We have had some fun with History of Man here, and so too have many others.
Let’s take a moment to look at another of the Hubbard books that gets less airtime because it is not as overtly batshit crazy as HOM — the Creation of Human Ability.
Published in 1954, COHA (everything is an acronym in scientology) is primarily Hubbard trying to offer the solution to nobody being able to go Clear with Dianetics.
It starts with typical Hubbard bluster about the magnificence of his discoveries and how well-read he is and how scientology follows in the tradition of great philosophies, religions and thinkers — which sounds good here, but was then completely trashed when he wrote Keeping Scientology Working:
Scientology is the science of knowing how to know answers. It is a wisdom in the tradition of ten thousand years of search in Asia and Western Civilization. It is the Science of Human Affairs which treats the livingness and beingness of Man, and demonstrates to him a pathway to greater freedom.
Subjects which were consulted in the organization and development of Scientology include the Veda; the Tao, by Lao Tzu; the Dharma and the Discourses of Gautama Buddha; the general knowingness about life extant in the lamasaries of the Western Hills of China; the technologies and beliefs of various barbaric cultures, the various materials of Christianity, including St Luke; the mathematical and technical methodologies of the early Greeks, Romans, and Arabians; the physical sciences, including what is now known as nuclear physics, including the various speculations of Western Philosophers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Herbert Spencer, and Dewey, and the various technologies extant in the civilization of both the Orient and Occident in the first half of the twentieth century.
This book is where the Code of Honor was first published, something that has justified many immoral and cruel things over the history of scientology — specifically including the infamous line “never fear to hurt another in a just cause”
1. Never desert a comrade in need, in danger or in trouble
2. Never withdraw allegiance once granted
3. Never desert a group to which you owe your support
4. Never disparage yourself or minimize your strength or power
5. Never need praise, approval or sympathy
6. Never compromise with your own reality
7. Never permit your affinity to be alloyed
8. Do not give or receive communication unless you yourself desire it
9. Your self- determinism and your honor are more important than your immediate life
10. Your integrity to yourself is more important than your body
11. Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow
12. Never fear to hurt another in a just cause
13. Don’t desire to be liked or admired
14. Be your own adviser, keep your own counsel and select your own decisions
15. Be true to your own goals
Scientology of course is always a “just cause.”
This is where he laid out the importance value of Objective Processes — the crazy “Walk over to that wall. Touch that wall.” stuff.
But it is also a book that contains some really bizarre stuff relating to “exteriorization” which is something he claims can be accomplished by following his directions in this book. He then has a process to be used once the person has “gone exterior” that he called THE GRAND TOUR…
GRAND TOUR: A process used on an exteriorized thetan to free him from the craving for mass and to bring into present time a greater portion of the MEST universe.
The commands of the Grand Tour are as follows: ‘Be near Earth’, ‘Be near the Moon’, ‘Be near the Sun’, ‘Be near the Earth’, ‘Be near the Moon’, ‘Be near the Sun’, ‘Earth’, ‘Moon’, ‘Sun’, giving the last three commands many times. Each time the auditor must wait until the preclear signifies that he has completed the command. The preclear is supposed to move near these bodies or simply be near them, it does not matter which. The Grand Tour continues with ‘Now find a rock’, ‘Be inside of it’, ‘Be outside of it’, ‘Inside’, ‘Outside’, ‘Inside’, ‘Outside’, ‘Be in the center of the Earth’, ‘Be outside of Earth’, ‘Inside’, ‘Outside’, and back and forth until the preclear is able to do this very rapidly. Then the Grand Tour continues, ‘Be near Mars’, ‘Be at the center of Mars’, ‘Outside of Mars’, ‘Center’, ‘Outside’,
‘Now more down slowly toward the surface’. The preclear will probably question this, for he has run into a force screen, or thinks he has. ‘All right then, be on the surface of Mars’, ‘Be above Mars’, ‘Be on the surface’, ‘Be above Mars’, ‘Move down to the surface of Mars’. He is shifted into various positions in the vicinity of Mars until he is entirely used to that planet. When the preclear is entirely comfortable in the solar system by reason of running the Grand Tour, do Change of Space with him, first on all the locations where he has received auditing, therapy or treatment of any kind here on Earth. Next do all the key locations mentioned in ‘What to Audit’ (History of Man) such as the entrance point of the MEST universe, the place where he made his first facsimile, etc. This is run in this fashion: ‘Be at the place where you
entered the MEST universe’, ‘Be at the center of this room’, ‘Center of this room’, ‘Entrance point’, ‘Room’ and so forth until the entrance point is in present time. The preclear should be made to run change of space on any area until that area is in present time.
Elsewhere he makes Clear Dianetics was not all it was cracked up to be:
R2- 33: PERFECT DUPLICATION
Had this process existed in 1950, there would have been no difficulty in Dianetics, for in the perfect duplicate we find how to vanquish an engram. All one needs to do is to make a
perfect duplicate of the engram, and then make a perfect duplicate of having perfectly duplicated the engram, in present time, and the engram is gone. This would also apply to ridges or any other energy manifestation.
Engrams, or whole chains of engrams, can be vanquished in a few seconds by perfect duplication.
Para-Scientology is that large bin which includes all greater or lesser uncertainties. Here are the questionable things, the things of which the common normal observer cannot be sure with a little study.
Here are theories, here are groups of data, even groups commonly accepted as ‘known’. Some of the classified bodies of data which fall in Para-Scientology are: Dianetics, incidents on the ‘whole-track’, the immortality of Man, the existence of God, engrams containing pain and unconsciousness and yet all perception, prenatals, clears, character, and many other things which, even when closely and minutely observed, still are not certain things to those who observe them.
This certainly doesn’t sound like Hubbard’s proclamations in 1950 and then later when he “reinstated” Dianetics after regaining the copyright in 1955.
The majority of this book, outside of the “Objectives” concerns what Hubbard called “Creative Processing” (imagining things — like being on Mars). He later claimed Creative Processing was dangerous and it become verboten in scientology. But this book is still peddled as part of the “Basics” and all scientologists are expected to read it.
I know from previous posts the cover is an image from the “R6 bank” that LRH thought would trigger a response. But what the hell is the actual story? The volcanoes, I get. The angel and the soldier I get. What was his explanation?
“Never withdraw allegiance…” – But of course members are expected to give up all their prior allegiances such as to other faiths and even if necessary (or ordered) to family. Typically of all of this, it’s to be read and interpreted just in the CofS’ favor.
I had the hardest time on course or reading any lrh books. Of course it was “my fault” for having mu’s, false data, study case, etc.
It was demeaning, invalidating and introverting being hammered to get it.
Wtf, wire hanger abortions result in homosexuality, Clams, meat grinders????
Come to find out, my problem was trying to understand crazy, and make it “my own.”
Off topic, but sorta related.
This brought to mind the “Hubsters Cover Art” sales.
Now I’m wondering how much all of that has “skyrocketed”.
Doubled? Tripled? 10X? [ I slay myself, sometimes. 🙂 ]
I didn’t do any of the ‘OT’ levels but from what I have heard, the original ‘OT’ levels (before NOTs and the renaming them to New OT blah blah blah…) consisted of a lot of ‘creative processing’. Most of the rest of us would refer to this as visualization. I have no idea why Hubbard would consider this dangerous unless he just considered his version of visualization less effective at extracting money from his marks. I’ve listened to a lot of the Philadelphia Doctorate Course tapes and ‘creative processing’ was a main feature there.
Visualization is a common practice in Tibetan Buddhism when one undertakes the the vajrayana level practices. I know may people who have engaged in these practices on a daily basis for decades and see no harm coming their way. The same cannot be said for scientology processes. Even if they don’t do any mental damage, they certainly do damage to personal relationships and finances.
Ma. B. Haven, actually, I personally found several connections between Eastern practices and the “techniques” of the early periods – the 1950s, to be precise. Surely, that early period was more influenced by the idea of adapting Buddhist techniques with psychoanalysis and practices of Crowley’s OTO. But without giving credit to any of them, instead making it appear as if they were his own discoveries. There are ancient meditative practices that believe emotions, as energy, are stored in the body and can be released to heal or not influence the body. This is surprisingly similar to the tale of BTs.
In fact, as you pointed out, simply promoting meditation or these techniques wouldn’t have brought in money, nor would it have kept people engaged, eventhough it would have been more helpful.
OT3 and NOTS are also visualisation processes, comparable to modern “guided imagery” techniques. The same could be said for engram running. Whilst holding Hubbard’s clammy, dead hand, the subject is guided through i) image generation, ii) maintenance, iii) inspection and iv) transformation. [1]
The assumed collective trauma addressed on the upper bridge means this process becomes impersonal and abstract. And because this imagery is presented as literal, the subject is unable to inspect it unreservedly, thus arguably limiting the possibility of real transformation.
I’m reminded of Geir Isene, who claimed to have had great success when viewing BTs as nothing more than extensions of himself: past viewpoints, valences/archetypes, etc, that he’d distanced himself from and was no longer taking responsibility for…
‘The solution is to take full responsibility for all one’s viewpoints and roles and retain those which serves one well in present time. When one asks the question “Who are you?” to such a viewpoint on OT 5-7, one is seeking to realize that the viewpoint is in fact oneself – hence one answers “me” to the question. It is not a “me” from another person that answers the question, it is one’s own realization that the viewpoint is “me”. One’s old viewpoints comes under one’s own control and responsibility. That one is not running out and blowing off thousands of separate beings solves the conundrum that there are no verified records of any body thetans having shown up later in a body and continuing his spiritual journey in Scientology.’ [2]
But what do I know. It is interesting though. As is the claim that effective guided imagery, like “effective” scientology, requires hypnotic susceptibility and dissociative ability. [3][4]
Refs
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_imagery
2. https://isene.me/2012/12/10/ot-8/
3. Tellegen, A., Atkinson, G., Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences (absorption), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 83, No. 3, 1974, pp. 268–277.
4. Bond, K., Ospina, M. B., Hooton, N., Bialy, L., Dryden, D. M., Buscemi, N., Shannahoff-Khalsa, D., Dusek, J., and Carlson, L. E., ‘Defining a complex intervention: The development of demarcation criteria for “meditation”‘. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol. 1, No. 2, May 2009, pp. 129–137.
MWesten, I always appreciate your comments. I might have misunderstood, but in the end, hubby makes you go on a much longer, convoluted, and expensive journey to understand what you can achieve in a couple of months of Zen meditation or yoga (done properly). Just a confusion about Consciousness identities instead of pastlifes. You are the observer, and everything revolves and happens around this condition, period.
Yes, I fear Hubbard’s
sci-fireligious imagery was for him to inspect, and him alone.It’s not much of a stretch to imagine the subconscious drama within the mind of a troubled sci-fi writer with a penchant for blaming others, would present itself as prison planets, theta traps and body thetans.
Or that HCOB Pain & Sex came from the mind of a self-loathing, mythomaniacal manslut who could no longer get it up.
The mind is so fragile. Preconditioning the student in space opera, often long before the first session, will undoubtedly affect recall during therapy. Would a pc have recalled blowing up a planet, gazillions of years ago, if Hubbard hadn’t already told him, repeatedly, that he could? I’m going to say…no.
Accepting this imagery as literal truth arguably increases the potency of the placebo effect but it misses the opportunity for genuine inspection – especially on the metaphorical/symbolic level. The subconscious vomits up all kinds of crap, lets face it. From dreams to peak experiences. Even a scientologist should know the imagery presented when dreaming is not necessarily/literally “true” and that prior events and conversations can influence content. But such distinctions are rejected when it comes to scientology.
Thanks. In a previous post I wrote something about it. Here it is.
There are two psychological phenomena to look at.
The first is priming. This is a psychological phenomenon whereby exposure to certain stimuli influences the subsequent response to similar or related stimuli. This process occurs implicitly, often without the person being aware of the influence of the initial stimulus on their behavior or perceptions. For example, if a person is exposed to ideas associated with the concept of ‘past lives,’ such as ‘thetan’ or ‘incidents’ or ‘whole track stories’ they may then respond more quickly to words or images related to that.
Priming works by creating a kind of ‘ground’ in the mind, preparing the subject to interpret subsequent information in line with the initial stimulus. This ground can be influenced by past experiences, personal beliefs, and previous information. This primed ground can then influence the emotions generated by beliefs.
For example, if a person is convinced they are a spiritual being with specific past-life experiences as teached by hubbard, priming may predispose them to interpret current experiences in a way that confirms this belief. Previous information and personal beliefs thus become the groundwork upon which emotions related to past spiritual experiences develop and amplify, even if these experiences are not objectively verified.
In this way, priming and emotions generated by beliefs are closely interconnected, as priming creates the mental context that makes it more likely to experience emotions in line with pre-existing beliefs.
Hubbard knew that and used it extensively.
In other words a lot of meter reads can happens.
Stay well.
Thanks, Loose. Yes, priming…good word. And I agree that confirmation bias plays its part well. I still remember the first time I ever “exteriorised” (during OT TR0). I was so confused. I didn’t know anything about dissociation at the time so my only real point of reference was Hubbard. I wanted to believe! I was high as a kite for weeks afterwards. It was such a game changer.
MWesten, thank you, that was a really interesting chat. I always seek a logical explanation beyond hubbard’s dogmatic assertions. The “mechanical/functional” part that either comprises them or discredits them. After scn, I embarked on a spiritual journey (a genuine one, from my point of view, including a perspective influenced by quantum physics, why not?) and what I currently consider valid is that there is a single Consciousness that manifests from any existing point of view with the purpose of gaining self experience. So there are no past lives ‘lived’ as we understand them, but rather different ‘identities’ of a single consciousness.
However, these points of view seem to have a margin of free will. The extreme is believing to be independent from the single Consciousness. Hubbard’s nonsense was in that direction and will surely remain in “lowers” for a good while. Lol.
I’ve always said that hubbard was someone who sold fur coats before he even caught the bear, and then he would run away at night, never having caught one. All life long.
First of all, to say that scn takes inspiration from the Vedas takes a brass face (which he certainly had), given that they go in opposite directions. Almost all Eastern spirituality revolves around meditation as a means to disidentify from the apparent ‘Self’ and understand what you are, not ‘who’ you are.
Instead, scn aims to sublimate the ‘Self/ego’ and try to make it persist eternally. Furthermore, if concepts like thetan and meter reads had even slightly different explanations, all that scn is would lose utility like a flat tire.
What makes the difference is what people understand or want to hear.
That’s very interesting that Hubbard considered those processes dangerous. I was at Big Blue for 2 weeks in 89 which would have been 3 years after Hubbard causatively dropped the body.
My auditor ran a process out of that book on me. We drove up to the Griffith observatory and he would have me look at people and say the command “Have the thing that is wrong with you be wrong with that person” or something like that. The process is right out of creation of human ability.
I submitted Hubbard’s “discoveries” to Google’s Gemini AI chat. It was, well, less than complimentary:
• Overly Broad Claims: Claiming their belief is the ultimate “science of knowing how to know answers” is grandiose and lacks supporting evidence.
• Vague Definitions: Terms like “livingness” and “beingness” are unclear and require further explanation.
• Questionable Methods: Including “technologies and beliefs of barbaric cultures” raises ethical concerns about how these cultures are viewed.
• Misinformation: Understanding nuclear physics doesn’t necessarily translate to understanding human existence.
• Name-Dropping: Listing philosophers without explaining how their ideas contribute weakens the argument.
Overall Plausibility:
The statement has some positive aspects but suffers from overreach and a lack of clear explanation. It reads more like a shopping list of impressive-sounding ideas than a coherent philosophy.
😂😂😂😂😂
🎯😂
So this is one of the basic books in Scientology. And everyone is expected to read it if they are in. Im not surprised at that. On a whole different topic the book cover is horrifying.I mean I know it was published in 1954 but did the cover of the book have to be that disturbing.
It is one of the covers Hubbard mandated, based on his “whole track recall” of images used to control people. He dictated what was to be on the cover of each book in the 60’s.
Thus the locomotive. The volcano on Dianetics. The weird snakes and people in white jumpsuits and helmets. The angels. The anthropomorphic god on Intro to Scn Ethics.
Fortunately these were abandoned when Miscavige redid the books as part of the “Basics” and the “3D” graphics, foil and huge “L. Ron Hubbard” became the “ideal” books look.
If Hubbard mandated the design of the book covers I wonder why he didn’t bother to “disappear” the dedication in ‘Science of Survival’. I acquired that book around ’78 and it still had the original dedication to Alexis (sp?), the daughter that he disowned. I’m sure that dedication went away when Miscavige carried out his re-do of the book covers. If I remember correctly dmsmh also had a dedication to Dr. Winter who would later become a critic of dianetics.
Good question. I don’t think he ever looked inside the books. He was interested in selling the books.
That would seem to be pretty compelling evidence that Hubbard did believe his own BS?
Yes. Just read about him trying to get rid of BT’s at the end of his life as recounted by Sarge.
I had the same reaction to the cover of the book. Like what the hell? So I looked at the rest of the book covers from aroundthat time. And they are all just eriee.
I’m personally terrified but the cover photo suggests Hubs was actually a visionary in the Furry/Fursuit scene.
I have a coworker that always rips on the furry kids at the bowling alley. I want to tell him that being young with almost zero prospects for paying off your college loans or purchasing a home might lead you to escapism. I prefer that attitude to a simmering murderous rage toward those who were born in a generation where owning property was attainable.
“1. Never desert a comrade in need, in danger or in trouble”
Says the coward who wangled a shore job in Australia, while the rest of those on the SS President Polk sailed of into combat. And who got himself reassigned from the USS Algol right before she was due to depart for duty with the Pacific Fleet.
What you said also applies to a certain pompadoured narcissistic little coward who spends almost all his time hiding in scotch barrels.
I think that it was COHA that had that responsibility chapter that was used against me to make me responsible for everything bad that happens anywhere. Yah, no need to worry about that anymore. Just like the state of man lectures, where you learn again about how short that you are on responsibility. Being taught those things really to only further your head deeper into the ground.
That is in Advanced Procedure and Axioms
Oh, that’s right. I’m happy to have forgotten, if you know what I mean!!
🙂
If they truly believed in the principle of full responsibility/pan-determinism, they would recognise they are the ultimate source of all disaffection, criticism, protestation and bad PR that they consistently pull in.
But they don’t.
Most odd.
Brilliant comment. Bravo. 👍