Showing results by author "L. Ron Hubbard" in All Categories

Every human being seeks to know the truth about himself and to resolve to his own satisfaction the mysteries of life. And therefore, for many thousands of years, countless philosophical and religious teachings have sought to enlighten people with answers. But where their practitioners insisted - indeed, demanded - that their answers must be the answers, they blocked the road to greater freedom for millions of people.

Your mind: It is your constant companion. You live withit 24 hours a day, every day of your life. Yet Man has known practically nothing about how it works. And from marriages that end in divorce to careers that wind up in frustration, from tensions that interfere with work to conflicts that divide nations, virtually every human crisis can be traced to Man’s ignorance of the mind. Imagine, then, the potential benefits of finding the answers.

What is life? Such was the central question Ron posed when setting out to unravel the riddle of human existence. After examining all aspects and elements of existence, he arrived at an altogether startling discovery - one which suddenly clarified all life’s various phenomena: Life is a game. Regardless of what, where or how an individual plays the games of existence - and regardless of whether he consented to play - those rules are always the same. And with everything Ron puts on the board, he provides a completely new understanding of all that comprises human behavior.

The choice of actions and decisions requires skill and wisdom, not just self-interest or just group interest. Containing 21 precepts, The Way to Happiness helps guide one in those choices encountered in life. This might be the first nonreligious moral code based wholly on common sense.

The Second Dynamic has long been a source of mystery and confusion, in no small part because previous studies of Man erroneously targeted sex as the sole reason for existence and, simultaneously, the primary cause of irrationality. Not knowing about the Eight Dynamics, these practitioners led many people to fail not only in regard to the Second Dynamic, but in life itself. That their theories were not workable is evidenced by today's incidence of failed personal relationships, broken homes and troubled youth.

In his lifelong quest to uncover the answers to life and Man, Mr. Hubbard discovered that all life forms, from the lowest to the highest, are motivated by a single command: Survive! Yet questions still remained. What exactly is life and how does it accomplish its purpose of survival? Is life merely live matter? Or does it contain another quality altogether?

In a world of unpredictable forces racing headlong toward an uncertain future, how can a single individual control his own fate? How can he safeguard the well-being of his family, the prosperity of his group and the security of his nation? Must he mutely await the next unforeseen blow, which might well signal the end of all dreams and aspirations? Or should he endeavor by whatever means, through whatever plan, to secure the future for those he cherishes and the society in which he lives?

Everyone performs certain routine tasks automatically. Driving a car would be awkward indeed if one had to think newly of every tiny procedure. But what happens when someone puts a whole field of thought and action “on automatic”? His education, for example? Or his work? Or even his entire life? The answers are here and they open a completely new perspective on the mind.

What motivates life? What motivates Man? Those were the questions Ron posed when seeking workable answers to the problems of both the individual and society.

Since time immemorial, Man has sought to liberate the soul from the body and so achieve immortality. In this account of the religious heritage that stands behind Scientology, Ron recounts the extraordinary story of Man’s epic quest for a way to attain immortality.

As the number of countries with atomic and nuclear weapons has risen and an international black market actively trades nuclear materials, action is likely to prove a far stronger deterrent than hope. To be effective, that action would have to address the real source of the danger. Does it lie in the awesome destructive power of modern weapons? Is it the damaging effects of the radiation that would creep across continents? Or does the actual cause lie elsewhere?

It betrays the brightest hopes of individuals, drives families apart, incites organizational turmoil and pitches nations into chaos. What malignant seed grows in the human mind that not only prevents individuals from “thinking straight,” but forces them to act out their irrationalities? Man’s failure over many millennia to find the cause of aberration has exacted an incalculable toll in personal unhappiness and ruined lives.

When still a young man attending university, Ron observed that those working in the humanities had no training in the exact sciences. Believing that the precision of the scientific method might furnish asolution to the problems of life and livingness, he urged faculty members of the psychology department to apply the principles of physics to the field of the mind.It was an entirely novel approach. And when no one took up the challenge - either then or in later years - Ron undertook the task himself.

How does one increase a person’s confidence, improve his ability to communicate with others and heighten his interest in life? The answers all start with help, and they are contained in a series of techniques so effective they can practically “awaken the dead.”

It is upon the individual that the success of an organization and, indeed, the civilization depends. Those who accomplish more with less effort are more willing, more capable and, in fact, more efficient. They suffer less emotional stress and strain. They are better suited to make key decisions. And as efficiency increases across whole industries, so the whole of society benefits.

Judging from the duress and anxiety associated with this subject, few people are aware of the real purpose and function of money. Here Ron delineates its proper role in assisting the survival of individuals, groups and cultures. As he strips away the complexities accumulated over the centuries to prevent anyone outside an inner sanctum from really grasping its purpose and function, the entire subject clarifies and focuses. And what becomes clear is that money owes its unsavory reputation not to its use, but to its abuse.

"Our route was the accomplishment of an observation platform fromwhich a man could observe and from these observations make uphis own mind. And that observation platform is what we call Clear." (L. Ron Hubbard)

No civilized culture has failed to recognize the importance of education. And it is widely acknowledged that in today’s fast-paced society, success depends on the ability to swiftlyunderstand and use information.What lies behind the crisis in education? Are some subjects simply hard to teach? Are some teachers just not good at imparting knowledge?

It has no mass or location. It is not energy. Yet it is alive. And it gives life. Such are the characteristics of “a life-giving unit” - the source not only of all thought, but of all that is decent, ethical and noble. Indeed, this is you.The discovery that each individual is, in fact, asource of life radically alters the relationship between Man and the material universe. Based not on faithor belief but on axioms as precise and workable asany in science, it has been conclusively determinedthat the life-giving unit preceded matter, energy, space and time.

An extraordinary drama played out across thousands of years, Man’slong search to penetrate the mystery of “the other fellow” - and thereby to know himself - found its expression not only in philosophy and religion, but even in war and conquest.Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, the crucial intensity of this quest, its continuing failure down the centuries accumulated ever-deepening problems for Man.