 and 2.0 we have a level
where communication from other people is refused, and where one does not like to talk.
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At 2.0 we reach a level of antagonistic conversation. The individual is apt to nag or to
make derogatory comments to invalidate other people. On this level the individual can only be
roused by nagging, nasty cracks, invalidations, and other antagonistic communication.
At the 1.5 tone level, we have a shutting off of other persons’ conversation, a complete
refusal to listen, and efforts to destroy incoming conversation. The conversation which is
given forth by an individual at this level is forthrightly destructive and is given without any
thought of the possible retaliation which may result from this destructiveness. Conversation on
this level could hardly be called conversation, as it is a forward motion toward destruction and
a refusal to accept anything which might prevent that destruction.
Below this level, before we reach 1.1, the individual sinks into stubborn silence, sulks,
refuses to talk. He will not listen to any communication of any kind from other people, except
that which encourages him in his attitude. At 1.1, we have lying, to avoid real communication.
It takes the form of pretended agreement, flattery, or verbal appeasement, or simply a false
picture of the person’s feelings and ideas, a false facade, an artificial personality. Here is the
level of covert hostility, the most dangerous and wicked level on the tone scale. Here is the
person who smiles while he inserts a knife blade between your vertebrae. Here is the person
who tells you he has stood up for you, when actually he has practically destroyed your
reputation.
Here is the insincere flatterer who yet awaits only a moment of unguardedness to
destroy. The conversation of this level is filled with small barbs which are immediately
afterwards justified as intended compliments. Talking with such a person is the maddening
procedure of boxing with a shadow: one realizes that something is wrong, but the guardedness
of a 1.1 will not admit anything wrong, even as, all the while, he does his best to upset and
wreak havoc. This is the level of the pervert, the hypocrite, the turncoat.
This is the level of the subversive. From such a person one should never expect an
outright frontal attack; the attack will come when one is absent when one’s back is turned, or
when one sleeps. Any luckless person married to a 1.1 is, literally speaking, in danger of his
life and sanity; for such a person is incapable of any real affection; such a person is so
introverted that any demonstrated affection is a hectic sham. Such a person will
opportunistically take any avenue which leads to his own security and will leave in the lurch
anyone he has pretended to call his friend.
A 1.1 is the most dangerously insane person in society, and is likely to cause the most
damage. Because of the covert nature of this insanity, it is completely beside the point whether
such a person is pronounced insane by any agency. On this level there is no concept of honor,
decency or ethics; there is only desperate, death-bent thought of self and of damage to others.
Society can handle the angry man; it knows what to expect from him. Society can handle the
apathy case; his insanity is obvious.
But the 1.1 is a skulking coward who yet contains enough perfidious energy to strike
back, but not enough courage ever to give warning. Such people should be taken from the
society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the
contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics; here is the fodder which secret police
organizations use for their filthy operations. One of the most effective measures of security that
a nation threatened by war could take would be rounding up and placing in a cantonment, away
from society, any 1.1 individual who might be connected with government, the military, or
essential industry; since here are people who, regardless of any record of their family’s loyalty,
are potential traitors, the very mode of operation of their insanity being betrayal. In this level is
the slime of society, the sex criminals, the political subversives, the people whose apparently
rational activities are yet but the devious writhings of secret hate. A 1.1 can be accurately
spotted by his conversation; since he seeks only to enturbulate those around him, to upset them
by his conversation, to destroy them without their ever being aware of his purpose. He listens
only to data which will serve him in his enturbulations. Here is the gossip, here is the
unfaithful wife, here is the card cheat; here is the most undesirable stratum of any social order.
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No social order which desires to survive dares overlook its stratum of 1.1’s. No social order
will survive which does not remove these people from its midst.
The 1.1 is so low on the tone scale and yet so active mentally, as a rule, that he is very
difficult to process. The longest and most arduous course of therapy may still leave the auditor
baffled by a mind which is so full of circuits that no real desire for improvement on the part of
the preclear can make itself felt. The auditor may feel that only an offer of an obvious present-time
advantage, like being let out of confinement, would tempt this preclear into genuine
cooperation. The auditor may feel that this case is just not salvageable. But if, in the case, the
auditor can manage to remove some of the circuits or destimulate them he may be able to make
progress. It takes a very clever Dianetician to do anything with a chronic, computational 1.1.
The 0.5 talks dolefully and hopelessly in terms of bad things which are happening and
will happen and for which there is no remedy. He listens only to such conversation. He cannot
be heartened or cheered up but will slump immediately into his apathy. Here is hopelessness.
At 0.1, we have an inability to talk, and an individual who is completely unresponsive to
conversation.
It is interesting to note that the auditor can, with this column conduct what we call a
“two-minute psychometry” on the preclear. The trick is simply to start talking to the preclear at
the highest possible tone level, creatively and constructively, and then gradually drop the tone
of one’s conversation down to the point where it achieves response from the preclear. An
individual best responds to his own tone band; and an individual can be lifted only about half a
point on the tone scale by conversation. In doing this type of “psychometry” one should not
carry any particular band of conversation too long, not more than a sentence or two, because
this will have a tendency to raise slightly the tone of the preclear and so spoil the accuracy of
the test.
Two-minute psychometry, then, is done, first, by announcing something creative and
constructive and seeing whether the preclear responds in kind, then, giving forth some casual
conversation, perhaps about sports, and seeing if the preclear responds to that. Getting no
response the auditor starts talking antagonistically about things about which the preclear knows
-- but not, of course, about the preclear -- to see if he achieves a response at this point. The
auditor may then give forth with a sentence or two of anger against some condition. Then the
auditor can indulge in a small amount of discreditable gossip, and see if there is any response to
that. If this does not work, then the auditor dredges up some statements of hopelessness and
misery. Somewhere in this range the preclear will agree with the type of conversation that is
being offered -- that is, he will respond to it in kind. A conversation can then be carried on
along this band where the preclear has been discovered, and the auditor will rapidly gain
enough information to make a good first estimate of the preclear’s position on the chart.
This two-minute psychometry by conversation can also be applied to groups. That
speaker who desires to command his audience must not talk above or below his audience’s tone
more than half a point. If he wishes to lift the audience’s tone, he should talk about half a point
above their general tone level. An expert speaker, using this two-minute psychometry and
carefully noting the responses of his audience, can, in two minutes, discover the tone of the
audience -- whereupon, all he has to do is adopt a tone slightly above theirs. In Italy and
Germany, where an entire people were at the level of 1.0 or slightly below, two death talkers,
Mussolini and Hitler, were received by great crowds with wild enthusiasm. A powerful saint
could have come forth and talked to these people in the most creative and constructive terms
and would have had no response from them at all. This phenomenon has led historians to
believe erroneously that individuals were created by the moment and that the moment was not
created by the individual. Some instinct prompted these extinct leaders of Europe to seek and
find the point on the tone scale at which they could most rapidly seize the attention of their
audiences. It so happens that anyone in the 1.5 band will bring about disaster regardless of his
stated intentions. A death talker can bring an entire people up to anger and hold them there long
enough to destroy them, as did Mussolini and Hitler during the second phase of World War I.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
COLUMN L
Subject’s Handling of Written or Spoken
Communication when Acting as a Relay Point
As in speech, it is a mechanical fact that a person at a certain position on the tone scale
tends, unless affected by engrams specifically demanding different action, to follow a definite
pattern in handling messages when acting as a relay point.
This is mentioned here partly because it is important to organizations, but mostly
because it is a good diagnostic point for the auditor. What does the subject do with letters he is
given? Does he answer them, or does he put them away? When you give him a message to
give to somebody else, does that other person receive the message which you wanted him to
receive, or is it twisted or altered in some way, or is it not delivered at all?
The handling of messages approximates the ability of the individual to contact his own
standard memory bank -- which is to say, he will handle in the external world various
communications from one person to another just as his own circuits handle information
between his standard memory bank and himself. At the highest level of the tone scale we have
complete communication, and at the lowest level we have no communication at all.
At 4.0, the individual passes communications freely, contributes to them, normally, and
rather tends to cut entheta communications -- which is to say, lines he knows are vicious or
slanderous he is not likely to assist.
At 3.5, the individual passes communications, but resents and hits back at entheta lines
-- by “line,” of course, is meant communication line, which is any sequence through which a
message of any character may go.
At 3.0, we begin to get a breakdown of the communication line on which our individual
is acting as a relay point, because an individual at this level is likely to be slightly suspicious of
4.0 construction and creation and is likely to tone down the message considerably. Here we
have conservatism; and conservative communications are most rapidly relayed at this level.
Here the individual does not readily lend himself to either an entheta line or to a heavy theta
line.
At 2.5, the individual devaluates emergencies. He is not likely to believe a very highly
constructive message or a destructive message. He handles communications above or below his
level poorly, but passes communications which are at the boredom range.
An individual at 2.0 deals mostly in hostile or threatening communications. He lets only
a small number of constructive communications go through, tends to select out theta
communications, and tends to pass entheta communications -- which is to say he will make
himself a party to slander but will not make himself a party to high endeavor unless it happens
to fit his own antagonistic purposes. Here we have a very poor relay point but one which,
when pressed, will function.
At 1.5 we run into a relay point level which is a dangerous one in any organization, or
nation, or family, since here all good, constructive, theta communications are stopped or
perverted in some way. Suspiciousness and other entheta elements are added to the
communication before it is sent through. This level favors and most readily passes angry
communications which will cause destruction. Giving a communication to such a person to
give to someone else will most certainly bring about different results than one intended, when
that communication has been relayed.
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At around 1.3, all theta communications are cut, and malicious communications are
most readily relayed. Communications that are passed are twisted and perverted.
Around 0.9, we have an individual who tends to cut communication lines and who, on
one pretext or another, will not relay communications. At this level we have the individual who
specializes in secret communications and is apt to give the classification of secret or confidential
to the most banal matters.
At 0.5, the individual takes very little heed of communications. He cannot see the
necessity of passing anything to anybody -- it’s “hopeless” anyway, and so there is “no point
in doing anything about it.” At 0.1, of course, the individual is unaware of communications of
any kind and so does not relay them.
This subject is much more exhaustively covered in the field of Group Dianetics, since it
applies, with enormous importance, to the conduct of business, governments, armies, and
other organizations. One might safely say that ninety-five percent of an executive’s trouble is
with communication lines. This index on the tone scale will give him some idea of what to
expect from certain of his subordinates. If any executive is surrounded by individuals who will
not pass communications or who pervert communications, he can be very certain of trouble in
the organization, caused by this point alone.
The auditor can establish his preclear’s position on the tone scale by observations and
inquiries about his preclear’s handling of written and spoken communications when acting as a
relay point. He may best do this by giving the preclear a message to relay to someone else, in
order to see what happens to that message -- the preclear, of course, thinking not that this is a
test, but that it is a sincere effort to relay a communication.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
COLUMN M
Reality
(Agreement)
As has been said in earlier chapters of this book, the quality known as reality exists, so
far as we know, mainly because we agree that it exists. The entire physical universe, according
to the tenets of nuclear physics, is reducible to near-zero, if we think in terms of an actuality
that can be sensed, measured, or experienced. Matter and energy exist in space and time; but
matter is composed of energy; and energy seems, at best, to be a motion rather than a
substance. For a motion to take place, one sees that space and time are necessary, but that
space and time are themselves such strange entities, according to Einstein and others, that they
are also reducible and expandable and are not sharply defined entities. Much could be said on
this subject, all more or less of a confusing and indecisive nature. Philosophers for many
centuries have been debating over the reality of reality, and each one has come to the final
admission that man agrees that he perceives something with his various senses and that man
has agreed to call this reality.
For our purposes, the lowest common denominator of reality could be called, then,
agreement. If you and I both agree that we are gazing at an automobile, then that automobile
has reality for us. If another person comes forward and says that it is not an automobile but a
barrel of olives, then you and are apt to suppose him crazy. Majority opinion rules, where
reality is concerned. Those who do not agree with the majority are commonly pronounced
insane, or are exiled, and thus we have a sort of continuous natural selection which gives us a
social order that has agreed upon certain definite realities. Anyone who seeks to alter those
realities in any way is attacked, unless the strength and force of his reason are such that they
carry into the minds of men a new reality on which those men can agree.
There are, actually, two kinds of reality. There is the reality which can be sensed,
measured, and experienced in the physical universe. This MEST reality is so thoroughly
constructed into a human being genetically and is so uncompromisingly consistent in its
behavior, as in the science of physics, that man finds it unwieldily consistent and so works, as
in the science of physics, to discover certain natural regularities of behavior of the physical
universe. When new data about the physical universe is discovered to compare favorably with
what the current age is accustomed to sense, measure, or experience, a high order of agreement
is attained. A second type of reality is postulated reality, which is brought into being by creative
or destructive imagination. This reality borders over into the still unexplored field of aesthetics.
There are men, usually in the fields of the arts and philosophy, who postulate new realities for
the social order. Social orders progress or decline in ratio to the number of new realities which
are postulated for them. These postulates are made, usually, single-handedly by men of
imagination. Social orders are normally very conservative and seek to hold hard to old
realities. The reason for this is a simple one. In the absence of wide communication networks
by which new realities can be generally offered it takes considerable time for the new reality to
become known. Indeed, a new reality postulated by some individual becomes known in direct
ratio to the velocity and magnitude of the idea. There undoubtedly exists a formula for the
speed and advance of ideas. For example, a man named Ibsen, by writing a few plays, wildly
altered single-handedly the entire cultural aspect of Scandinavia within a few years. Ideas, and
not battles mark the forward progress of mankind. Individuals, and not masses, form the
culture of the race. On a lesser scale actors and other artists work continually to give tomorrow
a new form. Hollywood makes a picture which strikes the public fancy, and tomorrow we
have girls made up like the star walking along the streets of the small towns of America. A
Hollywood interior decorator dresses a set which takes the eye of the American audience, and
tomorrow that set is seen in the apartments of Miami Beach and other resorts. A culture is as
rich and as capable of surviving as it has imaginative artists, skilled men of science, a high ethic
level, workable government, land and natural resources, in about that order of importance.
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One might postulate two more realities. The first is that of the Supreme Being. 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 government wishing to deprave its people to the point where they
will accept the most perfidious and rotten acts abolishes first the concept of God; and in the
wake of that destroys the family, with free love; the intellectual, with police-enforced idiocies;
and so reduces a whole population to an estate somewhat below that of dogs. A man without
an abiding faith is, by observation alone, more of a thing than a man. Modern science,
producing weapons for the annihilation of men, women, and children in wholesale lots, has
solidly run itself aground on the reef of Godlessness. Modern science has gone so far as to
advocate the rise of man from mud and clay alone; has denied to him even a semblance of a
soul; and so has not only solved none of the problems of the humanities, but has aided and
abetted Godless totalitarian governments which seek nothing less than the engulfment and
enslavement of all men and the extinguishment of every spark of decency in the breast of every
human being. These two tracks which have led away from the affirmation of the existence of a
Supreme Being -- modern science and totalitarianism -- are bringing man into a machine-like
state of being where the ideal has become a lump of muscle, greasy with sweat, or a grimy
mechanic serving a howling monster of steel. The arts, the humanities, and the decencies are
fallen away from, until they are like tiny stars shining across a great, black void. The
abandonment of the admission of a Supreme Being as a reality, intimate to the life of man,
makes prostitution the ideal conduct of a woman; perfidy and betrayal the highest ethic level
attainable by a man; and obliteration by treachery, bomb, and gun the highest goal attainable by
a culture. Thus, there is no great argument about the reality of a Supreme Being, since one
sees, in the failure to countenance that reality, a slimy and loathsome trail, downward into the
most vicious depths.
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 and fills in many gaps which
existed formerly in the theory of the engram. It has long been considered beneficial in
psychotherapies for a person to be able to face reality. However, none defined what reality
was, and so the individual found this rather difficult.
There would be two realities with which the individual was most intimately concerned.
The internal reality, of his own existence and past, and the external reality, of his present-time
environment. To this could be added, of course, his future reality.
The reality tone scale on extroversion-introversion would be, at a glance, that around
tone 4.0 the interior world was sufficiently comfortable so that the individual’s thought and
perception was mainly directed toward the exterior world and his computation had to do with
present time and the future. And as one descended the tone scale, one could see the gradual
involvement of free theta with enMEST, with less and less concern with the exterior world and
the future and more and more involvement in the interior world and the past, until the majority
of the theta was enturbulated and death ensued. There would be, then, an extroversion-introversion
scale which would mark very sharply the position of the person on the tone scale.
The position of the person would, of course, be determined by the amount of free theta with
which he was endowed and the percentage of that theta which had become entheta. Yet another
reality scale could be postulated on the basis of the theta perceptics, but that is beyond the scope
of this work. The general attitude of the individual with regard to reality, as shown on the tone
scale, would be as follows:
At 4.0, the individual would be creatively and constructively inclined toward reality.
He would be more likely to adjust reality to him and to postulate new future realities than he
would be to adjust himself to existing realities. He would search for different viewpoints and
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changes in reality in order to broaden his own reality. He would have a complete flexibility and
understanding in relating and evaluating different realities. At 3.5, the individual would have
the ability to understand, relate, and evaluate realities, regardless of the difference in viewpoint;
moderate flexibility about realities brought to view, without eager search for new ones. A little
lower on the tone scale, the individual would be involved with attempts to reconcile his own
reality with conflicting realities, and he would have a limited flexibility. At 3.0, the individual
would possess an awareness of the possible validity of a different reality without relating this to
his own reality.
At 2.5 would ensue an indifference to conflicting realities, a “maybe -- who cares?”
attitude. Below this would be a refusal to match two realities, rejecting conflicting realities.
At 2.0 would be found verbal doubt, defense of one’s own reality, and attempts to
undermine the reality of others. Here is the critical level, and criticism intensifies from here
down to 1.0 and then dies out.
At 1.5, the individual is mainly concerned with the destruction of opposing realities,
wrecking or changing them, knocking apart the realities of other people. The environmental
reality would be attacked, with destruction in view. The only change that would take place
would be a destructive change.
Below this would be doubt of the opposing reality, a nonverbal disbelief a refusal to
accept the disbelief of others, a refusal to accept conflicting realities without trying to fight
back.
At 1.1 on the tone scale would ensue doubt of one’s own reality, insecurity, and
attempts to gain reassurance. In the sphere of MEST realities there would be appeasement of
gods or elements.
At 0.5 we would have shame, anxiety, strong doubt of one’s own reality with a
consequent inability to act within it. If the person is to act at all he must be told what to do. He
is afraid to act of himself since he has no way to assess the consequences.
Below this is a complete withdrawal from conflicting reality and a refusal to recognize
the existence of any reality but one’s own, in which one is rigidly locked.
At tone 0.0, the only reality is death.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
COLUMN N
Condition of Track and Valences
Everyone has a time track. To some preclears, this may not be immediately apparent.
The time track consists of all the consecutive moments of “now,” from the earliest
moment of life of the organism to present time. Actually, the track is a multiple bundle of
perceptics; and it might be said that there is a time track for each perceptic, all tracks running
simultaneously. The track might also be considered as a system of filing recordings made of
the environment and the organism, filed according to time received. All the perceptions of the
environment and the organism during the entire lifetime, up to now, or present time, are
recorded, faintly or deeply, upon the time track.
It was not generally known, before Dianetics, that the time track existed for an awake
and conscious person and that the individual could move upon it. In the field of hypnotism
something was known of the phenomenon, but it had been indifferently studied and was
thought to be available only to a hypnotized person. Experiments conducted by experts in
hypnotism have demonstrated that the person, awake, moves more readily on his time track
than a person in a hypnotized state.
There is actual perception of movement on the time track, if the individual is moving.
Present time is an ever extending moment; and a person who is free on his time track is
generally in present time, moving forward through the consecutive moments of time.
A primary concern of the auditor is to keep the case of his preclear in such good
condition that the preclear can continue to move upon the time track and contact locks,
secondaries and engrams in order to recount them at the place they occur a sufficient number of
times to reduce or erase them. It is possible for the auditor, by failing to conduct his preclear
properly through locks, secondaries and engrams, to cause the preclear to stick upon the time
track in some moment of the past. When this happens the preclear is not able to move upon the
time track, and the auditor should make it his first concern to return mobility to the preclear.
Various things can happen to the preclear with relation to the time track. The most
upsetting of these is when a grouper, a phrase such as “pull yourself together,” “it all happens
at once,” “everything is against me,” “it all comes down to this,” and other action phrases
which would tend to bunch all incidents in one place, creates the illusion that the time track is
collapsed and that all incidents are at the same point in time. A case must be heavily charged
and the action phrases in the case must have considerable effectiveness with the preclear before
this can happen. The auditor can detect its occurrence rather easily, and at the first difficulty
with the time track, the auditor should suspect a grouper.
The question of how early the time track goes has not been completely resolved. The
auditor, in the absence of such resolution, should take into account the fact that considerable
experimental evidence exists that the time track continues into the past carlier than the life of the
present organism. There is a possibility that the time track is a portion of what we call the theta
body rather than of the organism itself. There could be a genetic time track which would go
back through the generations preceding the organism, but experimental evidence has not borne
out this possibility uniformly, as it has the existence of the theta body. Thus, the auditor
should be prepared to discover some astonishingly early incidents; and if and when he does
discover them he should be very careful to run them and to erase or reduce them, or if they will
not reduce, to find an earlier incident which can be erased or reduced, in order to relieve them.
It is not in the province of the auditor to question the data of the preclear in any way; it is in the
province of the auditor to reduce any and all engrams which he recovers in the case.
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In addition to the grouper, there can be other troubles with the time track. The most
common of these is for the preclear to be stuck in an incident of the past. A holder (a phrase
like “stay here”) existing in an engram has seized him at some earlier age, and he is not in
present time but is locked in an earlier period of his life, which also contains pain and
unconsciousness or heavy grief of fear charges.
Lock scanning or running earlier engrams generally remedies this condition. This
condition is checked for very simply, by the use of the flash answer. As will be covered
elsewhere, the auditor uses the file clerk of the preclear. The file clerk uses automatic response
mechanisms which are not “thoughtful” mechanisms but instantaneous replies, the first thing
that flashes into the preclear’s mind at the snap of the auditor’s fingers. The auditor asks the
preclear for a date, and snaps his fingers; the preclear may not give the present-time date; if he
does not, he is giving the date of the moment where he is stuck on the track. Simply asking
various people around you their age will give you considerable data on this mechanism. Tell
these people to give you the first number that comes into their heads when you snap your
fingers, and then ask them “How old are you?” (snap !). In a number of instances you will get
ages much earlier than present time. Asking them to remember what happened at that period
will very often bring them up to present time, where they may not have been for years. An
auditor could walk through any sanatorium and simply tell patient after patient “come up to
present time,” and he would find that some very small percentage of the “insane” people would
come up to present time and would begin to be sane: this has been done several times, with
some astonishing results. This is mentioned to give the auditor some idea of the importance of
having the preclear in present time and the importance of being in present time. Flash answer
checks can also be done by the following mechanism: the preclear is asked to give the first
answer that flashes into his head, yes or no, to each of the following questions; the auditor then
says “Hospital?” to which the preclear answers yes or no; the auditor then says “Nurse?” and
the preclear gives him a yes or no. When the preclear is unable to recall anything having
happened at the age he gives in lieu of his present-time age, by flash answer, this yes-or-no
check will serve to tell the auditor the nature and character of the incident in which the preclear
is held. The preclear’s memory can then be more ably directed toward discovering whether it
was an accident, an injury or an illness in which he was concerned and who gave him the
holder which keeps him in the incident. Sometimes merely remembering the incident will free
the preclear so that he can come to present time. Sometimes in a case which has been non-sonic
there is sonic at the exact moment where the preclear is held, and the sonic phrase is the
holder by which the preclear is held.
Simply directing the preclear’s attention to a pleasure moment and running him through
it many times, over and over, particularly one in which the preclear was victorious as himself,
will often snap the preclear out of an engram in which he is held and permit him to come to
present time. It is common procedure to end all sessions by running the preclear through some
pleasure moments in order to bring him easily and completely to present time.
Another mechanism which gives the auditor trouble in bringing the preclear to present
time or moving him on the track is the call-back. Such phrases as “come here,” “come back,”
and other action phrases which would, in present time, cause the preclear to move back to
another position in space, act, when contained in engrams, to pull the preclear down from
present lime into the engrams. It often happens that the auditor tries to bring the preclear to
present time and every time the preclear nears present time he is pulled back down the track to
an earlier age. This is caused by a call-back.
Another mechanism which keeps the preclear early on the track is the down bouncer.
This type of phrase is one which tells the person to “get down” or “get back” and keeps the
preclear below the actual incident in which he is held.
Another difficulty on the track is the bouncer. The preclear may be in an engram and
yet be bounced into present time. This creates a situation in which the preclear seems to be in
present time but is actually under considerable tension being held in an engram.*
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Another difficulty with the time track is the misdirector. This would be a phrase which,
when the auditor sends the preclear in one direction, makes the preclear go in another direction.
Such a phrase as “you do everything backwards” causes this situation. When the auditor tells
the preclear to come up to present time, if such a phrase is active the preclear may go back to
basic-basic (the first engram in the case). Any case in. which phrases are this active is a highly
charged case, and it will be necessary for the auditor to get rid of many locks and secondaries
before he can run engrams.
Another difficulty which affects the time track, but is not exactly a time-track difficulty,
is the matter of valence.
A valence is a false or true identity. The preclear has his own valence; then there are
available to him the valences of all persons who appear in his engrams. A valence-shifter is a
phrase which causes the individual to shift into another identity. The phrase “you ought to be in
his shoes” and the phrase “you’re just like your mother” are valence-shifters, which change the
preclear from his own identity into the whole identity of another person. There are, then, many
valences open to the preclear. The valence is a whole identity.
In the handbook issued in 1950 (DIANETICS: The Modern Science of Mental Health,
by L. Ron Hubbard), there was an error (pg. 283) in the omission of quotation marks around
the phrase “stuck in present time.” It is not possible for an individual to be stuck in present
time. He is always stuck in an engram. Some people who find it very difficult to move on the
track seem to be stuck in present time, but they are not. Lock scanning or the running of a
secondary or the location of the actual engram in which the preclear is stuck will serve to get the
preclear moving on the track. to have all the troubles grandfather had and most of the
peculiarities and characteristics. These characteristics do not have to be contained in engrams
themselves; they are simply part and parcel of the valence. The preclear may be in several
valences at once, in a synthetic valence, or in no valence at all. Or he can be in his own valence.
If the preclear is not in his own valence, every effort should be made in the course of
processing to cause him to find his own valence. Running pleasure moments very often brings
the preclear into his own valence.
Being out of valence is a primary cause, evidently, of sonic, visio and somatic shut-offs.
The auditor may be running an engram in which the preclear has sonic, visio and
somatics which suddenly disappear. The first thing he should suspect is a valence-shifter. He
asks for a yes-or-no flash answer as to whether a valence-shifter is present, and if the answer is
yes, he asks for the wording of the valence-shifter, and when he gets the words he has the
preclear repeat them, and the preclear will go back into his own valence and visio and sonic will
turn back on. Most cases which are occluded are out of valence.
Valence is a survival mechanism, one of the means used by the mind to escape too
painful an existence; therefore, in order to get the preclear into his own valence much of the
charge has to be unburdened from the track. Locks can be scanned with the individual out of
valence. In most secondaries, where terror and apathy are present, the preclear will be found to
be out of valence. It is necessary to run such an incident several times before the preclear can
get into his own valence and so get a proper discharge of the grief fear, or apathy.
On the tone scale we see that we are, again, involved with two different types of cases.
The first is the case which is wide open, in valence, with sonic and visio, although highly
charged; being too weak structurally to cover up charge, this case stays in its own valence
though that valence is too painful to bear. The other type is the one in which the mind has the
ability to get out of valence and so occlude painful moments in the past. The mind ordinarily
chooses winning valences. Valence-shifters, however, can force the individual into the valence
he abhors. Continued repetition by a parent that the preclear is “just like grandfather” but that
he “must not be like grandfather” because “grandfather is detestable” will bring about a
conflicting situation in which the preclear is forced, by valence shifters, to occupy a character
he feels is abhorred. This is the primary mechanism which causes an individual to “detest
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himself; he actually does not detest himself at all; he detests the valence in which he has been
forced to live.
The chart is self-explanatory for the occluded case. It goes without saying that in a
wide open case the person is in valence from top to bottom, wherever he is on the tone scale.
From this it should not be adjudicated that it is either desirable or undesirable to be a wide open
case; such cases are relatively easy to work. The occluded case, when finally in his own
valence, with sonic and visio, and with most of his engrams gone, is in excellent condition,
with a very high mental potential.
The condition of the track is normally regulated by the factors of charge, valence-shifters,
and action phrases. In view of the fact that action phrases are not active unless there is
heavy charge on the case, it actually comes down to the fact that the condition of the track and
of the valence of the preclear is regulated by charge. By charge, of course, is meant anger, fear,
grief or apathy contained as misemotion in the case. This form of entheta (there is other
entheta, in the form of communication and reality secondaries, as well as misemotion
secondaries) charges up the track so much that the action phrases act. The charge must be very
heavy on a case before engram action phrases -- action phrases contained in engrams
themselves -- can be active. The charge must be much heavier for action phrases to be active in
secondary engrams, which are those containing misemotion and communication and reality
breaks and enforcements. The charge on the case must be extreme indeed for action phrases to
be active in locks.
Thus it can be seen that the condition of the track and valences is mainly a matter of
charge. In the wide-open case, a tremendously heavily charged track brings the individual into
a psychotic level. The inability of the mind to occlude and encyst charge gives us the strange
picture of an individual who can move on the track and who can run through engrams and who
has sonic and visio but who is psychotic. These people are relatively easy to work; but the
primary target should be the removal of charge, regardless of the temptation to run engrams,
because such people will lock up on the track if the auditor makes the mistake of running
engrams because they are easy to reach.
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
COLUMN O
Manifestation of Engrams and Locks
Human conduct, in the absence of engrams, can be considered to be good, from the
viewpoint of the individual and his group, as modified by the education and environment of
that individual. The individual without engrams seeks survival along all of the dynamics, in
accordance with his breadth of understanding.
This does not mean that a Zulu who has been cleared of all of his engrams would not
continue to eat missionaries if he were a cannibal by education; but it does mean that he would
be as rational as possible about eating missionaries; further, it would be easier to re-educate him
about eating missionaries if he were a clear. Being a clear does not mean being a reeducated or
a re-environmented or a re-geneticized individual; but it does mean that all possible free theta in
the case can be brought to bear on the problems of the environment and the future and that all
the data in the analytical memory bank is available for the solution of those problems. Engrams
and their secondaries and locks inject unalterable conclusions into the mind, so that
computation becomes much on the order of trying to add two and two when an unseen hand is
always adding another two to the column, unknown to the computer. An engram makes it
impossible for a person adding two and two to get four; furthermore, it makes the individual do
strange and irrational things, which is to say, it makes him act along non-survival lines and
causes him to do things although he “should know better.”
The engram, with its secondaries and locks, alters behavior by inhibiting action or
thought or imagination or by causing the individual to dramatize.
So long as an individual can actively dramatize an engram, however, the engram does
not become particularly charged. When the engram commands such non-survival activity that
the environment censures or brings further pain to the individual, that engram begins to charge
up. If an engram commands an individual to walk three times around the block every morning
for his health, the engram may be effective but not troublesome so long as the individual is
permitted that walk. Let him, however, move into an environment such as the army, where he
is not permitted to take this “constitutional” every morning, but must stand muster instead; the
dramatization is broken and, as a consequence, the action potential of the individual is observed
by his analytical mind to be cut down, and the individual feels reduced in scope. When an
engram in a thief commands that he steal, he may be cheerful and happy so long as he can go
on stealing; then the law may step in and jail him because he steals; this breaks the
dramatization and reduces him in scope and well being.
There are two sides to an engram: entheta and enMEST. So long as the thought can be
dramatized, the enMEST remains quiet; but when the dramatization is broken, the enMEST, or
physical pain, turns on in an effort to force the individual to do what the engram commands.
Engrams monitor individuals in this unseen way. In lower organisms than man there is
a survival value to this type of reactive action. In the environment of a lower organism, the
receipt of pain normally comes about because the organism is not following a survival course;
therefore, if the organism attempts to do the same thing again, the pain threatens to turn on and
the organism is forced into another course of action which, presumably, is better survival.
Much more could be written about human behavior and about the engram as the cause
of aberrated behavior, but what the auditor wishes to know is how to audit his preclear and
how to find his preclear on this chart so that he will know what type of entheta to address in the
case, whether to run engrams, secondaries, or locks, and how to run them.
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An engram is a moment of physical pain and unconsciousness. A secondary is a
moment of misemotion where loss is threatened or accomplished. A lock is an analytical
moment in which the perceptics of the engram are approximated, thus restimulating the engram
or bringing it into action, the present time perceptics being erroneously interpreted by the
reactive mind to mean that the same condition which produced physical pain once before is now
again at hand. Secondaries contain only misemotion and communication and reality
enforcements and breaks. Locks contain mainly perceptics; no physical pain and very little
misemotion. These are all types of entheta. Secondaries and locks charge up engrams; it is
usually not possible to run engrams in a case which is very heavily charged with secondaries
and locks.
By observing his preclear, the auditor should be able to establish fairly rapidly what the
preclear does with locks. In surveying the case, he may find that the preclear acts very
aberratedly on the subject of religion, and yet all he can find as a cause is a scolding by a
minister when the preclear was a child. The human mind is a very tough mechanism, and this is
insufficient cause for aberration in a sane person. If the conduct is remedied merely by running
this lock, the auditor can see that this preclear will dramatize locks, which is to say, he will act
as though locks were engrams. This denotes a very highly charged case.
The auditor may discover that the preclear dramatizes secondaries, which is to say that
the preclear may be a “coffin case,” which lies in the position of a dead man, with arms folded.
This is a grief engram having to do with the death of some loved one, and with the preclear in
the valence of the loved one. The auditor will see many examples of the “coffin case.” This
means that the preclear will dramatize secondaries and that the track is very heavily charged, but
less heavily charged than that of the preclear who will dramatize locks.
Finally we have the preclear who will dramatize only engrams. He is fairly high up the
scale; is more or less normal.
The column on the chart about the manifestations of engrams and locks is self-explanatory
if one understands these basic principles.
There are three types of locks: broken dramatizations, restimulations, and ARC locks.
It is a principle of theta that it desires to carry to completion any cycle of action once
begun. When such a cycle is interrupted as in the breaking of a dramatization, turbulence is
entered into the theta, and entheta is produced.
The restimulation lock merely brings to the person perceptions which approximate those
of an engram. If the individual is tired or weary, these perceptions, sights, sounds, smells, or
whatever they may be, will restimulate the engram which has similar perceptics; and the
incident becomes a lock on the engram and charges it to some small degree.
The third type of lock results when affinity, communication, or reality is forced upon
the individual by the environment when he does not want it, when it is not rationally necessary,
or when one or more of these is inhibited or denied to the individual by others in the
environment.
Some of these ARC locks which occur in a person’s life are so intense and cause so
much charge to enter into the engram that they are considered secondary engrams.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
COLUMN P
Sexual Behavior
Attitude Toward Children
This is the column devoted to the second dynamic. This dynamic would normally be
called sex. In Dianetics, one considers sex to be divided into parts: the sexual act; and the
produce of sex, children.
Any dynamic can be considered to be a flowing line of theta. The power of theta along
any dynamic varies from individual to individual. Engrams can be considered to lie across the
dynamics in such a way as to cause dispersion. When the engrams are removed the dispersion,
which would be theta turning into entheta and the inhibition of the flow of free theta, disappears
and the natural flow of free theta can begin again.
One sees this dispersion and entheta effect most markedly on the second dynamic. It is
so clear cut that some psychotherapies, in the past, placed the entire emphasis of aberration on
the second dynamic. Naturally, these psychotherapies were not very workable, since they left
out the other seven dynamics, and were, indeed, severely criticized by their contemporaries for
not being sufficiently comprehensive. Sex however, is an excellent index of the position of the
preclear on the tone scale. It is the excellence of this index which probably brought so much
attention to the second dynamic. In this current culture, sexual aberration is very high.
Anything which is hidden and highly regulated in a culture will become aberrated. There is
considerable confusion in the American and European cultures about sex; since there was so
much perversion and promiscuity and maltreatment of children the erroneous conclusion was
reached that the remedy for this lay in further regulation; whereas, in reality, it was the
regulation which caused the derangement of the dynamic.
It will be noted, in observing the behavior of human beings, and on this chart of the
tone scale, that promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices fall far down the line.
Free Love falls, also, in this very low band; since man is relatively monogamous and since it is
non-survival not to have a well ordered system for the creation and upbringing of children, by
families. A society which falls into this 1.1 band of the tone scale can be expected to abuse sex,
to be promiscuous, to misuse and maltreat children, and to act, in short, much in the way
current cultures are acting. It is of vital importance, if one wishes to stop immorality, and the
abuse of children, to de-aberrate this dynamic for the whole group of the society, to say
nothing of individuals.
At the highest MEST point of the tone scale, 4.0, one finds monogamy, constancy, a
high enjoyment level, and very moral reactions toward sex; but one also finds the sexual urge
acting to create more than children, and so comes about a sublimation of sex into creative
thought. At 3.5 on the tone scale, we have a high interest in the opposite sex, and constancy,
but we do not have so great a sublimation. At 3.0 on the tone scale, we have some falling off in
sexual interest, but we have an interest in procreation and children. At 2.5, we have some
disinterest in procreation, not for any reason beyond a general failure to be interested in much
of anything. The sexual act can be adequately performed, given the physical ability. At the band
of 2.0, we begin to get a disgust for sex, a revulsion toward sex, mostly when irregularly
practised. At the 1.5 band of the tone scale, we find sex appearing as rape; we find the sexual
act being performed as a punishment.
At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second
dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices. We have no
enjoyment of the sex act but a hectic anxiety about it. The sex act cannot truly be enjoyed
whether performed regularly or irregularly. Here is Free Love, easy marriage and quick
divorce, and general sexual disaster. People at this level on the second dynamic are intensely
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dangerous in the society, since aberration is contagious. A society which reaches this level is
on its way out of history, as went the Greeks, as went the Romans, as goes modern European
and American culture. Here is a flaming danger signal which must be heeded if a race is to go
forward.
At 0.5, we have impotency and anxiety about sex, with only occasional efforts to
procreate. On the second dynamic we get occasional resurgences, from 0.5 up the scale, which
quickly relapse.
It is interesting to note here the application of the principle of the dwindling spiral to the
second dynamic. On any of the dynamics and on any column of this chart, when the individual
sinks below the 2.0 level, the dwindling spiral rapidly carries him down through 1.5, 1.1, 0.5,
to death. This is particularly evident on the second dynamic. The 1.1 individual, engaged in
frantic pseudo-sexual activity today, will in a very near tomorrow, much nearer than he
suspects, find himself or herself at the 0.5 level of impotency and anxiety.
The organs of sex, at the 0.5 level, become relatively useless; indeed, this second
dynamic tone scale is closely applicable to the endocrine activity of the individual and the form
and condition of the physical body. The woman who in her teens was at the 1.1 level of the
scale will not have a well enough developed pelvic structure or endocrine system to permit her
bearing children with ease. Difficult births are a normal result of too long a residence in a low
band of the tone scale during the formative period of the body. Easy births can only be
expected with women who are relatively high on the tone scale.
It is noteworthy that the 1.1 to 0.5 area of the tone scale finds the muscles, particularly
the sexual muscles, without tonus. The nymphomaniac and the satyr are extremely slack-muscled,
and the tonus around 0.5 is almost non-existent. In the pretended death band there is,
of course, no effort to procreate. Along the -1 band, where the organism as an organism is
dead but the cells still survive, it is interesting that ejaculation and sexual activity occasionally
take place immediately after the death of the individual, which gives some index of the strength
and force of this dynamic.
Life is defined, in cytology, as an unending stream of protoplasm from the beginning of
life itself until now. Down through the ages as a continuous genetic stream, this protoplasm is
modified by natural selection and environmental conditioning, as well as by what seems to be
outright planning, from generation to generation. Because life is so dependent upon this
lifeline, it is very easy to place too great an emphasis upon the sexual act, the thing which keeps
this lifeline in a continuous stream.
The second part of this dynamic concerns itself with children, the product of sex. There
is a gradient of reaction toward children, from the top to the bottom of the tone scale, which the
auditor can use in order to place his preclear properly on the chart.
At 4.0 there is an intense interest in children, which extends to both the mental and
physical well being of the children and the society in which these children will live. Here are
efforts to add to the culture so that the children will have a better chance for survival.
At 3.5, we have a love of children, a care of them, an understanding of them.
At 3.0, we have an interest in children.
At 2.5, we have a tolerance of children, but not a great interest in their affairs.
At 2.0, we have nagging of, and nervousness about children.
At 1.5, we enter the band of brutal treatment of children, heavy corporal punishment,
the forcing of the child into a mould with pain, breaking his dramatizations, upsets about his
noise or clutter.
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At 1.1 on the tone scale, there may be two reactions to children. There may be an actual
and immediate desire for children, as a manifestation of sex. But we also may have the use of
children for sadistic purposes. And we may find both of these in the same individual. We have
a long-term general neglect of children, with an occasional sporadic interest in them; we have
very little thought for the child’s future or the culture in which the child will grow up.
At 0.5, we have mainly an anxiety about children, fear that they will be hurt, fear of this
and fear of that concerning children, and a hopelessness about their future.
At 1.1, a mother will attempt the abortion of her child; and any woman who will abort a
child, save only if the child threatens her physical life (rather than her reputation), lies in the 1.1
bracket or below. She can be expected to be unreliable, inconstant and promiscuous; and the
child is looked upon as evidence of this promiscuity.
At 0.5 we have abortion with the specious reasoning that the world or the future is too
horrible to bring a child into. With the parent at 0.5, all the natural gaiety and happiness of the
child will be suppressed, and we have as unhealthy an atmosphere for childhood as one could
postulate.
At 0.1, there is not even awareness of children.
It is notable, as one glances down this column, that an interest in children includes an
interest not only in the bearing of the child but in the child’s well being, happiness, mental
state, education, and general future. We may have a person on the 1.1 level who seems very
anxious to produce a child; very possibly this person is following an engram command to have
children. Once the child is born we may have, in this 1.1 bracket, an interest in it as a
plaything or a curiosity, but, following this, we get general neglect and thoughtlessness about
the child and no feeling whatsoever about the child’s future or any effort to build one for it.
We get careless familial actions such as promiscuity, which will tear to pieces the family
security upon which the child’s future depends. Along this band, the child is considered a
thing, a possession.
A half tone above this, in the anger band, the child is a target for the dramatizations
which the individual does not dare execute against grown-ups in the environment -- a last ditch
effort to be in command of something. Here we have domination of the child, with a constant
warping of its character.
The whole future of the race depends upon its attitude toward children; and a race which
specializes in women for “menial purposes,” or which believes that the contest of the sexes in
the spheres of business and politics is a worthier endeavor than the creation of tomorrow’s
generation, is a race which is dying. We have, in the woman who is an ambitious rival of the
man in his own activities, a woman who is neglecting the most important mission she may
have. A society which looks down upon this mission, and in which women are taught
anything but the management of a family, the care of men, and the creation of the future
generation, is a society which is on its way out. The historian can peg the point where a
society begins its sharpest decline at the instant when women begin to take part, on an equal
footing with men, in political and business affairs; since this means that the men are decadent
and the women are no longer women. This is not a sermon on the role or position of women: it
is a statement of bald and basic fact. When children become unimportant to a society, that
society has forfeited its future. Even beyond the fathering and bearing and rearing of children,
a human being does not seem to be complete without a relationship with a member of the
opposite sex. This relationship is the vessel where in is nurtured the life force of both
individuals, whereby they create the future of the race in body and thought. If man is to rise to
greater heights, then woman must rise with him, or even before him. But she must rise as
woman and not as today she is being misled into rising -- as a man. It is the hideous joke of
frustrated, unvirile men to make women over into the travesty of men which men themselves
have become. Men are difficult and troublesome creatures -- but valuable. The creative care
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and handling of men is an artful and a beautiful task. Those who would cheat women of their
rightful place by making them into men should at last realize that by this action they are
destroying not only the women but the men and the children as well. This is too great a price to
pay for being “modern” or for someone’s petty anger or spite against the female sex.
The arts and skills of woman, the creation and inspiration of which she is capable and
which, here and there in isolated places in our culture, she still manages to effect in spite of the
ruin and decay of man’s world which spreads around her, must be brought newly and fully
into life. These arts and skills and creation and inspiration are her beauty, just as she is the
beauty of mankind.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
COLUMN Q
Command Over Environment
It may be postulated that the mission of theta is the conquest of MEST. The organism
controls as much MEST as it has theta with which to control the MEST.
One could envision command over the environment, for a man, or for a group, as a
series of concentric circles. The widest circle would demonstrate the individual’s or the
group’s considered belief in its ability to have an effect on the physical universe. The next
circle, just inside, would be the individual’s or the group’s belief in its ability to affect all of
Earth and life. The next circle inside would be the individual’s or the group’s belief in its
ability to affect a section of life, a nation or a smaller group. The next circle would be the belief
of the individual or the group in its ability to affect some other species and the men in its
environ. The next inside circle would be the belief the individual or the group has in its ability
to affect a few people or a small portion of its environment. The next circle would have to do
with the individual’s and the group’s belief that it could affect the individual and the group.
The next inside circle would be the individual’s or the group’s inability to affect self. One
cannot say what would be the normal command area, but certain it is that when the command
area comes to the point where the individual can barely affect the individual and the group can
barely affect the group we reach a point where the only MEST (and for their purposes, as a
matter of viewpoint, the individual and the group often consider life and life forms as MEST,
subject to their control) which can be changed by theta is the MEST of the individual or group.
Here psychosomatic illnesses set in, theta acting only within the organism, to destroy it. A
group at this stage will tear itself apart. It is just slightly wider than this circle that we enter the
2.0 area of the chart. The wider areas could be said to be those where theta could act freely
enough to be constructive and creative within those spheres of influence; and very close to the
center of the spheres would be where entheta exists. A much more complex system which
would possibly tell us a great deal about theta and MEST, could be worked out on this gradient
scale, and probably should be.
The auditor is primarily interested in spotting his preclear on the chart. In order to do so
he should establish what the preclear thinks he can control in terms of life, MEST, people, and
groups add what the preclear thinks he would do with these if he could control them. If the
preclear has constructive and creative plans in mind for the sphere he outlines, one can see that
he is above the 2.0 band and that one is working with the amount of theta the individual has as
his endowment, since not all men believe they can control the entire universe but should not
necessarily be suspect of being psychotic should they entertain such a notion, even though it is
a manifestation of psychosis to have grandiose ideas because of manic engrams. Men have
existed who could control enormous spheres and be creative and constructive within those
spheres, but these were not men of the sword; they were men of ideas.
Should the preclear postulate for himself a rather wide sphere and then appoint for it a
destructive end, one can be sure that one is dealing with a preclear below the 2.0 level.
The auditor should keep in mind the axiom that all creation carries with it a small
amount of destruction; just as one may not be able to construct an apartment building without
destroying the tenement which sits there; just as one may not be able to publish a newspaper
without destroying forests to obtain newsprint. It is the ratio of creation to destruction which
counts. In view of the postulates laid down in this chapter, the column on the chart is self-explanatory.
Some comment, however, should be made on the political ramifications contained
in this column. It will be seen that the democratic area -- where one deals with Jeffersonian
democracy -- lies in the bands at 3.0 and above. This postulates a belief in the goodness of men
and the good sense of men in council. It postulates the belief that men should be free to decide
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things for themselves. It outlaws tyranny as undesirable, and relegates government to the
service of the group rather than the group to the service of the government.
One has to go well down the tone scale in order to find the next stopping point for
politics, and here he locates fascism as existing between 2.0 and 1.5. Fascism is an absolute
control for destructive purposes, of an environ, with forthright and strong-armed means
employed in seeking that control. There are intermediate stops between democracy and fascism,
such as monarchy; they are not of major interest in the world at this time, and are not within the
scope of this work but belong in Group Dianetics, which will be covered completely in another
volume. In today’s world, the next stop down the tone scale politically is the subversive, who
belongs in the 1.1 to 1.3 bracket. Most theoretical subversion pretends to be very high on the
tone scale, and so has had its appeal to the liberally inclined individual; but there is a wide gap
between theory and practice, and the unthinking person confuses the theory with the practice.
He finds himself keeping company with 1.1’s. Communication lines are cut; affinities are
flagrantly used and perverted; reality is twisted; the level of truth as seen in subversive
propaganda, compares with lowest gossip; and the treatment of human beings is without any
regard to the respect an individual human being should have.
Subversion receives its main support from such individuals as lie in the vicinity of 1.1,
and the reason it gains so many volunteer agents in lands which it wishes to overrun lies in the
desire of the 1.1 to have good cause and reason to flout flagrantly and place himself “above”
existing morals and the laws of the land in which he operates. He gains through his warped
philosophy a very fine excuse to believe himself above such things as law and decency, and it
is very possibly this appeal alone which brings so many recruits to the ranks of subversive
organizations.
Editorial Note: In this column on the tone scale chart brief reference is made to certain
political philosophies and attitudes in the world today. While this subject will be taken up at
length in Group Dianetics, the present chart would be incomplete if it did not show that these
political systems have their own tone positions and that their general methods of operation can
be seen to conform with the methods and operations of individuals at these levels.
At 3.5, we have the liberal. The liberal reasons well, accepts wide responsibilities, and
is guided by high ethical principles. He is eager to seize upon any new idea which will
improve the society, and he is not suggestible, being swayed this way and that by any
propaganda, but reaches conclusions extremely rationally. He has a high regard for individual
freedom, for property, and for the right of the powerfully productive person to be allowed to
contribute to the society without hindrance, spontaneously and efficiently.
At 3.0, we have the person who is democratic, but who is somewhat more conservative
in his attitudes and more given to social regulations, being more in need of them. The term
“democratic” is a somewhat loose one, but at this level it signifies the individual or system
which allows personal freedom and has moderate regard for property and productive ability but
is not particularly inventive or enthusiastic about refining and improving and enriching the
social order along all of the dynamics.
The next familiar political level is the 1.5 level of fascism. The activities of Hitler and
Mussolini and the social orders they produced are, of course, the examples which come to
mind. The open declaration of intention to conquer, kill, and control by the most obvious and
forceful methods is the mark of fascism. Justification is limited to the bluntest most bald-faced
lies. Invalidation of other persons and social orders is straight-forward, angry, and lacking in
any subtle pretense of reasonableness or moderation.
The next political level is the 1.1. level of Communism. The literature of Communism,
particularly in the works of Lenin, sets the tone of secret, flexible, deceptive operation which is
observable in the methods of Communism throughout the world. In its strongholds such as the
Soviet Union, in times and sections where it is not threatened, Communism will sometimes rise
for brief periods to the level of 1.5, but in its normal action it partakes of all of the
characteristics of the 1.1 level as they are outlined in this present work. The willingness to
376.377
devote an unlimited amount of time to accomplishing secretly a destructive action which the
fascist would accomplish immediately by force is implicit in Communism. Communism has an
endless patience in tearing down by subtle propaganda a society or an idea which it never
openly opposes in all that time, and an unwillingness ever to use open methods which would
betray interest or activity. Communism, like the individual 1.1, makes an initial pretence of
giving great assistance and help, and it keeps up this pretence in the face of any and all
contradictory evidence, blandly giving forth soothing justifications and assurances of the most
sincere and deeply-felt interest in the good of all.
The reader who will examine these various political manifestations in the light of the
tone scale chart will find, undoubtedly, that the sometimes mysterious actions of various
political factions will become predictable and understandable.
377.378
CHAPTER TWENTY
COLUMN R
Actual Worth To Society Compared
To Apparent Worth
In Dianetics we have some means of establishing the worth of a human being. In the
past, the worth of individuals or groups was judged by the amount of MEST they owned. If a
man had money, he was said to be worth so much money; if a group had control of property, it
was said to be worth so much control of property. However, this is a non-survival definition.
Whereas every individual should be entitled, unconditionally, to whatever he can earn in a
society, since this is a blunt measure of his value to the society, and one should never make the
mistake of believing otherwise; and by means of inheritances and strange effects to which
money can lend itself it can become badly perverted as a yardstick. When it becomes perverted,
men of money begin to be damned by a society and are sought out as the scapegoats for all its
ills; whereas a goodly number of them are the very pivots on which the society is turning.
Subversive political movements appeal to the indigence and poverty which is the lot,
unfortunately, of a majority of populaces in these days of poorly advanced culture by
promising to murder every man of property once a land is taken. The whole cult of anti-Capitalism
is something less than a sound philosophic postulate and rather more than a gross
appeal to those who have no property and no hope of attaining any. As this philosophy has no
concept of any individual worth of whatever kind, and rather tends to operate on the maxim that
“five morons make a genius,” it can afford to overlook any means of evaluating any human
being and would rather not do so, since its practice when entering a country is to corral and
murder every man of worth to that country and leave it pauperized as a race.
In the handbook, an equation was written which caused people some puzzlement; it was
to the effect that potential value was equal to intelligence multiplied by the dynamics of the
individual to a certain power. This might be restated as meaning that the potential value of any
man was equal to some numerical factor, denoting his structural intelligence and capability,
multiplied by his free theta to a power. This was written in the handbook in an effort to
encourage some psychologist to discover what the power of the dynamic might be and
conclude some means of establishing potential value by psychometry. Actual worth, then, of
the individual would be his potential value as modified by the direction that potential value took
with regard to the survival of his group or of himself. One might have an individual of very
high potential value who yet, by education and engrams, was a distinct liability to himself and
his group.
In this column on the chart, anyone, regardless of his potential value, below the line of
2.0 as evaluated by other columns, has a negative value to the society. Anyone above this line
goes in a positive direction.
This whole scale is postulated on the fact that the brain and brawn of an individual serve
the other dynamics. The remark has been made that social orders are carried upon the backs of
a few desperate men. If the social order were being carried forward toward higher levels of
culture by these few desperate men, they could be considered and, indeed, upon inspection
would be found to lie well above the 2.0 level. When the desperation is expressed in terms of
death and destruction, the individual lies below this 2.0 level and, regardless of what his
actions are, will bring the society lower on the tone scale. The auditor’s main interest in this
column lies, again, in the estimate of the preclear’s position upon it; and this column makes it
possible to estimate position by examining both the actual worth and the potential value of the
preclear in his environment. If the preclear normally injures -- makes enMEST out of -- those
things which he seeks to control or which he owns, he can be said to lie below the 2.0 line; and
if he is fairly successful in his use of MEST he lies above that line.
378.379
This column is otherwise self-explanatory.
As a member of his own social order, the auditor should take into account, when
deciding which of the people around him he will take as preclears, the actual worth of those
people to their family, group, and society. He will do well to spend his efforts upon those who
show the highest promise, in terms of current activity while aberrated, even though these may
not be the easiest cases to work. While all men are created with equal rights under the law, an
examination of the individuals in the society rapidly demonstrates that all men are not created
with equal potential value to their fellows.
379.380
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
COLUMN S
Ethic Level
The whole subject of ethics is one which, with societies at their present low position on
the tone scale, has become almost lost.
Ethics actually consist, as we can define them now in Dianetics, of rationality toward
the highest level of survival for the individual, the future race, the group, and mankind, and the
other dynamics taken collectively. Ethics are reason. The highest ethic level would be long-term
survival concepts with minimal destruction, along any of the dynamics. A reasonable
examination of this subject demonstrates immediately that dishonest conduct may serve, on a
short-term basis, the advantage of an individual or a group, but that a continuous line of
dishonest conduct will bring the individual or the group down the tone scale. Thus, dishonest
conduct is non-survival. Anything which is unreasonable in the conduct of interrelations
among men could be considered unethical, since those things which are unreasonable bring
about the destruction of individuals and groups and inhibit the future of the race. The keeping
of one’s word, when it has been sacredly pledged, is an act of survival, since one is then
trusted, but only so long as one keeps one’s pledged word.
To the weak, to the cowardly, to the reprehensively irrational, dishonesty and
underhanded dealings, the harming of others and the blighting of their hopes, seem to be the
only way of conducting life.
Unethical conduct is actually the conduct of destruction and fear; lies are told because
one is afraid of the consequences should one tell the truth; thus, the liar is inevitably a coward,
the coward is inevitably a liar. The sexually promiscuous woman, the man who breaks faith
with his friend, the covetous pervert are all dealing in such non-survival terms that degradation
and death commonly ensue. A “love” clandestinely conducted and based on lies which will
bring harm to others denotes a cowardice low enough to bring nausea to any decent man.
Thus, one has the ethical or unethical aspect of sex.
In the modern dictionary we find that ethics are defined as “morals” and morals are
defined as “ethics.” These two words are not interchangeable. Morals should be defined as a
code of good conduct laid down out of the experience of the race to serve as a uniform
yardstick for the conduct of individuals and groups. Such a codification has its place; morals
are actually laws. The origin of a point in a moral code comes about when it is discovered,
through experience, that some act is more nonsurvival than pro-survival. The prohibition of
this act enters into the customs of the people and may eventually become a law. This is the
natural process of creation of all law. Morals are, to some degree, arbitraries, in that they
continue beyond their time. This far from states that laws are bad, as uniformity and regulation
are vital to the conduct of all groups, but only that laws become outmoded now and then and
need to be revised. Many things which were moral in the past were moral only because they
were hygienic; and, indeed, as has been said, all morals originate out of the discovery by the
group that some act contains more pain than pleasure.
In the absence of extended reasoning powers, moral codes so long as they provide
better survival for their group are a vital and necessary part of any culture. Morals, however,
become onerous and protested against when they become outmoded; and a revolt against
morals normally has as its target the fact that the code no longer is as applicable as it was
before; although revolts against moral codes actually occur because individuals of the group or
the group itself has sunk on the tone scale to a point where it wishes to practice license against
these moral codes, not because the codes themselves are unreasonable.
380.381
If a moral code were thoroughly reasonable, it could, at the same time, be considered
thoroughly ethical, but only at this highest level could these two be called the same. Theta, in
its action against MEST, is reason itself; and the ultimate in reason is the ultimate in survival. In
the light of the above, the column on the chart is self-explanatory, but the additional comment
should be made that at the level of 2.0 and below, destructive arbitrariness, called for lack of a
better word “authoritarianism,” sets in; and that all laws made at this level, and on down the
scale, will have non-survival results.
Criminals lie in the band from 2.0 down the scale, as a generality; but most criminals
are found from about 1.3 downward. There is nothing very glamorous about the criminal, the
breaker of his pledge, the betrayer of his friend or group. Such people are simply psychotic.
This does not say that individuals who lie potentially along tone bands from 2.0 down are
actively criminal, chronically, or that they are actively unethical, chronically; but it does say that
during periods of enturbulence they are unethical and immoral, and refrain from being so only
in ratio to the amount of free theta they still have available. They normally enturbulate easily
and often, however, and while for days and weeks together they may appear to be rational,
insofar as the current normal is concerned, they are a serious liability to any employer, mate,
family, or group. Here again we have the condition of the acute psychotic state as opposed to
the chronic psychotic state; in the acute psychotic state the person becomes temporarily insane
for short periods; in the chronic state, he remains insane. If a person can enturbulate easily
down to a level below 2.0, and has not enough free theta to refrain from aberrated action, he
should not be given more freedom in the society than the chronic psychotic, since he is as
thoroughly psychotic in his acute state of enturbulence as any constantly insane individual.
Society, recognizing that the greatest danger from an individual lies in the band from anger
down to 1.1, has sought to safeguard itself by suppressing these people permanently into an
apathy level; this control mechanism, however, is as unworkable as it is widespread, since
individuals in the apathy strata can rebound sporadically up into the active strata and so are still
thoroughly dangerous. The only answers would seem to be the permanent quarantine of such
persons from society to avoid the contagion of their insanities and the general turbulence which
they bring into any order, thus forcing it lower on the scale, or processing such person until
they have attained a level on the tone scale which gives them value.
In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the tone scale should not have, in any
thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into
being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints.
And particularly, none below 2.0, chronically or acutely, should be used as witnesses or jurors
in courts of law, since their position in regard to ethics is such as to nullify the validity of any
testimony they might essay or any verdict they might offer.
This does not propose that depriving such persons of their civil rights should obtain any
longer than is necessary to bring them up the tone scale to a point where their ethics render
them fit company for their fellows. This, however, would be a necessary step for any society
seeking to raise itself on the tone scale as a social order. A fundamental of law already
provides for this step, since sanity, in law, is defined as the ability to tell right from wrong.
The rational, and therefore, the ethical state of persons acutely or chronically below the point of
2.0 is such that it is impossible for them to judge right from wrong. Thus, by bringing
forward a simple definition not only of right and wrong but of ethics, the existing fundamental
can be put into effect, should it happen, by chance, that anyone care whither our social order is
drifting. It is simpler to do psychometry on one-hundred and fifty million people than to bury a
culture for which we and our fathers have striven these past hundred and seventy-five years.
381.382
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
COLUMN T
The Handling of Truth
The metaphysician was concerned with absolute truth and considered that it transcended
the limits of human experience. The social orders of his day must have been not much better
than our own.
Truth is actually a relative quantity; it could be said to be the most reasonable existing
data about any body of facts. Truth, as a manifestation of human conduct, would be the
holding or voicing of facts as one knows them and refusal to utter or hold statements contrary
to what one knows.
Creative and constructive imaginings about the future are not untruths but are postulated
new realities. Few mothers there are who do not have untruths and imaginative postulates
thoroughly confused, thus suppressing the necessary imaginative instincts of the child and, in
fact, burdening the child with a confusion about the truth itself.
Truth may also be confused with tactlessness. A 2.0 will give forth numerous factual
but destructive statements. Many 1.1’s blatantly “pride themselves” on their “honesty,” and so
license themselves to make destructive statements “for the good of” somebody else which are
actually lies. There is an ethic about the handling of truth. While it may be true that something
is undesirable or that a person is bad, if it serves no good purpose to make the statement, the
issuance of this “truth” is in reality the establishing of an entheta line. The highest concept of
truth, then, has a certain aesthetic about it, in that it is creative and constructive. In common
human experience we all know something about the truth and we know that we cannot deal in a
black and white breakdown between the truth and lies. Truth is concerned in the issuance and
acceptance of data about facts. Some people favor constructive facts; some favor facts which
are not so constructive; some prefer to twist facts; some prefer to hide facts; and some prefer to
lie about facts. Some favor high and powerful facts; and some favor only apathetic facts. As
one examines this whole subject, one then discovers that the tone scale itself from 4.0 down to
0.0, postulates the selection of various types of facts; and that the most reasonable facts are the
most constructive ones; and that, as one falls away down the tone scale, the facts selected are
less and less rational and more and more contra-survival. It could be said that life was made to
be lived, not died out of; and that facts which encourage a high level of living would be, for
man, the most truthful facts; and that those which encourage his demise would be the most
untruthful facts. Those things which are truest for man are, then, those things which most
powerfully aid his survival, in theta, life, and MEST.
This column of the tone scale might also be considered the column of preference of
facts. At 4.0 we would have a preference for creative and constructive facts. Around 3.0 we
would have a preference for conservative and less inspiring facts. At 2.5 we would have a
carelessness of facts. At 2.0 we would have a preference for facts which were twisted well
away from truth in order to serve antagonisms. At 1.5 we would have a preference for
destructive facts, twisting all true facts which were constructive so that they would become
destructive facts. At 1.1 we would have a preference for artfully twisted facts which hid a
desire to destroy. At 0.5 we would have a failure to select facts, to evaluate them one way or
the other, but a preference for hopeless facts. Below this level there would be no reaction.
The auditor can locate his preclear on the tone scale simply by discovering the type of
fact which the preclear likes best, or by discovering what the preclear does with facts.
The individual accepts or gives forth truth or untruth according to his position on the
tone scale. If you know, from other columns, the probable position of the preclear on the tone
scale, regardless of his convincingness or even his ability to”prove” what he is saying by rather
382.383
artful “evidence,” you can correctly and properly evaluate the facts he gives you or the facts he
will receive. The rather horrible part of this is that it admits of no great variation. A man at 1.5
deals in destructive facts and twists them so as to make them more effectively destructive; his
data cannot be believed; and, indeed, any data from individuals at the 2.0 level or below has
discard value only.
At 4.0, the individual has a high concept of truth and prefers constructive and creative
truths. He seeks for new truths.
At 3.5, the individual is truthful but prefers not to deal in entheta facts.
At 3.0 we begin to get an onset of conservatism, a cautiousness about receiving or
uttering truths, and in our society a short-sighted programme of social lying in order to “avoid
hurting people’s feelings.” One should, by the way, beware of placing in charge of anything
people who are “afraid of hurting other people,” for this is not a virtue but a form of cowardice
and propitiation and denotes a fear of people; people are not so easily hurt as such persons
believe.
At 2.5 we have insincerity and carelessness of facts. The modern American newspaper
exemplifies this level on the tone scale.
At 2.0 we get the first wilful twisting of facts to suit purposes, and here facts will be
twisted to suit antagonisms the person holds.
At 1.5 we achieve the ultimate reversal in facts; any white fact will be turned into a
black fact; here we have blatant and destructive lying. Did you ever hear an angry man tell the
truth?
At 1.1, truth receives her severest drubbing; for here truth is confused, upset, used,
twisted and hidden for fear somebody may make retaliation, until one understands that data
from this level on the tone scale has only two purposes: to wreak the most harm upon others,
and secure the greatest safety for self. Here we have lies used to hide lies amid the most frantic
protestations of honesty and a noisy advertising campaign about the ethics of the speaker.
Beneath the facade of honor, honesty, ethics, and “one’s sacred word” one is apt to find a
writhing cesspool of vicious and malicious lies calculated to do the greatest possible damage.
Early in the studies of the tone scale which resulted in this chart the lengths to which the 1.1
would go in advertising his virtuous character, while performing his knife-in-the-back tricks,
were not wholly understood. Because such persons said so often that they were honest and
ethical, it was, for a while, accepted that a person could be at a low level on the tone scale in
other columns and still be able to tell the truth. Experience demonstrated that, whatever the
advertisement of honesty, the 1.1 is completely incapable of truth, but lies out of some horrible
mechanical compulsion. Not one of the people for whom this allowance was made succeeded
in being worthy of it; but each was discovered to be so deeply enmeshed in chicanery, all the
while appearing honest, that the depths to which aberration can suppress man were for the first
time clearly understood. Bluntly anyone takes his life and his reputation in his hands when he
believes a 1.1, no matter the evidence. In this band we have fantastically accomplished actors,
who may weep and plead and decry with contempt and disdain, asserting their honesty and
their sincerity, and demonstrating them with such consummate conviction that even the most
critical observer may be unable to detect the slightest falsehood; and yet, in the 1.1, a deep and
exhaustive inspection of motivations and goals reveals a snake pit of lies and insincerities, of
pretenses and unrealities. Such people can turn on tears and other emotions at will and use the
language of highest honor to serve the most despicable ends.
At 0.5, we have no less dangerous but certainly more obvious levels of untruth. Just as
fear drives the 1.1, grief drives the 0.5; and while the grief itself may be perfectly honest, the
facts and evaluations which it collects to itself certainly are not. Since here we have an
individual who is making a cry for help, supplications, pleas for pity, all facts stand magnified.
The dead are found to be suddenly, utterly, without faults; the lover who abandoned the
383.384
sweetheart is found to be a blackhearted villain. The 0.5 may be given sympathy, but not
believed. People who are commonly in this band of the tone scale and are yet able to reason
somewhat, to carry on some of the routine of life, are perilous to be around, since they demand
enormous quantities of affection, and at the slightest rejection, fancied or real, dive in the
direction of death, perhaps only as a demonstration of how badly they need aid, but,
nevertheless fatally. Such dives toward death inevitably affect others, since this individual has
no responsibility of any kind toward other human beings and is so thoroughly introverted that
however pathetic he may appear he only absorbs and never responds. He is an ever-thirsty
sponge for sympathy, and he is a chronic potential suicide. The tendency toward death will
communicate itself toward all the aspects of life around this individual; he will make enMEST
out of any MEST; he will prefer sordid and squalid quarters; he will drive ancient and rickety
cars; he will dress only in the most ragged clothes. All these things are pleas for pity. When
audited, this case, like the 1.1, commonly dubs in. The auditor must be particularly careful of
the 0.5; not to run too much dub-in; not to give too much sympathy; not to give too little
sympathy; and not to make an error in auditing which will depress the preclear’s tone, since the
0.5 has but a little distance to go to attempt death, either by sickness or by actual violent self-destruction.
The 0.5 is near the end of the road and by contagion he much more markedly
enturbulates the free theta of those around him than does even the 1.1. or the 1.5.
The validity of engrams run and the preclear’s concept of truths are in direct ratio. The
auditor can be guided thereby. But the auditor should never be critical of the facts the preclear
brings forth; he must only attempt adroitly to guide the preclear toward running the highest
level of fact the preclear can attain. Cases which are very low on the tone scale achieve their
best advance, not by running data, but by running off charge, through boil-offs, yawns, false-fouring,
and other mechanical unburdening. The data the individual runs when below 2.0 may
be interesting but it is quite often untrue, and it is less and less true the lower the individual
drops on the scale.
The lowest point on this scale for a life organism is, of course, pretended death; and
here is an untruth among untruths; for the organism is obviously alive and it is saying that it is
dead. But the untruth is here modified by the fact that the organism requires but the slightest
thrust to be dead in actuality.
384.385
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
COLUMN U
Courage Level
Courage might be considered the theta force necessary to overcome obstacles in
surviving.
One has as a definition of happiness the process of overcoming not unknowable
obstacles toward a known goal, or the momentary contemplation of the completed task. It can
be seen that this is a definition for happiness; and indeed this definition works. But courage is
necessary if the individual is to be happy. And so it works out on the tone scale; the more free
theta an individual has, in comparison to the theta he has enturbulated, the happier that
individual can be, and the more courage he will demonstrate in his forward actions in life and in
the face of adversities.
The courage level of an individual is actually a direct index of the free theta-enturbulated
theta, or the theta-entheta, ratio of that individual. The courage level is also an index of the
safety with which one may associate with a person or a group. A person of high courage is a
valuable associate and group member, but a coward is a dangerous liability as a friend.
There is a strange mechanism in some men, an aberration of a decadent age, which
causes them to seek out and help and protect the pitiful and weak amongst women. The reverse
is sometimes found amongst women, a woman of strength seeking out and defending a weak
and pitiful man. In either case, a failure is postulated at the beginning of such an association.
However much the weak member may be raised on the tone scale by this association, the
person on the higher level is inevitably lowered. Indeed, when two people occupy different
positions on the tone scale and yet are in association with each other, the person at the higher
point on the scale will become somewhat enturbulated to a greater or lesser degree by the
person at the lower point on the scale; and the person at the lower point will become
unenturbulated to a greater or lesser degree. People, then, who are low on the tone scale
instinctively seek out people who are high on the tone scale; and if the people who are high on
the tone scale have any thought for their own survival and efficiency, they will take adequate
steps to understand the liability which they are incurring and to prevent themselves from being
lessened in substance by such an association.
The auditor, in processing, is continually encountering entheta in any preclear. Thus it
is necessary for the auditor, if he is doing constant processing, to keep himself adequately
processed, elsewhere. Otherwise, the auditor will find himself coming down the tone scale in a
dwindling spiral, until he is at last unable to handle the entheta he is encountering in cases.
Courage level has a great deal to do with auditing. The auditor who has a low courage
level is apt to let the preclear get into such a thing as a fear or terror engram and, justifying the
action as sympathy, let the preclear out without having run the incident. This will most rapidly
and certainly snarl the case. The auditor of low courage level who encounters for the first time
a “screamer” and who fails to persevere in the face of the obvious and shrill agony of the
preclear will make the preclear very sick. So far as courage level is concerned in auditing, any
auditor must have the courage to take anything from the preclear and run a preclear through
anything without quailing. A coward has no business in the auditor’s chair, and if he is so
placed, the preclear can expect to have his case ruined. In a later column on the chart you will
see the tone level required of the auditor in order to handle preclears; the data most pertinent to
this is courage level.
There are three ways of handling a problem: one is to attack it, directly or indirectly; one
is to flee from it, directly or indirectly; and one is to neglect it. It is a matter of reason which
method the individual selects to handle which problem. Continuous attack, bluntly and
385.386
directly, on a problem is not necessarily a courageous address but may only be an angry and
destructive address. A persistent address to the problem, however, requires courage since one
of the components of courage is duration of effort.
At 4.0, we have the high courage level of free theta itself.
At 3.5, we have courage displayed at reasonable risks.
At 3.0, we have a conservative display of courage where the risk is small.
At 2.5, we get neither courage nor cowardice but a definite neglect of danger.
At 2.0, we have blunt, undisguised, unreasoning thrusts at danger.
At 1.5, we get what would normally pass as “bravery,” as distinct from courage. Here
we have the hammering, destructive rush at danger. This often results in damage to self and to
the cause for which the person is fighting.
At 1.1, we have reached fear, on the tone scale, and when the individual rises above
fear we have underhanded displays of action. If the individual is suddenly addressed by
danger, however, we have cowardice.
At 0.5, we have complete cowardice, no attack upon any problem, no reason, and only
defeat.
In fighting, the best tactic is to strike such a sudden, unexpected and hard blow that
one’s enemy is instantly shot down the tone scale to apathy. Japan, receiving an atom bomb,
descended instantly into apathy and surrendered. Hard but long drawn out blows or shocks
harden resistance as in the bombing of London or Madrid. Shock and courage level are
immediately connected.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
COLUMN V
Ability To Handle Responsibity
There is no more certain index of the theta-entheta ratio and of the free theta endowment
of an individual than the ability to undertake and execute responsibility. By responsibility is
meant the area or sphere of influence the individual can rationally affect around other people,
life, MEST, and the general environment, as represented in column Q, Command over
Environment. The emphasis should be placed on “rationally,” since engrams are perfectly
capable of placing a person in a manic state which causes him to believe he can handle a larger
sphere than his capabilities permit, but when this is the case the effect of the individual on the
sphere of influence betrays the fact that an engram is acting, because the sphere of influence
will be affected destructively; this might have been called, in older terminology, a superiority
complex.
The word responsibility is seen, then, to have a finer definition. If it is to be used it
must include the shading that a truly responsible person works toward the survival of his
environment, which would include action along any and all of the dynamics, himself his
children, his family, his group, mankind, life, MEST, theta, and the Supreme Being. Where
he falls short in advancing and aiding the purposes of any of these dynamics he is falling short
of his responsibilities. The operation of free theta would be the complementing of its
component parts in others and in the remainder of the dynamics, since each individual has, as
the components parts of his own free theta, all of these dynamics. A high affinity level is
necessary, then, in any individual, by which is meant his partnership with the dynamics as
existing in others. Where the individual has had many affinity breaks with the other dynamics
(and an engram is an affinity break between the theta universe and the MEST universe) the
concept of partnership reduces, and the individual is more and more concerned with
responsibilities which are nearer and nearer at hand, until he can barely be responsible for
himself. This narrowing of the sphere of responsibility is analogous to the descent down the
tone scale. When the individual cannot be responsible for himself any of the time he is a
chronic psychotic and is institutionalized. When he cannot be responsible for himself except
part of the time he is an acute psychotic and passes in this society for normal.
It is not the magnitude of the sphere of responsibility of the individual which should
take the auditor’s eye as he attempts to evaluate the individual on the tone scale, but it is the
quality of responsibility along each of the dynamics. The fully responsible individual bears
certain definite marks which are unmistakable.
On the first dynamic, he takes good care of himself; he gives a well-kept appearance in
accordance with his means and pursuits; his personal effects are tidy and in reasonably good
condition. On the second dynamic, he attempts to give adequate support and assistance to his
mate and to provide the future with a happy and successful new generation. He is loyal to and
takes good care of his family. On the third dynamic, he takes orderly care of his own affairs as
related to his group and members of his group and seeks to increase the survival potential of his
friends and group. On the fourth dynamic, he is concerned for the survival of man, within the
limits of his education.
On the fifth dynamic, he demonstrates an affinity with other life forms. He will be
found to engage himself, given opportunity, in raising plants or animals and will prefer to have
living things in his vicinity. He will not be given to wanton destruction of life, but will use life
for his own sustenance. The individual who will not kill for food he needs is actually on the
propitiation level of the tone scale, since it is a natural arrangement that higher forms of life
have to support themselves by the ability of lower forms to translate sunlight and chemicals into
the food required by the higher forms.
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On the sixth dynamic, the individual will encompass MEST in ratio to his endowment
of free theta, his property will not have confused titles, the inanimate objects around him which
are meant to serve him will be in good repair, he will have an accurate idea of how much MEST
he encompasses, in terms of matter, energy, space and time. He may or may not have some
consideration in the direction of theta, this depending upon his own advancement. He will
ordinarily be considered to have a reverence and respect for a Creator.
As the individual drops down the tone scale, the orderliness in the various dynamics
decreases. One by one his concept of affinity between himself and these dynamics decreases;
and so decreases his responsibility in the fields of these dynamics. At 4.0, we have an inherent
sense of responsibility on all dynamics, and a care for the entities on those dynamics.
At tone 3.5, the individual is capable of assuming and carrying on responsibilities along
the various dynamics but may show some short-sightedness of responsibility along one or
more of them.
At tone 3.0, the ability to handle responsibility along the various dynamics has
decreased markedly, but responsibility is demonstrated, if in a slipshod fashion. Above this
level the individual will execute orders given to him in as reasonable a fashion as possible, but
at this level the individual accepts and executes orders only if they are enforced by blunt threats
of punishment which are unmistakable. However, at this level, one or more of the dynamics
may remain quite free, and responsibility may be full along this dynamic. At tone 2.5, the
individual is very careless and not trustworthy, although one may find that the individual takes
good care of himself so far as his dress is concerned. He falls markedly short in his concept of
what is required of him in order to maintain a high survival level. The manifestation of this
level is only that of carelessness, however, and not that of revolt, as it is on the lower levels. At
tone 2.0, we find the individual not executing responsibility for its own sake but assuming
responsibility only when self or group interest can be served. We have the individual executing
responsibility not reasonably toward creativeness and construction, but exercising
responsibility on a punishment drive basis. The individual orders things to be done in
threatening tones.
At 1.5, we have the individual assuming responsibility much more often and more
widely than he can possibly manage, in order to bring about destruction along the dynamics.
He will play one dynamic against another. He may talk as if he is saving something or give
very preservative motives for his actions, but no matter what he does the end result will be
destruction. This is a phenomenon which has been too little understood in the past. Here is the
death-talker who is going to save something from destruction by creating great havoc. This
person will not listen to a creative and constructive plan unless he can see ways and means of
using it to destroy. Warmongers and dictators are markedly in this band, but one finds 1.5’s in
all business organizations. When the amount of theta with which an individual is endowed is
high, and when more of that theta is enturbulated than remains unenturbulated (according to the
0.0 to 4.0 ratio, the midpoint of fifty percent enturbulated theta and fifty percent unenturbulated
theta being at 2.0) the thought and action of the individual begins to partake of the nature of
MEST force. He will use MEST force for hammer-like actions and blasts of destruction. He
will oppose reason with MEST force. Such an individual assumes responsibility for the
purpose of destruction by giving out dour and terrible news. Even though he has good news to
give forth he will not give it, but prefers to broadcast tidings of alarm and death. His is the
assertion that all is about to be destroyed and that destruction alone can prevent destruction
from taking place. Unfortunately, it is all too often true that suppressors to a creative action
must be removed before construction and creation takes place. Any person very high on the
tone scale may level destruction toward a suppressor. The individual at 1.5, however, does not
add any creation or construction into his computation except as a pretence, to trump up further
power to destroy. The rather horrible thing about this particular band is that it is above the
current band of civilized societies around the world; and societies will not be led by
governments more than half a point above the general social tone.
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At 1.1, the attitude towards responsibility is capriciousness. The individual is
irresponsible and incapable. The responsibilities assumed by a 1.1 are surface manifestations
only. The individual may seem to be carrying out a programme and may seem to be useful, but
the end results of all these programmes and responsibilities will be disastrous, since underneath
this veneer so many cross-currents and cabals exist that chaos will result. A 1.1 with a
superiority engram which demands that he take responsibility may make an excellent show and
be very convincing, but the show he is making and the conviction he seeks to implant in others
are not the things intended, and a glance below the surface will discover an entirely different
programme aimed solely toward malicious destruction.
At 0.8 - 0.5, to talk of anything like responsibility is nonsense unless one begins to
change the direction of responsibility. From 2.0 down the individual seems to have a
“responsibility” toward death. It is a duty, we might say, for persons from 2.0 down to cause
death, failures or disaster or to die. And it is an additional “responsibility” to mask this “duty”
with apparent constructive goals or merely denial of that “duty.” The “minions of the Devil”
and the “Devil and his dark angels” are descriptions of persons engaged on 2.0-down activity.
The concept of sin as destructive practice containing more pain than pleasure stems from
observations of the activity of low-tone persons. How real these concepts become to one who
is himself enmeshed with another who is responsible to death and not to life. Death is such a
blunt, if hidden, taskmaster!
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
COLUMN W
Persistence On A Given Course
Another index which the auditor can use to place his preclear on the chart is the
persistence of the preclear along any given course of action toward a goal.
It has been advanced that there are two kinds of individuals, so far as persistence is
concerned. The individual who has sufficient theta endowment and sufficient structural ability
to keep his free theta and his enturbulated theta relatively separate may have a good persistence
level even when the factors and conditions in his environment are such that they continually
hammer him away from his given course of action. The other type would be the person who is
knocked by life from one course to another and who will persist on any given course only so
long as no new factor introduces itself. This is characteristic of the potential psychotic. The
persistent individual keeps going toward his goal; he may go slower and slower, and he may
die en route, but he does not deviate. The potential psychotic, on the other hand, is not very
apt to have a goal in the first place but is apt to follow any course which comes into view, and
then only so long as no environmental factor enters to make him deviate from that course.
One must recognize that the exterior world of the environment, in its action on the
individual, and the interior world of the inmost obsessive engrams are working on the same “I”
and that if the individual is not deviating very markedly on his course toward his goal even
when confronted by heavy environmental factors which seek to move him in other directions,
neither is he reacting heavily to his engrams, in proportion to the severe reactions he might
manifest were he less persistent. An individual may be known by his persistence; but this
index is not a sharply defined one, since there are, evidently, two types of personalities, in
general, or one might even say, two types of mental structure.
The persistent individual who normally carries forward toward his goal despite
environmental suppressors and deviators, in the absence of processing and during the normal
course of life because of the dwindling spiral will drop down the tone scale. More of his free
theta will become enturbulated and the balance will gradually shift until, most likely, there is far
more enturbulated theta than free theta. The persistence of this individual may continue, but the
methods he uses to gain his goal will match the various points on the tone scale on the way
down. The individual may begin with a highly enthusiastic thrust and may through experience
become less active and open about his creative and constructive efforts and may assume
conservatism and caution. He may enter a stratum where he is bored with the goal and may
dawdle on his way toward it. Lower than this he becomes antagonistic toward factors which
do not permit him to reach his goal. Below this he becomes angry and destructive toward
suppressors, and although he is still apparently going toward his goal, the majority of his time
is absorbed in combating suppressors. Losing here and there in his battles, his tone will drop,
and he will become more and more covert, even to the point of pretending that he is not any
longer persisting toward his goal, while at the same time continuing to do so. Only when he
reaches the level of apathy will he give up. When a man has been defeated too often, and too
many of his dreams have been broken, he sinks into the apathy band and thereafter no longer
struggles toward his goal. Truly enough, he dies with the last of his dreams.
The individual who has a low theta endowment and seems structurally incapable of
concentration when at a low point on the tone scale, may yet increase his persistence to the
point where he can win the minor goals of life with great ease when he has been released or
cleared.
It is an observed fact that an individual’s attitude toward Dianetics and an individual’s
attitude toward life in general are parallel. When the auditor takes a preclear who is at the
apathy level, all too common in this present social order, he can expect the preclear to depend
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exclusively on the auditor for any persistence as to the processing of the case. The auditor
must take the responsibility of doing the processing. As the preclear comes higher on the tone
scale and reaches 1.1, the auditor can expect the preclear to propitiate him by giving him
presents or being very flattering. Ordinarily, however, the preclear is operating on mechanisms
which tell him he is not supposed to go anywhere or get well, and the auditor must be even
more persistent, since the only persistence toward the goal of getting well or cleared will still be
from the auditor, regardless of what the preclear is saying. Women, by the way, reaching this
level of the tone scale, may propitiate by offering sex and are very easy to seduce. An auditor
who is a wise auditor will steadfastly refuse sexual relations with a preclear. The auditor who
yields to temptation at this level finds himself in a bad situation because his preclear is on the
way up and will shortly pass this propitiative level and achieve more honorable levels of the
tone scale. Auditors who, knowing this, permit themselves such actions are themselves at the
1.1 level and have no business auditing. None but a despicable cur would seek to benefit from
this phenomenon; none but a chronic or acute psychotic would find enjoyment in it. The
person who does this, by the way, usually stops or discourages all processing beyond this
point, realizing that as the tone of the preclear rises some honesty will come into the preclear’s
reasoning. When you spot the sudden cessation of auditing, the barring of a person from
auditing or a refusal to audit, you can be certain that the person responsible for this cessation of
auditing or the refusal to permit or encourage it has a selfish profit to make or is hiding
something. A person like this is such a menace to himself and to others around him that
auditing is much too good for him; he should be shot.
Every case has to get angry before it can get well. The auditor must never discourage a
case when it begins to breathe fire and destruction towards its enemies. It is quite common for
a preclear to go through a phase of desiring murder or sudden death for both parents for what
they have done. The auditor who discourages this anger is inhibiting the ability of the case to
get well. This phase will pass; and the auditor should take care, during it, to prevent the
preclear from making overt acts against his enemies for which he will have to apologize a few
weeks later when the anger phase has gone away. Nevertheless, the anger phase must be
encouraged. The hypnotist who implants suggestions to the effect that one must treat one’s
fellow man kindly is actually driving his client down toward apathy.
Rising on the scale, at 2.5 the preclear finds it difficult to concentrate on the force and
fury of engrams and is liable to be slack in persisting on his case. He is apt to be too busy
about other things. This is a difficult period in any case; but there is so much to be gained
above it that somehow the preclear must be raised even higher on the tone scale. There is only
one way to do this: not by suppressing the preclear back into anger, but simply by getting
enough locks and other brica-brac off the case to bring the preclear up to 3.0.
At 3.0, for the first time the preclear will begin to demonstrate self-determinism. Self-determinism
should never be confused with refusal to cooperate or wilfulness in nonsurvival
directions. At 3.0 the preclear is willing to proceed in the most orderly possible fashion toward
a thorough and complete swamp-up of his case. At 3.5, the persistence of the preclear is such,
ordinarily, that he begins to knock out engrams in chains.
At 4.0, the persistence of the individual will be the persistence with which he is natively
endowed; all the theta that he possesses will be free.
As a word of caution, authoritarian auditing, rather than affinity auditing, will not
produce any marked rises on the tone scale even though many incidents be run, since the
hammering auditing itself keeps the preclear so thoroughly enturbulated that free theta is not
able to manifest itself. The preclear must always be coaxed through affinity, communication,
and reality into being processed. This is the reason why auditors who are low on the tone scale
do not achieve good results; their very position on the tone scale demands that they use forceful
methods, apathetic methods, or spurious methods.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
COLUMN X
Literalness With Which Statements Or Remarks Are Received
It is an aspect of theta that the more it is enturbulated the easier it is to enter enturbulence
into it.
The highest level of reasoning is complete differentiation. The lowest level of
reasoning is complete inability to differentiate; which is to say, identification. On the highest
levels, the individual can understand that the thing is not its name, and that objects are similar to
each other but never equal to each other. In the reactive levels, from 2.0 down, the individual
more and more identifies, until finally all things are the same thing, and this is complete
inability to rationalize. Rationalization is, in essence, differentiation; reacting is, in essence,
identification. The literalness with which the person receives statements is an index of the
amount of enturbulence in the case.
At 4.0, we have high differentiation, good understanding of all communications, as
modified by the clear’s education.
At 3.5, we have a good grasp of statements made and a good sense of humor -a
sense of humor depending, to a large degree, upon the individual’s ability to
differentiate and to see and reject situations which do not fit.
At 3.0, we still have good differentiation of the meaning of statements made, but here
orders have to be explained a little more carefully, since less reason is going to be applied to
them.
At 2.5, the individual accepts very little, literally or other wise. The sense of humor of
this individual is liable to be very literal, dealing to a large extent in puns rather than in
situations.
At 2.0, there is no sense of humor that one could call a sense of humor, but there is
laughter over the misfortune of others, which is a demonstration of antagonism. This
individual will accept remarks which are antagonistic remarks literally; but he will reject
remarks which are lower on the tone scale and be able to differentiate on those remarks. He
does not pay much attention to remarks higher on the tone scale, and if remarks are made to
him from persons higher on the tone scale he is apt to interpret them into antagonism, if they
can literally be so construed.
At 1.5, the individual accepts alarming remarks literally, and when statements on higher
tone levels are made he will alter these statements to his own understanding so that they are
alarming or destructive. The sense of humor, again if it can be called such, of individuals at
1.5 consists of laughter at very painful misfortunes.
At 1.1, we have a lack of acceptance of any remark. The individual is likely to seem to
have difficulty in hearing; he corrects remarks made to him; he is very concerned sometimes
about the rightness of words in remarks. The sense of humor at this level is forced, to
counteract the tendency to accept remarks literally.
Here is a continual nervous necessity to reject almost any remark for fear that it will
register literally and be a command, hence anxiety or fear of conversation of a serious nature.
Rather underhanded efforts are made at this level to knock apart serious statements or plans
from higher levels on the tone scale. At 0.5, we have an individual who literally accepts any
remark which matches his tone, and ignores remarks of any other tone. Apathy statements
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made to this individual have the force of hypnotic suggestions. Anything at all which is said to
a person at the 0.1 level is recorded directly in the lowest strata of the reactive mind.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
COLUMN Y
Method Used By Subject To Handle Others
The means used by the preclear to control or live with the people around him make an
easy and accurate index of the preclear’s position on the tone scale. This is, unfortunately
enough, a precision column. No matter the guise used on the lower level of the tone scale,
observation indicates that individuals at these levels use these methods uniformly, to the
considerable harm and detriment of their families, friends, associates, and the entire social
order. If any column on this tone scale chart should carry more emphasis than the others from
the standpoint of human behavior, this column would be so marked.
The auditor can expect to be treated by the preclear according to the preclear’s position
on the chart.
The methods of handling others could be assigned to three general categories. The
highest category would be one of enhancement, where the individual seeks by example and
good reasoning to lift the level of those around him to the point where they will partake of the
projects of living with him. This would extend from 4.0 down to 3.0. The second category
would be that of punishment drive, or domination. Here the individual uses alarm, threats, and
the general promise of pain unless compliance is given by the others around him. This area
extends from 2.0 to around 1.3. The third category is that of nullification, wherein the
individual seeks to minimize individuals, to be more than they and so to be able to control
them. This category would rather see a man sick than well, because sick men are less
dangerous than well men according to the “thinking” that takes place in this band.
The unfortunate part of the conduct of the lower levels of the tone scale toward others is
that it has as its invariable end the lowering of the tone of the family, associates, friends, and
society of the subject. Yet the subject by no reason or education below the point of 2.0 could
use any other means Forcing the subject to use other means only drives him down the tone
scale, and as he descends he uses the means of the lower levels to which he sinks.
Here we have the dwindling spiral at work upon the environment of the subject and
upon the subject’s associates, friends, and social order. It is not danger by violence from the
low-toned individual about which the social order or the family should worry; it is this
insidious adoption of domination and nullification methods. This enturbulates the theta of the
individuals in the subject’s environment and brings them down the tone scale gradually, hardly
noticeably but nevertheless inevitably.
From 2.0 down, the individual uses a great deal of justification. He has to explain his
acts, since the social order normally questions the rationality of many of these acts.
A 3.5 operating in good order may be offering nothing but good to a 1.5 in his vicinity.
The 3.5 will yet find himself the target of anger which has no cause in the conduct of the 3.5
but is simply emanating from the 1.5 position of the other on the tone scale. The 1.5 would act
this way toward the 3.5 regardless of anything the 3.5 might do.
The 3.5 in the vicinity of a 1.1 may find himself descending down the tone scale toward
anger without any apparent reason. The 1.1’s efforts to nullify are so well veiled and so
carefully calculated to annoy that no target is available to the reason of the 3.5. As reason fails,
the 3.5, continually subjected to nullification which he cannot locate, will eventually become
angry. The 1.1’s reply to this anger will not be a return argument or anger, but an apparent
continuation of the status quo, while at the same time he does everything possible which can
still remain veiled and hidden to reduce and nullify the 3.5. These hidden efforts will become
stronger and stronger until nullification or destruction takes place. Or the 1.1, quailing before
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the anger, will drop into apathy and so use every ally available anywhere who can be coaxed or
deceived into supporting the 1.1’s efforts to destroy the 3.5. The reasonable man quite
ordinarily overlooks the fact that people from 2.0 down have no traffic with reason and cannot
be reasoned with as one would reason with a 3.0. There are only two answers for the handling
of people from 2.0 down on the tone scale, neither one of which has anything to do with
reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on
the tone scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes.
The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow. Adders are safe bedmates
compared to people on the lower bands of the tone scale. Not all the beauty nor the
handsomeness nor artificial social value nor property can atone for the vicious damage such
people do to sane men and women. The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals
occupying the lower bands of the tone scale from the social order would result in an almost
instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society
may have entered. It is not necessary to produce a world of clears in order to have a reasonable
and worthwhile social order; it is only necessary to delete those individuals who range from 2.0
down, either by processing them enough to get their tone level above the 2.0 line -- a task
which, indeed, is not very great, since the amount of processing in many cases might be under
fifty hours, although it might also in others be in excess of two hundred -- or simply
quarantining them from the society. A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He
saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting
and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country. The
methods used by individuals on various levels of the tone scale in order to live with their
fellows are as follows:
At 4.0, the individual uses enthusiasm, serenity, confidence, and his personal force to
inspire those around him to reach up to a constructive level of action. Indeed, the presence of a
4.0, or above if the theta endowment of the individual is high, unenturbulates an area.
The 3.5 begins to employ communication and reasoning in order to invite the
participation of others but still believes in bringing people up to a level where they will work
with him.
At 3.0 we have the level where conservatism begins to enter the reasoning and where
persuasion and social graces begin to be employed to invite the participation of others. Safety,
security, and somewhat better survival conditions are the arguments used along this level of the
tone scale. At 2.5, the individual is relatively careless of the participation of others in his
projects.
At 2.0 we begin to enter the domination band, which extends downwards to about 1.2.
Here theta force can be seen to be distinguishable from MEST force. Theta force is reason; and
MEST force is simply that -- force. Here we have efforts to hammer and pound and dominate
by physical strength, threats, anger and promises of vengeance. Here compliance is
commanded, and lack of compliance is stated to mean death. Here we have emergencies being
more important than constructive planning. Here we have all manner of undesirable things
which, indeed, seem to be the primary business of men and nations today.
Nullification actually begins with domination but becomes very pronounced at about
1.3. A 2.0 might demand of another that he demonstrate enough “guts” to carry forward a
project, but from 1.3 down, the modus operandi is any and every effort to convince another
human being “for his own good” or “for the good of others” that he has neither the force nor
strength to be dangerous. By rendering the individual undangerous, these levels seek to
dominate him with the pitiful strength which still remains to the 1.3 and down. The 1.2 and
down is most comfortable around sick people, around people who are in apathy, since he
mistakenly believes these people not to be dangerous because they are obviously weak. This is
so far from good reasoning that the results are catastrophic -- but little if any reasoning is done
from 2.0 down. In its stead are excuses and justifications.
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Here in a social culture from 1.2 down is the welfare state at its worst, the creation of
indigence in the populace to make it easier to control, the nullification of strong individuals in
the society, the removal of all constructive persons, and the preservation of the idle, the
hopeless, the helpless and the weak. This is actually a social or an individual mechanism to
accelerate death. The 1.1 wife who has a strong and able husband keeps on living so long as he
keeps breathing the force of life into her. At her position on the tone scale, her direction is
toward death. Every action she takes, regardless of its surface manifestations, will tend toward
nullification of any life source in her vicinity. Every conceivable mechanism is used in this area
of the tone scale to make nullifications of others seem valid, to make them stick. Here we have
raillery against people who refuse to accept criticism “for their own good.” Here we have
painstaking efforts to “better people” by showing them their faults. Here we have attempts to
“educate” people into adjusting themselves to their environment -- in other words, to stop being
vital and active and go somewhere and lie down, where they will be no menace. Here we have
confusions introduced into any situation which are given the most adequate “reasons” and
which are yet only nullifications.
From 2.0 down to 1.2, efforts to change people or dominate them are recognizable as
such. From 1.2 down, all forthrightness vanishes, and the most devious and insidious and
complex methods are employed to nullify. The individual in this area of the tone scale very
often has a complete belief in his or her superiority, which is a justification for using the
methods he uses. Such people commonly fasten themselves on strong personalities well up the
tone scale and then continue to assert their superiority without ever giving, of course, any
demonstration that the superiority exists, until the higher level becomes nullified. The
individual in this area seeks death not only for himself and his own projects but also for his
entire environment. At this level we have murder, by slow erosion, of individuals and the
culture, each harmful action being masked with voluminous “reasoning.” Here is the snake pit
of human behavior, and from this area comes the venom which will gradually destroy any
individual or culture. Heretofore, people in this area have not been seen to be dangerous, and
the word “psychotic” has been used to designate only those who were helpless or overtly
destructive. However, this area never becomes overtly destructive, tending if anything toward
suicide and rarely toward murder, save on a long-term basis of murder of the personality or the
projects of others. Yet this area of the tone scale is far more dangerous than any other.
Here we have perversion of anything and everything, so that the surface manifestation
will never match the undercover purposes. In sex we have no facing of the purpose and use of
sex as something to be enjoyed and for the creation of children, but we have all manner of
anxieties and irregular practices which do anything but tend toward the creation of children.
And though we may have in such a person a hectic obsession with the performance of the act
and an avowed interest and enjoyment in the act, we have actually no enjoyment of it. Sexual
efforts tend not towards enjoyment but toward the pollution and derangement of sex itself so as
to make it as repulsive as possible to others and so to inhibit procreation. Here is the
promiscuous woman, the inconstant lover, the pervert and the sadist. With a great deal of
advertisement about sex there is only an effort to destroy sex. In this area of the scale we have
avowal by the individual at times that sex is free and must be enjoyed, and a continuous stream
of accusation toward others that they believe sex to be a hideous thing and that their attitude
must be reformed. Sex is stained and soiled under the guise of being protected. Here we may
have an advertisement as to the proper attitude toward children, and strange practices
concerning children.
In handling people around them, persons in the 1.2-down bracket deal in reversals of
fact. One can take it as a rule of thumb which is too often workable to be ignored that whatever
this person says he is doing, he is actually doing something else. Whatever this person says is
true, is actually false. Whatever this person says is false is actually true. Making allowance for
the fact that much of such a person’s conversation is without purpose, one can beware of this
contrariness between manifestations and actual purpose.
In keeping with the avoidance of any surface statement of what is actually going
forward, we have here the hypnotist. The hypnotist normally ranges from around 1.8, where
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he uses it as straight dominance, to around 0.6, where apathy has become strong enough to
prevent active efforts to dominate or nullify others. Hypnotism never has and never will raise
an individual on the tone scale. A manic hypnotic suggestion making one feel that he feels
better and is better could be implanted. But the act of hypnotism actually enturbulates the free
theta and it can be easily shown by tests that a manic implantation leaves the individual less able
than he was before, regardless of its content. Hypnotism is the entering of the hypnotist’s
personality and desires below the choice level of the individual. It is non-survival save only
when used as a temporary anaesthesia for an operation and picked up and run out in processing
immediately after the individual is well -- not to pick it up would be equivalent to continuing a
general anaesthetic forever after the operation. Civilized cultures of today are unaware of the
widespread use of hypnotism. It is the favorite tool of the pervert and the sexually deranged.
An individual at this level of the tone scale may very well have the permission of a partner for
the sex act but will actually prefer to accomplish the act in an undercover fashion, as provided
by hypnotism. Hypnotism is used in some base religions, and is commonly employed in
obsolete mental “therapies,” which should make plain the level of those on the tone scale.
When a “therapy” on this level of the tone scale (1.3 to 0.6) is employed it is only to
render the individual under treatment more tractable, less “liable to be harmful to others,” and to
wreck self-determinism in the individual. This is the exact reverse of what it takes to make
people well and sane. Empirical evidence should have demonstrated long since that such
methods do not work, but this level of the tone scale is not much given to reasoning. Here is
the pre-frontal lobotomy, the trans-orbital leucotomy, electric shock, insulin shock, directive
therapies, and all the rest of the unworkable claptrap with which modern civilization has been
victimized. True enough, an individual by such methods can be made less dangerous to his
fellow men and easier to handle, since he is made into more MEST and less theta. But it is
equally true that this treatment decreases, often permanently, any ability of the patient to be of
service to his society.
The processing methods which raise a person on the tone scale are so very simple to
apply that one wonders, or perhaps does not wonder, at the continued insistence on destructive
“therapies” in institutions. These institutions often use sedatives, and yet one of the worst
things that an individual who is in a disturbed state can be given is a sedative; it makes him
quieter and less dangerous but it also makes him less able. Furthermore, an individual under
sedation receives sounds and sights in his environment as positive suggestions and therefore is
continually receiving new locks and more enturbulence, although it may appear momentarily
that his condition is better. A preclear must never be audited under sedation. This is a strong
injunction, since preclears audited under sedation or under the influence of alcohol become
worse, and a psychotic treated when he is under such influence (as in narcosynthesis) may very
well have all of his free theta enturbulated and so be sent into a “permanent” break. The auditor
should be very careful when working with anyone to ascertain whether or not that person is
taking any drugs, since medical doctors will very often issue sedatives to patients without
telling the patient that he is taking a sedative.
Sedatives have been around for many thousands of years. They have certain uses, in
light doses, but such uses are extremely temporary in duration. Continuous application of
sedatives to an individual, as they make him more suggestible -- make it easier for him to
receive locks -- wreaks considerable harm upon his mind. This, however, can be remedied
unless it has gone to a point of no return.
Politically, the area of 2.0 to 1.4 is the area of fascism. where dominance of others is
continually preached, where safety and safeguarding are continually stressed and where
destruction and threats of punishment are used to force others.
From 1.3 down to 0.6 we have the general area of the subversive, who promises a
people freedom and equality and gives them a slaughter of their best minds and cultural
institutions, to the end of a totalitarian dominance. Because subversion exists in this tone band,
the subversive leader can use as his personnel only people in this tone band; if this tone band
were to be removed from a society he would have no recruits. To such people the perfidious
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and twisted practices of subversion have an enormous appeal. It gives them the “right” to
practice Free Love and general promiscuity and, by destroying the Church and other
institutions or by holding these as nothing, sets them above any necessity to conform to an
existing social order. Thus the recruit is exhilarated by having a new justification for doing on
a wide scale what he has been doing on a narrow scale, nullifying by hidden and insidious
means all the strong and the orderly in the environment. In any relatively low-toned social
order the idea of having the right to do hidden and vicious things for a “glorious cause” is so
attractive to persons in this area that they automatically support this political idiocy. As reason
is absent in this area of the tone scale it never occurs to these recruits that the most zealous
amongst them will be the first to go down under firing squads, since even a totalitarian regime,
in attempting to run any kind of a state, must compel severe conformity to its own “codes” no
matter how depraved these “codes” might be; and the recruit in the land which was about to be
conquered was selected because of non-conformity. Thus, immediately after a complete
totalitarian conquest of a country we invariably witness an extensive slaughter of individuals.
One can select with ease the individuals marked for liquidation in the consolidation of the
conquest. The selection is not made according to the position the individual occupies but by his
individualism, his strength, and his reasonableness, or by his continuing revolutionary desire
not to conform to set and regimented patterns. A considerable percentage of the people
slaughtered in any new conquest consists of the agents and tools used by the conqueror to
soften up the country before the conquest took place. The morbid fear of any totalitarian
regime is counter-revolution, because they best of all understand how perfidious revolution can
be. The 1.1 may take a 1.1 as a bedfellow and political mate and may form a 1.1 group, but
this group has to continue to be faced by a strong and dangerous foe to remain consolidated.
This is the condition of a subversive cell. These people continue in association with each other
only so long as they are in the presence of and are busy undermining a worthy opponent.
Because a 1.1 will act in handling people only as a 1.1, however, the cell, once the pressure is
taken off it, devours itself.
If the auditor is processing anyone known to have been in continual association with a
1.1, he can readily and rapidly assemble the pattern of aberration of this unlucky preclear, since
it will consist of the surface display by the 1.1 that all was being done for the preclear’s good
and a continual and insidious underhanded campaign to hit the preclear at his weakest points.
The apathy band of the tone scale is only less dangerous to the social order than the 1.1.
The apathy band has a definite procedure for handling people and the environment. Apathy is
attempting to tend toward death; here is the suicide. And the apathy case will actually
thoroughly enturbulate those around him in an effort to cause death along the other dynamics.
There was once a whole political philosophy about apathy, Zeno’s Apatheia, which was
embraced in the last death throes of the Roman Empire. The apathy case will try to discourage
anyone from doing anything. Hopes and dreams are destroyed merely by claiming that they are
hopeless and impossible. It has been fashionable to “feel sorry” for individuals on this band of
the tone scale. This is exactly what this band of the tone scale demands of associates in the
environment. Here we have cries for pity, supplication, and any and every means to gain
sympathy. These are actually enturbulative mechanisms rather than real requests for help. The
entheta of the apathy level does not want to be helped but merely wishes to enturbulate further
and to die, causing at the same time as much death as possible in the environment. Nearly any
human being confronted with the loss of a friend or loved one dives momentarily into the grief
level, and the acute state of apathy is thus seen commonly, if sporadically, in the society. This
state can be easily remedied by processing when it is a momentary, environmental
restimulation. The chronic apathy case is a different matter and is intensely dangerous to the
environment. It is fashionable to feel sorry for the apathy case, and yet the apathy case never
feels sorry for anyone. Despite all the tears and moaning, the apathy case, on a substratum is
quite cunning and attempts to produce through tears the maximum enturbulation possible. The
1.1 will twist past experiences in the telling, reporting cruelty where there was only abruptness.
The apathy case will declare all past kindnesses to have been the most sadistic cruelties and the
cruelties to have been kindnesses. Facts are not simply distorted by an apathy case; they are
reversed. By reversing all visible evidence and declaring everything to be the exact opposite of
the reality, maximal enturbulation can be produced. The apathy case, by insisting that every
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white is black, so tries the reason of others in his vicinity that they, lost in this confusion, also
become apathetic, since there seems to be no possible method of reasoning.
Apathy is more than hopelessness: it is death in a very forthright form. The apathy case
talks about death, threatens personal death, and will actually attempt suicide. There is not
enough courage on this level usually to attempt openly the death of others, but by enturbulation
the apathy case can effect this and will do so if not understood. The apathy case quite
commonly sets an example of death by fake suicide in a vague effort to be mimicked by another
and so bring about another’s death. The apathy case that is threatening suicide, however,
cannot be disregarded, since a sudden enturbulence may actually bring about an attempt. Here,
the command over the environment is recognized by the apathy case to be limited to the
individual’s possessions and body alone. We get various types of neglect of possessions
which quietly and undramatically lead to their destruction. Here we get neglect of the feelings
of other people and their concerns. Here we have neglect of person (self) which may,
dramatically or undramatically, tend toward the destruction of person. The apathy case is so
reversed on reality that he will declare things, which are normally ugly and horrible, to be
beautiful, and things which are beautiful to be ugly and horrible. An insidiousness is present at
about 0.7 wherein the apathy case seems to support beautiful things and art but in so
supporting them spoils them for others in the environment. There is a gruesome obscenity in
the admiration such people give to beauties in life.
Below 0.7 there is not enough activity to lend active support for any purpose save the
attainment of death for self and others. Valuable objects, assets, and projects are in
considerable peril in the vicinity of an apathy case even though the apathy case may not seem to
be very active. It is this inactivity which is deceptive. A slight surge in tone can cause an
apathy case to despoil anything in the vicinity which is normally considered survival. Apathy
cases have destroyed great works of art, organizations and individuals for the most specious
and spurious reasons. The apathy case is so self-centred that it is very difficult for the auditor
to gain any cooperation. Indeed, every effort the auditor makes to invite hopefulness will be
rejected. It will not be so thoroughly rejected that the auditor is rebuffed, but will be met with
new reasons why the auditor should feel sorry for the apathy case. Most of these reasons are
outright lies, and the apathy case commonly runs floods of dub-in as well as spurious tears.
Auditors, and indeed a society, not understanding the true motives of apathy are placed in
considerable peril since a natural desire exists in the higher levels of the tone scale to aid and
support one s fellows. The apathy case is actually perverting and destroying this desire by
inviting it toward unworthy causes. This is a death action intended to destroy the mechanism
of cooperation. The self-centredness of the apathy case is appalling to any reasonable being
once he examines it. A great deal of the conduct of the apathy case is, knowingly unknowingly,
pretence or act. At the 0.6 level, one may even occasionally catch an apathy case peering
hawk-like but covertly from under the veil of tears to be sure that the show is still receiving the
attention of the audience.
Much experience with apathy teaches the auditor that there is nothing very noble about
grief or apathy. The actual grief should be run out of a case as soon as possible. But when he
is auditing an apathy case the auditor will find himself running a great deal of specious incident
all of which contains grief. The invitation for sympathy knows no bounds. The demands for
pity will become, even to the most patient, trying beyond endurance. Although one may at first
feel an active urge to help an apathy case, when one has penetrated the depth of speciousness of
the data, an impulse toward contempt and ridicule will result, for no reasonable man finds an
impulse toward death a reasonable thing, and the apathy case has no other impulse. The cry for
pity, and the supplication for aid seem to require the assistance of others. Actually these are
demanding the enturbulence and death of others. No apathy case wants to be helped but will
use any and every means to keep from being helped. As courage is absent, the apathy case will
dodge any incident which contains real force, just as the apathy case will dodge any factor in
the environment which contains real help or aid and will go inevitably toward environmental
factors which are destructive. The apathy case, thus, avoids any good auditing and will
actually seek out and encourage very bad auditing.
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It is a certain mawkish sentimentality in our current society, encouraged by generations
of literary men who were attempting only the strongest impact and thus the greatest sale for
their works, which makes us brook, tolerate and countenance the apathetic. Perhaps because
each of us feels his importance demands that someone feel sorry for him when he is hurt or
dead we countenance a continuing grief in others. By dianetic processing this grief is very
easily dispensed with, and anyone who has long experience in the handling of apathy cases
would be more likely to feel sentimental about running sores or venereal disease than to feel
long and enduring sympathy for apathy.
As an admonition to auditors: never give support to the whims and ideas of an apathy
case, and do not give the apathy case sympathy, but give it gentle processing. Do not believe
the data obtained from an apathy case, but work mechanically with the case, actively getting as
much free theta as possible to raise the case on the tone scale at least to covert hostility. Apathy
cases enturbulate one very easily, because one can so easily feel that grief over lost ones is
something which should be supported and assisted as a worthy mechanism. An apathy case
will say or do anything to gain sympathy. Utter immorality is present. The apathy case will
surrender his or her body as readily as anything else as a price of a little sympathy. The”love”
one receives from an apathy case is actually the extreme depths of propitiation, and the “loving”
apathy case will deliver one up to the hangman with as little compunction as he or she would
feel in drinking a glass of water. No reason, no codes, no ethics, no decency, no truth, no life
are the hard and fast rules of the apathy case. And because a narrative can be given forth by the
apathy case wild and alarming enough to justify his condition, one is often tempted to accept
this propitiation as actual affinity, when actually it is an invitation to be killed. Because this
propitiation can be mistaken for love, one is often tempted, out of sympathy and a desire to
assist, to become closely associated with an apathy case, but one should be apprized that his
name on a marriage certificate coupled with that of an apathy case constitutes a death warrant
more certain than that of a court of law. His home, if he ever manages by strenuous effort to
assemble one, will be a shambles. His position will be lost and his dreams will be shattered.
His self respect will be slaughtered and his concepts of morals and decency will be destroyed.
These statements are made without compromise after long and close observation of apathy at
work in an individual. Apathy is only half a point above death, and apathy will bring death to
anything and everything in the environment.
A social order in the apathy band will take any unreasonable course which leads
towards death. It will follow any leader who claims that life is not worth living and that things
and people should be neglected until they cease to live. Here is no outright destruction of
entities. Here is insidious destruction through neglect, over-use, and accelerated decay. The
American Indian, for instance, when pushed by defeat into the tone band of apathy adopted
programme after programme which was acclaimed as a salvation programme but which was
always a death programme. There was the matter of the ghost dancers, who avidly received the
falsity that their cotton shirts could stop bullets. There was the wave of dog killing, whereby it
was asserted that the buffalo would come back if all the dogs were dead.
The body itself cooperates in the apathy band by becoming sick from any slightest
cause, by involving itself in accidents of devious and various kinds, and by failing in endocrine
function. One can expect the apathy case to become ill from bacteria even when bacteria are not
present.
One should be extremely chary of using any authoritarian or violent means on cases
from 2.0 down, since such cases are very easily driven into the apathy level. Apathy is
apparently, and only apparently, more tractable and easier to manage, since the apathy case to
some degree is in a permanent hypnotic trance and will listen to and believe anything said no
matter how ridiculous it may be. This is a highly dangerous state and will result not only in the
suicide of the person, on occasion, but also in the death of the concerns and persons of others
in the environ of the apathy case. This is the reason why there are so many suicides pursuant
to the practice of hypnotism and other crude techniques. These, by asserting control over the
individual, depress him down the tone scale. The apathy case is capable of such thorough
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lying, that the individual may even claim to be better and appear to be better, until one morning
he is found a suicide. The apathy case can be very deceptive.
The auditor should be warned not to employ any authoritarian methods in processing.
We in Dianetics are only interested in raising people on the tone scale. The auditor should be
careful not to enturbulate persons below the 2.0 line any further than they already are, but
should be as non-directive as possible. For, if the auditor permits his preclear to drop into
apathy he has on his hands a much more difficult and much longer case than a 1.1 or a
forthrightly howlingly angry 1.5. Remember too that in this social order people from 2.0
down the scale are accepted commonly as sane so long as they can perform any seemingly
rational acts in the environment.
At 0.1 or 0.3 the individual also has a method of handling others around him. This
mechanism is based upon the reasoning that if one disavows all possible dangerousness the
dangerous people in his vicinity will go away and leave him alone. As a matter of fact, hunters
and soldiers rationally employ this mechanism as a last resort, and the mechanism occasionally
works. Certain animals have this built in as a habit pattern. By an abandonment of all
appearance of life they hope to arrest the urge of the attacker to produce death.
The death of James Forrestal, who had been driven into apathy by overwork, is an
illustrative case not only of what happens when authoritarian methods and incarceration are
used as “treatment” but of the complete deceptiveness of which the apathy case is capable.
Forrestal had not seemed so pleasant and relieved for some months as he did an hour before he
threw himself from the tower of the Bethesda Naval Hospital and fell sixteen flights to his
death on the concrete and glass below. Thus perished one of the most brilliant managers and
champions of the United States Navy. And other suicides, great and not so great, stack like
cordwood before the back alleys of authoritarian “therapy.”
One should realize that all individuals below 2.0 have a tendency to look upon family
friends and associates as menaces to life or aids to death. Real affection is impossible, but
propitiation and pretence of affection are mechanisms by which one invites pity or disclaims
dangerousness. People from 2.0 down live in an atmosphere, according to their own
viewpoint, of potential death and murder. At 1.5, the mission is to cause the death of the
“dangerous” entities by forthright acts of destruction. The 1.1 considers the family, associates,
and environ even more potentially deathly and so, seeing greater danger in them, uses more
covert and devious methods to cope with and disarm these “dangerous” entities, and puts forth
a smokescreen of helping and doing good for family, associates, and environ. Here also one
finds the mechanism of championing the underdog. The underdog is not dangerous and may
be an ally one can use against one’s very deathly environment. Anyone championing the
underdog is projecting himself into the underdog and is making a covert plea for the rights of
the underdogs to live, in the usually not realized hope that he as an underdog will be permitted
to go on living regardless of his acts against others.
Following this ratio of the dangerousness of the environment as viewed by the
individual, the environment to the apathy case is literally crawling with death threats. Every
person, every object, and every act is considered to have in it a death intent. The kindest word,
though apparently accepted by the apathy case, is yet received deviously in the “full
understanding” that death lurks but a small distance behind that proffered help. This
encourages the apathy case to act in a murderous fashion and seems to him to give him license
to pay no attention to any moral code or feeling of decency. The apathy case lives in a cesspool
of impending slaughter and interprets anything done for him or her as something to be accepted
warily. The apathy case quite commonly speaks of being killed, either of killing himself or of
being killed by others. His attention may be so fixed in its unreality that he chooses but one
murderer who is about to kill him; or his concentration may be so scattered that he chooses
many men, organizations or things as potential murderers.
The pretended death case has come to a point where he considers the environment so
fraught with menace that nothing in the environment has any intent save to kill him and that
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death is immediate. He has insufficient energy or reason remaining even to appeal for help
and, indeed, he considers that there is no person or object to which he can so appeal, and so he
attempts to demonstrate to anything in the environment that it has won and that he is already
dead. By posing as dead he imagines he can survive at least long enough to die a little less
painfully than he considers he will die if he moves. Old and decadent races are commonly
found to have the practice of willing death. An individual merely goes and sits on the edge of
his grave until he dies and falls in. One can find such people any day on for instance, Coal
Hill, near Peking.
The pretended death case has abandoned even trying to find any one menace and
considers everything a menace. This state has the peculiarity of being unfixed. Possibly the
most signal effect to rouse this case can be made by concentrating the attention of the individual
upon a single and definite threat of death. Indeed, observing an honest and active source of
death raises the necessity level and brings anyone up the tone scale at least for a brief time.
Thus in war, cities which are under sporadic bombardment show a lower incidence of
psychosis than cities which, far behind the lines, only read about the deaths in newspapers.
The source of death has been pinpointed as artillery and bombardment planes, and the source is
so dramatic that attention can be fixed upon it. The source is also so simple that it requires very
little effort to comprehend it. Further, such destruction brings with it many dead and disabled
over whom the erstwhile psychotic can loom and so cease to occupy the tail end of the
procession as target number one for all dangerous entities in the environment. For in treating
wounded and dead he can observe without having to reason very much that he is more
dangerous to them than they are to him. An additional reason for this sudden upsurge of a city
under threat is the uniting towards a common goal of resisting or overcoming a common
menace. Nations which engage in war so unify their populaces, and this is an immediate
revelation of the position on the tone scale of those nations which suppose they have to resort
to war. For any reasonable and active nation need not engage in MEST destruction to secure
the cooperation of another nation: this is an insanity, brought about by a position of 2.0 or
below on the tone scale.
The text corresponding to this column is long because it is actually a coverage of
interpersonal relations. The rough rule regarding interpersonal relations, from which other
matters may be deduced, is that reason and cooperation exist in an increasing quantity from 2.0
up and that the direction of effort is toward Survive. From 2.0 down domination and control,
overt or covert, are employed in handling people, and the direction of effort is toward
Succumb. People above 2.0 on the tone scale suffer from any and all association with people at
2.0 and down on the tone scale And people from 2.0 down benefit, so far as surviving is
concerned, from any association with people above 2.0. But the purposes are crossed, since
individuals from 2.0 up do not wish to be made to succumb and will combat any effort in that
direction. And the individuals from
2.0 down do not wish to made to live or create, and so resist any effort in that direction.
Where reason will not swiftly resolve an argument between two human beings, an inspection
of the position each of those two occupies on the tone scale will probably demonstrate that one
is arguing to survive and the other is arguing to succumb, or one is arguing to create and
construct and the other is arguing to destroy or neglect. Because a person’s position on the tone
scale can be acute or momentary due to enturbulence in the environment or can be chronic due
to entheta “permanently” (except for dianetic processing) enturbulated, one can observe in
people below 2.0, when less enturbulated, efforts to survive, and one can observe in people
above 2.0 occasional efforts to succumb.
It is worthy of note that the environment of the individual has its own position on the
tone scale. His school, the office in which he does business, his family, may occupy as a
group a certain position. This position of the environment on the tone scale comes about
because of the influence of certain persons or the nature of the organisation or the existing state
of culture, and it cannot be neglected in estimating both the personality of the preclear and the
methods he will use in handling others.
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Actually there are three kinds or conditions of theta below the 4.0 line. The first is free
theta. The next is temporarily enturbulated theta which, left alone for a short time, will
unenturbulate. And the third is frozen entheta, which is held in place in the case by the nature
of engrams, secondaries, and locks. Environmental impacts, of course, charge up the engrams
in the case and keep any person, unless a great change in environment takes place bringing
much better survival factors, continuing on down the tone scale throughout his lifetime. The
environment impacting upon the individual thus alters free theta “permanently” into frozen
entheta, but this is a gradual process, cumulative and deadly though it may be. As a child he
may have a very large number of engrams, but the environment has not acted upon him with
sufficient impact to charge these engrams up with entheta in secondaries and locks. When he is
an old man the track is almost completely entheta, in the usual case.
There is another kind of enturbulation. The free theta is enturbulated by the
environment, and although the majority of the free theta may become temporarily enturbulated,
only a small portion of it freezes into the locks, secondaries, and engrams. Thus a person,
because of the enturbulation of free theta on a temporary basis, can be moved up and down the
tone scale by his environment. It is this surface manifestation and volatility of misemotion
which has masked the nature of free theta. The environment impacting against the individual
may, for instance, inflict 1.5 factors on him to such an extent that he becomes momentarily 1.5.
If the quantity of free theta remaining to him is great he will rather rapidly unenturbulate and
regain his high position on the tone scale. Free theta can only be enturbulated downward, and
the case can only be enturbulated downward on the tone scale. The 1.1 does not go up to 1.5
because of enturbulation, he goes down to apathy. The apathy case, when his free theta is
enturbulated, flashes quickly into pretended death, or may even die, his margin of operation is
so slight.
The environment, then, has a marked effect upon the individual, from hour to hour and
day to day. An individual who lives in a family which has a chronic tone of 1.1 may himself be
potentially a 3.0 and outside the family may manifest the qualities of a 3.0, but in the family his
enturbulation is so constant that he is little by little losing free theta into lock, secondary, and
engram entheta and will gradually decline down the scale. The only thing which would remedy
this would be having at the same time another environment, higher on the tone scale than he,
which would tend to unenturbulate the free theta that becomes enturbulated in the vicinity of the
family.
Thus is it important to the auditor that his handling of the preclear has as high a tone
level as possible, and he should attempt to arrange the preclear’s environment so that it has as
high a tone as possible. An auditor who is attempting to work a preclear who is being
mishandled by a 1.5 environment will find himself working day after day with nothing but
temporarily enturbulated theta, and he will make very small progress with his case. It is
necessary for him to get this case out of the 1.5 environment so that the free theta can
unenturbulate and thus be available to free the frozen entheta in the locks, secondaries, and
engrams, in order to add constantly to the preclear’s free theta and not just keep it from
becoming less by daily environmental enturbulation.
It is also of interest to the auditor and to people in general that education has its own
positions on the tone scale. Education designed to inhibit and restrain, to create conformity to
the social order, has the unfortunate effect of reducing the individual on the tone scale. This
would be authoritarian education and would be from 2.0 down. Education which invites and
stimulates reason and seeks to accelerate the individual toward a successful and happy level of
existence and has enough faith in individuals to assume the good usage of the education raises
the individual on the tone scale. One can, by reviewing the education of any individual,
discover much supportive evidence for this, since it will be found that those subjects in which
the individual is able will be those which were taught by methods from 2.0 up, and those
subjects in which the individual is poor, lacking accuracy or self-determinism, and failing in his
reason with them, were taught by methods which would be found from 2.0 down on the tone
scale. As a society declines, it more and more resorts to authoritarian teaching and attempts
increasingly to impress upon the individual that he must adjust to his environment and that he
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cannot adjust his environment to him. The educational process becomes one of semi-hypnotically
receiving doughy masses of data and regurgitating them upon examination papers.
Reason and self-determinism are all but forbidden.
When we speak of people using various methods to handle other people we must also
speak of the methods which have been used to handle our preclear. We are interested in
Dianetics in what has been done to an individual, not what the individual has done. This is not
an effort to escape or alter moral standards but is simply a statement of fact; the auditor who
becomes interested in his preclear’s motives and makes evaluations of his preclear’s reasoning
is not only wasting his time but is trying to perform authoritarian therapy. What has been done
to a person educationally is of very great concern to the auditor, since education can be so
thoroughly suppressive that it and it alone, given engrams to charge up on the case, can move
the individual considerably down the tone scale, as witnessed by the many vapid, will-less and
idle graduates of our universities.
Knowing that education can be such a strong factor in the aberrating and suppressing of
the human being is helpful, in that by lock scanning the auditor can pick up and de-intensify an
education wholesale, with a resultant rise of his preclear on the tone scale and without touching
anything which could be dignified as locks, secondaries or engrams. The whole of a person’s
education may be a lock. No words bitter enough or strong enough could be levelled at
authoritarian educational systems, which even though they witness in their parades of graduates
destroyed artists, hopeless and apathetic women, stupid and dull engineers, yet have made no
great effort to establish and remedy the cause -- their own authoritarian methods of education.
Fortunately, a college education can be picked up out of a preclear who is in fair working
condition in ten or fifteen hours. Waste-basketing this enormous and onerous effort on the part
of mentally constipated straw men and would-be Little Caesars on their lecture platforms
would, of course, be an enormous benefit to the whole society, but in the absence of this
highly desirable measure the auditor can at least regain the free theta which has been tied up in
the individual’s education.
The college is not the only destructive element in the educational system. High school
systems are as bad, but they have as their subjects people who are still well enough up the tone
scale to be able to resist, since youth is resilient. Grade school educations, particularly in their
first years, are very likely to be authoritarian, and as they form the basis of formal education
they should also be addressed.
Entheta is best freed out of locks and secondaries from late to early, so that one should
actually address present time and then earlier times and then earlier and earlier in his scanning
and running of locks in order to arrive at the earliest possible times. Complete recall of
childhood is so reached, and efforts to reach childhood without treating the rest of the life by
scanning are normally defeated. By treating childhood alone, out of the mistaken reasoning that
it was a highly aberrative period (an aberration which was planted by amateur philosophers and
therapists half a century ago), one sends the preclear against the occluding force of the late
locks and secondaries without giving him a chance to reduce them. One should not expect to
be able to run a case by addressing the early portion of the case first, unless the preclear is in
such condition that he can get to basic-basic and reduce it with most perceptics on. Education,
then, must bc run from last to first in order to recover it. Now, one does not ordinarily think of
parental training in terms of education, and yet the whole business of gaining experience could
be lumped under the heading of education. Common usage of the word denotes formal
instruction, but it is no less education that mother, father, nurses and other people in the home
administer to a child. It is in the early portion of life that the most checks and the strongest
authoritarian measures are used, since the child, through lack of data, is least capable of
reasoning.
These restraints compound continually, and much free theta becomes frozen
“permanently” in locks during early childhood. This is along the educational line and is best
cleared up by picking up the instruction closest to present time and lock-scanning it thoroughly,
then picking up an earlier period of instruction such as college, then picking up an earlier one
404.405
such as high school, then an earlier one such as grammar school, and finally parental training.
In such a way one will recover the general restraints imposed upon children and the general
unreasonableness of most adults toward children.
You can discover the way your preclear was handled as a child by investigating the way
he handles children, but this has a limited value since he is normally, if he had a bad childhood,
in an ally’s valence and the methods he uses may be those of the ally rather than the overall
methods of the family. But in many cases the preclear is following the advice of doing unto
others as has been done to him and, this is true in other things than childhood.
Educational systems which have been used on your preclear had their own positions on
the tone scale and tended to freeze the individual at those same positions on the tone scale. Thus
we could have a child whose home life made him a potential 3.0 but who was educated in a 1.1
school. The education would tend to bring the individual down the tone scale to 1.1. The
values he has been given for various facts and actions of other people and the methods he has
been taught to use in the handling of other people have been educated into him by some
educational system. Thus, if you attempted to clear an individual and bring him up the tone
scale without giving a thorough address to his education you would have, even with the bulk of
his engrams and secondaries gone, an individual who hung very low on the tone scale. It
requires very little work to correct this, and the work should not be neglected. Otherwise, your
individual will continue to handle people and to act in his environment along the tone level
where he was educated. It is a question whether any preclear exists in the civilized world today
who has been educated by a system above 2.0 on the tone scale.
In keeping with this educational theme, its aspects in processing, and the way it
influences the preclear in his handling of other people, one should carefully scout every case
for the lowest-toned individual in the environment of the preclear at any time during his life and
find any later individuals who approximated the earlier individual. Scan out the later
individual, then find and scan out the early individual, and much will have been done to
increase the tone of the preclear. Association with persons low on the tone scale is always
depressing, and a long and continuous association creates many severe locks.
You will have as one of your better indexes of how your preclear is progressing the
changes in his handling of those around him.
The auditor would do well to examine his own general method of handling people with
a highly critical eye and adjudicate for himself where his auditing is likely to lie on the tone
scale, and by the educational process of knowing the consequences and knowing how to get
results, simply raise his necessity level up to a point where he achieves a more desirable
attitude, if he thinks one is necessary If the auditor should happen to find himself in that band
of the tone scale where one is afraid of hurting people he should be very wary not to
demonstrate any lack of courage in running the case.
The preclear should examine his auditor for his position on the tone scale, and if he
finds his auditor in the apathy or covert hostility range, he had himself better work the auditor
or else he will render himself liable for inevitable “mistakes” in the handling of his case, sudden
and unexpected affinity breaks, and a general confusion. The moral of this column is that
auditors should not audit and preclears should not permit themselves to be audited unless they
are certain of an above-2.0 handling of the case and of people in general.
Two persons can co-audit each other, step by step up the tone scale, but unless a parity
is maintained, one of them will suffer, and a good release or a clear will be impossible to attain
-- which is thought to be the difficulty so far experienced in Dianetics, where the making of
clears is concerned.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
COLUMN Z
Command Value of Action Phrases
The subject of action phrases has been covered earlier in this book. Action phrases are
those which seem to order the preclear in various directions. If the preclear were standing in a
room obeying orders, and if he had means of raising and lowering himself, action phrases
would act on him as follows. If he were told to go up, he would go up; if he were told to go
down, he would go down; if he were told to go in two directions at once, he would become
confused; if he were told not to move, he would not move; if he were told to pull himself into
himself, he would try to shrink; these, in essence are action phrases.
The action of the individual on his time track, back through his past, is sometimes
directed by action phrases appearing in his engrams. He does not have to obey these phrases in
order to be processed; indeed, the auditor should discourage him from obeying them; it is not
necessary to prove the validity or value of an engram by proving that one can react to an action
phrase.
The action phrases are: bouncers, such as “get up,” “get out”; holders such as “stay
here,” “don’t move”; misdirectors such as “don’t know whether I’m coming or going,” or
“everything is backwards”; down-bouncers, such as “get under” or “go back”; groupers, such
as “everything happens at once,” “pull yourself together”; call-backs, such as “come back,”
“please come”; and one other, the denyer, which states that the engram does not exist, such as
“there isn’t anything here,” “I can’t see anything.” There is also the valence shifter which shifts
the individual from his own identity to the identity of another; the valence-bouncer, which
prohibits an individual from going into some particular valence; the valence-denyer, which may
even deny that the person’s own valence exists; and the valence-grouper, which makes all
valences into one valence. These are all the types of action phrases. A dictionary of these
phrases could be made up and might be of some use, but with a little experience the auditor will
learn what these phrases are. It is mandatory that he understand what these phrases are, since
when he finds his preclear doing strange things on the track while running an engram, he had
better remedy the condition rapidly by asking the file clerk for the type of phrase, and then
asking for the phrase, and then getting the preclear to repeat the phrase in order to lessen its
effect, so that the preclear can continue moving on his track in the proper fashion.
At 4.0, there are no engrams. Present-time phrases have no reactive value.
At 3.5, if a whole chain of incidents remains in a case, the action computation of the
chain may be effective. Individual phrases are mildly effective sometimes in very severe
engrams.
At 3.0, the action phrases in severe engrams are effective on the preclear.
At 2.5, phrases in engrams and in secondary engrams cause the preclear to respond.
At, 2.0 engrams, secondaries, and chains of locks all contain phrases or computations
which produce action in the case as the preclear runs on the time track.
At 1.5, action phrases in engrams, secondaries, and locks matching the tone of the
preclear are very effective, and control phrases are very effective. The individual is usually still
dramatizing his circuit control phrases, seeking to control others.
At 1.1, action phrases in engrams, secondaries, and locks are very effective, and
valence-shifters are very effective. Down to this point valence-shifters are not very effective,
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but at this point they become extremely effective, unless one is running a wide open case,
which normally has few if any valence-shifters.
At 0.5, present-time action phrases -- that is to say, action phrases just heard in the
environment -- are effective on the preclear to some slight degree; engram, lock, and secondary
action phrases are all effective, of course.
At 0.1, groupers are particularly effective and one can expect the track to be in a
collapsed condition. Indeed, groupers are possibly effective anywhere on the scale, being just
another type of action phrase; however, from 1.5 up, the time-track will not collapse because of
a grouper; from 1.5 down, it may do so. The use of this column is apparent. After a short run,
the auditor will see how the preclear behaves toward action phrases, and this will help him to
determine the preclear’s position on the tone scale.
407.408
BOOK TWO
Dianetic Processing
408.409
CHAPTER ONE
The Basic Principles of Processing
In practice, in Dianetics, the auditor is doing a very simple thing. He is recovering theta
which has become confused with MEST by reason of physical pain and emotional shock. He
is by dianetic processing converting entheta to theta. A fundamental axiom of Dianetics is that
life is formed by theta compounding with MEST to make a living organism. Life is theta plus
MEST.
Another axiom is that theta conquers MEST by first becoming enturbulated with it and
then withdrawing, possessed of some of the laws of MEST, and returning over the MEST for
an orderly conquest.
Another axiom is that theta, in its conquest of MEST, has followed the cycle of contact,
growth, decay, and death, repeated over and over, theta each time using the data gained during
the cycle to better adapt the organism for the further conquest of MEST.
Theta is thought, an energy of its own universe analogous to energy in the physical
universe but only occasionally paralleling electro-magnetic-gravitic laws.
The three primary components of theta are affinity, reality and communication.
Theta has the strange power of animating and directing MEST and bringing it into an
orderly, mobile, and self-perpetuating unit known to us as a life organism.
Dianetics is that branch of Scientology that covers mental anatomy.
Theta and MEST in a disorderly collision bring about enturbulation in both the theta and
the MEST which actually changes or reverses the polarity of the theta and the MEST. This
reversed polarity permits the rejection of theta by enMEST and of MEST by entheta, so that
death can ensue and a new organism can be begun.
Theta acting upon MEST with affinity, communication, and reality takes on an aspect
known as reasoning or understanding. All mathematics can be derived from ARC acting upon
MEST.
Theta may have considerable residual knowledge of its own, but the knowledge in
which an organism is interested is information concerning theta and MEST laws as applied to
the organism, and each and every organism develops in the ratio that it utilizes and understands
these laws. In the cycle of the organism, from conception to death, theta and MEST are many
times brought together in disorderly collision. This creates the phenomenon known as physical
pain. Perception of threats to survival and dwindling position on the tone scale “charge up”
these moments of physical pain as a mechanism to force the organism into, at first, greater
survival activities and then, these failing, into death activities in order to free the theta from the
MEST to begin a new cycle. The break point, where the organism is no longer driven upward
toward survival but begins to go downward toward death, is 2.0 on the tone scale.
Death has been a vital mechanism in theta’s conquest of MEST, since in no other way
could the theta become sufficiently unenturbulated to be able to use the information received
through enturbulence to create and construct new organisms or new species. Inevitably through
this evolution theta, seeking according to theory wider and wider conquest of MEST, would
construct an organism which by force of reason could actively handle large quantities of
MEST. Man is such an organism. No lesser organism can rationally arrange any large quantity
of MEST exterior to the organism, although many lesser organisms have genetic habit patterns
which do permit the handling and altering of small amounts of MEST. All learning springs
from disorderly enturbulences where theta has impinged too suddenly and sharply upon
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MEST. All reasoning is done by freed theta returning over the MEST for an orderly conquest,
utilizing the lessons learned in the disorderly conquest. This applies not only to the formation
of organisms but to all adventures of man, according to observation.
It is possible that Dianetics, if these theories continue to prove correct as they have in
the past, forms an evolutionary bridge which minimizes death as a mechanism for new learning
and conquest and maximizes the conversion of entheta to theta, or disorderly experience to
reason, within one life span. Should this prove to be the case, the acceleration of conquest of
MEST by man should be very marked. Indeed at this time it can be observed that through a past
lack of knowledge of the humanities his social orders have been for some time on a dwindling
spiral, even though his knowledge of the physical laws increased. Man, according to these
theories, could be said to have learned a great deal about the physical universe without learning
enough about theta.
An interesting series of experiments recently done by the Foundation seems to bear out
the theory that heightened reason-ability is contained in theta which has been newly recovered
from an enturbulence with MEST. Individuals were given a test for a few minutes in order to
measure their existing intelligence. They were then sent back down the track into an engram by
an auditor and the engram was thoroughly restimulated. Immediately afterwards, the engram
not reduced, these experimental subjects were ordered to do a second test. In this condition of
stress the second test was taken, and it was found that the score on the second test was
uniformly higher than that gained on the first test. Considerable additional experimentation
must be undertaken, and these results are very far from conclusive, but they would seem to
indicate validity in some of the theta-MEST postulates. Other explanations can, of course, be
found for the results of these experiments. However, the theta-MEST postulates have permitted
new dianetic processes to be derived and have markedly increased the ease of processing and
have decreased the length of time necessary to bring about a dianetic release. Further, the theta-MEST
postulates shed much light on the third dynamic, and with them it was possible for me
to bring into being a new technology of groups which, when tested on pilot projects with
groups, was found to have a uniform workability.
To learn anything about MEST, theta must become enturbulated with it, but to utilize
the changes in it caused by the enturbulation, the theta must be freed from MEST in order to
accomplish a reasonable conquest of further MEST. Death has been an answer, of sorts, but is
not satisfactory to the unit organism. Dianetic processing offers a much less drastic theta
recovery.
Inspecting a time track at the beginning of a case one ordinarily finds many occluded
areas about which no reasoning can be done. It could be said that these areas, as in engrams
themselves, contain entheta. Any of several processes which can free this entheta and convert it
into theta will increase the reasonability of the individual, as witnessed by many long series of
psychometric tests taken before and after dianetic processing. The restoration of recall of the
areas hitherto occluded, in that the data contained in these areas is valuable as experience and
information, could, of course, be said to increase the health and reason of the individual. But
the recovery of the theta which could be said to lie in these areas as entheta could also be
postulated to increase the reason of the individual.
The tone scale is actually a chart of the ratio of free theta and entheta in the individual.
Above the 2.0 line, the individual could be said to have more theta than entheta. Below the
point 2.0, the individual could be said to have more entheta than theta. Simply by converting
entheta to theta the auditor can cause the individual to rise on the tone scale.
It will readily be seen that the ideal condition would be all theta recovered and no
entheta remaining in existence in the individual. The attainment of this ideal is called in
Dianetics a “cleared” state. This would be, at this time, the end goal of processing. Just how
often it can be completely attained by skilled or unskilled auditors is open to question. That it
can be neared and that cases grow markedly better under processing is not open to question,
since regardless of any wonder about the cleared state none who have associated with the
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Foundation or who have practiced Dianetics with any knowledge at all have the smallest doubt
of the ability of dianetic processing to improve cases many times more than was ever before
possible. If clears cannot be created easily and swiftly, dianetic processing is still very far from
invalidated. Actually, clears have been and are being produced, but their total potentialities
remain relatively unexplored.
The dianetic release is more understandable than the clear and has been produced and
studied in sufficient numbers to admit of little doubt about the desirability and stability of the
state. This is a nearer and more easily obtainable goal. The simple alleviation of pain, worry,
and general unhappiness is routine to the dianetic auditor. He can accomplish that goals in
anything from a few hours to a few weeks on most preclears. These are much more easily
obtained goals, and are quite ordinary in the vicinity of the Foundation, so that these, which
some say might have been considered miracles two years ago, hardly cause comment.
Occasionally some Foundation auditor is startled into advertising a result to his follow auditors
in a processing unit, but these successes are generally taken for granted.
Just as we have the ratio of theta to entheta establishing the sanity or insanity of the
individual, so we have the ratio of free theta in the auditor to the free theta-entheta ratio in the
preclear establishing the swiftness with which the entheta can be unenturbulated in the preclear.
An examination of this theory will demonstrate that there are three valid processes.
The first and the simplest of these processes consists of changing the environment of
the preclear. His old environment possibly contains many restimulative objects and persons,
so that his free theta is in continual enturbulence by reason of the restimulation. Shifting the
preclear to an unrestimulative environment permits him to “settle out,” which is to say, permits
the temporarily enturbulated theta to disenturbulate and the “frozen” entheta to convert, in some
minute quantity, to free theta. Part of the environmental change process would be, of course
the bettering of affinity, reality, and communication in the environment of the preclear. This by
itself could produce a rise in his tone. Falling in love, being an increase of affinity, can make a
well man out of a sick man. Being rejected or falling out of love, being a decrease of affinity,
can make a sick man out of a well man. Bettering a person’s communication, even if only by
giving him a new pair of glasses, will also raise his tone. Validating his realities which were in
question can raise his tone. All these things could be considered environmental changes. A
special part of environmental change would be changes in health, by reason of nutrition or
better living conditions. This process must not be overlooked, since it has been our experience
that some preclears who were not doing as well as could have been desired were deficient in
their nutrition. The preclear who lives on coffee and sandwiches does not do as well during
processing as one who has an adequate and balanced ration with proper vitamin supplements.
Good physical exercise can by itself markedly increase the individuals position on the tone
scale and a whole therapy to aid psychotics could easily be worked out along the lines of
exercise alone.
Probably the worst thing that can happen to a Psychotic is to be placed in the
atmosphere normally provided for him by the state. Only a sane, healthy environment where he
gets proper exercise and where he has unrestimulative individuals around him could do much to
improve his condition. The psychotic will sometimes improve if he is given command over
more MEST and, indeed. a fundamental in the production of psychosis is denying the
individual a command over MEST.
No better method of tailor-making psychotics could be devised than the usual
institution, and it is probable that if the normal person were placed in such an institution, in
such an atmosphere, he would become psychotic. Indeed, the incidence of psychosis
overtaking attendants and psychiatrists in attendance in such institutions is alarmingly high.
This is second only to psycho-surgery and shock treatment in the worsening of psychotics in a
psychotic state. Rather than give psychotics such treatment it would be far kinder to kill them
immediately and completely, and not partially as does psycho-surgery and electric shock.
411.412
The second process which is valid in producing results is education. Education, if
defined as the process of making new data available to the individual and causing his mind to
attend to and use that data, itself brings reason into the case. Education usually provides new
areas of concentration in the environment of the individual and translates many of his
unknowns into knowns. Unreason could be classed in two categories: too wide a zone of
attention, and too fixed a zone of attention. In the first, the mind wanders over large areas
unable to select pertinent data. In the second, where the mind is fixed, it cannot wander far
enough to find pertinent data. In neither case can the mind resolve the problem about which it
is concerned, due to the absence of data. Superstition is an effort, for lack of education, to find
pertinent data in too wide a zone or to fix the attention upon irrelevant data. Personal experience
in one’s environment gives one what might be called personal education. A man has become
embroiled with MEST, has freed himself, solved problems, has become embroiled again, has
drawn back and solved problems anew, so that he has accumulated a fund of personal data
about his task of living. Education might be said to be the process by which the individual is
given the accumulated data of a long span of culture. It can, no less validly than personal
experience, solve many of his problems. Free theta, confronted by too many problems, can,
just by this, become enturbulated. Good education can in this way convert some of the entheta
of an individual into theta, with a consequent rise on the tone scale. A very sharp proviso,
however, must here be entered. Authoritarian teaching, by which the facts are impressed upon
the individual and his self-determinism in his utilization of those facts is suppressed, can reduce
the free theta in the individual by involving it in a fixed state in the memory bank. Theta is
reason. Fixed theta is entheta. Many a man with a college education hammered home by
authoritarian professors has been reduced so far down the tone scale that he behaves in life
more or less like an automaton. His self-determinism, and hence his persistence and ability to
handle responsibility are so reduced as to unfit him for his role in life. Further, concentrating
on educational processes past the mid-teens, after which a person should be solving problems
of living, has an inhibitive effect upon the mind. An artist specifically is hindered by
authoritarian education, since his must be the highest self-determinism if his work is to have
any value. Authoritarian education has more or less the same effect upon the individual as
hypnotism, depressing him down the tone scale, and indeed, at this time most education is
levelled as hypnotic commands rather than an invitation to reason. An education which invites
reason and the comparison of taught data with the real world can raise the individual on the tone
scale.
The third process which can be considered valid in raising the individual on the tone
scale is individual processing, by which is meant any method which will turn his entheta into
theta by addressing him as an individual.
It seems to be one of the characteristics of theta that when the theta present exceeds to a
very high degree the entheta present, the entheta will tend to dis-enturbulate and become theta.
In other words, if we considered these matters in terms of polarity and energy, a positive field
if sufficiently strong would inhibit and then convert a negative field near it. A
very large magnet placed close to a small magnet will change the poles of the small
magnet. When a very large amount of entheta is placed in the vicinity of a lesser amount of
theta, the theta may rapidly become entheta. When theta and entheta exist together in more or
less equal amounts, or when the disproportion is not large, a relatively stable condition exists,
the theta tending to remain theta and the entheta tending to remain entheta. An example of this
in the group is the phenomenon of mass hysteria, where one or two members of the group
become enturbulated and very rapidly the remainder of the group becomes enturbulated.
This is the basic law of the contagion of aberration. Entheta will enturbulate theta.
Misemotion will change emotion into misemotion. Poor communication will change good
communication into poor communication. Poor reality will change good reality into poor
reality. The engrams in a case enturbulate theta into the entheta of secondaries and locks.
Amongst people one sees this exemplified when a person who is relatively insane enters
a group which is relatively sane. The relatively sane may attempt to raise the sanity level of the
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relatively insane person, and it may occur in this group that the relatively insane person
becomes more sane. At the same time, however, the relatively sane people become less sane,
unless they have some means or technology for preventing this phenomenon from occurring.
In the case of a husband and wife, it is easy to observe that the mate who is higher on
the scale will during the marriage association drop lower, and usually the mate who is lower on
the tone scale will come slightly higher as a result of that association. As a further example, the
mate who is lower on the tone scale will demand more affection and give less than the mate
who is higher. The mate who is lower will demand more communication and give less, and
will assert more reality but will actually have less. It can thus be seen, as represented in column
AQ on the chart, that the auditor must have a higher ratio of theta to his entheta than has the
preclear. A condition must exist where much more theta is available than entheta. An auditor
whose theta-entheta ratio is around 2.5 could, with skill, handle individuals lower on the tone
scale by not more than one point. A 2.5 auditor attempting to handle an apathy case would find
his already badly enturbulated condition worsened so much by the case that the case, having
very little free theta, would not get much better. A 2.5 auditor attempting to create a clear begins
to work uphill as soon as his preclear reaches 2.5, and the hill very rapidly becomes too steep
to climb. The ideal auditor is the one who has a very high endowment of theta and who is at
4.0 on the tone scale. Thus, at the beginning of Dianetics, where we have the usual auditor
operating between 2.5 and 3.0, we find it very simple to pull preclears up to 2.0 or 2.5, more
difficult to bring them up to 3.0. Where auditors are being heavily employed in processing
people they tend to neglect their own processing, and being constantly in the vicinity of and
handling entheta, they begin to encounter difficulties with a preclear as soon as the preclear
reaches 2.5. It is incumbent upon the auditor to keep himself continually processed and keep
his own tone coming up the scale. Where a co-auditing team exists, one person auditing the
other, it is considerably more than a fair exchange for each to give due attention to the state of
the other’s case, for the moment one begins to appropriate the bulk of processing his own case
will slow down in its progress.
Dianetic processing, then, by the theta-MEST theory, attempts only one thing: the
recovery and conversion of entheta into theta. Any processing which does not accomplish this
in an orderly fashion is therefore not valid dianetic processing.
Theta is many things. For a description of it as it applies to the MEST organism you
need only read the 4.0 band of the tone scale chart. Theta is reason, serenity, stability,
happiness, cheerful emotion, persistence and the other factors which man ordinarily considers
desirable. Any practice which enturbulates theta suppresses the case. The auditor’s code is
actually a list of the things one must or must not do to preserve the theta-ness of theta and to
inhibit the enturbulation of theta by the auditor.
Where the preclear has a small amount of theta and a large amount of entheta, the
auditor must be particularly careful not to enturbulate the existing theta, since it is in the
proximity of so much entheta that it enturbulates rapidly. The auditor mishandling such a case,
using invalidations, hypnotism, brute force, sadism or devil worship, can send the free theta
still in existence down the track and lock it up in an old secondary or engram and so find
himself with a temporarily completely enturbulated preclear on his hands. To avoid this
danger, one should mark the preclear well on the chart and be guided accordingly. This gives
the auditor an estimate of the amount of free theta he has with which to un-enturbulate the
existing entheta in the case. It may happen that so little theta exists in the case that the auditor
must use the lightest and most pleasant methods of which he is capable in order to make
enough theta available even to start down the time track.
The percentile column (the scale from zero to one thousand) is an index of the amount
of organism theta available to work the case. At 4.0, one hundred percent is available. At 2.0,
the amount of theta and “permanent” entheta are more or less equally balanced, but
environmental enturbulation leaves the preclear with very little free theta. Below this point is
the death zone, and here as the tone lowers increasingly, more danger exists that all the
remaining theta will suddenly at one fell swoop become entheta, thus changing the occasional
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psychotic into a chronic psychotic, at least until rest, good food, and exercise permit the not
seriously enturbulated portions of the entheta to become theta again. It takes very poor auditing
to accomplish this, and the danger is hardly a danger at all if one follows the chart. The more
closely processing can approximate the mechanics of mind operation, the better that processing
is. The least forceful processing produces the best results. As dianetic processing evolves it
becomes less and less directive, the preclear being allowed more and more latitude in his
actions. This should not go so far as to permit the preclear to free-associate or ramble on
endlessly and uselessly, but it does go as far as never driving a preclear hard when he balks,
unless he is in the middle of a secondary grief or terror engram and is refusing to go on through
with it when if the auditor permits him to leave it the possibility exists that much skilled
auditing will elapse before the auditor will have this preclear back into the secondary.
The auditor might liken his job to removing the rocks and shoals from the hidden
depths of a turbulent river and making of it a smooth-flowing and powerful stream. The
auditor is not changing the preclear’s personality or attempting to improve the preclear by
evaluation and suggestions. He is simply making it easier for the mind to do what basic
personality naturally wants the mind to do. This might be said to be the total end and goal of
processing.
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CHAPTER TWO
The Auditor’s Code
The first thing any auditor should know and know well about processing is the
auditor’s code. This has been called the code of how to be civilized. Much more important than
knowing mechanical techniques is knowing well the attitude one should have toward a preclear.
This is not for courtesy but for efficiency. No preclear will respond to an auditor who does not
adhere to the auditor’s code.
It must be remembered that the mission of the auditor is not to reduce engrams, not to
run out secondaries, not to eradicate psychosomatic illnesses, psychoses or neuroses, but to
raise the preclear on the tone scale. It happens that these incidentals of removing neuroses,
psychoses and psychosomatic illnesses as well as increasing the persistence and general
responsibility of the individual follow in due course so long as the auditor attends closely to his
primary mission of raising his preclear on the tone scale. If he does not give this his first
attention, he is not freeing theta and converting entheta, and if he does not do this he cannot
efficiently accomplish the other goals. The index of how well he progresses with the preclear’s
case is the tone scale. Mechanical, lackadaisical, and careless auditing can actually remove
psychosomatic illnesses and yet not raise the preclear on the tone scale. This may be
paradoxical, but what happens is that the entheta in the engram causing the psychosomatic
illness is converted into another type of entheta which is not physically painful to the preclear.
It is, nevertheless, entheta, and the preclear is not raised on the tone scale. Thus, the auditor
must closely attend to every means which will raise the preclear on the tone scale and should
disregard the immediate and short-term goals of the eradication of specific “illnesses,” bad
habits, neuroses, psychoses, obsessions, and compulsions. The auditor must remember that
even such a degraded practice as hypnotism can, by the implantation of positive suggestions,
suppress certain physical and mental disorders. Though these are suppressed in one quarter
they will manifest themselves as something entirely different. A person is saner to have
“psychosomatic illnesses” than he is to have mental aberrations. Hypnotism can in a small
percentage of cases eradicate the “psychosomatic illness” but will produce in its stead a lowered
tone in the individual. Electric shock and psychosurgery may alter the behavior pattern of the
individual and may suppress him into some tractable condition, but the result is inevitably
harmful to the ability, efficiency, and general worth of the subject, with the further detraction
that they cause damage to the brain from which the individual never completely recovers.
Simply by addressing processing from the viewpoint that one is changing entheta to
theta and freeing up all available theta in the case one will make the most rapid progress with
the preclear. Experience in the field has demonstrated that irascible, authoritarian auditing can
continue for as long as five hundred hours, that actual “psychosomatic illnesses” can be
removed and that some small improvement can be seen in the general tone of the preclear and
yet that neglect of emphasis on raising tone might permit such a case to continue on another
thousand hours without producing a clear, the entheta being transferred from one part of the
bank to another, endlessly.
The auditor should give attention to the environment of his preclear. Cases have been
observed in which the preclear was in the vicinity of a marital mate who produced such
constant tension, so many invalidations, and who had so little thought for or belief in any
possible gain for the other that the processing was only of small benefit and the auditor was
wasting ten hours of auditing time for every one which was effective. In such a case the
auditor has every right to recomment a change of environment for the duration of the
processing. The auditor should not draw back from educating his preclear, so long as the
education is not on a command basis but is done as an invitation to the self-determinism of the
preclear to manifest itself, an invitation to the preclear to reason things out on a basis of his
own adjudication. This is particularly beneficial with children. Indeed, children are
surrounded by such ordering about and restrictions that their self-determinism is often too
slight to cope with anything like their personal situations. In such a case it is definitely the role
415.416
of the auditor to invite the child to think things out for himself, occasionally redefining words
or situations for the child. Actually, an auditor can take two or three preclears and form an
educational group wherein mutual discussion of their own problems will result in a rise of tone
in the preclears.
The third method of processing, of course the most lasting method, is auditing, or
individual processing, wherein the auditor concentrates on freeing all available theta in the case
and converting as much entheta as possible to theta. The auditor’s first step towards
accomplishing this, should he consider the environmental situation compatible, is to promote
affinity, communication, and reality with his preclear and to found a group of two -- himself
and his preclear.
The auditor must recognize that he is dealing with a person, in every case, whose
conduct is not as good as it will be. Thus, the auditor must practice much self-restraint and
must form an example for his preclear. To do this the auditor must never under any
circumstances or for any reason break any part of the auditor’s code with the preclear. Breaking
the auditor’s code, at first glance, may not appear to be a very great sin. But an auditor has
undertaken to aid a fellow man, and his dedication to that purpose must be sincere to the point
of sacredness. An auditor, by misusing his position through what he knows about the human
mind, can bring havoc upon an unsuspecting preclear. Carelessness alone, if it is backed with
good intention, can seldom do much harm. But malicious intent, wherein an auditor expects to
“gain” heavily by use of deception and misuse of the sacred trust he has taken unto himself in
helping his fellow man, can cast a preclear far back down the tone scale.
If one does not feel that he can keep the auditor’s code wholly and completely, he
should not under any circumstances audit anyone, nor should he permit himself to be
persuaded to audit anyone, and any preclear should be very wary of permitting himself to be
audited by anyone who potentially would break the auditor’s code. The preclear who finds
himself confronted with an auditor code break should instantly and finally terminate his
processing with that auditor and should find another who can keep the code. A man who will
break this code once will break it many times, and the preclear should never persist in the
arrangement out of the argument that he can get only one auditor. Anyone who breaks this
code is under 2.5 on the chart and should not be auditing but should be in process of being
audited himself.
An open-hearted and sincere effort to practice Dianetics, after a thorough study of the
principles contained in this book, should the student adhere to these principles, will produce
marked and beneficial effects upon human beings never before attained in man’s history. To
produce these effects the auditor must embrace the auditor’s code and keep these principles as
sacred as if they were the vows of priesthood. The auditor conducts himself in such a way as to
maintain optimum affinity, communication and agreement with the preclear.
The auditor is trustworthy. He understands that the preclear has given into the auditor’s
trust his hope for higher sanity and happiness, and that trust is sacred and never to be betrayed.
The auditor is courteous. He respects the preclear as a human being. He respects the
self-determinism of the preclear. He respects his own position as an auditor. He expresses this
respect in courteous conduct.
The auditor is courageous. He never falls back from his duty to a case. He never fails to
use the optimum procedure regardless of any alarming conduct on the part of the preclear.
The auditor never evaluates the case for the preclear. He abstains from this, knowing
that to compute for the preclear is to inhibit the preclear’s own computation. He knows that to
refresh the preclear’s mind as to what went before is to cause the preclear to depend heavily
upon the auditor and so to undermine the self=determinism of the preclear.
416.417
The auditor never invalidates any of the data or the personality of the preclear. He
knows that in doing so he would seriously enturbulate the preclear. He refrains from criticism
and invalidation no matter how much the auditor’s own sense of reality is twisted or shaken by
the preclear’s incidents or utterances. The auditor uses only techniques designed to restore the
self-determinism of the preclear. He refrains from all authoritarian or dominating conduct,
leading always rather than driving. He refrains from the use of hypnotism or sedatives on the
preclear no matter how much the preclear may demand them out of aberration. He never
abandons the preclear out of faint-heartedness about the ability of techniques to resolve the
case, but persists and continues to restore the preclear’s self-determinism. The auditor keeps
himself informed of any new skills in the science.
The auditor cares for himself as an auditor. By working with others he maintains his
own processing at regular intervals in order to maintain or raise his own position on the tone
scale despite restimulation of himself through the process of auditing others. He knows that
failure to give heed to his own processing, until he himself is a release or a clear in the severest
meaning of the terms, is to cost his preclear the benefit of the auditor’s best performance.
This is the auditor’s code. It has been discovered that the two most important aspects
of the code are the preservation of the preclear’s sense of reality and the trustworthiness of the
auditor. An invalidation of the preclear’s data, no matter how outrageously that data may
assault the auditor’s own sense of reality, can be severe and will go so far as to shut off the
preclear’s sonic and visio, all in a moment. Most preclears are uncertain enough in the
presence of their own past. They quite commonly invalidate themselves, a practice from which
they should be discouraged. When the auditor invalidates the preclear’s data the shock to the
preclear can be very great. In the matter of trustworthiness, the auditor must never take
advantage of the preclear, either in using his data or in using a temporary state of apathy,
propitiation, or restimulation in order to possess himself casually of the preclear or to gain
materially.
Any two people in constant association who will conduct themselves according to the
auditor’s code will soon find not only that they are clear or almost clear as a group of two but
also that their knowledge of, and joy in human relationships have been immeasurably
increased.
417.418
CHAPTER THREE
The Mechanics of Aberration
According to the basic theory of Dianetics, theta, by which is meant the life force, life
energy, divine energy, elan vital, or by any other name, the energy peculiar to life which acts
upon material in the physical universe and animates it, mobilizes it and changes it, is
susceptible to alteration in character or vibration, at which time it becomes enturbulated theta or
entheta.
A description of pure theta acting in a harmonious control of MEST is to be found along
the 4.0 band of the chart. Here we see theta with an affinity very high in all spheres of
attraction, capable of high communication both perceptically and with ideas, and with a high
sense and appreciation of reality. An individual whose theta is unenturbulated in his current
environment, whose education is not enturbulated by poor data and bad teachers in an
unreasonable culture, and from whose life has been deleted all the physical and mental pain,
given an average genetic background, would be a very high order of clear. The things which
reduce the individual down from the state of clear and bring him lower on the tone scale would
be a turbulent and unhappy environment, a poor and unreasonable education in a not too
rational culture, poor physical endowment, and what is most important to the auditor, theta
trapped as entheta in moments of physical pain and further theta trapped as charge as later
consequences of that physical pain.
So far as the immediate address to the case is concerned, the auditor might conceive of a
case as potentially relatively pure theta, though modified by environment, education, and
physical endowment. But this theta has in past moments of pain and sorrow become, at least
some portion of it, converted to entheta which is held at various moments of a person’s past.
By methods of processing, the auditor frees the entheta, which automatically converts to theta
and becomes available to the individuals general action in life and so raises him automatically
on the tone scale.
Physical pain could be said to be the alarm reaction to theta that the organism has been
too heavily impinged upon MEST. Physical pain is an abrupt and sharp warning of non-survival.
Without a mechanism of physical pain no organism could be warned of physical
dangers through experiencing pain, and so no organism could survive, since no organism
would have a perception of destruction. Thus, physical pain is actually a perceptic, just as
sight and sound are perceptics. Physical pain as a perception mechanism lies immediately
behind every other perception mechanism, since too much light can cause pain, too much
sound can cause pain, too much motion can cause pain, and so forth. MEST, which is to say
the physical universe of matter, energy, space and time, is perceived by the theta of the
organism through the various perceptions of sight, sound, motion, organic state, and so forth.
The moment any of these grows too intense, theta’s orderly and harmonious control of MEST
undergoes a shock of interruption. The theta and MEST brought too closely together in
turbulence thus form entheta and enMEST.
Every individual has a time track. This is simply all of the perceptions of a lifetime from
conception to present time -- the organism time track. Every moment of now -- present time --
finds the organism registering by perception some portion of the physical universe. These
perceptions are stored in what is called the standard memory bank if they are analytical and not
physically painful or in the reactive memory bank if they contain physical pain. Thus, these
perceptions are stored in an unending continuation from the first moment of cellular life
forward to present time. The time track is a consecutive series of nows, through day and night,
week, month, and year for all the lifetime.
Each time the perceptions by reason of severe turbulence record as physical pain, the
theta present could be said to be converted and held there static by enMEST. Every physically
painful recording is missing from the time track so far as standard memory is concerned and is
418.419
filed instead in the reactive bank. Each time this occurs less theta is apparently available to the
analyzing and conscious portion of the person’s being and becomes a debit on the entheta side
of the ledger. So long as the individual possesses proportionately more theta than entheta he is
fairly well up the tone scale but when the trapped entheta begins to outweigh the theta the
individual is brought down the tone scale to a non-survival level. The position of the person on
the tone scale determines not only his potential for happiness but also his longevity.
Immortality can be measured in many ways. The higher a person is on the tone scale the more
he tends towards immortality. The lower a person is on the tone scale the more he tends
toward death. The amount of theta in the case determines the amount of survival potential of
the individual and the amount of entheta in the case determines the amount of non-survival
potential.
The auditor, by processing, frees the entheta from the case, thus increasing the survival
potential of the individual. The processes which free entheta and convert it into theta may be
formidable in theory but in practice are quite simple and may be done by rote, since it is the
nature of theta readily to convert back to its free and un-enturbulated state when given simple
assistance.
It should be thoroughly understood by the auditor that according to theory, confirmed
by observation in practice, no entheta exists unless it has as its basic cause physical pain.
It should be no less well understood that theta contacting smaller quantities of entheta
converts the entheta into theta. This is a two-way conversion. Entheta, in proximity to theta,
makes entheta out of it. From this we have the contagion of aberration. It was once thought
that insanity was inherited. It is true that a genetic endowment in terms of structure or an
endowment of too small a quantity of theta may predispose one person more than others to
insanity, but only the the vicinity of entheta. Of course, there can be the insanity of malformed
brains, where some of the perception and computation mechanisms are absent, but this type of
insanity results only in inability to think, not in aberrated thinking. It is not true, then, that
insanity is hereditary. Insanity, apparently, comes about wholly by contagion. An
enturbulated culture or environment can keep an individual in a continuous state of turbulence,
but, lacking engrams, that individual would cease to be enturbulated as soon as he removed
himself from the source of the turbulence. People who are insane bring those around them
markedly down on the tone scale and could be said to be responsible for all the existing insanity
in the race. If one associates with badly aberrated individuals one will himself, in
consequence, become badly aberrated, if only while in the vicinity of the badly aberrated
associates.
There is an apparent family line of aberration. It was previously thought to be carried
genetically, but this is evidently not the case. It is carried on the thought channel of the family.
The confusions of domestic life get into the moments of physical injury of the child, and the
child as a consequence becomes liable for the family aberrations and will manifest them.
The principle of the contagion of aberration is broad in scope. One can observe in any
group of men that one or two may be much more aberrated than the others. One can make the
simple experiment of removing the one or two aberrated Persons from the group, and he will
then see that the general tone level of the group will rise, since the source of the group’s main
turbulence has been removed.
By examining the life of any preclear, his case history, and without examining any of
the preclear’s own aberrations, the auditor can make a good estimate of many of the preclear’s
aberrations simply by discovering what manner of people the parents were. It is an inexorable
fact that these aberrations, one way or another, will manifest themselves in the preclear.
The auditor should fully understand the principle of contagion. Fortunately, the
conversion works in both directions. Sanity is also contagious. Thus, by observing the
auditor’s code and providing a sane environ for his preclear, the auditor can bring some of the
419.420
entheta in the preclear’s case back into the state of theta without any processing. This is
particularly valuable in the treatment of psychotics.
There could be said to be three divisions of entheta. Basically, the only way entheta
comes into being in any life form is through physical injury, but after the physical injury is
present the entheta in it contagious into the theta involved in circumstances that approach or
approximate those of the physical injury. When this happens we have another kind of entheta:
locks formed by restimulation. The shocks of conscious moments, the griefs and sorrows, the
fears and angers, the breaks of affinity, communication and reality which one has with life
would be the third kind of entheta, which would be temporary entheta if it were not for the
presence of physical injury and its entheta in the case. To make this plainer, first there is the
engram. This is physical pain, enMEST and entheta held at a specific point on the time track.
This might never become serious but for restimulation by the environment. When this engram
becomes restimulated it makes much of the existing free theta in the organism turbulent. Some
of this turbulence remains as additional frozen entheta, some of it un-enturbulates and becomes
theta again.
The engram, a moment of physical pain, forms the basis for entheta, and having formed
it, little by little, by contagion steals free theta from the individual and makes it into entheta
“permanently” in the form of secondary engrams and locks. At the moment of restimulation,
perhaps nearly all of the individual’s theta becomes enturbulated, but this more or less rapidly
un-enturbulates, or settles out, and becomes theta again.
One could, then, have a picture of a time track as a straight line from conception to
present time. At some early point on this time track there is a moment of physical injury. A
little later on the track this moment is approximated by the environment. This would be a key-in.
Actually, the individual has to be more or less enturbulated by the general environment
when the key-in takes place, which is to say he would have to be worried or tired or perhaps
only annoyed about something.
This key-in now gives the engram more power and strength. The next time the engram
is restimulated another lock is added and would be marked as a third point on the track. Then
let us say that some loss takes place which approximates in some way or ways this original
engram. If it were such a thing as the death of a loved one an enormous amount of
enturbulence would take place. The turbulence by its very magnitude approximates the nature
of physical pain. A very large amount of theta becomes trapped by the physical pain. This
would be called a secondary engram. The difference between a secondary engram and a lock is
the order of magnitude of the trapped theta, that is, entheta. Each time a secondary occurs the
whole of the theta of the individual may be temporarily enturbulated, but only a small portion
remains frozen as entheta, and the remaining enturbulated theta converts back into free theta.
Thus one can see that as life progresses, more and more theta becomes fixed as entheta in locks
and secondary engrams, and less and less theta is available to the organism for purposes of
reason. This is called the dwindling spiral. It is so called because the more entheta there is on
the case, the more theta will be turned into entheta at each new restimulation. It is a three-dimensional
vicious circle which carries the individual down the tone scale. In a child, very few
locks and secondaries have been formed and so the child’s theta is free and the child’s tone is
high, yet even though this child receives no more engrams for several years, the engrams he
already has may gradually be charged up by locks and secondaries until he has less free theta
than entheta, at which time he would be very low on the tone scale.
It may also happen that some enormous success in life, an extremely happy marriage,
or association with high-theta individuals will work on the reactive bank to convert it without
processing, at least in part, back into free theta. Here is the calmness of the aberrated person
who quits the turbulent world, for instance, and takes the vows of the church. In this new
environment he has fewer approximations of his old locks and engrams, but more importantly,
he is in the vicinity of far more theta, and he will as a consequence dis-enturbulate, and
therefore rise on the tone scale.
420.421
Similarly, that person who is idle, without goal or direction, may find his accumulation
of secondaries and locks is far greater, since his theta, being idle, is already slightly
enturbulated. This individual may become very busy in the pursuit of some definite and
worthwhile goal, and his theta, thus un-enturbulated, will rob his locks and secondaries of
some of the entheta they contain.
An individual who in one environ may have been living under extremely unhealthy
conditions may change his mode of existence so as to include exercise, sunshine and fresh air,
and this change bringing about a better physical condition will itself un-enturbulate the
individual to some degree.
Dianetic processing does simply this: It uses the theta of the preclear, as aided by the
theta of the auditor, to disenturbulate the entheta contained in the preclear’s locks, secondaries
and engrams.
The goal of the auditor is to dis-enturbulate entheta, not necessarily to run engrams or to
concentrate on locks or secondaries, one more than another. In various cases various
conditions exist which make it necessary to address first one and then another of these three
types of entheta. The auditor should thoroughly understand the anatomy of the engram, as well
as that of the secondary and of the lock.
An engram comes about when the individual organism suffers an intense impact with
MEST. This is actual physical pain. It may occur in any portion of the body and may be from
simply too intense a reception of light or sound, erosion, as in chafing or sunburn, cuts,
contusions, fractures, organic derangements, overdoses of poisonous substances, attacks by
bacteria and viruses, or any usual or unusual cause of physical pain. Every moment of physical
pains contains with it a partial or major shutdown of the analytical function of the mind.
Consciousness may be interrupted for a moment or for days by physical pain, but regardless of
the duration, physical pain always brings about lowered consciousness. One may not realize
this completely until one has had erased from him an instant in which he burned his finger, or
something equally inconsequential. He will learn that while he had supposed he knew
everything that happened during that moment of pain, some data yet remained hidden
concerning the incident. This missing data is the content of the reactive mind.
The engram contains all of the perceptions present during the period of its receipt.
Before Dianetics, this was not realized. It was thought that an unconscious person was simply
unconscious and that things which were said to him and that other perceptible entities which
impinged upon him went unrecorded. No matter the depth of unconsciousness in the presence
of physical pain, the reactive mind records fully and completely all the perceptions possible in
the environ, including the physical pain. During an operation involving anesthesia, for
instance, all the physical pain, the doctor’s words, the smell of the ether, the nurse’s footsteps,
the feel of the table, and the functions of the internal organs, amongst other things, are recorded
in full in the reactive mind of the individual, as an engram.
If one is acquainted with hypnotism, one can readily understand the compulsive or
obsessive character of data which is out of sight of the conscious mind but which is yet forced
28 upon it from below by the drive of physical pain. Hidden data and hidden pain cause
identity thinking, so that the power to differentiate and thus to reason is reduced. An individual
obeys engrams literally. When an engram is restimulated the individual may dramatize the
engram, or go through the cycle of action demanded by the engram, if it can be dramatized.
Dramatized or not, the engram, containing unconsciousness, reduces the analytical awareness
of the individual, and a person who has many engrams in restimulation is ordinarily less than
one-quarter analytically aware, and can still be considered normal.
The entheta of the engram makes it possible for locks to form. The engram is
restimulated in the individual when he is less analytically alert than ordinarily, by reason of
weariness or other non-optimum conditions. The engram may contain certain perceptics which
are duplicated in the immediate environ of the individual. This approximation of the environ to
421.422
the engram brings about an identification of the exterior world with the interior world of
engrams, and so brings about restimulation of the engram. This restimulation manifests itself
in the enturbulation of the individual. The process of enturbulation fixes into the engram some
of the individual’s theta, “permanently” converting it to entheta. The first time an engram is
restimulated (and one may lie dormant for forty years without being restimulated) is called a
key-in. A key-in is merely a special kind of lock, the first lock on a particular engram.
The secondary engram takes place when the turbulence of the individual is very high.
Anger, fear, grief, or apathy may be occasioned by the environment and if a physical pain
engram underlies this situation and even vaguely approximates it in perceptics, enormous
quantities of theta are trapped as entheta in the secondary. The secondary engram is enormously
important. It is run exactly like a physical pain engram. The secondary stores such large
quantities of entheta that remarkable results are often obtained by running one simple secondary
engram. The auditor should understand thoroughly, however, that no secondary engram can
exist unless a physical pain engram underlies it. In running a secondary engram the auditor
may often discover that with it he is running also a physical pain engram.
Affinity, communication, and reality enforcements and breaks in a case are not
specialized types of secondaries or locks but are only the component parts of secondaries and
locks. Any physical pain engram is a break of affinity between theta and MEST and is, indeed,
the basic affinity break. The break of affinity brings about reduction of communication since
the theta no longer wishes to approach this type of MEST as avidly as before. And as the theta
is not in harmonious agreement with MEST, the reality is reduced. Here we have, in affinity,
communication, and reality breaks, the basic cause of trouble in any organism. The intent of
theta is harmoniously to conquer MEST and when MEST reacts suddenly and without warning
against the theta organism the basic impulse of that theta is thwarted. Thus, the engram could
be said to be the basis of all aberration, and by observation and experience this postulate seems
to be adequately confirmed.
The engram becomes charged up with entheta through the process of the individual’s
acquiring locks and secondaries. An engram which is too highly charged not only cannot be
run but ordinarily cannot even be contacted, until secondaries and locks are reduced. Thus, in
most cases the first address of the auditor is to locks and then secondaries and then engrams,
with the treatment of more locks and secondaries to make available more engrams.
The whole purpose of the auditor is to change entheta to theta as rapidly and as
efficiently as possible. Where he gets the entheta, whether out of engrams, secondaries, or
locks, is of no basic concern. Theta is theta.
422.423
CHAPTER FOUR
The Dynamics of Existence
Behind Dianetics there is considerable technology concerning knowledge itself and
general philosophies about thinking without which Dianetics could not have come into
existence.
The major postulate of Dianetics is:
THE DYNAMIC PRINCIPLE OF EXISTENCE IS SURVIVE.
Theta (where its purpose is the conquest of MEST), life, and organisms have no other
principle than survive as their motivation. The opposite to this motivation is succumb.
The failure to survive is to succumb.
Theta as an energy, insofar as we observe it in organisms which are partially MEST,
survives or succumbs. MEST, in accordance with the most fundamental physical laws and the
conservation of energy, survives or succumbs. It will be noted
Two basic axioms about knowledge are as follows: Axiom One: A datum is important
as it is evaluated in terms of survive or succumb; Axiom Two; A datum can only be evaluated
by data of comparable magnitude. The basic unit of both the theta and the MEST universes is
Two, not One.
Dimaxian geometry, the three-dimensional mathematics of space, has comparable
axioms and values, evidently, in the theta universe. The basic unit of One as a postulate is
impossible, since it has nothing by which it can be evaluated; therefore, the basic unit of Two is
necessary. Attempting to postulate anything on the basis of One as the basic unit brings about
considerable disorder in thought. The Supreme Being, for instance, has as the second datum
for evaluation the Devil. The Supreme Being is Survive. The Devil is Succumb. The basic
postulate of Dianetics contains as an understood portion the fact that survive is matched by
succumb.
In both cases that succumbing is apparently the conversion of the energy into another
form. Theta converting into entheta travels from survive to succumb, but the energy is not lost,
and death is one of the freeing mechanisms by which the theta is able to become momentarily
independent of MEST and so combine again with MEST, forming another organism to carry
along the generations. In the physical universe, energy survives but the forms the energy takes
often succumb and change into other energy forms.
The chart of the tone scale divides at 2.0. Above this point the direction of dynamic
action of the organism is toward survival. The organism will seek higher levels of survival,
will try to live as long as possible and as well as possible, both of which are components of
survival, since in general the more bountiful the existence, the better the potentials of survival.
Below 2.0, the dynamic action of the organism tends toward succumb. The individual
may apparently engage upon survival activities but will do something to bring about a
nonsurvival end, regardless of what activity the individual engages upon. Below 2.0, the
individual will tend toward the death of himself, sex, the future, groups, or mankind. He is
destructive toward life. He makes enMEST out of any MEST he may have at hand or can
influence. He repels theta and attracts entheta. This is the band of the immoral, the
promiscuous, the criminal, the Godless, the suicide, and other undesirables. Whatever action
is taken by the individual who is acutely or chronically below 2.0 will tend toward the death of
himself or anything with which he is association. His avowals may be entirely different, and
he may even himself believe that he seeks higher survival levels, but the end product of his
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actions, whether these actions apply to a business, to a marriage, to a friendship, to a group, or
to a religion will be death or some undesirable non-survival situation, which of course itself
tends toward death. It is not realized generally that the criminal is not only anti-social but is also
anti-self. Anyone below 2.0 is a potential or active criminal, in that crimes against the pro-survival
actions of others are continually perpetrated. Crime might be defined as the reduction
of the survival level along any one of the eight dynamics.
Good can be considered to be any constructive survival action. It happens that no
construction can take place without some small destruction, just as the tenement must be torn
down to make room for the new apartment building. Good is further modified by the viewpoint
of the individual. To be good, something must contribute to the individual, to his family, his
children, his group, mankind, or life. To be good, a thing must contain construction which
outweighs the destruction it contains. A new cure which saves a hundred and kills one is an
acceptable cure. What is good from the viewpoint of one person may be bad for another
person. In the case of A who gets a new job, this is good for A, but perhaps bad for B, who
was released so that A could have the job. Good is survival. Good is being right more than
one is wrong. Good The old adages about the forces of good and the forces of evil are
amazingly apt when one studies men from the standpoint of the theta-MEST theory. In order to
understand this further perhaps one should offer the dianetic axioms for good and for evil.
Police are continually baffled by the irrationality of the criminal. Since police officers
are, ordinarily, rational men and tend themselves toward survival, they sometimes cannot
readily comprehend that the criminal habitually takes the route of non-survival for himself and
his group. No matter the criminal’s I.Q. he will leave obvious clues on the scene. He will flee
from crimes at a rate of speed calculated to attract the attention of any traffic officer. Trapped in
a criminal act which has as its penalty as little as thirty days in jail, the criminal may attempt to
use weapons against police, and thus commit suicide at the expense of some worthy officer’s
life. The most baffling thing in police work is an attempt to deduce motives using any kind of a
rational yardstick upon the criminal. The only motive the criminal has is destruction along any
one of the dynamics, including the first. It sometimes happens that if a criminal is promised
non-survival in return for information he will gladly make the trade, where as he refuses to give
information in return for liberty and continued good health. Those who aid criminals or deal
with them know, to their sorrow, that the criminal ordinarily repays a helping hand with
destructive actions. Parole boards are rendered particularly dismayed by the numbers of times
their extension of liberty, on certain conditions, is repaid by destructive action. Police have for
some time looked for a proper definition for a true criminal. Men should be removed from
society only when they constitute a continual or occasional threat to that society. An answer to
this problem may be found in the accompanying chart.
Good is being more successful than one is unsuccessful, along constructive lines.
Things are good which complement the survival of the individual, his family, children, group,
mankind, life, and MEST. Acts are good which are more beneficial than destructive along
these dynamics, as modified by the viewpoint of the individual, the future race, the group,
mankind, life, or MEST.
Evil is the opposite of good, and is anything which is destructive more than it is
constructive along any of the various dynamics. A thing which does more destruction than
construction is evil from the viewpoint of the individual, the future, group, species, life, or
MEST that it destroys. When an act is more destructive than constructive, it is evil. When an
act assists succumbing more than it assists survival, it is an evil act in the proportion that it
destroys. A thing is evil which threatens more destruction than construction for the individual,
future, group, mankind, life or MEST.
Good, bluntly, is survival. Evil is non-survival. Construction is good when it
promotes survival. Destruction is bad when it inhibits survival. Construction is evil when it
inhibits survival. Destruction is good when it enhances survival.
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An act or conclusion is as right as it promotes the survival of the individual, future,
group, mankind, or life making the conclusion. To be entirely right would be to survive to
infinity.
An act or conclusion is wrong to the degree that it is nonsurvival to the individual,
future race, group, species, or life responsible for doing the act or making the conclusion. The
most wrong a person can be on the first dynamic is dead.
The individual or group which is, on the average, righter than wrong (since these terms
are not absolutes, by far) should survive. An individual who is wronger than right, on the
average, will succumb. All conclusions are modified by time, since one conclusion made
wrong during an emergency can cause the non-survival of the individual or the group.
Individuals above 2.0 on the tone scale are more and more right in their actions and
conclusions than they are wrong, as they rise up the tone scale. Individuals below 2.0 are, on
the average, increasingly more wrong than they are right, in all fields, as they descend the tone
scale.
Accepting these postulates and axioms, it can then be observed that one can predict to
some degree what he may expect from individuals above or below 2.0 on the tone scale. A
reasonable individual attempts to read into the acts of others some reason. An individual who is
tending toward survival tends to evaluate the conduct of others in terms of efforts to survive.
He may see in an individual below 2.0 what he thinks is merely an aberrated inaccuracy or an
occasional mistake, but closer observation will demonstrate that the individual below 2.0 is
aggregating numerous mistakes, even while being occasionally right, and is tending to bring
about the non-survival of himself, of the future, of the group, and by contagion, the mankind
of which he would like to be a part. Below 2.0 lies fatality. That fatality may be manifested on
a gradient scale. It may only be nagging or forgetfulness or occasional gossip, but it is
destructive and it is evil. In an older time a stern voice could have said that those who lie below
2.0 are the servants of evil and the minions of the devil. These few axioms should give the
auditor some ability to predict actions and to know the reasons he should expect certain actions
on the part of preclears.
Very little experimental evidence exists with regard to many aspects of the theta body
or, as it might otherwise be called, the individual soul. It is distinct from cellular or genetic line
and apparently has its own personality and follows in a continuing line along the various
generations, possibly now and then advancing to a point where it separates itself from the race
and joins the theta universe. The data accumulated would also seem to indicate that some
entheta is carried forward along the line of the generations, since engrams in the theta body
exist, if to a much lighter extent, specifically the death engram, where the theta body is very
much in evidence -- so much so that if the auditor neglects to run the death engram of a past life
when it is presented by the preclear, he will without fail bog down his case. There seems to he
a distinct possibility that the theta body might begin, through the generations, to carry
preponderance of entheta by being too continually in the lower area of the tone scale. It could
be postulated that the theta body might become an entheta body entirely, and so drop out of the
survival concatenations, to what destination one cannot surely say.
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CHAPTER FIVE
General Description of Processing
Dianetic processing is relatively simple. The auditor usually assists the preclear,
provided, with an easy chair and a couch. The preclear at first normally sits up and answers
the questions of the inventory. This actually is the beginning of processing, although it may
appear that the auditor is merely seeking information which he can later use. During the
inventory, the interest of the auditor in the preclear builds up affinity between them. The
discussion of the case increases communication. And the auditor’s acceptance of the preclear’s
first evaluation of his own case builds up a sense of reality. The auditor can tear down these
desirable ARC conditions by being bored, uninterested in his preclear, peremptory, demanding
that less time be consumed, criticising the preclear in any way, or in general breaking the
auditor’s code.
The auditor then makes a test of the case, finding out whether or not the preclear can
move on the track, finding out whether the preclear’s memory is good, and estimating what
level of the tone scale his preclear probably occupies.
CAUTION: THE AUDITOR UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD TELL THE
PRECLEAR WHERE HE THINKS THE PRECLEAR LIES ON THE CHART.
He should not be involved in any way into disclosing where he thinks the preclear lies
on the chart, since a low value on the chart for the preclear is, in effect, an invalidation of the
preclear himself. (The auditor does not have to disclose this information even by the way he
starts his processing, for any case can expect to be given lock scanning and straight wire. A
case may be actually well up the tone scale but so occluded that lock scanning and straight wire
must be employed.) The auditor furthers his investigation of the case by asking the preclear to
lie down on the couch and close his eyes. In the past there was some confusion about the
condition called reverie. The only difference between being in reverie and being awake is
actually being in or out of present time. Reverie is not even a cousin to hypnotism. The
auditor, contrary to any early practice, does not count the preclear into a state of reverie or
concentration. The moment he asks the preclear to close his eyes and the preclear complies, the
auditor can consider the preclear to be in reverie. If the preclear does not move on the track,
this is not caused by failure to be in reverie, but by being stuck in an engram or having a
heavily charged case.
The auditor tests out the perceptics of the preclear by simply asking the preclear to go
back to a recent meal he has eaten or a recent pleasure moment and having him recount this
moment over several times, not as a concept of the moment, but as if he were right on the scene
doing again the things which he did before. This is called testing or tuning the perceptics. The
auditor here is attempting to discover whether or not the preclear can actually taste again a steak
he has eaten, sec again the scene he has viewed exactly as it was, feel again the knife and fork
in his hands, hear again the conversation around him, feel again his weight upon the chair, and
in general re-experience the incident. Running several such pleasure moments, it occasionally
happens that some of the occluded perceptics tune up and turn on. In any event, running
pleasure moments is very good for raising the tone of the preclear.
Having run a perceptic test, the auditor takes the preclear, merely by asking him to go to
a moment when he was very slightly injured, to the point on the track where he has a somatic.
The auditor runs the incident. The somatic, if felt at all, will ordinarily reduce. This should be
a recent moment of physical pain and should be a very minor one such as a cut finger or a
stubbed toe. This gives the preclear some idea of what he is expected to do. The auditor should
pay particular attention to the fact that he is actually educating his preclear into track movement.
The preclear may have to be coaxed several times before he gets the idea of being back in an
incident and re-experiencing it. He may try to give merely the concept of the incident instead of
perceiving it as though he were right there going through it again. He might try to free-426.427
associate and so wander around all over the track getting odds and ends and bits of information
which are relatively valueless.
After estimating the perceptics, the auditor should continue according to the chart, on
which by this time he should have thoroughly located his preclear. (Questions of almost
unlimited variety will have been asked by the auditor. Simply by using the data in various
columns and levels on the chart, he can avoid a stereotyped approach and be sure of turning up
the information he needs.) The most significant points on the test run are movement on the
track and the ability of the preclear to feel somatics. The auditor continues processing
according to the chart, occasionally checking the preclear for any rise on the tone scale, and if
he finds a rise in tone he may use additional methods, as delineated on the chart. The auditor
should be particularly chary of using on the preclear methods which are above his tone level. It
is better to err by using methods below the preclear’s tone level. Those individuals who are
relatively low on the tone scale have so little free theta available for processing that it must be
preserved and added to by the gentlest and lightest methods possible for some time until the
preclear’s tone rises.
Should the auditor discover that the preclear lies high in one column and low in another
column he should take an average and by this discover the approximate position on the tone
scale.
If the auditor is unable immediately to establish the preclear on the tone scale it is, in
general, safe to use lock scanning without much investigation of the case. Even a case which is
stuck on the time track can be lock scanned. If the preclear is scanned through his locks and
sticks in one of these locks, the auditor can generally free him by running pleasure moments or
scanning pleasure moments, if he does not want to run the incident in which the preclear is
hung up. Even when stuck in an engram preclears usually can be lock scanned.
The auditor should not be beguiled or sent astray by the wide-open case. This case is a
very peculiar thing, as discussed elsewhere. Sonic and visio can be on full from the top to the
bottom of the tone scale, but trying to run engrams on a wide-open case, as engrams, when the
case is at 0.5 or 1.1, will bring about a long and arduous course of processing in which the
preclear will remain more or less static on the tone scale regardless of how many engrams are
run out of the case. When such a case, or any case, is low on the tone scale, the running of
engrams absorbs free theta. Further, the preclear will consistently combat running engrams,
since when any preclear is below 2.0, his tendency is toward death, suicide, or further decline.
No plans or hopes for the future, no coaxings, nothing will persuade this preclear to do
anything very arduous to help himself. A preclear low on the tone scale may, however, be
persuaded into some of the milder methods of processing, since they do not occasion much
effort and actually do not seem to threaten his intended decline-since, make no mistake, the
preclear below 2.0 will try one way or another, by knowing or unknowing intent, to bring
about failures and consequent death to himself, his associates, and his group. The wide-open
case must be established on the tone scale by columns other than visio and sonic. It is best
located by its sense of reality, sexual behavior, other manifestations, and the condition of the
somatics. The wide-open case which is low on the tone scale must be handled with great care,
since here we have, unlike the occluded case, a persistence so low that the individual drifts at
the command of any engram or changes course at the slightest pressure from the environment.
The wide-open case low on the tone scale has no feelings of responsibility toward self, future,
or group, save aberrated ones. Persistence is so slight that any auditing errors can cause the
case to withdraw from processing. Here is an individual who climbs molehills as though they
were mountains. This case can be the greatest trial to the auditor and will render,
unfortunately, the most unsatisfying final results. The wide-open case can, of course, be low
on the tone scale only temporarily, because of some environmental situation. If so, the auditor
had better extend himself if he can to clear up this situation before he begins auditing.
This case is also a great liability to the auditor, when low on the tone scale, because of
its vagaries of behavior. If a woman, she may offer herself freely to the auditor, disregarding
her position in life, her husband, the future she may blast by doing so, the fate of any children
she may have, or any other consideration. Woe betide the luckless male auditing such a case
427.428
who involves himself with this bundle of destruction, since as she would betray another so she
will betray him; as she will be dishonest with another so she will be dishonest with the auditor.
The dishonesty will extend not only to treachery and betrayal, wherein she may freely
surrender to the auditor and then go directly to the police to have him arrested for seduction,
and wherein she may promise the greatest secrecy around any liaison and yet strew all about
evidence of that liaison, but she will also be dishonest when being run and will, for no other
reason than to confuse the picture, deliver up the most twisted and perverted scenes of her own
life. Raised amid riches, she will represent herself as having been a pauper. Raised a pauper,
she will represent herself as a princess. She will normally have pride in her ability to act, and
will commonly writhe and moan and weep over some incident that she quite consciously
knows to be imaginary. The male wide-open case is no less difficult and trying. No trust of
any kind can be placed in a wide-open case when it is below 2.0 on the tone-scale, and for that
matter no trust can be put in an occluded case below 2.0 on the tone scale, but the wide-open
case is far more deceptive and far more prone to wide vagaries in behavior and delusion.
The auditor will have his problems with preclears who want attention but not
processing. These preclears are automatically classified as below 2.0. This is the quickest chart
location which can be done. The preclear who wants no kind of processing whatsoever, even
though he understands some of the principles involved and knows they will not be harmful,
and the preclear who wants no processing but to be hovered over are both headed toward
succumb and will do their best to pull the auditor with them. The auditor should employ his
ingenuity, if he will continue processing them. He should use very light methods and a catfoot
approach, and he may be able to raise his preclear enough above 2.0 to cause a continuing
direction toward survival.
It should be borne in mind by the auditor when he is doing his inventory and when he
is locating his preclear on the chart that people below 2.0 may not be immediately obvious.
Their acceptance of processing may be only a method of securing attention. In some cases, the
preclear’s entire educational background may have to be lock scanned before the preclear can
feel any genuine desire for improvement. Entheta ideas picked up in high school, college, the
army or a political movement may sit squarely in the way of any rise on the tone scale.
The auditor should remember that the contest is between his own theta, his
reasonableness, his serenity, and his persistence, and the entheta of the preclear, the preclear’s
locks, secondaries and engrams. The moment the auditor permits his own entheta to attack the
preclear, turbulence is produced and a reduction of the preclear on the tone scale will ensue.
Thus, becoming angry or critical toward the preclear reverses processing. The preclear is not
responsible for his engrams.
The auditor, poor fellow, must retain his patience even under upbraidings from the
preclear. The auditor must never justify himself when the preclear thinks he has made a
mistake. For the auditor to explain how it was not a mistake is only further to enturbulate the
situation.
The auditor is concerned with what has been done to the preclear, not what has been
done by the preclear. The auditor should exhibit no morbid curiosity about the acts of the
preclear. He should not inquire into the preclear’s own doings unless he needs to find in the
dramatizations of the preclear a clue to the engrams which caused the dramatizations.
When the preclear is returned to some point prior to present time at the auditor’s
request, the auditor should under no circumstances use more words than are absolutely
necessary, and should at this time in particular be careful to observe the auditor’s code, since
the incident may contain anaten and the preclear may be receptive to hypnotic suggestions.
This is also true of a boil-off. The auditor should not talk to the preclear during a boil-off,
should not try to wrestle the preclear into alertness out of the feeling that the preclear is merely
trying to go to sleep.
428.429
Sessions may be of whatever duration and frequency during the week are agreed upon
by the auditor and preclear. Two-hour sessions are usually considered minimum, since it
occasionally takes that long to contact and run out enough engrams or to do enough lock
scanning to make the session worthwhile. Six hours of processing a day may be done without
loss of efficiency, and this can be done seven days a week without harm to the preclear. It
should be added that medical doctors advise that under such heavy processing a balanced
vitamin ration be used by the preclear, who otherwise may suffer nightmares, since it is
apparent that the running of engrams reduces the amount of vitamin B1 in the system.
Experience at the Foundation demonstrates some additional precautions which should
be taken with preclears. The auditor should make sure that the Preclear is not audited when he
is tired, that he is not audited late at night when by habit he would be sleeping, that he has
adequate rest, and that he is not audited during periods when his present-time environment is
intensely restimulative to him. Those preclears with whom the Foundation has had any trouble
were found to have been audited late at night, having inadequate food and B1 intake, during
intensely restimulative environmental circumstances (which might in any case have caused them
to drop on the tone scale) and when they were physically weary. All of these people had
psychotic histories. While such trouble has not been had by the Foundation to a tenth of a
percent of that, proportionately, experienced by practitioners of non-dianetic methods, the
Foundation has instituted a careful Programme to avoid such conditions and circumstances.
The general progress of the case would be to use straight wire, then use some lock
scanning, then to run some secondary engrams to relieve some grief or fear, and then begin an
erasure of the case by contacting this first moment of pain or discomfort in this lifetime, which
is ordinarily found somewhere in the vicinity of conception. If enough entheta has been
converted to theta on the case, the first engram will erase. If it will not erase, then too much
charge still exists in secondaries and locks. When the first engram in the case, known as basic-basic,
has been erased, the next consecutive engram should be contacted and erased in its turn,
and so on up the bank toward present time. Somewhere up the line it will be found that grief
has presented itself and it will be necessary to run out some more secondary engrams. When
this has been done, the preclear is sent back again to the first moment of pain or
unconsciousness which can then be found on the case. Basic area engrams will probably have
presented themselves. These are erased consecutively toward present time until further trouble
develops. Then more secondaries are run, more locks are scanned, and the preclear is returned
again to the basic area, where an erasure is continued. Sooner or later this erasure will continue
all the way forward to present time. Then, after running a few isolated missed engrams the
auditor will have on his hands a clear, provided the auditor was far enough up the tone scale in
the first place to encourage the de-enturbulation of this case to the point where it could run
engrams.
The auditor may find an occluded case so heavily charged with engrams that the case
can only boil off: This will appear to be a form of sleep, and the auditor may feel that he is
being cheated of his opportunity to perform. In such a case, no matter how many hours of
processing are consumed by this apparent sleep, the “sleep” must not be disturbed, but when
the preclear comes out of it, the phrase on which he went into the boil-off should be repeated
again, thus putting him back into the “sleep.” In such a way, enormous quantities of anaten are
unburdened from the case.
The auditor may find himself confronted with a preclear who will run only phrases and
cannot seem to get a whole incident anywhere. Much lock scanning should be done with this
preclear, but it is also of benefit to permit the preclear to run these fragments of aberrative
phrases, since sooner or later one of them will cause the preclear to boil-off or suddenly to hit a
grief charge.
No case of any kind should dismay the auditor. With these presented techniques of
lock scanning, running secondaries, running engrams, boil-offs, straight memory, and even
running disjointed phrases, any case which can be persuaded to work at all will resolve.
429.430
The auditor should be particularly wary of running his preclear into any heavily charged
secondary unless the auditor intends to run the preclear through it again and again and again
until the charge is reduced regardless of how much the preclear wants not to continue it and
regardless of how much the preclear may use to get out of it. This sometimes requires much
courage on the part of the auditor, since the terror and agony of the preclear or the extremity of
the grief may cause the auditor, out of misguided sympathy, to relent in the face of such a
secondary engram.
The auditor should be careful of running a heavily charged case into more than the case
can handle. Processing should be as non-directive as possible, the auditor saying only enough
to get the case running. Most auditors talk too much.
The auditor should never confuse his role with psychotherapy or with medicine. The
medical doctor is important in the society. Bacteria are bacteria. Bruises, contusions, broken
bones, and obstetrics will be with us for a long while. The auditor, because he can sweep aside
with ease most of the manifestations which were formerly called psychosomatic illnesses,
should not discount the reality of many kinds of physical disorders. The auditor is trying to
bring the individual up the tone scale. Incidentally, this by-passes the individual around the
majority of physical troubles and complexes and obsessions, but it does not obviate the
occasional necessity of medical treatment for the preclear, and it unfortunately does not obviate
the institutionalization of the obviously insane, no matter what Dianetics can do for these
people. The auditor, then, should work in close union with medical doctors, helping them to
understand what he is doing and helping them to understand Dianetics, and trying to educate
medical doctors into planting-fewer and lighter engrams. The auditor should ignore the
hundreds of conflicting psychotherapies and eschew any of their practices, since the auditor
will learn, in the realm of experience, that giving advice to his preclear about how he should
think about his engrams and other aberrative manifestations is highly detrimental to the mental
health of the preclear.
The auditor should realize he is working in a relatively low-toned and unenlightened
society. Dianetics will be invalidated to him continually, as with any constructive or creative
activity. If the auditor simply goes forward, yanking cases up the tone scale, he will win his
battle. He has in his hands tools more powerful than those which existed before. He should
use them.
The auditor should not despair of any case. He can do something for any case which
will even remotely give him its attention. There will be moments in the progress of any case
when environmental circumstances hit a case hard or when an engram of unusual force is on its
way to the surface, when the case will apparently go into a decline. The auditor should not
despair because of this, since he only needs to revert to the types of processing marked out for
lower levels of the tone scale, and so he may restore his preclear to the proper level. The
auditor should appreciate that a case progresses upwards, not in a steady line, but by swoops
and jerks, and that the average advance alone is steady. In days past, antiquated therapies
occasionally triggered a manic engram. Not knowing about the cause of human aberration, the
therapists were content to assume that this sudden elation of the patient was indicative of an
advance. The auditor will learn that these sudden surges to new highs of well-being are simply
symptomatic of an engram which has as its content some highly complimentary phrases. An
auditor will often find his preclear claiming in high euphoria that he is now clear, only to have
the case regress within two or three days to a depressed state. The auditor, by lock scanning or
running out the causative engram, can remedy this. The auditor will behold in the progress of
any case, while it is returned on the time track, some alarming manifestations. Running an
engram which contains fever, the preclear’s temperature will rise. Running engrams early in
life, the preclear’s facial structure will change. Running engrams which are very highly
charged may cause the preclear to scream, to the point where the neighbors a block away will
be phoning for the police. None of these manifestations should worry the auditor. The only
way the auditor can harm the preclear is to refrain from running out what has been contacted.
If the auditor becomes alarmed because the preclear’s heart is beating at twice its normal speed,
or because the preclear is moaning and weeping, and so tries to bring the preclear up to present
430.431
time, the auditor is inviting trouble. The manifestation of an engram while the preclear is
returned may be slight. Brought to present time without the engram being reduced, the
manifestation is many times increased. The somatic, at the point on the track where it occurred,
may not be very great. In present time, the somatic is greatly intensified. Thus, the safest
course is to run out whatever one contacts, even if one has to hold one’s ears; even if one’s
observation of the preclear seems to demonstrate clearly that here is a person become very
suddenly ill. The reduction of the engram or incident will bring about a complete revival of the
preclear.
Above all else, the auditor should have faith in his tools. When he tells the preclear to
go back to the time when he was five years of age, he should not then sit there and wonder
whether the preclear has returned to that time. Certainly some portion of the preclear’s mind has
gone to five years of age. The auditor deals with certainties. The auditor does not wonder
about the actions of the somatic strip and the file clerk. He takes what they give him. He runs
whatever is necessary to resolve the case. He has complete confidence in his techniques and in
his own ability. With this complete confidence, which is in itself a manifestation of theta, the
auditor can produce marked and remarkable results. If the auditor dilly-dallies with the case,
wonders whether or not Dianetics works, wonders what’s happening, wonders whether he
shouldn’t read chapter sixteen again, then looks at the preclear and thinks perhaps these
prenatal engrams are illusion or delusion, and begins to question people around the preclear,
wondering if that was what happened to the preclear, and is in a high state of doubt about
everything in general and the case in particular, he will not produce results.
Results are what are desired. Well, clear-thinking, strong individuals are highly
necessary in this society at this time. They are so remarkably few.
431.432
CHAPTER SIX
COLUMN AB
Present Time
One of the primary concerns of the auditor is present time. By “present-time” is meant
the current “now” on the time track. Actually the entire time track is only a consecutive
progress of present times. When a preclear returns to an incident by going down the time
track, he is returning to a present time which once existed. Because of action phrases such as
groupers, bouncers, denyers, misdirectors, and because of the heavy charge which can be on a
case it occasionally occurs that he is continuously in some past present time. Further, when one
fails to reduce an incident a case may be difficult to return to current present time. For these
reasons the auditor must understand clearly both the value of being in present time and the
methods of returning the preclear to present time at the end of a session.
The value of present time has already been illustrated by the fact that if one went
through a sanatorium and told patients one after the other “Come up to present time” a certain
low percentage of the inmates would thereupon become sane. The simple fact of being in
present time is in itself a factor of sanity. At a certain sanatorium, some doctors made this test
with the patients, and one of these, who had been insane for a considerable period, who
ordinarily refused to talk, and whose face was a mask of acne, responded to this command,
and as a result of no other ministration returned to present time and to sanity. That night
according to report, she attended a sanatorium party and gave a speech about how glad she was
to be there. Within three days the acne had disappeared from her face, and while her sanity was
of course far from being a good risk, she manifested and was continuing to manifest sanity
many weeks afterward.
There are, according to dianetic classification, two types of insane. The first type is the
dramatizing psychotic. The second is the computational psychotic. The dramatizing psychotic
goes through the engram in which he stuck, over and over and over. It is acutely or chronically
in restimulation, and his reactive mind causes his vocal chords and his body to go through the
dramatization demanded by the engram. He is generally imprisoned in two or three engrams
and goes from one to another of them ceaselessly. Such a case, of course, is heavily charged,
and it does not do much good to try to run out the engrams. It is necessary to take charge off
the case and bring the case to present time. This is not very difficult if one can gain the
psychotic’s attention.
The other type of insanity is computational. Here, the engram has walled up a certain
portion of the analyzer as captured territory, and a circuit causes this portion of the analyzer to
be the whole of the being. The remainder of the analyzer is shut off, and the “I” of the
individual is not in evidence. The paranoiac is usually computationally insane, which is to say
he does not dramatize like a phonograph, but actually appears to think up things. The
schizophrenic is an individual who has several portions of the analyzer segmented off by
different circuits, which are actually valences, and who goes from one to another of these
portions of the analyzer, only occasionally, if ever, becoming himself: Both the dramatizing
psychotic and the computational psychotic have the bulk of the analyzer completely shut off by
anaten and by being out of present time. Present-time perceptics are not rationalized, since they
are entering upon an engram area. Probably the crux of the treatment of all psychotics is getting
them into present time and stabilizing them there.
All psychotics have heavily charged cases, and it is necessary one way or the other to
reduce this charge. While this may appear an oversimplification of the problem, it also might
well be that the problem is simple. The most difficult thing in the treatment of the psychotic is
establishing enough affinity, reality, and communication between the psychotic and the auditor
to persuade the psychotic to do something to help himself. This can be done by mimicking the
432.433
psychotic, which is a form of establishing affinity, or by bringing the psychotic into some
contact with the present world.
This short dissertation on the psychotic is given to illustrate the importance of present
time. The auditor should not believe, however, that he can easily get his preclear out of present
time and cause his preclear to go insane. The case would have to be a borderline psychotic in
the first place, and the auditing would have to be in such flagrant violation of the chart that it
could be presupposed that the “auditor” who would accomplish such a psychosis would
himself be a moron or a psychotic.
Any preclear is less alert out of present time than he is in present time. People go
through their whole lives far out of present time and never suspect it. If they should be returned
to present time they would be far more able to cope with their problems and would be
considerably happier, since evaluating the current environment in terms of, let us say, the
environment of the age of five years is not conducive to good computation. The percentage of
people who are chronically out of present time will astonish you if you will test it out. The test
is a simple one and is, indeed, a standard mechanism used by the auditor when returning his
preclear to present time. If you were to use this mechanism on a number of your friends you
would find that many of them are stuck somewhere on the time track and are not in present
time. You should find it relatively easy, if you are dealing with people above 2.0 to return
anyone to present time whom you find out of it. The person need know nothing about
Dianetics, and, indeed, this is an excellent way to introduce the subject to a stranger.
Discovering where the individual lies on the time track may be done in two or three
ways. The first method is the age flash. To understand this, one should also understand
something about the file clerk, a subject which will be covered in a later chapter. The first flash
response, the first impression a person receives in answer to a question is called, in Dianetics, a
“flash answer.” This is assisted by the auditor’s snapping of his fingers immediately after he
asks the question.
The age flash is obtained, then, in the following fashion: The auditor says, “When I
snap my fingers, an age will occur to you. Give me the first number that comes into your
mind.” He then snaps his fingers, and the preclear gives him the first number which comes into
his mind. This may be the preclear’s actual age, but in this current civilization, it usually is not.
Sometimes it is a circuit response. The preclear has, through continual answering of this
question, set up a circuit which replies instead of the file clerk. Such a person can be detected
as running on such a circuit simply by asking the question whether or not at the beginning of
every year he has difficulty putting down the date of the new year. If he carries over the past
year into the new year for some days, or if he carries the past month into the new month, or if
he simply has trouble in knowing what date it is, he can be considered to be out of present time;
and if his flash answer is his current age, he can be considered to be running on a circuit. The
circuit response can be set aside and another answer gained by another mechanism. Using the
flash answer, one will discover at what point on the time track the preclear has most of his
attention units.
The second mechanism by which the individual is discovered to be in or out of present
time is the date flash. The auditor says to the preclear, “When I snap my fingers, a date will
flash. Give me the first response which comes into your mind,” (snap !). The preclear then
gives the first date which comes into his mind. In all these flash answers a new preclear will
ordinarily give the second or third answer which comes to him, and therefore the auditor must
ask whether this was the first number. The preclear may give the present date, but on further
questioning may admit that some earlier date flashed first and that he corrected it. This earlier
date is where the bulk of the preclear’s attention units are located on the time track.
Another method of detecting whether or not the individual is in present time is also on a
flash answer basis, but this time one asks for a flash scene. The auditor says, “When I snap
my fingers, the current scene will flash before your eyes,” (snap!). A visio may then flash in
the mind of the preclear and is quite often not the visio of present time but of a much earlier
period.
433.434
It also happens occasionally that a preclear not too heavily charged with entheta will be
stuck in an engram exactly on the point of the only sonic he will get on the track and the only
visio he will get on the track. Merely by telling him to close his eyes and listen the auditor may
get him to come up with a holder which is holding him out of present time. This is not general
but happens often enough to be remarked.
There is yet another method of detecting whether or not the preclear is out of present
time. This is by auditor observation. The preclear who holds on relentlessly to tokens of a
certain period of the past is normally partially in that period, either because of a grief charge or
some other type of entheta which holds him there. The old lady who surrounds herself with
the trappings of 1910 and who wears an outmoded gown will usually be found on the time
track at the moment of the death of her husband or son or some other loved one. The secondary
engram is run out or enough entheta is converted elsewhere on the case, and the auditor can
return her to present time, at which moment she will recognize, for the first time perhaps, that
her keepsakes and her gown are a trifle out of the mode.
There is an additional auditor observation which establishes whether or not the preclear
is out of present time. The auditor learns rather rapidly to observe the physiology of his
preclear and judge from this where the preclear is stuck on the time track. At the period of birth,
the baby is equipped to put on considerable fat and weight, and a person who is stuck in the
birth engram is usually somewhat overweight and usually has some physiological
characteristics which remind one of an infant. This is only one example of one period on the
time track. The auditor will find preclears who look like twelve-year-old boys and who are
actually stuck at twelve years of age in some operation such as a tonsillectomy or in some grief
charge.
The auditor will find girls who appear to be four or five years of age although they are
grown up and who retain some mannerisms and physiological characteristics of the earlier age.
And then there are those people, not too lovely to look at, who are arrested in the prenatal
period. They bear some slight hint of the period of life at which they are held. Their mouths
and the condition of their skin seem to remind one of the condition of the embryo or foetus.
Such people have a tendency to be formed in the curved position of the prenatal period, are
round shouldered and are apt to draw up into a ball when they sleep. This condition becomes
very pronounced in the insane, where a call-back in a prenatal engram has taken all the attention
units of the individual and placed him exactly at and only at some portion of the prenatal period.
There is no argument concerning the existence of prenatals. They have been known for the
past thirty years, have been adequately proven by experiment at Rutgers University. The
auditor who does not recognize prenatals will never have very well preclears, and the auditor
who does not see in his potential preclear the symptoms of being stuck in the prenatal area may
have a difficult time with his case.
There is the postulate of attention units. It could be considered that an attention unit is a
theta energy quantity of awareness. Any organism is aware in some degree. A rational, or
relatively rational organism is aware of being aware. Attention units could be said to exist in
the mind in varying quantity from person to person. This would be the theta endowment of the
individual. One person, if we assign merely arbitrary numbers, might have a thousand units
and another person might have but fifty. If all of a person’s attention units could be free in
present time for recall, enjoyment, perception and direction of body activities and for
computation, that person could be said to be most excellently cleared. People below the level of
clear have fewer and fewer attention units in present time as they descend the tone scale. The
percentile scale on the chart might be interpreted also as the number of attention units which the
person has available in present time. The normal person probably has about twenty-five percent
of his attention units in present time. In view of the fact that these attention units are what he
enjoys with and thinks with and works with, this can be seen to be not quite optimum. The rest
of his attention units are caught somewhere back down the time track in one incident or another
in the form of entheta.
434.435
When an individual is out of present time, it can be said that he has more attention units
existing at some past moment on the time track than he has existing in present time.
The auditor, by failing to reduce engrams or secondaries, can induce a momentary
condition in his preclear of being out of present time. The preclear, after the session, if he is
not in present time will look rather groggy, will not perceive very readily and will be, as a
matter of fact, much more suggestible than when he is in present time. It is symptomatic of
being out of present time that present time perceptions find no attention units to handle an
evaluation of the perceptions, and so make a much deeper or unrationalized impression on the
individual.
In every session the auditor, even when he is doing only straight wire, takes his
preclear somewhat out of present time. It is the concern of the auditor to get the preclear back
into present time. This is done best by running pleasure moments as though they were
engrams. These moments of pleasure will assemble the attention units and un-enturbulate
them, so they will easily return to present time and the preclear will stabilize in it. It is a general
rule that the more entheta there is on a case, the more the individual is out of present time. It is
possible for entheta itself to be in present time, but this is where the environment itself is
enturbulative, where the individual is upset or angry because of contagion from the
environment. Thus, all the attention units in present time can be seen to be not necessarily
theta. But entheta on the time track is not itself in present time. In the absence of
environmental restimulation, then, it can be seen that these attention units which should be in
present time in a clear, but in a person lower on the tone scale are not, are actually entheta units
wrapped up in locks, secondaries, and engrams.
When the preclear does not return to present time and cannot be persuaded by any
coaxing or cajoling to return to present time easily, the auditor has either tied up too many
attention units in some past moment -- a situation which will remedy itself in the course of a
few hours, usually -- or there is so much charge on the case, which is to say so much entheta,
that present time is unattainable. In cases below 2.0, the auditor has to be very careful how
many attention units he send out of present time, how much he restimulates his case, as these
cases are so heavily entheta that any existing theta will enturbulate swiftly, thus taking the
preclear far from present time into dramatizations or engramic computations. In working the
usual case, not the psychotic, one still must be aware of the methods by which one may
stabilize the preclear in present time.
This rule can be applied to every case: the conversion of any amount of entheta to theta
will increase the preclear’s ability to come to present time and stabilize there. The auditor
should work to convert entheta into theta until he can get his preclear into present time. He can
do this by straight memory, by scanning locks, by running pleasure moments, or even by
running an engram, on cases which are high on the scale.
There is no cause for panic because the individual is out of present time. Most of the
society is out of present time. Any national army or navy, for instance, is so far out of present
time that it is always ready to fight the war before the last. Moral codes are ordinarily two or
three centuries out of present time. Governmental systems are usually a couple of thousand
years out of present time. So, for an individual to be ten or fifteen years out is not very serious,
unless the case as a whole is extremely serious. The auditor ordinarily finds his preclear out of
present time and finds it necessary to leave him out of present time for the first few sessions,
being unable to do enough processing during these few sessions to convert sufficient entheta to
return his preclear to present time.
The auditor’s first and primary concern in any case which he finds out of present time is
to return that case to present time. He should work with light methods, session after session,
concentrating only on one thing: getting the preclear back to present time. He does not attempt
to drive the preclear to present time or command the preclear to present time, since driving and
commanding will only turn theta into temporary entheta. Once he has his preclear in present
time and has his preclear very stable in present time, the auditor can start worrying about
435.436
specific incidents and the vaster difficulties of the case. Trying to work somebody who will not
come to present time or who cannot stay in present time once he is there should not be a trial to
the auditor. The auditor should not run engrams on such a case since, obviously, any person
who cannot stay in present time does not have enough free theta to work engrams.
Various manifestations take place concerning present time in preclears. The first
manifestation, of course, is being chronically out of present time. The preclear is usually held
in some operation, accident, or sorrow back on the track somewhere. Or the preclear comes to
present time and then slumps back out of it because of some restimulated engram which one
way or another, by literal command, contains a call-back, a phrase which says “Come back
here” and which the preclear obeys by returning back down the time track right after the auditor
has gotten him to present time. This indicates a rather heavily charged case, and it is the charge
itself which should be addressed, which is to say simply converting entheta to theta rather than
attacking the specific engram which is doing the calling back. Then there is the case which is
all the way out of present time all the time. This case is not in contact with the environment in
any way whatsoever and is, of course, psychotic. Then there is the case which is apparently
“stuck in present time.” One could not actually be stuck in present time but is stuck somewhere
on the track in an incident which carries with it the illusion that it is present time. Christmas,
for instance, is a time when presents are given, and as the preclear is brought back up the track
he may hang up at any point on the track which contains the word “present.” The habit of
medical doctors during operations of saying “That’s all for the present” will create the illusion
of putting the preclear up in present time and making it difficult for the preclear to return. Then
there is the preclear who is a chronic bouncer. Some engram in the case has in it a “get up” or
“go up there,” and the preclear is thus bounced to the extremity of his time track and even into
the future of his time track. Obedience to such phrases indicates a heavily-charged case, and the
auditor should address himself to the charge on the case rather than to the specific engram
which is producing the manifestation.
There is the flash answer method of discovering the incident in which the preclear is
located. The auditor asks a series of questions which will identify the incident and receives
flash answers on a yes-no basis. The auditor says, “When I snap my fingers you will answer
yes or no to the following question: “Hospital?” (snap!), and the preclear answers yes or no.
Such a series of questions and answers might run as follows: “Accident?” “Yes.” “Hospital?”
“No.” “Mother?” “Yes.” “Outdoors?” “No.” “Fall down?” “No.” “Cut?” “Yes.” “Kitchen?”
“Yes.” And suddenly the preclear may remember the incident or get a visio of the scene and
remember or get a sonic recall of what his mother said to him, which might be something like,
“You stay right here and hold on to it until I come back.” If the case was not too heavily
charged, remembering this might permit him to come to present time. In this way, using the
names of people who might have been around the preclear and things which might have
happened to the preclear, the auditor can, on a flash answer basis, bring enough data about the
incident to light to allow the preclear to remember a hidden or forgotten engram or secondary,
and simply by recalling it, to return to present time.
Getting the preclear to recall by straight memory the incident where he is stuck on the
track is sometimes sufficient to get him to return to present time. One case was under
processing many months, for an hour or two a week, by a very poor auditor. This case was
hung up in a serious operation at the age of thirty-one. The auditor eventually became bright
enough to inquire whether or not there was an earlier operation, and an almost duplicate
operation was suddenly located by the preclear, at which moment he returned to present time.
In getting people to present time it is a necessity to understand the principle that the
earlier the engram is the easier it is to reduce. Later engrams on a case contain their own force
plus the force of all similar previous engrams on the case. Engrams exist in chains, and there
may be anywhere from one to forty, or a hundred engrams on one chain. The preclear is quite
ordinarily stuck, not in the first engram on the chain, but in some later engram. Thus, the
identification of the point on the track where he is stuck is ordinarily insufficient to free him.
An earlier moment of a similar nature must be discovered before he is able to return to present
time. The use of straight memory to discover such an earlier moment is a simple operation.
436.437
As will be seen by an examination of the tone scale on the subject of present time, the
more heavily charged the case, the more likely the preclear is to be out of present time or to stay
out of present time. The whole question of returning the individual to present time is the
question of converting entheta to theta. It would be a very simple thing if all one had to do was
to run the engram in which the preclear was stuck and so get him to present time. This usually
doesn’t happen. The engram in which the preclear is stuck is quite ordinarily unreducible, in
the existing state of the case. Thus, getting the preclear to present time necessitates running
pleasure moments, scanning locks, running secondaries or simply making present time so
thoroughly attractive that the preclear’s attention units return there.
The auditor should not neglect the fact, nor should the preclear, that present time itself
may be desirable or undesirable. The preclear, who is faced with a divorce or whose child has
just died or whose wife has suddenly been discovered to be a harlot may find present time so
thoroughly undesirable that attention units shun it just as, being theta, they would shun any
other entheta area on the track. Engrams, secondaries, and heavy locks become buried and
hidden from recall because they are entheta and, by theory, have a repelling effect upon theta.
The area at the age of twelve in which the individual was told he was going crazy because he
was discovered to be masturbating (along with the remainder of the human race) will be
difficult to approach. The entheta of the scolding and upset will cause theta to shy away from
the area. Other non-survival periods of one’s life where one was down on his luck, where one
found that college girls often make poor wives, where one discovered that one’s husband, of
an evening, liked to take off his shoes and read the paper rather than conquer dragons for his
lady fair as he promised to do so often before the wedding, and other periods of great travail
are quite normally shunned as the preclear goes back down the track. This is very well
evidenced by the number of new incidents which turn up during lock scanning. At first there
appear to be only one or two incidents on a lock chain, but when the preclear has been scanned
through the chain many times it is discovered that there are several hundred incidents on the
chain.
Entheta incidents, then, vanish so far as the theta of the conscious or analytical mind is
concerned. One should not overlook the fact that present time can be such an area, and so may
be shunned. The auditor should do what he can to remedy this situation by providing a friendly
atmosphere, or even a refuge, for his preclear and so make present time, at least during the
session, palatable. As a summary, then, the more entheta in ratio to theta there is on the case the
less likely the preclear is to move on the track and to be in present time. The more entheta there
is in present time the less likely the preclear is to enter it -- and this includes the fact that a cross
or bossy auditor will make present time unpalatable to the preclear. A primary mission of the
auditor is to get his preclear into present time.
The fundamental principle of getting the preclear to present time lies in improving the
theta-entheta ratio of the case by straight wire, running or scanning locks, and in cases which
are well up the tone scale, running secondaries or engrams. As is shown on the chart, the
dianetic clear is highly stable in present time and does not leave it. All his perceptions are clear.
This does not mean the clear cannot leave present time. With “I” in control of the entire
analytical mind, instead of some circuit or telephone switchboard of circuits, the clear can run
on his track entirely at will, but he almost never needs to do so, since his memory mechanisms
can be counted on to furnish him with accurate data without recourse to return mechanisms.
Here is the difference between memory and returning, where it is best manifested. Memory
would be, for instance, sending two attention units to the standard memory bank to bring up
information for the use of the analyzer, and returning would be sending fifty percent of the
available theta back down the track for a full re-experiencing of the incident.
The clear ordinarily does not fully re-experience incidents, simply because he doesn’t
have to, and he ordinarily finds present time palatable. Theta units in present time offer a
resistance to the entheta coming in from the environ. The impact of the environ is combatted by
the theta unit reasoning and evaluation. If there is a great deal of entheta on the case and the
present time environ is entheta, the present time perceptics will go toward the entheta and will
restimulate it whether it be in the form of locks, secondaries, or engrams, and so enturbulate
437.438
the whole case. This does not happen to the clear. But that does not mean that the clear cannot
be enturbulated. Given a very low-theta-endowment clear and a very heavy entheta
environment, such as the slaughter of a thousand Christians, the clear will temporarily
enturbulate. He does not, however, have large areas of frozen entheta on his track which would
trap the temporarily enturbulated theta, and so he will completely dis-enturbulate the moment
the entheta environ is no longer present. A clear is very definitely in present time.
The 3.5, the dianetic release, is quite stable in present time, and he is very alert to his
environment. He gets the full beauty out of any scenery he observes, he is not disturbed by
extraneous noise or upsets, but because he still has frozen entheta on his case he is susceptible
to heavy enturbulation if the present-time environment is enturbulative. Nevertheless, he is
stable in present time.
The 3.0 has no definite difficulty in reaching, returning to, or maintaining himself in
present time. He snaps back to present time very rapidly when he is being processed and is
very alert when he gets there. However, he can be enturbulated to the point where he will hang
up temporarily somewhere on the track and will possibly dramatize the point where he has
hung up, if sufficiently hit by enturbulation.
The 2.5 when once brought to present time will remain there easily until the next
processing. He has perhaps thirty to forty percent of his theta in present time, as an ordinary
rule, and an auditor has to be very careless to hang this preclear up on the track. However, this
preclear can be hung up on the track, and the auditor will have to run pleasure moments at the
end of the session and do some straight wire when he has had a very enturbulative session, in
order to stabilize his preclear in present time.
The 2.0 requires considerable care on the part of the auditor in order to return him to
present time and stabilize him there. Pleasure moments have to be run, if any can be found.
Some lock scanning must be done. Some future pleasure moments may be run. But the 2.0
may respond to a call-back, and once brought to present time may slump back down the track
to an earlier period. Dealing with 2.5’s and 2.0’s the auditor should always check at the end of
the session at least twice to see whether the preclear is in present time, but ten minutes later the
preclear may have slumped back down the track in answer to a call-back in some early period
of entheta. Here we have a case where there is far more entheta on the case than theta, and the
individual tends strongly to go toward the entheta of the past or the entheta of present time
rather than toward theta. Theoretically, he would rather come up to present time for a fight than
for anything else, however, this is not recommended as a processing procedure, and the auditor
must use much skill in getting the preclear to present time.
The 1.5 is usually in some dominating valence somewhere out of present time. He is
very difficult to get to present time and once in present time will almost always slump back.
Here is the chronically angry case, and he goes toward entheta more readily than toward any
theta in present time. The auditor will find efforts to bring this preclear to present time very
difficult until he has raised this preclear’s tone up above the 2.0 level.
At 1.1, the preclear stays out of present time most of the time. When he reaches present
time he nearly always slumps back immediately. A tremendously inviting situation, covertly
hostile, devious or perverted in present time will bring this preclear to present time but little else
will. The balm and persuasion of an auditor’s personality will not by itself do the trick. The
auditor working a 1.1 should not worry if he cannot get the preclear to present time at the end
of the session, since the preclear is usually out of present time anyway. Still, the auditor should
be careful not to pull down any of the preclear’s theta into entheta areas, since there is very little
left to pull down. Very light processing methods should be used.
The 0.5 can always be requested to come to present time and sometimes will. But he
slumps back immediately into some apathy incident. This case requires considerable skill on
the part of the auditor, who is working with somebody so far out of present time all the time
438.439
that it is difficult for him to get the preclear’s attention. If the auditor acts particularly sad,
sometimes this preclear will come to present time.
At 0.1 the preclear’s perceptics can, at best, be directed to present time concepts. One
can ask him to observe a cup, a saucer, a bright colored object, some music, or an emergency
situation. But here one is very lucky to be able to get the preclear merely to perceive something
which exists in the present time environment. The auditor’s primary concern with any case is
whether or not the case is in present time.
439.440
CHAPTER SEVEN
COLUMN AC
Straight Memory
In Dianetics, straight memory is a specified technical process. It should not be confused
with “free-association.”
Straight memory is also called straight wire. It is so called because the auditor is
directing the memory of the preclear and in doing so is stringing wire, much on the order of a
telephone line, between “I” and the standard memory bank, plowing through all occlusions and
circuits.
There is something about straight memory which is very validating. Once a person
really remembers something it seems real to him, and this sense of reality greatly promotes the
ARC of the case. Straight memory thus has a certain advantage over lock scanning and
running engrams. The preclear using straight memory very thoroughly associates the past
event with the present-time environment, and he evaluates the past event in terms of the
present-time environment. When the preclear is returned on the track he often evaluates the
past event only in terms of its own environment, and while repeated recountings of the incident
may bring about reduction of the entheta in it, the validation factor is still much lower than in
straight memory.
Straight memory was developed in Dianetics on the basis that if one knew the
fundamental mechanical cause of insanity one should be able to do better than was done in
psychoanalysis, since it is known that “free-association” produces some minor alleviation of
tension and anxiety. The mechanisms of why this came about were thus explored. It was
found that the heightened reality of straight memory and the knowledge of why locks, the usual
target of straight memory, were aberrative combined to make an orderly fast type of
processing, valid in the ratio of several hundred to one over older methods. All by itself straight
memory is an excellent method of processing. The busy doctor or consultant who has but a
few minutes to spend with every patient can employ straight memory to great advantage. One
specialist in Parkinson’s disease in New York City, although he did not understand very much
about dianetic processing, used straight memory to achieve the alleviation of Parkinson’s
disease at least temporarily in three cases out of five on which it was employed. The importance
of straight memory should not be underestimated. Preclears low on the tone scale can
sometimes support only straight memory. In the Foundation various people have become
straight memory experts since straight memory has its own peculiar skills.
Straight memory can be used by anyone without any danger. It is a slightly directive
process. The auditor does not permit his preclear to wander around and free-associate and
generally waste time and energy. The auditor knows exactly what he wants and he directs the
preclear’s attention to it. Thus, a straight memory expert must be able to sum up more or less
what is wrong with the case. After he has summed this up he can do a very good job of
resolving the case by straight memory.
Originally, straight memory required considerable perspicacity on the part of an auditor.
However, in late 1950, recognizing the great skill necessary to a good straight memory auditor,
I postulated what became inelegantly called “the hurdy-gurdy” system. The use of this system
demands the minimum of the auditor and extracts the maximum of aberration from the preclear.
The first thing one should know about straight memory is the phenomenon of the
human mind that a fact asked for today and not received may be received tomorrow or the next
day. The mind, on facts long laid away, has a one to three day refresher period. If one were to
give an examination on history to a number of forty-year-old men on Monday one might expect
many low grades. But by giving another examination to this same group Wednesday one
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would find higher grades were attained. The mind, in short, refreshes itself, and the repetitious
request by the auditor for certain facts from the preclear’s standard memory bank will
eventually elicit those facts. The auditor, if he does not get the information he wants from the
preclear on Monday, should ask the same questions on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday, and he will find that the preclear will eventually remember.
Because so many people in our society seek to profit by the failure of others to
remember, memory is a generally reduced quantity in the current culture. The mother who has
many times attempted abortion upon her child is quite anxious that the child should not
remember anything. The mother instinctively knows, although the culture has taught her the
child could not possibly remember such early incidents, that she had better suppress any
possible recall. Thus, mothers, by contagion, have encouraged bad memory.
There is something triumphant in having a better memory than the other fellow. This is
based on the formulation that being right is to survive and being wrong is not to survive. By
being right in memory one demonstrates the fact that one has a greater survival potential than
the fellow who is wrong in memory. Memories come into conflict continually, and one will
find unthinking people quarreling as to which one remembers the best and which is correct.
This is an additional befuddlement in the society which suppresses memory.
There are cases on record, well authenticated, of individuals who have remembered
back into their prenatal period. One eight-year-old girl who was under processing by a book
auditor recently stunned her parents by remembering back to the third month after conception,
when “Mama squeezed her tummy and hurt me.” In the presence of non-dianetically oriented
individuals, this memory would have been suppressed immediately, but in view of the fact that
it agreed with memories of the parents, and in view of the fact that both parents had, to their
benefit, experienced dianetic processing, the little girl was permitted to go on remembering, and
straight wire into the prenatal bank was done with such profit that the child’s school grades
went up an average of fifty percent. Many instances are on record of straight memory back to
birth, and it is too ordinary for comment for an individual to remember into infancy. The
society of course, because of the contagion of aberration of mothers who have practiced extra-curricular
sex relations and attempted abortions, holds such early memory in considerable
question.
Memory of infancy does not depend upon memory of how to talk. Befuddled
professors and practitioners in the past believed that the ability to talk had something to do with
ability to remember, but this is not the case. There have been objections to prenatal engrams on
the basis that “no one would be able to understand language before he was born,” despite the
fact that Sigmund Freud stressed traumatic prenatal incidents. The syllables, meaningless
though they are, are recorded in a prenatal engram, along with all other perceptics. When they
are keyed-in, in a person past two years of age who has learned to talk, they are evaluated in
terms of the meanings the person has learned to give those syllables.
Forgotten incidents were postulated by Sigmund Freud, to whom through Commander
Thompson, one of his students and the friend and mentor of my youth, I am much indebted, to
be a considerable factor in human sanity. The release through recall of any incident which is
forgotten or hidden and which contains considerable turbulence will produce a tone rise in the
individual.
Many individuals undergoing processing -- in fact most individuals -cannot “remember”
any earlier than eight years of age, much less into infancy. The more entheta there is on a case,
the less theta is available to the analyzer. The more entheta there is along the time track, the
harder it is for the existing theta to dis-enturbulate it enough to get the data out of it. The more
aberrated the individual, the more entheta there is on the case. Entheta does not necessarily lie
in childhood, but key-ins can ordinarily be expected to lie in childhood. The key-in is
sometimes difficult to remember, but when remembered will produce the most marked change
in the case. After a person has been processed for a while and considerable free theta exists for
the use of the analyzer, straight memory back to very early periods is possible.
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One can also get into early periods in a person’s life by the use of repeater technique.
This is not straight memory technique, but is an archaic technique of Dianetics independent of
straight memory. Repeater technique has its uses, but anyone using repeater technique at
random on a case will quite commonly find his preclear hung up in an engram which cannot be
contacted and run out. Repeater technique causes trouble. But by the use of repeater
technique, barring accidents, the preclear can be pulled back to a return into periods of infancy,
if the auditor is lucky enough not to get the preclear into an engram. (Repeater technique on
holders, such as “stay there,” will almost certainly wind the preclear’s attention up in engrams,
attention which will not be freed until the auditing is scanned out). This should not be
confused with straight memory. Straight memory consists of the preclear’s staying in present
time with his eyes wide open and being asked to remember certain things which have been said
to him and done to him during his lifetime. He is not asked to return to these incidents. He is
asked only to recognize their existence. He is not commanded to accept the fact that such
incidents existed, and minimal aid should be given his memory mechanisms.
Some misunderstanding has resulted on the part of some individuals about repeater
technique, what it is, and how it was used. In the handbook DIANETICS there is a discussion
of repeater technique, but simply defined, it is this: The repetition of a word or phrase in order
to produce movement on the time track into an entheta area containing that word or phrase.
Repeating or “rolling” a phrase in an engram in order to de-intensify the phrase or reduce the
engram is not repeater technique.
The auditor may get a preclear who has difficulty remembering yesterday, to say
nothing of the time when he was two years of age. The auditor may be assured that when he
has worked with this case long enough to restore a considerable amount of theta, converting it
from entheta, the preclear will be able to remember things which he has never been able to
remember before, since one of the first things to improve in dianetic processing is memory.
When an auditor has a preclear who has difficulty remembering, the auditor should be careful
to start with things that are rememberable. If the preclear says bluntly that he cannot remember
things, it is up to the auditor to encourage and validate this preclear’s memory. If the preclear
says “I can’t remember names,” the auditor says, “Well, what is the name of your business
associate?” The preclear says, “Oh, his name is Jones!” The auditor has proven to the preclear
that the preclear can remember at least one name. If the preclear is in such bad condition that he
cannot even remember this at will, the auditor says “What is my name?” The preclear having
just heard the auditor’s name may be able to remember it with ease. If he cannot, the auditor
says “What is your own name?” The preclear tells him, and the auditor says “You see, you can
remember one name. Now let’s see if you can remember others.” In such fashion, the preclear
can be assisted to remember from the most obvious incidents or facts back to more and more
obscure incidents. This is the common progress of straight memory. To begin by remembering
the obvious and finally to be able to remember the aberrative.
A whole and entire method of processing can be made out of straight memory. Time
spent on straight memory is usually time well spent. Straight memory might also be considered
a pair of stilts by which the preclear, persuaded to remember incidents later and later in his life,
can be brought back up to present time. That straight memory does free theta, or convert
entheta to theta is beyond question. It is, however, a rather lengthy process, compared to lock
scanning, for instance. Thus, straight memory should be used only as indicated on the chart,
or to get the individual back up to present time, or by auditors who are so rushed for time that
they have only a few minutes to attempt to rid a preclear of some specific somatic or aberration.
The primary rule of straight memory is this: Whatever the preclear thinks is wrong with
himself, his family, his group, or mankind, life or MEST, has generally been told to the
preclear by somebody else at an earlier period of the preclear’s life. This is modified by the
fact, of course, that things can be wrong along these various dynamics which are perfectly
rational observations. The auditor is looking for irrational beliefs about these things.
The second rule about straight memory is that the preclear, at least at this time, is
surrounded by very aberrated individuals and has been so surrounded since conception. It is
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symptomatic of any aberrated individual that he is acting upon his engrams and is dramatizing
those engrams. Thus, there is a consistency of performance. The rough rule of thumb is that if
an aberrated person says something once he will say it hundreds or thousands of times. Once
you have isolated the fact that a certain individual in the preclear’s past, for instance,
complained about his stomach, you will have discovered a whole chain of such complaints, and
a conversion of entheta to theta on this subject will take place.
By straight memory one can easily discover the dominant or the nullifying individuals
in the preclear’s family. From the dominant individuals, those who attempted to dominate and
control the others around them, the preclear will have received the circuit phrases, which are the
control phrases in his bank. From the nullifying persons he will have received the nullification
phrases. The auditor, by locating these persons and their habitual statements, finds the
preclear’s circuits.
Those things which are found in the locks of a preclear are normally found in his
engrams. Thus if one finds mama at the preclear’s tenth year saying “Men are no good,” one
can expect to find mama shortly after the preclear’s conception making the same remark in an
engram. If one discovers the lock by straight memory, one can then find the engram.
Difficulties arise in straight memory in cases where the preclear has not been raised by
his own parents. A preclear whose parents have died shortly after his birth does not have in his
post-speech period the same phrases which are in his early engram. A lock must have an
engram below it in order to exist, but here the auditor is confronted with a person whose locks
do not, as far as phrases are concerned, match his engrams. This would appear at first glance
to be a fortunate condition for the preclear, single the engrams would never be repeated as to
voice tone or content later in the preclear’s life.
But something else has been interrupted here which is very important to the preclear and
that is parental care. There does not seem to be any substitute for the proximity and care of one
s own parents. Preclears who have been raised by nurses and maids do not demonstrate the
same alertness as those who have been raised by their own parents.
Preclears who have been raised by foster parents, no matter the quality of those foster
parents, do not seem to be as well off as preclears who have been raised by relatively
indifferent and unaffectionate parents of their own. There is more here than the biological
production of new organisms, and the affinity of parent for child even when clouded by
maltreatment of the child is apparently superior to non-parental care of the child even when this
is near optimum. Thus, the severance of the parent-child relationship after birth is a
more solid break of affinity, reality, and communication than the summation of locks
which would occur in the usual case later in life. This is not theory, but observation of many
cases, since no case processed to date which had been raised by maids rather than parents was
found to be as high on the tone scale as cases which had been raised by indifferent parents,
much less those who had been raised by parents who loved them dearly. Russian pseudo-scientists
to the contrary, there is more to man than biology and environment. Training women
extensively in political economy, symbology, or the care and cleaning of rifles is not conducive
to a forthcoming sane generation.
Straight memory, as a technique, strikes toward seven types of incidents: the
enforcement of affinity, communication, and reality, by command; the implantation of circuits;
and the inhibition of affinity, communication, and reality, by command.
Affinity, communication, and reality exist as they exist under the self-determinism of
the individual. What is wrong with the preclear is what has been done to the preclear, not what
he himself has done. Basically, man is intended to survive as an organism. An individual who
has been subjected to enforced affinity, reality, and communication has an interrupted self-determinism.
By enforced affinity, reality, or communication is meant the demand on the
individual that he experience or admit affinity, reality, or communication when he has not felt
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it. The child who has been forced to “love” a parent or guardian has been subjected, when he
did not feel that love but was forced to admit it, to an enforced affinity. This is aberrative. The
wife who has been continually subjected to demands from a lower-toned husband that she tell
him she loves him, when she does not, and who yet accedes to this demand has been subjected
to enforced affinity. People lower-toned than the preclear commonly command his affinity,
and when affinity is given but not felt locks are formed which are quite enturbulative should
engrams underlie such an enforement.
What child is there who has not had reality forced upon him which he did not feel? He
has been told that it was very important for him to go to school when he himself did not have
sufficient reason to believe this. In the limited sphere of his experience, he sees that it is
desirable to play, to get sunlight, to eat, sleep, have friends and to exist in harmony in the
bosom of his family, but he does not see that it is necessary for him to study. Nearly all
grammar school education is an enforced reality. The grown-up can see it is necessary for the
child to have some slight command of the three R’s, but the child has not agreed to this.
Agreement has been forced upon him, and thus, aberrative locks are formed upon any existing
engrams. School is very far from being the only enforced reality. Any time a person is made to
agree by force or threat or deprivation, to another’s reality and yet does not feel that reality
himself an aberrative condition exists. When engrams are present which can be restimulated by
this situation, a certain amount of theta is trapped as entheta. The most insidious of all these
enforced realities is where the individual knows the truth or is told the truth and is then made to
confess that what he knows to be the truth is a lie. He has said that such-and-such is the case
and then he accedes to the demand that he deny this assertion. This very commonly happens to
children and forms bad locks. Whenever an individual is forced to agree to something to which
he would not agree it left to his own reason, a lock is formed, where underlying engrams exist.
Enforced communication is productive of all manner of aberration and physiological
changes in the individual. Of course, any lock has to have an engram underlying it, but it is
fairly certain that what the parent says in the lock has already been stated in an engram earlier in
the case. Communication, of course, includes all perceptic as well as conversation and
messages, and when an individual has been forced to look at something which his self-determination
says he should not look at, his sight to some degree is impaired. When he is
forced to listen to something to which he would not ordinarily listen if left to his own self-determinism,
his hearing to that degree is impaired. When he has been forced to touch
something which he would not ordinarily touch, his tactile is thus impaired. When he has been
forced to talk when his self-determinism says he should remain silent, his speech
communication is impaired. When he has been forced to write when he would not ordinarily
write if left to his own devices, his ability to write or to communicate messages is thus
impaired. These are enforced communications, and in the presence of engrams, become very
aberrative locks.
Circuits occupy a later column. But any circuit is simply a control or nullification “you”
phrase which makes the individual compute differently than he ordinarily would and which
walls up a certain portion of the analyzer for use against the individual. A circuit, for instance,
can be critical, so that thoughts that criticize him occur to the individual whenever he thinks or
acts. The circuit “I’ve got to protect you from yourself” can wall up a large portion of the mind.
The individual in this society is surrounded by people who would either dominate or nullify,
and thus many locks are formed of the circuit variety, where people are by the “you” phrase
attempting to dominate or nullify the individual. Locks can only exist, of course, when
engrams exist, and so these are normally received in their most aberrative form from parents,
guardians, and other individuals who have been around the early portion of the person’s life,
when the bulk of the engrams are received. Circuits are quite peculiarly resolvable by straight
wire. When an auditor strikes a circuit during the running of an engram very occasionally the
whole engram blanks out or a strange visio turns on. When the auditor strikes a circuit in an
engram he can expect the preclear to go out of the auditor’s control into the control of some past
and even dead individual’s phrases. Individuals who go around auditing themselves and
running engrams and phrases ad infinitum are running because of circuits. Individuals whose
banks cannot be entered in any way are in that condition because of circuits which bar the
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auditor. By straight memory it is possible to discover the dominant or nullifying individuals in
the family and so recover the dominant or nullifying circuits in the form of locks. Once these
locks are “blown” the engrams containing these circuits are to some degree discharged.
Further, the auditor is forewarned of what he might find in the engram bank of the individual.
Every case is to some degree a control case, which is to say a case which has circuits of one
kind or another. One of the best ways to find out what circuits the preclear has is to give him
straight wire on the statements of the people by whom he was surrounded in very early life and
childhood.
It is interesting to note, on the subject of circuits, that as one goes down the tone scale,
from the top to the bottom, one finds that people on lower and lower levels are more
surrounded by dominant and nullifying individuals. Thus straight wire becomes more and
more indicated the lower one drops on the tone scale for the location and blowing of circuit
locks. The inhibition of affinity, communication, and reality is no less serious than their
enforcement. The inhibition of affinity comes about when a desirable similarity of the preclear
to another person is denied or rejected or when the love and affection of the preclear is rejected.
In the presence of underlying engrams considerable turbulence is created by these nullifications
of affinity. The wife who is commonly answered with “You don’t love me” every time she
attempts to express her affection, is undergoing an inhibition of affinity. The individual who is
told that nobody in the office likes him is undergoing an inhibition of affinity. The person who
is rejected from a group because of some fault, or otherwise, experiences a major break of
affinity. When such breaks of affinity overlie engrams, which they commonly do, they
become highly aberrative and serve to charge up the engrams considerably. Straight wire
reaching such incidents can unburden the case of considerable enturbulence. The individual
who is not permitted to feel that he is loved or that he may love, the person who is denied any
common ground with the universe, with man, with his group or family, or even with himself is
experiencing an inhibition of affinity.
The inhibition of reality requires considerable attention. Left to his own devices and
reasoning on his own data, the individual decides what is reality for him and with what he can
agree. When he is informed that he cannot agree with those things he thinks he should agree
with, he experiences an inhibition of reality. When engrams underlie this, these locks can be
very serious and can tie up considerable theta on a case as entheta. One might say that this is the
most serious influence in reducing the individual on the tone scale -- inhibition of the
individual’s reality. This is invalidation, and invalidation is the most serious break of the
auditor’s code. What a person, by his own observations, has come to believe real becomes
then a part of the conclusions and observations which a person uses to guide his future actions
and to evaluate himself with regard to his environment. A sudden challenge or denial of the
reality of these conclusions comes as a severe shock to the individual, when it is underlain by
engrams, and will shake his reality, in any event. The reality of an individual can be so
thoroughly shaken that he will be doubtful of anything he does or says, since he is not sure of
his conclusions. Reality together with affinity and communication, is a basic in the
computations which an individual makes with regard to the courses he should take in the
pursuit of his own survival. The reality of children is very ordinarily threatened or knocked to
pieces by parents. The child has very little data with which to evaluate his current environ and
to plot his future. In comparison to his conclusions that he should survive, that he needs food
and clothing and shelter, and that he needs affection, the aberrated culture into which he is born
is often a very strange reality to him. Grownups have agreed upon this culture, but this
agreement is not ordinarily the most sensible one which could be made, and the child is often
faced with realities which are to him, dealing in the basics in which children deal, quite unreal.
Thus, children are being disagreed with continually. The little baby believes it should have its
own control of MEST, that it should be permitted to crawl about at will, which is its command
of space, that it should be able to take its own time about what it is doing, which is its conquest
of time, and should be able to expend energy in whichever direction it desires, which is its
control of energy, and should be able to pull about and do as it pleases with matter such as mud
pies and precious vases on tables. The child does not know that these things are held to be
otherwise valuable in the society, and so the child is continually denied its conquest of MEST.
Nowhere is this denial as acute as in the denial of reality. None agrees, evidently, with the
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child. And thus, very early in life a large number of locks begin to build up upon the basic
engrams of the case. But disagreement with one’s reality is not limited to childhood.
Throughout life, the individual who has agreed with himself about certain realities is
continually challenged in his reality by those about him, particularly those lower on the tone
scale than himself, who seek to gain importance by reducing that individual’s reality and
therefore reducing the individual on the tone scale to a point where he can be more easily
controlled. Statements, then, which tend to invalidate a person’s conclusions about reality
concerning his own relationship to the culture and environ are very aberrative.
Inhibitions of communication are very common. They most ordinarily manifest
themselves in this society with spectacles, with hearing aids, with tactile anaesthesia, in
stutterers, and in people who will not write letters or pass along messages. Communication
breaks, on the inhibition side, stem from the denial of a person’s ability to see, to feel, to hear,
denial of a person’s right to talk or listen -- in other words, denials of a person’s right to
communicate. These manifest themselves, when underlain by engrams, in terms of inhibited
relations with one’s fellows and a lowered position on the tone scale.
The hurdy-gurdy system of straight wire takes into account all of the above data, and
puts into existence a method by which the auditor can exploit each person surrounding the
preclear. We have already spoken of the triangle of Dianetics, affinity, reality, and
communication. The auditor works on the principle that a datum desired from the preclear’s
memory today may not be forthcoming but if requested again in a day or two may be
forthcoming, and if not then, may be available two or three days after that. The auditor makes
a list of all the persons who surrounded the preclear: father, mother, aunts, uncles, guardians,
nurses, grandparents, great-grandparents, teachers, brothers, sisters, employers, and
subordinates, as well as mates. Two triangles and two circuit slots exist for each of these
persons. The preclear does not need to know about this. The auditor can very simply draw up
a plan of questioning which then permits him in his requests for memory of certain locks to
cover the ground over and over and each time with new people repeating questions asked about
people covered in sessions before. In other words, this is a tally sheet which the auditor could
use in order to assay the case and blow, if possible, locks of enforced ARC, inhibited ARC,
and circuits. For instance, the auditor draws one triangle and a slot, a straight line, for father
and he labels these “enforced” and “dominating.” Then he draws another triangle and another
slot and labels these “inhibited” and “nullifying.” Then he makes a similar graph for mother and
for every person intimately related to his preclear’s life.
His system of questioning then is to find out when papa enforced affinity, when papa
enforced reality, when papa commanded higher communication, and when papa sought to
dominate. He asks around the triangle and with the slot. He will discover that the preclear may
or may not have certain immediate memories concerning father’s conduct and favorite phrase.
The auditor then proceeds to the inhibition triangle and nullification slot. He asks when father
inhibited or refused affinity, when he inhibited or refused reality or agreement, when he
inhibited or refused communication, and when and if father attempted to nullify the preclear. In
the same session the auditor goes on to mother and to other people, with the same plan.
Because the preclear’s memory can be refreshed by this procedure, the auditor does not
abandon father after one session but carries father for three or four sessions on straight memory
and asks a similar set of questions in the next session. When did father enforce affinity,
demand that he be loved, demand that he have affection shown to him? When did father
demand agreement? When did father demand communication? When did father attempt to
dominate? When did father attempt to cut off or inhibit affinity? When did father attempt to cut
off or inhibit reality? When did father attempt to cut off or inhibit communication? When did
father attempt to nullify? The auditor then goes on to coverage of mother or some other person.
Systematized straight wire like this will turn up an enormous amount of material. The
hurdy-gurdy system was created so that the auditor would not have to keep long sheets of
questions.
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This is the general plan of questioning. The questions need not be the same every time,
but their general import should include this plan. In such wise, the most aberrative forms of
entheta in locks can be contacted by straight memory, and session after session the preclear’s
material becomes fuller and his memory steadily improves.
The valence problem is also resolvable in terms of straight memory. It often occurs that
the preclear is suffering some physical disorder which can be freed by straight memory, along
the following lines. Should the preclear have dermatitis of the hands, one might discover that
some person in the preclear’s background had dermatitis or some ailment of or injury to the
hand. This person may be located, and it may be discovered that some lock command exists
which causes the preclear to be like the previously sick person. This is often found with a
preclear who has lost an ally. Such a case is illustrative. When the preclear’s grandmother died
she had cancer of the hands. The preclear was suffering from dermatitis of the hands. It was
discovered that many remarks had been made by relatives concerning how like his grandmother
the preclear was. This likeness was so closely followed out by the preclear that he attempted to
develop cancer of the hands, which manifested itself as dermatitis.
The whole problem of valences is one of allies and antipathies. The preclear very often
may be in the valence of someone who is normally hated. He is forced by lock commands,
people telling him things like “You’re just like your father. You’re growing more like him
every day, and you’ll grow up to be no good.” Because of such commands the preclear may
not be able to help hating himself since he is forced into the valence of a person who is hated
and whom he hated. Straight memory can often resolve this problem merely by asking whom
the preclear was most supposed to be like and what was the general attitude toward this person.
It is vital in straight memory to reach the actual context in the actual incident of every
memory. The first stab of the preclear into his memory bank will be one of vague feeling that
there was such an incident and that somebody said something like that. This is not good
enough. The auditor must pin the preclear down to a specific incident and the words of that
incident. If this is not possible in the first session, it will be possible in a succeeding session.
Until it has been achieved, the lock will not be blown. A good trick to get a preclear to
remember a specific incident is to ask the preclear if such an incident exists and then, when he
vaguely asserts that it must, to ask him where he was sitting when he heard somebody say this
or where he was standing. The preclear may quickly correct the auditor, saying that he was
lying down or walking, and thus will have recovered data. There is a certain amount of
challenge which the auditor can use in straight memory. He puts the preclear on his mettle. If
this is not carried too far it acts as a very stimulating factor to the preclear
It is quite remarkable how many “psychosomatic” disorders and how many aberrations
straight memory can resolve after the auditor has had a little practice. He can actually get his
preclear out of some chronic valence, rid him of some aberration, bring him up to present time,
and generally raise him on the tone scale merely by asking the right questions.
The auditor should not confine himself to the hurdy-gurdy system of straight wire.
This is only provided to relieve the maximum amount of entheta in the minimum amount of
auditor time. The auditor can use his imagination considerably with regard to what must have
been said or done to this preclear. The auditor can profitably open any session by asking
“Well, what are you worried about today?” When the preclear tells him, the auditor wants to
know who in the preclear’s background might have thought that, and it sometimes results that
the preclear can spot immediately what has been told in the past which compares to the worry
which he now has, and if the two are cause and effect, the preclear will immediately rid himself
of the worry. It is quite remarkable how swiftly this can be done. When the preclear recovers a
lock which has considerable entheta on it he ordinarily chuckles or smiles. The preclear who
does not react in this fashion may yet be getting a little bit of entheta off of the lock, but the
possibility is that an earlier similar lock exists, when the preclear does not laugh. Thus, when
the preclear is caused to remember some early incident, and yet does not experience any relief,
although he should, from the nature of the incident and its hidden character, the auditor does
well to try to discover some earlier incident than the one remembered, which is similar to it.
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The principle here is to discover, if possible, the key-in, the first time the underlying engram
was restimulated.
Straight memory is also used in order to discover a certain type of incident which can be
lock-scanned. The preclear who is directed to a certain type of circuit command in his case may
not experience much relief through straight wire. But now that the auditor knows this type of
circuit is in existence he can cause the preclear to lock-scan the circuit, returning to the first time
he can discover it and scanning up through all similar incidents to present time. Thus, straight
memory is combined with lock scanning, which is actually a high speed memory rather than a
return through locks. No auditor should feel uncomfortable about using any quantity of straight
memory. It will happen, however, that an auditor will get relief in the preclear by straight
memory, then return the preclear down the track to an incident which is then run, and after
bringing him back up the track will find that the relief which had been achieved before is now
apparently gone. This comes about because a present-time lock has been laid in by returning.
Merely having the preclear remember his own act of running the incident, once he is back in
present time, should restore his aplomb and equilibrium.
The benefits of straight memory are many. The duration of these benefits is in
question. By straight memory of pleasure moments or of the first time one had a certain illness
one can alleviate headaches, stomach aches, worries, and anxieties. This does not mean that
the effect is permanent, as would be the case when the basic engram is run out. But straight
memory is the parlour trick of the auditor. In any group of people he can always find at least
one that he can make much happier simply by a few adroit questions. The auditor who uses
straight memory for this purpose should also develop the technique of the marksman, who
when he makes a bulls-eye is clever enough immediately to lay aside the gun. Once the auditor
has achieved a spectacular effect by straight memory he should leave the case alone for that
session -- unless, of course, he is engaged in a regular progress up the tone scale with his
preclear.
Straight memory is a technique which should be studied and practised with considerable
alertness as to the good it can do. No auditor should fall into the rut of believing that simply
remembering the past can do very much for the preclear. Remembering specific, causative
locks can, however, produce a marked change and improvement in an individual. Straight
memory is not free-association and is not random maundering; it is a precision technique and
should be studied and used as such.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
COLUMN AD
Pleasure Moments
The dianetic definition of pleasure is that the organism tending toward survival obtains
pleasure by survival actions and the seeking of survival goals. In the organism below 2.0,
tending toward death, a reactive pleasure is taken in the performance of acts which lead to
succumbing on any of the dynamics. In other words, above 2.0 pleasure is survival, and
below 2.0 pleasure is obtained only by succumbing or by bringing death to other entities, or by
causing self or other entities to be suppressed on the tone scale.
True pleasure leads towards happiness. The “pleasure” which tends toward death is a
reactive counterfeit, but seems intensely valid to those in the death bracket of the tone scale.
Happiness could be said to be the overcoming of not unknowable obstacles toward a known
and desirable goal.
This postulates that the greatest happiness is the nearest approach to immortality. A
good job, skilled abilities, bountiful harvests, possessions; these are goals. There are very
finite goals for the happy man in every day of the week, as well as the big goals toward which
he directs his efforts. His happiness does not come from the attainment of the goals but from
overcoming obstacles on the way to those goals.
Pleasure and immortality are near synonyms for individuals above 2.0 on the tone
scale. There is a gradient scale of the types of pleasure enjoyed by those above 2.0. It seems
evident that the person at 2.5 actually takes pleasure in being bored, but surges up toward
higher levels when interest is concentrated on some goal not outside the understanding of the
2.5.
The 3.0 takes pleasure in reaching toward very clearly observable goals. The 3.0
accepts his pleasure cautiously and tentatively, but nevertheless enjoys it. His pleasures are apt
to be routine and relatively unimaginative.
The 3.5 tends toward higher goals of survival and has confidence in reaching those
goals. He can embrace more bountiful levels of survival. He can realize that survival as a bare
necessity-level process is unsafe and intolerable and that if all computations demonstrate that he
will require two bushels of wheat per month to eat, then he had better provide twenty bushels
of wheat per month. His pleasure is wide and ambitious.
The 4.0 achieves considerable exhilaration. His concept of survival is so bountiful and
he is yet so confident of his ability to reach such levels of survival, that he can take in a
universe of goals and, within the limits of his skills and talents, accomplish them. Here we
have a definite manifestation of attitudes toward goals, magnitudes of goals, and the ability to
attain and enjoy pleasure. No man is happy without a goal, and no man can be happy without
faith in his own ability to reach that goal. The highest form of security is confidence in one’s
self in the future, in the group, and in mankind. Without such confidence and without the will
to make the various dynamics survive, an individual has no security. That person who
measures his security in terms of a good job purposely short-sights himself as to the actual
insecurity of his position. A man who works for an organization which may endure long or
may be transient, according to popular indoctrination, is secure. And yet he may work to the
period of his life when he is no longer adaptable and find himself of a sudden, without any job
because of the simple sudden shift of a board of directors or because of the antagonism of a
foreman. Security would consist of this man’s being able to adapt himself to his environ, in
his being prepared for any possible shift in the factors which influence his job, and in his being
confident of his ability to meet and deal with any possible shifts. Security is not a static thing.
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Security would lie only in a man’s confidence in reaching his goals and, indeed, in his having
goals to reach.
There are automatic goals inherent in the plan of life. The conquest of MEST, the
survival of the theta body, faith in immortality and the Supreme Being are all high level
automatic goals. They potentially exist in anyone, but the amount of entheta inherent in the
theta body and accumulated within the generation may cause the individual or the group to fall
far short of any realization of its ability to attain these goals. The more entheta existing in the
theta body and accumulated in the generation, the lower or less reasonable will be the goals of
the individual or group.
Without goals, hopes, ambitions, or dreams, the attainment of pleasure is nearly
impossible. Many individuals do not realize this and even though capable of assigning to
themselves goals and pursuing those goals, they permit lower-toned people around them not
only to undermine their confidence in their own ability to attain security and survival but also to
deny them the right to formulate and strive toward goals of a desirable magnitude.
At the lower levels of the tone scale one finds individuals who purposely enturbulate,
upset, destroy, and with great ardour inhibit the goals, hopes, and dreams of those about them.
Here we have the individuals from 2.0 down. These have goals which are themselves no less
definite than the survival goals above 2.0 It is a pitiful and terrible thing that individuals above
2.0 expend vast amounts of coaxings and persuasions on mates, associates, and fellow group
members below 2.0 in an effort to get them to go toward survival goals. Individuals who
engage in this activity are immediately targets for those who exist from 2.0 down, since these
see in the higher individuals a method of furthering their own goals -- and the goal of the 2.0
down is death.
An examination of the anatomy of death demonstrates that death can be a small or a
great thing. Death is actually a gradient scale. Small mishaps and accidents can tend toward
greater and greater accumulation of mishaps and accidents, until death of an ambition, death of
an individual, death of a cause, or death of a group is attained. Here is the story: “For want of a
nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the rider was
lost, for want of a rider the battle was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.” Death
stems from small things and proceeds toward great things.
Death is a soft-footed thing. Today a man makes a flagrant error in bookkeeping. He
makes it because his wife has nagged him the night before. Tomorrow his superior finds the
error and marks it down that his bookkeeper is not always accurate. In itself this is nothing.
But next month, when a bookkeeper has to be discharged, it is recalled that one made an error,
and all other abilities being more or less equal amongst bookkeepers, the one who made the
error is discharged. Out of a job, the bookkeeper finds himself even more enturbulated at home
and spends little time finding new employment. He takes a job beneath his skill in an office
where everything is hectic, and he makes more mistakes because he is now worried. This is a
little bit of death.
There are those who talk about “lucky breaks” and who speak of the “hand of fate” in
their undertakings, but a forthright examination of the field of man’s activities will show that
nearly all success is most adequately deserved. The head of an imposing institute of
psychology in a major American city told me recently that when he first entered upon his
profession he was to some degree convinced that the capitalist, the big industrial manager, the
director of the great corporation had arrived where he was because of avarice and carelessness
of the feelings of others.
In the course of the many ensuing years he had, however, either with his own hand or
through his staff, done industrial psychometric testing of many organizations and with this
work had an opportunity to test a great many of the capitalists, managers, directors, and
industrial giants of America. He had found in every case that “those who were at the top very
well deserved to be there.” He had discovered that the endowment of these individuals included
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a rich appreciation of life, a great feeling for their fellow men, an enormous persistence, an
intelligence in planning and execution. He had discovered that the world is carried on the backs
of a few desperate, but very big men. And he discovered that luck was not chance.
Individuals above 2.0 on the tone scale are uniformly lucky. There is something more
to theta than quite meets the eye. Here are the men on whom God smiles.
Below 2.0 we have the unlucky. One could with some surety give to a person high on
the tone scale a few dollars and expect him to come out a winner at Las Vegas. And one could
expect that the same few dollars given to a person low on the tone scale would see him coming
out of the game very much the loser. Above 2.0, the individual plays to win. Below 2.0, the
individual uniformly plays to lose. And not only does the individual below 2.0 play to lose
himself; he plays to lose for everyone else around him and for the future.
It is part of the mechanism of death that individuals below 2.0 talk as though they
played to win, talk of the desperate need of saving and winning, talk of emergencies by which
one is expected to win. This is all part of the trap. Given every opportunity and every facility
and every circumstance by which they can win, people below 2.0 will inject into every plan the
germ of death, and acting ever so reasonably will permit that germ to grow until death is
attained for the individual, for his associates, for the future, or for his organization. A Hitler
brays his anger at the world and hounds all Germany into action with the argument of glory and
yet, through not very mysterious mistakes, brings the hopes of Germany to death. He makes a
charnel house of Europe, slaughters thirty million human beings, brings suicide to himself, and
extinction of the hopes of his nation. Yet many times in the course of Hitler’s 1.5 activities he
could have converted Germany into the glory of the world. As a matter of fact, before he
began to manufacture nothing but munitions he had revived German science to a point where it
was respected above the science of any other nation. By the simple and direct appeal that
Germany had become vital to the survival of other nations Germany could have risen and
become glorious. But at no time when Germany could have risen did Hitler take the turning
toward survival. He chose instead the turning toward death.
This play is not enacted always upon the stage of nations. It happens in many
households. It is a pathetic and terrible thing to find a man mated with an individual below 2.0.
He does everything he can to succeed, and yet at every turn of his career he finds himself
balked by some strange non-compliance, or some new enturbulation, and gradually little by
little his energies decline until he himself is outward bound toward death and a new generation.
A woman, mating herself to a man below 2.0, who is herself capable of a high level of
survival, will find herself broken by little “misunderstandings,” strange perversions, and
quarrels at inopportune times, until at last her ambitions for a family and a future lie in the dust
where so many dreams go. The man who takes unto himself a business partner below 2.0,
who is himself well above that line, will find a strange concatenation of events building around
him which brings about the destruction of that business regardless of the hopes with which it
was founded and regardless of his own ability to carry it through. It would be better for an
individual engaging in a marriage, a business, or a group action to inject himself with poison or
virulent bacteria than to ally himself with anyone below 2.0 on the tone scale. If this seems
strong, look around you at the blasted men, the blasted dreams, the stories never written, the
songs never sung because someone out of some pap of sympathy or “obligation” allied himself
with an individual below 2.0 on the tone scale. This is death -- death as certain as laying one’s
neck below the blade of a guillotine and hitting the trigger.
From 2.0 down, the individual takes a reactive but very definite pleasure in attaining the
“goal” of death for himself for the future, and for individuals around him. Here is entheta
seeking to separate theta from MEST to bring about death and to accomplish a new generation.
In the vicinity of such people death may be silent and waiting, but ready to influence and
pervert every action in the direction of succumb.
At 2.0, the individual finds a reactive “pleasure” in sending forth Antagonisms, in
carping, and nagging, and criticizing. Left at liberty he will not sink any further on the tone
scale but will continue to “abreact his hostilities.” He is dramatizing engrams. But should these
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dramatizations be broken, he will descend on the tone scale, It is an actual fact that whatever
pleasure he obtains is obtained through these dramatizations. He can, by processing or
education or changed environment, be brought up the tone scale, but left where he is he will
certainly drag others down it, since he is a point of turbulence, as are all people below 2.0. At
1.5, the individual finds reactive “pleasure” only in the venting of anger. He has no actual
concept of pleasure, but he gains a feeling of dangerousness and therefore of “pleasure” in the
dramatization of his dominating or angry engrams. If permitted to go on being angry, he will
remain static, to some degree, on the tone scale, but if these dramatizations are balked or fought
against, he will descend down the tone scale, since he is not permitted to experience the
“pleasure” which he can attain by being angry. His goal is to achieve destruction of things or
people. He has considerable joy in achieving that destruction. People who are only temporarily
at the 1.5 level, which is to say who are being acutely 1.5, know well the satisfaction obtained
in smashing something. The chronic 1.5 can rise no higher than the smashing of things. At
times in the past it has been felt that the individual who threw things, who went into a rage, and
who talked in desperately destructive terms was at the lowest possible depth of insanity. This is
very far from true. Anger is the very high bracket of insanity. One should beware of those
who are lower on the tone scale and who bring about destruction only by convert means, for
there is no forewarning of what they will do. Any preclear whose reactive mind (and all
reactive minds are below 2.0 on the tone scale) is coming up to ward a release will pass
through the zone of anger reactively and will be furious with people who have done things to
him and may even be furious at the world at large. This is a symptom of his getting well, not a
symptom of his going mad. People are not easier to handle below the zone of anger. People
below the zone of anger are much more dangerous, since they will take much more devious
steps to bring about death. They do not bring about destruction in clean daylight as does the
angry individual, but in the dark alleys and cesspools of humanity. The person who is
chronically angry can be processed rather easily by Dianetics up into the higher tones, since he
still retains his vitality. It is only necessary for him to discover those things about which he is
really angry in order for him to centralize his attention, and he still has considerable theta with
which to convert entheta. But, and never neglect it, this person’s pleasure is in being angry,
and in running pleasure moments one had best discover moments in which the individual could
be unreservedly angry at something.
The 1.1 tends even more markedly toward death than the outspokenly angry individual.
The 1.1 will make small slips and errors and bring about upset and turmoil in his vicinity with
considerable aplomb. These are his joys. If the 1.1 is to experience any “pleasure” it will be in
an act which is deviously and hiddenly destructive to himself, to the future, to mankind, to life
itself, to theta, or even, although that is impossible, to the Supreme Being. It should be
understood that an individual may have a 1.1 reactive mind and yet be quite analytically alert
and only drop to 1.1 when he is enturbulated. This would be an acute
1.1. But such a person is still dangerous. With the smoothest possible face, the 1.1
can deny any and every destructive or death act which he or she has engaged upon. The 1.1
hides all destructive acts and quite commonly puts a face of construction upon these activities.
The 1.1 finds “pleasure” in sex only if sex is engaged upon with many people and in strange
and peculiar ways. (This does not contradict the fact that a man, like any male, may seek to
own and impregnate as many females as possible -- not a 1.1 characteristic.) The 1.1 does not
enjoy sex save only when it is hectic and enturbulative. Here is the satyr, the nymphomaniac.
The 1.1 will injure or maim, animals or men for “pleasure.” And in running “pleasure”
moments on the 1.1 the auditor will find such moments existing around the injury of
somebody’s dreams or the body of some helpless being. Here “pleasure” is obtained not in the
light of day, but clandestinely and often hideously. The 1.5 takes “pleasure” in bringing about
the incapacity of a powerful enemy. The 1.1 takes “pleasure” in breaking his enemy’s back
while the enemy lies helpless. The 1.1 may appear appealing, he may make a great show of his
powerlessness, but when the lights are dimmed the actions of this individual are directed
energetically toward death, whether the death of a reputation, the death of a cause (even though
the cause is apparently supported), or the death of himself (no matter how far he seems to think
his actions are from suicide.) In the 1.1 band, by the way, we find the individual most
blatantly insistent upon ethics and morals for others. The 0.5, being that much further toward
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succumbing and dying, attempts to bring about the death of his family, associates and self by
continual forthright enturbulence in terms of death. Truth is, of course, no consideration at any
level below 2.0. The most flagrantly untruthful is the apathy level of 0.5. The individual at
0.5 obtains reactive “pleasure” in lying wildly but dolorously about the hopelessness and
horribleness of life and what has been done to him. To run what any individual at an acceptable
level of the tone scale would consider a pleasure moment on a person at 0.5 is, of course, all
but impossible. But reactive “pleasure” can be obtained by the 0.5 in being as thoroughly 0.5
as possible.
The 0.1 can sometimes be coaxed into running a “pleasure” moment on the subject of
how dead he is and how lacking in any dangerousness. If the auditor can contact him at all, it
will be at this level where the “pleasure” moments can be found.
It is a general rule, then, that pleasure moments are run at the level where the individual
finds himself on the tone scale. Do not expect the 2.5 to run moments of high exhilaration,
since the entheta on his case prevents him from reaching such a level. Do not expect the 1.1 to
run a moment when he was extremely angry, since his position on the tone scale makes overt
anger a very dangerous thing to indulge in, and the fear implicit in his position may prevent him
from showing it. The general rule is that, above 2.0, the auditor discovers constructive and
creative acts of greater and greater triumph and magnitude as the preclear rises up the tone
scale. And below 2.0, he finds greater and greater efforts toward death in the “pleasure”
moments chosen by his preclear. In any case, it is overcoming obstacles toward the goal which
is important to pleasure. Below 2.0 of course, the individual is overcoming “obstacles” which
tell him to survive as he travels toward his “goal” of death. Death, to individuals below 2.0, is
the only valid and obtainable “goal” -- whether for self, future, group, or mankind. Anything
which interrupts this course toward the “goal” of non-survival will be fought by people below
2.0. Such avidity for extinction is commendable only for the thoroughness with which these
individuals will struggle to die. Because one deals here with eight dynamics, one should not
believe that the individual below 2.0 works only toward his own death. At 2.0 he works rather
mildly toward the death of a very wide periphery but does not much desire death for himself.
At 1.5, he works toward the death of other beings or life forms or other dynamics. He will, of
course bring about death for self but he does not give heed to this. One cannot reduce the other
dynamics without reducing the first dynamic, of self, and bringing about one’s own death. At
1.1, we get only an occasional conscious awareness that the individual is himself tending
toward his own suicide. Death is intended, by devious means, for a lesser periphery. Where
the 1.5 will seek the death of many, the 1.1 will seek, by covert means, the death of a few.
The 0.5 seeks death in obverse ratio to the amount of attention he can give to his environ, and
that attention is normally isolated in the first dynamic and may include only a few intimates in
the environ. The 0.5, then, is the suicide, but before suicide can almost be counted upon to
attempt the death of at least his closest associate, whether by murder or by enturbulation via
sympathy. Occasionally the 0.5 will include the murder of children as part of personal suicide.
The intimate of a 0.5 stands, actually, in the gravest peril in which an individual can possibly
stand. The general running of pleasure moments can accomplish a very great deal in a case.
There is the case of an elderly woman who had no other kind of processing done on her for
many weeks. She was at the beginning of this period, according to report, bedridden. An
auditor with an experimental inclination spent two hours a day running pleasure moments with
this person, petty triumphs, joyous meetings, moments of good health and well being,
moments of pride in accomplishment or in loved ones. At the end of this period, the elderly
woman was no longer bedridden and evidenced a considerable rise on the tone scale. Not a
single lock, secondary, or engram was run on the case. This should give the auditor some idea
of the value of pleasure as a target for processing.
There is also a case of a person who could run no grief until pleasure moments were
scanned intensively on his case. Such contact with the fact that pleasure actually existed in his
life enabled him to support, because of the free theta returned to him through the attraction of
his attention to pleasure moments, contact with the moments of misemotion necessary to free
his case.
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Pleasure moments seem to say, first and foremost, that survival is possible. But below
2.0, “pleasure” moments give the encouragement that death is possible. In either case the tone
is raised whether the preclear desires it or not.
The running of pleasure moments is done exactly as one would run an engram or a
secondary engram. One requires the preclear to return to the moment when the pleasure was
actually taking place and to contact all the perceptics of the incident, seeing and hearing and
feeling the experience as fully as possible over and over. The preclear can run the incident
many times before tiring of it, since at each running he should discover new instants and
perceptics that had been hidden before. Running pleasure in this way seems markedly to
increase the amount of free theta in the case. On lower levels of the tone scale, actual pleasure
in a person’s life, moments of survival, particularly those of triumph, are not easily obtainable.
However, the auditor, by having the preclear run possible pleasure moments as concepts and
then, as they are contacted more closely, as actual incidents, can often demonstrate to the
preclear that pleasure has existed and is available.
In view of the fact that obtaining pleasure is one of the primary goals of life, the
running of pleasure moments can do a very great deal for a case. There have been cases which
have had sonic and visio turn on merely by the running of pleasure moments. The case is most
readily stabilized by the running of pleasure moments. In trying to bring a case up to present
time one should run several pleasure moments, if the case is difficult to stabilize in present
time. After running such moments the preclear often comes easily to present time, having
recovered attention units from secondaries and engrams somewhat restimulated in processing.
Memory itself can be refreshed just by running on the track. One can, as an
experiment, choose some specific date in the preclear’s lifetime. This date may be completely
occluded. But the auditor insists that the preclear return to this date. The preclear may be
completely in the dark as to what happened on, let us say, January 3, 1943. The auditor has the
advantage over the preclear, since he knows that when he has told the preclear to go to a certain
date, then the preclear has gone there whether the preclear knows it or not. The auditor then
requires the recounting of the happenstances of, say, 3.30 A.M. on that date. The preclear may
be able foggily to point out certain incidents in the year 1943. If the auditor is very patient and
persistent in his address, he will gradually cause the “I” of the preclear to obtain the specific
details of the date and moment, and he can then run this moment with its own actual perceptics.
This is no less valid a technique than running pleasure moments. The mind has recorded
everything, and the auditor knows that when he sends the preclear back to such-and-such a
time, the preclear is there even though the “I” of the preclear may be barred from the perceptics
of the incident by entheta on the case. With patience and persistence the auditor can always
obtain the data which he requires.
Moments of triumph are, of course, pleasure moments. But one often finds preclears,
particularly those below 3.0 on the tone scale, who run moments of triumph without
experiencing any pleasure from them. The auditor may find the preclear winning a silver cup at
a horse show, and the auditor may return the preclear to the incident and run him through it
over and over, only to discover that the preclear felt he did not deserve to win the cup. This is
the difference between the preclear’s concept of reality and the auditor’s concept of reality. By
all reason, the preclear should have obtained pleasure in winning this silver cup at the horse
show, but in accordance with the preclear’s tone no pleasure was obtained from the incident,
since possibly it brought about too much notice and notoriety or it conflicted badly with some
specific engramic computation of the preclear about winning or about hurting the other
contestants by having won. This should not discourage the auditor; it should only point out to
him that he is attempting to run pleasure moments too high up the tone scale for his preclear. In
such a case, the auditor should go down the tone scale and find a time, perhaps, when the
preclear was able to destroy the reputation of some dear friend by some lying gossip and run
this as a pleasure moment. He will obtain in such wise, despite the auditor’s feeling that it is
impossible, a rise in tone. The auditor should not neglect the fact that pleasure moments may be
created and that a present-time pleasure moment is itself a point on the track and will tend to
disenturbulate the preclear. This does not mean that the auditor should countenance the
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“pleasure” that would be sought by some individuals low on the tone scale, pleasure which
might consist of the destruction of the reputation, future, or health of some young woman or
child. But it does mean that the auditor should encourage the preclear to provide himself with
pleasure, as an assist to processing.
The auditor if he is advising pleasure should not fall into the old error of believing that
pleasure is idleness and wastefulness. The greatest pleasure, for instance, that a composer can
achieve is in composing. A genius in management achieves his greatest pleasure in overcoming
obstacles to management. The best pleasure for an individual is in the attainment of happiness;
the overcoming of not unknowable obstacles toward a known goal. The auditor may by adroit
questioning discover for the preclear the fact that he has goals toward which he can proceed. It
is a below-2.0 trick to take a creative and constructive individual and set him aside from the
route of his greatest pleasure, which may be the pursuance of highly arduous goals. The
auditor should not tell a mountaineer to go to the seashore for a rest but should encourage the
mountaineer in the belief that he can conquer a much higher mountain than he has ever attained
before, since if his mountaineer is ailing it is because some less-than-2.0 individual in his
vicinity has brought him, by great and detailed discouragements, to the belief that he can climb
no more mountains.
Pleasure whether for life or death is attainment or the overcoming of obstacles toward
that attainment. When running pleasure moments or when encouraging his preclear to create
and construct present-time pleasure moments to raise his level on the tone scale, the auditor
should not overlook the fact that happiness is the overcoming of not unknowable obstacles
toward a goal. He will find the majority of his preclears without any goal. The auditor, by
questioning and without interfering with the self-determinism of his preclears, can help them to
discover and clarify their goals. Or he can assist in the identification of obstacles toward any
goal which the preclear already recognizes. Or the auditor can simply encourage the preclear to
keep on overcoming the known obstacles toward his known goals. The auditor will discover
preclears who are not particularly low on the tone scale, who have yet had insufficient
opportunities to experience pleasure, and so have behind them a barren life. An auditor is
justified in advising the preclear to go out and create and live through a pleasure moment, so
that the auditor afterwards can run it, to the enhancement of the case. The living of it, of
course, is more important than the running. The primary consideration is whether or not
pleasure moments exist.
It is interesting to note that any society declines in exact ratio to the contempt in which it
holds pleasure and advances in ratio to the respect it has for pleasure.
Above 2.0, pleasure contains more construction than destruction, more good than evil.
Below 2.0, “pleasure” contains more destruction than construction, more evil than good.
Immorality comes about when a thing contains more pain than it does pleasure. Societies have
existed which found their pleasure in observing or inflicting more evil than good. The Roman
circus is an example of this and marked a point in the decline of the Roman Empire which
forecast an early death for that great political organization.
By true pleasure is meant acts which contain more good than evil.
Before one condemns pleasure, one should understand the kind of pleasure about
which a person is talking. But there happens to have been, down through the centuries, such a
revulsion toward what the Roman Empire called pleasure in the early Christian days that
pleasure itself became inhibited. There are individuals and groups which consider the
enjoyment of life a crime. This immediately and automatically spots these individuals and
groups on the tone scale. They are below 2.0 and are headed toward succumbing. Yet the
auditor will have to cope with people who have been indoctrinated into an inhibition of pleasure
and who by education are unable to experience pleasure. The auditor should have ready his
definitions of pleasure and an understanding of what pleasure actually is. From those who tell
him that pleasure is evil he should gain a definition of what they think is enjoyable. This is the
type of incident which can be run on the case as a pleasure moment. For those who tell him
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that pleasure is good and then proceed to detail promiscuity and sadism the auditor should have
at least an intellectual understanding.
Because of the various situations which exist in the life of any person, pleasure as
survival and pleasure as death sometimes intermingle. It occasionally happens that some
individual has lost, through the chicanery, treachery, or betrayal of others, his woman, his
business, or his reputation, and his idea of pleasure is the painful extinction of those who have
injured him. This does not immediately denote a low position on the tone scale, for the auditor
may find that such an individual delves into death for only one circumstance. If the other
circumstances of the individual are high on the scale, the auditor should recognize an immediate
indication of where he should work in order to free considerable theta, which is tied up in plots
of revenge and dreams of painful punishment for the enemy. Such an individual, however, can
ordinarily run pleasure in other spheres of life. Even a low-toned individual can sometimes
find some sphere of activity, if very isolated, which is constructive, and thus the auditor knows
where to look for actual pleasure on the case and can use this particular incident or type of
incident in order to free theta.
The whole subject of pleasure moments is allied intimately with survival, where true
pleasure is concerned. The auditor however, should not overlook the fact that it is “pleasure”
for the 0.5 to contemplate the most gruesome possible suicide or the most pathetic death of the
nearest “loved one.”
The auditor should not be critical of the type of pleasure which his preclear selects but
should work continually to select the highest possible pleasure on the tone scale available to his
preclear. In other words, for the 1.1 he should try to find 1.5 or 2.0 or 2.5 pleasures rather
than persisting along the line of 1.1. The auditor is attempting to raise the preclear up the tone
scale and in the process of doing so he will find that higher and higher levels of pleasure can be
obtained not only in present time but in the past. The amount of pleasure of the true variety
which the preclear can experience or run is symptomatic not only of his chronic position on the
scale but of his progressive rise toward more desirable levels.
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CHAPTER NINE
COLUMN AE
Imaginary Incidents
One of the social aberrations of America is that imagining things is a misconduct.
“Imagining things” has been made equivalent to “insanity.” It is a common derogatory
statement to say that one is “imagining things.” It is a nullifying criticism to say that one
experiences delusion. The child is particularly subject to a bombardment of criticism for being
imaginative.
The condemnation of imagination signifies a fear of departure from reality. But if
imagination is so thoroughly condemned, then those who condemn it must have some basic
fear that they themselves cannot hold on to a reality.
There is nothing wrong with imagination. There is a great deal wrong with the type of
aberration which makes it impossible or at least difficult for the individual to differentiate
between the imaginary and the actual. So long as the individual knows he is imagining when
he is imagining, and knows he is dealing in fact when he is dealing in fact, imagination has a
high validity.
There are three types of imagination. One is creative imagination, whereby in the field
of aesthetics the urges and impulses of the various dynamics are interwoven into new scenes
and ideas. The second type is the more or less practical type of imagination which comes about
as a result of computation. Without this second type of imagination an individual could. not
forecast the future nor could he postulate a goal desirable in the future. This type of imagination
is so vital to computation that the individual who lacks it can be seen to be definitely deficient
analytically. The third type of imagination is delusionary or hallucinatory. If the culture desires
to make itself more sane, it would cease to apply the word “imaginary” to things which are
delusionary of hallucinatory. Delusion connotes a type of imagination which is not known by
the individual to be imaginary. However, in engrams one commonly runs into the phrases “It’s
all your imagination,” “It’s all in your head,” “You’re just imagining things” and other
command phrases which short-circuit the preclear’s ability to differentiate between what we
should now call the imaginary and the hallucinatory. The imagination becomes hooked in to the
fact bank, and “I” receives data as fact which is actually the product of imagination. There are,
one could say, four distinct sources of aberration. The first is occasioned by phrases in
engrams which specifically dictate certain obsessions, compulsions, repressions, delusions,
neuroses and psychoses. Such phrases, however, have command value on the analyzer, which
does not know they exist below it in the reactive mind, only to the degree that the case is
charged with entheta. Command phrases and action phrases become more and more obeyed by
the analyzer the more the analyzer is shut down through cumulative aberration. Action phrases
are effective more and more as the individual descends on the tone scale.
Therefore, there is a second type of aberration source which is simply the amount of
charge there is on the case. This might be called mechanical aberration. It does not stem from
specific commands but stems from mental inefficiency by reason of cumulative entheta. As the
preclear descends down the tone scale, certain definite manifestations take place by reason of
cumulative entheta. The whole chart around which this book is written is a result of the study
of the effect of accumulating entheta on aberrated individuals. Entheta by itself can charge up a
case to the point where the case will behave in certain definite ways regardless of the command
content of the engrams.
The third kind of aberration is environmental and is the result of aberrated persons and
situations in the individual’s present-time environment. This a normally temporary, but
cumulative environmental entheta has a chronic effect in the case.
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The fourth type of aberration is educational, being the cumulative entheta of the culture
in which the preclear was raised, the irrationalities and bad data he has received as a result of
his education, by parents, in schools, and by experience.
There should be listed a fifth type of aberration and even a sixth and seventh type, but
these are at this time of less concern to the auditor. The fifth type would be the cumulative
aberration of the theta body through its many generations, which he may or may not have to
address in the clearing of the case. The sixth type would be the pattern behavior inherited on the
genetic line, of which very little is known, but it can be estimated that any organism has some
pattern behavior of which some small portion might be considered incorrect for the
environment and so, by a stretch of definition, could be considered aberration. The seventh
type would be aberration due to missing or malformed portions of the human structure, either
through genetic inheritance or through accident of psycho-surgery.
Thus, we see that imagination is valuable and vital both to creating tomorrow’s realities
in the society -- the invaluable contribution of the artist, writer, and composer -- and in the
practical computations of everyday living, and that it should not be discounted in value in the
rational human being.
Then we see that imagination by engramic command, which confuses the real with the
unreal without proper evaluation, can introduce falsity into the thinking and execution of the
individual.
Additionally we have imagination, by reason of charge on a case, beginning to supplant
reality as the case descends down the tone scale. Imagination thus becomes mechanically more
and more short-circuited into a supplantation of reality, as the position of the individual
descends the scale. In the past it was thought that people imagined things willfully in order to
“escape” reality. The old therapies never bothered to evaluate reality, but were very glib in
demanding that people face it. “Escape” and “delusion” were epithets used in order to pound
the patient into obedient subjugation. (The practice of telling the patient that his incidents are
imaginary rapidly reduces the individual on the tone scale, since it destroys the patient’s sense
of reality, and is a practice definitely calculated to further incapacitate the patient. The fact of
the matter seems to be that as an individual drops down the tone scale the cumulative charge on
the case makes existence in its actual form more and more intolerable. What theta he has left,
perhaps because of reversed polarity, cannot perceive into the entheta of the reactive mind and
the mostly shut-down analyzer. It is not that the person is unwilling to face reality; it is that he
is incapable of facing reality. Said in another way, the individual is veered away from the
things which have been done to him in life toward imaginary postulates which can serve him in
lieu of fact. For example, the individual who cannot feel that he is a threat to the enemies in his
environment, at least to some degree, is insane or becomes insane. Thus, as the individual
descends on the tone scale he becomes, by imagination, first a threat to real things and then, by
imagination, a threat to imaginary things, and finally no threat at all to anything, at which point
he has reached pretended death. The individual departs further and further from reality, at first
knowing that he is departing from reality, and then being unaware that he is departing from
reality, at which point he could be considered to some degree insane.
A possible explanation for the short-circuiting of imagination by the mechanical means
of cumulative charge on a case may be of interest to the auditor. There is no good description
and, indeed, no accurate postulate or theory which accounts for the ability of the human mind
to remember in the quantity that it does. The most recent attempt was made by a man who had
dabbled in physical structure but who did not know his mathematics. He originated a punched-protein
molecule theory, and stated that memory charges were stored in punched protein
molecules. His theory holds up only so long as it takes one to work out by mathematics that if
an individual recorded only the major perceptions of his environment day after day and stored
them, by this theory of holes in molecules in which are stored memories, he would still have in
storage capacity only enough, in the ten-to-the-twenty-first-power binary digits of cells the
brain contains, to serve for three months of memory. Therefore, this theory of punched protein
molecules is not valid.
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A workable analogy on the subject of structure -- and it should remain an analogy only,
since it does not do any more than help one to understand what is happening -- tells us that we
may be dealing, in considering memory and the human computer, with a problem not unlike
physical universe electrical charges surrounded by insulation. Certain things tear down this
insulation, so that memory items begin to short-circuit one to another. This would account for
the identification of one fact with another which occurs more and more as the tone scale is
descended. Low on the tone scale, things are identified with other things which are actually
widely different; but at the higher levels of the tone scale, where the mind is in good working
condition and there is no great charge on the case, minute differences can be detected by the
computer between one memory item and another. At the top of the scale, the mind is capable,
for instance, of differentiating between two cigarettes which, though they appear identical and
are of an identical brand, are different, if only to the degree that they occupy different units of
space. At the bottom end of the tone scale, not only would these two cigarettes seem to be the
same cigarette but these two cigarettes would also be tobacco, which would also be tobacco
smoke, which would also be chewing tobacco, which would mean that chewing equaled a
house on fire. At the top of the tone scale, at the highest levels of reason, one has sharp, high-level
differentiation between facts, and at the lower end of the tone scale the most widely
different facts and items are associated as equal. One could say that the equation of the reactive
mind was “A equals A equals A equals A” regardless of what A stood for. In an engram, all
things and remarks are equal to each other, are equal to the pain, are equal to the perceptics, and
hearing equals vision and vision equals tactile, and a complete identification occurs. The
analyzer when full on thinks in minute differences. The ability to think has to do with the
ability to differentiate. Unthinkingness has to do with a lack of ability to differentiate and a
compulsion to identify unlike things with each other as though they were not only like things
but the same thing. In an insane person, the administration of sedation seems to bring about a
momentary recurrence of sanity. As an analogy only, then, it could be said that entheta breaks
down the structural insulation separating one memory item or unit from another and so causes
identification. And it could be said that the presence of any euphoric would rebuild or
reestablish this insulation to some degree and make rational thinking possible. The auditor who
audits a preclear who is under sedation will discover that so long as the preclear is under
sedation he appears to be responding to treatment, but the moment the sedation wears off all the
auditing and most of the entheta which was thought to be turned into theta have now become
short-circuited into brand new aberration.
Probably the most dangerous thing one can do to any aberrated mind is to place it under
heavy sedation and try to treat it, or while it is under sedation place it in an atmosphere which is
restimulative. Sedation of the insane is, shortly and abruptly, criminal, since it permits new
perceptics to become entangled with an already confused mind under circumstances of
perception which could not take place if the patient were not under sedation. It should be
thoroughly understood that this analogy of insulation between memory units in the mind is,
very definitely, an analogy and is used for illustration only, so that the auditor may know better
what he is confronting. Entheta definitely seems to tear down and arc across any divisional and
insulatory barriers in the mind. As a further analogy, it could be postulated that as the mind
breaks down in its ability to differentiate and begins more and more to identify, the various
units of the analyzer begin themselves to become too closely associated and begin to replace
each other, so that that portion of the mind which is used for imagination becomes
undifferentiated from that portion of the mind which is doing computation on fact.
This would also be an analogy which took place regarding valences, wherein the “I”
which is the real individual, becomes obliterated in favor of other highly-charged sections of
the analyzer. And here the analogy breaks down, since the valence walls between the different
personalities of the individual grow more and more sharply defined as the individual descends
on the tone scale, so that at last the heavily charged case goes from one valence to another so
abruptly that one can almost hear the click as he crosses the valence wall. Of course, one could
add to this analogy and say that the theta which has become entheta at last begins to form up
insulation of its own, but this does not seem very likely. Certain it is, however, that the
identification of incidents which are in no way even similar is symptomatic of the insane. The
auditor should understand, then, as he confronts his preclear, that he may have before him an
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individual who is incapable of facing any facts in his case. This may be limited to an inability to
face facts in certain spheres of his life, such as failing to face facts concerning his wife. He
may have such a thoroughly charged second dynamic that he can face no facts concerning his
marital existence or his children, but will turn to imaginary “facts” which are, if untrue, still
very safe. The auditor should not under any circumstances try to force or persuade his poor
preclear to “face reality.” The auditor should be perfectly willing to accept that in certain
spheres of the preclear’s life the actual facts of the case are so definitely entheta that what theta
exists in the preclear’s mind is unable, by reason of polarity, to encounter the real facts in the
case. Almost any human being, in some sphere of activity, will deal in imaginary incidents, up
to the level of 3.0 One, when he faces the idea of school, will detail imaginary incidents simply
because his actual school experiences contained so much entheta that the theta veers away from
it and turns to the imagination to be supplied with “facts.” Another individual will deal in
factual material throughout his field of activity except where religion is concerned. He may
have so much entheta on the subject of religion that he veers away from actuality here and talks
in terms of atheism, or may go in the other direction and become completely hallucinatory. But
in this case, he is veering away from his MEST universe to the point where he is constructing
an imaginary sphere of activity. (The individual who simply turns to the theta universe and
perceives there certain visionary things is not necessarily aberrated at all but may be simply
high on theta perceptics. The aberration which is cited above is of the variety of the sadistic
zealot, who has been, is, and always will be so much trouble to the Church). Or the imaginary
sphere which “I” believes to be wholly factual, may bc the existence of lost gold mines. Here,
so much entheta exists with regard to practical and workable means of living that he must deal
in imaginary means.
Somewhere in every case you are going to find the preclear running imaginary incidents
in lieu of real incidents. As an auditor you should not worry unless your case is running a
majority of imaginary incidents in lieu of real incidents, for your case then is running delusion
rather than fact, by reason of a very low position on the tone scale. Here is a problem for you.
You dare not tell this preclear that he is running delusion. This would be a break of the
auditor’s code. But somehow you must persuade him to address present time or some locks
long enough to free some theta so that he will have a theta-ability to face reality. On such a case
you could actually blunder and run physical pain engrams, but you would only enturbulate the
case further by trapping the existing free theta on the case into the existing entheta, and you
would assuredly send the case down the tone scale rather than bring it up. Where the imaginary
incident becomes generally preferred to the actual incident you can be quite sure that you are
dealing with a low-tone preclear.
Now there are three ways of handling delusion. The first way is to electric-shock, or
prefrontal-lobotomize or sedate the preclear into utter apathy and uselessness in the society and
wreck him completely. This is not recommended.
The second way is to scan free or obtain in present time enough free theta to bring the
individual up the tone scale to a point where he will run actual incidents rather than imaginary
incidents. This is highly valid.
The third way is to coax the preclear into running avowedly imaginary incidents, and
this is the crux of this particular technique of processing. By openly inviting the preclear to run
imaginary incidents the auditor is breaking down the barrier of pretence which the preclear will
unknowingly put up. The running of avowedly imaginary incidents is quite productive.
Sometimes the preclear will run them, quite astonishingly, with somatics. But he is not being
required to face any reality about them and the auditor is not insisting that any reality exists
concerning them. In an astonishingly high percentage of times, however, he will be running
actual incidents. So long as he does not have to admit that these incidents are actual he can do
something about them. One might say that the auditor is thus validating the imagination
mechanism of the mind and is strengthening it and is already beginning to put the general and
broad segments of the mind into good working order by differentiating one from another with
the preclear. Of course there is always the danger that the auditor’s use of the word “imagine”
will restimulate the preclear, because this preclear may have engrams which tell him that he
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does not know true from false and that it is all imagination anyway. But this chance should be
taken.
It should be understood that no amount of imaginary incidents can supplant the running
of real incidents. The first value that this technique has -- the invitation to the preclear to run
avowedly imaginary incidents in his past -is to build up the preclear’s confidence in the auditor.
The preclear begins to feel that he will not be censured for indulging in fantasy. In this great,
wide, and undoubtedly rational culture, almost any preclear has been cut to ribbons as a child
for indulging in fantasy. The child lacks data and makes up for this lack with a wild and rugged
imagination. The child quite easily sees fairies and strange animals walking about, with his
imagination. If he finds life dull and elders hard to shock into taking an interest in him, he may
recount these things as valid. He is, of course, inevitably censured by the hard-headed,
“practical”, and “rational” elder and so accumulates a series of locks on any engrams he may
have. Left to himself and his fantasies and imaginings, the child will eventually, of course,
find out what is reality -that grim thing in our world of the twentieth century -- and what is
fantasy. But the elder is apt to press the child into too early an acknowledgement of this
“reality”. Actually, of what absolute reality is neither you nor I have any notion, but we have
agreed upon certain facts, and having agreed, we wish to remain friends, and so we continue
this agreement. As a culture ages, these agreements are harder and harder to disturb, and are
maintained not because they are true but because they are simple and easy and because no
energy is required to maintain them. The child, fresh and new in the world, would like to see a
little excitement in his reality. And the elder, worn and haggard by a combat with an environ
which offers little in terms of security and much in terms of menace, fights back against these
bright bubbles and dreams. Thus, any preclear you have on the couch is fairly certain to have
experienced a confusion between what he wanted to think was reality and what he was told he
would have to accept as reality. Thus, there was an invalidation of his reality, even though his
reality was actually imagination. When the preclear on the couch discovers that he has an
auditor who not only will listen to imagination but who encourages it, the affinity level rises,
and the preclear’s ability to differentiate in terms of reality will itself rise.
In the running of imaginary incidents, the auditor must never, after the incident has
been run, then insist that the incident was real. This would be a break of faith. He and the
preclear have entered into a contract that what is being run is pure imagination, and the auditor
must not break his contact.
The running of imaginary incidents may consist of running imaginary pleasure
moments, which is heightening in terms of theta, or it may consist of running imaginary
moments of grief or physical pain, which makes available to the auditor more data on the case
and may actually increase the theta on the case.
Here is a most interesting fact for the auditor. It may happen with an aberrated child
that he has occasionally pretended injury or illness for the sake of accepting sympathy or
interest from his parents, guardians, or mentors. The auditor would do well to discover the
time in the life of the preclear when he feigned injury or illness knowingly in order to receive
sympathy or interest from those about him. In the first place, when an individual will do this
he is in fairly bad shape, for this is a form of pretended death. The environment wherein the
preclear would do this must have been a highly restimulative environment which had the
preclear low on the tone scale. (One should realize that in the course of a lifetime, environ to
environ, an individual varies markedly on the tone scale.)
Those knowing pretenses are of interest to the auditor because they are invariably real
as to their background. The preclear may have supposed at the time, in all confidence, that he
was lying, but he was actually offering a sympathy engram to those about him, and the auditor
can thus discover a highly aberrative engram on the case. Whether or not this case is in shape
to run this engram is up to the judgement of the auditor, but he knows at least that it exists. The
preclear who continually pretended an injury to his foot, for instance, may have supposed that
he was lying and may have supposed that he had never had a foot injury, but in actuality
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somewhere, earlier, hidden from his analytical mind, a foot injury exists for which the preclear
received a great deal of sympathy.
Sympathy incidents are relatively hard to locate. The preclear will hold on to an
incident in which he received sympathy much longer than one where he received only
antagonism. The location of the allies of the preclear is thus rendered difficult to the auditor, but
the mechanism of discovering the “imaginary” illnesses which the preclear offered to the world
around him discovers the allies. (There is another method of discovering allies which is of
interest. One finds an antagonistic personality in the preclear’s life and runs the preclear back
through incident upon incident where this antagonistic personality was attacking him, until one
finds a point where the preclear was being defended by someone. The person who does the
defending is an ally or a pseudo-ally* of the preclear and incidents with this person should be
followed backwards and forwards and cleaned out of the case, as one of the most aberrative
elements of the case.)
The imaginary incident serves four purposes. First and foremost, it gives the auditor
data about his preclear, since the imaginary incident which the preclear will recount has some
basis in actuality.
The next point is that the recounting of an imaginary incident heightens the affinity
between the preclear and the auditor. The preclear begins to find that the auditor must be
somewhat compatible with him, since the auditor will accept the preclear’s evaluation of
existence and seems thus to be in agreement with him and to be similar to him.
The next value of the imaginary incident is that it increases communication between the
preclear and the auditor. Here, at least, we have the preclear talking about something and the
auditor listening, and the preclear discovering that the auditor will listen, without interruption or
criticism, to a recounting which may be quite wild and sensational.
The fourth value of the imaginary incident is that it finds the auditor non-insistent upon
a high level of fact, and so will find the preclear more willing to deliver fact.
The imaginary incident could be said to be a testing ground. The auditor asks the
preclear to run an imaginary incident. This is all right with the preclear, since they have agreed
that the incident is to be imaginary, and thus the preclear cannot be censured for saying
anything he pleases.
It will happen, in the running of imaginary incidents, that somatics will turn on. Or it
will happen that the preclear is suffering certain somatics and yet is too low on the tone scale
with regard to this particular subject to admit the actual cause of these somatics. By running off
imaginary words and phrases, imagining what papa says, imagining what mama says, or
imagining the year in which this happened or imagining the circumstances relating to this it may
come about that the somatic disappears. One has actually run off an engram or a heavy lock and
the case is thereby benefited.
The auditor does not cavil with the preclear about facts, in any case. Where the auditor
has to use imaginary incidents to get any information of any kind out of the preclear, he is
dealing with a preclear who has been invalidated very thoroughly by the people around him
most of his life. The imaginary incident is a mechanism which actually repairs past
invalidations. The preclear will not admit that an incident is actual, because those around the
preclear have too often challenged his ability to recount actuality or to deliver forth facts. The
auditor gets around these past invalidations by himself refusing to invalidate, by inviting an
incident purely on the basis of imagination. The preclear is heartened. The auditor will receive
data. And free theta may be liberated in the case. THE PRECLEAR AND AUDITOR AS A
GROUP
It must be noted somewhere in this work, and may be noted here since the running of
imaginary incidents is most productive of the result, that the preclear and the auditor form,
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actually, a group. One need not know the high level of technology which is Group Dianetics to
understand that two human beings make a group. Two is the basic unit not only of theta but of
human beings in group terms. The group may number millions at its largest, but in its basic
size it is at least two.
Occasionally the preclear will discover in the auditor an antagonistic personality. This
comes about when the auditor reminds the preclear of some personality earlier in the preclear’s
life who did something non-survival to the preclear. The auditor who permits himself to go on
in this imaginary role of a past antagonist will find that his task is greatly increased. It is of very
great value to the auditor to clear himself and the preclear as a group, before he begins any
serious auditing. In the optimum group, a high level of affinity, reality, and communication
must exist. Between the auditor and the preclear ARC must be high.
There are various ways to clear groups. The auditor should not be as anxious to
approve of the preclear as he should be to have the preclear approve of him. Nevertheless, it
will take considerable strain off the case and the processing if this works both ways. One
auditor in order to clear himself and the preclear as a group habitually requests the preclear to
tell him what the preclear does not like about him. The preclear at first, through propitiation or
social usage, will not admit that there is anything about the auditor he does not like, but on
pressing the case, this auditor very shortly discovers for the preclear antipathetic individuals in
the preclear’s past of whom the auditor reminds the preclear. The first act of the auditor then is
to clear up these bad associations by straight memory.
The establishment of affinity, communication, and reality between the preclear and the
auditor is a vital concern if processing is to follow anywhere near an optimum course.
Where a co-auditing team is being formed, and the success of Dianetics is built upon
co-auditing teams, a mutual clearance is required, whereby each unburdens himself to the
other, and by straight memory, undesirable associations are cleared out of the relationship. It is
remarkable that between any two human beings bad associations by reason of past existing
personalities are almost inevitable. Individuals on the normal level of this social culture
associate hidden past personalities with present personalities they meet. Straight wire can
easily clear up this situation. The auditor mentioned above was having some difficulty with a
woman preclear until he discovered that the way he cleared his throat reminded her of the first
of her husbands, of which she had had three. The point here is that the auditor did not
immediately forego his habit of clearing his throat merely because the preclear objected to it.
The auditor went to work and caused her, by making her remember, to conceive a difference
between himself and her first husband. The moment she did this, the auditor’s habit of clearing
his throat was no longer of any importance. The auditor should not change his habits and
training pattern to match every preclear, but should use the effect of these upon the preclear to
locate past antipathetic personalities. This in itself frees theta in the case.
The use of imaginary incidents acts to form a smoother relationship between the auditor
and the preclear by establishing for the preclear the auditor’s willingness to accept anything the
preclear has to say. But it does more than this. It gives the auditor a valuable assessment of the
preclear’s position on the tone scale, for he can judge this rather easily by the type of incident
which the preclear likes to imagine (see Pleasure Moments), and it tells the auditor what may be
in highest restimulation in the present-time environment.
The auditor who will scorn imagination or condemn anything the preclear says as
delusion, regardless of the auditor’s inability to compare it with his own concept of reality, will
inevitably bring about the destruction of the auditor preclear group. And they will not be able to
work together.
The husband-wife team has been found in Dianetics to be the least compatible auditing
group. A few husband-wife teams are successful, but the majority are not, and husbands and
wives would do well to look outside the home for coauditors, for trouble in co-auditing can
easily cause a shaky marriage to collapse.
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CHAPTER TEN
COLUMN AF
Locks
Elsewhere we have the anatomy of entheta. Entheta could be said to be in four forms.
There are probably more than that. By entheta we mean, of course, enturbulated theta. The
first form is that which is the basic cause of entheta, the engram. Here, theta in its effort to
conquer MEST has come into too heavy a collision with MEST. In an organism this causes
physical pain.
Theta after it has become enturbulated with MEST can either by the mechanism of death
or by dianetic processing be withdrawn from the MEST and bring with it an intelligence of the
laws of MEST which it can then use in a further conquest of MEST on a more orderly and
harmonious level. All things begin with a heavy impact and enturbulence, if anything is to be
learned by theta about MEST. The first Foundation, for instance, in its year of existence
smashed heavily into MEST, and if this delighted those who desired to preserve the status quo
or those who had no use for an end of aberration, yet much was learned, so that Group
Dianetics could come into being, and so that improvements could come about as a result of new
data on the third dynamic which in turn resulted in improvements along the first dynamic and in
the techniques of individual processing. The engram is a moment of physical pain and
unconsciousness which is recorded in the reactive mind with all perceptions during the period
of unconsciousness. It can be keyed-in by conscious-level experiences, it can be dramatized,
and it can manifest itself either as mental aberration or as physical aberrations, which in the past
were called psychomatic illness.
The engram consists of enMEST, which is the MEST of the organism enturbulated or
disordered by impact, and entheta which is mingled with the enMEST.
Entheta can exist as temporary enturbulence in the individual’s life force or reason when
he is confronted by unreasonable or non-survival circumstances in his environment. This
could be called temporarily enturbulated theta. However, in any situation in present time which
is restimulative, a certain amount of entheta becomes fixedly entheta and is stored in the reactive
mind and thereafter, save in those extraordinary circumstances wherein enormous quantities of
free theta are in the environment of the individual, or but for dianetic processing; this fixed
entheta remains fixed. The “permanently” fixed entheta remains in the reactive mind in the form
of secondary engrams or in the form of locks.
The secondary engram will be described in its own turn, but is a low-tone-level
experience of loss, or fear of loss, or anger because of threatened loss, or apathy because of
accomplished loss. The lock has three variations. One of them is where the individual has been
prevented from carrying out the commands of the engram which is restimulated by present-time
environmental perceptics (broken dramatization). Another is merely where the perceptics of the
engram are approximated by those of the present-time environment (restimulation). The third is
caused by inhibitions and enforcements of ARC.
In order for a lock to be formed it is necessary for the analytical portion of the person’s
mind to be somewhat lowered in activity or alertness. Locks can be received only when an
individual is weary, upset by reverses or is in a generally nonoptimum situation. These light
approximations of engrams in the analytical present-time environ were believed in the past to be
aberrative in themselves. Actually, they were not. The lock is only the surface manifestation
of the basic environmental cause of aberration. Underlying any lock must be an engram.
Ignorance of this fact was one of the main reasons for the failures of past therapies. A lock
occurs also when the individual is attempting to carry out the irrational commands of the
engram and is prevented by the society’s or some individual’s counter “reason” from
accomplishing the dramatization.
464.465
Locks are analytical-level encystments of entheta.
The average case probably has several thousand engrams. Individuals are often
questioned on the subject of how often they have been unconscious. A few of them will
answer that they have never been unconscious in their whole life. As soon as they are sent back
down the track, they begin to discover period after period when they have been injured or
operated upon, and certainly every individual has been born, and birth above all other
experiences is sufficiently arduous to bring about unconsciousness. Since the reactive mind
registers upon a cellular level, and also upon a theta-body level if evidently to a lesser extent,
the earliest moment when an engram can be received is certainly no later than conception.
Engrams do not begin to receive locks, ordinarily, until well after birth, and usually well into
the speech period, although babies will react to the uncomprehended sounds in the environment
which are also included in their engrams. A lock is, then, a relatively light incident which
betokens a restimulation of some engram on the case. There are in any case tens of thousands
of locks. If one continued to address locks and only locks in a case, processing would be
almost interminable. This is fortunately unnecessary. Locks have only to be addressed in a
case until the preclear is up to a point where he can run engrams. After the preclear has run out
engrams, the locks consequent to any engram or chain of engrams which he has run out can be
scanned off with great speed.
Locks are interesting to the auditor mainly on the low-tone cases. On many cases the
auditor will discover that locks have to be run as engrams. He will find a period where some
preclear has as a young girl been forced to eat spinach, and this will seem to be a highly
aberrative incident.
The preclear, if very low on the tone scale, may be responding to the action phrases or
commands in the lock, yet this incident contains no physical pain of any kind, and still, once
sent to the incident the preclear is unable to leave it until it is run, complete with action phrases.
This would betoken a very low-tone preclear. The auditor should not think that the reason his
preclear is aberrated is because she was made to eat spinach when she was eight years old. The
auditor should understand that underlying this incident is an engram, or many engrams,
whereby the preclear is dominated. But if the auditor discovers that the lock is in itself
aberrative, he should understand that this is no time to run engrams, since this preclear must be
unburdened of many locks and secondary engrams before she will be in shape to run engrams.
Here is a very heavily charged case.
As one can read in the column on the tone scale chart, a 4.0 has all locks discharged.
This is something overlooked by the ambitious auditor. A 4.0 is, by definition, one who has
had all entheta in his current life converted to theta. This means that his engrams must have
been erased, that his secondaries must have been discharged, and that his locks must have been
scanned out. The 3.5 will blow locks almost as fast as the engrams underlying chains of locks
are reduced. The 3.0 does not have to have locks addressed as individual incidents, but in order
to clear up the case, scanning of locks is necessary.
The 2.5 can have locks treated with benefit as individual incidents. It will be found that
moments when the 2.5 was criticized for stepping out of line at school or for being mean to
sister will release some entheta. However, the auditor is to some degree wasting his time by
treating, at this level on the tone scale, non-physical-pain and non-misemotion incidents as
individual occurrences.
Around 2.0, locks begin to become important. The auditor can go into a moment in the
preclear’s past life when the preclear was consciously alert and had something happen to him
which was productive of entheta, and yet discover that the incident will not reduce. This non-reduction
of relatively simple incidents, as it proceeds from 2.0 down the tone scale, indicates a
considerably charged case. Minimal physical discomfort in an incident, if the restimulative
agents in the environment are high, can produce moments when the preclear was alert and
awake which then refuse to reduce when addressed by the auditor.
465.466
The 1.5 is peculiarly susceptible to the type of lock which breaks the dramatization. Let
us say that the 1.5 is being angry against something, and someone criticizes him for being
angry or prevents him from carrying out the full cycle of his anger. A lock results which will be
remarkably effective in reducing this person on the tone scale. Of course, any 1.5 receives a
nearly countless number of such incidents, since the society generally frowns upon people
being angry and would rather have them apathetic. On a 1.5 an auditor can run these broken
dramatizations with benefit as individual incidents just as though they were engrams.
At 1.1, we begin to find locks extremely effective, particularly when they concern
breaks of affinity, breaks of communication, and breaks of reality, or enforcements of ARC.
The 1.1 lives in fear most of the time, fear of something, if only a nebulous anxiety. The
remark of a 1.1’s friend which leads the 1.1 to believe that he will not immediately see his
friend again may produce a lock even though the 1.1 that very evening may dine with his
friend. Here the entheta is beginning to pile up at a very rapid rate. The auditor can run such
incidents just as though they were engrams with some benefit to the case.
At 0.5, we begin to discover that locks must be handled gingerly, for locks in a 0.5 can
be heavy enough to cause the preclear to hang up on the track, except of course in the wide-open
case, which runs on the track even when completely insane. In the apathy case the loss of
a glove or the mere receipt of a letter even though it is good news can cause a lock which has to
be run as an engram by the auditor. A heavy lock where something really happens would be
much too strong in entheta for the preclear to attack, and the auditor should avoid incidents
which would be productive of aberration at the 1.5 or even the 1.1 level. The 0.5 can be
aberrated by a sneeze.
The 0.1, if the auditor can contact this individual, is so low in theta that incidents which
would be pleasure moments to anyone else are the strongest and heaviest encystments which
can be attacked. The only past moment which can be attacked in a 0.1 is an instance of the
mildest variety, such as going for a ride in a car, or eating supper. Any incident of mental
stress is to be avoided and any incident of physical stress is, of course, entirely out of the
question, as it has been from 1.1 down the tone scale.
466.467
CHAPTER ELEVEN
COLUMN AG
Scanning Locks
The advent of lock scanning was the greatest single advance in techniques of application
in Dianetics in the last six months of 1950.
Lock scanning was developed in an effort to convert the maximum amount of entheta
into theta in the least possible time. It is a remarkable technique. It was discovered that
individuals who were thoroughly stuck on the time track and heavily over-charged could send a
few attention units earlier and later than the point where they were stuck and could in such a
fashion actually emerge from a chronically fixed spot on the time track, and so come to present
time.
The value of lock scanning can hardly be overestimated. The heavily occluded case can
be lock-scanned. Auditing, bad and good, can be removed from a case by lock scanning.
Invalidations of Dianetics, which reduce the preclear’s ability to be processed, can be removed
from the case. ARC locks in enormous quantity can be de-intensified. It is a technique with
which the preclear can be moved swiftly up the tone scale. Lock scanning can produce
sufficient change in a case to move the case two points on the scale in a single session. A case
which has been audited inexpertly can be set to rights and boosted up the tone scale by lock
scanning. Some cases on which many engrams have been run may yet not have risen on the
tone scale, because the entheta of the processing has enturbulated present time and has created
new locks. Lock scanning remedies this. With two to four hours of lock scanning these cases
will rebound swiftly and attain a new level of activity.
The technique of lock scanning is a very simple one. All aberrative incidents are in
types in series of a similar nature. All affinity breaks by a certain person on a case could be
considered a chain. All affinity breaks by anyone in any environ at any time could be
considered a very broad consecutive chain in the preclear’s life. All affinity enforcements by a
single person on the preclear could be considered a brief chain. And all affinity enforcements
by all people could be considered a broad chain. Communication, talking, listening, seeing, not
seeing, and all other perceptics, enforced and inhibited, make up their own chains. Reality
enforcements and inhibitions make up their own chains of agreements and disagreements. The
auditor can actually draw up a chart on which all possible chains of locks can be shown, in
terms of affinity, reality, communication, and broken dramatizations.
Engrams also exist in chains, as will be covered later. The engram or chain of engrams
provides the basic upon which locks can be accumulated. Hundreds and hundreds of incidents
may be derived from an engram or chain of engrams. To run each one of these incidents as
itself would require far too much time on the part of the auditor. But the preclear can readily be
brought by the auditor to scan, slowly or rapidly, similar types of incidents, from the earliest to
the latest, either with regard to one person or with regard to all persons or with regard to a
period of time.
The commands necessary to permit the preclear to lock-scan are very simple. These can
be made far more complex, since speeds of scanning can be demanded of the preclear. It is
discovered, however, that the preclear will normally scan at his own speed. The auditor asks
the file clerk if there is a type of incident which can be scanned in the case. The file clerk, at a
snap of the auditor’s fingers, answers yes or no. The auditor requests the name of the type of
incident. The file clerk gives the name of the type of incident. The auditor then tells the
preclear to go to the earliest available moment on this chain of locks and again asks the file clerk
a question, as to whether or not this chain can be scanned without running through any
engrams. Assured that it can be, the auditor tells the preclear to scan from this earliest moment
to present time through all incidents of the type named. The auditor makes a drill of this, and
467.468
never varies his procedure. He sends the preclear back to his starting line, the earliest available
lock of this type. He makes certain the preclear is there by asking “Are you there?” When the
preclear assents, the auditor then says “Through this chain of incidents, avoiding all physical
pain, begin scanning” (snap !). The final command, telling the preclear to begin scanning, is
like the starter’s gun. Slowly or rapidly, the preclear goes up through these various similar
incidents. These incidents may consist of all the times when anybody stopped or interrupted
him when he wanted to talk. Or they may consist of the times that a certain person, such as the
preclear’s mother or wife, demanded affection. But whatever the type of incident, the auditor
must adopt a routine and not vary this routine. The auditor should always tell the preclear
when to begin scanning. The preclear should not be encouraged to go to the earliest moment he
can discover and then start forward without any further signal. The preclear should report to the
auditor when he has reached the earliest available moment, if he is able to know this. And the
auditor should instruct the preclear to report when he arrives at present time, so that no time
will be wasted.
Scanning can be done either vocally or non-vocally. The preclear can give the auditor,
each time he touches a new incident, the most aberrative phrase of that incident. This would be
vocal scanning. Or the preclear can simply go through the incidents recognizing each one as he
passes it, or racing through them so fast that they are merely a blur, without telling the auditor
what he is contacting.
It will be discovered that the preclear ordinarily finds the most recent locks in his case
the first which can be scanned. As he begins to scan chains of locks off his case, he will begin
to find earlier and earlier chains of locks and portions of chains which he can scan. He should
be encouraged to discover earlier and earlier moments in his life.
Any time a preclear starts to scan a chain of locks, he can be expected on the second or
third time through to find earlier incidents of the same type which he previously missed. This
is symptomatic of more and more theta being available to the case, so that earlier and earlier
moments can be reached. The auditor should not bully the preclear, however. If the preclear
cannot discover an earlier incident after the auditor has requested one, the auditor should not be
insistent.
Any chain is scanned many times. It will be discovered that at first there are only one or
two incidents on the chain. Further scanning brings forward five or ten incidents on the chain.
Then the old incidents begin to drop out as unimportant and new incidents, hitherto unrecalled,
begin to appear. The chain is, ordinarily, short during the first scan, then it appears to lengthen,
and finally the preclear either becomes interested in his outside environment or in another chain
or the chain becomes so short that it takes him only a moment to scan through many years of
his life. The mechanism of scanning is this. One contacts an incident and recognizes it as a
concept of an incident. Perhaps one has a phrase in the first incident. The auditor may ask the
preclear to repeat that phrase or not, as the auditor desires. The preclear then goes forward
from this incident to the next one of a similar type that he can recognize. The mind is intensely
selective of types of incidents it can scan. It seems that there is a filing system in the mind
which files according to topic. This is what is used in lock scanning.
If one wishes to be precise about lock scanning, there is vocal rate, in which the
preclear scans pausing at each new lock up the chain only long enough to give the most
aberrative phrase out of it. There is non-vocal scanning, in which the preclear recognizes the
phrases as he goes by them, incident to incident, from early to late, but does not tell the auditor
what phrases he is contacting. There is accelerated rate, which is merely a rapid glance at the
incident, before the preclear goes on to the next, and in which the auditor is not told what the
individual incidents are. And then there is maximum speed. Maximum speed can be so fast that
the incidents are simply a blur. The preclear has no analytical recognition of what is happening
beyond differences of position, flashes of faces and flashes of words.
Lock scanning frees theta from innumerable incidents and is highly instrumental in
raising the tone of the preclear. It should not be confused with the chain scanning of engrams.
468.469
Chain scanning through moments of physical pain is not desirable in cases below 3.5 on the
tone scale, since the engrams, by their physical pain, will snatch more free theta back into
enturbulence than will be freed.
Theoretically, a case can be lock-scanned to a point where practically no aberration is
manifested, but this is only theoretical, since only one of four types of entheta is being
converted. The four types, of course, are entheta received because of the present-time
environment, entheta encysted in the form of locks, entheta existing as charge in engrams, and
entheta existing as engrams themselves.
The type of entheta which exists as charge in locks and in secondaries frees from late to
early. Engrams run from early to late. Thus, one begins lock scanning very late in the case.
One may find it necessary to scan out a marriage or a business relationship which exists near to
present time before one can continue with anything else in the case.
It does not much matter to the auditor whether or not the preclear is in valence -- inside
himself -- when he scans through these chains of locks. Lock scanning is a broad, sloppy
technique. The preclear can be out of valence; he can scan imaginary incidents; he can scan
concepts; he can scan even his own conclusions about life. He can scan anything from which
entheta can be freed.
In order to get rid of the entheta on an education there is nothing that compares with
lock scanning. One can also do this trick with lock scanning: he can refresh an education. An
individual can be given an examination in, let us say, history, eighth grade. He can then be
lock-scanned through the actual study of history in the eighth grade and given another
examination. It will ordinarily be found that he will receive a higher grade after he has been
lock-scanned through that educational period. And yet the lock scanning may not have required
more than fifteen or twenty minutes. In this wise, lock-scanning is an excellent trick for those
about to take an examination on academic subjects.
People can lock-scan themselves with considerable ease, unless they are too low on the
tone scale. They merely start at the earliest incident they can remember of a certain kind which
may be troubling them and come forward through all similar incidents to present time. They do
this over and over until they become interested in their present-time environment. The time to
stop lock-scanning of any particular chain of locks is when the preclear is extroverted, which is
to say interested in his present-time environment, or when the chain requires only an instant or
two to scan. It can happen that a preclear is scanned through a chain of locks beyond the point
when scanning this particular chain of locks should be stopped. The auditor will then find
himself with a preclear who is running another set of locks. There is nothing particularly bad in
this, but the auditor has lost control of the case for a moment. The auditor should, then, be
alert as to how long it takes the preclear to scan each chain, and as to how the preclear feels
each time he finishes scanning the chain, and he should ask questions about these points. Lock
scanning is a highly unrestimulative type of technique to the auditor. The preclear, unless he is
running at vocal rate, is not uttering restimulative phrases, and he can go from early to late and
pass through the most amazing array of incidents without the auditor’s being aware of what is
going on. Therefore, the auditor does not become restimulated. It happens, however, that an
auditor running locks in chains on a preclear can become somewhat bored. He should not, no
matter how much he would like to relieve his tedium, interrupt the preclear in any way until the
preclear has finished scanning the chain. Each time, the auditor should let the preclear sweep
forward to present time. As in any other case, the auditor should always check the preclear to
find out if he is in present time at the end of each scan, unless the preclear is scanning a period
of time which does not include present time.
One can scan locks in terms of time, let us say from the fifth to the tenth year of the
preclear’s life, or from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth year, or from the thirtieth to the forty-first
year. Or he can scan between specific dates. Scanning can be done on one person on one
subject. Scanning can be done on one type of activity. Scanning can be done on education or
early training. Scanning can be done on the immediate environment of the preclear.
469.470
Lock scanning of auditing is a highly valuable procedure. The auditor, in every
session, if his preclear can scan at all, should scan off all of the auditing. This is to say, send
the preclear back to the moment when the session began and have him scan forward to present
time. It does not, then, much matter how many engrams the preclear has restimulated or what
has happened during the session; the preclear by scanning can de-stimulate the incidents which
rise. The failure to reduce an engram was much more serious in the past than it is at this time.
Lock scanning makes it possible to run the session in which the engram was restimulated. The
restimulation of an engram without reducing it is merely the creation of a new lock. Lock
scanning reduces this new lock. The auditor should never be critical of how carelessly the
preclear may be scanning. Lock scanning is broad enough to include such proclivities.
Looking over the tone scale one discovers first that any 3.5 when he has had his
engrams run out in their entirety has to be lock-scanned through all activities of life in order to
qualify as a clear. This frees up all locks. Locks, of course, at this level of the tone scale are
very easy to free, since they have few engrams underlying them. In the near-clear, they have no
engrams underlying them, but locks can still exist on a case which has been cleared of
engrams. Although these locks may work out in the next many months after the last engram is
run, it is far easier to sit down to a systematic scanning of all the persons and circumstances of
the preclear’s past life.
The 3.0 can be lock-scanned with great profit and will scan through locks without
hanging up in any of them. In this way, new series of engrams can be bared to view. The only
reason engrams cannot be run is because too many locks exist on top of them, and lock
scanning is the best method of getting off this entheta in order to make the engram itself
available.
The 2.5 has to be lock-scanned in order to get engrams to show up clearly. After lock
scanning has taken place, an engram can be expected to come into view with all of the
necessary perceptics. Lock scanning tunes up the 2.5 to a point where engrams can be cleanly
run. In order to discover new engrams in the 2.5, new chains of locks should be scanned.
The 2.0 can be lock scanned, but the auditor should work with chains of locks given by
the file clerk. Every chain which is contacted by the auditor on the 2.0 should be reduced, just
as one would reduce engrams that were contacted. No chain should be left in restimulation at
this level but should be run completely. If the session is too short for this, scanning of the
session will probably cause the restimulation to fade out.
From 2.0 on down, lock scanning begins to develop a brief liability, but not a lessened
workability. The preclear is apt, after he scans a certain chain of locks a few times, to hang up
in one of the locks or to hang up in some minor secondary. It is then necessary to run whatever
incident the preclear finds himself hung up in as an engram in itself although it may contain no
physical pain.
The 1.5 will, as a common result of lock scanning, hang up in a lock. The auditor
starts scanning locks and after a short time finds that the 1.5 is not moving on the track. He
should always admonish the 1.5 to inform him when he stops on the track or when he appears
to cease moving on the track. Otherwise, the 1.5 is likely to flounder around, wondering why
he is not going forward to present time but not saying anything and so many minutes of
auditing are wasted, until the auditor recognizes that something is wrong and does something
about it. If the 1.5 hangs up in a lock and the auditor by running this lock as an engram cannot
reduce it, then it is only necessary to start the 1.5 scanning another set of locks (gotten from the
file clerk, of course). By scanning the new set, he drops out of the engram or lock in which he
was stuck. This is the peculiar virtue of lock scanning. If one cannot reduce the engram or
secondary or lock in which the preclear may hang up, it is only necessary to cause the preclear
to scan a new chain of locks in order to release the preclear on the track. This as a mechanism
which must be stressed, for it is very important. Whenever a preclear hangs up in a lock, and
by running the lock just as though it were an engram the auditor finds that it will not
470.471
immediately reduce, all the auditor need do is consult the file clerk to discover another chain of
locks which the preclear can scan or discover an earlier incident of the same type in which the
preclear is locked up. Scanning the new set of incidents or contacting the earlier incident by
straight memory will cause the preclear to become free on the track.
Below 1.5, a new mechanism is introduced into lock scanning. Actually, this is a
combination mechanism.
At 1.1, or for that matter from 2.0 down, lock scanning can be combined with straight
memory. By straight memory, a certain type of incident which is found to be aberrative in the
preclear may be contacted. When this type of incident is contacted the auditor need not
necessarily leave it at that but may direct the preclear to go back to that incident which was
discovered and scan through all similar incidents. Very shortly, earlier incidents of the same
type will show up, and so an enormous number of such incidents can be taken off the case.
Lock scanning can actually be called a high speed straight wire. Straight memory combined
with lock scanning can isolate certain circuit commands or domination commands or “control
yourself” command which would remain hidden under ordinary lock scanning procedures.
The 1.1 can be expected to hang up in some lock after the auditor has started him
scanning. The auditor, then, scans locks on the 1.1 in the full expectation that he will shortly
find the 1.1 not moving on the track. Indeed, that 1.1, unless a wide-open case, will
commonly or chronically be stuck on the track, as will be also a 1.5. Lock scanning brings
into view, however, heavier locks. Entheta is converted to theta until the heavier lock will show
up. The heavier lock, of course, was no less effective when hidden. Lock scanning bares it to
view. The auditor then runs this new incident in which the preclear has stuck in order to free
him, or failing to free him, finds another chain which can be scanned in order to free him. The
scanning of a new chain to free the preclear from a point on the track where he is stuck can be
overcomplicated by the auditor. Actually, it is only necessary to direct the preclear’s attention
to a new subject or to ask the file clerk for a new subject. The preclear might get so thoroughly
involved with the lock in which he sticks that it would not occur to him that he could scan any
other subject at the moment. It is up to the auditor to realize this and to direct the preclear’s
attention to another type of incident. Scanning the new type of incident, the preclear may free
up from the incident in which he was stuck but hang up in a new lock. The auditor tries to
reduce this lock as though it were an engram and failing that he goes on to a third type of chain.
The 0.5 cannot be lock scanned, with profit, since the 0.5 will inevitably hang up too
thoroughly. But if the auditor does make the mistake of scanning a 0.5 through locks, he must
remember that it is only necessary to use straight memory to free the 0.5.
The 0.1 should never be scanned through any locks.
One of the ways of freeing an individual who is being lock-scanned out of an engram or
lock in which he has suddenly hung up is to give him straight memory. Straight memory acts
as stilts by which he can be brought up again to present time. The scanning of locks can be
combined with the running of single locks and with straight memory, with great facility. An
individual who is stuck somewhere on the time track can be given straight memory or new
chains of locks to scan.
The scanning of pleasure moments should not be overlooked as a valid technique for
raising the tone of a preclear. When a preclear is particularly low, at the beginning of a session,
or at the end of one if the auditor has made some mistake, it is necessary to raise his tone.
Scanning of pleasure moments will very often permit enough free theta to come into existence
either to make new incidents available or to end the session successfully.
It should be admonished again that when one scans locks one should work as closely as
possible with the file clerk, consulting the file clerk as to what chain of locks should next be
scanned on the case and then following as nearly as possible the file clerk’s directions. In the
absence of file clerk directions the auditor should use his own judgment or talk the subject over
471.472
with the preclear. It will very often happen in the process of lock scanning that the preclear
goes into a boil-off. It should be remembered that boil-offs are highly beneficial and should not
be interrupted for any cause whatsoever. When the preclear comes out of the boil-off, the
auditor should ask him for the phrase which put him into the boil-off and should ask the
preclear to repeat that phrase again. The preclear, repeating this phrase out loud or to himself
several times, will ordinarily then go back into the boil-off. Boil-offs should be exhausted
completely. They are a condition of somnolence which is sometimes indistinguishable from
sleep, and a preclear should not be disturbed while he is in one. The removal of boil-off from a
case is the removal of accumulated anaten, and is highly beneficial. Some cases can do nothing
but boil-off.
The individual can lock-scan himself if he keeps in mind the fact that when he hangs up
in a lock somewhere out of present time he must nudge himself into scanning another type of
lock rather than trying to fuddle through the place where he is stuck.
It will also happen that the preclear will run into grief charges as a result of scanning
locks. It may be that he gets grief on a single phrase. He may not know from what incident
this phrase comes. If he is fairly low on the tone scale, he may have no conception whatsoever
of what he is crying about, but the release of grief in any event is beneficial. It may occur that
the only way the auditor can get grief off a case is by scanning certain chains of locks and then
getting grief off a single phrase. An individual who has a chronically restimulated somatic
which is giving him sinus trouble or a headache can be scanned out of it without any
recognition of what was the source, in engramic terms, of the headache or other malcondition.
In such an instance it is mainly beneficial to scan pleasure moments. This will almost always
raise the preclear’s tone.
The value of lock scanning, it may be repeated, is difficult to over-estimate. The
auditor will do a great deal of it on any case. Any case, except the 0.5 and 0.1, will benefit
from lock scanning. The auditor may make the serious mistake of believing that because the
engram is the basic cause of aberration it is therefore the only thing or the main thing that he
should contact. He should disabuse himself of this idea. With the high speed technique of lock
scanning he can bring a case up to the point where running engrams will permit the case to
proceed to clear. Without taking this charge off the case, he could run engrams for a thousand
years and not bring his preclear up to clear. The auditor should use straight memory and lock
scanning and the running of secondaries until the case has enough theta to run engrams.
It is possible to run actual engrams on a low-toned preclear session after session
without raising his tone. This is because the running of engrams on such a case lays in
auditing locks. The theta which is freed from the engram is immediately reenturbulated and the
preclear’s tone remains the same or sinks because of the enturbulation of more and more free
theta in numerous auditing locks. Such a case should be lock-scanned.
The auditor should develop his technique of lock scanning and should be very patient in
his use of it. He will find himself at times sitting silently for twenty or thirty minutes while the
preclear scans one chain. The auditor should be content to sit there and let the preclear scan,
until it becomes apparent to him that the preclear is not moving on the track or is in some
difficulty. He should have a complete understanding with the preclear about what they are
doing. The preclear should understand that the auditor, working with the preclear’s file clerk,
is the one who selects the chains of locks to be scanned. The preclear should understand that it
is the auditor who starts him scanning, and that the auditor is still in control of the case. By
lock scanning, the auditor will get the maximum amount of entheta on the case converted back
to free theta, where it belongs.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
COLUMN AH
Secondary Engrams
Probably the majority of entheta which accumulates in an individual becomes tied up in
secondary engrams. A secondary engram can be defined as a period of anguish brought about
by a major loss or a threat of loss to the individual. The secondary engram depends for its
strength and force upon physical pain engrams which underlie it. Without a physical pain
engram it is apparently impossible for a secondary engram to be formed.
The type of entheta which becomes trapped in a secondary engram is evidently a heavy
reverse of polarity of theta. Emotion becomes misemotion. Affinity, reality, and
communication components of theta, by the loss or threat of loss to the individual, convert to
entheta and thereafter repel the affinity, reality, and communication components which yet
remain in a state of theta. An engram is a moment of physical pain, such as an anaesthetic
operation, an accident, an illness, or any condition producing unconsciousness. An engram can
occur, however, and remain inactive. No engram is active until it is “keyed-in”, which is to
say until a moment when the environment around the awake but fatigued or distressed
individual is itself similar to the dormant engram. At that moment the engram becomes active.
It is keyed-in and can thereafter be dramatized. It will effect, by virtue of its commands, the
processes of thought of the individual, creating obsessions, compulsions, neuroses, and
psychoses below his conscious level. Or the physical pain component can create “psychomatic
illnesses,” which are in Dianetics more accurately called the “chronic somatics” of engrams.
Physical pain engrams can exist in large numbers on a case without being keyed-in and
without being active. The key-in may be only a lock. The key-in and additional locks begin to
give the engram more and more entheta, and it becomes more and more powerful in its effect
upon the individual. It has to be, in short, “charged up” in order to affect the individual.
The heaviest and most abrupt charge which an engram can receive is a secondary
engram. The physical pain in the physical pain engram makes it possible for large amounts of
theta to be trapped when that theta is enturbulated by a present-time shock such as the loss or
threatened loss of survival factors in the person’s life. If the physical pain engram were not
there to entrap the temporarily enturbulated theta, the theta, apparently, would simply un-enturbulate
and the individual would return to a fully rational state. In the presence of the
physical engram, which contains some approximation of the loss or threatened loss, when a
severe shock of loss or threatened loss occurs the turbulence of the individual is to a large
degree trapped and a heavy charge enters the physical pain engram and remains there until
dianetic processing removes it or until the theta and MEST of the individual are separated by
death. The theta body has been discovered to contain amounts of entheta as secondary
engrams, but the charges are not as heavy ass those of the current life, according to
observation.
A physical pain engram, once it has been charged up by secondary engrams, becomes
inaccessible to the analyzer to such an extent that the individual trying to address this engram or
series of engrams cannot, with the free theta available to him, penetrate the core of the physical
pain. Hallucinatory impressions of the engram may occur. The engram may be run almost as a
dream sequence. The somatics are light or non-existent. Content is markedly altered. The
position of the engram on the time track may be seriously occluded. In short, the existence of
secondary engrams above primary engrams makes it impossible for an individual to run
physical pain off his case. A few minor secondary engrams on a case may only dull the
sharpness of the perceptics, but the usual case has many heavy secondary engrams on it. The
seriously occluded case is occluded because of the existence of secondary engrams.
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The demarcation line between theta and entheta is 2.0 on the tone scale. The present
time environment of the individual varies on the tone scale, just as the individual, from period
to period in his life, may vary, although in the absence of processing the individual’s course is
a gradual decline. One could take any environment and judge its position on the tone scale. In
other words, the individual can be located on the tone scale for his chronic position, or for a
momentary position. A group can be located on the tone scale, for its chronic or temporary
state. And the present-time environment can be located on the tone scale.
Today one’s environment might be happy. This environment would assist one’s tone,
pulling one slightly up the tone scale. Or when the environment is very happy it has the
occasional result of making the individual’s activities and conduct momentarily those of a 4.0,
even if he is ordinarily considerably aberrated. But where a 4.0 would have a resilience and
would respond only partially to a present-time environment, a thoroughly aberrated person is
almost a slave to the environment, and the lower the individual is on the tone scale the more
seriously he is affected by low-tone environments. Thus the 1.1 might act like a 2.0 in a very
happy and secure environment, but in an even slightly enturbulated environment the 1.1 might
act momentarily like a 0.8.
Good news, sudden successes, the envisionment or attainment of new components of
survival make for a pleasant and happy environment. This would be an environment above 2.0
on the tone scale, the tone of the environment rising in direct ratio to the potentiality of the
environment for the survival of those in it. When an idea, a datum, a circumstance, a person,
or the general environment is conducive to the survival of the person in question, it can be said
to be on a tone scale level above 2.0.
Environmental circumstances which lie below 2.0 on the tone scale are entheta
circumstances and are enturbulative to the individual. Ideas, news, associations, persons, or
the general environment, in the band from anger down to pretended death restimulate the
individual’s existing entheta and enturbulate more of the free theta of the individual and so
bring about a reduction of the individual on the tone scale. These are non-survival factors,
factors which tend toward the death of the individual or the group, even though the tendency
may not be in terms of actual death.
It should also be recognized in viewing this and in understanding secondary engrams
that when one looks at the tone scale one is looking at both pitch and volume. In music, a note
may be anywhere on the musical scale and yet not be loud. This would be a note of a certain
pitch but small volume. A note can be of a certain pitch with a great deal of volume. Further,
the note by harmonics and overtones may have timbre, or quality.
It is much the same on the tone scale of human reaction and behavior. The position on
the tone scale of a momentary circumstance or of a chronic state tells us only the “pitch” of the
individual’s or the group’s or the environment’s tone. Volume is the second factor which must
be studied in considering the tone scale. An individual may be bored but not, as the saying is,
“to any degree.” He is bored only a minor amount. He may at another time be bored a major
amount. In the lower tones, he may be afraid, but only slightly afraid. Or he may be so greatly
afraid that the fear is terror. The amount or volume of enturbulence might be read in another
dimension, extending from the face of the chart out toward its peruser. There might be a little
bit of grief or a great deal of grief but the position on the tone scale would be the same.
There is also the matter of quality of enturbulence. The quality of the fear or the anger
or the quality of the happiness is important. But this would be a factor which would be
different from pitch or volume on the tone scale.
The amount of free theta with which an individual is endowed is enormously important.
The amount of free theta has a great deal to do with the persistence or reasoning force of the
individual along any course. This would be the volume of a person. The quality of a person
would be more a structural thing. To make this clearer, a person may have an enormous
volume of endowed theta, and yet not have the structure with which to be intelligent. Or he
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may have a quality index which is very high and yet not have sufficient endowment of theta to
execute the plans which he can conceive. We have all known the individual who received A’s
in every course and yet who was never able to do anything with his education. And we have
known the individual who received nothing in the way of grades and who, indeed, never
seemed even to comprehend elementary subjects, and yet who, by power of personality, forged
ahead to a high position in life. A study of this matter gives a useful evaluation of human
potentiality and behavior. More importantly, it gives some understanding of what happens to
the individual in the process of becoming aberrated. Aberration, considered as pitch or tone, is
theoretically independent of quality (structure, probably) and volume (theta endowment). The
factors of quality and volume would account in part for the individual differences which may be
found in aberrated persons at similar levels of the tone scale.
Physical pain engrams are the major ARC break between theta and MEST. By our
dianetic theory, theta and MEST have a certain native affinity for each other, but when the
collision or impact of one against the other is too great or too sudden, a reversal of polarity
takes place, and this affinity is changed to a lower-level manifestation. Theta and MEST
coming together at 4.0 would be in complete harmony with each other. A working organism
would result wherein the chemicals and compounds in space and time, running on MEST
energy, would be motivated and animated by the ideas and experience of theta energy, and a
high level of survival would be postulated. Given a little physical pain, however, a slight drop
on the tone scale occurs, since the theta and MEST have lost some affinity for each other, are
not in such good communication with each other, and thus cannot attain such harmonious
agreement, or reality, as to their purposes. It is a mission of MEST to survive or succumb. It
is a mission of theta to survive or succumb. The purposes have parallels between theta and
MEST. When theta and MEST are in union on an harmonious level, one could say that the
ARC of theta forms a nearly perfect and resonant chord with MEST. When physical pain
occurs a slight amount of dissonance results. This dissonance is insufficient to cause a
separation of theta and MEST, until 2.0 on the tone scale is reached. After this, the dissonance
is so great that theta is antagonistic to MEST but still operating. At 1.5, an active and violent
discord exists to separate the theta from the MEST. Lower, the dissonance grows wider. By
the time 0.5 is reached a near null of dissonance has been descended to, which makes the theta
almost inactive with MEST. At 0.1, this null has become so wide that the two are not existing
together at all. and at 0.0, death is reached for the organism.
There is the overall life of the organism, which could be said to be the theta body. Then
there is somatic life, or the life of cells. The life of cells persists below organism death, but as
the basic organism life and the MEST have mutually rejected each other, somatic life, unless
assisted by other organisms, as in the experiments of Alexis Carrel, dies away within the next
few minutes or months, thus producing complete organism death and leaving in its place the
MEST compounds which have been organized by the theta and which are themselves a sort of
evolution of MEST.
It is at 2.0 (and the tone scale is somewhat arbitrary, though based on observation and
workable) that loss of life has set in. Separation of theta from MEST is necessary, in the
absence of processing, for the chronically enturbulated individual or group, from 2.0 down.
Momentary enturbulation because of environmental circumstances brings about the same
intention. This intention, when manifested as anger, is not immediately observable. But anger
is destruction and death. From there on down, loss becomes more and more likely.
There is a direct parallel on the tone scale between the position of the individual, the
condition of the theta, and the way MEST is handled by theta. At 4.0, theta is handling MEST
with great adequacy. At 3.5, there is a little less certainty on theta’s part in handling MEST. At
3.0, theta has, through learning it can lose MEST, become conservative in its handling of
MEST. At 2.5, theta is handling MEST in a relatively lackadaisical fashion, since it is not well
convinced that it can continue to do so. At 2.0, theta is unable to handle MEST adequately
enough and so begins to reject MEST and to attempt to eject itself from MEST. At 1.5, theta is
determined to reject MEST and to eject itself from MEST, but its determination is still directed
at all the MEST surrounding it, and not so much at the organism in which it is contained. It is
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attempting at this level to eject the organism from the environment by destroying the
environment. At 1.1, the stratum of fear has been entered. The theta in the organism has to be
very careful how it destroys the area around it, but the ejection of itself from the organism and
the rejection of the environment is none the less certain. Here the organism has accepted the fact
that the theta and MEST will separate and that the environment contains no survival factors but
only non-survival factors. At 0.1, death has been accepted by the organism as a condition of a
death environment.
A study of this demonstrates an evident third factor in the theta - MEST theory. The
organism itself has an intention of survival, possibly, even when the theta and MEST
composing the organism have determined to separate. Much theory can be postulated
concerning this. What is interesting to us in processing is that below 2.0 the theta intention is
toward separation from MEST, either the separation of the organism from MEST by the
destruction of the environment, or the destruction of the organism itself. Theta has many
choices in the way this can be accomplished.
Survival is often obtained by an organism through the agency of another organism. As
the mistletoe lives upon the life of an oak, so may an individual exist by virtue of a powerful
ally. Any child has, in his parents, allies which assist his survival. The child, if these parents
materially assist his survival and yet deny him his self-determinism, begins to live almost as
though he were the parents. The theta of the child becomes invested, one might say, in the theta
of the parents.
It might be said that the theta of an individual, when it is suppressed from the control of
its own organism, can commingle with the theta of other organisms. This is an unexplored
observation. But this much is certain, that the theta of any individual may identify itself with
the theta of the individuals around to such a degree that the death or even the illness of the
surrounding individuals, one or more, may cause the same reduction on the tone scale of the
dependent individual. This could be worked out on the basis of restimulation in the
environment, but it seems to have deeper significance than that. The auditor will often find his
preclear so thoroughly associated with another individual who is dead that his preclear upon
going into a session may cross his hands upon his chest as though he were a corpse.
Investigation of the situation demonstrates that this preclear has lost a powerful ally, such as his
mother, grandmother, father, grandfather, or guardian, and that the preclear is stopped on the
time track at the moment of death of this ally. This preclear’s theta has become so thoroughly
associated with the theta of another that when the other person died the preclear to all intents
and purposes died himself but continued to live as an organism, though thoroughly interrupted
as an identity.
This confusion of identities between one person and another is severely aberrative. By
straight memory technique an auditor can begin to separate identities out of his preclear,
discovering in the preclear habits and patterns of thought and action, and finding who in the
past had these patterns of thought and action. The preclear may identify the person to whom
these habits and actions really belonged and thus to that degree regain his own personal
identity.
Personal identity is very important. It is a parallel to self-determinism. When the
individual’s identity has been absorbed to a great degree in the personality of another person,
another way of saying the commingling of theta, a loss of personality ensues with a consequent
reduction of analytical dynamic and ability to reason. It is very important for the auditor to
cause the separation of these identities.
The secondary engram may consist of any misemotion from 2.0 down the scale. First,
there is antagonism because of a threat of loss of survival components to the individual. Then
there is anger toward the sources that threaten loss. Then there is fear that loss will occur,
either loss of one’s own life or loss of one’s allies. Then there is the level of the accomplished
fact of loss, whether of position, of persons, or of things. This is the level of grief. Next,
there is the level where loss in not only accomplished but the individual thinks because of this
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loss that he himself and all around him are lost. This is apathy. Finally, the loss is so
thoroughly accepted that the environment and everything in it are renounced and life itself is
renounced as lost. This is pretended death, only a decimal above actual death.
Here we have the dwindling spiral. All locks actually lie below 2.0 on the tone scale if
they are themselves aberrative. These are the minor threats to survival, the introduction into the
life of the individual of minor components which threaten his existence. There are many of
these. They are of small volume, such as momentary incidents of fear and losses of small
possessions. Other person’s losses may form locks.
The secondary engram is a large volume affair. In the secondary engram one has, at
2.0, antagonisms felt because of major losses which are threatened. At 1.5, one has the anger
because of a threatened major loss. At 1.1, one has the fear that a major loss will occur. At
0.5, one has the grief because a major loss has occurred, and an apathy resulting because of the
apparent inability to recover what has been lost. At 0.1, we have such a magnitude of losses
that life is unsupportable and the entire environment seems to the individual to have collapsed
and become dead itself.
The secondary engram can, then, consist of a major antagonism, a major anger, a major
fear amounting to terror, a major grief or a major apathy, or a major concept of nothing but
death. Here we have a gradient scale of major threats of losses, losses, and results of losses. A
child has many momentary or fleeting moments of fear or grief because of lack of data. Very
little of this enturbulence is of lasting consequence, which is to say that it does not become
trapped because the child has few engrams in restimulation, ordinarily. However, in the
processing of children, one can run off many fear and grief incidents, since there is some
residual lag in the enturbulence. The very major secondaries in an adult are normally quite few,
but these consist of such violent impacts from the environment in terms of loss or threats of
loss that, engrams being already restimulated, great quantities of theta are enturbulated and
encysted in the form of secondary engrams.
The running of a secondary and its complete exhaustion from the case is of enormous
importance. There are those who knowing that every secondary engram exists only by virtue
of the physical pain engram which underlies it and who themselves are afraid of grief hopefully
attempt to audit individuals by avoiding secondary engrams and attempting to run the physical
pain engrams instead. The physical pain engrams, bluntly, will not exhaust unless the grief is
run first.
The secondary engram is reduced by the physiological discharge of tears or possibly
some other bodily fluids. Grief seems to be reducible only in terms of tears. Fear or terror,
inelegantly seems to be reducible in terms of urine, sweat, and other bodily excretion. Anger
seems to be reducible by certain physical excretion. Apathy is reducible simply by running the
feeling of apathy, and this is accomplished by certain physiological symptoms.
A secondary engram is run exactly as one would run an engram. One starts at the
earliest moment of the secondary that one can discover and proceeds, picking up all perceptics,
to the end of the incident. One then goes back to the beginning and re-experiences it again.
The auditor continues to have the preclear re-experience the incident until the preclear, with
regard to this secondary engram, is at a high position on the tone scale. If the secondary
engram is one of anger, the preclear will readily come up through boredom and commonly to
false four. If it is fear, the preclear will come up through anger, boredom, and again to false
four. If it is an apathy secondary it will proceed first through apathy, which is very hard
going, then through grief then through fear, then through anger, then through boredom and to
false four.
A pretended death engram is a much deeper apathy and much more difficult to run.
Much theta must be accumulated from other portions of the case before a pretended death
engram can be run. The auditor should never make the error of thinking that the concept is the
engram. He should do his best to coax the preclear into every single perceptic as a secondary
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or any other engram is run off. However, at the beginning of running a secondary only the
vaguest concept of it or only some
It is worthy of notice that another column could have been added to this chart, which
already contains so many columns. This would be the column of body odor. 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 odor. The musk glands are very active. The sweat has a peculiar smell.
Sexual organs emit a repelling odor. And various body exhaust functions are not under very
good control. The person may have to urinate or defecate under slight stresses or may weep
easily for no apparent cause. This column has not been added to this chart because it has not
been thoroughly explored but is only known in a general way. Any slightly or greatly repulsive
physical odor from an individual does, however, indicate a tone scale position below 2.0. It is
amusing to note that 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. People who
have bad breath as they are processed lose it when they are above 2.0 on the tone scale. People
who are even temporarily suppressed below 2.0 commonly have bad breath.small phrase out of
it may be available. The auditor by causing the preclear to repeat this many times may be able
to get more of the engram and so work it out until it lies there in its entirety and can be re-experienced,
at which time the preclear will come up the tone scale.
Getting any misemotion off a case is beneficial to the case. It may be possible only to
work out a secondary engram partly. But the auditor should never make the mistake of
permitting a preclear to leave a secondary engram before it is exhausted of all possible
misemotion. Every secondary should be brought as high up the tone scale as possible. The
auditor, further, should not make the mistake of abandoning the engram at the point of
antagonism. Occasionally the preclear, on recounting this experience all the way through with
all possible perceptics, will get to the point where he is flippant about the circumstance. This
flippancy is nearly always rendered in phrases which still remain in the secondary or the
engram. The auditor may find a bit of resistance from the preclear at the antagonism level, but
he will do well to continue running the engram. It will then come up to boredom. The preclear
has to be persuaded to go through it again. He will ordinarily state that he is bored with it.
This is not good enough. Further recounting is necessary to bring it up to the desirable tone
level.
It must be remembered as it will not be remarked again, that misemotion is part of every
physical pain engram. The misemotion will rise up the scale out of an engram just as it will rise
up the scale out of a secondary.
Do not neglect the secondary engram’s importance to the case. For example the newly-made
widow of a very successful man one week after his burial had become physically ill,
wore weeds, looked some ten years older, and could not face any portion of existence. An
auditor worked with her for nine hours and ran out her husband’s death completely. At the end
of this time she looked younger than she had looked for some years, was able to dress and to
meet life with considerable aplomb. The change was so remarkable after this nine hours of
processing that one would not have been able to recognize her as the same woman who had
entered the session under the duress of this secondary. A Minnesota Multiphasic test given to
some individuals before and after the running only of secondary engrams showed these
individuals, before the secondaries were run and discharged, to lie above the severely aberrated
line, and after the secondaries had been run and discharged, to be well within the normal range.
There is nothing more spectacular in the rise of a case on the tone scale than that which takes
place after the discharging of one or more secondary engrams. This is particularly true of grief
engrams, but others also produce beneficial effects. The reason for this seems to be that
though it is the physical pain engram which makes possible secondary engrams and locks, it is
the secondaries which entrap the majority of the theta on the case and keep it as entheta in an
encysted condition.
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The auditor should pay very particular attention to his own attitude when he is
attempting to run a secondary engram on the preclear. The present social order has a
considerable compunction against crying or showing fear and a general inhibition of displays of
misemotion and emotion. When these inhibitions lie in the form of circuits, as will be covered
later, it is difficult to get the secondary engram to exhaust. However, if the auditor is
demonstrating a high level of ARC, if he seems sympathetic, his work will be made much
easier. The preclear cannot run secondary engrams in the presence of an auditor for whom he
has antagonisms. The auditor, thus, must be compatible with the preclear and must have been
cleared with the preclear as a group of two, if he expects to run any secondary engrams on this
preclear.
The file clerk and somatic strip, as will be covered in the running of engrams, are not
particularly reliable in the presence of secondary engrams. Here we have enormous quantities
of entheta, and so theta entities such as the somatic strip and file clerk have difficulty
approaching such areas. However, the recovery and conversion of considerable entheta from
locks will bring the case up the tone scale to a point where the analytical mind will have enough
free theta to attack the secondaries.
The primary reason why an individual is severely aberrated is, of course, secondary
engrams. If the individual is well down the tone scale, one can assume as a matter of course
that he has a large number of heavy secondary engrams, whether the individual is able to run
these secondaries or not, for here we have the main deposits of entheta on a case.
Certain auditors, because of their sympathy and their ability to develop a high ARC
with the preclear, become experts in the running of secondary engrams. Anyone to whom
people will tell their troubles will be able to run secondary engrams. The process of running a
secondary engram does not differ from running a physical pain engram. This is very important.
The secondary engram is called secondary because it depends upon an earlier physical pain
engram to exist, being itself occasioned by a conscious moment of loss. It is called an engram
in order to focus the attention of the auditor on the fact that it must be run as an engram and that
all perceptics possible must be exhausted from it. It occasionally will occur that after lock-scanning
a preclear over a certain chain of locks, the auditor will suddenly find that the preclear
is in a secondary engram. Perhaps some phrase will suggest itself, and the individual will cry
or show fear. The auditor should cause this phrase to be repeated over and over. Perhaps
neither the auditor nor the preclear knows the source of this phrase, but the exhaustion of it by
itself may, in a heavily occluded case, bring about a considerable rise, if momentary, on the
tone scale. It may occur that after lock scanning a whole secondary will lie ready to be run.
The auditor should then run it.
The existence of circuits on a case, which is to say the existence of suppressors to
secondary engrams or to any other entheta should not be exaggerated in importance. Scanning
of locks and straight memory can either locate the locks of the circuit, or the circuit to some
extent may be ignored. The circuit is a favorite alibi of the auditor Nearly everyone who is low
on the tone scale has been suppressed by the dominations or nullifications of persons or the
environment. It must be remembered that the circuit derives from the engram and is charged up
by entheta. The entheta can be to some degree converted into theta thus nullifying the circuit
without discovering the engram in which this particular circuit is contained.
Secondary engrams or at least phrases from them can be discharged from any case, no
matter how occluded. It is simply a matter of recovering enough free theta so that the
individual has a sufficient quality of free theta to make the exhaustion of secondaries possible.
It should be remembered that when a case is overburdened with entheta, light and catfooted
methods can still bring to the preclear enough theta so that the entheta can be attacked. A
secondary engram, being a very heavy deposit of entheta, will repel theta.
The auditor will occasionally discover a preclear who will run imaginary secondaries,
with enormous affect in terms of terror, grief or apathy. He is dealing here with circuits (which
will be covered later) which will furnish physical manifestations but will not exhaust engrams.
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An individual can have a portion of the analyzer segmented off by charge and under the
command of an engram statement to the effect that he must run grief. As a result the individual
will manufacture grief incidents. An engramic command such as “You are always afraid and
you imagine things to be afraid of” or any of a multitude of approximations, may cause the
individual to manufacture and run fear incidents. The reality of such incidents is very low, but
the individual will run them and manifest fear.
Unfortunately, these incidents do not produce any alleviation of aberration in the case.
This is a manifestation of dub-in. It is very easily distinguished from real incidents, since the
preclear hardly ever is able to repeat the same incident in the same way a second time, and since
the preclear is anxious to sell the auditor on the idea that the incident is very real, although the
auditor has made no 150 suggestion that it might be unreal. The auditor uses as his yardstick
the probability of the incident, but he is not particularly worried about one incident. A circuit
has the habit of manufacturing the same type of incident over and over and over again but
locating it at various points on the time track. The preclear, if he is very low on the tone scale,
may himself be unaware of the unreality of this incident. But the auditor, knowing the preclear
to be low on the tone scale, suspects the possibility of dub-in when the preclear runs five or ten
incidents in which he is tied to a railroad track by his mother and is rescued at the last moment
by his aunt. Here is delusion rampant. The preclear will manifest considerable relief after
running the incident, but here is a circuit at work, and no matter how many times this incident
is run, the condition of the preclear will not be bettered. The auditor, by giving credence to this
incident and by continuing to run it, is actually validating the incident and strengthening the
circuit. Such incidents are usually bizarre and sensational. Very often, however the auditor
actually has on his hands incidents which are quite true and are bizarre and sensational, since
the things done to human beings in this twentieth century are not always tame and routine.
The test of any secondary is whether or not exhausting it raises the individual up the
tone scale. When the auditor discovers that he is running fear or apathy incidents because of
some circuit, he should immediately be aware of the fact that he is trying to address much too
heavy a form of entheta. He should not be running secondaries but should be running locks.
A preclear who will run such dub-in misemotion is very very low on the tone scale. An
estimate of this preclear on the chart would have told the auditor in the first place that the
preclear was low on the scale. The auditor should, thus, be alert for dub-in. Dub-in
misemotion is best handled not by running thirty consecutive incidents in which the preclear is
placed in the washing machine by his father, or hoisted up a flagpole by his elder brother but
by addressing the locks in the case, the nearer present time, the better. Very shortly the auditor
will discover that the environment of this preclear is normally very restimulative and that
individuals exist in the environment of this preclear who habitually lay in heavy locks. Further,
the auditor will discover in lock scanning that this preclear will commonly hang up in locks
after the chain has been scanned and that the locks themselves have to be run as incidents.
Such a preclear should not be subjected to the mishandling of being run through heavy
secondary engrams. Of course, in a wide-open case, on which few occlusions exist, actual
secondaries might be run fairly early in the case, with an enormous rebound up the tone scale.
It is in the occluded case that the auditor should expect to find circuits which produce
misemotion at will. The auditor who is handling a preclear above 1.5 should not much worry
about dubbed-in misemotion.
On the subject of secondary engrams the auditor, regardless of his own personal
feelings about fear, grief or apathy, should keep firmly in mind the relief which is obtainable
for the preclear and the rise which is possible on the tone scale by running secondary engrams.
It is a theoretical truth that a case would become a release if the auditor could run off the case
only the secondary engrams in their entirety. This is impossible in practice, since after a
secondary has been run the auditor quite commonly finds that he is running a physical pain
engram which underlies it. The auditor should not be surprised when he is running a
secondary engram to find, after the exhaustion of a few tears, physical pain turning on as a
consequence. Clears are produced by running all the physical pain engrams, secondaries, and
locks off a case. But engrams quite ordinarily cannot be contacted until locks have been
scanned and secondaries have been run off the case.
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It is an adroit auditor who can elicit from some “hard-boiled and emotionless” denizen
of our culture the tears or fear necessary to resolve his case. But the scanning of lock chains or
the reduction of available physical pain engrams will place in the auditor’s hands, willy-nilly,
discharge of secondary engrams. The auditor can convert the entheta of locks into theta to such
a degree that secondary engrams will begin to discharge almost automatically. At such time as
this happens the auditor must be careful to minimize his own conversation or comment, to
minimize his auditing, simply sympathetically persuading the preclear to run the incident again,
and then again, and then again, until it is exhausted. The auditor, by attacking secondary
engrams as though they were game on which the state pays a bounty, such as jackals or crows,
and using an approach too exhilarated or enthusiastic toward the preclear’s secondaries, can
actually cut off the discharge of misemotion. Some experiments have been made with the use of
sad music or other dolorous perceptics in the environ of the preclear to encourage the discharge
of secondary engrams. Much work can be done on this. The work which has been done
demonstrates, however, that individuals who are chronically very low on the tone scale
respond to sad and mournful perceptics by simply running dub-in incidents, which does them
no good, and that individuals above this level can commonly discharge secondaries whenever
the proper amount of theta has been recovered for the case.
This does not discount the possible use of aesthetic perceptics in the encouragement of
secondaries. In inventorying a preclear one should be careful to establish all the major losses
and major threats of loss that have happened to the preclear in his lifetime. On each one of the
losses or threats of loss, either of position or possessions or people, by departure or death, one
will find an encystment of entheta. Where the child has been raised by nurses in the vicinity of
relatively antagonistic parents, one may expect to find a secondary engram every time a nurse is
discharged. In the “coffin case” who lies with arms folded, never assuming the foetal position
when running prenatal engrams but always lying as though laid out for burial, one will
certainly find the death of a major ally somewhere back on the track. Where the entheta
surrounding such an accident is strong enough to paralyze the individual at this point of his life,
the secondary engram responsible for the coffin case is ordinarily not contactable early in the
case. The auditor should merely continue, alert to the fact that sooner or later he is going to
encounter a very heavy charge on the death of an ally. In such a case, the amount of entheta in
relation to the existing theta on the case is very heavy. Lock scanning, straight memory, and
the running of locks, and even merely perception of present time may be the only processing
which can be delivered to the case in its early stages. Sooner or later some secondaries will be
discharged. No physical pain engram should ever be run on such a case. Imaginary incidents
are peculiarly useful to the processing of such a case, as limited by the chart. The best skill an
auditor can develop is the running of secondaries. Their discharge produces the most effective
rise up the tone scale.
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
COLUMN AI
Engrams
The basic cause of all human aberration is apparently the engram. There may be other
causes more fundamental than the engram, but certainly to date they have not been discovered.
Psychotherapy found out about locks, but did not know they were locks, and did not know to
what the lock owed its power. Psychotherapists did know that when an individual was able to
remember certain mentally painful incidents in his life, he became to some minute degree better.
Sigmund Freud discovered the lightest type of entheta, and although he placed his
probes no deeper, an entrance was made into the field of human behavior. The secondary was
discovered, but not identified in any way. By sheer observation of numberless cases it was
found that once in a while, when a
patient could be made to cry, the patient got better. The therapist did not know what the
patient was crying about and neither did the patient, but the title of “release of affect” was
assigned to this crying and much extraneous technology was developed around it.
Psychodrama and other techniques were developed in order to make the individual “release
affect.” This was the second slight incursion into the field of human thought. It produced little
beneficial result because secondaries were restimulated more often than they were relieved.
Secondaries have to be run as engrams, with the preclear returning on the time track.
The leap which was made between psychotherapy and Dianetics did not gather force in
psychotherapy but in an independent study of epistemology and thought as an energy.
However, the basic teachings of Sigmund Freud, as relayed to me in the twenties by
Commander Thompson, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, who had studied with Sigmund Freud,
considerably enhanced my desire for re-examination of thought in human behavior.
The existence of the engram was predicted, by derived computation, from other
observations of thought. Investigation showed this existence to be actual. Anyone can discover
an engram with great ease once he knows that it exists. Take an individual, tell him to close his
eyes and go back to the last time he received some minor injury (do not ask for a major injury)
and request that he re-experience the moment of injury. Cause him to recount and re-experience
this moment of minor injury several times. If he cannot do so, he is fairly low on
the tone scale and his somatics are shut off. Most normal people can re-experience these
moments of injury. In causing an individual to do this, the experimenter will find that the
injury is again felt and that the sights, sounds, smells, and other perceptics at the moment the
injury was received recur to the experimental subject. Another phenomenon will be discovered
by the alert investigator. It will be found that the individual on the first return to and recounting
of this moment of minor injury, will conceive it to be shorter than it actually was. On
recounting, he will discover during the instant of impact of the injury new perceptics showing
up, things he did not notice at the time he was injured. Here is a moment when the analytical
mind, even though the injury was slight, went out of circuit, and here is a moment of
“unconsciousness” wherein the reactive mind was recording all the perceptics which were
available in the environment. As these hidden perceptics are recovered, the additional perceptic
of physical injury, which is called in Dianetics a somatic, will reduce in force and, unless the
experimental subject is extremely aberrated, he will finally no longer be able to feel it, but all
other perceptics which were recorded during that moment of physical pain and
“unconsciousness” will be restored to the analytical mind as standard memory data.
In effect, this is a dianetic “assist.” The auditor may take an individual who has been
injured and run the injury as an engram even though it contains extensive unconsciousness.
The last engram on the case has had relatively little chance to become charged up by locks and
secondaries, and so is available for auditing regardless of the pre-existing engrams on the case.
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The auditor can walk into a maternity ward and take over the case of some young
mother who through an arduous birth has developed a post-partum psychosis and can audit out
the birth in its entirety. Unless this young mother was extremely low on the tone scale in the
first place, so that she cannot re-experience somatics, the discharge of the actual delivery,
perceptic by perceptic, including the “unconsciousness” induced by anaesthesia, everything the
surgeon (and let it be hoped that the surgeons of tomorrow will have learned to work in silence)
said to the nurse and remarked in general. In the analytical mind’s interpretation of the remarks
made during this delivery the source of the post-partum psychosis will be discovered. Any late
or recent injury can be run in such a fashion. The individual who is receiving this auditing
will, according to observation, recover much more rapidly from the illness or accident, the
healing will be cleaner, the incidence of infection will be less, and the seriousness of the injury
and the shock contained in it will be greatly reduced by the reduction of the moment of injury
itself. It is hoped that sooner or later an auditor will stand at the emergency entrance of some
hospital simply to audit all accident victims who come in, and that the statistics of infection rate
and mortality rate of this hospital’s patients will be compared with those of other hospitals.
Evidence indicates that the mortality rate will be much lower on those who have had the last
injury audited out, that the incidence of infection will be less, and that the time of recovery of
the patient will be greatly shortened by this dianetic assist.
The making of this experiment, on a slight scale, regardless of the dianetic assist,
should demonstrate to the experimenter that physical pain at once inhibits consciousness, and
that in the presence of physical pain all the perceptics of the environ, sight, smell, hearing,
tactile, etc. are recorded elsewhere than in the analytical mind but that the running of the
incident removes from the case the mental loginess caused by the unconsciousness itself that all
aberrative effects of remarks made during the incident are removed, and that the physical pain is
no longer stored, being a highly perishable quantity.
This is the anatomy of an engram. It contains physical pain. It contains all the
perceptics of the environment in which the physical pain was received. It contains the
physiological condition of the body, including endocrine balance at the time. It includes the age
of the individual. It includes the misemotion or emotion contained in the incident, as
manifested by persons around the injured person. It contains unconsciousness, in the form of
anaten (analytical attenuation). And it contains the interruption of the computations the person
was making at the time, which is the interruption of the theta creative cycle and is slightly
aberrative. And it contains, additionally, all the locks and secondaries which, by contagion
during the restimulation of the engram, it caused the person to receive while analytically awake,
or conscious, at later times. These are the things which an engram contains. And these are the
things which exhaust from an engram which is thoroughly erased.
When the engram is approximated in the environment, during a time when the
individual, by reason of weariness or illness or stress of other kinds, is less analytically aware,
various manifestations may occur by reason of the abovementioned contents of the engram.
The individual who is under the stress of a restimulated engram will attempt to dramatize the
engram. That is to say, he will say the things contained in the engram, and he will do the
things dictated by the engram, or he will make the analytical computations demanded by the
engram, and he will, generally, try to comply with the dictates of this moment of physical pain.
If his environment makes it impossible for him to carry out this dramatization as dictated by the
charged-up engram, then he is subjected to further charge by reason of not being able to do
what the entheta of the engram commands him to do. An individual who has had his
dramatizations broken time after time gradually descends the tone scale. Engrams are based on
the non-survival circumstances of theta and MEST colliding too sharply together, with the
attendant reversal of polarity.
All engrams, even those which are highly complimentary to the ability of the individual
(such as hypnotic suggestions, which are a light form of engram and depend on early physical
pain engrams) are non-survival. There is no such thing as an engram which assists an
individual in his business of living. The engram merely uses some natural ability of the
individual and may feverishly but inefficiently enforce it. This would be a manic engram.
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Engrams dictate unalterable courses of action, without any regard to reason. Such a
circumstance is, to a greater or lesser degree in every case, non-survival, since the survival of
the individual depends upon his ability to adjust his action to the environment or to adjust the
environment to him according to the circumstances. The engram is as stet as a phonograph
record. It dictates that a person do certain things in the presence of certain perceptions. In an
unthinking organism, such as the lower forms of life, the engram does provide a certain
method of thinking and acting, but in man, who depends upon reason as his chief weapon, the
engram is non-survival in the extreme. The accumulation of engrams and their secondaries and
locks brings the individual eventually to the point of death. Although his theta may, by
continual enturbulation with MEST, be highly informed at the period of death with regard to
MEST and may, according to some observations, be able in the next generation to accomplish a
much better course of survival, in the existing generation the entheta never frees itself except by
dianetic processing.
Yet, the auditor will continually discover preclears low on the tone scale who, by
education or by the content of the engrams themselves, will seek to hold on to the engrams in
the belief that they are an aid in the business of living. The auditor should thoroughly ignore
this situation. In a very short time he will by his own experience see very clearly that the relief
of engrams vastly increases the preclear’s ability to meet life and to advance in the business of
living. There are cases which contain engrams such as attempted abortions and which seek to
retain the engram because it says, “If I lose it I’ll die!” Many engrams contain phrases which
seem to make the engram valuable. The engram is never valuable. Here is nonsurvival in the
most basic known package.
The engram is the basic source of human aberration. There are usually hundreds, or
even two or three thousand, engrams in the lifetime of any individual. Each and every one of
these may have its own locks. The whole language of the individual may be contained in his
engrams. Compulsive and obsessive phrases, circuit phrases which set up computive sections
in the analyzer, “psychosomatic illnesses” (which are now known as chronic somatics) and
aberrative forms of thought, to say nothing of reduced physical state and disabilities as
represented on the tone scale chart, result basically from engrams.
It should be understood by the auditor, however, that although the basic source of
human aberration is the engram, according to accumulated evidences, he should not therefore
consider that the only thing he should touch in a case is an engram. Locks and secondaries, in
low-tone cases, must be addressed long before he touches engrams. The moment of physical
pain and unconsciousness is basic, but it is not the principal point of address in very aberrated
cases.
Cases fairly well up the tone scale, however, have engrams available for running, and
when these engrams are run, remarkable improvements in the habits, welfare, behavior, and
physical health of the individual ensue.
Before the auditor runs engrams off a case there are certain definite things he should
know. He need not be nearly so skilled to run locks as to run engrams. A very inexperienced
auditor can successfully scan locks or even run minor secondaries, but an auditor should
definitely know his tools and have confidence in them before he attacks engrams. In the first
place, it is possible to enter a deceptively open but really heavily charged case and attempt to
run engrams when the preclear is completely unable to perceive enough of the perceptics in the
engram to bring about a reduction. Thus, the auditor leaves an engram in restimulation and
does not much assist the preclear but on the contrary may turn some of the preclear’s theta back
into entheta by causing the engram to have a new lock by reason of auditing. While all auditing
can be scanned off and this theta can be recovered, this is not improving the case.
Further, engrams in the hands of an inexperienced auditor are sometimes improperly
evaluated, which is to say the auditor may attack one which is very late in life or very late on a
chain of engrams, and work and worry on the thing until it merely goes into recession. Two or
three days later this engram will reappear. This is because it has not been really reduced or
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erased, because the auditor did not know enough to go earlier in the case in order to find the
basic engram on the chain. Thus certain cautions must be observed in running engrams, but
engrams can be run successfully if these cautions are observed.
To run engrams, the auditor must be aware of and have confidence in the tools of his
trade. These consist of the somatic strip, the file clerk, the time track, and the perceptics. The
file clerk is an extremely useful mechanism, not only for the running of engrams, but for the
scanning of locks, the discovery of locks, and for obtaining data from the standard memory
banks which would otherwise be excluded. The file clerk is a response mechanism which is
instantaneous. One could postulate that the file clerk is a group of attention units with ready
access to the reactive mind and to the standard memory banks and which in common mental
operation forwards data through to “I” as memory. However, the charge on a case -- the
amount of entheta -- may be so very heavy that the file clerk is unable to force through the data
desired by “I” and so “I,” working all alone with the file clerk, sometimes finds it difficult to
receive answers to his questions.
The auditor adds, with his demands and signals, what might be considered the
additional power necessary to bring the file clerk answers through to “I.” This process is
extremely simple. The auditor asks questions, normally, which can be answered in terms of
yes or no or numbers or dates. Then, at a sharp snap of the auditor’s fingers, a sudden
thought, a yes or no, occurs to the preclear, who tells the auditor what response he has
received.
For example, the auditor may desire to know the place where the preclear is stuck on
the time track, or whether or not the preclear is in present time. The auditor says, “Give me the
first number that flashes into your mind. How old are you?” (snap!). An age flashes and the
preclear tells the auditor. It may be that the preclear has developed a circuit which gives his
chronological age in answer to the question, “How old are you?” A double check for the
auditor, then, is to ask the question, “What is your age?” (snap !). He may or may not get the
same answer as before, since the circuit may not be educated to the second question. Another
method of establishing where the preclear is on the time track is to ask for the year, the month,
and date. In addition to the location of the preclear on the time track or discovering the point in
the preclear’s life where a certain incident occurred, the flash answer mechanism will tell the
auditor at the end of the session whether or not the preclear is in present time. The preclear
should always be brought to present time, if possible, either by simply being told to “Come to
present time,” or by being scanned up to present time through pleasure moments, or “walked
up” by straight memory questions. The auditor works with the file clerk. The auditor does not
order the file clerk around. The auditor consults the file clerk. The file clerk will tell the auditor
the name of the chain of locks which is to be scanned. The file clerk, questioned by flash
answers, will identify types of incidents which are interrupting the case. In short, the file clerk
is a consultant who answers with specific data any question asked with the flash answer
mechanism. It is interesting that material completely unknown to the analyzer of the preclear
can be discovered by questioning the file clerk.
The somatic strip is so called because it seems to be a physical indicator mechanism
which has to do with time. The auditor orders the somatic strip. There is this difference
between the file clerk and the somatic strip: he works with the file clerk but commands the
somatic strip. On command, the somatic strip will go to any point of the preclear’s life, unless
the entheta on the case is so heavy that the somatic strip is frozen in one place. The somatic
strip goes to the point of return, but it is not the same as completely returning since the
preclear’s “I” can stay in present time and the somatic strip can be sent back to earlier periods of
his life. This is a very useful mechanism. The somatic strip can be sent back to the beginning
of an engram and will go there. The somatic strip will advance through an engram in terms of
minutes counted off by the auditor, so that the auditor can say that the somatic strip will go to
the beginning of the engram, then to the point five minutes after the engram began, and so
forth. In such a way, observing the behavior of the preclear (who may be oblivious of what is
taking place except by observing his own physical symptoms change), the auditor can send the
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preclear through an operation minute by minute, or in larger increments, and the auditor can tell
with certainty exactly how long that operation required.
The somatic strip can be sent to a certain date, hour, and minute in the preclear’s life,
and will go there. “I” in the preclear does not necessarily follow the somatic strip. Unless a
case is very heavy with entheta, the somatic strip, for instance, can be sent by the auditor’s
command back to the moment when the preclear, as a baby, was being burped. Much to his
own astonishment, the preclear might then burp. The auditor can send the somatic strip to a
moment when the preclear was sunburned, and the sunburn somatic will turn on. The somatic
strip, in short, can be sent all up and down the time track, both to pleasant moments and
unpleasant ones, by the auditor, even though the preclear may be relatively unwilling to
cooperate. This is definitely not power of suggestion, since the preclear is wide awake and
alert. Further, the auditor in commanding the somatic strip can discover data, such as how
long an operation took, which is evidently completely unknown to the preclear, although this
use of the somatic strip is neither usual nor general, but is more of a stunt.
The main thing the auditor should do in using the somatic strip is to credit the somatic
strip with obedience to the auditor’s commands. The auditor does not send the somatic strip to
the beginning of the engram and then wonder whether or not the somatic strip went there and
ask questions as to whether or not it did. The auditor, with considerable confidence, should
assume that the somatic strip has gone exactly where he said. If the preclear is unable to detect
any difference, this is not the fault of the somatic strip, but is occasioned by the amount of
entheta on the case. The somatic strip moves about the track at the auditor’s command
regardless of the quantity of entheta on the case, unless the somatic strip is itself thoroughly
stuck in some engram.
The somatic strip and the file clerk are two of many mechanisms and entities discovered
by Dianetics. There are many other phenomena in the mind, which are not at this time used by
the auditor but which, nevertheless, exist. There are, possibly, such things as theta perceptics,
which respond to auditor consultation. Very little is known about them, and it is felt that
incorrect use of them or invalidation of them after they have been used is harmful to a case; so
experimentation with them should be very carefully done. A book could be written which
covered additional entities and phenomena of the human mind, but until these can be intimately
associated with processing in such a way as to aid the auditor, a discussion of them in a book
of processing is extraneous. Exactly to what extent these additional perceptics and entities
influence human behavior has been far from thoroughly established. The time track, as covered
elsewhere, is simply the consecutive moments of now which proceed in one lifetime, from
conception or a few days before conception in the sperm and ovum sequence, up to present
time. The time track is actually a cable, or bundle of perceptics, since all twenty-six perceptic
channels register, when there is anything for them to perceive, and are in phase in a case which
does not have an extremely heavy burden of entheta.
The individual can be sent by the auditor back from present time simply by being told to
close his eyes and go to a certain moment in the past. He can be sent to a very precise moment
on the track, since every instant of the preclear’s past life is recorded on this track. Some of the
recording, of course, is done in the reactive mind, when unconsciousness and physical pain are
present. It is interesting that a preclear can be sent to January 3rd, 1936, a very random and
obscure date, to the hour of eight-fifteen in the morning, and although the preclear may not
realize he is there, requesting him to contact even hazy data about it will shortly place him at the
instant, which if run several times just as though it were an engram, will begin to show up in
considerable detail in most cases. For instance, if at eight-fifteen in the morning of January 3rd
the preclear entered his office and began to open mail, he may not know at the beginning even
if he had an office at that date, but after he has run the incident several times he will be able to
read you the names and addresses off the envelopes as he opens them and sorts his morning
mail. Because sense of time and ability to return are thoroughly discounted by social
aberrations in this culture, these skills have remained hidden. When the preclear’s sense of
reality is very low, when he himself is very low on the tone scale, the preclear may have no
confidence at all in any data which he brings up about his past. Knowing that the somatic strip,
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the file clerk, and the ability of “I” to return are accurate, the auditor has the responsibility to
encourage the preclear to credit his own senses.
Thus, we see that we have three things at work in the operation of going back from
present time to an earlier incident. First, we have the file clerk. Next We have the somatic strip.
And third, we have “I” or a large percentage of the attention units of the mind. And these three
together are used by the auditor to work the preclear on his time track and discover and reduce
or erase past moments of physical pain and unconsciousness or encysted areas of entheta.
The auditor consults with the file clerk as to the “incident necessary to resolve this case”
or the “chain of locks necessary to be run at this time” or “Yes or no, should we run engrams at
this time?” or “Is there a grief charge available at this time?” and after this consultation, asking
“Can we scan this chain of locks at this time?” or “Is this engram susceptible to being run?”
One might say that the auditor and the file clerk are consultants over the case of the
preclear as to the best method of raising the preclear on the tone scale. The file clerk’s interest
and participation in this is very large. The file clerk’s ability to answer questions sometimes
extends to suggestions as to how to run the case when these are required by the auditor. Now
it is a strange thing that the file clerk always knows the type of entheta which can be run on the
case. The file clerk also knows the next engram which can be reduced or erased. All the
auditor has to do is request the file clerk to present the engram necessary to resolve the case,
and the file clerk will do so, no matter where that engram lies on the track.
Engrams follow the general law that they must be reduced or erased from early to late,
which is to say that the earliest engram on the chain must be the one first contacted. Engrams
in the basic area are surprisingly early. The auditor will have to get used to the idea that
physical pain and perceptics are recorded, if not understood, long before there is anything like
an analytical mind in the organism. The file clerk is slightly sketchy on how carly he must look
for the engrain to resolve the case, and unless the auditor is occasionally insistent on the file
clerk’s presenting very, very, very early engrams, the file clerk may not look earlier than two
or three or five years of age (late life, in Dianetics). With this single limitation, the choice of
the file clerk as to the engram to be run should be considered primary above the auditor’s or
preclear’s idea of what engram it is now necessary to address and reduce. The auditor cannot
know this too thoroughly: that the file clerk’s choice of engrams takes precedence over the
desires of the preclear or the wishes of the auditor, and the file clerk will present the engram
necessary to be run next in order to resolve the case.
Although engrams normally run from early to late, it sometimes happens that a
relatively late life engram is so tenuously connected to the remainder of the bank that it can be
run off and erased, almost as an independent entity. Although birth should always be
approached by the auditor with caution, the file clerk may present birth, and if the file clerk
does so, then birth should be run.
The auditor should be very careful of forcing his preclear into any engram which is not
presented by the file clerk. Running late life engrams early in the case will as a general rule
merely enturbulate the case, since these engrams will not reduce until earlier physical pain
moments have been reduced or until a great deal of entheta is taken off the case by other means.
Once the file clerk has presented an engram -- and the auditor simply assumes that his
request for the file clerk to do so has been complied with -the auditor then directs the somatic
strip to go to the beginning of the engram. The somatic strip does this immediately and needs
no further coaxing, and indeed, a failure to take this for granted has a tendency to invalidate the
somatic strip and to render its response uncertain and the preclear confused as to what is taking
place.
With the somatic strip at the beginning of the engram which the file clerk has presented
there may still be no awareness of somatic or change so far as the preclear’s “I” is concerned.
It is now necessary for the auditor to get “I” in contact with the stage which has been set by the
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file clerk and the somatic strip. The auditor does this with an additional request for a flash
answer. Although it does not always happen that engrams contain conversation, it is a fairly
safe assumption that any given engram contains conversation. In order to get “I” in contact
with the engram and to turn the somatic on full so that the engram can be run, the auditor now
asks for the first phrase in the engram, and snaps his fingers. A phrase occurs to the preclear,
which at the first moment that it occurs may seem completely irrelevant. The preclear repeats
this phrase two or three times and “I” is in contact with the beginning of the engram. The
preclear becomes aware of the somatic and of other perceptics and, phrase by phrase, runs off
the engram, re-experiencing it, feeling the generally modified version of the pain he once
experienced, recounting all the conversation which he perceives to have taken place in the
incident, getting rid of the “boil-off” which smothered the incident or yawning away the
remaining anaten in the incident or experiencing the misemotion of the incident and, in short,
reducing or erasing the engram. The auditor must be aware of the existence and importance of
action phrases in engrams.
These phrases are actually commands in the engrams which take over as a sort of inner
auditor, and before the auditor knows it these phrases are sending the somatic strip elsewhere
up or down the track or mixing up the file clerk as to the next phrases. The auditor, if he
notices any peculiarity in the running of this engram-that the somatic turned on once but will
not turn on again, that sonic was nearly on but now doesn’t exist -- and yet knows the engram
is not yet reduced, suspects an action phrase and asks the file clerk whether or not a bouncer,
denyer, grouper, valence shifter, or holder is acting. He does this by saying, “Is there an
action phrase present?” (snap!). The file clerk then says (through “I”) that it is a bouncer,
holder, grouper, misdirector denyer or whatever. The auditor then says, “The phrase will now
flash!” (snap!). The phrase flashes, the preclear repeats it and gets back into the engram from
which he has been bounced, if it was a bouncer. Actually, a case is in very bad shape which
has positive responses to action phrases and probably should not have engrams run on it at all.
Cases further up the tone scale do not respond at all to action phrases, which is to say the file
clerk and somatic strip have sufficient theta behind them to override even strong and energetic
commands to do something other than work with the auditor in reducing or erasing the engram.
The response value of the action phrases is, indeed, an index of where the preclear is located on
the tone scale. Very noticeable response to action phrases indicates that some other type of
entheta than engrams should be run off the case before engrams are reduced. If the auditor
finds his preclear bouncing badly every time the phrase “get out” occurs in an engram, he
should reduce if possible the engram on which he is working and then address his attention to
other types of entheta, such as chains of locks and secondaries, rather than continuing to run
engrams.
The auditor should understand that an engram does not always begin with a phrase and
that the phrase he gets first may not begin the engram. He should further understand that the
heaviest entheta in the engram, if the engram were occasioned by a blow, occurs at the
beginning of the engram. Thus, the file clerk may present this beginning, and the somatic strip
may try to go all the way to the beginning, but the entheta is heaviest right at the start. Thus the
auditor should always check to find out whether there is an earlier phrase or an earlier somatic
on the engram, before he works very hard to reduce the whole engram, since it is the earliest
part of the engram which suppresses the remainder of the engram. Once you get the entheta out
of the very beginning of an engram of the blow variety the rest may reduce as easily as a lock.
Always get the earliest part.
There is another type of engram, in which unconsciousness sets in slowly and perhaps
physical pain does not develop until after unconsciousness has begun to set in. This would
happen in the case of loss of blood, or during an anaesthetic operation, where the anaesthesia is
administered before the physical pain of the operation itself begins.
Then there is the combination of these types of engrams, where a blow or shock begins
the engram, unconsciousness sets in and deepens, and then further blows and shocks occur
during the course of the unconsciousness, again deepening it. The lightest phrases of
unconsciousness will lift off an engram first. The deepest part of the unconsciousness or the
488.489
deepest point of physical pain will lift last. Thus, an auditor can run through an engram several
times and consider that he has almost reduced it only to discover that several new phrases have
appeared in the engram. This happens because some portions of the engram contain deeper
unconsciousness and more severe pain than other portions, and these lift last. The engram can
do three things: it can erase, it can reduce, or it can recess. The erasure of an engram takes
place when it is either one of the first few engrams existing on the time track or when the
engram is relatively independent of the remainder of the reactive mind. The phrases and other
perceptics appear. The engram is recounted from the first moment of physical pain and
unconsciousness to the last. And after a few recountings, the engram vanishes in yawns. The
auditor can be fooled at times, by having the preclear bounce out of an engram, into believing
that the engram has been erased or reduced, but in this case yawns do not come off. Yawns
always mark the end of an erasure, since this is the last of the anaten (the physiological by-product
of unconsciousness) which has pinned down the rest of the engram. The entire case,
which is to say all the content of the reactive mind, will eventually erase. An erasure thoroughly
done, simply by recounting all perceptics of the engram over and over with the preclear
returned to that instant on the track, is final and complete. The engram is gone and will not
return. The physical pain will not re-occur. The phrases are no longer aberrative in any way
and are quite often gone so thoroughly that the preclear cannot even remember what the engram
contained.
In view of the fact that the engram is the basic source of human aberration, these
phrases which are enforced as hidden commands upon the analytical mind are the most
productive of aberration, if the engram is charged up by later entheta on the case. If these
commands cannot be obeyed or dramatized by the analyzer, then the engram attempts to force
compliance by turning on physical pain which it contains. That portion of the body which was
injured when this engram was received will become painful again, or will manifest some
discomfort. This has been called psychosomatic illness. It is actually the somatic of some past
moment of physical pain turning on again because of the overcharge of the engram by later
entheta and the inability of the person to dramatize the verbal content of the engram. All these
things are gone, the anaten which shuts down the analytical mechanism and power of the mind,
the aberrative force of the commands of the engram which are accepted literally by the analyzer,
and the physical pain of the engram which can become a chronic somatic, disappear and do not
return when the engram is erased.
To be erased, an engram has to be early on its own chain of engrams, there must not be
too many secondaries or other types of entheta charging up this engram, and the bulk of the
perceptics must have been present while the engram was being run. The unobservant auditor
who knows little of his subject may occasionally think he has erased an engram, only to
discover a few days later that the engram, in some part, has returned. In order for this to
happen, the engram must have been fairly late on a chain or there must have been considerable
entheta above it. An earlier engram must be discovered, or entheta must be removed from the
case in some other way.
A reduction is done exactly as an erasure, but the engram will not completely erase,
remaining, after a few recountings, in a more or less static condition of low aberrative power
and with no physical pain remaining in it. Early in the case the auditor obtains more reductions
than he does erasures. When an erasure of the case begins the auditor feels very confident, for
an erasure carries the preclear up the track to present time, and although another pass may be
made to discover missed engrams, the auditor knows he is bringing the preclear through to
clear. In the matter of a reduction, entheta is recovered from the incident, the preclear is made
considerably more comfortable, but the engram remains there in a quiet state. Ordinarily,
erasures and reductions require only seven to ten recountings or re-experiencings of the
engram. The reduction is recognizable because the somatic in the engram, recounting by
recounting, reduces a little further, and continues to reduce until the somatic is gone. A
reduced engram does not build up again but remains in this quiet state and permits the auditor to
go on to other engrams.
489.490
The recession is the third thing that will happen to an engram which is being processed.
The recession is not desirable. A recession occurs only in engrams which are not early enough
in the chain of engrams to be reduced or which are too charged. The file clerk will never
present an engram which can only be recessed. A recession takes place when the auditor
“knowing better” than the file clerk forces the preclear back down the track, uses repeater
technique on some phrase the auditor has selected as being aberrative, and generally mishandles
the case. A recession is evidenced by the failure of the somatic to reduce beyond a certain point.
The engram will drop down to a certain volume of intensity, but no matter if it is recounted
thirty, fifty or a hundred times, a somatic will still remain. During a recession the somatic of
the engram first reduces slightly and then continues constant. In the reduction, the somatic,
little by little each recounting, reduces. In a recession, the somatic remains steady. If a
recession takes place, it means simply that an engram similar to the one which is being re-experienced
is earlier on the case, or that a tremendous quantity of entheta in secondaries and
locks exists above the engram that is being recessed. Recessions occur only where the auditor
has not taken off enough entheta from the case in the form of locks and secondaries to permit
engrams to be run. It is a premature address to engrams. Or it is caused by auditing in
violation of the file clerk’s data.
One would ordinarily suppose, for instance, that conception would be the earliest
engram on the case. It sometimes happens that the auditor contacts conception and finds it will
not reduce. Obviously, conception is very early. There may be some engrams before
conception, on either the sperm or the ovum side. But unless one understands that a great deal
of charge can exist which suppresses any engram, one may recount, for instance, a conception
engram only into a recession. It should not surprise an auditor, if he demands that conception
be run before conception is ready to be run, to have a recession take place. Perhaps no engram
exists in current life before conception, but enough entheta in secondaries and locks above
conception will cause its charge to be highly resistive.
There is a trick of reaching conception in a case. This trick should be used with caution,
because of the entheta which may have charged up this early engram. The auditor asks the
preclear to run a moment of sexual pleasure, and then when his preclear, who does not have to
recount this moment aloud, appears to be settled into that moment, the auditor demands that the
preclear go immediately to conception. The preclear will normally do so and conception can
thus be found and run. But, as has been said, it may have too much charge to reduce or erase.
This trick can be applied to any engram in the basic area. The auditor can require the preclear to
run a moment when the preclear was angry, and when the preclear seems to be well settled into
recounting his own near present time dramatization of being angry, the auditor merely tells him
to go to the earliest engram in the bank which contains anger. The preclear, ordinarily will go
there. This applies as well to fear, and to grief but it is far better to discharge the case well and
have the file clerk in good working condition before one uses such a trick.
Conception is definitely an engram, in the majority of cases. Now and then, conception
will be found to contain only a moment of unconsciousness in the sperm line and another in the
ovum line and be otherwise unaberrative. But the usual conception contains considerable
perceptics and physical pain. Great care should be used not to try to contact and run conception
prematurely on a case. An individual who is fairly low on the tone scale, below 2.5, will
usually have enough charge on conception so that it cannot be reduced. Running conception on
an individual below 2.5 intensifies his aberrative manifestations. A borderline psychotic can
actually be placed in a psychotic break if an auditor authoritarianly slams him into conception
and insists that he run it, on the theory that conception, being an early engram, should erase.
Because Dianetics has not at this time much explored structure, no slightest effort is
made here to justify the existence of pre-conception sperm engrams or pre-conception ovum
engrams or conception engrams or birth engrams. Actually, these have been found time and
again in psychotherapy and abandoned only because they did not agree with the reality of the
practitioner.
490.491
Recent experiments at Rutgers University validate the ability of the embryo to react to
sounds and other stimuli. Books written as early as 1912 and 1914 mention these early
recordings, labelling them, “cellular experiences,” which in Dianetics we do not now know to
be a correct label. The work of biologists in the field of embryology adequately validates the
reaction capabilities of the embyro to stimuli. In Dianetics, engrams from the earliest periods
have been checked with reality and have been found to have taken place.
Many a parent watching his child or teenager being processed has been startled to hear
from engrams the names of maids fired long before the child was born, or circumstances
surrounding the marriage which were not particularly complimentary to the devotion of the
parents to the letter of morality, and other matters which would not be otherwise known to the
preclear. Some mothers who may not have been as careful in their fidelity as their husbands
expected may even sacrifice the health of the child, who could otherwise be processed into
better mental and physical condition, rather than have their husbands learn of these infidelities
which are unfortunately recorded word for word in the engrams of the child.
Knowledge that these recordings exist and are valid and actual will discourage a below-2.0
individual from permitting her children to be processed. The auditor should always be
wary of a mother who is actively trying to invalidate Dianetics to the husband and children.
Case after case has been accumulated in which this invalidation process took place for no other
reason than to hide data which the parent did not wish to be known.
The only other reason an invalidation of Dianetics takes place, after an individual sees it
operate and understands it, is that the aberrated condition of the mate or employee permits the
invalidator to continue in control of that individual. This is highly discreditable, but will be
found many more times than the auditor will like and will be a considerable problem to him.
Those who oppose processing either have something to hide or suppose they gain in some way
by continuing authoritarian control of the preclear in question. Because he is running moments
when the preclear was sick, distressed, injured, or otherwise disturbed, the auditor can expect
to find himself viewing almost any state of health, neurosis or psychosis at one or another stage
of the preclear’s advance to clear. These states will be very transitory, taking place only when
the preclear is returned to an engram and during the period, usually a few minutes or an hour,
required to run the engram. Unless one understands that re-experiencing engrams is re-experiencing
the very stuff of which insanity is made, one can become alarmed about this. The
only really dangerous thing about the running of engrams is simply becoming alarmed.
The preclear, sent back into the basic area, will roll into a foetal ball. The girl sent back
to birth may get into mama’s valence and scream loud enough time after time to disturb the
neighbors a block away. The individual returned to when he had the mumps may be seen to
have a very puffy face. The boy sent back to a severe sunburn may manifest redness and
considerable discomfort, until the engram is reduced. The temperature of the preclear will rise
markedly when he is sent back down the track to a moment when he had a high fever.
Reduction of the engram reduces the fever and reduces the aberrative effects which the preclear
felt for years after that illness. A medical doctor, observing dianetic processing for the first
time, watches the preclear cheerfully lie down on the couch, listen to the auditor utter certain
phrases, then sees the preclear become flushed and red, or otherwise apparently ill for a brief
time. A medical doctor observing this is alerted by his impulse to heal by his own methods to a
point where he will sometimes request that the session be stopped because this preclear may be
running a temperature, or seems to have severe cramps, or is generally uncomfortable. The
preclear will be the first one to try to reassure the doctor, for the somatic that the preclear is
experiencing is highly transitory, and the preclear learning why, and getting rid of the reason
why he has had, for instance, migraine headaches most of his life, will not mind these
manifestations but indeed will rather welcome them, since they will shortly reduce. If the
preclear is brought to present time before such an engram is reduced, the somatic and other
manifestations, which were mild at the place on the track where they first occurred, will usually
intensify. And if brought to present time by a poorly informed or cowardly auditor before the
engram is reduced or erased, the preclear may experience some after-effects which are far less
491.492
pleasant than running the engram. There is a motto governing this: “The only way out of an
engram is through it many times.”
If the file clerk presented an engram, it will reduce or erase, or the basic on its chain
will reduce or erase. Thus, it is up to the auditor to have confidence in his tools and to address
his skill to the case, as detailed in this chapter. There is nothing very dangerous in running
engrams except in failing to reduce them or to reduce the earliest engram on the chain -- or in
invalidating them to the preclear, branding them delusion or some such thing. Anything which
in a few moments can take a human being who is healthy and cheerful, run his temperature up
three points, roll him up into a ball, or cause him to turn red all over is not something caused by
delusion. You could even hypnotize a preclear (but don’t ever let me catch you doing it) and
tell him that he is going to manifest the very same things, and he will not manifest them. Thus,
these are not by power of suggestion and there is no delusion mixed up in it. If you run a
preclear back down the track into an engram, reduce the engram. Or if it starts to recess,
demand the earliest engram on that chain and reduce that. If this earlier engram begins to
recess, get an even earlier engram. Sooner or later you should get to the bottom of the chain,
even when you have foolishly driven the preclear hard into a part of the bank the file clerk did
not present.
Don’t go in for the processing of engrams half-heartedly. You can be careless about
running locks, without any casualty. You can even be somewhat careless about running
secondaries without producing any serious condition in the preclear. But don’t run the basic
source, the engram, unless you mean to reduce it, or to reduce the basic on its chain, by
recounting it, perceptic for perceptic, until it no longer bothers the preclear. Any new thing
collects about it experimenters. But one should not experiment with the running of an engram;
one should continue on until the engram is reduced. It is actually very easy to process an
engram if you really mean to process it, and are not just trying to find out whether or not
engrams exist. One gentleman was curious about engrams, and without any study of the
subject of processing them, much less a course at the Foundation, told his wife to shut her eyes
and go back to the time when she had the measles. Unthinkingly, because this sort of thing
simply did not happen before 1950, the wife closed her eyes and very shortly felt the warmth
of measles. She was quite surprised. So was her husband. But they were even more
surprised one day later when she broke out with a rash. Her husband promptly took her to the
doctor, who said, “I would swear she had measles, except that she hasn’t any respiratory
symptoms and she hasn’t any temperature.” Two days later her rash disappeared of its own
accord, as engrams, placed into restimulation in such wise normally will settle out. What this
husband should have done in the first place was inquire from the file clerk if there was an
engram ready to be run, and then ask for the identification of the engram, and then run it by
rote until it was reduced.
There is nothing that validates Dianetics to the preclear like being sent into a mass of
somatics he did not suspect he had ever experienced. It is the person who is so heavily charged
with entheta that he cannot experience somatics who most seriously questions the validity of
Dianetics. But even these individuals, seeing the effect of Dianetics on people who are higher
up the tone scale and able to experience somatics, will eventually concede. The person who
does get somatics is most forcefully struck by the fact that this new thing, Dianetics, can do a
thing which was never done before, namely, to change radically and at will the physical being
of an individual. Not even in the days when witchcraft was rampant was one able to utter a
chant and have immediate results follow. In Dianetics words which are simply the words of
one ordinary human being addressed to another can roll the other individual up into a ball and
turn on a fever or turn on a sunburn or blur his vision and create many other manifestations in
the case which is fairly well up the tone scale. This is so marked, and the validity of Dianetics,
if only in the terms of manifestation, is so strong that a physics professor at Columbia once
came to the Foundation just to remark on the “diabolical accuracy of Hubbard’s predictions of
human behavior.”
492.493
“Be surprised at nothing,” “Always ask the file clerk,” and “Always reduce every
engram you contact, or the basic on the chain” are the three rules of processing engrams.
Follow these, and you can’t get your preclear into very serious trouble.
Further, there now exists lock scanning, a technique developed in the Fall of 1950,
which takes off the auditing that has thus been done. Theoretically, this permits the auditor to
make almost any kind of blunder he wishes. After he has made some mistake, placed some
engram into serious restimulation, wound his preclear up in a ball, found no way out of the
situation, the auditor, theoretically, can lock-scan off the auditing and relieve the restimulation
which he has occasioned. The word “theoretically” is used here advisedly since in cases which
are below 2.0 on the tone scale, the auditor could place a preclear so thoroughly into an engram
that no free theta would exist with which to scan off this auditing. This would be a very
extreme case and would apply only when the preclear under treatment was a borderline or
actual psychotic rather than a person with a great deal of free theta who is yet below 2.0 on the
tone scale. Always finish any session by scanning off the auditing anyway, but don’t
encourage yourself to make mistakes just because you can remedy them with lock scanning.
In order to lock-scan off auditing, one merely says “Can we now scan off the
auditing?” (Snap!). If the preclear’s file clerk says no, the auditor should discover if some
other chain has to be scanned before the auditing can be scanned off, and if this is the case he
proceeds to have it scanned.
Ordinarily, the file clerk will say yes, and the auditor then directs the preclear to go back
to the first moment of the session and to scan through the session to present time. He does this
by requiring the preclear to tell him when he is at the beginning of the session and not
permitting the preclear to start scanning until the auditor has said, “Begin scanning” (snap !).
The preclear scans through the session at any speed he desires, contacting the consecutive
events of the auditing, moment by moment, with his attention mainly directed to the exterior
stimuli of the auditing session rather than to the engrams through which he has been run. This
extroverts the preclear. Lock scanning of the session should be continued time after time, but
only provided the auditor asks the file clerk after each sweep, “Should we scan the auditing
again?” (snap !). The file clerk will usually reply yes to this two or three times, and will finally
reply “No!” Then the auditor should ask the file clerk, Can we end the session?” (snap!).
Usually, the file clerk will reply yes. If the file clerk replies “No!” some earlier chain may have
been accidentally thrown into restimulation which will have to be lock-scanned before the
session can be ended in order for the preclear to comfortable after the session, but this is rare.
This ritual, when followed, undoes any errors in the session unless as has been said
above the auditor is dealing with a borderline or actual psychotic, in which case he should have
identified the preclear as such on the tone scale chart in the first place and should have audited
the preclear as directed by the chart. On such an individual, engrams must never be run, until
the preclear is advanced up the tone scale by establishment of affinity, communication, and
reality with the auditor, by establishment of contact with the environment, and by straight
memory, light lock scanning, and the occasional running of a secondary. It should be
remembered by the auditor that phrases in engrams are always literal. A phrase in an engram
means exactly what it says, just as Simple Simon would have interpreted it the day he was so
careful to step in every pie. For instance the phrase contained in an engram, “I can’t make it
out,” does not mean to the preclear on his first contacts that he cannot understand it or see it -- it
means simply that the preclear is unable to get out of the engram. The phrase “beat it” is not
interpreted by the analytical mind at first glimpse as “get out” and is not a bouncer but merely
an aberrative phrase which might cause the preclear to repeat several times. The auditor,
particularly when he is running engrams, should make a considerable study of the literalness of
language. This is the main trouble with an engram, that it has command value which is literally
interpreted. “I see what you mean” will cause the preclear to get a picture rather than to feel that
he understands. This is true of both ordinary aberrative phrases and action phrases.
The difference between an action phrase and an aberrative phrase is that the action
phrase causes the preclear to go somewhere or stay somewhere, or not get in touch with
493.494
something, in terms of space and time. The aberrative phrase merely dictates conduct and is
not nearly as serious to the auditor as the action phrase. The aberrative phrase has been
inhibitive to the abilities of the preclear, but the action phrase is inhibitive to the auditor’s ability
to keep the preclear in this engram and run it. When action phrases are very active in engrams,
causing the preclear to bounce or to come back to an engram, or to go later in the engram, or to
become mixed up, or to find that the time track has collapsed around the engram, as would
happen in the case of any grouper on a heavily charged case, the auditor should not be running
engrams in the first place and is doing so only because he has failed to evaluate his preclear
properly on the tone scale and to follow its directions about the case.
Theoretically, one could strip a case of locks and secondaries without touching any
engrams; however, there are such things as circuits, as will be covered later, and sometimes it
might be necessary to run engrams on a heavily charged case in order to attack a circuit, but this
would be an extraordinary proceeding, and should only be done by a skilled auditor, as trained
at the Foundation.
The engram is suppressed and out of sight of the analyzer. This is a primary
characteristic. At the shock of physical pain or at the beginning of unconsciousness, the
analyzer goes out of circuit and ceases to regulate bodily functions or record or think, to a
greater or lesser degree. The analyzer can be partly on or nearly off or entirely off during an
engram. In any case, the perceptions are recorded in the reactive mind. The reactive mind was
once known as the “unconscious mind,” but this terminology is highly misleading, because the
reactive mind is the mind which is always conscious, and the “conscious mind” is the mind
which shuts off or goes unconscious. The total content of the reactive mind, then, is entheta
held down by physical pain engrams which form the basis that causes later enturbulated theta to
be “permanently” trapped. Into the reactive mind, in the course of a lifetime, because of
physical pain engrams, the bulk of a person’s free theta disappears from conscious view and is
no longer available for computation but reacts against the analyzer and “I” to disturb and enter
hidden and arbitrary data and values into thinking. The physical pain in the reactive mind acts
against the physical body of the preclear, and when the analyzer does not obey the engram
commands, this pain turns on and aberrates the physical body.
The task of the auditor, it is repeated here, is to exhaust from the reactive mind the
accumulated entheta by whatever means are indicated or possible and to convert that entheta
into theta, by the simple expedient of bringing the entheta into memory or separating it from the
physical pain which traps it. The task of the auditor is not simply to run engrams off a case.
An auditor can make this mistake very easily because of his ambitiousness to create a clear. A
clear, technically, is simply an individual from whom all physical pain engrams, all
secondaries, and all aberrative locks have been erased. The clear can receive new engrams, but
these must be of a very severe nature to be highly aberrative, because it is the early engrams on
a case which produce the greatest aberration and effect on the individual. However, do not
mistake the fact that heavy intentional engrams hammered by ferocious physical pain into a
clear, should that clear have been basically low on endowment of free theta, may produce a
psychotic break. But do not expect that engrams once erased and the entheta exhausted from
the reactive mind will then return in some strange fashion. They will not, once they are
properly addressed and converted. It takes new physical pain to produce more engrams in a
clear. A clear will, however, become enturbulated by the environment, but will enturbulate
temporarily only and will suffer no after-effect from the enturbulence, since there is nothing to
trap the entheta. Taking the locks and secondaries off a case, and a few engrams in the course
of accomplishing this, produces a dianetic release.
Thus, the auditor can understand his point of concentration on the case. The progress of
any preclear is measured by the preclear’s rise on the tone scale, not by the number of engrams
which are reduced or erased in the preclear. Authoritarian auditing on a low-tone case can
reduce engrams, and erase them, hour after hour for scores and scores of hours, but can leave
the case in such turbulence that the rise on the tone scale is relatively slight. The physical pain
brings about the “permanence” of entrapment, but the auditor will find his greatest store of
entheta, which he can convert into theta, in secondaries and locks.
494.495
An engram which has many locks and secondaries above it is completely buried and out
of sight and unavailable to auditing. An engram which has almost no secondaries and locks
has in it all its perceptics, which is to say that the preclear, in recounting it, returned to that
point on the time track, can see, hear, feel and experience motion, moisture and temperature,
much as he did when he lived through the moment at the time it occurred. After the engram is
keyed-in thoroughly and accumulates secondaries and locks, the sharpness of the perceptics
begins to disappear out of it, so far as the returned preclear is concerned, in direct ratio to the
amount of entheta which has charged this engram up. A very heavily charged engram, then, is
not seen, heard, or felt by the preclear. An extremely heavily charged engram doesn’t even
exist as far as the preclear is concerned but its presence is indicated by the fact that heavy
secondaries and locks occur along a certain line.
After these have been run and their entheta converted to theta by the standard processing
techniques delineated herein, the engram itself will emerge and it or its chain, since engrams
exist in chains, may only then be available for the auditor’s address. But it should be
understood that once this engram is thus available the bulk of the entheta which it contained has
already been turned into free theta by lock scanning or the exhaustion of secondaries, and so
the engram is relatively harmless save that it will accumulate new secondaries and new locks.
Further, it still retains the physical pain, and its commands are still aberrative, and so it must be
run. But the auditor should expect more change in the case from running locks and secondaries
than from physical pain engrams, even though engrams are the basic source of human
aberration. The engram is pinned down and hidden from view, of course, by entheta. Entheta
has many forms. It could be said to exist on the case by virtue of enMEST, which is to say that
for the entheta released on the case there will be a physiological reaction, whereby the physical
side of the organism undergoes some chemical alteration or gives off some chemical product.
Oxygenation apparently has a great deal to do with the release of entheta. Tears and urine,
sweat, body odors, glandular products come off a case as the enMEST accompaniment to the
entheta released, and physical energy as well. The auditor must not expect these enMEST
manifestations only in engrams. They are most marked in the discharge of secondaries and
locks. This subject will be further covered under another column.
Case accessibility is measured by the tone scale and is very important to the auditor. A
case may be very low on the tone scale apparently and still may be accessible, which is to say,
the preclear wants to get better. This denotes the existence of considerable endowment of free
theta in the first place and of enough free theta, regardless of its low percentage in ratio to the
amount of entheta on the case, for the preclear to desire a return in the direction of survival. Of
course, the entheta on this case is descending in the direction of succumbing. This case could
be considered an accessible case even though it lies below 2.0 on the tone scale. In processing
it, the auditor should particularly respect the survival ambition of the remaining free theta and
should be gentle with the case, removing entheta and converting it to free theta as lightly as
possible. Such a case should never be run into engrams, since the restimulated engram will
form a new lock and absorb some of the existing free theta. Above 2.0, cases are normally
accessible, but occasionally due to education or environmental stigmata with regard to getting
better or because of a peculiar type of engram command which prohibits contact, these cases
will be inaccessible.
Accessibility, then, could be considered, generally, the desire of the individual to attain
new and higher levels of survival and the betterment of mind and body. Accessibility is
roughly proportional to the amount of free theta existing on a case, but this ratio may be
interrupted by inhibitions, educational or engramic.
The wide-open case is peculiarly deceptive to the auditor. This case is a weathercock in
the environment, and in the presence of high-level people and in a high-level environment may
seem quite normal, but given an average environment this case is considerably below normal,
and given a small amount of enturbulence this case begins to obey engramic commands
whichever way they drive. Yet this case apparently has all perceptics available. Such a case,
around 1.1, will even run engrams, but the somatic will probably be light even if the other
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perceptics are apparently sharp. Here is the case which lacks, structurally probably, a
mechanism by which to occlude charge. This case, below 2.0, is quite ordinarily inaccessible,
unless assisted by manic engrams or a general feeling in the environment that being processed
is the thing to do, for this case is often quite impressionable and follows the fashion of the
environment easily. The inexperienced auditor may find such a case, may discover that sonic,
visio, tactile exist and so decide, without beginning to look at his tone scale chart, that the case
can run engrams. Somehow or other he persuades the case to begin processing and plunges
the case down the track into moments of physical pain and unconsciousness. He will find this
case resistive, quite ordinarily, or easily distracted in processing, but he may persist and
discover only after he has done considerable processing that the case is not rising very
remarkably on the tone scale.
Should the auditor be short-sighted enough to start running engrams on such a case,
additional manifestations will tell him that he is doing wrong. The wide-open case will have,
usually, some of the perceptics markedly missing. One of these is physical position. This case
does not roll into a ball or otherwise change position even when apparently strenuous engrams
are being run with full sonic and some other perceptics in the basic area. The reverse is
occasionally true. This case may always roll into a ball and have sonic and visio, but will lack
many of the other perceptics. The constant of this wide-open case low on the tone scale is that
it has sonic and visio, that the somatics are light ordinarily, that the case does not progress
rapidly up the tone scale despite the fact that engrams are evidently being erased or reduced.
This is to say that the incidents never come up to laughter, but the case will run very soberly.
This last denotes that the analyzer is not comparing conduct in the usual environment with what
has been commanded by the engrams. Now and then one will find a low-tone wide-open case
which laughs long and uproariously over everything which is contacted. The auditor should not
be alarmed by or censure this but should be aware of the fact that he is running a great deal of
what is called “line charge” off a very heavily charged case. Engrams can be reduced and
erased in these low-tone wide-open cases, but the sense of reality about the incidents is
commonly low and, as has been said, the rise up the tone scale is not very apparent. There are
some of these wide-open cases which seem to have all their real somatics converted into
physical distortion and without getting pain will go into various contortions. They will
apparently reduce engrams by doing this.
Any wide-open case which is low on the tone scale should not have engrams run on it
until a very great deal of entheta is converted to free theta by the discharge of secondary
engrams and the scanning of locks, for this case will probably become less and less accessible
to the auditor and will protest against being processed and will complain of no relief. This case
is not being contrary. It is an actual fact that the case is experiencing no relief although the
auditor, knowing engrams when he sees them, and seeing them erase or reduce, has another
idea about how this case should be behaving.
A low-tone wide-open case, then, should be handled like an occluded low-tone case,
which is to say that the address of the auditor should be toward secondaries and locks, as
directed on the chart.
Accessibility is a considerable problem to the auditor. He must always work in the
direction of increasing it. Of course, by accessibility is meant the willingness of the preclear to
accept auditing and the ability of the auditor and the preclear to work as a team to increase the
position of the preclear on the tone scale.
A case is as accessible as it is willing to cooperate and be audited. Some cases are
completely inaccessible, and this inaccessiblity is not confined to the sanatorium or should-be
sanatorium case. Indeed, the only cases which arrive at sanatoriums are those which flagrantly
seem to be a threat to their own lives, to the lives of others, or to property, although those who
are a threat to property normally would wind up in a penitentiary, although they are usually no
less psychotic. The low-tone case that is not obviously a suicide but is apparently able to cope
in some routine fashion with the environment passes the notice of the heavily burdened state,
which just now tries to cope with the problem of nineteen million obviously insane persons.
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Unwillingness to improve in ability to think or act is overcome with considerable ease
in persons above 2.5 merely by the auditor’s demonstration of the workability and effects of
Dianetics. Here is a problem the auditor solves by education. No one above 2.5 who sees some
validation of Dianetics in terms of testing or who through a little lock scanning or straight
memory picks up some material he thought he had forgotten and which has been troubling him,
will refuse processing, unless there is a question of finance involved -- but this can be resolved
by the formation of co-auditing teams. This is not just an optimistic remark; it is borne out by
considerable experience. Of course, individuals above 2.5 can still be possessed of a very low
theta endowment or may be to some degree structurally deficient in intelligence. But even
these, if the auditor takes care with them, gather some understanding of the subject. Some of
these are incompetent co-auditors, and thus must be assisted by others whom they will not
assist in turn.
From 2.5 down, inaccessibility is a problem, but even here, individuals who have a
high theta endowment or who are only temporarily at this level will cooperate. There are two
types of cases which will baffle the auditor. The first is one who is passing for normal in the
society because of some routine ability to cope with the environment, who is yet low on the
tone scale, who is very trying to the people about him or her, yet who is confirmed in
resistance to any aid or assistance. This type of case is not normally recognized as insane in
view of the enormous numbers of insane who are dramatically so. Yet this inaccessible case,
just as bacteria crawl through the society, is injuring and enturbulating mates, children, and
friends, down the dwindling spiral. Such people are so “reasonable” as to why they are doing
what they are doing and are usually so set in their enturbulative ways and have been so non-classifiable
to one and all that they -- like the lepers who once begged through the streets of
Paris, their threat to the social health misunderstood -- continue to plague the society with the
justification of their engrams and their destruction of the dreams, minds, and health of this and
the next generation. Here is the real problem for the auditor. The husband of such a woman
may be a desperately driven man by the neglect he finds in his home, by the scoffing which
meets his dreams, by the nagging or nullification or domination of his just as thoroughly driven
children. He may come to the auditor or may himself undertake a study of Dianetics in an effort
to remedy his situation. Dianetics can remedy that situation, but he will not be able to process
his wife, for such husband-wife teams do not work, and if he tries to coax her to process him,
he is placing into her hands a further weapon for his own destruction. In the hands of another
auditor, she will be capricious or sullen or angry. And even if the auditor does achieve success
with this case to the degree of recovering and converting some entheta he and the husband may
discover this woman possessed of just enough more self-determination to run off with another
man. The wife who has this same type of situation with her husband may have an even more
difficult time. Dianetics is a remedy which will apply and achieve results but the auditor is
quite commonly baffled when he encounters these “rational” inaccessible cases. He should lay
aside his bafflement and treat these cases as he would treat the most inaccessible, obvious
psychotic. Because such people can keep a flow of “reason” running along accepted or normal
channels, the auditor need not be deceived into thinking them genuinely rational. Here is a case
where affinity, reality, and communication must be built, where the preclear’s perceptics must
be directed to present-time objectives, and where the most gentle entrance into the entheta must
be made. The fact that such cases do not wear a large sign which says “INSANE” and the fact
that the death they deal to those around them is not sudden, swift and spectacular, but slow and
creeping, are not reasons to audit them as though they were nearly clear. Methods of
processing for these people should be those which the tone scale chart indicates. If an
evaluation of them shows them to be at 0.5 or 1.1, then the appropriate methods should be
used, no matter how “rational” the preclear is.
It should be remarked that individuals may be low on the tone scale and still have
enough theta endowment to desire processing and receive it and make use of it. These are
accessible cases but, of course, should have light methods used on them and should not be
allowed to run engrams any more than the inaccessible person at this level.
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The next type of case which will give trouble to the auditor is the obviously inaccessible
psychotic. A psychotic is that person, according to dianetic definition, whose theta has become
entheta completely, and who is either entirely locked up in an engram or chain of engrams and
does nothing but dramatize them, or who is under the command of a control circuit and does
some computation, if limited and unreasonable. The psychotic varies in manifestation, but the
reason he is psychotic does not vary. There are psychotics who are completely entheta all of
the time, psychotics who are only acutely so, under certain circumstances, and psychotics who
become completely enturbulated during certain periods of the day, or of the week, or of the
month. (The last type, which is restimulated cyclically is generally running on a time factor
contained in the engram. The incident may have occurred on the twenty-fifth of the month and
continued to the thirtieth, so this person becomes psychotic from the twenty-fifth to the thirtieth
of every month. Or the incident may have occurred at ten o’clock at night, and the psychotic is
only insane at ten o’clock every night. The cyclic psychotic is processed by the auditor only
during periods when a small amount of free theta is available).
No engrams must be run on individuals who are below 2.0 on the tone scale whether
they are accessible or inaccessible save in those rare instances when the file clerk insists on
presenting an engram, and they must be run then only with the gravest caution, and they must
not be run even then if the auditor considers himself inexperienced. With the inaccessible
psychotic whose “reason” is so evasive and aberrated as to appear so even to the casual
observer, and with the psychotic who is caught in some engram, the auditor should give his
whole effort to establishing contact, even by mimicking the psychotic or by discovering some
small interest the psychotic may have in his environ and directing his attention to the details of
that thing. Perceptics may be encouraged and recovered by as mild a thing as additional contact
with some object in the environ. This, after it has brought some recovery of affinity,
communication, and reality, may be followed by straight memory. All this is included here
because auditors, knowing the basic cause of aberration, are ambitious to treat cause. The
basic cause of human aberration, however, is a deeper one than a physical pain engram. It is,
by dianetic theory, an enturbulence and entrapment of theta. Free the theta. When the engrams
are to be run, they will present themselves.
The patter of the auditor in running engrams is a very simple one. It is easy to
overcomplicate the simplicity of processing. People have written demanding to know how
reverie is obtained, saying that after twenty tries they still have not been able to accomplish
reverie in their preclear. They evidently have reverie mixed up with hypnotism and consider it
unusual merely because it has a name. One induces reverie simply by asking the preclear to
close his eyes. One brings a preclear out of reverie simply by telling him to open his eyes. The
patter of running an engram is as follows:
“The file clerk will present the engram necessary to resolve the case. The somatic strip
will go to the beginning of the engram. When I count from one to five and snap my fingers the
first phrase in the engram will flash. One, two, three, four, five.” (Snap !)
The first phrase of the engram presents itself. The auditor causes the preclear to repeat
it until a somatic turns on. Then the auditor tells the preclear to go to the next phrase in the
engram and repeat that, and so on, phrase by phrase, until the engram is run, then to go back to
the beginning. Above 2.5, the action phrases in the case may not be very forceful, and the
preclear may without much auditor assistance, after the above patter of repeating the first phrase
is done, run the engram consecutively, repeating each phrase only once. If the preclear begins
to come out of the engram suddenly and move on up the track into locks or if he suddenly starts
telling the auditor about locks, the preclear has bounced and is no longer in the engram but has
struck a phrase which caused him to move out of the engram. If the preclear suddenly moves
down into a lower engram, he has hit a downbouncer. In each case, the auditor working with
the file clerk should procure the data necessary, asking if there is an action phrase, obtaining
the action phrase, and causing the preclear to repeat that phrase until he is back in the engram he
should be running. However, when action phrases are this active the auditor has no business
running very many engrams on the case, regardless of his hurry to get his preclear clear. He
will do it faster by addressing secondaries and locks. The command value of phrases in
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engrams upon the preclear is shown by how well bouncers bounce the preclear out of the
engrams, how well misdirectors misdirect him, how well denyers deny further content in the
engram. This is a very important fact. When the auditor has discovered how active action
phrases are, he will know better whether he should run further engrams on the case or not.
When the entheta in locks and secondaries is unburdened, the command value of action phrases
and all phrases in engrams will reduce markedly. An engram phrase depends for its strength
upon secondaries and locks. You can run out of almost any preclear an engram which has just
occurred and which therefore contains no locks, but even this has its exceptions. The fact that
has no exception is that a phrase in an engram loses its potency when the entheta in secondaries
and locks is removed from above the engram by lock scanning or running secondaries or by
straight memory. Get rid of the charge, and the ability of the engram to aberrate the preclear is
slight.
This does not gain say the fact that after you have run a few secondaries or scanned
locks or done some straight memory on a preclear and regained some free theta, even though
the preclear remains fairly low on the tone scale, an engram may come into view which will
have to be run by the auditor. The engram is basic, evidently, because it is the basic collision
between theta and MEST. It is important because it is a trap for future enturbulences. Any
case may possess from hundreds to thousands of physical pain engrams. It is a dull,
inexperienced, and skill-less auditor who will run engrams on a case without assigning the case
to its proper position on the tone scale and being governed thereby.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
COLUMN AJ
Chains of Engrams
Engrams exist in chains. Phrases exist in chains. Somatics exist in chains. Perceptics
exist in chains. The mind files in terms of time and topic. It is an elaborate filing system
which, though simple in concept, would stagger anyone who would attempt to duplicate it in
purely mechanical ways.
All the injuries, for instance, to the right thumb lie in the reactive mind in a chain of
injuries to the right thumb. The phrase “I love you” lies in a chain, wherever it appears, in the
reactive mind and in another chain in the analytical mind, and in times of restimulation the two
may become one chain. A smash on the right thumb which was accompanied by the words “I
love you” would be a crossing of the right-thumb somatic chain and the I-love-you phrase
chain. Thus, somatics and words can criss-cross each other up the bank. A time track exists,
then, for every topic which can be indexed. This filing system is a highly complex
interweaving, possible to compute mathematically but rather impossible to draw, so varied may
it be.
When one speaks of a chain of incidents, one means usually a chain of locks or a chain
of engrams or a chain of secondaries which have similar content. These incidents in chains may
contain the same dramatic personnel, such as all secondaries which contain mother and father
or all engrams which contain grandmother, or may be all locks which depend upon a certain
unknown engram or chain of engrams for their existence but which can be identified by the file
clerk as a chain of locks, or may be any incident or perceptic lying on the time track which is
interrelated with other incidents or perceptics.
A single engram is a consecutive series of perceptics, which may or may not include
consecutive phrases, having to do with one injury at one period on the time track. Because an
aberree can be expected to say the same things at any time when a certain set of circumstances
is approximated in his environment, one can expect the engrams of any person who was many
times unconscious in the vicinity of that aberree to contain this same dramatization over and
over again.
Any of these things cause a chain. The single engram could be considered to lie across
the time track in one place, but a chain of engrams is a series running up the time track. Or a
chain could be considered a series of recurrences of a certain phrase, each time perhaps with a
different somatic, which ran up the time track.
It is possible to collapse the time track. In a very heavily charged case, a grouper, a
phrase which pulls everything in toward it such as the phrase, “Everything happens at once” or
“You’re all against me,” (the sure central engram phrase of the paranoid or paranoiac), can,
when too thoroughly restimulated, crunch the time track together. This occasionally occurs
simply in the business of living. An individual has an engram restimulated which contains a
grouper and the case is so heavily charged that the entire time track collapses. The auditor will
enter such a case and find everything mixed and scrambled, no time track in existence, the
preclear befuddled, low on the tone scale, ordinarily physiologically malformed, and certainly
in a highly aberrated mental condition. It would be very nice if this preclear could simply have
this one grouper run out of him but all the elements of the case (entheta) act to smother this
grouper. Thus, lighter methods of processing than running the engram itself have to be
utilized. The grouper is the chief danger in any scanning of physical pain engrams. A grouper
can be hit on a highly charged case which will collapse the time track. The auditor, if this
happened, by acting quickly might get a flash on what the grouper was and get it repeated soon
enough to keep it from being closed in upon. But if the time track will collapse on a grouper, it
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means the action phrases on this case are extremely active and the auditor has no business
whatsoever scanning engrams.
The scanning of engrams was originally developed and used on any and all cases, and
while it produced alleviation in some cases (if not the erasure of engrams), in others it produced
a marked deterioration. Here is a technique of limited use, which can be used only when the
amount of charge on the case has been accurately estimated by the auditor. As will be seen on
the tone scale chart, the scanning of engrams can never be undertaken with any safety below
the level of 3.5. An individual can be scanned from 3.5 up to clear, but he can only be scanned
when bouncers do not bounce, misdirectors do not misdirect, when the majority of the
perceptics are very clear and when the bulk of the secondaries are gone from the case.
The scanning of engrams, then, offers a quick way to finish up a case which has
already been raised to 3.5 by other auditing skills. Below the level of 3.5, chain scanning of
engrams should not be adventured upon, since sooner or later the auditor will strike a grouper
or some other action phrase and enturbulate the case enormously. This is a dangerous technique
and should be used only when the auditor is absolutely certain that he is dealing with a 3.5.
The scanning of secondary engrams can sometimes be done, but again, only if the
individual is at 3.5 on the tone scale, since all the grief on the case may enturbulate into a ball.
The scanning of locks can be done from 1.1 on up the tone scale, and cautions relating
to the scanning of engrams do not apply to the scanning of locks. However, in the process of
scanning locks one will occasionally find his preclear dropping into an engram. This is
because entheta in being freed exposes an engram which is not suspected. In a case which is
too low on the tone scale to have an engram run comfortably, the preclear may be set to boiling-off
and then may be scanned on some other chain until he is out of this engram, but ordinarily,
physical pain should be avoided. In lock scanning, the file clerk should be consulted as
follows:
“Can this chain be scanned without contacting physical pain?” (snap). If the answer is
yes, then the chain is scanned. But if the answer is no, then another chain is requested. In
short, one should not scan through physical pain on any case below 3.5 on the tone scale.
There are many ramifications to this technique of chain scanning. At first glance, chain
scanning appears to be an excellent way to sweep all the engrams out of a case hastily and have
a clear, but this is not what happens. Even at the 3.5 level chain scanning leaves on the case
many somatics which then have to be cleared up. It might be said that the top comes off the
engrams during chain scanning of engrams. Engrams which are scanned lower than 3.5 on the
tone scale reduce but little, and below 2.5 entrap more than is freed, according to observation.
One scans chains of engrams, when he is sure that his preclear is a 3.5, by consulting
with the file clerk as to whether or not a chain of engrams can be scanned. On an affirmative
response from the file clerk, the auditor tells the preclear to go to the first engram on the chain.
When he is sure that the preclear is there, the auditor signals him to begin scanning, and the
preclear scans to present time through all such engrams. The preclear can scan at a speed slow
enough to permit him to vocalize the most aberrative phrases which he crosses, or he can scan
slowly enough to recognize the phrases but not to vocalize them, or he can scan at a medium
speed, getting concepts of the incidents he is passing on the time track or he can scan at
maximum speed, knowing that he is passing through incidents only by the flicking on and off
of somatics.
Lock scanning can remedy damage which has been done by chain scanning. In other
words, if the auditor makes an error and chain scans, let us say, a 2.5 level preclear only to
discover that action phrases are sufficiently strong to cause the preclear to hang up on the track,
the auditor can then lock-scan off the last few minutes of auditing and lock-scan it off very
thoroughly so the damage to that degree can be remedied. However, one should not always
count upon this as possible.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
COLUMN AK
Circuits
The circuit is caused by a special type of engram command which, sufficiently charged
up by locks and secondaries, evidently compartments off some section of the analytical mind
which thereafter, to a limited degree, acts as a separate entity or another personality. “You”
phrases such as “I have to do all your thinking for you,” “I’m going to tell you what to do and
you’ve got to do it,” which are said to the individual or near him when he is unconscious and in
physical pain, bring about this phenomenon, according to theory and observation. In practice,
these circuits resolve when the case is unburdened of charge or when the engram containing the
circuit is erased or reduced.
Distinct from circuits is the valence compartmentation which takes place in the mind.
As has been elsewhere discussed, the individual’s survival may become so intricately
concerned with that of another human being, particularly during the unconsciousness or illness
of the individual, that the dramatizations, personal habits, and even factors of personal
appearance of the imitated person seem to become set up as a segment of the analytical mind.
The individual may have several valences by reason of this kind of association. A child quite
commonly has the valence of his father and the valence of his mother and the valences of other
people around him. Valence is an exaggeration of that basic of education, mimicry. A human
being learns his first lessons, and most of his basic lessons thereafter, in habits, mannerisms
and skills, by mimicry. Anything which can be aberrated in the mind has a specific use toward
survival when unaberrated. A child learns how to talk by imitating sounds. It learns how to
walk by imitating the steps of its elders. During moments of physical pain, unconsciousness
and illness, this ability enters into the reactive mind, which thereafter forces or can force the
analytical mind to pattern itself without any self-determinism in thinking or acting, after another
human being. The valence is a representation of a whole individual. When a case becomes
fairly well charged a person can or does get into a valence and thereafter demonstrates the
mannerisms, habits and patterns of thought of that valence. A person has his own valence and,
potentially, the valences of the people around him. A case which is very heavily charged goes
into valences so completely that the person sharply and distinctly changes personality and
appearance when shifted from one valence to another. The original definition of schizophrenic
or “scissors personality” was in observation of this shift of identity. A case must be very
highly charged indeed and, of course, well below 2.0 for these valence walls to become so well
defined that they are actual compartments in the mind and have such distinct memory banks that
when the individual shifts from one valence to another he may have no recollection of what he
did when he was in another valence, or even that he was ever in another valence. An individual
can have two, six, ten, or any number of valences, potentially. A psychotic may be, to an
intensified degree, two or more people, changing from one to another without any recognition
that another has existed.
Nearly everyone has some valence trouble, in that when he is confronted by different
people he feels he is himself a different personality. A man may feel like a lion when playing
golf with his friends and like a mouse when he is talking to his wife. With his friends he may
possibly be in his own valence (the happiest condition) or in the valence of some jovial
individual he has known, but confronted by his wife, whom, unknowingly, he married
because she reminded him of his mother, he is forced into his father’s valence, and his father
may have been a badly intimidated man.
These valence compartments of the mind operate in an individual above 2.0 under the
very close attention of “I.” The “I” of persons above 2.0 could be said to be actually in control
of each valence, but as the charge on the case increases “I” is less and less able to control these
valences. And below 2.0, the charge is quite commonly such that the valence compartments of
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the mind develop their own “I” or awareness of awareness center. Here the real “I” of the
individual is relegated to the few remaining attention units which compose basic personality.
Self-control is an actual thing exerted by “I.” So long as “I” has enough attention units
to control or command the analyzer, self-determinism exists, and exists to that degree to which
“I” is able to exercise this command or control.
In the matter of valences, the submergence of “I” into these valence compartments
brings about a condition, as the individual descends the tone scale, wherein when he is in
father’s valence he controls himself as father would have, and when he is in mother’s valence
he controls himself as mother would have.
Valences could be said to have bouncers, groupers, denyers, and holders, just as does
an engram. This is to say that the phrase known as the “valence shifter” may force the person
to be in any or every valence (grouper), or may force him to be barred out of a valence
(bouncer) so that he cannot imitate some human being such as father, who may have had very
good qualities well worth imitating. Typical valence shifters are such phrases as “You’re just
like your father,” “I’ll have to pretend I’m somebody else,” “You’re just like your mother, and
you grow more like her every day, and I hate you for it” (which would make a person be like
his mother and hate his mother and thus hate himself). There is also the synthetic valence,
which is an artificial person. Or the valence command which makes a person like every stage
actor he sees. Valences commonly exist for household pets, and it is not uncommon for a little
girl to be in the valence of her dog or her cat and express herself with imitated mannerisms.
When this happens to a marked degree, this child has a valence shifter which shifts her into the
valence of the pet, such as, “You’re just like Bonzo!” Whenever mother is angry, the child
becomes “like Bonzo.”
The most obvious place to observe valences is during the running of an engram. An
engram has a valence potential for every individual surrounding the unconscious person. If a
doctor, a nurse and a parent are present, for instance, around a tonsillectomy, and if they talk
during the operation (something which should never be done!), there is then a potential valence
set up for the doctor, for the nurse and for that parent. Of course, such an engram requires
very heavy charge before these valences can take over any section of the analyzer. In running a
heavily charged engram the preclear will be found, quite commonly, to go into the valences of
people around him in the incident. He will not get his own somatics but he will get somatics
which are commanded by phrases in the incident. If he is in a prenatal and running in mother’s
valence, he will have his mother’s stomach upset rather than the pressure which was on him at
the time. He is, thus, out of valence. After the particular valence is discharged or the valence
shifter is located, the preclear can then run in his own valence, and only in such wise does he
experience much relief. The auditor should not be running engrams continually on a case so
heavily charged that it gets command somatics and goes easily out of valence.
The circuit is different from the valence. The valence mechanism produces whole
people for the preclear to be and will include habits and mannerisms that are not mentioned in
engrams but are the results of the preclear’s compulsion to copy certain people. The circuit is a
mechanism which becomes an identity in itself, with its own “I” which takes a piece of the
analyzer, walls it off with the charge, and thereafter dictates to the preclear. In olden times,
these were called demons. Socrates, for instance, had a demon which dictated to him, although
the Socratic demon might not have been the result of an engram but, instead, a theta perceptic.
People commonly have various types of circuits and are unaware of the fact that they do
have circuits. An individual’s vocalization of all his thoughts and problems is actually a circuit
at work which tells him how to think or tells him how to act. Thinking is so rapid and
complicated that one would never have a chance to vocalize it. When thinking becomes
vocalized, it is usually at the dictation of a circuit. A preclear may have one circuit that criticizes
him, one circuit that seems to order him around, another circuit that mocks or derides him when
he does something wrong, and yet another which gives him imaginary pictures.
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The preclear who has active circuits has a relatively highly charged case, and the case
should be unburdened of charge before the auditor attempts to locate these circuits in engrams.
It can happen when a circuit results from some dramatization of the parent, such as “You stay
there and listen to me!” that straight wire can locate an awake incident in the life of the preclear
when the parent was saying this to someone. The simple location of the actual dramatization
and the identification of it, by straight wire, may nullify this circuit. Similarly, when the
preclear commonly acts like his father and is ill with the same chronic somatics his father had
(or approximations of them), it occasionally happens that the identification of the basic valence
shifter, by straight memory, will cause the preclear to shift into his own valence. It also may
happen that by straight memory one can locate a time when father was complaining about his
stomach, with the result that the preclear, who has been having trouble with his stomach,
suddenly ceases to have that trouble.
Ordinarily, however, cases have to be unburdened of entheta to a considerable extent
before circuits and valences become inoperative, at which time the preclear’s “I” regains its
self-determinism and control of the organism which had been contested by artificial “I”’s
resident in the engrams.
All circuits could be said to be control circuits, in that they are attempting to do
something to the preclear in contest with the preclear’s own “I.” These control circuits are
artificial controls and should not to any degree be confused with the desirable self-control of the
individual. No control circuit is actually able to control the individual toward survival.
Admonitions to a human being to control himself if he is awake, may perhaps stimulate “I” to
assert “I”’s right to handle the body, but they may as easily restimulate a circuit and put the
individual under the control of some command in an engram.
There is a specific type of control circuit which is quite remarkable for giving the
auditor trouble. When an engram contains a very forceful phrase such as “Control yourself,”
the auditor, running that engram even though it is heavily charged, may suddenly find the
preclear running “auto” and going here and there on the track without any further commands.
Here an auditing circuit has suddenly taken over. It is necessary for the auditor to discover the
identity of this phrase and then have it repeated. The file clerk is sometimes unable to deliver
up a control circuit, and when the file clerk becomes suddenly inoperative, although he has
been working well before, the auditor should suspect that a control circuit phrase has shown
up.
Similar trouble is encountered in the valence shifter, but here sonic and the somatic may
go off while the preclear is yet in the engram. The valence shifter asserts its control only to the
point of changing the preclear into another identity rather than changing his position on the time
track. This is not true of a control circuit. The control circuit may conduct itself as an interior
entity which takes the preclear out of the auditor’s hands. When preclears are very hard to
handle, take the bit in their teeth and try to run their own cases despite anything the auditor may
do (providing the auditor has been doing a fairly good job of it, for “I” will sometimes pull the
case out of the auditor’s hands if the auditor is doing a very bad job), they are running on
control circuits, recorded commands which make the preclear misbehave under auditing. The
case which will do this is very heavily charged, and one should not be running engrams on it.
Some further comment should be made on the case who begins to audit himself.
Evidently a few isolated cases have been able to do self-auditing, without any damage and,
indeed, in one case with considerable benefit. A case may begin to self-audit when there are
factors in the case and in the environment which are unsolved by the preclear or the auditor.
The moment the proper computation is struck on the case, the self-auditing ceases. While
anyone can straightwire himself, and this is a very useful procedure, and while almost anyone
can do lock-scanning by himself, the heavier forms of entheta are more and more difficult to
attack unassisted. The person who feels the need to run grief over some specific incident
should, of course, run it whether there is an auditor present or not. But the individual who
deliberately forces himself into an engram and attempts to reduce it will, in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred, merely restimulate the engram and enturbulate himself into helplessness and
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discomfort before he has gotten it beyond the first phrase. Self-auditing is really “doing it the
hard way,” when carried beyond straight memory or light lock scanning. In almost every case,
heavy self-auditing can be put down infallibly to the engrams’ defending themselves from real
auditing by deceiving the befuddled preclear into running himself through irreducible or dub-in
incidents.
Control circuits not only dominate and order the preclear about, but they also nullify
him. The preclear may have a circuit of a defeatist variety which makes him believe that he is
unable to do what is asked of him and decreases his tone by telling him continually that he will
fail. Such a circuit might be worded, “I’m here to tell yon that you’ll never amount to
anything. You’re nothing. You’re nobody. You’ll never succeed. You’ll never be a success,
and it’s time someone told you the truth.” This circuit, with a heavy charge on it, commands
the preclear continually down into the lower ranges of the tone scale by discouraging him. But
to be operative at all this circuit would have to be very heavily charged and, probably,
restimulated by some other person in the environment who is from day to day echoing this
same attitude toward the preclear.
There are such things as sonic-disturbance circuits and visio-disturbance circuits. Sonic
circuits are very easily recognized, for they speak audibly inside the head of the preclear or give
him faint sonic impressions. The sonic circuit may occasionally try to manufacture engrams for
the preclear, but there is one characteristic about circuits which always permits the auditor to
differentiate. Circuits are ordinarily stupid. They are also discourteous. The auditor should
pay no attention to them once he detects them, for to pay attention to them is to validate them to
some degree. Where he discovers a circuit of this character he should not try to hammer
toward the circuit; he should take enough charge off the case so that the circuit will be
inoperative. These sonic and visio manufacturing circuits are very limited in repertoire, and the
auditor should not be upset when he encounters them, nor should he then think that what the
preclear is running is always a result of such circuits. To have these circuits, the case must be
well below 2.0 on the tone scale, and the data at this level is rarely properly interpreted by “I”
anyway. The auditor is not interested in data in this area. Thus, the visio and sonic circuits
should not worry him, since they will not impede getting charge off a case. The auditor is not
trying to run engrams.
There is also the occlusion type of circuit, the circuit which drops curtains across certain
pieces of information or may mask “I” from contact with the standard bank or the reactive
bank. This circuit might be worded, “For your own good I have to protect you from yourself.”
This may be very sympathetically uttered in some engram and may be uttered enough times
thereafter by the same person in the preclear’s environ to give a thoroughly charged-up
occlusion. This individual, because he is “protecting himself from himself” cannot get into any
portion of his mind for anything like optimum operation. But, again, to be effective any of
these occlusion circuits require a great deal of charge. Lock scanning and straight memory will
do much to alleviate these circuits, but the occlusion circuit can persist, worded a thousand
different ways, to such a degree that all entheta becomes more or less occluded.
Circuits are peculiarly vicious in inhibiting the release of emotion. Here the auditor has
a real problem in the heavily charged case which is yet running on circuits which tell him not to
cry, not to feel anything, to forget it, and so forth. The auditor may find his initial entrance into
the case seriously impeded. The circuit makes it impossible for the preclear to discharge a
secondary engram. But by straight memory and lock scanning the auditor, ordinarily, can bring
the preclear up to an ability to run secondary engrams, even without discharging these
inhibition circuits.
Circuits exist which either enforce or inhibit affinity, reality, and communication. “You
never love anybody” inhibits affinity. “You have to love me” enforces affinity. “Nothing is
real to you” and “You’ve got to believe everything you hear” inhibit and enforce reality.
“You’ve got to listen to me” or “You never hear what I’m saying” enforces or inhibits
communication.
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Valence shifts also give the auditor trouble when he is trying to unburden a case of
secondaries. A preclear can be in the valence of father, who was not an emotional man, and so
be unable to shed tears. A person may be in the valence of mother, who wept all the time, and
may be in that valence so thoroughly that he appears to be running secondaries but is in reality
obeying commands or responding to an imitative urge to cry. The case is not unburdened in
such wise of any secondary. The simple fact of being out of valence places him out of contact
not only with his own pain but also with his own emotional charge. The pain and emotional
charge are on the case very heavy but the preclear, shifted into another valence, is feeling
command somatics or the pains of the other person and is weeping the tears and feeling the
fears of that other person. An individual could go on doing this for some time without much
improvement in the case. It should be understood that only below 2.2 can a case be heavily
enough charged to shift the preclear out of his own valence to the point where he cannot feel his
own pain and emotion on at least part of the track. When a preclear is out of valence this way,
straight memory, lock scanning (in which the auditor never worries about whether the preclear
is in valence or not) and the running of locks are alternated until enough charge is off the case
so that the case comes naturally into its own valence and naturally runs its own physical pain.
Fortunately, a case, no matter how badly out of valence it is, and no matter how heavy
the circuits are, releases its own anaten in the form of yawns or boil-offs, even though it may
not release its own fear or tears. The valence sometimes has a relatively imperfect but
nonetheless existing time track, and one can send a preclear who is in father is valence down
father’s time track, which will exist wherever father was in contact with the preclear. This track
can actually be lock scanned, but this is a mechanism the auditor need not worry too much
about.
The auditor should understand the mechanisms of valence and circuits to understand
what may be holding up his case and to understand and evaluate human behavior but a study of
this chapter should impress upon the auditor that a valence or a circuit has to be heavily charged
in order to be highly operative and thus the resolution of cases which are chronically out of
valence (such as the coffin case) or cases which are heavily control-circuited depends upon the
resolution of charge. Charge can be gotten off a case in the form of locks and even secondaries
by straight memory and lock scanning as well as by high affinity, reality and communication as
a result of the association with the auditor or of strong present-time survival factors or pleasure
or even of education, as will be witnessed in group discussions where the tone of a person
quite often rises.
Early in Dianetics, a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill was necessary in order
to handle circuits and valences. This was because engrams were being run before the case was
sufficiently discharged to have engrams run upon it. Now that a better understanding can be
communicated to the auditor of what he is doing, now that the auditor can understand better
what is meant by charge and how to get rid of it, this enormous technology is not so necessary
to the auditor. However, he should have an understanding of it, since there will be those cases
which would resolve much more rapidly if the auditor understood that all the preclear was
doing was crying mama’s tears or obeying a circuit.
One of the most blunt manifestations of circuits and charge in a case is what is called
“prenatal visio.” There actually is a prenatal visio, but it is black: The blackness of the prenatal,
when the individual is stuck in a prenatal engram, will actually blot out his visio. Because he is
stuck in an engram, his sonic will be blotted out. But here in the matter of visio it should be
understood that while cells and the theta body probably record light, there is no mechanism
save that of the imagination which is known to produce the pictures that come about with
“prenatal visio.” “Prenatal visio” may consist of whole colored scenes, outside of mama. Or it
may consist simply in seeing sudden pictures go and come. A control circuit will produce
“prenatal visio.” “Prenatal visio” is false and has no bearing upon reality and means simply that
the case is heavily charged. It quite often happens that “prenatal visio” will turn on for a
moment while a preclear is running an engram in the pre-natal period. The auditor should
immediately ask for a control phrase when this momentary manifestation of visio occurs. He
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will find some phrase such as “I see what you mean” or simply “Control yourself,” which
somehow crosses the imagination into the factual bank.
“Prenatal ESP” is another manifestation of charge and circuits. A circuit may exist
which says, “I know what you’re thinking about,” and when returned to its vicinity the preclear
seems to get the thoughts of mother and father by ESP. Actually these “thoughts” are
composites of phrases which occur in the reactive and standard banks of the preclear. There
may well be extra-sensory perception, but “prenatal ESP” is false.
There is an additional type of visio which the preclear gets that the auditor should know
about, and this is not unlike the mirage which appears on the hot desert. A heavy boil-off; or
heavy areas of anaten, may cause the preclear to drift off out of contact with reality and see
scenes and even hear voices. These scenes and voices are quite disconnected, ordinarily. The
preclear should never be interrupted when doing this. This is a sure symptom of a boil-off.
Shortly (usually) this phase will pass and other perceptics of the engram will turn on. The
preclear must always be permitted to go through such boil-off uninterruptedly, without being
jogged or shaken or spoken to, because things which happen while he in this condition become
recorded, since he is close to being unconscious.
Dreams seem to stem from this type of circumstance. The dream is usually an engram
which reflects through the haze of anaten up to “I” by some by-pass route and is considerably
distorted on the way. The dream makes a great deal of sense when one has the engram. It even
may enable one to find an engram which he would not otherwise suspect. But ordinarily, this
type of guess-work is unnecessary, since a case that dreams heavily is either low on Vitamin
B1 or heavy with charge.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
COLUMN AL
Condition of File Clerk
As elsewhere mentioned, there are apparently several entities or response mechanisms
in the human mind. Chief among these for the auditor, if not of the highest rank, is the file
clerk.
It is evident, upon examination, that the manifestations of aberration in general --
valences, circuits, abilities of the mind and their distortions -depend upon the fact that the
construction of the analytical mind contains, basically, the mechanisms which are subject to
aberration by engrams. The reactive mind does not have the operating mechanisms necessary
to put engrams into effect beyond their content of entheta and physical pain. A person suffering
from a manic engram which tells him he is the greatest streetcar conductor in the world may
very well perform as a great streetcar conductor. But it is the analytical mind which could be
said to contain the only potentiality for being a streetcar conductor. This potentiality is not
increased by the engram, but only enforced by it, to the exclusion of other abilities of the
individual. Relief of the engram makes it even more possible for the individual to be a great
streetcar conductor, since the engram contains physical pain and unconsciousness, which
reduce analytical ability and thus make a person less able to perform. The control circuit can
exist as a manifestation of an engram command only because the analytical mind possesses
natively the mechanism of control circuits. The “I,” as a part of its usual thought procedures,
sets up and knocks down these control circuits at will. A whole series of circuits are set up by
any new learning pattern, and these in turn compute independently of “I,” to drive an
automobile, for example. “I” gives little or no attention to many of the routine acts of the body
but provides, through learning, circuits to handle these. Furthermore, “I,” in full control of the
analyzer, subdivides and makes up or breaks down compartments of the analyzer to care for
various reasoning processes. The salesman, for instance, sets up a circuit to sell his product.
The “I” of the salesman may be paying very little attention to what the selling circuit is saying
or doing while carrying out the routine sales talk. Thinking is so complex that circuits are very
necessary to care for various things about thinking. The cook ordinarily has many circuits
which direct what she does with various dishes, while her “I” goes on planning on higher
echelon policy or being amused by the radio.
In the preceding chapter, the reason for valences was discussed.
The imagination can be exaggerated or inhibited by engrams or charge and can actually
be crossed into computive circuits by engrams or charge, but the imagination has to exist as an
analytical function, a native portion of the analytical mind, before an engram and entheta can
aberrate it.
Apparently, the main function of the file clerk is taking perceptic data, old conclusions
and imaginations, and other data from the standard memory banks and forwarding them to the
lower echelon computers or to “I.” There are probably many attention units back along the
standard banks performing this function, since there are obviously many sub-computers
operating in any well functioning mind.
The analytical mind that is in very good working order, which is to say, not
misinformed by the arbitrary data in engrams or suppressed by the entheta in the reactive mind,
gets most of its answers on a flash response basis. The “stream of consciousness” of the
fiction writer or the useless maundering of the individual who has a circuit which tells him he
has to “think things over very carefully” and who verbalizes endless conclusions to himself are
usually the result of engrams and entheta. The file clerk, or his minions, still hand through to
“I” that data which is valid and accurate. The transaction is done, ordinarily, in milliseconds.
As the analytical mind becomes more and more shut down by entheta, more and more attention
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units are tied up or smothered. As this condition progressively worsens, the file clerk has more
and more difficulty passing data through to “I,” since he is beginning to have to send it through
circuits, through valence walls, and on unlikely routes. Under such conditions the
milliseconds stretch out not just to seconds or minutes but to as much as three days. In a
mediumly aberrated person the file clerk has to receive the order and return the answer through
so much entheta and over so many circuitous routes that one “has to think” to remember
something and may, indeed, suddenly receive the data requested yesterday this morning at ten
o’clock, completely unrelated to anything one is doing at the time.
As a case becomes even more suppressed by entheta and the analyzer even more
compartmented from the same cause, the file clerk becomes only a faint echo. Memory is
considered to be “very bad,” the individual reaches his conclusions very slowly.
When the individual has dropped below 2.0, not only does the file clerk, as such, cease
to exist for the individual, but the data begins to be passed back and forth by substitute entheta
file clerks. The real file clerk is still there, but he is so suppressed that his functions are
usurped. Thus, the receipt of data and the conclusions of an individual below 2.0 on the tone
scale may be astonishing, to say the least. Not only is his analyzer cut down to a point where it
computes instinctively in the direction of succumbing even though that direction may be
masked, but the data on which the computation is done is mis-selected and distorted by entheta
engramic selectors and storers. One might even go so far as to say that the individual below 2.0
fished most of his data from his engram bank rather than from his standard memory bank.
It is remarkable that in even a heavily aberrated individual who is amnesia-tranced or
heavily sedated (and don’t try these things in processing, since they would result in a much
further enturbulence and aberration of the preclear) the calm and serene basic personality may
be discovered, and the file clerk, deeply buried but now revealed, may be found to be still in
good working condition. But so few attention units remain in basic personality, even though it
contains the fundamentals of what this person would be if cleared, that this should be
considered only as a comment and not as anything useful in processing. It is stated merely to
bring home the fact to the auditor that the file clerk does not die or vanish even in the psychotic,
even though the auditor may feel this when he is working with the severely aberrated.
The file clerk normally gives answers which contain specific data rather than answers
which require computation. For instance, one can ask the file clerk any question which can be
answered by yes or no with fair confidence, above 1.5, and receive the reply. Further, the file
clerk will give data on time, in terms of days of the week, dates of the month, months or years,
to locate the preclear or an incident on the time track. Furthermore, the file clerk will offer up
the names of things or of people or of chains when they are asked for. Or the file clerk, if the
conclusion exists elsewhere in the mind, will forward through to the auditor the worded
conclusion as to what should be done with the case.
The ordinary use of the file clerk is very simple. The auditor merely asks, “yes or no:
are you stuck in birth?” (snap!). The reply will be yes or no. The terms in which the auditor
desires his reply should be stated first. Thus the auditor says “Yes or no” before he asks the
question. He would also say “Date” before he names the occurrence. And each time he would
follow the question with a snap. Common, careless mistakes consist of reversing this
procedure, so that the file clerk receives the “yes or no” after the question. In an ordinarily
aberrated person the file clerk may simply echo “yes or no.” Another but ridiculous error is to
snap before the question is fully asked. The snap is the sound impulse which drives the
answers through the circuits. To snap before the question is complete is to have no data to drive
through the circuits.
The file clerk must be handled with complete regard to the auditor’s code. It actually
occurs that the file clerk in a relatively heavily charged case may work perfectly for one auditor
who has high ARC with the preclear but may not work at all with an auditor who has slightly
lower ARC with the preclear. This applies, of course, only to those cases which are below 2.0.
509.510
The snap impulse seems necessary in most cases. There are cases which object
seriously to the auditor snapping his fingers. These cases are restimulated by the sound of the
snap, and a little straight wire usually finds the source of the objection. However, the auditor
should not throw his hand toward the preclear when he snaps his fingers, as this is very
restimulative to any preclear who has been slapped. The motion of the hand toward an
individual, if done suddenly, is uniformly evaluated as a hostile gesture. Just as the auditor
should keep his feet off the couch or bed or its baseboards, should refrain from touching the
preclear save when the preclear in distress wishes to hold his hand, so should the auditor use
all courtesy with regard to the file clerk.
The file clerk should never under any circumstances be invalidated. He should not be
asked questions one way and then another, as though the auditor doubted the first reply. The
exception to this is the low-tone case which has a built-in circuit that responds to age questions.
This the file clerk can evidently appreciate. But a very questioning attitude on the part of an
auditor may well silence the file clerk.
There is a great deal to be said on both sides of reality. The file clerk may be validated
by interested and satisfied reception of his data by the auditor, and can be invalidated by raised
eyebrows or shrugs on the auditor’s part. The preclear, in the middle bands, quite commonly
distrusts his file clerk and will do enough invalidating himself. But when the preclear
discovers that the auditor is accepting these answers, the preclear ceases this practice.
Just as a general observation in the field of working with the file clerk and the preclear,
an auditor can rush a case which is in the middle or low bands of the tone scale and begin to
audit with such energy that the preclear is enturbulated and sometimes sinks considerably in
tone. Similarly, the file clerk and the preclear become annoyed and restless in the presence of
an apathetic or uninterested auditor, one who will doze when a long chain of locks is being
scanned, or one who will ask questions of the file clerk only when the preclear himself
demands it. Too furious an interest, then, and too small an interest affect not only the file clerk
but the general working of the case. The auditor must learn to adjust himself and his mood not
only to the type of incident the preclear is running and to the personality of the preclear but also
to the position on the tone scale of the preclear. The lower on the tone scale the preclear is, the
more gentle, patient, and understanding must be the auditor. Even low on the tone scale, a
preclear may have a file clerk that occasionally works, and this occasionality can, by validation
of the file clerk, be coaxed forth to a steady response. But if the auditor is less gentle and
efficient than he should be, then the occasional workability of the file clerk will cease.
Nothing shuts off a file clerk or a preclear faster than ineptness. A few errors can be
condoned, but continual fumbling and uncertainty can cause a file clerk to give up and can
produce a similar reaction in the preclear.
Rather amusingly, in the Foundation there was a spell of deification of the file clerk and
other entities that had been discovered in the mind. The overall result was that auditors started
talking to these entities rather than to the preclear. This tended to invalidate the preclear as an
individual. The preclear is entitled to his opinions and is the focus of attention. The file clerk
and other entities are simply, one supposes, portions of the analytical function of the mind. At
one time the auditor form of address became “Mr. File Clerk,” and the file clerk was thanked
for every flash answer.
This kind of courtesy is evidently not particularly needed by the file clerk, but now and
then the auditor will find himself working with a response mechanism in the mind which is
very insistent upon courtesy and protocol. The auditor is not in this instance working with the
file clerk, since the file clerk is a rugged mechanism with little to say and a brief way of saying
it. But this does not mean that another entity should not be accepted.
Now and then the auditor will become concerned as to whether he is talking to the file
clerk or to a demon circuit. His preclear would have to be fairly low on the tone scale in order
to make this confusion possible. Demon circuits will actually respond, but they do not respond
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with the quick flash and simplicity of the file clerk. Now and then one will run into a real audio
demon circuit which is highly insulting to the auditor, for demon circuits are both stupid and
unmannerly. The moment the auditor finds himself addressing such a circuit he does well to
pay it no further attention and accept no further replies from it, because additional attention to
this entheta form serves to validate it for the preclear, if not to strengthen the form itself: Even
though these demon circuits are amusing, the auditor should limit his attention to them, since all
address in this direction is wasted effort. The auditor should merely know that such a thing can
happen so that he will not be surprised if, as it rarely occurs, a demon circuit gets in his way.
The sharpness and accuracy of a file clerk declines as the case descends the tone scale.
Generally, the more entheta there is on a case, the less reliable is the file clerk. This normally
does not become serious until the case is down to 2.0. After that, the condition of the file clerk
not only becomes poor, but manifestations of the file clerk around 1.1 and 0.5 are such that no
credence can be placed in them by the auditor. One will now and then encounter a preclear who
gives “file clerk” answers, according to the preclear. The auditor should already recognize
where his preclear lies on the tone scale before he begins processing, but even so the auditor
may now and then be surprised by a “file clerk” who gives very extraordinary responses. “File
clerks” have been reported by preclears which gave their yes-and-no answers as visible traffic
signals. On the flash response, the signal arm would rise with a yes or a no sometimes
complete with red or green light. Or a “file clerk” may be reported by the preclear as a pair of
hands that deal playing cards on which are written yes and no. Or as in one case the “file clerk”
may be a toy railroad train which comes swinging by, stops and turns up a dump car with yes
or no painted on the bottom. These “file clerks” are not file clerks at all but circuit mechanisms
customarily found in very heavily charged cases which have a great deal of control circuitry.
There is something about this control circuitry that turns on visio. Possibly it is because
the imagination runs on a relatively self-controlled basis and because a control circuit can
switch on imagination. However that may be, these mechanical devices and other
manifestations when the auditor wants an answer from the true file clerk are symptomatic of
cases low on the tone scale. The answers of these mechanisms should not be trusted.
There are heavily entheta’d cases in which the file clerk always responds “yes-no” or
“no-yes.” Here again too much charge inhibits the auditor’s use of the file clerk.
Unless the auditor can get a clear and authentic, even if occasional, response from the
file clerk, he should not attempt to work with the file clerk. Here is the most certain and
automatic division of types of processing to be used which the auditor can have: Does the
preclear have a working file clerk? If the preclear does, then straight memory, lock scanning
and secondaries are usually workable.
If the file clerk does not respond, or responds unreliably or with some strange
mechanism, the auditor should limit his processing as a general rule to straight memory, very
light lock scanning, and possibly fear secondaries, but avoid grief or apathy. If the file clerk’s
response is strong and accurate, engrams can probably be run on the case.
These comments will give the auditor a quick, jackleg diagnosis, if for some reason he
wishes to work with a case for a short time as a demonstration or an assist and yet does not
have a chart at hand or the time to locate his preclear on the chart. The auditor should always
locate his preclear on the chart as accurately as possible if he is taking on a case for any term of
processing more than a short session.
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
COLUMN AM
Hypnotic Level
It is pertinent to case estimation whether or not the preclear is highly suggestible or can
be hypnotized.
Hypnotism is an address to the reactive mind. It reduces self-determinism by
interposing the commands of another below the analytical level of an individual’s mind; it
enturbulates a case markedly, and materially aberrates human beings by keying-in engrams
which would otherwise lie dormant. It is the sort of control mechanism in which an
authoritarian individual, cult, or ideology delight. People who indulge in hypnotism may, only
very occasionally, be interested in experimentation on the human mind to learn more about the
mind. Genuine experimental hypnotism, strictly in the laboratory and never in the parlor, and
done wholly in the knowledge that one is reducing the efficiency of the human being on whom
one is experimenting and may do him permanent damage, and the use of hypnotism by a
surgeon for an operation, but not in company with any other anaesthetic, should end the
extension of hypnotism into the society.
Submission to being hypnotized is analogous to being raped, with the exception that the
individual can, generally, recover from being raped. To any clear-thinking human who believes
in the value of people as human beings, there is something gruesomely obscene about
hypnotism. The interjection of unseen controls below the level of consciousness cannot benefit
but can only pervert the mind. It does not matter if the hypnotist tells his subject that he is
going to be better at his job or that he will be healthier. Whatever the apparent attempted
beneficence may be, the individual who would permit himself to be hypnotized is, frankly, a
fool. Hypnotism, in common use, is simply a dramatization of some individual desiring covert
control over his fellow human beings.
Hypnotism, by an investigation of it and its uses in the society, has been demonstrated
to be much more widespread than was ever before suspected, since prior to dianetic processing
there was no method known to man by which the damage of hypnotism could be undone. It
was thought by hypnotists that the mere remembering of these suggestions would relieve them,
and that the power of the suggestion died out with time. These two ideas do not happen to be
true. The hypnotic suggestion has to be run as a very heavy deposit of entheta, nearly as heavy
as a secondary engram, and it is thoroughly permanent until relieved by dianetic processing and
is subject to restimulation just like any engram or secondary.
Of course, the surgeon or dentist who permits any unnecessary conversation or
perceptics to exist in the anaesthetized patient’s environ is practicing a brand of hypnotism
much more serious, long-lasting, and savage than ordinary hypnotism, which does not include
physical pain or hypnotic drugs. In having dianetic processing demonstrated to them, surgeons
who knew their patients were unconscious and knew that no recording was taking place are
astonished when these same patients, under auditing, play back the conversation the surgeon
well remembers having used, and describe in tremendous detail operations of which, lacking
technical training, they could have had no knowledge. The medical doctor and dentist forget
that anaesthetics came into general use only late in the last century and are definitely newcomers
in the medical field and that not very much is known, or was known, about them. Considered
in this light, it should be less astonishing that they did not know what was happening to a
patient under anaesthesia, since neither has man had much data about anaesthesia itself.
The obstetrician whose patient after delivery suffers from a post-partum psychosis
cringes when he discovers that it was his words, spoken over the obviously unconscious girl,
which laid into her mind the command that causes her to abhor the child and to attempt to kill it
ten days after delivery. It is difficult to get a human being to accept responsibility of this
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magnitude since it is so appalling what can be done in the operating room. Obscene jokes, and
crass, derogatory personal remarks about the patient are the common conversation in the
operating theaters of America today. Surgery should not be censured for this, since dianetic
processing and the knowledge of the consequences of noise and talking and even music around
the anaesthetized patient were not released until last year (1950). More and more hospitals in
the United States, now cognizant of the harm which can be done, are training their surgeons
into silence around anaesthetized patients and offering severe penalties for any conversation in
operating rooms. So medicine at least is trying. However, the individual who knows
Dianetics should not be shy or fall back from invalidation by the doctor when a friend or loved
one is going to lie on an operating table. For one can afford a few set-backs, invalidations or
rebukes from some behind-the-times doctor if it means that one’s friend or loved one will get
well much more swiftly and will show no greatly increased level of aberration or descent on the
tone scale because of the operation or exodontistry. You will yet live to see the time, not many
years off, when a criminal charge will be placed against anyone speaking in the vicinity of an
unconscious person. The regular intake of sedatives such as phenobarbital causes the individual
to walk around in a light hypnotic trance. The drug itself may not be very harmful to the
nervous system, but this light trance makes it possible for the person to be keyed in by
anything and everything around him despite the fact that under sedation he does not apparently
notice it. Sedation of the neurotic or psychotic is a very dangerous practice. If one must do
something by way of drugs for these people, better effects, according to medical observation,
can be achieved by the administration of stimulants such as benzedrine. For some reason or
other, probably because in a low-tone society individuals under thorough control excite less
fear, sedation is considered less harmful. The stimulant is somehow considered to be too
energizing, and medical doctors seem to prescribe sedatives much more rapidly than they will
prescribe stimulants. Investigation of literature and consultation with accurate medical
observation demonstrate that the individual shows less active aberration under mild stimulants.
Below a certain point on the tone scale, of course, sedatives are administered in the hope that
the patient will then cause the doctor, nurse or others around him less trouble, and are not
administered in any hope or belief that they will in any way aid the patient. Actually, a few
hours of lock scanning on any case will do more for his “nervousness” than a barrel of
phenobarbital.
There is another form of hypnotism which falls between the surgical operation and
straight hypnotism without physical pain. This form of hypnotism has been a carefully guarded
secret of certain military and intelligence organizations. It is a vicious war weapon and may be
of considerably more use in conquering a society than the atom bomb. This is no exaggeration.
The extensiveness of the use of this form of hypnotism in espionage work is so wide today that
it is long past the time when people should have become alarmed about it. It required dianetic
processing to uncover pain-drug-hypnosis. Otherwise, pain-drug-hypnosis was out of sight,
unsuspected, and unknown.
Pain-drug-hypnosis is a wicked extension of narco-synthesis, the drug hypnosis used
in America only during and since the last war.
Hypnotism has the virtue, at first at least, of requiring the consent of the hypnotic
subject before the hypnotism is done. Further, hypnotism has an additional virtue over drug
hypnosis and over pain-drug-hypnosis, in that an individual in a hypnotic trance will rarely
perform an immoral act even though commanded to do so by the hypnotist, unless that
individual would normally perform such acts.
Drug hypnotism does not have to be done with the individual’s consent. An individual
who is drugged can receive and will obey hypnotic commands given to him by the doctor or
operator and will continue to obey these commands after waking from the drugged sleep. By
using the method of dropping a heavy sedative such as chloral hydrate into an individual’s
drink, by suddenly muzzling him with a silk scarf from behind and injecting morphine into his
arm, or by discovering the individual when he is drunk or shortly after he has been operated
upon or during an operation, or during the administration of electric shock or sedation in an
insane asylum, drug hypnosis can be induced. Thereafter, the operator works much as in
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ordinary hypnotism. Drug hypnosis can be administered with such wording that the patient
will not only forget what he has been told and yet perform it, but will also forget that he has
ever been given drug hypnosis, if that command is included, and he may even be given data to
account for the time during which he was given the hypnosis. Drug hypnotism, then, can be
done without the consent of the subject and is commonly so done even by doctors in the normal
course of practice. There is nothing new or strange about drug hypnosis. It occasionally fails
to work as the operator intends, and it does not usually strike against the individual’s normal
moral tone save that, of course, it inevitably lowers him on the tone scale, thus bringing about a
tendency to generally lowered morals. But pain-drug-hypnosis, due mainly to the intent of the
operator, is a much more vicious procedure.
It has been discovered that a drugged individual when beaten and given orders would
almost invariably obey those orders regardless of the degree to which they flouted his moral
tone or his position or his best interests in life.
Before Dianetics, the widespread use of this practice was unsuspected, simply because
there was no means by which one could even detect the existence of pain-drug-hypnosis. An
individual might be given pain-drug-hypnosis on Tuesday night and wake up Wednesday
morning without knowledge of the fact that he had been slugged when he stepped out of his
car, given an injection, painfully beaten but not so as to leave any marks, and put quietly into
his own bed. This individual does not know that anything unusual has happened to him nor
will he suspect it even when he is confronted with the fact that his conduct is extremely
changed along certain lines. This individual, if the criminal operator desired it, would actually
obey the commands to the point of striking up a friendship with some person the operator
indicated, thereafter conducting his business along lines suggested by this “friend.”
The Foundation undertook some tests with regard to the effectiveness of pain-drug-hypnosis
and found it so appallingly destructive to the personality and so unfailing in its action,
save in cases of individuals with theta endowment far beyond that of the normal man, that a
wider investigation was undertaken, to discover just how many people one could find within
easy reach who had been given pain-drug-hypnosis. Pain-drug-hypnosis is so effectively
destructive that the Foundation has ceased experimentation along this line, having already
learned enough and refusing to endanger the sanity of individuals. Psychotherapists with
whom the Foundation has dealt have been eager to plant an engram in a patient and have the
Foundation recover it, to see how many of the perceptics are recoverable. The Foundation will
accept no further experiments in this line and informs experimenters that they do this at their
own grave risk. A much more natural and valid validation of engrams can be done without the
use of drugs.
A knowledge of engrams and the fact that people can be aberrated into becoming insane
or criminal by the existence of engrams should be validation enough for the fact that pain-drug-hypnosis
can be done without the knowledge of the individual and can command him to do
things which are not only counter to his own survival but highly immoral or destructive. Thy
hypnotic level of these individuals is directly proportional to the ratio of entheta on the case.
Hypnotism deals in entheta. not in reason. The implantation is made directly into the reactive
mind. The more entheta or charge the reactive mind contains the more easily implantations may
be made to work and the more easily the person may be hypnotized. Each hypnosis
enturbulates to a slightly greater degree and entraps and encysts more theta into entheta in the
mind of the hypnotic subject. Continual and repeated hypnotism, simply by continuing to
convert more and more free theta into entheta, causes the individual to descend the tone scale.
The manic effect of a manic hypnotic command has a limited duration, but the lowering of tone
it produces is permanent, in the absence of dianetic processing.
Hypnotism further, acts as a key-in of many engrams and a restimulation of locks and
secondaries, and thus increases the aberration of the hypnotic subject by approximating the
words in engrams and secondaries, at a time of lowered or absent analytical awareness.
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The auditor should realize, then, what hypnotism does to a case (1) so that he will not
use hypnotism and (2) so that he will pick up out of the case all hypnotic commands as one of
his first orders of business.
The patter of hypnotism goes somewhat as follows: “You are relaxing. You are sinking
down, down, down (which sends the subject down the time track, although the hypnotist
didn’t know it). You are getting sleepier and sleepier. All you can hear now is the sound of my
voice telling you to go to sleep (which installs a circuit). You want to believe everything I am
telling you (which cuts down the ability of the subject to evaluate data). Everything I say to you
will make a deep and lasting impression on you. When you wake up you will discover that
you feel very light and airy. You will want to be kind to people. Any time in the future that I
say the word ‘Abracadabra’ you will go into a hypnotic trance, no matter where you are or
what you are doing. You want to do exactly as I tell you to do. I am your friend. I am the best
friend you have. When you wake up and I touch my necktie, you will take off your left shoe.
When I put my hands in my pockets, you will put your left shoe back on and explain your
actions (the subject would, anyway; this is a post hypnotic suggestion, and the subject when he
wakens will perform this act at the operator’s signal). You will now forget everything I have
said to you during this session. You do not want to remember. The harder you try to
remember, the more you will forget. As I count from one to seven, your memory of this
incident will grow less and less and finally will vanish. One, you are beginning to forget. Two,
you are forgetting a little more. Three, you are forgetting more. Four, its more than half
forgotten. Five, it is becoming very dim. Six, it is just a dim, dim dream. Seven, now shake
your head and the facts will all fall out.”
This is rather typical patter. It varies somewhat and the phrases are often repeated many
times. The auditor who knows that hypnotic patter is more or less like this can, when he is
reaching for it, cause the preclear to repeat these phrases, or phrases like them, or get the
phrases from the file clerk -- which is the reliable way to do it -- and so, by knocking out the
forgetter mechanism at the end, or knocking out an idiotic statement like “shake your head and
the facts will all fall out,” he may restore to the preclear considerable memory not only of the
incident but of his life in general.
When drugs are added to hypnotism the amount of entheta is considerably increased,
but the drug effect will come off in processing in the form of boil-off (which is covered under
Relative Entheta on Case).
When an auditor finds his preclear unusually suggestive, he should be very careful
what he says to the preclear. He may notice that a preclear after he closes his eyes will begin to
flutter his eyelids. This is a symptom of the very lightest level of hypnotic trance. The auditor
cannot avoid processing the case, but he should be careful to use language quite unlike
hypnotic suggestions and be certain at the end of the processing session to scan off the
auditing.
There is very little the auditor can do besides straight wire with a case which goes into
an hypnotic trance each time a command is given to close the eyes. Returning back down the
track slightly increases the suggestibility of any person. There is no harm in this except during
boil-offs. During a boil-off, remarks which are made to the preclear may be forgotten and lost,
thus becoming hypnotic suggestions. All sessions, therefore, should be scanned out with
particular attention to any period when the preclear was boiling off. The auditor may find a
preclear who insists on being drugged or hypnotized in order to be audited, as a dramatization
of some past command. If this preclear insists on being hypnotized, the auditor can be certain
that hypnotism exists in this case, whether or not the preclear has any recollection of it.
Hypnotism is general in our society, and a request for hypnotism is a dramatization of
hypnotism. Further, the percentage of people who remember that they have been hypnotized or
how many times is very slight.
Hypnotism has been a parlor game, the tool of the pervert, the command assertion of
the authoritarian, and is more general than one would immediately suspect, as the auditor will
discover after he has processed a few cases. He should not be surprised at what he finds in a
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hypnotic incident, since the facts may differ entirely from what the hypnotist told the subject
had taken place. A motto one could use is “Never believe a hypnotist.”
In dianetic processing we used to use what was called a “canceller.” At the beginning of
the session, the preclear was told that anything which had been said to him during the session
would be cancelled when the word “cancelled” was uttered at the end of the session. This
canceller is no longer employed, not because it was not useful but because lock-scanning
provides the means of scanning off all the auditing. This is a far more effective and positive
mechanism than the canceller. In scanning old auditing off cases, the auditor will occasionally
find that the preclear cannot recover what the auditor said. The reason for this is that the
canceller has acted as a forgetter mechanism and has closed off the auditor. Merely using
repeater technique, which is to say the standard words of the canceller said over a few times,
will bring the preclear into contact with the first canceller in the case, and the consequent
cancellers will then have no great aberrative effect.
It should be remarked about hypnotism that the early hypnotic session is the more valid
one, even if it is cancelled by a later hypnotic session. The mere command in a later hypnosis
that the early hypnosis does not exist will do nothing to render the early hypnosis less effective,
but it will only make the subject forget it more thoroughly. And the commands of the earlier
incident will still be accepted over those of the later. This is the way all engrams work.
However, in unburdening hypnotic sessions from a case, sometimes one has to start with the
latest session and work back because of the amount of entheta entrapped in the last sessions,
which, being the latest of a long line, will be found to be very aberrative to the case.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
COLUMN AN
Level of Mind Alert
It could be postulated that there are actually several levels of mind function. For
purposes of analogy and the communication of the technology of processing, we use,
generally, simply the reactive mind and the analytical mind. The analytical mind would be that
part of the being which perceives when the individual is awake or in normal sleep (for sleep is
not unconsciousness, and anything the individual has perceived while he was asleep is
recorded in the standard memory banks and is relatively easy for the auditor to recover.) The
standard memory banks, then, would be recordings of everything perceived throughout the
lifetime up to present time by the individual except physical pain, which is not recorded in the
analytical mind but is recorded in the reactive mind. The analytical mind would have,
additionally, recordings of its conclusions at the time it perceived certain things in the
environment. conclusions in the analytical mind are taken from observation and experiences
and education adjusted to the environment of present time and the future. conclusions and
perceptics are filed by time and topic. The computive mechanism of the analytical mind works,
evidently, on the basis of comparison of data and evaluation in terms of differences. The
brightness of the analytical mind consists first of its ability to record perceptions in the
environment; next, of its ability to recall them either to review memory or to bring about new
computations; third, to compare and evaluate data for purposes of optimum survival along any
or all of the dynamics; fourth, its ability to refile the conclusions so reached; fifth, its ability to
summate and compare those conclusions as needed in further computation. The analytical mind
would also contain the imagination, which either creates new realities out of whole cloth, or
patches them together out of old bits and pieces of experience. The function of the imagination
is to postulate goals, foresee obstacles toward them, and give definite shape to present and
future environments. The analytical mind also records, in company with conclusions, all
imaginings and compares and re-imagines these as an aid to optimum survival.
Uninfluenced by arbitrary data, the analytical mind theoretically is capable of perfect
computation at all times. The data on which it computes may be erroneous, but the computer
itself is right. An adding machine gets right answers so long as it is used, unless there is
something wrong with the operator or with the machine itself. As the analytical mind is its own
operator, in looking for errors, then, one must examine the sources of data. The standard
memory banks have erroneous data in them only on an educational basis. Consider an adding
machine which added an extra five into every column without the knowledge of the operator.
Each time the operator added five to five he would get fifteen. When he added twenty to ten he
would get thirty-five. In the case of a multiplying machine, if the machine multiplied by an
additional five each time a product was required of it, the operator when he multiplied two
times ten would get one hundred, when he multiplied one times five he would get twenty-five.
In each case, the error in the machine is the addition of a hidden arbitrary. If one were doing
subtraction, and the machine always subtracted five more than the operator called for, when
five was subtracted from ten, the operator would get zero. When ten was subtracted from
twenty, the operator would get five. In the case of division, if a machine divided by one more
than the operator desired, when the operator punched out five into thirty, he would get a
quotient of five. When he punched out three into twelve, he would get a quotient of three.
Here, unseen and hidden errors, lying below the observable mechanical level of the machine
and out of the operator’s knowledge, would, by injecting hidden numbers into sums and
multiplications, subtractions and divisions, produce wrong answers.
The analytical mind is continually subjected, in an aberrated individual, to these
arbitrary data. The individual is unaware of the existence of these data since these data arrive
into the reactive mind at a time when the analytical mind is unconscious. The analytical mind
did not perceive or record the fact that the data came in and it is, then, not aware of the fact that
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the data exists. Thus, the analytical mind can be subjected to hidden arbitraries, which obsess
or compel it or inhibit it from making correct conclusions.
The purpose of the analytical mind is to be right and never to be wrong. A person who
is generally more right than wrong survives. A person who is more wrong than right
succumbs. It is not until the analytical mind is almost completely shut down, as at 2.0 and
below, that the direction toward succumbing is taken, since the analytical mind is not present in
sufficient force to take the course of survival in the face of the arbitrary data forced upon it by
the reactive mind.
The reactive mind is the composite of entheta on the case. The analytical mind would
be the sum of reasoning theta. The total content of the reactive mind consists of locks,
secondaries, and engrams. These contain phrases which are capable of considerably deranging
computation and imagination. Enforced by the physical pain portion of the engram, these
arbitrary data have command power on the analytical mind. The analytical mind, resisting this
command power, will force the pain to turn against the body, producing chronic somatics,
which compare to rheumatism, bad hearts, migraine headaches, malfunction of the endocrine
system, and other undesirable characteristic chronic somatics. Theoretically the analytical mind
has as part of its ability, when it is working freely, command over any part of the organism.
This is true at least when the analytical mind works via the somatic mind. The somatic mind
would be that mind which takes care of the automatic mechanisms of the body, the regulation
of the minutiae which keep the organism running. Here is a vast system of valves and
meterings. However, the reactive mind can work against the analytical and somatic minds to
enforce and inhibit all these regulative functions and throw them out of adjustment, bringing
about various non-optimum physical conditions.
As has been stated, other levels of mind can be postulated. One could consider as many
as eight or ten mind levels. The somatic mind level would be that which concerned body cells.
These seem to run on a theta-MEST union which gives to each cell an organism life of its own.
Science for many years believed that the life of the whole organism was only the composite life
of the cells. This is extremely unworkable, and the discovery of the point field of energy of the
body by recent scientific workers gave the most precise kind of evidence as to the existence of
an overall organism life. A body composed simply of cells, each one with a life of its own,
would not have a point field. The overall organism, however, does have a point field. Here is
a measurable aura which evidently is in addition to and, according to work in Dianetics,
independent of the cellular life of the body. In other words, there is evidently a theta body,
capable of its own independent survival, superimposed on the organism. The departure of this
theta body marks the point of organism death. The organism, however, still contains life. The
cellular organism survives, as concerns the least independent cells, eight to ten minutes, or as
in the case of highly independent cells, upwards of a year. In other words, there is a separation
of the organism body and the theta body, according to these postulates and observations, and
then ensuing death to the cellular life of the organism body.
The somatic level could, then, be considered a low mind form, for these cells have
certain responsive actions and habit patterns of their own, and their overall network of
organization is below the level of rational thought. Next would be the reactive mind, that type
of mind which predominates in most lower forms of life. The reactive mind learns by physical
pain, and thinks in identities, and reacts by absolute authoritarian command. It carries the
organism up to 2.0 on the tone scale. From 2.0 down on the tone scale, nearly all thinking is
stimulus-response, the type of thinking which some authoritarians would have liked us to
believe was all the thinking of which man was capable.
The analytical mind comes more and more into command of the organism as the tone
scale is ascended. Of course, it occurs in all human beings, even those below 2.0, that some
analytical activity remains. But from 2.0 down, this analytical activity is normally used for
justification of the organism’s reactive actions. From 2.0 up, the analytical mind is more and
more in control of its own organism, and computes more and more along optimum levels of
thinking, which is to say it becomes more and more reasonable. By the time 4.0 is reached, the
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free theta with which the person is endowed is able to circulate freely through the thought
structure possessed by the person (and by thought structure is not meant, necessarily, physical
structure).
Many more mind levels apparently exist above the analytical level. There is, for
instance, clear evidence that there is an aesthetic mind level, which is probably immediately
above the analytical mind level. The aesthetic mind would be that mind which, by an interplay
of the dynamics, deals with the nebulous field of art and creation. It is a strange thing that the
shut-down of the analytical mind and the aberration of the reactive mind may still leave in fairly
good working order the aesthetic mind. The aesthetic mind is not much influenced by the
position on the tone scale, but as it evidently has to employ the analytical, reactive, and somatic
minds in the creation of art and art forms, the amount of aberration of the individual greatly
inhibits the ability of the aesthetic mind to execute. A person with a great deal of theta as an
initial endowment may be potentially a powerful musician by reason of his aesthetic mind. The
aesthetic mind, evidently, attempts to execute music through the existing media of the analytical
and reactive minds, through both the analytical power of the individual and the aberrations of
the individual. The more theta, whether in terms of free theta or entheta, an individual has, the
more forceful will be his demonstration of all factors, both analytical and reactive. Because
individuals who are very heavily endowed with theta seek to control enormous quantities of
MEST and other organisms, they are fought hard by organisms exercising their own self-determinism.
Thus, a person of great theta endowment picks up more numerous and heavier
locks and secondaries than persons of smaller endowment. This is not because more theta is
there to enturbulate, but because there is more counterattack against the individual. The
aesthetic mind, according to theory, attempting to bring about art forms, uses all the theta.
It was once thought that it was absolutely necessary for an artist to be neurotic. Lacking
the ability to do anything about neurosis, like Aesop’s fox who had no tail and tried to persuade
the other foxes to cut theirs off, frustrated mental pundits glorified what they could not prevent
or cure. Silly little books on the subject of how fortunate was the crazy person were offered in
justification of this defeatism and helplessness.
Aesthetics and the aesthetic mind are both highly nebulous so far as our present
understanding of them is concerned. But this is known, that any creative artist, as he descends
down the tone scale, becomes less and less able to execute creative impulses and at last
becomes unable to contact his creative impulses. By dianetic processing, we take a currently
successful but heavily aberrated artist and we bring him up the tone scale. We can observe that
his ability to execute what he conceives and the clarity with which he conceives it both increase
very markedly. His aesthetic ideas do not become conservative or humdrum but become often
wider and more complex. He becomes more himself and better able to do what he can in the
field of aesthetics. The only modification of this is that as he rises up the tone scale he adopts
greater scope and robustness in his work. The art form with which he is working and his
method of handling it might have demonstrated considerable aberration, as measured by the
casual observer. His paintings might have been strange and creepy, or his music hauntingly
morbid. His art form, as he rises up the tone scale, evidently alters little except to increase in
force of execution and deftness of communication. The morbidity in his music, if it did not
depend on how sad he was personally with life, does not disappear. But as he rises on the tone
scale, he is no longer fixed at a position where he must paint strange and creepy paintings or
write morbid music. His versatility increases. The author who can write only one book of one
kind with one tone is not, frankly, much of an author.
The artist laughed himself into very short breath over the fumblings and mumblings of
the many warring camps of mental therapy when they confronted aesthetics. Some of them
even assumed that they could judge the mental state of an author by reviewing his writings.
This is somewhat on the order of a snail giving his opinion of the Parthenon by crawling
through its reliefs. As an illustration, any able composer or author can write in many aesthetic
forms and can approximate with his work any level of the tone scale. No artist attempting to
interpret life is worthy of being called an artist unless he can view almost in the same sweep
both apathy and exhilaration. A good poet can cheerfully write a poem gruesome enough to
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make strong men cringe, or he can write verses happy enough to make the weeping laugh.
Any able composer can write music either covert enough to make the sadist wriggle with
delight or open enough to rejoice the greatest souls. The artist works with life and with
universes. He can deal with any level of communication. He can create any reality. He can
enhance or inhibit any affinity. The aesthetics have very much to do with the tone scale and
with the interweaving of the various dynamics and urges along these dynamics into harmonious
patterns random enough and artful enough to accomplish what the artist intends to accomplish.
The artist has an enormous role in the enhancement of today’s and the creation of tomorrow’s
reality. He operates in a rank in advance of science as to the necessities and requirements of
man. The elevation of a culture can be measured directly by the numbers of its people working
in the field of aesthetics. A society which in any way inhibits, suppresses, or regiments its
artists is a society not only low on the tone scale but most certainly doomed. A totalitarian state,
following its usual line of perversion of truth, talks endlessly and raucously about its
subsidization of the artist. But it subsidizes only those artists who are willing to work for the
state exactly as the state dictates. It regiments the artist and prescribes what he will do and what
he will write and what he will think.
This is in direct controversion to the function of the artist in a society. Because the
artist deals in future realities, he always seeks improvements or changes in the existing reality.
This makes the artist, inevitably and invariably, a rebel against the status quo. The artist, day
by day, by postulating the new realities of the future, accomplishes peaceful revolution. It
happens, however, that democracies and other forms of government are prone to overlook the
role of the artist in the society. In the United States, for instance, the artist may write one great
book or make a great motion picture or compose one great symphony and may achieve, all in a
moment, the bulk of the gains of his lifetime. His whole dedication, from childhood, might
have been toward the creation of this one great work, and yet democracy, avidly taxing its
powerfully creative individuals into non-production, snatches from the artist any such fruits of
victory and exacts an enormous penalty for the creation of any work of art. One of the greatest
single moves which could be made to advance and vitalize a culture such as America would be
to free, completely, the artist. from all taxes and similar oppressions, and thus attract into the
arts the most ambitious and able and invite them to pursue unchecked the creation of all the
beauty and glory on which any culture depends if it would have material wealth. The artist
injects the theta into the culture, and without that theta the culture becomes reactive.
This dissertation on the function of the artist is given at this place partly because it
should be said and partly because the auditor should understand that the impulse to create and
construct surmounts the merely rational and reactive fields of reason. Further, the auditor may
occasionally have to defend Dianetics against the strange, neurotic belief that when an artist
becomes less neurotic he becomes less able. Some artists, regrettably, have been educated to
this belief and so, by this very education, seek to act in their private and public lives in an
intensely aberrated fashion in order to prove that they are artists. The education to this effect is
such that the auditor can commonly discover some young girl in the field of the arts living like a
prostitute in order to convince herself and her friends that she is truly artistic.
In the early days of Rome, art was fairly good. The Christian revolted against Roman
disregard for human life. When the Christian revolted he did the reactive computation that he
was revolting against the Romans. He condemned everything that was Roman as bad, and for
fifteen hundred years it was an evil thing to take a bath, because the Romans had bathed.
Unfortunately, although the Catholic Church recovered early and began to appreciate the artist,
this was not true of some of the early religions which came to America. These were still in full
revolt against anything that was Roman. They revolted against pleasure, against beauty,
against cleanliness, and against many other desirable things which are in themselves the glory
of man. The artist then revolted against this declared unreasonableness and went on a course as
thoroughly reactive as had been the course of Puritanism and Calvinism. Being artistic was
commonly identified with being loose-moraled, wicked, idle and drunken, and the artist, to be
recognized, tried to live up to this role. This feeling persists to this day and low-tone people
often embrace the arts solely as an excuse to be promiscuous, unconventional and loose in
morals.
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One finds, hanging around the easel of the painter, women who are “artistic” but who
are, so far as their actual conduct is concerned, seeking not to create anything but to escape the
name which is rightly theirs. One finds some poor young fellow who could have been a fine
architect educated into the Great-Art-Can-Only-Be-Done-By-Moral-Lepers School. These
observations are brought to the attention of the auditor for just one reason: the individuals of
greatest potential worth that he will process will probably be artists. He will do well to address
thoroughly all the “education” and “artistic environment” of the artists and would-be artists,
whether writers, composers, poets or painters, because here he will find the track strewn with
entheta. If the auditor wishes to rehabilitate an aesthetic mind, he must address all the entheta
which has accumulated around the subject of aesthetics. No more authoritarian field exists,
since none of the principles of aesthetics have been accurately formulated, and it is an axiom of
Dianetics that the less is accurately known about a field of the humanities the more authoritarian
will be that field. Any field which has critics galore, wherein a thousand different schools of
divergent opinion can exist, where opinion is listened to with open mouths in lieu of reason by
which any man can reach a conclusion, is an authoritarian field. Aesthetics, unfortunately,
abounds in these critics and opinions.
The whole field of arts is thus enturbulated, and the artistry of the culture is thereby
greatly reduced. The rehabilitation of the art-ability of a culture is a tremendously valid
undertaking, and will repay a thousand times any effort made in that direction. A culture is
only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists. When the level of existence
of the artist becomes impure, so becomes impure the art itself, to the deterioration of the
society. It is a dying society indeed into which can penetrate totalitarianism. The group
aesthetic mind of that society must be almost wholly unable to operate. No society in which art
was elevated and supported, in which the writer, the musician, the poet, or the architect had
any stability or position, would tolerate the work-dog theory of man’s highest destination. For
if the industry and commerce and material projects of a nation are carried on the backs of a few
able, desperate men, then the honor and the glory of that society is carried and enhanced by the
artist.
There may be many levels of mind above the aesthetic mind. It would be presumptuous
to classify them if one did not understand but had only observed the possibility of their
existence. Classification of or assignment of names to things which one does not encompass
with one’s understanding is an authoritarian procedure and leads to nothing but confusion. A
mental illness, for instance, should be classified with a designation which would lead to its
alleviation. Simply classifying one introduces complexity without advancing understanding. It
is quite common in authoritarian fields to advance a great many descriptive names for things
based on partial or obscure observations of uninformed and unskilled observers. This makes
for a vast amount of “technology” and gives a certain “dignity” (pomposity) to an “authority” in
an authoritarian field. One would not in any sense consider a professor of English literature a
creator of literature simply because the professor knows the names of the writers and all their
works and the multitude of opinions critics have expressed about them. This cataloguing can
very easily pass for “appreciation.” In a low-tone society, which will admit authoritarianism
without much rebuke and bend before the thundering witless manifestos of some critic or
practitioner who knows nothing more of his subject than an enormously complex vocabulary,
one can expect the definition of a “cultured person” to be that person who can recite and give
the standard opinion about numerous artistic works and humanitarian “ologies.” This makes it
very simple for an individual to obtain “culture.” He must only memorize, without thinking
about, the names of the great operas, the great books, the great paintings, and the humanitarian
projects of the past. In a low-tone society, the universities perform this function ably, if
raucously. In a low-tone society, institutions of “learning” are commonly deserted after a year
or two by most persons who, through reason, wish to be of worth to their fellow men. In other
words, in a low-tone society, education is denied, because it is education by classification, to
most of the individuals who would actually help that society.
Thus, no attempt to classify any level of mind alertness above the level of the aesthetic
mind will be made beyond stating that these mind levels more and more seem to approach an
omniscient status. Somewhere, possibly on the fifth level, lies the functioning mind of the
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spiritual or religious man who has passed over the border of a consideration of MEST or of
organisms and is turned toward an understanding of and a co-operation with both the theta
universe and the Supreme Being. What vast frontiers are opened by the scientific evidence
which continues to accumulate in Dianetics, what these frontiers and the knowledge they
embrace will do to alter or enhance man’s culture cannot at this time be estimated. For
example, even at this time in Dianetics one can prove, as science demands proof in terms of
sensing, measuring, and experiencing, the immortality or near immortality of the individual.
Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly, hardly any re-interpretation of scripture is necessary’,
save that the boldness and scope of past considerations about the human soul, God and the
Devil, and Heaven and Hell are stabilized and made contactable. The importance and value of
organism death is enormously reduced, should dianetic investigations and conclusions continue
to be corollary to or concordant with man’s great religions. Religions, fighting uphill against
the oppressions of Godless ideologies, may gain new strength and meaning. The level of
behavior of the individual, whether good or evil, would appear to have new significance. For
those people who overcome the suppressors to their goodness, ethics, and honor, an upward
surge toward spiritual immortality seems to be indicated. Those who succumb to the Forces of
Evil and are unable to live more than evil and destructive lives would seem, should these
conclusions be borne out on further investigation of a scientific nature, to be entered not only
upon a dwindling spiral in one generation but upon a decline toward a final end of pain or non-survival
as personal identities. Some of these partially observed and explored possibilities (or
probabilities) would seem to give newer meaning to the cycles of societies and groups and their
survival or death.
As one examines these upper levels of mind, when one examines the evidence of the
theta body, and when one himself experiences, incidental to processing, the evidence of his
own continuation into yesterdays and an evident guarantee of his tomorrows past his death in
the current generation, one’s orientation with regard to goals and purposes may undergo a
considerable alteration. The biologist, revolting against churches which may or may not have
considerably suppressed scientific research in the past, has sought to dream for man an origin
out of mud and ammonia seas and a source for him independent of God, but springing only
from material things. This reactive overreaching gave us no method of alleviating the
unhappiness of man, even in the restricted fields of chronic somatics and mental aberration, and
gave to us instead tremendous weapons of destruction without providing as well any sanity
with which to use them.
Under the guidance of the material-blinkered scientist, whose greatest goal was a work-animal
adjustment of man to a physical environment, whose end for the individual was six feet
of ground and a coffin sometimes proof against worms, and whose goal for the group was an
ant society wherein the smallest unit of life worthy of notice was ten thousand individuals, we
have been led down dark and evil byways of destruction not only of the dreams, hopes, and
ethics of men but of the MEST planet as well. Materialistic science, operating on the premise
that man came from mud only, that the mind is a queerly erroneous stimulus-response
mechanism, that the human soul is a delusion, that God was a myth of some aberrated
Mesopotamian, has presented us at last with the immediate and real threat of man’s extinction
as a species. In view of the fact that this materialistic science led only, then, in the direction of
death, even the unthinking should see the fact that something must be desperately wrong with
the teachings of the Lysenkos, the Darwins, and my learned schoolmates, the atomic scientists
who have given man at last for his gravespade the atomic bomb.
However, it was natural for man, as an organism heavily enturbulated with MEST, to
bring to perfection something like the understanding of the laws of MEST before he looked
about to see whether anything else might exist. The materialist scientist has enormously
advanced man’s control of MEST, even if he has by his doctrines considerably inhibited man’s
understanding of what in Dianetics we call theta. Francis Bacon, Newton, and the rest
developed ways of thinking about thinking and ways of reasoning about reason which have
been of considerable value to Dianetics and without which, indeed, Dianetics could not have
been formulated. But Bacon and Newton did not espouse the materialist cause. Their disciples
developed the doctrine that man came from mud and that man’s destiny was mud. If Dianetics
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does not come too late upon the scene, its investigation of higher mind levels, even at this low
and undeveloped point, may be of assistance to a resurgence in man of something of his belief
in a Divine Being and in himself as an entity partially divine. The basic principles of Dianetics
demand that a fact, to be proven, must be sensed, measured, or experienced. When science
thrust this onto the scene of thinking, man’s willingness to accept a fact merely upon faith was
in itself reduced. Caught unprepared before this new doctrine without which, so its espousers
claim, nothing could be valid, the religions still attempted to hold at high value what was
actually a vitally necessary part of man’s social existence. But generation after generation of
young men and women came off the assembly lines marked “educational courses,” filled full of
the doctrine that they must believe only what they could experience, and ground very fine in the
mills of the materialist. These generations, actually, regardless of their ability to quote Hamlet
or play Bach on the piano, to look into microscopes, to serve as executives in steamship
offices, to shift and command and generally alter MEST, were nevertheless socially lost
generations which had no concept of the value of themselves as individuals, which had no
workable social order worth mentioning if the value of a social order is to be measured in terms
of happiness. These generations were wrecked by divorce, inhibitions, purposelessness,
sophistication, insecurity and general hopelessness. Representative of their feeling in the field
of humanity were schools of thought which taught them that a man’s highest goal was to
become “adjusted to his environment” without once realizing that man’s only advance depended
on man’s ability to adjust the environment to him as a species; which taught that genetic
heredity alone was responsible for neurosis and insanity, and that filth and muck alone covered
the entire problem of the human mind from top to bottom. This is a sad and piteous thing. No
empire one has studied in any former day had ever become so depraved and Godless in its
senility as the overall average of the societies of man in the world today.
It is no wonder that an ideology which holds that man, generation after generation, can
be moulded into mindless machine parts, that there is no destiny for the individual beyond his
place as an emotionless, rigidly-held cog in a dully, hopelessly grinding social wheel,
commands of its minions the destruction and eradication from any society of the producer, the
individuals, the thinker, or any noble man. The progress upward toward survival on higher
levels is a progress as well toward God. The auditor will notice this in case after case. He will
probably be struck by the fact that those atheists he processes soon cease to be atheistic in their
inclinations and attain at least a tolerance for the idea that religion can exist and have a valid
function in a social order. Scanning out some of the education of the individual simply as a step
toward converting entheta along a very likely line, the auditor may be interested to note that the
preclear begins to speculate on the possibility of a spiritual existence. Although he may
embrace no doctrine, the preclear, when he is well up the tone scale, is apparently instinctively
aware of some higher level of existence. He normally abandons his materialistic stand as he
advances up the tone scale, since this stand happens to be compatible with individuals from 2.0
down.
One could postulate that from 2.0 down there is more MEST in an individual than there
is theta, for individuals along these levels prefer to use MEST force, foot-pounds of energy, in
order to accomplish their desires, rather than reason. Individuals on this level normally do not
improve MEST but will make structures into enMEST. When individuals are enturbulated
below the level of 2.0, they tend, as a general rule, to consider all life, all organisms as MEST
and will in their handling of life and organisms reduce them down toward MEST. Oddly
enough, this happens to compare with past ideas of missions of minions of the Devil. The
forces of Evil reduced life down into materialism and death. Above 2.0, the tendency of the
individual is to enhance life and organisms in their existence and to assist them to a harmonious
control over MEST. This is strangely similar to what in the past have been considered good and
Godly actions.
It should not be considered strange that the organism can go so much higher above 2.0
than it can go down below 2.0. 4.0 is so far short of the altitude evidently obtainable by
whatever means, according to tentative observations, that one cannot but feel that man so far in
his evolution of existence has been but slightly graduated from his animal cousins in
comparison to the distance he has yet to travel to attain anything like an ultimate. To observe
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that an entire social order such as America can drift around 2.5 and that the normal individual
probably falls below 3.0 is to compare man’s current state with that of the ugly duckling who
will grow up to be a swan. But the comparison is not complete. There is something like an
inevitability in an ugly duckling’s growing up. It has to live to become a swan. Faced with the
insanities of the world today, man’s chances of reaching God are not that good.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
COLUMN AO
Relative Entheta On Case
As noted in the accompanying graph, an organism, by dianetic postulate and
observation, is composed of theta and MEST and their altered form, entheta and enMEST.
By theta is meant, of course, thought energy, possibly existing as thought matter in
thought space. By MEST is meant the physical universe of matter, energy, space, and time, as
we know them in the physical sciences. It is postulated that these two energies combine, and
that through the harmonious control of MEST by theta a life organism is formed. Theta plus
MEST could be said, then, to compose life.
The formation of organisms and their development evidently comes about through four
evolutionary tracks. First, there is the evolution of the theta body, of which we know little
beyond the fact that it appears to exist, at least for human organisms, and to move forward in
time, developing from generation to generation independent of the genetic line. The second
evolution is, apparently, the evolution of organisms themselves, continuing along a
protoplasmic line from generation to generation, each generation altering somewhat by virtue of
the environment, by natural selection which weeds out the least fit or least adaptable, and by
what appears to be planned construction based on computation for the future. The third
evolution is the evolution in MEST. This may not be readily seen, but MEST is changed,
ordered, disordered, an made more complex by the advancing generations of life forms: the
intricate During processing entheta is converted into theta, and enMEST is converted into
MEST. It is postulated that this happens in the following way. EnMEST becomes MEST, part
of which (A) is retained for use by the organism, and part of which (B) leaves the organism, to
be replaced later (C) by new MEST. Entheta (a) becomes theta. It may also be postulated that
entheta leaves the organism (b) and is replaced by new theta (c) complexity of bacterial by-products
and the formation or destruction of mountains or machines is no less an evolution than
that along the organism lines.
There is a fourth evolution which has been but slightly considered. This is the gradient
scale in present time of growing complexity of life forms as they support themselves, in now,
on MEST. The basic on this scale of complexity is, of course, those minute life forms which
live on sunlight and inorganic chemicals alone and which convert rock and sand into soil, or in
the sea, which provide food for the next highest vegetable form. The soil then supports a
slightly higher plant form. This, in turn, makes better or more soil, or in the sea, better or
more food, and an evolution of complexity then is observed in the higher and higher levels of
the vegetable kingdom, then in the more simple animal and fish forms, and finally forms as
complex as man. This last evolution is taking place continuously in present time. Here with us
at this moment the lowliest forms are actively converting sunlight and minerals for the support
of higher forms. The more MEST the form handles external to itself, the more complex are its
requirements in terms of preprocessed MEST. This processing of MEST, then, for higher and
higher form consumption is necessary as a staff of life. Theta could be said to exist across the
MEST line of parade in time as a “now” band, just as the MEST universe probably lies in the
continuous present time of the theta universe.
It seems to be a rule of theta and MEST that they form union only at a moment of heavy
collision with each other. Although theta has a natural attraction for MEST and MEST has a
natural attraction for theta, if MEST has any intention, this does not mean that the union is at
first a harmonious one. The first moment of impact is a collision in which a considerable
portion of the theta becomes tangled with the MEST, leaving some free theta and some useful
MEST. The remainder changes wave length or polarity and becomes what we call enturbulated
theta and enturbulated MEST, which in Dianetics we shorten to entheta and enMEST.
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While some organization may be made in this first union it seems that the entheta and
enMEST must separate in order for the theta to extract with it knowledge of the physical laws
of MEST. Then a second collision is made, and a greater advance comes about, since theta has
more knowledge of MEST and can make a more harmonious conquest. Continual repetitions of
this bring theta more and more informations; and more and more ability in the handling of
MEST brings about more complex forms and organizations. This is as true of the group as it is
of the individual, and all group activities which will eventually result in learning begin with
considerable turbulence. After the turbulence is over, greater advances are then made possible
through a much greater understanding of the physical universe by theta. An illustration of this
would be the scientific advances obtained in wars, which in the after peace serve men
constructively. There is a limiting factor on this, however, in that all the theta must not become
enturbulated, thus carrying the organism evolution downward.
Death is a name assigned to what is apparently the mechanism by which theta recovers
itself and the bulk of its volume from the MEST, so as to be able to accomplish a more
harmonious conquest of the MEST in a next generation. Species advance so long as the theta
and the MEST can still separate, leaving free theta, but at last the theta apparently begins to
enter the genetic line on a dwindling spiral, the species decays and dies out.
The tone scale does not represent the idea that everything above 2.0 is theta in pure
form and everything below 2.0 is entheta in pure form, nor that in the organism everything
above 2.0 is MEST well organized by theta, and that, sharply, everything below 2.0 is
enMEST, or disorganized matter. In older ways of thinking, which permitted only two-valued
logic, which is to say black and white or right and wrong with no in-between values, the tone
scale and its usefulness would have been greatly decreased. In Dianetics, there is a new way of
thinking about things which underlies a great deal of its technology. Instead of two-valued
logic or three-valued logic we have infinity-valued logic. Here is a gradient scale which permits
no absolute at either end. In other words there is not an absolute right and an absolute wrong,
just as there is no absolute stillness and no absolute motion. Of course, it is one of the tenets of
Dianetics that absolutes are not attainable but only approachable. Thus, We have gradient
scales. Death is approached by degrees, in terms of failures, being wrong, accumulated
sickness and accidents. An ascendency upward toward life is an accumulation of minor
successes which lead to higher and higher levels of survival, successes in organism growth and
perfection and in education and in attaining goals. Actually, 2.0 on the tone scale is the place
where the ARC of theta and the organism order in terms of MEST have each and intermingledly
become sufficiently dissonant so that a slight discomfort exists. The enMEST is not very
enMEST, and the entheta is not very entheta, but as the scale is descended this dissonance
grows stronger and wider until it is finally so wide that it is almost a null, which is to say that
very little inter-activity between entheta and enMEST exists and the components of enMEST are
becoming so poorly organized as not even to be in conflict with one another, and the ARC of
theta is almost entirely interrupted, dispersed and dissonant. The complete null point for the
organism life is 0.0, where theta and MEST, so far as the organism is concerned, have so little
in common with each other that they separate. This separation of the theta body from the MEST
body ejects into being for further use in new organisms the MEST of the old body and releases
into freedom for future conquest of organisms, according to present theory, the theta body.
If the auditor finds this too vastly technical, he should at least understand that in order
to bring an organism up the tone scale he has to separate the enturbulations of theta and MEST,
which exist as entheta and enMEST in the organism. Every moment of hard collision between
the theta portion and the MEST portion of the body or between the organism and other
organisms or MEST has formed a point of such intensity of entheta and enMEST that this point
will thereafter enturbulate the theta and the MEST with which it comes into contact.
This is the engram, a moment of physical pain with its resultant unconsciousness and
the perceptics entrapped therein. Entheta and enMEST from 0.1 up to 2.0 are seeking to
separate and in so seeking enturbulate the existing theta and MEST. Any instant or area of
physical pain, then, is trying itself to die, so that the entrapped entheta and enMEST can
become free. In dianetic processing something new, in that it can be done thoroughly, in the
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evolutions of organisms, the theta body and MEST, has been introduced. Processing separates
entheta and enMEST without bringing about the death of the organism. These points of
contagion, if unprocessed, sum up finally to organism death. Just as, apparently, the MEST
body of the organism is replenished by other MEST, processes it, and gives off MEST, so is
the theta body, possibly, replenished and so does it evidently give off theta. Beyond the fact of
existence of and basic descriptions of theta, which are useful to the auditor, very little is known
about theta at this time, although the recognition of its probable existence has enormously
widened the scope of knowledge on the subject of the humanities, and the discovery of the
theta body in terms that can be sensed, measured and experienced according to good scientific
usage means a considerable advance, if it continues to be borne out by accumulating evidence.
Entheta, either over some by-pass route or directly, converts into organism theta or
makes it possible for more theta to be attracted to the organism simply by, according to present
theory, the address of theta itself to the vicinity of the entheta and enMEST. The mere
proximity of a considerable quantity of theta, apparently, to an area of entheta causes the
entheta to change wave length, vibration rate, or polarity and either to become theta or to
discharge and leave an area into which fresh theta can penetrate. just as enough smoothly
flowing water overcomes the turbulence of a disturbed area of flow so does theta introduced
into the entheta area convert or smooth out the entheta. It happens that the conversion effect of
theta on entheta can occur when the theta to be applied to the entheta, or brought to bear upon
it, exists in another organism or in a group of organisms. There is something everywhere-coexistent
about theta, and perhaps there are various forms and types of it, all having more or
less the same basic components, just as there is a great difference in quality amongst ideas,
which seem to be the matter of theta. From 2.0 up on the tone scale, the theta is less and less
dissonant, or more and more compatible in its three components of affinity, reality and
communication, but this does not mean that 4.0 is perfection of theta. Theta contained in
organisms, from one organism to another, seems to have at least some of its factors more
refined, and theta appears to assume other qualities above 4.0. Exactly how high these
qualities go, whether or not the 2.0 to 4.0 range is highly personalized, where the band of true
free theta is, if there is increasing power above these levels, are all questions subject at this time
to considerable speculation. Only enough data exists to make it fairly certain that with the theta
theory we are dealing with something much closer to natural law than man has widely accepted
before in his attempts to understand life, human behavior and the humanities in general. Thus,
it may be that as one proceeds on up the tone scale one discovers progressive advances in theta.
MEST is considerably easier to understand, being an old idea which has been worked over by
several generations, to say the least, of physical-universe-minded individuals. Yet here again,
with Dianetics, there was a great deal more to learn, particularly where MEST was concerned
as a component part of the organism.
However lightly the auditor wishes to study or regard the above data on the theta-MEST
theory, this following data concerning MEST and enMEST is vital to processing, and the
auditor who does not know this data will not be able to achieve very good results on a case.
Much of this data is new and has not before been released, but it has resolved, by theory and
application of the techniques, cases which hitherto were considered extremely difficult, such as
the heavily occluded case, which not only “could not get out of present time” but did not even
seem to benefit very greatly from processing. Any auditor who has difficulty with his preclear
would do well to read this section over again.
During processing, the individual can be observed to have what may be considered
increasing theta as fast as entheta is recovered and converted. There may be other
manifestations of the release of entheta which have not yet been observed. If they exist and are
observed, possibly processing may increase in technology.
The enMEST portion of conversion of exhaustion of charge on a case is considerably
more obvious to the observer, possibly because at this time our knowledge of the material
universe is so much greater and because we are trained to observe organism behavior.
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The larger deposits of entheta and enMEST exist in secondaries, not in physical pain
engrams. A physical pain engram acts as a sort of trap. It is the basic enturbulator. By
contagion it can, in moments of loss or threatened loss, contain various misemotions. The
secondary, primarily, charges up the physical pain engram to a point where it can assert its
entheta side strongly against the analytical processes, or its enMEST side strongly against the
physical part of the organism, creating chronic somatics, to which Dianetics attributes
psychosomatic illnesses. A great deal of entheta, but not as much as can be trapped in
secondaries, is contained in lock chains. Here gradually, day by day, little by little, theta is
caught and converted into entheta, and the MEST at its level on the time track is converted into
enMEST, to a slight degree. One should not ignore any deposit of entheta and enMEST. The
whole task of processing confines itself to this conversion.
Contact with present time, if any part of that time can be demonstrably present to the
preclear, has some tendency to disenturbulate some entheta. Straight memory, by bringing to
bear the theta of the analytical mind on the past, particularly in areas which are occluded, since
all those occlusions are entheta areas, brings into being some theta. The running of a lock
through and through as though it were an engram can, in a low-tone case particularly, bring
into being more theta. Lock scanning is a particularly efficacious technique in converting
entheta. Sudden, severe secondaries can greatly charge up engrams which have been keyed in,
and are heavy, extensive deposits. Engrams themselves have the basic entheta and enMEST
and are able to enturbulate and hold to themselves considerable entheta, but it is interesting to
note that the engram could be taken down to a level of entheta content approximating that which
it had originally without running the engram. This is easily understood as soon as one runs out
a near-present-time injury. This near-present-time injury has not been charged up. The last
moment of physical pain and unconsciousness on a case can usually be run. After a time,
which may extend from a few days even to years, this engram is keyed in, at which time it
begins to link up and index itself with the reactive mind, in direct ratio to the amount of
restimulation that it receives, which is to say in direct ratio to the number of times words and
other perceptics contained in this engram are approximated in an enturbulated environment. The
skill and ability of the auditor is, then, addressed to removing entheta by converting it, and
anything which will do this is valid processing.
There are certain definite components in enMEST which manifest themselves during
their release. Whenever entheta is converted to theta it is always done with an accompanying
physiological manifestation. It is very easy for the auditor to aim for and achieve this
physiological manifestation, for enMEST has certain definite components. In other words,
when entheta is being converted to theta, the organism manifests certain signs. These can be
divided into the four general classifications of gasses, liquids, solids, and physical energy. One
should understand that the enMEST portion of charge is the physical suppressor of aberration
and chronic somatics. One of the main manifestations in the organism, on the release of entheta
and its conversion to theta as in the running of locks, secondaries or engrams, or occasionally
even during straight wire, is gas. There is something about oxygenation which is not yet
understood but which again, if understood, might speed up processing. When one erases an
engram, for instance, the erasure is accompanied by yawns. This is a gaseous and energy
manifestation. Something is coming off the case. In running locks the preclear occasionally
yawns. Flatulence also occasionally accompanies the release of entheta.
Liquids are released by the body in several forms during the release of enMEST. The
most obvious form is tears. When a secondary engram is reduced, on the grief level, it is
reduced in tears. When tears occur, the secondary should be run until it is completely
exhausted, or the phrase, if that is all that can be recovered, should be repeated by the preclear
until it no longer occasions tears, since tears seem to be the primary manifestation of the
exhaustion of the most harmful secondaries, those of grief. But tears are not the only
manifestation. Fear seems to be released with accompanying sweat, sometimes of a peculiar
odor. There are individuals who are chronically in such a state of fear that each present-time
perceptic discharges itself through sweat. Apathy commonly discharges itself as panting or
urine, but more work must be done to establish the discharge of apathy in physiological terms.
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Solids are discharged on the level of fear as vomiting, and there also, and on lower levels, as
excreta.
There is a peculiar manifestation in Dianetics known as boil-off. Boil-off has assumed
tremendously important proportions in processing, since the case that is very heavily entheta’d
has its charge held down by such quantities of anaten that the induction of boil-off seems to be
the most efficacious way to unburden the case. In a boil-off, a preclear will go into an apparent
sleep. This is not sleep, no matter how much it may appear to be, but is actually a release of
unconsciousness which is extremely concentrated and heavy. The release of this permits the
case to go forward much more rapidly, because under it will lie quantities of specific incidents
which otherwise are masked by this heavy layer. It is possible that a preclear may boil off for
twenty-five to fifty hours, if he is extremely heavily burdened with entheta. The boil-off has
certain strange manifestations. The preclear may, when running an incident, suddenly begin to
maunder and trail off, giving muttered accounts of strange pictures and unrelated events. This
is a mirage effect, through boil-off, and peculiarly disconnected things will clutter up his
attention at this time, but he does all this in a very sleepy, dazed condition and shortly after may
go into an even deeper boil-off.
Early in Dianetics, it was thought necessary to keep the preclear more or less alert in a
boil-off. This was an error. The preclear should never be disturbed in a boil-off, but should
be permitted to continue in this state until the boil-off is exhausted. Further, it was once thought
that the preclear could be brought up to present time during the boil-off and that the boil-off
would continue automatically. This does not appear to be the case boil-off must be continued
on the point of the track where it began to occur.
A boil-off may be boring for the auditor, for the preclear lies in a dazed state and may
do so for many minutes or even one or two hours. Even so, the auditor should not interrupt the
preclear. The efficacy of boil-off is demonstrated by the fact that when one is finished the
preclear is alert and can run other forms of entheta, but that when one is interrupted the preclear
will be in an unsatisfactory condition. When boil-offs are not permitted to be induced, the case
will not progress rapidly, and in an occluded case may progress with remarkable slowness.
Perhaps the boil-off’s importance was minimized in the past because insufficient patience was
devoted by the auditor to watching one continue through its full extent, which can be very long.
A boil-off can be induced, and fade away, and be reinduced by a single phrase. The file clerk
should be depended on by the auditor to give the phrase which will induce a boil-off. It has
been commented upon that the boil-off occurs on circuit phrases and that it is actually the
exhaustion of enormous quantities of anaten in a very concentrated form from the reactive mind
from areas which have formerly been valence compartments or the location of demon circuits.
This has not been adequately observed at this time for confirmation, for boil-off has been noted
on phrases which were not circuit phrases. The auditor may ask the preclear’s file clerk
whether or not a boil-off can now be obtained, and then request the phrase. The preclear
repeats this phrase a few times and suddenly goes into a boil-off. He may emerge from this
boil-off very shortly, at which time the auditor requests him to repeat the phrase, and he goes
back into the boil-off. This phrase is repeated by the preclear, to himself or to the auditor, each
time the boil-off recedes, until there is no longer any boil-off on the repeating of this phrase.
Then the auditor may procure from the preclear’s file clerk another phrase on which boil-off
can occur, and so on until a considerable amount of this apparently concentrated anaten has
been exhausted. The case will show a very marked improvement.
Physical pain should not be overlooked as one of the factors which hold entheta in
place. It may occur that the auditor has a case which cannot run engrams but which can
occasionally get physical pain on the repetition of a single phrase. If the preclear has a new,
not a chronic, somatic, the auditor may ask him for the phrase which will reduce this somatic,
but only after he has ascertained from the file clerk whether or not the somatic will reduce.
Such somatics, normally, are best reduced merely by scanning pleasure incidents, if they are
bothering the preclear at the beginning of the session or at the end or it. The perceptics are
contacted when the case is lock-scanned. The perceptics themselves seem to have an
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entrapment of entheta. Thus, running all the perceptics out of an engram releases considerable
entheta.
Additionally, there is body movement. The preclear may twist and turn while running
fear, or may beat the bed with his fist while running anger, but in any event, by physical
motion he exhausts energy. This is apparently beneficial, and the phrases and circumstances
which cause the preclear to do this should be repeated. However, the auditor should not be
deluded into wasting his time on a dramatization. The preclear must be in processing and,
ordinarily, returned to a specific incident before any physical motion is of benefit.
There are probably numerous other manifestations of entheta and enMEST, and future
observation should be devoted to their determination and their use in processing.
It is known that a good protein ration and certain vitamins assist the exhaustion and
conversion of enMEST, and that a fairly stable present time, including a high-theta auditor,
assists the exhaustion and conversion of entheta, and it is known that certain physiological
manifestations accompany the conversion of enMEST; and possibly theta manifestations
accompany the conversion of entheta, but these have not been determined or observed to the
extent that they would assist processing.
In an occluded case, an auditor may very well find himself on this routine, and he
should know this very well. At the beginning of the case he attempts a little straight memory or
perhaps some lock scanning. He may discover that the preclear is induced to weep on a certain
phrase or to be frightened by a certain phrase. The auditor should cause that phrase to be
repeated and the incident with which it is connected, as nearly as possible, be given some
further attention. Conversion has already begun when this occurs. Next, the auditor may find,
while lock scanning or when asking specifically for a phrase which will induce it, that the
preclear is going into a boil-off. The auditor, as the boil-off recedes, should discover the phrase
on which the preclear is boiling-off, so that the boil-off can be continued until it is exhausted.
More entheta has been converted and more incident has been made available. Additional lock
scanning may then recover moments of physical tension or mental duress of the lock variety.
These should then be scanned until thoroughly exhausted. At this time it may happen that an
entire secondary engram will show up, and when this is run the case will rebound remarkably
up the tone scale. But in the next day or two it may be discovered that another boil-off is ready
or that another series of locks containing duress should be scanned. Thus, from boil-off to
lock scanning to the running of secondaries with as many of the perceptics as are available, the
auditor may find himself with a case coming swiftly up the tone scale.
In any event, the auditor should discover this to be taking place, and if it is not taking
place, then the auditor is doing something wrong. By straight wire he stabilizes his case, and
he may by straight wire get the case out of some incident which cannot be run. Here, he is
converting entheta into theta. More theta is then available to attack more entheta, and so he may
be able to scan locks or run a secondary engram or even an engram on a high-level case, or he
may be able to get a boil-off. But each time, the auditor should be achieving some result. And
each time he gains more theta for the preclear he should reinvest in a further and perhaps
heavier attack upon entheta and enMEST. If he does this his case will continue on up the tone
scale, not in a steady rise along an even line but along an uneven course in which the highs
become always a little higher and lows not quite so low. Running engrams or slugging hard
into the case may simply take the existing theta, place it in proximity with too large an amount
of entheta, and enturbulate and entrap more of it, thus lowering the preclear on the tone scale
instead of raising him.
With some preclears, the auditor can be quite non-directive, which is to say he can
permit the preclear to run phrases and choose the next type of entheta to be attacked. The
auditor, in any event, should consult with the file clerk as much as possible.
The auditor should not permit his preclear, however, to chain-scan engrams or go
around running himself automatically on various phrases, as this results in the enturbulation of
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the existing theta. The only time engrams can be chain scanned is when the preclear is up to
about 3.5, constantly and unmistakably, and has so much free theta and so little entheta that the
effect of the theta on the entheta is overpowering, even to the point of blowing out physical
pain.
The auditor, if he wishes, may even put his preclear on free wheeling with a ration of
Guk, between sessions. He will find that this has the efficacy of occasionally knocking out
whole somatics and making the future job of processing easier. In any event, the Guk seems to
promote the case. In free wheeling, where the somatic strip and file clerk are put into unison in
the running of incidents but “I” is left in present time, the preclear may hang up in a holder or
hit a bouncer and the free-wheeling may stop. It so happens, however, that repeating the action
phrase while free wheeling does not free the preclear but acts as repeater technique and takes
“I” down the bank to join the somatic strip. This may considerably enturbulate the case. The
auditor, when the preclear is hung up while free wheeling, should ask the file clerk for the
phrase and then cause the preclear to remember, by straight memory, when he has heard that
phrase uttered. When the preclear recovers such an incident, any incident containing that
phrase, the free wheeling seems then to continue. Apparently, the only danger in free wheeling
is the use of repeater technique in connection with it. However, one should never believe a
“file clerk” when the auditor asks, “Are you clear?” and the “file clerk” says “Yes!” For some
reason or other “file clerks” are entirely too optimistic on this subject. The “file-clerk-clear”
and the use of repeater technique threw free wheeling into disrepute. However, a person who
has been free wheeling can and should have it scanned out by lock scanning, just as any
session would be, and the free wheeling occasionally seems to benefit a case. To put a preclear
into free wheeling it is only necessary to tell him to close his eyes and for the auditor to say,
“The file clerk will furnish moments of physical pain or discomfort and the somatic strip will
run them out, and this process will continue until I say ‘cancelled’“ or “until I tell the somatic
strip to come to present time.”
It should be remembered by the auditor that the circuit phrase is both recalcitrant and
resistant to auditing. One of the main troubles with chain scanning is that the individual chain-scans
out all manner of phrases but merely puts the circuit phrases into restimulation. Thus, the
circuits seem to be activated, and we get a condition in chain scanning where the individual
apparently has no more engrams, and yet by close processing, numbers of circuit phrases
complete with somatics may be discovered on the case. Lock scanning also has this difficulty
to a slight degree, but this can be remedied by finding all types of circuit phrases by straight
memory. Circuit phrases sometimes will not even flash, even when the action phrases in the
case are relatively low in power, but the auditor, by guessing and talking with the preclear may
eventually discover types of phrases which are circuit phrases and which would more or less
take over control of auditing from the auditor and from the “I” of the preclear. Straight memory
recovers a specific moment when a phrase was uttered and the preclear can usually be lock-scanned
through all similar moments, thus taking some of the charge off the basic engram
which contains the circuit phrase and weakening or getting rid of the demon control circuit,
which may have been giving the auditor considerable trouble.
There are probably numberless ways of converting entheta to theta and of relieving the
deposits of enMEST in the organism. These are simply the best ways known to date. These
ways are proven and reliable. The auditor can discover on the tone scale chart the levels at
which he can run various types of entheta. This is a safeguard and will keep the auditor out of
a great deal of trouble. There are several freak techniques around, such as getting a person
automatically on chain scanning, which are almost certain to increase the enturbulation on the
case. I tested one some time ago in which the individual was sent home at night to run out
chains of secondaries in his sleep. This was rather unsatisfactory, but it was interesting to note
that one who was set to running a chain of grief secondaries in his sleep woke up in the
morning to find his pillow saturated with tears and yet had no knowledge of what he had been
crying about. This is added here to demonstrate that there are not only many combinations of
the known existing mechanisms of the mind, but that there are probably a great number of
mechanisms not known.
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Possibly a very fruitful field is the exploration of theta perceptics, for theoretically it
might be possible for new resurgences of theta to be entered into a case with excellent results.
Possibly this is what is happening when a person reaches toward a spiritual resurgence. This is
very well worth investigating.
The auditor should keep in mind that cases, one to another, have different amounts of
free theta endowment. He will find cases which are low on the tone scale and very occluded,
which yet have great reasoning and constructive power, despite their tendencies toward
succumbing. He will find these cases rising rather rapidly, but because the individual is here
and there through the columns higher than the level assigned, the auditor should not therefore
abandon the types of processing assigned for the general level where his preclear is located.
Likewise, it is a great temptation for the auditor when he finds a case which apparently
has sonic and visio and some perception of pain to dive for the bottom of the case and start
running engrams. After he has done this for a while he may find that his case is not making a
very good rise on the tone scale and may only then check the chart, to discover that he has been
working with a 0.8, much to his dismay. These low-level cases enturbulate rapidly, and the
running of engrams on them, no matter how wide-open they are, may be done for hundreds of
hours without any marked increase in the tone level of the case. This is because the auditor is
too enthusiastically investing free theta into the running of physical pain engrams which are not
yet exhausted of their secondary and lock entheta. The goal in any case is the freeing of theta,
and by this the auditor should be guided.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
COLUMN AQ
Tone Level of Auditor Necessary To Handle Case
This column is included as an estimate of optimum performance.
The auditor should be aware of the fact that the engrams of the preclear, his secondaries
and locks, respond only in the presence of all available free theta. The theta of the auditor plus
the remaining theta of the preclear are a sum which is directed at the entheta in the reactive mind
of the preclear. It is a strange fact that the mere presence of an auditor makes it possible for the
preclear to run incidents which he could not touch if no auditor were present, although there
have been preclears who have successfully run out locks and some secondaries, alone. But
self-auditing, normally, gets a case confused, and the presence of an auditor is very desirable.
Auditors who are below 2.0 on the tone scale tend unconsciously, and even
consciously, in the direction of succumbing. They have a ratio in themselves of more entheta
than theta. Auditors below 2.0 on the tone scale have accomplished something with cases from
time to time, because Dianetics can be, in part, mechanically applied. But the preclear who
places himself in the hands of an auditor below 2.0 is asking for unsuccessful processing,
since auditor code breaks will inevitably ensue and the case will be unwittingly mishandled,
regardless of the apparent intention of the auditor.
One can say, then, that 2.5 is the lowest level the preclear should accept in the auditor.
And even this has some slight risk, since the interest of the 2.5 auditor in the preclear is apt to
be lackadaisical and not to encourage any great or rapid advances in the case.
3.0 would be the lowest level of the auditor, for any truly successful auditing. At this
level, the auditor will be interested, sympathetic, able to follow the auditor’s code with no
strain, will be quick to understand any trouble which the preclear encounters, and can
ordinarily, if properly educated, be expected to carry out a good and responsible role as an
auditor. Furthermore, any discreditable data on a case which an auditor at this level uncovers in
the life of the preclear will not be used as conversational material by the auditor. This is
certainly not the case with low-tone auditors.
When one is handling preclears from 1.5 down, one will normally discover that the
preclear is very highly restimulative to the auditor, is apt to become angry or recalcitrant or
insulting, has a great deal of trouble contacting some of the entheta, and is in general so highly
charged that great patience and tolerance is required of the auditor. This means, simply, that the
auditor must not be easily restimulated by his preclear. Those cases from 1.5 down are highly
restimulative, on the average. Cases from this level down, which are chronically psychotic or
psychotic at the time of processing, which is to say cases which have all of their free theta
enturbulated, particularly require auditors on a high tone level, for auditors at lower levels are
apt to consider the psychotic too critically, and a critical or restrictive attitude toward the
psychotic denies him his recovery.
Further, the psychotic demands of the auditor a high courage level, a level certainly not
found below 3.0, and guaranteed (given a good endowment of free theta and an education not
contrary to courage) only at the 3.5 level. The psychotic, or persons who are on the tone band
below 2.0 but who are easily enturbulated, has such a highly charged background in most
cases that he may scream or express misemotion or dramatize to a frightening extent. A fully
enturbulated paranoid may very well attempt to kill an auditor during the processing session, if
the auditor suddenly reminds the paranoid of an enemy. Below 3.0, the reaction of the
processor toward the psychotic may be irrational to the point of hastily giving the psychotic
sedation or putting him in restraint or giving him electric shock or ordering a prefrontal
lobotomy, or doing any of those things, in short, which express crawling fear of another
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human being whose rationality cannot be trusted. A 1.5 trying to treat psychotics can think
only in terms of punishment and nullification of the psychotic, and cannot possibly produce
simply by his presence and the quality of his reasoning any alleviation in the case, but by his
own fear further enturbulates the psychotic. Additionally, living in an environment filled with
psychotics (such as an institution, with individuals dramatizing, screaming, being irrational or
dully stupid) is intensely restimulating -- so much so that a considerable portion of the
attendants and attending doctors of institutions themselves eventually find their way into the
wards as patients. In short, it takes life and energy in an individual to bring into being life and
energy in others. And conversely, that person low on the tone scale, in order to climb up the
scale or even to exist at his level, pulls heavily upon the life and energy of those around him.
The legends of vampires probably originated from an observation that some persons seem to
have no life of their own but only express themselves in the vicinity of and at the expense of
other individuals. Low-tone people commonly yearn to marry out of no other reason than that
they can obtain from a mate the energy and life necessary to continue existence, or perhaps
because here they have free theta to attack and desire to pull it down.
The auditor should be very cognizant of the fact that addressing entheta in a preclear is
restimulative to the auditor. A certain amount of the auditor’s free theta is going to become
enturbulated when he processes preclears. New locks, at the very least, will be formed on his
own chains. Thus the enturbulation is not wholly temporary, but a certain amount of the
enturbulation will become “permanent,” which is to say that it must be processed out. Auditors
who are not themselves being processed are unsuccessful. A group of auditors processing
preclears but not being processed themselves will become, in a relatively short time, a veritable
snake-pit of entheta and, willy-nilly, will go down the tone scale.
The very least an auditor should do for himself if he is processing people is to keep the
processing sessions he has done on other people scanned out of himself. He should consider
that this is as necessary to him as eating and getting proper rest, for his own descent down the
tone scale as a result of auditing will be so unobserved by himself that he will not know how
low he has descended until he suddenly realizes that not only is he no longer taking any
pleasure in auditing but he is facing the next session with considerable distaste. When this
happens the auditor can be sure that through failure to observe the necessity of having these
sessions lock-scanned he now needs processing fully as badly as his preclears. He should
take, then, every possible measure to bring himself up the scale, and the most immediately
indicated of these is having processing sessions scanned out. As the auditor descends lower
and lower on the tone scale he tends more and more toward succumbing, and he will reach a
point where he does not think he needs any processing. When this happens, he has become
very enturbulated.
Dianetics provides effective means of bringing people into a higher level of reason,
energy, and happiness and into a better state of physical well being. If Dianetics is to succeed
widely, and it will whether it takes two years or the next twenty, that success depends upon the
co-auditing team, where two people audit each other alternately. It has been publicized that
Dianetics is simply a low-cost therapy. Aside from the fact that Dianetics is not a therapy,
Dianetics provides a means for any two people who are intelligent and fairly well up the tone
scale to lift themselves by their bootstraps into much more desirable levels of human existence.
It has never before happened that people could do this. The formation of a co-auditing team
should be done with some care. The two individuals should be somewhere near parity on the
tone scale and should be, certainly, above 2.0 on the tone scale. A disparity will bring about
the condition that one of them is doing all the auditing, and there is no mutual exchange.
Husband-wife teams do not, ordinarily, make good co-auditing teams. Whereas a few
such teams have been successful, the bulk of them have after a short time broken up as
unworkable, and the husband and the wife have had to look outside the home for other
processors. Thus, at the very start it would probably be wise to obtain co-auditors outside the
home. There are many reasons for this. In the first place, marital relations have a certain
delicacy, and the introduction of dianetic processing between two individuals brings about
another type of affinity. In a co-auditing team between husband and wife many auditor code
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breaks may, indeed, break up the marriage. Looking outside the home, one can find
coauditors, if the original co-auditing team proved to be unsuccessful. Additionally, there are
certain information barriers between husbands and wives in most marriages. And where the
wife cannot tell the husband all she knows, and where the husband cannot tell the wife all he
knows, enough of a brake is put on communication to inhibit processing. At the recent level of
teenage morals, there is usually much in any marital partner’s background which he does not
wish to communicate to his spouse. With a co-auditing partner outside the home one can freely
communicate, and thus the affinity required for co-auditing can be established, which it rarely
can between husbands and wives.
There is also the three-way team, in which three people coaudit. This has the advantage
of keeping altitude for each auditor, since in the triangle, none is being processed by anyone he
is auditing.
When the preclear has come up the tone scale to 3.0 he can be processed by nearly
anyone educated in Dianetics who is not below 2.0, for he can stand up to considerable auditor
code breaking or ineptness, but he should be aware of the fact that he will proceed faster, the
higher the level of his auditor.
Any double or triangular co-auditing team should be careful to keep parity. No member
of the team should be permitted to lag so that a disparity in tone level can result. This is quite
important, since by permitting the disparity to occur, the auditor who is higher on the scale will
himself be brought back down the tone scale.
According to theory, the best auditors would be clears, but people who have lost their
own aberrations are quite likely to be interested in the activity dictated by their basic purpose.
If their basic purpose happens to be to make individual fellow human beings happier, healthier
and more reasonable, then they will remain in Dianetics, but ordinarily, they go very far afield.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
COLUMN AR
How To Audit The Case
In this chapter we will take up cases at particular tone levels. It should be remembered
that an individual can exist at any one of these tone levels and still be considered “rational” by
the current society.
There is one very important caution an auditor should observe in starting a case. Either
he evaluates the case on the chart with thoroughness and so knows the type of case he is
addressing, or he uses, in the absence of chart evaluation, very light methods of processing
such as straight memory or the scanning of minor lock chains. The auditor will not be able to
determine rapidly where his preclear lies on the tone scale, unless he has the chart before him
and has made a test of the somatic and general responses of his preclear.
Learning to use the chart and to locate the preclear on it may take the auditor some time,
for the chart is complicated in that it contains several elements. There are at least five different
ways that tone may be said to vary. The auditor is looking, mainly, for the chronic reactive tone
of the preclear, in order to know at what level it will be safe to process him. Some high-theta
auditors can successfully use methods on preclears which are above their chronic reactive tone
level. They do this by bringing the preclear temporarily up the tone scale with very high ARC.
But this is, unfortunately, an unusual ability, and the auditor who wishes to make sure that he
will not enturbulate the preclear should be very careful not to use methods which are above the
preclear’s level on the tone scale. Five things which affect the tone manifestations which the
preclear is showing are (1) the theta-entheta ratio on the case, the relative amount of “frozen”
entheta in locks, secondaries, and engrams, (2) the present-time environment of the preclear, its
tone and volume, (3) the tone of the particular engram in which the preclear happens to be
stuck, if he is stuck, (4) the tone commanded by a particular engram command phrase or series
of phrases which are in restimulation, either acute or chronic, (5) the general environmental
background of the preclear, the tone of his education, family, group, and so on. It may be a
somewhat difficult job for the auditor to separate these various elements in the preclear’s
manifested tone, in order to discover the one thing which is most important to the level of
processing to be used on the preclear, namely the theta-entheta ratio on the case.
Straight wire on the present-time environment of the preclear, the events of the last two
or three days or even hours, will give the auditor some idea of what effect present-time is
having on the manifested tone.
Straight wire on the preclear’s general background, during the taking of the inventory
and after, will give the auditor a somewhat less clear estimate of the effect of this element on the
preclear’s manifested tone, since much of the material may be occluded or purposely hidden.
An attempt at running a pleasure moment and a few flash answers will tell the auditor whether
or not this preclear is badly stuck on the track and, therefore, whether this is an important factor
in his manifested tone.
The effect of a chronically or acutely restimulated engram or chain of engrams will be,
perhaps, the most difficult to track down and allow for. It is here that the manic case enters the
picture, and this is the greatest danger that the auditor will encounter of rating his preclear too
high on the scale: a wide-open case with a high manic in full restimulation. Because all these
things complicate the problem, the auditor will find that his most reliable test of the theta-entheta
ratio on the case will be the behavior columns on the tone scale chart -- after he learns to
use them, and not to be deceived by the preclear’s idea of what his own tone is. Subtle, patient
questioning, perhaps over many hours, will be necessary before the auditor will be justified in
feeling that he has truly discovered the chronic tone level of the preclear in each of these
columns. For this reason, it might be said that every case, almost without exception, should be
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started with many hours of straight wire. To ask the preclear, for instance, what his attitude is
about children will gain for the auditor information on what the preclear thinks his attitude is, or
what he wants the auditor to think it is, or, perhaps, what it really is. The preclear’s gestures
and voice tones in answering the question will tell the auditor much, and the questioning is in
itself of benefit to the case. But the auditor will be sure of the preclear’s attitude towards
children only when he has straightwired the preclear on several incidents with children. There
may be cases in which direct questions on these things will only serve to alert the preclear’s
secrecy computations and in which the auditor would be wise to use the chart thoroughly and
exhaustively but not obviously, with direct questions. A direct question such as, “Do you like
children?” may easily seem like probing or criticism to the preclear, if unconsciously so. A
request to relate an incident with children may provide the auditor with invaluable data which he
could not get with direct questions.
The tone scale chart is a delicate and somewhat complex tool. The auditor who, by
practice and alert observation of results, learns to use it well will find both his abilities and his
understanding immeasurably increased.
A case at 4.0, the dianetic MEST clear -- which is to say the current-life-organism clear,
until we know more areas which can be processed -- can be considered to need no further
Processing. The 3.5 case is very easy to process, but a case is almost never at this level when
first addressed. When a case has reached this level through processing, it is relatively easy to
bring the case up to clear. Almost anything can be done with this case in the way of running
entheta, and it is merely a question of how fast this individual can be brought to the state of
clear rather than whether or not he will reach it, for he can almost audit himself to that point if
he has attained 3.5. Here, engrams can be scanned, a process which is done much like lock
scanning except that physical pain incidents, secondaries, and word chains which are
surrounded by physical pain can be scanned. On the 3.5, however, just as on any other case,
one should keep the auditing sessions scanned off the case. The 3.0 case should not be scanned
through engrams. Scanning is a very attractive mechanism. It seems to be such a simple thing
to start the individual at basic-basic and tell him to scan out all the engrams on the track to
present time. But considerable entheta exists on the 3.0 and the scanning mechanism will
enturbulate him and bring him down the tone scale. Here, circuits are still active enough so that
they will be activated by chain scanning and a “false clear” will result, which is to say the
auditor will have a preclear whose circuits have been charged to the point where the auditor
cannot find an engram and so assumes that he has a clear, when he does not. However, the
3.0 has nearly all of his engrams ready to be run as individual incidents. The auditor sends the
3.0 back to the earliest moment of pain or discomfort, picks up the earliest phrase and runs the
engram on through.
Usually it is not necessary for the auditor to have the preclear repeat the Phrases, each
one time after time, but the auditor can let the preclear run straight on through the engram from
beginning to end and then run it through from beginning to end again. On an erasure, of
course, the auditor has located the first moment of pain or discomfort and has reduced a great
many of the secondaries. The earliest physical pain engram has been run out, and it is
necessary then only to proceed up the bank, on the ladder of time, erasing each consecutive
engram as contacted, from the first inception of the pain or unconsciousness in the engram to
the last. In the 3.0, it will be found that engrams erase rather rapidly. One or two passes will
result in yawns, and the next engram can then be reached. It must not be overlooked by the
auditor, however, that in the progress of going up the bank from engram to engram each time
taking the earliest one that can be found, secondary engrams may come to light which have to
be discharged. An auditor can actually start up the bank and complete an erasure nearly to
present time, and find then a new chain of secondary engrams which have to be released in
terms of tears or other manifestations, and after this the auditor may discover that a new
moment of physical pain or discomfort exists as early as conception. He must then return to
this earliest engram. It is not difficult for the auditor to discover this, if he asks each time for
the earliest moment of pain or discomfort existing on the case. The auditor remains very alert
to the fact that the release of anaten, misemotion or physical pain brings into view new areas of
anaten, misemotion or physical pain. By asking for the earliest moment of pain or discomfort
537.538
and staying alert to the fact that new secondaries may appear, the auditor continues with his
erasure of the content of the reactive mind. But at 3.0 it is necessary for the auditor to keep the
case thoroughly scanned off, not only as to auditing but as to near-present-time incidents which
may be enturbulative to the preclear. At 3.0 and below, the auditor must at all times remember
that he is bringing the case up the tone scale and that the simple erasure of engrams is not
enough to cause the case to progress satisfactorily, but that the erasure of engrams all by itself
can actually, if no other form of entheta is addressed, bring this case back down the tone scale
again. particularly in the presence of a present-time restimulative situation which considerably
enturbulates the preclear. The 3.0 level is definitely the area where an erasure is begun.
Engrams do not ordinarily reduce at this level, but erase.
The 2.5-level case offers a little more concern to the auditor than the 3.0. This is so all
the way down the bank, since the lower one goes on the tone scale, the more entheta one finds
on the case and the greater care he must take in order to keep up the present-time tone of the
preclear and to keep the preclear progressing up the tone scale. The 2.5 scans locks very
easily; however he cannot, like the 3.5, scan secondaries. It is not advisable to scan a 2.5
through any moments of heavy misemotion, because the case will become restimulated and
more theta will be absorbed into the turbulent areas than will be freed out of those areas by
auditing. However, the 2.5 will run engrams as a routine matter, when they are addressed as
single engrams, not as chains of engrams as in chain scanning. Moments of great sorrow,
loss, anger, apathy, are run out as incidents, perceptic by perceptic, until they are reduced.
New secondaries and new engram chains are recovered in the 2.5 by lock scanning. The only
time the 2.5 requires straight memory as a processing technique is when the auditor desires to
discover more about his case or to discover circuits. In the 2.5, the auditor locates circuits by
straight memory, finding who in the preclear’s environ tried to dominate or nullify him, and
finding moments during the awake life of the preclear when these people made statements
which were circuit-type statements, such as “Control yourself” or “Keep a good grip on
yourself.” At this level, the circuit is important. Here, considerable address should be made to
circuits. The phrases should be located by straight memory and should then be lock-scanned
out as phrases so as to discharge and de-intensify all circuit phrases contained in engrams; for
here, and on down, a circuit can more or less take over from an auditor, so that the preclear will
occasionally insist on running his own case. Or a circuit can bar off large quantities of entheta.
The biggest trouble the 2.5 gives the auditor is the fact that the 2.5 normally considers himself
to be in a fine state of health and is rather bored with processing. When the preclear has reached
the level of 2.5 from a lower level, he would quite commonly just as soon forego further
processing. It is at this point that the auditor must apply his own personality to the situation
and coax his preclear through this rather stagnant area on the tone scale.
The 2.0 who is willing to work does not offer any particular problem to the auditor.
Here the auditor can scan locks, he can run secondaries as individual moments of misemotion,
but here the auditor may very well overestimate his preclear and decide to run, as routine,
physical pain engrams. Here, the auditor can run physical pain engrams one after another, but
he will tie up more free theta by creating new locks on the case through the running of these
engrams than he gains out of the engrams. Any auditor is very ambitious for his preclear and is
likely to begin running engrams long before the preclear is able to benefit from or even support
running them. Nevertheless, particularly in the case where the preclear has received a drug-hypnosis
or has had a recent operation, some physical-pain engram may present itself at this
level and insist on being run. The file clerk is usually working at 2.0, and the file clerk should
be very carefully consulted before any physical pain engrams are addressed. If physical pain
engrams are run on the 2.0, the auditor should be very careful to scan off the session of
auditing thoroughly, in order to knock apart the locks which are formed by the auditing itself.
The 1.5 responds to the scanning of locks, but the auditor will find that the 1.5 will
sometimes hang up in individual locks. When this happens, the lock may have to be run like an
engram, perceptic by perceptic, until it is reduced. After this, lock scanning can continue. This
is of benefit to the case, since the scanning of locks brings the preclear closer to the most severe
locks, which can then be contacted and run. These heavy locks remain out of sight until
scanning brings to the preclear enough free theta to permit an address to heavy locks which are
538.539
holding up the progress of the case. On a 1.5, secondaries can be located best which are at the
anger level. The auditor can discover a moment when the preclear was dramatizing anger and
can ask the preclear to run through this moment or ask him to go back to an earlier moment
when somebody was that angry with him. The preclear will discover an earlier lock where he
himself was the recipient of the anger he later dramatized, and ordinarily he will run this early
lock. The auditor should be very careful of any physical pain he runs on the 1.5. Here is a
level where any physical pain is a thoroughly greedy trap. The engram in the 1.5 has so much
authority that when free theta approaches it, that theta is itself enturbulated. Thus, the auditor
should avoid running engrams at 1.5. The use of straight memory becomes very important at
1.5. Here a trick of straight memory becomes very important. The auditor should try to find an
incident of an ARC break or enforcement variety which the preclear can credit with thorough
and full reality. Actually, from this point on down the reality of the preclear can be confirmed
and should be confirmed at every opportunity by straight memory contact with locks which the
preclear himself and without any assistance from the auditor fully credits as actually having
happened. This boosts the preclear up the tone scale more swiftly than any other method of
processing which can be used from 1.5 on down.
Here, the auditor should be particularly careful to keep the auditing scanned off and
should use any and every means to keep the free theta which he finds in the case as free as
possible. Bad auditing and auditor code breaks at this level can cost the preclear in one session
more theta than can be won in several sessions. The preclear at 1.5 commonly becomes angry
with the auditor. He is still at a level where he seeks to dominate, and his method of domination
is to express anger. This does not mean that the 1.5 is only angry or that he will not work
smoothly for the auditor. Usually, only bad auditing will cause anger. There are 1.5’s which
are wide open and which deceptively invite the running of engrams. There are 1.5’s which are
thoroughly occluded. In either case exactly the same type of entheta is addressed and the same
methods of handling it are used.
When one comes down to the 1.1, a great deal of care must be used because of the
tremendous amount of entheta which exists on the case in proportion to the free theta. A 1.1
may have enough theta endowment originally to want to be processed. His desire to be
processed, however, is very tentative and he is intensely critical of his auditor. He is afraid,
and with good reason, for he has so little free theta left in comparison to the entheta on his case
that bad auditing can bring about a much worsened condition. The 1.1 may not, however, be
interested in processing and may consider himself in good condition, despite a very bad record
in dealing with life. He is, quite commonly, chronically ill from one somatic or another. He
may be diffident about his food. What free theta he has left is in such combat with the entheta,
that he is continually on a border line. The auditor must recognize this. The auditor must
recognize as well that a 1.1 can be insulting, can be sullen, can be thoroughly unwilling to be
processed, and can be extremely trying. The patience of an auditor is easily exhausted when
dealing with a 1.1, for the 1.1 may lie down on the couch and knowingly run complete
imaginary incidents, reporting somatics and perceptics which he does not have. He may
manufacture for the auditor an entire past life. Further, he may unknowingly advance data
which is wrong. He may consider, for instance, and believe that he is telling the truth, that he
was beaten a thousand times by his father, whereas his father laid hands on him but twice in his
whole life. Or he may believe that he was treated royally by his parents, when actually they
were extremely non-survival in their attitude toward him. The auditor must remember that in
both the 1.5 and the 1.1, truth is not regarded as a very valuable commodity and is hard for the
preclear to contact. Although the 1.1 may continually advance protests and evidences as to his
honesty and open-heartedness, the auditor is dealing with a level where trickery is automatic.
The auditor may actually succeed at this level in turning off chronic somatics, such as a
migraine headache or ulcers, without decreasing the turbulence of the case. He has, evidently,
merely turned an enMEST manifestation into an entheta manifestation, so that although the
chronic somatic no longer troubles the 1.1 as physical pain, it troubles him exceedingly as
mental aberration. Transfer of one somatic to another, or transfer of physical aberration to
mental aberration can be expected to result if the auditor mistakes the preclear’s level on the
tone scale and attempts to use methods of processing that are above the 1.1’s level. In a wide-open
case, the auditor can be completely fooled, and can go on running the case with heavy
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methods ad infinitum (until the preclear tires of processing and refuses it), more and more
enturbulating the case, unless he pays careful attention to the preclear’s behavior in locating the
preclear on the tone scale chart.
Probably the chief characteristic of the 0.5 as far as the auditor-preclear relationship is
concerned is the 0.5’s complete helplessness. Even if the 0.5 wants to be audited, the auditor
cannot depend upon his preclear for any responsibility about processing, or about anything
else. This case requires an auditor of great patience and endurance. The auditor is faced with
an individual to whom black is white, good is bad, and all is lost. His preclear may run hours
of dub-in incidents if permitted, but the auditor has to be very careful how he steers the preclear
toward real incidents, which should never be heavier than locks, preferably of the apathy
variety, because the slightest disapproval or lack of acceptance of what the preclear is saying
may enturbulate all of the preclear’s meagre remaining theta. The 0.5 is only half a point above
death. Any auditor who uses methods heavier than straight memory and the running of
individual light locks on a 0.5 runs a risk of causing some death manifestation in the preclear,
either suicide or (occasionally) murder, and most certainly will depress the 0.5 down toward
pretended death. However, if the auditor keeps his own case well processed so that he can
persevere in processing the 0.5 with the gentlest methods and so that he can preserve a very
high ARC (which will depend entirely on the auditor) with the preclear, he will sooner or later
have a preclear who is beginning to come up into the 1.1 band. This rise on the scale may not
bring the auditor any relief since 1.1 is a very unpleasant level, but it will be a great relief to the
preclear, although the auditor should not expect any thanks from the new 1.1. The average
auditor will not be working with a 0.1 in the very near future, since most pretended death cases
are in hospitals, sanatoriums, or institutions where they are out of contact with the society.
However the circumstances of the 0.1 in the society at this time have no bearing upon the
methods used to process a 0.1, and no auditor should think that the principles of mind
operation change in any way in the case of the 0.1. The auditor who is invited to some private
sanatorium by an alert but baffled medical doctor may find that he has just such a case to deal
with. There are various methods of approaching the problem of the 0.1 case, but all of them
add up to one thing: cause the preclear to be aware of present time perceptics, or at least of the
idea that there is such a thing as present time. In all other levels it is necessary to establish and
maintain high ARC between the auditor and the preclear, but here the main problem is to
establish ARC between the preclear and anything in present time, including, of course, the
auditor. How this may be done will depend upon the auditor’s thorough understanding of the
principles outlined in this book, for here is a case in which the theta might be considered to be
ninety-eight percent enturbulated. It has been seen that as the tone scale was descended, gentler
and gentler methods of processing had to be used. The auditor may feel, then, that there is no
method of processing gentle enough for a 0.1, but the auditor should not overlook the fact that
the mere presence of an auditor in the room with the preclear is, to some degree, processing.
Starting from there, the auditor can begin to work to make present time interesting and attractive
to the preclear. The auditor’s presence for a few hours may build up enough affinity to make it
possible for the auditor to call the preclear’s attention to some object. When the preclear
communicates with this object, by looking at it, the fact that the auditor is holding it, or also
looking at it, will tend to establish an agreement about this object and some one thing in the
world will then have a little reality for this preclear.
Future publications will deal more thoroughly with the processing of inaccessible
psychotics, including the 0.1. But the principles which you have encountered while reading
this book are the principles upon which future and more refined techniques will be based and
any auditor who has the opportunity and the perseverance to process such a case will find that,
simple as these basics are, they are far more powerful than any means man has had before to
bring light where there is darkness, to bring order out of disorder, and to convert unreason into
reason -- or entheta into theta.
UNBURDENING ENGRAMS
Recently I developed a technique called “Unburdening” which seems to have
considerable possibilities. I have not had sufficient opportunity to test thoroughly its
540.541
potentialities or to locate it properly on the tone scale. I give it here for your information and
would greatly appreciate hearing about whatever results you achieve with it.
Ordinarily the last engram on a case can be run providing it has not acquired too many
locks. Further, any engram seems to depend, for its inaccessibility, on the locks it has
accumulated.
The auditor occasionally finds it necessary to run an engram even though he cannot get
all the perceptics which are contained in that engram. It would be valuable if he could obtain all
the perceptics and reduce or erase them. Unburdening would be a technique designed to assist
the auditor in running out all the perceptics.
The engram, in this technique, is run until everything in it which can be contacted is
reduced. Then the auditor lock scans the preclear from the moment of the engram up to present
time through all the locks of that engram. The auditor has the locks scanned one or more times,
working with the file clerk. Then the auditor, using again standard procedure for engrams, runs
that engram once more or twice more or until any additional material has been reduced. Then he
has the preclear scan all the locks of that engram again. Then he once more runs the engram.
It is the charge in the locks which seals in the engram. By discharging the locks,
through the technique of lock scanning, more and more perceptics should show up in the
engram. Unburdening, then, would be the technique of thoroughly bringing to view everything
contained in an engram by scanning its locks. Alternate running of the engram and scanning its
locks should bring about a maximal release of entheta.
The practicality of this technique is certain. The extent of its usefulness has not been
thoroughly explored.
It is completely assured that a physical pain engram underlies all misemotion and that
when misemotion is run from a secondary, a physical pain engram is commonly exposed to
view. Indeed, the preclear may dive into the physical pain engram and start running it while the
auditor is still attempting to get a discharge from the secondary. It also happens that when an
auditor is trying to run an engram his preclear may suddenly run into the misemotion of a
secondary (which should then be run).
It also occurs commonly that the preclear, when the auditor is trying to run an engram,
will soar up into the locks of that engram. This is the result, usually, of a bouncer in the
engram. But bouncer or no bouncer, the locks are there and they are important. Thus, when
an engram is reduced, the locks may be run, after which more perceptics may be found.
POSITIVE PROCESSING
A variation of technique which is of value to the auditor is “positive processing.” This
consists of addressing the theta on the case and bringing it to view. The auditor may become so
engrossed in addressing entheta directly that he may overlook the fact that theta may be buried
under the entheta. By looking for and bringing to view the theta, the auditor may improve the
preclear’s tone considerably.
Below many areas of entheta on a track there may be what we could call deposits of
theta. The theta of the auditor and preclear addressed to such deposits of theta will
disenturbulate the entheta which may overlie such moments.
Pleasure moments are, one could say, deposits of theta. Such deposits assist the
conversion of entheta to theta. The running of pleasure moments then materially assists the
raising of tone. One can use this in many ways and all these ways could be grouped under
“positive processing.” There are probably innumerable variations of positive processing. The
running of a pleasure moment just as though it were an engram, until all perceptics are
541.542
recovered, is just one instance of positive processing. The scanning of chains of pleasure
moments is another variation. The running of “future pleasure moments” ties in the
imagination but is just another variation of positive processing.
Affinity, reality and communication can be used to excellent advantage in positive
processing. The auditor, in this instance, is not looking for ARC locks when ARC was
enforced or inhibited. He is looking for moments when they existed. By straight memory the
auditor causes the preclear to recall moments when he actually felt he was receiving or giving
affinity or communication, or actually experiencing reality. The preclear fairly well down the
scale may have to search for some time before he can recall an instance when he actually felt
affinity for something or some person or actually felt he was receiving affinity. Similarly, the
preclear may have difficulty finding a moment of actual communication -- he may be in an
audience or talking with a friend or even simply talking to a dog. Further, the auditor should
remember that communication extends to perception and that actually seeing something or
recalling that something was heard or felt may discover a theta deposit. Causing the preclear to
recall something he knew was truly real or even recall somebody agreeing thoroughly with him
is another instance of positive processing.
Straight memory on ARC positives is very valuable on low-tone cases. Further it is
valuable in any case as a means of ending a session. The auditor will find sometimes that when
he gives positive processing he will get yawns from the preclear. This is particularly true of
scanning pleasure moments. These yawns indicate that the preclear has pleasure suppressors --
that something makes him feel guilty for experiencing pleasure. By some standards, not
survival ones, pleasure is seen to be wicked and the engrams of the preclear will be found to
contain admonitions against pleasure.
Occasionally the auditor will find a preclear breaking into tears under positive
processing. Here, evidently (though several opinions could be advanced) the suppression of
pleasure is such that the overlying entheta is of the same value as that in a secondary engram.
The tears of relief signify the progress of the preclear up from apathy through grief in certain
incidents. For any incident, irrespective of the preclear’s tone, has its own position on the tone
scale and, as it is reduced, comes up the scale in stages.
There was once a whole philosophy devoted to pleasure -- hedonism. Survival is
pleasure, but idle satisfaction of the senses without plan or progress toward any goal is itself
(like Aesop’s grasshopper) destructive in the long run. It was this idle and purposeless
gratification of the senses at which the moralist raged -- and with considerable justification.
But better terminology should have been used. Pleasure is something neither man nor a
civilization can do without -- its omission results in succumbing. In that happiness can be
found to be the overcoming of not unknowable obstacles toward a known goal or the
contemplation of goals, one can see that idle pleasure would have to be static or destructive
sensual gratification. Pleasure is seldom idle in that sense, but it is as often lazy and relaxing as
it is dynamic and constructive. Man cannot live without it. And the auditor, using positive
processing will find it a helpful ally.
The goal of processing is to raise the individual on the tone scale. Part of this
procedure is the running out of all engrams in order to make the rise permanent. But the
important thing is the rise itself. The behavior of a 4.0, or even a 3.5 is so far superior to
normal human behavior, the ability of these higher levels to provide happiness,
accomplishment, creation, and joy in living is so great, that we tend to think of them as distant
goals simply because they are so high. But they are not so distant. Even as this book is
completed, new methods, new approaches to a case are developing which make the higher
ranges of the tone scale easier to reach for more and more cases. The validation or positive
approach to the case, the advent of dynamic straight wire (in which the effect of each dynamic
on every other discovers all possible locks), the discovery of the fundamental nature of MEST
locks and the development of MEST technique, are but some of the new things that are coming
off the “drawing boards.” Dianetics does not rest or stay, it does not flag or halt. As the
auditor and preclear continue their progress up the tone scale, they may be encouraged not only
by their own successes but also by the fact that as they approach the goal, it is approaching
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them. A fact which has been forgotten in this time of war and spiritual pestilence is that there
have been times in man’s history and pre-history when he has succeeded. It has not all been
gloom and hopelessness, else we would not be here today -- even as poorly as we are. Men
have lived to conquer all other forms of life, from the mastodon to the microbe. Men have
lived to build walls and roads and pyramids which have defied the elements for thousands of
years. Men have lived to write music which has pleased the gods and lines which have made
the angels sigh and the devil weep. This is a time for man to succeed again. Here is the word,
the technology, the goal. The job is cut out: and its name is Survive!
THE AUDITOR’S CODE OF 1958
1. Do not evaluate for the preclear.
2. Do not invalidate or correct the preclear’s data.
3. Use the processes which improve the preclear’s case.
4. Keep all appointments once made.
5. Do not process a preclear after 10:00 p.m.
6. Do not process a preclear who is improperly fed or who has not received enough rest.
7. Do not permit a frequent change of auditors.
8. Do not sympathize with the preclear.
9. Never permit the preclear to end the session on his own independent decision.
10. Never walk off from the preclear during a session.
11. Never get angry with the preclear.
12. Always reduce every communication lag encountered by continued use of the same
question or process.
13. Always continue a process as long as it produces change, and no longer.
14. Be willing to grant beingness to the preclear.
15. Never mix the processes of Scientology with those of various other practices.
16. Maintain two-way communication with the preclear.
17. Never use Scientology to obtain personal and unusual favors or unusual compliance
from the preclear for the auditor’s own personal profit.
18. Estimate the current case of your preclear with reality and do not process another
imagined case.
19. Do not explain, justify or make excuses for any auditor mistakes whether real or
imagined.
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APPENDIX
Axioms and Definitions
Survive The dynamic principle of existence is Survive. At the opposite
end of the spectrum of existence is Succumb.
Dynamics The dynamics are the urge to survive expressed through eight
divisions. (1) self, (2) sex, and the future generation, (3) the
group, (4) mankind, (5) life, (6) MEST, (7) theta, (8) the
Supreme Being.
Immortality Infinite survival, the absolute goal of survival. The individual
seeks this on the first dynamic as an organism and as a theta
entity and in the perpetuation of his name by his group. On the
second dynamic he seeks it through his children, and so on
through the eight dynamics. Life survives through the
persistence of theta. A species survives through the persistence
of the life in it. A culture survives through the persistence of the
species using it. There is evidence that the theta of an individual
may survive as a personal entity from life to life, through many
lives on Earth.
Pleasure Pleasure is the reward of survival activity along any of the
dynamics. Successes bring pleasure and survival.
Succumb Succumbing is the ultimate penalty on nonsurvival activity. This
is pain. Failures bring pain and death.
Human A process of perceiving and storing data,
Thought computing conclusions, posing and resolving problems. The
purpose of this is survival along all of the dynamics.
Intelligence The ability to perceive, pose, and resolve problems. Intelligence
and the urge to survive (the dynamic) are both necessary to
continued existence. The quantity of each varies from
individual to individual and group to group. The dynamics are
inhibited by engrams which block their flow of theta, or life
force, and disperse it. Intelligence is also inhibited by engrams,
which enter false or improperly graded data into the analytical
mind.
Happiness The overcoming of not unknowable obstacles toward a known
goal.
Analytical That portion of the mind which perceives Mind and retains
experience data to compose and resolve problems and direct the
organism along the eight dynamics. It thinks in differences and
similarities.
Reactive Mind That portion of the mind which files and retains physical pain
and misemotion and seeks to direct the organism solely on a
stimulus-response basis. It thinks only in identities.
Somatic Mind That portion of the mind which, at the direction of either the
reactive or analytical mind, puts solutions into effect physically.
Training A stimulus-response mechanism set up by the Pattern analytical
mind to carry out activity of either a routine or an emergency
nature. The training pattern may be said to be held in the somatic
mind, but it can be changed at will by the analytical mind.
Habit A stimulus-response mechanism similar to the training pattern
but set up by the reactive mind out of the content of engrams. It
cannot be changed at will by the analytical mind.
Aberration Irrational behavior or computation (thinking). They are stimulus-response
in nature and may be pro-survival or contra-survival.
The engram is the basic source of aberrations.
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PV=IDx This formula expresses the Potential Value of an individual. I
represents Intelligence, and D represents Dynamic. Worth. If an
individual’s PV is high and is aligned with the dynamics toward
survival, his worth may be said to be very high. A person with a
high PV, however, may be aberrated so that his PV is reversed
in the direction of succumbing and his worth is low. This may
be computed for any one of the eight dynamics or for all.
Theta Thought, potentially independent of a material vessel or medium.
Life force. Elan Vital.
Theta Universe Thought matter (ideas), thought energy, thought space, and
thought time, combining in an independent universe analogous
to the material universe. One of the purposes of theta is
postulated as the conquest, change, and ordering of
MEST. MEST: Matter, Energy, Space, and Time. The physical
universe.
Life The harmonious conquest of MEST by theta in which a self-perpetuating
organism is formed. Death is the withdrawal of
theta from the organism.
Entheta Theta which is enturbulated with MEST (enMEST) in an
inharmonious combination.
EnMEST MEST which has been enturbulated by entheta or crushed too
hard into theta and rendered less usable.
Pain The alarm reaction to theta which has been crushed too severely
into MEST. The penalty of non-survival activity.
Engram An encystment containing entheta and enMEST. A recording
(possibly cellular) of a period of pain and unconsciousness (or
anaten). Not available to the analytical mind as experience. The
sole source of aberrations and “psychosomatic illnesses.”
Lock An analytical incident of greater or lesser enturbulence of theta
which approximates the perceptics of an engram or chain of
engrams and therefore becomes trapped due to the physical pain
recorded in the engram and remains as an encystment of entheta.
Secondary A lock of such magnitude that it must be run as an
Engram engram in processing. A lock with great magnitude of entheta.
Charge The accumulation of entheta in locks and secondaries which
charges up the engrams and gives them their force to aberrate.
Death The withdrawal of theta from an organism, leaving only MEST,
in order to conquer new MEST and form another organism
which can better survive.
Life Cycle The periodic conquest of, withdrawal from, and reconquest of
MEST by theta. It is postulated that a given segment or entity of
theta undergoes birth, growth, death, birth, growth, death, etc.,
each time learning more about the business of making MEST
into successful organisms which can better survive.
Evolution There are four evolutionary tracks, evidently. Organism
evolution, through natural selection, accident, and (evidence
suggests) outright planning. MEST evolution, brought about
through the agency of life organisms. Theta evolution, a
postulated process of learning in theta as a whole or as entities.
And present-time ladder-of-support evolution, in which less
complicated organisms support more complicated organisms.
Theta Body The postulated theta entity. The soul. Evidence
suggests that the theta body may, through many low-tone lives,
become an entheta body, but that such an entheta body might be
cleared by dianetic processing.
MEST Body The physical body. The organism in all its MEST aspects.
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Personality A complex of inherited (MEST, organic, theta) and
environmental (aberration, education, present-time environment,
nutrition, etc.) factors.
Genetic Personal characteristics and tendencies derived Personality from
the three inheritance sources (MEST, organic line, theta). This
might be said to be basic personality, or the core of basic
personality.
Aberrated The personality resultant from superimposition, on Personality
the genetic personality, of personal characteristics and tendencies
brought about by all environmental factors, pro-survival and
aberrational.
Environmental All conditions surrounding the organism from the first moment
of present-life existence to death, including physical, emotional,
spiritual, social, educational, and nutritional.
Education All perceived data stored in the standard memory banks. This
might also be extended to include all data stored in the banks,
including conclusions and imaginings.
Nutrition Support of the organism by organic and inorganic means (food,
water, air, sunlight) during all of the present life, from
conception or thereabouts to death. The nutrition of a genetic
line, of course, would pass from parents to children in the forms
of organic inheritance and gestation environment.
Culture The pattern (if any) of life in the society. All factors of the
society, social, educational, economic, etc., whether creative or
destructive. The culture might be said to be the theta body of the
society.
Time Track A representation of the fact that a person exists during a period
of MEST time. The present-life time track begins at the first
moment of recording and ends at present-time, or at death, and it
includes all consecutive moments of “now” and the perceptics of
those moments.
Action Phrases Words or phrases in engrams or locks (or at 0.1, in present time)
which cause the individual to perform involuntary actions on the
time track. Action phrases are effective in the low tone ranges
and not effective in the high ranges. As a case progresses up the
scale, they lose their power. Types of action phrases are
Bouncer, Down Bouncer, Grouper, Denyer, Holder,
Misdirector, Scrambler and the Valence Shifters corresponding
to these.
Bouncer Sends the preclear up the track toward present-time. (Get up,
get out, don’t touch me, leave me alone, I’ve got to get ahead.)
Down Bouncer Sends the preclear earlier on the track. (Sit down, get down, it’s
underneath, you’re early, held down, slide Kelly slide!).
Grouper Collapses time track, brings many incidents together. (I have no
time, put them all together, it’s all up to me all the time, I have to
do everything around here, you’re all alike, I’ll get even with
you, solidarity forever!).
Denyer Denies existence of phrase or incident. (No, don’t, I won’t, I
can’t tell, you mustn’t, it’s not here, never, impossible,
unknown, unthinkable, you know (no) everything.)
Holder Holds preclear at a point on the track. (Stay here, don’t leave
me, hold on to this, don’t let go, keep quiet, take this it’ll make
you feel better.)
Misdirector Sends preclear in the wrong direction. (Not that way, the other
way, that’s wrong, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going
you don’t know up from down.) Scrambler Scrambles
incidents and phrases. (I’m confused, I’ll take mine scrambled,
stir it up, it’s all mixed up and I’m in the middle.)
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Valence Shifter (You’re just like your father, don’t be like Uncle Rudy, you’re
just like everybody else, you’re exactly like Rover, you’re
nobody, you’re not human, you’re out-of-this-world, you can’t
ever be yourself, I’ll just have to pretend I’m somebody else or
I’ll never be happy again.)
ARC Affinity-Reality-Communication, the triagonal manifestation of
theta, each aspect affecting the other two.
Affinity The attraction which exists between two human beings, or
between a human being and another life organism, or between a
human being and MEST or theta or the Supreme Being. It has a
rough parallel in the physical universe in magnetic and gravitic
attraction. The affinity or lack of affinity between an organism
and the environment or between the theta and MEST of an
organism and within the theta (including entheta) of the organism
brings about what we have referred to as emotions, in the past.
The affinity scale includes most of the common emotions,
apathy, grief, fear, anger, hostility, boredom, relief,
contentment, enthusiasm, exhilaration, inspiration. ]
Communication Communication with the recorded past (through recall and
memory), the present (through perception), and the future
(through imagination and/or other mechanisms), communication
between people by writing, talking, touching, seeing, etc. Also,
Communication as in groups, and the technology thereof (Group
Dianetics). There are emotions on the communication scale, but
they have not commonly been named in our society.
Reality Reality of the past (“I”’s reception of the past agrees with the
recorded data, and “I” agrees that it does). Reality of the present
(“I”’s reception of the present agrees with the data impinging
upon the organism from the environment, and “I” agrees that it
does). Reality of the future (“I”’s concept of the future agrees
with past and present data, and “I” agrees that it does). Reality
between two people (they agree on something). Reality in a
group (the majority in agreement). Physical, “actual” reality --
the only kind considered by many people -- is merely agreement
between MEST conditions or life conditions and some person’s
perceptions of those conditions. If these do not agree, we say
that he does not know the reality (ours, that is, for we have only
our own perceptions by which to judge the MEST conditions).
There are emotions on the reality scale. One of them is shame.
Emotion This word is re-defined in Dianetics and is given an opposite for
comparison, “misemotion.” Previously the word emotion was
never satisfactorily defined. Now it is defined as an organism
manifestation of position on the tone scale which is rationally
appropriate to the present-time environment and which truly
represents the present-time position on the tone scale. Rational
affect. Misemotion An organism manifestation which
pretends to be emotion (as defined above) but which is irrational,
inappropriate to the present-time environment, or not
representative of the true present-time position on the tone scale.
Irrational affect. Misemotion is also entheta in the reactive mind,
emotion which has been suppressed and which remains in the
case in locks and secondaries.
ARC Locks “Permanent” encystments of entheta resulting from the
enturbulation of theta by enforcements or inhibitions of affinity,
reality, or communication and the trapping of this enturbulated
theta by the physical pain of some engram or chain of engrams
whose perceptics are approximated in the present-time
enturbulation. Locks are analytical experiences. If there were no
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physical pain to trap the enturbulated theta, it would
disenturbulate, with a greater or lesser display of emotion. ARC
locks of such magnitude that they must be run
Secondaries as engrams in processing. Or, since locks are often run
as engrams, ARC locks of great magnitude.
Restimulation Locks in which the chief noticeable factor is Locks the
approximation of engram perceptics in present time, rather than
any particular break of ARC. These require a low level of
analytical alertness, as in fatigue, to take place. Broken Locks in
which the chief factor is that the Dramatization individual has
been prevented from Locks completing the dramatization of a
restimulated engram. These are most abundant at the 1.5 level.
Present Time The point on anyone’s time track where his physical body (if
alive) may be found. “Now.” The intersection of the MEST time
track with the (postulated) theta time track.
Future On the time track, that area later than present time. Perception of
the future is postulated as a possibility. The creation of future
realities through imagination is a recognized function.
Past On the time track, everything which is earlier than present time.
Occlusion A hidden area or incident on the time track. The existence of a
curtain between “I” and some datum in the standard memory
banks. Occlusions are caused by entheta.
Ally A person recorded in the reactive mind of the preclear
about whom the preclear makes the reactive computation that this
person is necessary to the preclear’s survival.
Perceptics Specialized data from the standard memory or reactive banks
which represent and reproduce the sense messages of a moment
in the past. The sense messages of present time, also,
(formerly, the word “Percepts” was used to mean the sense
messages of present time, but usage has dropped this
distinction.)
Theta Communication with the theta universe.
Theta Perceptics Such Perceptics may include hunches, predictions, ESP at
greater and lesser distances, communication with the “dead,”
perception of the Supreme Being, etc.
MEST Perceptics Common garden-variety sense data -- perceptions, new and
recorded, of matter, energy, space, and time, and combinations
of these. There are twenty-six postulated channels of MEST
perception.
Sonic The recall of something heard, so that it is heard again in the
mind in full tone and strength.
Visio The recall of something seen, so that it is seen again in the mind
in full color, scale, dimension, brightness and detail.
Tactile The recall of touch Perceptics.
Olfactory The recall of perceptics of smell.
Kinesthesia The recall of movement.
Thermal The recall of temperature.
Joint Position The recall of bodily attitudes.
Moisture A recalled perceptic usually associated with the prenatal period.
Organic The perceptions of the states of various organs,
Perceptions pressures, well being, afflictions, etc.
Gradient The tool of infinity-valued logic. It is a tenet
Scales of Dianetics that absolutes are unattainable. Terms like good and
bad, alive and dead, right and wrong are used only in
conjunction with gradient scales. On the scale of right and
wrong, everything above zero or center would be more and more
right, approaching an infinite rightness, and everything below
zero or center would be more and more wrong, approaching an
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infinite wrongness. The gradient scale is a way of thinking
about the universe which approximates the actual conditions of
the universe more closely than any other existing logical method.
Introduction of An arbitrary may be considered as a factor an
Arbitrary introduced into a problem’s solution when that factor
does not derive from a known natural law but only from an
opinion or authoritarian command. A problem resolved by data
derived from known natural laws resolves well and smoothly
and has a useful solution. When a problem is resolved by
introducing arbitraries (factors based on opinion or command but
not natural law) then that solution, when used, will ordinarily
require more arbitraries to make the solution applicable. The
harder one tries to apply the solution corrupted by arbitraries to
any situation, the more arbitraries have to be introduced. This in
government, laws passed which contain arbitraries create new
problems which cannot be solved without more new arbitraries
and thus, rapidly, a top heavy and unworkable structure of
government comes into being which would be workable only if
wholly re-designed in the light of known natural laws about
government.
Evaluation A datum is as understood as it can be related to Data and other
data.
Value of Datum A datum is as important or valuable as it relates to survival.
Comparable A datum can only be evaluated by comparison Magnitude with
another datum of comparable magnitude. This means that the
basic unit must, therefore, be two.
Accessibility The desire of the preclear to be raised on the tone scale by
processing. (In a past publication, the word “accessibility” was
used to mean not only the above but also the accessibility of
entheta on the case to various methods of processing. This last
meaning is not used in the present work.) A case is considered
accessible when it will work willingly with the auditor, no matter
how occluded the case may be.
“I” The awareness of awareness center. Organisms are aware of
their environment. Higher organisms are aware, also, of this
very awareness. The “I” of the human being may be said to be
the center or monitor of this awareness of awareness.
Altitude A prestige which the auditor has in the eyes of the preclear. A
somewhat artificial position of the auditor which gives the
preclear greater confidence and therefore greater ability to run
than he would otherwise have. In the society in general, there
are four kinds of altitude an individual may have.
Data Altitude Signifying that the individual has a fund of knowledge gathered
from books and records, or sometimes from experience, with
which others are not familiar. The college professor has data
altitude.
Computational Signifying that the individual has an outstanding Attitude ability
to think, to compute upon data. Albert Einstein had
computational altitude.
Positional Deriving from an arbitrarily assigned position. Military officers
and bureaucrats often depend heavily upon positional altitude.
Personal The individual who leads or makes an impression
Presence upon others merely by his presence, by his example
Altitude and the fact of his existence, has personal presence altitude.
Ghandi had this to a very high degree.
Command A somatic brought from a different part of the time
Somatic track by some command phrase, such as “My arm hurts.” The
preclear may have this somatic while running a prenatal engram
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although he was only three days conceived in the incident.
Command somatics occur where the preclear is out of valence.
False Four The laughter and gaiety which the preclear exhibits when he has
thoroughly exhausted an incident of charge. There is nothing
really “false” about false four, except that it is often of very short
duration.
Basic Purpose Even at the age of two or three years an individual seems to
know what his basic purpose is in life. Later this becomes
corrupted by individual and social aberrations but is recovered in
dianetic processing. Possibly past lives have something to do
with forming basic purpose.
Basic Engram The first engram on a given chain of engrams.
Basic Area The time track from the first recording on the sperm or ovum
track to the first missed menstrual period of the mother.
Basic-Basic The first moment of pain, anaten, or discomfort in the current
life of the individual.
Language Locks in which the main aberrative content is in Locks terms of
language. These may be considered symbolic restimulators of
MEST locks, which are more fundamental.
MEST Locks Locks which come about through the inhibition or enforcement
of the individual’s experience or control of matter or energy or
space or time. It is postulated that the reduction of the MEST
locks in which the individual was made to go up or not permitted
to come down will make any bouncer phrases in the case
inactive, and so on with all types of action phrases.
Validation Processing in which the auditor, at least for one session, concentrates
exclusively on the theta side of lock chains, not allowing the
preclear to run any but analytical moments on any given subject.
When the preclear encounters too much entheta on a given chain,
the auditor takes him to analytical moments on another subject
(which moments constitute, of course, a parallel chain to the
locks on that subject) obtained from the file clerk. During this
type of processing somatics will turn on and off, sometimes
severely, but the auditor ignores them, and keeps bringing the
preclear back to analytical (not necessarily pleasure) moments.
Validation technique should not be mixed with entheta technique.
MEST Straight wire, repetitive straight wire (slow, Technique
auditor-managed lock scanning), and lock scanning on MEST
locks. Language locks are found by straight wire only as a clue
to the underlying MEST locks. MEST technique and validation
technique may be combined and should be. (Other needed
definitions may be found by referring to the index.)
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