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

Your mind: it is your constant companion. You live with it 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. An individual equipped with such knowledge, fully understanding himself and others, would stand a far better chance of achieving his goals.

To overcome tyranny is to win freedom as a people, a nation or even Mankind. Yet to benefit fully from their liberties, each man and woman must also be free - as individuals. In regard to freedom as a nation, here is the remarkable story of how one man, the Athenian statesman Pericles, envisioned a better future for Mankind - a future free from tyranny. Thus developed a principle at the heart of modern civilization—specifically, that the individual citizen has a right to his own opinions, a right to be heard and a right to know and participate in government.

The single word “liberty” articulates not only basic rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, but many other vital concepts: Opportunity, choice, security and even happiness. Indeed, it is a word that symbolizes the dreams and goals of every human being. Yet its very power makes it liable to abusive ends entirely opposed to its true meaning. In consequence, both individual and national freedoms can be eroded in a manner that escapes detection.

It has been bought and sold in a thousand dramas. It has been preached about from every pulpit - debated, contested, condemned, and exalted. And with no means to accurately measure or quantify it, the physical sciences either ignored it or denied its very existence. The human soul. Here, then, is a discovery all the more remarkable for being grounded not merely on faith and belief, but on proofs as irrefutable as any in science.

Today weapons exist powerful enough to annihilate whole nations. And violence has become commonplace, often in disregard of human life. Why has there been such a lessening of moral responsibility and, most important, what can be done about it? In providing the answers to these questions, Ron explores the history of Man’s research and investigation in the field of the human spirit.

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.