“No living organism can be broken by force into an adjusted state and still remain able and amiable.”

L Ron Hubbard from the book ‘Self Analysis’

Growing up in High School in the 60’s there were two schools of thought on man and his environment.  One was that he was happy when he adapted to it and the other philosophy was that man was happiest when he adapted his environment to suit.

I always thought that given the examples of those adapting to their surroundings, even the moderately successful were those who managed, in however small a way, to make the surrounding universe work for them.  Whether it be picking up a stone to kill a rodent for food or using ice to build an igloo.

In my view if someone didn’t make his environment adapt, as in the case of the ice house, then the only alternative I could see would be to leave that environment or die.

Here is a quote on the subject by L Ron Hubbard:

“It was a pre-Dianetic error that an individual was healthy so long as he was adjusted to his environment.  Nothing could be less workable than this “adaptive” postulate.  And had anyone cared to compare it with actuality, he would have discovered that the success of Man depends on his ability to master and change his environment.  Man succeeds because he adjusts his environment to him, not by adjusting himself to the environment.

The “adjusted” postulate is, indeed, a viciously dangerous one, since it seeks to indoctrinate the individual into the belief that he must be a slave to his environment.  The philosophy is dangerous because the people so indoctrinated can be enslaved in that last of all graveyards, a welfare state.”
‘Self Analysis’ by L Ron Hubbard

That war causes stress cannot be argued. Just talk to the ‘casualities’ of war that come home much less the one’s that don’t make it. Those at home are often more concerned about whether their loved one is returning than if some far off war is won. Look at any country that has gone to war even on foreign soil. That country is worse for it. Never better. The people of that country lose their self respect. No one is happier destroying another person or country. I believe there are bad people in the world – not as many as the media would have you believe and these bad people need to be dealt with. But I also believe that no one benefits from a war, particularly a long drawn out one. Actually, there are those that benefit from war: those vested interests that create wars for their own gain. And the result of this is that it just causes more stress for the common person because the information is being confused enough to make it difficult to decide what is is right and what is wrong.

Here is another quote on the subject of war from L. Ron Hubbard:

‘Wars never solve the need of wars. Fight to save the world for democracy or save it from Confucianism and the fight is inevitably lost by all. War has become associated in the past with competition and it hs been believed, therefore, by shifty logic, that wars are necessary. A society which advances into a war as a solution of its problems cannot but depress its own survival potential.”
From the book: “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”

In 1950 L Ron Hubbard wrote in Dianetics what happens to the liberties of individuals when that country goes to war:

“No government was ever permitted to enter a war without costing its people some of their liberties. … A democracy engaging in war has always lost some of its democratic rights. As it engages in more and more wars, it eventually comes under the command of a dictator.”

If you want to know more about what you can actually do to change conditions and prevent this sort of thing from continuing to occur on this planet, read Dianetics. You can now get the unabridged audio version at our Stress Relief Site.

I’ve been re-reading all of my Dianetics material. These books have been republished within the last year with corrections made according to the original transcripts. I just finished the book Evolution of a Science, which gives a kind of History of Dianetics. If you want to know how this subject came into being, what logic was used, the trials and tribulations that went into the discoveries, then this is the book to read. It will tell you why a new society will thrive and exactly why one that has been around for any length of time will start to dwindle. It also lays out solutions for these developments.

“The black enchantment of Earth didn’t turn out to be a sinister barrier. But it’s a black enchantment all the same. The social and personal aberrations, traveling from Egypt’s time and before, piling up higher and higher, being broken only by new lands and new mongrel races.

The black enchantment is slavery. Man’s effort to enslave Man so that Man can be free. Wrong equation. That’s the black enchantment. We’ve a magic word to break it and a science to be applied.”
from “Evolution of a Science” by L. Ron Hubbard

For more info you can go to Effective Stress Relief

A friend of mine does lectures on Dianetics in Canada. After one of these lectures, he was having a “discussion” about Dianetics with someone that was going to school – training to be a psychologist. In this discussion, this person made a critical comment about Dianetics. My friend asked her how long she’d been studying psychology. The answer was 2-3 years. He then asked her if she felt she was an expert in psychology. The answer was a definite no – she did not feel herself, by any means, an expert yet. He then pointed out that she was passing judgment on Dianetics after a 30 minute lecture.

When one reads the manual for their new phone or VCR or DVD player, it takes actually working with it to feel comfortable with the knowledge and its application.

Here is what L Ron Hubbard has to say about learning and applying Dianetics Therapy:

“Any person who is intelligent and possessed of average persistency and who is willing to read this book thoroughly should be able to become a Dianetic auditor. When he has Cleared two or three cases, he will have learned far more and understood far more than is contained in this book. For there is nothing which develops an understanding of a machine like handling it in action. This is the instruction book, the machine in question is ready to hand wherever there are men.”

L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

Went out to see a movie last night. The one we wanted to see was full so we decided to see Lions for Lambs. I had seen a trailer which didn’t tell me much. I knew it had a pretty solid cast: Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Micheal Pena. I can’t say that it was a great! movie but it certainly left me with a message. There are movies too numerous to count saying that war is bad. And it is – it’s hell!

But I came away from this one with a message: that we should do something – anything – to change conditions. War isn’t the answer and there are a lot of things that can be done to actually make a difference.

“There is no national problem in the world today which cannot be resolved by reason alone. All factors inhibiting a solution of the problem of war and weapons are arbitrary factors and have no more validity than the justified explanations of a thief or murderer.”
from Dianetics: The Moderns Science of Mental Health” by L Ron Hubbard

Odds are that if you are reading this you are doing something – you were interested enough to somehow come across this blog. I’m quite sure that you have more than a few friends that are not confonting where this planet is headed. We don’t have to promote how awful things are but that something can be done about it.

I promised last time to talk about pleasure. It’s kind of an important thing in life. Much better than pain – but the pain we endure to get there. What is pleasure and how it relates to our survival is important. There is much spoken in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health about pleasure and below you will find one of my favourite quotes. I love it when Hubbard waxes poetic, which he does throughout his writings and lectures. Here you go: (more of a description than a definition)

“There is therefore a necessity for pleasure, for working, as happiness can be defined, toward known goals over not unknowable obstacles. And the necessity for pleasure is such that a great deal of pain can be borne to attain it. Pleasure is the positive commodity. It is enjoyment of work, contemplation of deeds well done; it is a good book or a good friend; it is taking all the skin off one’s knees climbing the Matterhorn; it is hearing the kid first say daddy; it is a brawl on the Bund at Shanghai or the whistle of amour from a doorway; it’s adventure and hope and enthusiasm and “someday I’ll learn to paint”; it’s eating a good meal or kissing a pretty girl or playing a stiff game of bluff on the stock exchange. It’s what Man does that he enjoys doing; it’s what Man does that he enjoys contemplating; it’s what Man does that he enjoys remembering; and it may be just the talk of things he knows he’ll never do.”
from Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard

For me this passage put the adventure back in life (and I have the recent scars to prove it – ask me about them if you like). Enjoy – have a great day!

This is one of my favourite quotes from the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard.

“Happiness is the overcoming of not unknown obstacles toward a known goal and, transiently, the contemplation of or indulgence in pleasure.”

Check back soon and I’ll post a great definition of pleasure from the same book.