The Fundamentals of Thought

CHAPTER TWO

BASIC PRINCIPLES

Like engineering, Scientology has certain basic principles. These are necessary to a full understanding of the subject. It is not enough to know how to process (drill) people in Scientology. To be effective (good) one must also know the basic principles. Scientology is very exact. The humanities (human studies) of the past were full of opinions. Scientology is full of facts that work.

To study Scientology one should scan (skim) quickly through the basics and find something with which one can agree. Having found ONE THING (one fact) with which he can agree, one should then skim through again and find another fact. One should continue to do this until he feels some friendliness to the subject. When one has achieved this, and only when one has achieved this, he should then study all the basic principles. There is no effort here to be authoritarian (opinionated). No one will try to make the subject difficult.

You may have been taught that the mind (thought, the brain) is a very difficult thing to know about. This is the first principle of Scientology: It is possible to know about the mind, the spirit and Life.

The Cycle of Action

The most fundamental idea in Scientology is called the CYCLE OF ACTION. CYCLE = a span of time with a beginning and an end = a section of the totality of time with a beginning and an end = in beginningless and endless time one can set out periods which do have a beginning and an end insofar as action is concerned. ACTION = motion or movement = an act = a consideration that motion has occurred.

In very ancient books it is written that from chaos came birth, from birth there was growth, when growth was achieved there was then a gradual decay, the decay then ended in death. After death there was chaos.

Scientology expresses this more briefly. THE CYCLE OF ACTION IS AN APPARENCY AS FOLLOWS: CREATE, then SURVIVE, then DESTROY; or Creation, Survival, Destruction. First there is Creation. Then this is followed by Survival. Then this is followed by Destruction.

APPARENCY = appears to be, as distinct from what actually IS.

This cycle is only an APPARENCY. It is what we see, what we behold, what we believe. We CONSIDER (think, believe, suppose, postulate) that it is so and then we see it so.

A child is born, he grows, he reaches manhood, he grows old, he dies. In Scientology it can be seen that none of these steps are necessary. One considers them so, and so they are "true". A man can grow old quickly or slowly. He grows old to the degree that he believes he is growing old. Because everyone AGREES that this is the way things are, they go that way. The cycle is not TRUE. It is only APPARENT. It is APPARENT because we believe we see it. It is APPARENT because we AGREE that it should be so.

The test of this principle is as follows: By using the CYCLE OF ACTION can we make anyone well or more intelligent? Thousands of tests have proven that the use of and belief in the CYCLE OF ACTION has made none well or intelligent. Therefore, no matter if we see it, there must be something wrong with it. The woman, growing old, wishing to appear younger, is protesting this CYCLE OF ACTION. She feels there is something wrong with it. There is. We have to find out what the ACTUAL cycle is before we can make people better.

ACTUAL = what is really true = that which exists despite all apparencies = that which-underlies the way things seem to be = the way things really are.

THE ACTUAL CYCLE OF ACTION is as follows: CREATE, create-create-create, create-counter-create, no creation, nothingness.

CREATE = make, manufacture, construct, postulate, bring into beingness = CREATE.

Create-create-create = create again continuously one moment after the next = SURVIVAL.

Create-counter-create = to create something against a creation = to create one thing and then create some thing else against it = DESTROY.

No creation = an absence of any creation = no creative activity.

AN ACTUAL cycle of action then consists of various activities, but each and every one of them is creative. The cycle of action contains an APPARENCY of SURVIVAL, but this is actually only a continuous creation. The APPARENT cycle of action contains DESTRUCTION, but the ACTUAL cycle of action tells us what destruction is. DESTRUCTION is one of TWO activities. DESTRUCTION is (in terms of action) a creation of something against a creation of something else. For example, a wall is seen standing. To be apparent it is necessary that the wall be constantly created. The act of "destruction" is to exert against the wall another creativeness, that of the action or activity of knocking the wall down. Both the wall standing there and the action of knocking it down are "creative" actions. Because we may object to (argue against, dislike) a wall being knocked down, we vilify (swear at, scorn) the creativeness involved in knocking it down with the word "destructive". ACTUALITY tells us that there is no such thing as destruction. There is only creation against a creation. There is another "type of destruction" and this is NO MORE CREATION. By no longer being a party to (a member of) the wall's creation, the wall, in theory, can cease to exist for one. This is true in ACTUAL PRACTICE in Scientology.

REALITY is the way things appear. REALITY IS APPARENCY. To do anything about reality, one must search into and discover what underlies the APPARENCY. Of what does REALITY consist (what is Reality composed of)? We SEE an APPARENCY which has the CYCLE OF ACTION OF CREATE-SURVIVEDESTROY. More basically (fundamentally) this CYCLE OF ACTION contains nothing but CREATION.

If one stops making something completely and ceases to be a party to its manufacture, it no longer exists for one. If one ceases to create, there is nothingness. When one creates something or beholds something which is created, that thing is still being created. Even if one is creating something with his left hand and has forgotten about it with his right hand, the thing still exists. In other words, one can create something without knowing it is still being created. Then one seeks to DESTROY it by a counter-creation (a creation against it). The result is a chaos created by two opposing creations.

LET US BE PRACTICAL. A science is not a science unless it is practical. A theory is no good unless it works. All the fancy and beautiful theory in the world is useless unless it has a use or a workability. Is this CYCLE OF ACTION THEORY USEFUL? It is. So long as we believe that we have to destroy with force in order to destroy at all, as long as we think in terms of destruction, we have chaos.

There is CREATING AND KNOWING ONE IS CREATING. There is CREATING AND NOT KNOWING ONE IS CREATING. When one drives a car or a cart he does many things (performs many acts) which he is not AWARE OF (conscious of, knows about), and these we call AUTOMATIC ACTIONS. One is doing something and is not aware that he is doing it. One starts to create something, then places this thought still active beyond his own reach and the creation continues to occur.

KNOWINGLY CREATING SOMETHING is always the first condition. One can then purposefully CONTINUE THE CREATION UNKNOWINGLY. Everything one is doing knowingly or unknowingly one is doing here and now, in the present instant, in present time. ONE KNOWINGLY STARTED ANY CREATION in some PAST moment. But the Creation is being done in the present moment.

To stop any creation it can be established that one once knew one was creating it— finding that thought and making it known again—OR ONE CAN SIMPLY CREATE NEWLY AND CONSCIOUSLY WHAT ONE IS ALREADY CREATING UNCONSCIOUSLY (un- knowingly). In either case the creation stops. The WRONG WAY is to start a new creation to counter against the old creation; when one does this he gets confusion and chaos.

FOR EXAMPLE, a man has a bad leg. He is trying to "get well". He seeks then to create a good leg. He goes to doctors and wants to be healed. The treatment is difficult and usually somewhat unsuccessful in the case of a very severely crippled leg. SOMETHING is creating a bad leg. Against this he is creating a good leg. The result is confusion and a bad leg. BUT a THIRD creativeness is present. First something was creating, we hope, a good leg. Then a counter-creation (such as an accident to his leg) counter-created a bad leg. Now he is trying to counter-create again a good leg. The result is to wipe out the ORIGINAL GOOD LEG since THAT IS THE CREATION HE IS TAKING OVER AND EXPOSING WITH HIS EFFORTS TO GET WELL. He wants a good leg. The trouble with him is the countercreation of a bad leg. The test is factual. Have him create (by a certain Scientology process) bad legs until the counter-creation of bad legs is wiped out and the ORIGINAL CREATION OF A GOOD LEG WILL REAPPEAR. This only fails when there is no original creation of a good leg, when the original creation of a good leg is gone.

FOR EXAMPLE, a man has a job. He works at it. That is to say he create-create-creates a job throughout the days, weeks and years. As long as he makes a job, the job exists. One day he DEPENDS upon (takes for granted) this job. He no longer creates it. It ceases to exist. He has no job. The APPARENCY is that he loafed (became lazy) and was discharged. The ACTUALITY is that he no longer created a job and so didn't have one.

FOR EXAMPLE, a man depends upon a woman to keep his house for him. One day he no longer has a woman. He can't keep house EVEN THOUGH BEFORE HE MARRIED THE WOMAN HE COULD KEEP HOUSE .

FOR EXAMPLE, a man is sane. He gets the idea (creates the idea) that it would be better to be insane. He starts to go insane (having created it) and then does numberless things in order to stay sane. Here he was already creating the state of sanity. He counter-created insanity. He then counter-created sanity against insanity.

CREATION IN THIS WORK may be thought to exclude God. We are here considering only those things which man or man as a spirit can make or manufacture or think. The subject of WHO or WHAT is doing the creation does not invalidate the cycle. This is a work on the subject of the mind, not a work on the subject of the Supreme Being.

LYING is the lowest order of creativity.

There are many tests for these principles in SCIENTOLOGY. Such tests come under the heading of PROCESSING .

5