DIANETICS
AUSTRALIA
Sponsored
by the Church of Scientology Canberra
Dianetics
means "though mind", and how to bring a return to mental health is
in this book,
Dianetics by L. Ron
Hubbard
WHAT
IS DIANETICS? Part One
An Article by L. Ron Hubbard
FOR
CENTURIES MANY SCIENTISTS and philosophers have been studying the
convolutions of human thinking. The longer the study, the greater their
reassurance that we are the possessors of a most complex and
challenging instrument called the mind.
What they refer to is now called the analytical
mind.
But describing its behaviour did not make the ways of the mind any less
baffling. Our knowledge of how it functions continued to be only
approximate at best. There were still unknown stimuli and unaccountable
factors - until the theory of Dianetics was applied.
Dianetics
is from the Greek origin meaning "to resolve in the mind; or of or
pertaining to reasoning, especially digressive or cursory reasoning,"
wherein the mind hops and skips from one thought to another or from
clarity to confusion without apparent cause and as if under some
strange and seemingly uncontrollable compulsion. That obviously was the
unknown stumbling block to a fuller understanding of how the mind
functions.
The stumbling block, Dianetics proved after years of experimentation,
is in fact that we are also the possessors of another
mind, a reactive
mind, which has far greater
force and compulsion upon us than the so-called analytical mind. In
fact, when brought into play, the reactive mind can and does overpower
the analytical mind.Worse, the reactive mind badgers and bedevils us
throughout our entire life span.
THE
REACTIVE MIND
Like the analytical mind, the reactive mind is also a mental function
of the brain. It is a kind of primitive function in that it is a
vicious and violent survival mechanism in the brains of all living
organisms.
But the reactive mind does not analyze. It thinks in terms of
identities and similarities, but not in difference like the analytical
mind. It is strictly a literal
mind that responds defensively every time something reminds it of a
similar painful incident.
The animal mentality, being largely reactive, is a good illustration of
this. Suppose a deer walked under a tree and a snake dropped down upon
it and terrified it (threatened its survival). The terror would cause
its meager analytical faculties to become attenuated or partly
unconscious, whereupon its strong reactive mind would take over. The
impression would be recorded, filed away for future survival use.
Thereafter that tree and all others resembling it would be associated
with the snake threat in the deer's min. Every time the deer saw such a
tree, the fearful incident would cause it to shy away on pain of death.
For to the reactive mind, pain means death and pleasure means survival.
To civilized human beings, however, the reactive mind has become a
leech upon rational behavior. It is the hypothetical cyst which
occludes the proper psychosomatic ills and the barrier which prevents
us from attaining the optimum of our thinking abilities and
aspirations.
NONANALYTICAL
REACTION
It is remarkable what powerful pressures the reactive mind can exert
upon the individual in order to make him obey its commands. Even though
it is presumably a pro-survival monitor, you must remember that it
cannot analyze and know the difference
between things.
Thus if a brindle cow kicked you and inflicted pain while you were
getting yourself a case of sunstroke out in the pasture one day,
thenceforward all brindle
cows would become hateful creatures to you and all
sunny pastures would restimulate the unconsciousness. You would even
reexperience the pain of the kick each time you were restimulated.
Of course it doesn't make sense, but that's the way the reactive mind
works. It can't think things out. And yet by means of Dianetics we have
discovered that hundreds of other psychosomatic ills are imposed upon
the human body in exactly that crazy way.
What does this reactive mind consist of? It is a kind of storage bank
of memory, mostly of unpleasant things done to us from the very first
moment of cellular life, but only of those events which happened while
we were unconscious or in pain. As such, it differs from our previous
understanding of the meaning and uses of memory.
Here it is necessary to define memory as a process of recalling,
at will or in response to appropriate stimuli, impressions previously
made on the senses and recorded in the mind. The process of recall is
essentially one of perceiving
those impressions and understanding them. It is an analytical
process.
What was not before understood by the mental sciences, but can now be
demonstrated conclusively by Dianetics, is that yet another file of
impressions exists. This other file is one in which impressions are
recorded by the reactive mind and held prisoner there until such times
as that functional apparatus has occasion to call them into play.
In other words, the reactive mind reacts to certain stimuli but in a
manner so incapable of rational explanation, so random and erratic,
that it frequently does incalculable harm to the human body and impedes
its maximal performance.
(Continued
further on)
GLOSSARY
attenuated:
weakened or reduced as in force, intensity, effect or the like.
bedevils:
troubles, harasses or torments in a way that seems caused by a devil.
brindle:
having a colour that is brown or gray marked with darker streaks or
patches.
brought
into play: put into
operation; cause to come into force or activity.
cellular:
having to do with a cell, the smallest structural unit of an organism
that is capable of independent functioning. All plants and animals are
made up of one or more cells that usually combine to form various
tissues.
convolutions:
complexities or intricacies, as of form, pattern etc., likened to
something having too many folds, turns or twists.
cursory:
(in thought, reasoning or the like) touching on something broadly or
generally, or passing rapidly over something without review of details.
cyst:
something in the mind that is separated off, likened to a physical
cyst, a protective sac enclosing fluid or semisolid material, that
develops abnormally in the body and that can block normal flows or even
become cancerous.
digressive:
tending to digress, deviate, wander away or depart from the main topic
or the principal line of reasoning, argument or the like.
faculties:
mental powers or abilities, such as reason, memory, etc.
hypothetical:
based on an idea that is possible and imagined rather than real or true.
incalculable:
too great to be measured.
leech:
something that clings to and takes advantage of someone or something,
with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources;
parasite. Likened to a leech, a freshwater worm that sucks blood or
eats flesh of other animals.
maximal:
the highest or greatest possible.
play,
brought into: put into
operation or motion; caused to come into force or activity.
play,
call into: cause or put into
operation, cause to come into force or activity.
resolve:
think over; consider.
thenceforward:
from that time onward; after that; thereafter.
Success: I
have enjoyed the study of
Dianetics, the actual disciplines of devoting time and energy to a
premise that was full of personal interests to me. Being audited was a
very powerful sensation full of emotions that had been unreleased for
years. One instance which I had forgotten about totally, involved a
factory accident where I had been electrocuted. I released a great
charge at this point and have been much happier since. I am more awake
and alive. D.
W. (Canberra)
Success Many
people I know have not had
the benefits of Dianetics. Since I've done the course I am now able to
think clearly and can see why people go crazy due to their reactive
mind. I can't wait to help my friends and family.W.
N. (Canberra.)
WHAT
IS DIANETICS? Part Two
An Article by L. Ron Hubbard
IN
THE FIRST ARTICLE, I tried to make clear that the main concern of
Dianetics is the reactive mind,
as discovered by the new science, and that it has far greater
compulsion upon us than our so-called analytical
mind.
As previously indicated, the reactive mind records all impressions
experienced during moments of unconsciousness or of pain sufficient to
lower the perceptive abilities of the analytical mind to a point less
than full consciousness. Therefore it is a condition that, before any
of these data can affect the individual adversely, it must be activated
or keyed-in
by an occurance in the life of the individual similar to the one
originally recorded. From then on, the occurance is capable of being
reactivated by every such occurance of restimulator.
We have said that the reactive mind records with the implication that
the data are filed as obtained, without regard for system or original
context. Similar results would be obtained were a tape recorder to be
placed in operation upon a busy street corner. Auto horns, crashes,
whistles and snatches of conversation would all be found on the tape in
replay. No selective mechanism could be devised which would do more
than play off that which was recorded.
This is the activity of the reactive mind - recording and replay in
response to restimulation. Therefor when any recording in the reactive
mind is caused to replay, the individual responds with a literal
interpretation of the amount of that particular recording.
It will be appreciated, then, what startling, ludicrous and even
disastrous results may be observed when this nonanalytical, strictly
literal mind is restimulated. For example, a pregnant woman trips,
falls heavily to the floor. Her unborn child is momentarily stunned
(unconscious). In her terror and concern she cries out, "My baby! I
have harmed him, given him a terrible setback! He will never be like
other children!" Even though the child is born without mishaps or
disfigurement, yet when in his childhood someone remarks in a manner
intended to be complimentary,
"He is not like other children," the prenatal incident, keys-in
and thereafter he unconsciously seeks to be different, sulking in
corners, refusing to join in with other children in their play and
various normal activities.
This does happen, and can be and has been demonstrated.
A
Solution
Now, a true science not only recognizes the problems in its field, it
offers a method for their solution. As a true science, Dianetics has
evolved a method for recognizing and solving its peculiar problems. The
method is Dianetic processing. The mode is reverie. The
solution
is
erasure of those recordings which, when restimulated, cause reactive
behavior in the human being. The individual whose reactive mind bank no
longer contains any unerased incident is known in Dianetic terminology
as a Clear.
The state of reverie is induced by an astonishingly simple process. The
preclear is asked to make himself comfortable and close his eyes. He is
then asked to return to a past moment of pleasure. the moment of
pleasure is recounted. His auditor endeavors by adroit questioning to
elicit all possible details. This has the effect of acquainting the
person with the practicability and process of going back or returning.
It also sharpens his powers of recall and at the same time allays any
doubts or misgivings he may experience.
DIANETIC
AUDITING
He is next asked to go back or return to the first moment of pain or
unconsciousness available at the time. What he contacts is called an engram,
which is the scientific name for an impression upon the organism.
Again, adroit questioning aids him to recall details. Several
recountings of the incident serve to remove what may be called the charge
on this incident, thus restoring to the analytical mind that vital
energy theretofore required to endure or live with the disruptive
content.
From here the preclear is led by the auditor into further, more deeply
embedded incidents, the ultimate aim of which is to contact and erase
all such aberrative incidents present in the bank.
These data in the reactive mind are actually contacted with the aid of
the auditor, whose assistance is required for more reasons than can be
explained here.
It may be surprising, but the data are all there in the reactive mind,
recorded and waiting to be contacted, erased and placed by the auditing
process into standard or nonaberative memory. The process thus releases
vital energy needed for the better functioning of the analytical mind.
it is obvious, then, that with every such release the analytical mind
recovers more and more of its original, endowed potential for clear and
rational thinking.
The term Clear is aptly chosen, for once Cleared, our former preclear
is, forever after, able to make up his mind in a fraction of the time
formerly required. And his decisions will be unbiased by emotion or
past disruptive experience: in a word, rational.
GLOSSARY
adroit:
cleverly skillful; expert.
allays:
puts something (such as doubts, concerns or the like) to rest; calms;
quiets.
disfigurement:
the fact or condition of being disfigured, made less attractive in
appearance, deformity.
peculiar:
distinctive in nature or character from all others; unique or specific
to a person or thing or category.
snatches:
small parts or bits of something; fragments.
FOR
CENTURIES MANY SCIENTISTS and philosophers have been studying the
convolutions of human thinking. The longer the study, the greater their
reassurance that we are the possessors of a most complex and
challenging instrument called the 
IN
THE FIRST ARTICLE, I tried to make clear that the main concern of
Dianetics is the 
