Ingo Swann/scientological techniques
- Ingo Swann's paper - "SCIENTOLOGICAL TECHIi-IQUES:A MODERN PARADTGM FOR EXPIORATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
1973, Prague
- Note:this is a text conversion from a pdf and it needs to be cleaned up.
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SCIENTOLOGICAL TECHIi-IQUES: A MODEFN PARADTGM FOR TIIE EXPIORATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND PSSYCIC INTEGRATION
[Paper by Ingo Swann, Church of Scientofory, in English]
[Text] In L953, a novel method. of psychical rehabilitation through the use of recall and. erasure of traumatic material- was introduced by the publication of "Dianetics: Mod.ern Science of tr4ental Healttrr" by l. Ron zultara.
It enjoyed. volurdnous sales and" accJ.ai-m. Itubbard zubsequent\y d.eveloped other mental inspection processes which, because these d.iffered. in conterct fbon Dianetic recall, he temed. as scientolory, or rrthe science of knowing how to know." Since the introduction of scientolory, both the subject and the rnovenent it has inspired anong many peopl-e have been bottr topics of derision fyon detractors on the one hand, and. the source of signifieant emergent ability iwlFrovement on the other hand among most who have availed theroselves of seientological techniques. It is not the plryose of this present paper to rerriew the phenonenolory dianetics and. scientology have engendered. in the sociological sense. Neither fill an endeavor be nad.e to view the zubject llon the viewpoint of critical appraisal. An assessment of scientoJ-ogical teehnigues indicates wide possibilities for pedagogical- studJ'. A review of the l-iterature of the scientological premises and. methods ind.j-cate involvement w:ith the problematic man and his view of himself as a conscious psyehic entlty atteqtting to correlate hinself with ptrysica-1 constnrcts of matter, energf, spaee and tj.ne.
It is tttus
seen that the fl:.nd.anentals of scientological inquiry stand upon certain concepts of awareness and consciousness, as weLL as psyclr:ic apprj.sement of nan within the physical universe. fn this context the premises and techniques of scientology, as established by its found.er, L. Ron
in many aspects to have both valuable correlates in several fields of scientifie inguiry, and. al-so contain possibte practical application within the context of ernergent alternative flrtrre histories. Ifubbard., are seen
It is
al4larent that the mod.es and. method.s of scientological inquiry have during a tj-me i-n r,itrich manrs cherished. v:iew of hjmself as a
energed.
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mechanistic organisn has ccme und.er observation and. chalJerge. As earJry as the Last cenhrry, as ind.ieated by Margenau (f ), tfre v:iew that heJ.d a-ll- interactions to be involved with naterial. objects rras quickJry disabused. by advancing discovery. It is now welL estabLished that there are fieLds wbich are whol\r nonmaterial-. Quantum mechanical i-nteractions of physlcal psi fields are, in a zubtle way, nonmaterial, yet they are described. by the nost j-uportant and the most basic e-.quations of present-tlay quant;m mechan-
tcs.
As ear3ry as pll, Edd.ington (Z) iraa indicated. tirat the nind has rby its sel-ective power fitted. the processes of nature into a -f"ane of law of a pattern largely of its own chooslng; and in the diseovely of ttr-is system of larr the mind may be regard.ed. as regaining flom nature that r*rich the nind. has put into nat*e.'r WhiLe this view night well- be eonsiclered specuJ-ative, in 1937 Jeans (f ) naa ind.ieated. the w'id.e measure of agreenent a.nong the sciences, almost approaching una!.iynibr, that the accu:o,rlation of kno'wl.e$ge of the physieal sciences was head.ing toward a nonrnechanical- real-ity, anti that the '\rniverse begins to look more like a great thorght tha"n like a great nachine.t' Itubbard (4), in establishing in 1952 basic concepts for scientological thought, indicated that if life (Life) :-s a ni.rf,or antl a creator of motion which can be nrirrored., it follows then that mirror-w'ise, the whoLe of the Laws of motion can be found in thought and behav:ior, ancl even thinking partakes of the physical universe laws regard.ing natter, enersr, space and tirne. In essenee, lfubbard was leil to postuJ-ate in add.ition to the usual physical coneepts an ad.d.itional- aspect ryhich he l-abeIed. "theta"--or thought--anci which follows d.eflnite laws, to account for life phenomena. It was his opinion that such an extension was necessary ln ord.er to express In its tota3-ity the anjmate as weII as the inaninate world of matter in motion. (5)
r,Iriting in L)J2, Parili (5) feft that the psychcplgrsical palra].lelim envi: sioned. in the l-ast century couId. not account for the genera3- problen posed by the relationships of uind/body, by ttre irurer and. outer, and. that nodern science, by introducing the coneept of com;13-ementarity into physics itself perhaps had. ind.icated. a more satisfactory solution if nind and bodgr could also be interpreted. as cor4fanentarlr aspects of the sa.ne reality. Clricago lectures :-'n3],2), Heisenberg (7), in reviewing the flrnclaruenprinci-ples of quantum theory had ind.ieated. that although the theory of tal relativity ruakes the greatest of demands on the abiliff for abstract thought, nevertheless it flrl-fiIIed. requirements of traditional scj-ence. It pe:mitted. division of the world into srrbject a.nd. objeet (obse:rrer and. observed.), &d henee a elear delineation of the laws of causality. However, in quanturn theory, where in classica3- p\rsical theory it was assumed that observer-obsenred. interaction was negligible, this assu-uption was not pe:rnissibJ-e in atornic plSrsi-cs, sinee the interaction between obse:srerobserved. caused large or uncontrollable eha.rrges in the systen being r'
In his
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obsenrecl. Heisenberg (8) inaicated srbsequently ttrat d.own at the atcrcic 1-evel, the objective world. in space ancl tirne no longer existed.. tr\fther, the mathematical synbols of theoretical pl:ysics referted mere\r to possibilities and. probabillties, not to facts. By I)Jz, the tj:ne of ltubbard.'s major theoretlcal productlon, it had becme witt- eslabllshed. in science in general, at least in theory, that in ternrs as of quantr:rn pirysics, concepts concerning absolute space and. ti.roe as weLL maof concept classica-l (9) the Sbrther, calrsal-ity fr"A to be abandoned. terial substancb was no longer upheld, since atculic particl-es d.id. not possess the unambiguors nabrre of the solid. bodies of the rnacroscopic world..
With the prysical sciences grappling w'ith this vacuum, Itubbard. felt it necessa4r tJinterject a metaphaysical prenise, wluich became the basis of scientological thought. He introduced the concept that the considerations wlich ihe conscious or psychic entity holds take rank over the mechanics of space, energy and time. Since tlds vas by obsenration obvious\y not the r*r.f-caser-he zugg"stea (fO) that the individual $as in an inverted state, and ttrat ttre primaql goal of scl-entology would be to bring an j:rdividual into such thorough commnication with the physical- universe that he could regain the power and. the abillty of his or,in postulates. IIe indicated that thJ nechanics of the ptrysical- (and eventua!-\r the mental) universe are the products of agreed-upon consid.erations which life m.:tually holds. Aceorrting 1o this line of ttrought the reason we have space, energy, tiroe, objects, etc., is that life has agreed. upon certain things, and ttuis agreenent has resuit6a in a solid.ifi-cation. Orr agreed-upon naterial is then quite observable.
tn L953, Eccles (t1-) wrote that in practical- life atl sane men assumeofthey thi ability to mod.if! and. eontrol their actions by the exercise wiIL. Ttrere was, he stated., no doubt that a great part of activity fYon the cerebral cortex is stereoty?ed. and. autoraatic. Bat he contended" that it would be possible to assme voluntarlr' control of such actions, Ttre neurophysiological lq4lothesis would. be that the "w-i11" nodifies the spaf,io1.rU'oral activity of the neuronal network by exerting spatio-tem5roral "field.s of influence. " Since sueh rdnd'i-nfluences harre not yet been d.efrave-
teeted. by any existj-ng plrysical instyr:ment, they have been neglected. constmcting the l5rpotheses of physies
in
These "uind.-influences" have not been neglected in the seientological systan, however. Itrrbbard. (tZ) inaicates that the aspects of existence when viewed. from the leve1 of rnan is a reverse of the greater tnrth above, for rrian seens tO wOrk on the Secondar5r opinion that mechanics are real, and. that his own personal eonsid.erations are Jess i-uportant than space, enerry a3d tjme. Tttis, he suggests, is an inversion. He fl:rther indicates that the fleed"om of an individual- d.epends upon that individual's fbeedom to aIter his consid.erations of 'space, enerry, tj-ne and forts of l-ife and his roles 1n it. If he eannot change his nind about these, he is then fjxed' aroid.st barriers sueh as those of the plrysl-cal universe, and mental barriers
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of hj.s olm creation. fhr,s, he is generallJr han4Ling his existential environnent.
ivnpotent
ln ma4r respects in
Koestler (1S) in I)+5, indicated that volition, in its psyehological aspeet, nay be the interplay of i4nrlses and inhibitions. lf this interplay takes place on the conscious or, as llrbbard srggests, on the higher sensory f\rnctlonat 1evel, it is efperienced as a process of choice, and. the zubjectlrre experience of fbeeclccr becmes stronger the el-oser the process is to the focus of attention. It is frrrther indicated. that the experience of fbeedm resulting fYom processes in tLre focus of attention is probably synonyllnlls with consciousness itsel-f .
In establishing conceptual scientolory, tirbbard proscribed. two d.istinet di1nisions in scientolory. The first is phiJ.osophic; the second is concerned' with technical aspects, these being the orclered. processes ancl psychopi:ysioIogical feedback techniques derived fYm research to restore to the ind.ividual the eonscious process of ehoice, both in terns of hj-mself and. in tems of his faniLiarity, thus, cause, with the plrysical universe. Any ottrer condition of existenee, Iirbbard suggests, contrilrutes to a less than seLf-deten::ined existence in a ptrysical- universe which is the inevitable average of illusion. The end point of the clianetic and scientol-ory rehabilitative processes is considered. to be the ability to be conscious and ceusal in any desired. ciirection of aetivity, and ttrus has i:rplications for the developnent of alternative futr:re histories in which psychoenergetic factors rnay pl-ay a:r increasing role.
This present papef uitl contain a description of relevant seientol-ogical plr-iloioplic factors, as weff as certain technotogical processes, and wlJJinclud.e d.escriptive data on certain scientological- concepts which d.o not as yet have correlations in other fiel-d.s of inguiry. fhe concluding discussion wiLL ind.icate certa:in potential directions for scientologieal- applications. BIBLIGSAPIIY l_.
z.
Ma:rgenau,
H.,
"ESP
in the trYanework of Mod.ern
and ESPr" Iondon, 1967, p
Eddington, A., "The Nahrre
p 2!4.
Sclencer"
in
"scienee
2o7,
of the Pt5rsica1 Worldr"
New
Tork, L93It
3.
Jeans, Sir James, "The }rysterious Universer" carbridge, p l22ff.
4.
Iirbbard, L. Ron, "Scientolog'yE8-80, Ttre Diseovery and Increase of Life
L937,
Eier5rr" Sussex, L952, p I5'
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Iirbbard., !. Ron, "Control and. the Mechanics of SCSr" Ed.inburght L957, p 18. 6. pauli, W., "Der Einfllss Archetlrpischer Vorstel-lungen auf die Sitdung Natrrnrissenschafblicher Theorien bei Kaplerr" in "Jung-Parrli, Naturerklaenrrrg und. ?sycher" Stu&ien aus d.em C. G. Jung-Institut, Zurich, fV, L952, p 164.
,.
7.
Ileisenberg, W., "The Physlcat Principles of the Qrantun [Lleoxryr" Chicago, 1930, PP 1-3.
8. Hei'senberg, w., "Der Teil und. d.as Ga;nzer" Mrnich, L969, pp 63-64. g. ya. p. Terletskii, "Pa^Tad.oxes in the ftreory of Rel-ativityr" Neu York, 1958.
Pfroenix Lechrresr" Edi-nburgh, 1!68, pp 36-37'
10.
lfubbard.,
1I.
Eccl-es, Sir John, "The Nzurophysiol-ogicaL Basis 1913, W 276-285.
L. Ron, "ftte
of ltind.r"
Ocford,
L. Ron, "ftte Creation of Hrnan Ability, A i{andbook for Sci-entologistsr" I,os Angeles, L95\' pp lo-LL. 13. Koestler, A., "The Roots of Coincidencer" NeT'I York, L972, p |hf.
L2.
lfubbarcl,
COHRIGIIT: Zdenek Rejd.ak, Prague, 1973
cso: 9l\\/tgg1
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