Scientology Technical Dictionary – Historical
| Scientology Technical Dictionary – Historical | |
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| Type of Article | Category:History of Scientology |
This is a stub – further data and editing requested.
Scientology has grown and altered over the years since its inception in 1950. The importance of communication was discovered very early on. The importance of words and their meanings was also understood very early. However it took many years to fully implement this understanding in terms of creating dictionaries (there were glossaries in some early Scientology books, for example in Scientology 8 – 80, first edition 1952, there is a 21 page glossary compiled by Alphia Hart, BScn).[1] There also arose a complication in that some of the subjects explored in Scientology did not have a name in the English language, so Scientology names were evolved for them. Further, some common English words were used with slightly different meanings on occasion. Therefore the need for a Scientology dictionary was very evident from earlier days.
In the 60s Ron evolved a plan and gave orders for creating a Tech Dictionary. This plan involved making a very small Scientology dictionary and giving this out for free as an advertisement for a comprehensive Scientology Tech Dictionary. An Abridged Scientology Dictionary was issued in the late 60s (probably 1967) from St. Hill, and nothing much happened for a while. A Danish translation of this Abridged Scientology Dictionary was issued, probably under local initiative (translating a dictionary to another language is a rather interesting feat!). One imagines the common occurrence in Scientology organisations: other important projects came up and people were moved to those projects and the dictionary project was more or less abandoned.
One can guess that also another common Scientology organisation experience occurred: Ron discovered that his orders had not been carried out and ordered that it be done as fast as possible. A Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary appeared in 1975. It contained a fairly comprehensive list of the contributors including "Side Checkers: John Eastment/David Mayo"; interesting as David Mayo was later made a nonperson. A sign that this dictionary was rather hurriedly put together is the fact that a rather thick booklet, an errata, was sold with the book. It was a stapled little booklet of about 40 pages and was liable to get separated from the book and lost.
Hubbard's orders for the compilation of Dictionaries were very strict. Only his words were to be used. The compiling team (two compilers and five researchers) therefore had to search through Ron's tapes and bulletins to find suitable definitions. You might agree that they are not always the most helpful possible, and certainly do not comply with what is usually understood by dictionary definition. This despite the fact that Ron gives a little bit of data on definitions in Logic number 5 (where he talks of a descriptive definition, a differentiative definition, an associative definition, and an action definition). If after searching diligently the compilers could not find a suitable definition in Ron's own words they were allowed to refer to Ron for a definition, and you will occasionally find a definition which instead of referring to an LRH Bulletin, book, tape etc. as source has the words "LRH Def.1 notes".
Scientology Books Free Downloads[edit | edit source]
- Recommended first books for those new to the subject: A New Slant on Life, Self Analysis and The Fundamentals of Thought
references[edit | edit source]
- ^ Alphia Hart was later made a nonperson (please someone check if "nonperson" is the correct term, it comes from either of the books 1984, or Animal Farm and is a fairly common practice in many cults, including Scientology, for handling references to disaffected or obstreperous persons.