UNDERSTANDING THE MIND
THE GOAL OF LIFE:
The concise statement of the goal of life itself was one of the most fundamental breakthroughs of Dianetics. This, the dynamic principle of man’s existence, was discovered by L. Ron Hubbard and from this many hitherto unanswered questions were resolved.
The goal of life can be considered to be infinite survival. That man seeks to survive has long been known, but that it is his primary motivation is new. Man, as a life form, can be demonstrated to obey in all his actions and purposes the one command: “SURVIVE!”
This is the common denominator of all life and from it came the critical resolution of man’s ills and aberrations.
Once “Survive!” was isolated as the primary urge which explained all of a life form’s activities, it was necessary to study further the action of survival. And from that research it was discovered that when one considered pain and pleasure as part of the equation, he had at hand the necessary ingredients with which to understand all of life’s actions. Survival is not only the difference between life and death. There are various levels of survival. The better one is able to manage his life and increase his level of survival, the more he will have pleasure, abundance and satisfaction. Pain, disappointment and failure are the result of actions which do not promote survival.
For more: www.dianetics-australia.org.au/goaloflife.html
The Clear
From the book: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard
Dianetically, the optimum individual is called the Clear. One will hear much of that word, both as a noun and a verb, so it is well to spend time setting forth exactly what can be called Clear, the goal of Dianetics therapy.
A Clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neurosis, compulsions and repressions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any autogenic (self generated) diseases referred to as psychosomatic ills. These tests confirm the Clear to be entirely without such ills or aberration. Additional tests of his intelligence indicate it to be high above the current norm. Observations of his activity demonstrates that he pursues existence with vigor and satisfaction.
Further, these results can be obtained on a comparative basis. A neurotic individual, possessed also of psychosomatic ills, can be tested for those aberrations and illnesses, demonstrating that they exist. He can then be given Dianetic therapy to the end of clearing these neuroses and ills. Finally, he can be examined, with the above results. This, in passing, is an experiment which has been performed many times with invariable results. It is a matter of laboratory test that all individuals who have organically complete nervous systems respond in this fashion to Dianetic clearing.
Further, the Clear processes attributes, fundamental and inherent but not always available in an uncleared state, which have been suspected on Man and are not included in past discussions of his abilities and behaviour.
First there is the matter of perception. Even so-called normal people do not always see in full colour, hear in full tone, or sense at the optimum with their organs of smell, taste, tactile and organic sensation.
There are main lines of communication to the finite world which most people recognize as reality. It is an interesting commentary that while past observers felt that the facing of reality was an absolute necessity if the aberrated individual wished to be sane, no definition of how this was to be done was set forth. To face reality in the present, one would certainly have to be able to sense it along those channels of communication most commonly used by Man in his affairs.
Any one of Man’s perceptions can be aberrated by psychic derangements which refuse to permit the received sensations to be realized by the analytical portion of the individual’s mind. In other worlds, while there may be nothing wrong with the mechanism of colour perception, circuits can exist in the mind which delete colour before the consciousness is permitted to see the object. Colour blindness can be discovered to be relative to the degrees in such a way that colours appear to be less brilliant, dull or, at the maximum, entirely absent. Anyone is acquainted with persons who find them insufficiently “loud” to notice. This varying degree of colour blindness has not been recognized as a psychic factor, but has been nebulously assumed to be some sort of a condition if mind when it was noticed at all.
There are those persons to whom noises are quite disturbing to whom, for instance, the insistent whine of a violin is very like having a brace and bit applied to the eardrum; and there are those to whom fifty violins, played loudly, would be soothing; and there are those who, in the presence of a violin, express disinterest and boredom; and, again, there are persons to whom the sound of a violin, no matter if it be playing the most intricate melody, is a monotone. These differences of sonic (hearing) perception have, like colour and other visual errors, been attributed to inherent nature or organic deficiency or assigned no place at all.
In a like manner, from person to person, smells, tactile sensations, organic perceptions, pain and gravity vary widely and wildly. A cursory check around among his friends will demonstrate to a man that there exist enormous differences of perception of individual stimuli. One smells a turkey in the oven as wonderful, one smells it with indifference, another may not smell it at all. And somebody else may maintain that roasting turkey smells exactly like old hair oil, to the extreme.
In other words, there are two variables at work. One, the wildest, is the variable caused by aberrations. The other, and quite rational and understandable; is caused by the personality.
The continue reading more about the state of Clear: www.dianetics-australia.org.au/clear.html
