Dianetics – The Goal of Man

Source: youtube.com

Facing force with reason

Great insight into parenting (and life):

Came across an interesting quote while listening to the Dianetics Professional Course lectures, something I think has some applicability to the task of navigating the “terrible twos”. 

In this 1950  lecture where L. Ron Hubbard is training Dianetics professional counselors, he’s discussing the difference between getting to the bottom of what’s causing the person travail, or bypassing it and trying to force the person to do your bidding.  He says:  

“What one does is face force with reason and refuse to partake of the force but continue to give out reason. If one does this, he is using far more horsepower than the force has got.” – LRH

Reading that, I had one of those flashback moments to every time I’d ever seen someone get mad at a crying baby.  I know – when you’ve got a kid that’s crying and doesn’t stop crying it can drag one down to infuriation, but boy that is the wrong way to go. 

Take a kid who’s starting to get tired, and starts to get whiney and on the edge of tantrum-land.  If you were to just scream at them to shut the @#$# up and go play, you’re taking the force that’s already being brought to bear on them by their reactive minds.  Blast them with your own force (which, when they’re young, is likely going to be greater than what they can muster) and you’re just giving them more bottled-up force to unleash on you (and themselves) later.

Deal instead with reason, so that you instead are working with the child and not against him and his hostility. 

Personally, I’ve seen this best applied by reasoning with the child enough to find out what’s actually going on – and then after discovering that (i.e. discovering the child is tired, hungry, needs to poop, whatever), using REASON to affect a solution. 

Works so much better!

Dianetics – the best-selling self-help book of all time

May 9th marks the anniversary of the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard. Released May 9, 1950, the past six decades have seen the popularity of this best-selling self-help book continue to grow. Dianetics is now available in 165 nations in 50 languages, more than 21 million copies have been sold, and it has appeared on 116 bestseller lists, making it a publishing phenomenon.

A Scientologist on psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry

This is a great article giving one Scientologists view of psychiatry et al. I tend to agree.

Centennial celebrations announced for one of the most remarkable Americans of the 20th century

A worthy fellow:

Across major cities in the United States, the Americas, Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe millions will recognize the life works and legacy of L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) on his Centennial Celebration this coming March 13th, 2011. Celebrations will take place in commemoration of Mr. Hubbard’s many contributions in the areas of the arts, exploration, his fiction works, his work as a humanitarian and as the founder of the Scientology religion.

Born in Tilden, Nebraska on March 13th, 1911, the son of a Naval Officer, L. Ron Hubbard’s adventures and travels began at an early age by becoming the nation’s youngest Eagle Scout of his day in 1924 – just two weeks after his thirteenth birthday. By the age of 19 he had traveled over 250,000 miles before the advent of air travel by way of land and sea throughout America, the Caribbean and the Far East. These travels brought Mr. Hubbard face to face with many different cultures where he witnessed widespread social degradation in many different lands. This provided him a first hand insight into society’s most prevalent issues and served as a research base to his philosophical and humanitarian works in use today.

L. Ron Hubbard is known as one of the most prolific writers of the 20th Century, publishing 138 short stories, novelettes and novels during the 1930’s and 1940’s. This early writing career funded his continued research into the mind and the nature of man, only interrupted by his military service during WWII where he saw action both in the Atlantic and the Pacific. In 1948 Mr. Hubbard served as a Special Officer of the LAPD, which he used like any other experience in life – to observe in order to resolve problems concerned with social degradation.

His research led to the release of “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” and several years later was the founding of the Scientology Religion. Continuously researching in order to help his fellow man, L. Ron Hubbard later developed humanitarian programs for drug rehabilitation, detoxification, criminal reform, education and literacy, which are now used around the world. Mr. Hubbard’s common-sense, non-religious guide to better living – “The Way to Happiness” – has touched the lives of millions in a positive way.

Mr. Hubbard’s total body of literary accomplishments, fiction and non-fiction, expanded to become the largest single works for any individual – 35 million words, 12,000 writings and 3,000 recorded lectures.

“We are celebrating the centennial of one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th Century,” said President of the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation, Monica Sanz Polo. “Mr. Hubbard has left an indelible mark as an author, humanitarian and philosopher whose life works and legacy are known and cherished throughout the world.”

In anticipation of the L. Ron Hubbard Centennial, hundreds of letters of recognition, proclamations, awards and honors have been received by the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation from around the world in recognition of Mr. Hubbard’s works.

For more information on the life and works of L. Ron Hubbard visit the new interactive audio visual website http://www.lronhubbard.org/.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers provide aid the world over in 2010

The members of the largest independent relief organization in the world were all over the world in 2010, providing physical relief, mental aid and spiritual succor to those in need:

In the tradition of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, who worked tirelessly at Ground Zero in the months following 9/11, Scientologists took temporary leave of their homes, families and jobs in 2010 to help rescue the lives and livelihoods of victims of natural and manmade disasters.

Bringing the disaster relief techniques that have made the Volunteer Ministers’ bright yellow tents and T-shirts a symbol of effective help at more than 200 disaster sites worldwide, in 2010 they provided physical and spiritual aid to victims and rescue workers at more than a dozen major disaster sites.

  • January 2010 – Haiti

The defining moment of 2010 Volunteer Minister service began just before 5 p.m. on January 12 when a 7.0 earthquake sent shockwaves through the nation of Haiti. In reply, on January 16, the Church of Scientology sponsored a chartered transport from JFK, carrying hundreds of doctors, nurses and EMTs—as well as Volunteer Ministers, to provide support services for medical teams. In the weeks following, the Church sponsored four additional chartered flights for volunteer medical teams. Owing to logistical bottlenecks to the island, the Church further sponsored the chartering of a former Coast Guard vessel to transport hundreds of tons of medical supplies, equipment, food, water and clothing. Additional Scientology Volunteer Ministers accompanied each charter, to provide support in makeshift hospitals, camps for the homeless and orphanages. Volunteer Ministers also provided care to the injured and displaced, delivering “assists” to relieve spiritual and emotional trauma.

In total, working in liaison with international relief organizations, Volunteer Ministers from 22 nations stepped forward to answer the call for help in Haiti. As Vincent Gennaro, Assistant Chief of Surgery for Project Medishare’s Haiti Relief Effort put it, “No matter what we asked Volunteer Ministers to do—it didn’t make any difference. They didn’t ask any questions. They just did it.”

  • February 2010 – Chile

On February 27, an 8.8 earthquake devastated Chile, triggering three successive tsunami waves that struck coastal cities. Within hours, Chilean Volunteer Ministers were on the ground distributing supplies to the affected, in tandem with the Red Cross. Later joined by Volunteer Ministers from Mexico and the United States, they established their base outside Conception, the city hardest hit by the disaster. Their operation focused on providing logistical aid to disaster sites, from Donihue to Coltauco. Volunteer Ministers additionally teamed with naval personnel from the base in Vina del Mar. In providing emotional succor, more than 4,800 Chileans received help from Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

  • March 2010 – Uganda

In March, torrential rains in eastern Uganda touched off a series of mudslides, devastating villages. In response, Volunteer Ministers travelled from across the border in Kenya, assisting with search and rescue operations for unaccounted villagers. The Volunteer Ministers further assisted the displaced and injured living in “tent camps” housing nearly 30 thousand in the aftermath.

  • May 2010 – Nashville

On May 1, in the wake of Tennessee thunderstorms, the Cumberland River crested at 52 feet in Nashville—a level not seen since 1937. Volunteer Ministers mobilized from Nashville’s Church of Scientology, joining forces with local Red Cross. Volunteer Ministers also teamed with Hands-On Nashville, a local volunteer disaster unit, to provide on-the-ground coordination for relief efforts. Volunteer Ministers further established and operated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) food banks and vaccine stations in community centers across the city, in addition to assisting the National Guard with emergency ration distribution.

  • May 2010 – Guatemala

The Pacaya volcano erupted in Guatemala on May 28, with rising plumes 6 miles into the air. Guatemalan Volunteer Ministers immediately provided assistance in the shelters at Amatitlan. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Agatha’s floods and landslides, Volunteer Ministers attended evacuees in shelters at Villa Canales and San Miguel Escobar. For their efforts, Volunteer Ministers earned the respect and recognition from CONRED (National Coordination for the Reduction of Disasters) and were placed on their rolls of disaster relief forces.

  • July 2010 – Pakistan

When floods struck the Indus River Basin, it stood as Pakistan’s worst natural disaster in memory. Volunteer Minister teams from Karachi escorted and cared for displaced children, provided much-needed rations and supplies, and airlifted emergency medical teams to bring antibiotics and fresh water to those afflicted.

  • September 2010 – New Zealand

When New Zealand was hit with a 7.1 earthquake, Volunteer Ministers from Auckland ran relief logistics in partnership with the local Red Cross.

  • September 2010 – Northern California

In San Bruno, California, San Francisco-based Volunteer Ministers were among the first responders to a gasline explosion. They worked shoulder-to-shoulder with civil defense personnel to help clean up debris and man emergency ration lines.

_______________________

Through the course of providing disaster relief in the past 10 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 800 organizations, including the Red Cross, FEMA, National Guard, Salvation Army, Mexico’s International Rescue Brigade, Boy Scouts and hundreds of local, regional and national groups and organizations, giving freely of their skills, their care and compassion.

L. Ron Hubbard’s books now available in lending libraries across 192 lands

This is incredible. LRH is one of the most published and translated authors in history.

To make L. Ron Hubbard’s books and lectures of Dianetics and Scientology broadly available world over, the Church of Scientology has been engaged in a massive translation and publication program.

This included the 2010 establishment of Church publishing houses in Los Angeles, California, and Copenhagen, Denmark. These publishing houses feature the largest digital printing-line in the publishing industry. The translation program comprises more than a thousand translators across 50 nations, and speaking virtually every language. To date, translations total more than 150,000 pages. (Watch the video: Bringing Scientology to the World.)

With the completion of translation and publication of Church Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s Basic books of Scientology, the Church initiated a project to provide all of those works to every public lending library on Earth—a project which culminated in 2010.

The full scope of this library donation program encompassed more than 4.2 million books, CDs and DVDs to over 150 thousand libraries across 192 nations. In consequence, the Scripture of Scientology is now freely accessible to 90 percent of the world’s population, in [50] languages.

“I know no man who has any monopoly upon the wisdom of this universe. It belongs to those who can use it to help themselves and others.” – L. Ron Hubbard

There is a necessity for pleasure, a necessity as live and quivering and vital as the human heart itself. He who said that a man who had two loaves of bread should sell one to buy white hyacinth, spoke sooth. The creative, the constructive, the beautiful, the harmonious, the adventurous, yes, and even escape from the maw of oblivion: these things are pleasure and these things are necessity.
L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

Source: crystal-ships

Q:Hello, my name is Merisa Okic, a student of Medical Anthropology at the University of Kansas. I’m writing to you to ask you some questions on the topic of depression, and how this condition, disease, disorder, or whatever you’d like to classify it as, is viewed by the scientology community. While this email is born both out of curiosity and fascination with the scientologist’s view of depression, it is also born out of the requirements of an assignment. Yes, I’m emailing you to gather information for a paper. Am I looking for a definition I can find off the internet in 2.5 seconds? No, I’m interested in your professional opinion (as well as your personal opinion) on clinical depression, what it is, what it means, and how it can (and if it can) be cured. Your answers will be cited in a research paper comparing your answers with that of someone with a spiritual biomedical viewpoint on this topic, not in an effort to prove whose answers are “better” but merely to examine differences. If you choose to respond, your answers will be greatly appreciated.

8. What is depression?
9. What are the symptoms of depression?
10. What causes depression?
11. Is there a “cure” or way to treat the symptoms of depression?
12. Is depression on the rise/fall? Is it over-diagnosed/under-diagnosed?
13. In your opinion, is depression more a biological, psychological, or social condition/disorder?
14. What do you want people to know about depression? Any last words?

If you have anything to add, please feel free. Again, thank you for responding, if you choose to do so.

Sincerely,

Merisa Okic
mxokic@ku.edu

violenceandscience

I’m glad to answer your question as best I can. I’m not sure that I can speak for the Scientology community at large, but I can give you my understanding of what Scientology teaches about this subject.

I believe that depression is well defined in any standard English dictionary. I don’t think there’s really any dispute about how to define depression. As I understand it, it is a reduction of spirits, gloominess, listlessness, hopelessness, apathy. It’s a condition wherein the person essentially loses interest in life and is sad and hopeless.

As for whether depression is increasing in incidence, it seems so, at least in the eyes of the psychiatrists. But there seems to be significant evidence that the psychiatric drugs that supposedly treat depression are in fact causing it (these are just a few references—there are plenty more). I don’t know whether it is over-diagnosed, but given the propensity of psychiatrists to diagnose anything as a mental disorder, it probably is.

Depression has a number of potential causes, ranging from nutritional to spiritual. For instance, someone can have a physical illness that makes him feel depressed, or someone can be so undernourished or lacking in vital nutrients that he feels depressed. Physical causes are best evaluated by a medical doctor or nutritionist. If there is no physical cause, however, or perhaps in addition to a physical cause, depression is caused by mental recordings of past moments of trauma, such as past pain or severe emotional stress. These past moments reactivate and affect the person when a similar situation is present in the present-time environment. However, these past recordings are active on the person below the level of consciousness, so he usually has little idea where the feelings he is experiencing are coming from. This is best expressed in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, and you can find more information here. In all cases, physical or spiritual, the effect is essentially one of suppression of the person’s purposes and drive toward his goals, which reduces his ability to survive—hence the feeling of depression. This can also be caused by someone or some situation in the environment creating an oppressive effect on the person. In this case the person will become depressed when he feels he cannot do anything about the situation.

There is a way to eradicate depression. The first step would be to eliminate any physical factors as causes, by having a competent medical doctor examine the person and handle any nutritional problems, illnesses or injuries. Then any environmental influences with an oppressive effect on the person should be addressed, and the person should be helped to gain some degree of control over them. If it is not possible to bring the person to such a degree of control, the influence can simply be disconnected from. Finally, any spiritual factors, as described above, would be addressed by using the techniques of Dianetics and Scientology to desensitize or eliminate those factors in the mind causing the depression.

I believe that answers your questions. If you have others, please feel free to ask.

About the practice of "silent birth" in Dianetics and Scientology

This is an excellent article dispelling the mystery and controversy around the practice of silent birth in Scientology. From the article:

The whole topic of “silent birth” took center stage a few years back when Katie Holmes was giving birth to her daughter, Suri, and due to the media frenzy that generally surrounds Tom Cruise or Katie, the media of course was then all too eager to report all manner of variations on what “silent birth” was, doing virtually everything except referring to actual Scientology writings by L. Ron Hubbard on the subject. Unfortunate,  the tabloid pundits were all too willing to point out the “impracticality” of a “silent” birth, leaving beleaguered readers with odd impressions of be-gagged mothers trying to give birth in a cone of silence, or attending physicians jumping up and down with cue cards or sign placards telling the mother, “PUSH!”

Quite ridiculous, especially when given the sensible and entirely practical nature of having a quiet birth that is devoid of random chatter, emotional conversations and blathering by medical staff which can then adversely affect the baby (and the mother) later in life.