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8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
1/44
TH
EVOLUTION
OF
S IEN E
BY
L
·RON HUBB RD
f ct
article
o
genuine im-
portance. See the Editor s Page
Illustrated by Miller
INTRODUCTION
The
editor asked me to \Vrite this
intro
duction to one of
the
most
itnportant
arti
cles ever to be published
in
Astounding
SCIENCE FICTION
for
some very
good reasons.
First he
Wanted
to
make
certain that
you readers would
not con
fu se
Dianetics
with
thiotimoline or
with
any
oth
er bit of scientific spoofing.
This
is too impo
rtant to
be misinterpreted. Sec
ond, he
wanted to
den1onstrate that
the
medical
profession-or at
least
part of
-
was not
pnly
aware of the science of
Dianetic
s
but
had tested
its tenets
and
t e c h n i q u
and
w ~ willing to admit that
there was son1ething to it.
There is something to it;
there
is so
much to it, in fact, . that its potentialities
·cannot
yet
be fully comprehended.
Th
ose
of us who have worked \Vith Dianetics
and that includes the
Editor-have
seen
what it can do,
and
are convinced of its
tremendous importance. I
an1 not
goi
ng
to
try
to
persuade you
of
its . mportance
to
you
per
so
nally and to t h ~ human race;
you
must detern1ine that for. yourself.
But
;
·while y u are
exercising your
judicious,
DIANETICS
scientific skepticism,
let me
give
you an
other
point to consider in the meantime.
Dianetics
is, in
addition to all its
other
attributes,
a
thrilling adv
enture.
Ron
Hubbard
long a member
of the
Explorers
Club, has gone exploring .
in
the most ob
scure
terra incognita
-of
all-the
human
mind. He
has
explored
·a r egion wherein
lies the
mightiest power
in the known
Universe.
The tnightiest
power known in
the Uni
verse today is not the atomic bomb; that
povver
was
discovered, developed a.nd con
trolled by t h ~ greater
power
of human
thought.
And
human
thought-our
most
intitnate possession-has been the least
known
of all powers. Hubbard in under
taking
this research, unde
rtook
the
great
est adventure
any
man can imagine-a
stranger
and · more fantastic experience
than
any
visit to the cities of the Arabian
Nights. To
u n d e r ~ t n d the
huma
·n mind,
he
had to
find a path
into
the
seat
of
mad
ness, find a \Vay through that zone of
dis
tortion
of
thought-and
on the
other
side
he
found the most marvelous
mechanism
imaginable.
He
found a
computing ma
chine,
whose
functional capacities tran-
43
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
2/44
scend
those of
any
yet created
by human
efforts.
It
is
a machine
incapable
of
error,
\Vorking
with
memory storage
banks of
infinite
capacity and
incredibly detailed
exactitude.
.
And
Hubbard's
discovery
of
the
true
nature
of this wonderful
device,
the Hu-=·
man
Mind, gives
us answers \Ve have
never
had
before. They are
engineering an
swers, developed
not Y
metaphysical
\vord-juggling,
but by the engineer's ap
proach
to
a speci
fie,
defined problem. They
. ..
contradict
many of the
basic tenets
of
modern
psychotherapeutic theory,
and
tnanhandle many of the
principles
of
psy
chology.
1fodern psychiatry holds that predis
position
to insanity
is heritable,
and that
there
is
no cure for
several
forms
of in
sanity-they can
only be
treated
by
·surgi
cal1y
excising
a
portion of the brain
in
a
prefrontal
lobotomy, or-this is an
actual
and literal
description
of the operation
known
as a
transorbital
leukotomy-by
electro-shocking
a
patient
unconscious
and
running an
ice-picklike
instrument
into
the
brain
by
thrusting it through the
eye
s o ~ e t
back
of the
eyeball,
and slashing the
brain
\vith it. · ·
.
Dianetics
denies
this
thesis.· .
Insanity
is
not due to
heritab-1e
factors-but
it
is
con
tagious.
And any
insanity
not
based
on
actual
organic.
destruction
of
the brain
can
be cured,
to regain
a
more-than-nor
mal
mental stability
and clarity
Dianetics
offer-s hope
where
psychiatry
can
only be
gloomy.
Dianetics
substantiates a long-felt intui
t](,n
that neurosurgery
is
not
necessarily
the
best
thing for the human
race. A
good
many of us doctors have
felt that
the prac
tice_of
subtotal
euthanasia by
destruction
of the
neural
path·ways
to the
prefrontal
lobes
was
a medieval
treatment. And
yet
it
\vas
the apparent lesser
of
two
evils.
Dia
netics
relegates surgical mutilation
of
the
mind to the
same level as blood-letting
and
blistering. _ ·
One
final note:
the
following
article
\vill
tol
supply
you
with
sufficient
information
to
make you a
dianetic
operato.r.
That
44
information
will be given in
a
book being ··
published by Hermitage
House.*
In order
to practice any
scientific technique . UC.:-
cessfully you
must know more
about· it
than
can be
told
in
an
article of
this length.
Those of us who are interested in
Dianet
ics
want to
be
certain that, when it
is used,
it
is used proper,ly
To
sun1
up:
..
J
sincerely feel that
Ron
Hubbard has discovered
the
key which
for the first time pern1its a true evaluation
of the
hurnati
mind
and
its function
in
health
and
iti illness-the greatest advance
in
n1ental
therapy
since
man
began
to
probe into his
mental
n1akeup. 1\tforeover
he has
contributed to the
\velfare of
the
race by deciding
to give
freely
of the
kno\vledge \rvhich
took
fifteen
arduous
years
of
study and
research
to acquire.
There are
many \rvho
would be tetnpted to
keep
this
know ledge
secret and thereby
capitalize
on it-but
therein
lies one of ·
the
beauties of Dianetics. A
''clear"
can
not help
but pe
altruistic,
especially \vhen
that altruistn
helps
him better to
survive.
In this present civilization .of ours,
where
our
techniques
of
destruction dan
gerously exceed our _abilities to survive,
there
have
been
many
thinkers
engaged in
a
frantic search for
a
method to control
Man's
race-homicidal, race-suicidal tend
encies. I feel
certain
that Dianetics is
the
answer-if you
use it and
know what
you
are doing. ]
OSEPH
A. WINTER, M.D.
The optimum·
computing
n1achine
is a
subject
which
many
of
us
.have
studied. If you
were
building one,
how
would
you design
it?
First, the machine
should
be able
to
con1pute with perfect accuracy
on
any
problem in
the Universe
and
produce
answers
which \vere
always
and
invariably
right.
·
Second, the computer would .have
to -be swift,
working n1uch n1ore
*Dianetics: The
Modern
Science
of
Mental
Health
-Manual of Dionetic
Therapy-Hermitage
House
One Madison Ave., New
York
City. $3.00.
'
ASTOUNDING SCIE NCE -FICT ION
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
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quickly
than
the
problem and process
could be vocally
articulated.
Third, the computer
would have
t be able.
to
handle large numbers
of
variables
and
large
ntunbers
of
problen1s ·simultaneously.
Fourth, the computer would have
to he
able to
evaluate
its
OV\
7
data
and there \vould have to
retnain
available within it not only
a
record
of its former conclusions hut the
evaluations leading to those conclu-
stons.
Fifth,
the
computer
would
have to
be served by a memory·bank of near
ly infinite capacity in which.
it
could
store observational data, tentative
conclusions which might
serve
future
computations and the data in the
bank \vould
have to
be available to
the analytical
portion
. of
the cotn
puter
in
the
~ m a l l e s t
fractions of
second. · ·
Sixth,
the
computer
would
have
to be able
to
rearrc:nge former o n ~
elusions
or alter
them
in the
light of .
•
new
expertence.
.
Seventh, the computer would not
need an exterior program
director
but would be
entirely
self-detern1ined
about
its
programming
·guided
only
by
the necessity-value of the solution
which it itself
would
determine.
Eighth,
the
con1puter should be
self-servicing and self-arn1ing against
present and
fu,ure
damage
and
would be able to estimate future
damage.
Ninth, the computer
should
be
served by perception by which it
could determine necessity-value.
The
equipment
should
inclpde
means
of
DIANETICS
contacting all desirable c h a r a c t e r i s t i ~
in the finite world . This \\rould
mean
color-visio, tone-audio, odor, tactile
and self perceptions-for without the
last
it
could
not properly
service
it
self.
Tenth,
the n1emory bank should
store perceptions as perceived, con
secutive vvith tin1e received with the
sn1allest possible tin1e d i ~ i s i o n s be
tween
perceptions. It would
then
store in color-visio (moving), .
tone
audio
flo\ving), odor, tactile and self
sensation, all of
them
.cross-co-ordi
nated.
. Eleventh,
for the purposes of
so
lutions,
it
would have
to
·be ·able
to
create ne v situations
and imagine
ne\:v perceptions
hitheao
not per
ceived and should be able
to
con
ceive these to itself in
terms
of tone
audio,
color-visio, .
odor;
tactile
and
self sensation and
should
be able to
file anything so .conceived as
im
~ g i n e d labeled n1einories.
Twelfth, its n1en1ory banks should
not
exhaust on
inspection
but
should
furnish ·
to the central
perceptor of
the
con1puter,
without distortion,
perfect copies of everything and
any
thing in the
.
banks in color-audio,
tone-visio, odor, tactile
and
organic
•
. sensat1ons.
Thirteenth,
the
entire machine
should be portable.
There
are other
desirable charac
teristics but those listed above will
do for the moment.
It n1ight
be somewhat
astonishing,
at
first,
to
conceive
of such
a
com
puter. But
the
fact is, the machine
is
in existence. There are about two
5
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
4/44
the
optin1un1
brain. The
o p t i m u t ~ 1
brain, aside
from the fact that it is
'
not
ahvays
capable.
of. ~ o l v i n g
every
proble1n in the Universe,
basically .
.
\YOf.ks
exactI
y
like that. It sl)ould
h ~ v e c o l o r - v i s i o (in motion), t o n ~
a u Q i o ( J l o w i n g
)., odor'
tactile
and
or
.-
' · •.
" ~ , .
> \ .
g?ni' ~ V 1 o r y recall. And .it s h < ; > u l ~
~ ~ ' v , ~ y ~ ~ i (in ~ i o n , t + n ~ -
a u
\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ i i r { • ~ " i l ~ , ~ r . -
g a m ~
~ l ' Q
a ~ i ' Q ' also recallable
"'-.. after
1 t n ~ ~ ~ ~ i i R e
any ~ t _ l ~ ~ e ~ l -
o . t : y
~ - - - - -
f t ~ c •· t t
s h g ) J , ~ ~
b ~ ; a o ( e ~ o - ~ ; f
f e r e J l .
~ l e
b ~ t w e " e n
~
a l i t y
~ n d
(l
n1·
agi .iatio9r(jrirh.
p r e c i
h
t , /
d it
s h o u i
~ ~ e a9,Jt
l t()l.r.ecaJ.\ at{y
'pe.r_cep
J i o n ,
e ~ t h e
~ trivial,
~
r e ~
a ··
billion of
. then1
in use today and
n1any, n1anj'h1ore billions have been
n1ade and used in the past.
,·k t . h
::;.
....
'
......
..
,. . ..,. . Hl\.f .
~ ~ / ~ r._ot'tl ... t
e
9
; , t • t 1 t
~ g .
i c
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
5/44
. DI NElTICS
•
MllLEF\
49
when questions had been for1nulated
to be asked of the Universe at large
there was no concept of the optimun1
brain. Attention was fixed upon the
norm l
brain. The
norm l
brain
was
•.
47
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
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parable
\Vith the nortnal n1ind._ \ Iinds
hecan1e ,
aberrated. ·vVhen restored
they
would he nornl.al.
In
fact,
' in the beginning, it was
not
even certain that n1inds could be
restored.
All that
was
required
was
an
ans\ver
to
existence--and the
rea
sons 111inds aberrated.
In a lifetin1e of w a n d e r ~ n g around
tnany strange things .had been ob
served. The tnedicine n1an of the
c;oldi
people of 1\ilanchuria, the
shan1ans of
North ·
Borneo,
·
Sioux
n1edicine men, the cttlts of
Los
Angeles,
and
modern
psych9logy.
Atnongst
the
people
questioned abotit
existence \vere
a
magician vvhose
ancestors
served
in
the ·
court of
I(uhlai K han and a Ilindu who could
. . .
hypnotize cats.
Dabbles. had been
tnade in
n1ysticisn1,
data had
been
studied
fron1
n1ythology
to spiritual
istn. Odds and 'ends-like these, count
less odds
and
ends.
If yo'tt \vere constructing
this
sci
ence, \vhere vvould you
have
started?
Here were all the various cults
and
creeds and practices of a
whole
vvorld
to
dravv upon.
Here were
facts to
a
.nun1be_r \Vhich makes
10
21
·binary
digits
look
sn1all.
If you
\vere called
·
upon
to construct such a science and
.
to cotne up with a
\vorkable
answer,
~ h a t \vould
you have assun1ed, gone
to
observe or con1puted?
Everybody and _everything
s.een1ed
to have
a
scrap
of the
ansv;er The
cults of all
the
. ages, of all th'e
world
seen1,
e a ~ h
·one, to
contain .
a
fragn1ent
of
the
truth.
How
do
ve
gather and
.assemble the f_ragments '? Or do vve
:
; · .
48
give up this nearly in1possible
task
.
and begin postulating ottr .ovvn an-
svvers?
\V
ell,
this
is the story of how
i a ~
netics ~ a ~
built.
'fhis, at least, was
t te
approach
rnade
to
the
proiJlenl.
Dianetics \Vorks,
which is vvhat an
engineer asks,
and it
woi-ks all the
titne,
vvhich
is
\Vhat
nature den1ands
of the engineer.
Jl'irst,
atternpts \ \ ~ e r e n1ade. to dis
cover
\vhat
school
or
systei11
\vas
vvorkable.
Freud did occasionally.
So
did
Chinese
apuncture.
So did
tuagic healing
crystals
in
Australia
and
tniracle shrines
in South
An1erica.
Faith healing, voodoo,
narco-synthesis- And, understand
this.
right
here,
no
n1ystic tnutnbo
jun1bo need
apply. An
engineer has
to
have
things lie can 1neasure. Later
the word ..detnon is used. 1'hat's
because
Socrates describes one so '
\vell. Dianetic use of
it,
like Clerk
l\1ax\vell's,
is
descriptive
slang.
But
no
\vild
in1n1easurable guesses or
opinions vvere wanted.
\Vhen
an en-.
gineer
uses
only those, bridges break,
buildings fall, dynan1os
stop and a
·civilization goes lo vvrack.
A prirnary need,
in arriving at
a
dynan1ic
prit1ciple
of existence, \vas
to
discover what one
wanted to
know
about
existence.
One
does not
have
to dabl)le
long
with
the gods
to
know
that they
point unvaryingly
if
di
vinely
up
a very blind l l e y ~ .
Ancl
an
engineering study of rr1ysticistn
detn-·
onstrates
that
p1ysticisn1
ernbraces:
·largely
what it cannot
hope to
state·
precisely
The
first -propdsition \vent
off
A S TO U N D I N G
SCIE NCE FICT ION
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
7/44
something
on this order. Let us
find variable
in the
equation
if
necessary.
out what we
cannot
consider
or
do
Now what
do we
have? Well,
not need
to
consider
to get an
an-
we've been a little
hard on
demons
swer we
can
l)se.
Some tests
seemed
and
the human
soul.
These are
..
to
den1onstrate
that
the exact
identi-
popular
but
they
refuse
to
stand
out
ty
of
the Prime
Mover
Unmoved and submit to
a
thorough
inspection
was
not
necessary
to the
computa...
and
caliper
mensuration and if they
tion.
Man
has been convinced for
a
won t so
co-operrate,
then
neither
long time that He started this af- will we; And
so two
things come
fair, so no great gain could be made from this reduction of equation fac
in
getting disputive
about
it. Let
us tors
necessary .
to
solution. First,
then take a level immediately below existence is probably finite
and
sec
the
Prime Mover Unmoved.
ond, finite factors alone
answered
-·
Now
let
us
see ·
what
else falls
into the
need of
the
problem.
the category of data unnecessary to
Probably
we could be
very
obtuse
the computation. Well, we've studied a ld mathematical here,
but no mat
telepathy, demons,
the
Indian rope ter. A good, workable heuristic
trick
and the human
soul
and so
far principle, a work ble one, is
worth
we
have
yet to fine any
cQnstants
in an
infinity
of
formulas based
on Au
this class ·of data.
So let us draw a thority and
opinions which
do not
line below
that as our
highest level work.
of
necessary information
and
now All we can do is try h e principle.
call this
our
highest line.
We
need
1
a dynamic principle of
ex-
What
do we have left?
We
have istence. Vfe look
in Spencer
and
we
the finite world, blue serge suits, find
something
which
reads ~ w f u l l y
Salinas Valley,
the Cathedral
at good.
It read
good
when
he .took ·
it
Rheims
as
a building
and
several
de- from Indian
writ1ngs,
the same
place
cayed empires
and
roast
beef for
din- Lucretius
got
it.
But it
only
pre
ner.
We
have left only
what
we can
tends to
be dynamic . because it
perceive
with
no
higher
level of
ab- doesn t
compute.
We
need a dy
straction.
n mic
principle,
not
a description.
N o w
how .do
we
perceive
and on
But
what
does
a
principle
mean
in
what
and
with
what? Ensues here a a sphere this large?
And doesn t it
lot of time
spent-1937-in
comput- need a
better
definition? Let
us then
ing
out
the brain
as an
electronic cal- call
it
a dynamic lowest
common
de
culator
with
·
the
probable
mathe- nominator
of exitsence.
matics of its
operation plus the im- Will such
a lowest
common de-
possibility
of such
a
structure ca- nominator lead us
straight
up above
·
pable of
doing such
things. Let ~ t s . the highest level
we
have
set
and
then
rule
out
the
necessity of
know-
.
send
us
spit:tning off
with
a
fist full
ing
structure and.
use
this
as
an
()f variables
and ·no answer?
. It h ~ d ·
analogy only which ca·n
become
a
~ t t r
n o t ~ ·
So
let
·
us pose some more
. 9 :
I
8/16/2019 Scientology: “Dianetics” as it First Appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction”
8/44
questions
and
see if they clarify
the
principle.
\ .\That
can
we know?
Can
we
kno\V
where life came fron1 ? Not
just
nO\V.
Can
we
kno\v
where
life
is
going? Well, that would
be
inter
esting but
few
of us
will live to
see
that. So
what
can we
know?
vVho,
when, why, where, what-WHAT
\Ve can know WHAT life is doing.
Let us postulate
now that
life
started
son1ewhere and js
going
.
some\vhere.
To
know
wh r
it
came
frotn
might
solve
a
lot
o
problems
but that seems unnecessary to know
at this time for
this
prohlen1. And
the
sotnewhere
might
be
k n o ~ n
too
sotne
day but
again we
do
not need
to know that.
So
now we have
something for the equation vvhich
\\ ill stay in terms
of
constants.
\VHA
T
is life doing
enroute?
Life is energy of
some sort. The
purpose
seems to
involve
energy.
\iV
e are being. heuristic. No argu
n1ents necessary because all we
\vant
is
son1ething with
a
high
degree of
vvorkability, that's all any
scientist
needs.
If
this
won't
work, we ll
dream
up
another one and
postulate
and
postulate until sotnething does
.work.
\\That is energy doing?
It's sur
viving-changing .form, but surviv-
.
. .
tng. ·
\Vhat is life doing? It's sur-
• •
VlVtng.
Now
maybe
it
is
doing
a whole
lot more, but we ll .just try this
on
for .size. .What is the lowest com-
50
mon denominator of all existence
\vhich we
have
so .far
found?
SURVIVE
The
only test
of
an organism is
survival.
That can be computed.
·
\V
e
can
even go so
far as to
make
it
colorful
and
say
that there
was
a
beginning
of track and at
this
begin
ning
of
track
Somebody
said
SUR
\1IVE He didn't
say ·
Arhy
and
He
didn't sav until.
All
He said was
SURVIVE
1
ell,
that's
simple
and
it
com
putes.
It makes
sense on the slide
rule
and it
makes
sense
\vith a
lot of
activity
and it seems pretty
goad
Let's see.
The brain
was
a con1puter-director
evolved on
the
san1e
principles
and
on the san1e plan as
cells
and
by
cells
and
is con1posed of cells.
The brain
resolved
problen1s
relating
to
sur
vival, asked itself questions
about
survival, acted
upon
its
own
.best con
c e i ~ e d
but personally vie,vpointed
plan
for
survival. ·
If
one
sagged down toward unsur
vival, one
~ s
goaded
up the
scale
tovvard
survival
by pain. One
was
lured ahead
by
pleasure into survival.
There . \vas a
g r d u t ~ d
scale
with
one end
in
death
and
tne other in im
n1ortality
The brain thought
in
terms of dif
ferences, similarities
and
identities
and
all its problems
were resolved
on these
lines
and
all these problen1s
and
all these activities were strictly
and
solely survival-n1otivated:·
The
basic cot)Jmand data on which
the
body and
brain
operated
was
SUR-
ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE-FICTION
.
S
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VIVE r That was all ; nothing fell
· outside
this.
It \ as postulated
to
· see if it
worked.
That
was
in
1938
after
several
years of
study. The
axion1s
began
with SURVIVE . SURVIVE
was
the
lowest common denominator
of
all
existence. They
proceeded
, through axioms as
to
what n1an was
doing and how he was doing it.
Nice
definitions
for intelligence,
drive, happiness, good, evil and
so
forth fell
into
line.
Suicide,
laugh
ter,
drunkenness
and folly all
fell in-
v
side this., too, as it
computed out.
These computations
stood
the
tests of
several years.
And
then, as
you
may
have heard, came a war.
But even \vars end. Research
\vas
resutned,
but now with the
added
necessity of
applying the
knowledge
g a ~ n e d to the problems of friends
who
had not
survived
the
\Var
too
welf.
A researcher
gets
out
on
a tin1 of
the
unknown just
so
far
and
the
guide
books
,
run
out.
In
the
li
braries were
thousands
and thou
sands of
tnental
cases,
neatly re
corded.
· nd
not one case contained
in
it the
essential data to
~ t s
solution
These cases
n1ight just as well
have
been
written in
vanishing
ink for all
the
good they were. Beyoud
prov
ing conclusively that
people mani
fested
strange mental
aberrations
they were
worthless. How
do you
go about building a science of
thought
\\rithout
being
permitted to
observe
and without having any ob
served
data?
,
DIANETICS·
Out of a multitude of personal ob
servations in this and distant
lands,
it was
the
first task
to
find
a
con
stant.
I
had studied hypnotism
in
Asia. I knew
hypnotism
was,
more
or
less, a
fundamental. Whenever
shamans,
medicine men,
exorcists or
even tnodern psychologists go to
work, they
incline toward practices
which are hypnotic.
But
of what
use is such
a
terrible,
unpredictable variable
as
hypnotism.
On sotne
people
it works. On
most
it
doesn t.
On
those
on
whom
it
vvorks
it s o m e ~ i n e s
achieves
good
resul_ts,
sometimes
bad. Wild stuff,
hypnotistn.
,
The physical scientist, however,
is
not unacquainted with the use of a
wild variable.
Such erratic
things
usually
hide real,
important
laws.
Hypnotism
was a
sort
of constant
thread
through all the
cults-or
hyp
notic
practices-but
perhaps one
might at least
look
at it.
So hypnotism was examined. A
wild
radicaL
The
reason
·it. was
\vild
n1ight
be a good answer. The
first inves.tigation of
it
was quite
brief.
It
did not need to be longer.
·Examine
a
post-hypnotic
sugges
tion.
Patient in
an1nesia
trance.
Tell
hin1
that
vvhen he
awakens
he
will ren1ove
his left shoe and put it
on· the
n1antle.
Then
_tell
him
that
he
will
forget
he has
been tpld
and
wake
hin1
up.
He
awakens, blinks
for a
while
and
then p\ ,tS his foot
forward
and
ren1oves his shoe. Ask
him
why.
"My
foot s
too hot."
He
puts the shoe on the
n1antle.
Why?
' 'I
hate to put
on
a damp shoe.
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Warmer up here-
and
t
will dry.
Keep
this in mind, this experiment.
The full
reasqn for
its importance
did
not
appear for
nine
years. But
it was recognized that, with various
suggestions, one could create
the ap-
pearance
of
various
neuroses,
psy
choses, compulsions
and
repressions
listed
by the
psychiatrist. The
ex
amination
promptly went
t IO further.
One had
too
few
answers
yet. But
it was clear,
that
hypnotism and in-
sanity were} somehow} identities. A
seaFch
was begun
for
the
reason why.
For
a long time
and
with
many,
many people
attempts
were
made to
unlock the riddle.
What
caused hyp-,
ntism? What
did
it
do ? Why
did
it behave
unpredictably?
Examination was made
of
hypno
analysis. It
sounds
good in
the texts
but
it
doesn't
work.
It
doesn't work
for several
reasons, first
among
them
being that you can't hypnotize every
body.
Further
it works only occa
sionallyt even when a person can be
hypnotized. So hypno-analysis
was
buried along with the
·Water-cure of
Bedlam
and
the pre-frontal lobotomy
· and the
demon-extraction
techniques
of the shamans
of
British Guiana
and the search
for the key
which
could
restore
a
mind to normal
was
1 continued.
~ u t hypnotism wouldn't stay quite
dead.
Narco-synthesis
seemed a
good
lead,
until •orne
cases were discov
ered
which. had
been cured by
narco-synthesis. They
were re· .
worked. with the
technique
just to
discover what had occurred. Narco-
5 .
synthesis s o ~ t i m s seemed
to
fix
a
man
up so .his
war
neurosis could·
rise to
even greater
heights
at some
future date. No, that is not entirely
fair. It _
produced
slightly higher re
sults than a magic healing crystal
in the
hands
of an
Australian medi
cine man. It seemed to
do
something
beyond
what it
was supposed
to do
and
that something beyond wa
s bad.
H ere
was
another wild variable,
a
piece of
the
puzzle of insanity's cause.
We knew WHAT man was
doing.
He
was
surviving.
Somehow,
son1e
way, he occasionally became irra
tional.
Where
did hypnotism fit into
this?
Why
did
drug hypnotism af·
fect people so adversely at times?
These
people one
met and
worked
with did
seem. to
be
trapped some
how
by something
which
modern
n1ethods almost.,never touched. And
·
why
did
whole
nations
rise
up to
.slaughter
nations?
And \vhy
did
re
ligious zealots
carry
a banner and
crescent across
t ~ r e e
quarters of
Europe? People behave
as
if they'd
been cursed by something.
' '
r e
they
basically evil?
Was
social train
ing a thin veneer ? Was the evil curse
a natural inheritance
from
the
tooth
and claw
animal
kingdom?
Was
the
brain ever capable of ratiol ality?
Hypnotism and narco-synthesis,
un
predictable radicals, refused for a :
time
to divulge answers.
· Out of orbit again
and
without
tools with
which
to work,
it
was
n e c ~ s s r y
to
hark
back
to
the
tech
niques of the Kayan
Shaman of
Borneo,
amongst
.others. Their
theory
is
crude ; they exorcise
de-
. ASTOU.ND.ING · SCIE'N-CE-:FICTION .
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11/44
•
mons. All
rigpt.
We postulated that
nlan is evil that the evil
is
native.
Then
we
ought ~ o
be
able
to
increase
the civilized ve
neer
by planting in
hin1
more
civilization, us.
ing hypno
tism.
So the. pa
t
ient
us
ually gets
worse. That
.postulate didn't \Vork.
Provisional, let's try
the
postulate
that rr1an is
good
and follo\v its con
clusions. And we
suppose
son1e
thing such
as
the Borneo Shan1an's
oh has
entered
into him which di-
rects hin1 to
do e
vil things
. ,
1\ian
has
beli-eved
longer
that
de
n1ons
inhabit
n1en than
tnan has
be
lieved they
did
not. \Ve assun1e de
nlons.
v
Ve
lo
ok
for sotne
demons,
one
vvay or
ano
ther. l n d we found
sonte
.
1'his was a· discovery aln1ost
as
n1ad as son1e of the patients on ~ a n d
But
the thing
to
do
·.was try
to
n1eas-
ure
and
classify
den1ons. ·
Strange
work
.
for an engineer and
n1athetnatician But it was found
that the ~ · d e n 1 o n s could be classified.
Ther
e were several
den1ons in
each patient, but there \V r only a
few
classes of den1ons. There
\vere audio den1ons, sub-audio de
n1ons,
visio-den1ons, interior de
nlo.ns,
exterior
den1ons, o
rdering
de
mon s,
directing
den1ons,
critical
de1nons, apathetic den1ons, angry
den1ons, bor ed detnons
and ''cur
tain den1ons
who
mere
ly occluded
things. The
l
as
t · seen1ed .
the
tnost
C0111111011
Looking jnto a
few
minds
established
soon
thaf
it .·\vas
difficult
to find anyone ·
,vHo
.didn't have
son1e
of
th
e
se
demons. · · · ·
.
It
was) nece.
ssary
to set up an
.
.
PIANETICS
optin1um brain.
That
brain would
be
postulated, subject
to
change. t
would
be
the
combined
best
qu.ali
ties of all brains studied. It would
be
able
to visualize
in color and hear
vvith all
tones and sounds
present,
all tnemories necessary
to
thought.
It would think without talking to it
self,
thinking in
concepts .
and con
clusio
ns rather
than
words. It would
be
able to
in1agine
visually
in color
_
anything
it
cared to imagine
and
hear
anything it
cared to
in1agine it would
hear.
It
\Vas
discovered eventually
that
it
could also in1agine smells and
tactiles
but · this
did
not enter into
the
original. :Finally it would know
\V_hen it was recalling
and
knqw
when
· it \vas in1agining.
Now, for purposes of analogy
it
.
was necessary to go back to the elec-
tronic
con1puter
idea
conceived
in
1938.
Circuits
were
drawn
up
for
the visio
and
audio
recall, for
color
and tone recall, for i m ~ g i n a t i o n visio
and audio
creation
and color and
tone creation.
Then were drawn the
lnen1ory
bank c i ~ c u i t s
All
this
was
fairly
easy a t
this time
since
some
extensive work had been done on
this in the
thirties.
\Vith
this diagram,
further
circuits
vvere
set up. The
optin1um
brain
was
a plain circuit'. To
this
~ e r e
added the
den1on circuits.
t was
found that by
very
ordinary electron
ics one could install every kind of a
den1on that had been observed.
The
detnons, since
none of
them
cons
ented
to
present
then1selves for
a
proper
examination
as demons,
were, it was concluded, installed
in
.
t
.:.
53
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the brain ~ n the same way one would
install
new
circuit in the
optimum
brain.
But as
there. was
just so
much
brain, it was obvious that these elec
tronic "'demons"
were
using
parts of
the
optimum brain and
.
that
they
were no more competent than_. the
optimum brain inherently was.
This
was more
postulating. All one
want
was-'
good
result.
If
this
hadn't
\vorked
.something else would have
been tried. ,
Thus the
solution was entered
upon. While the human brain is a
shade
too
wonderful
an instrument
to
be classified with anything as
clumsy as contemporary electronics,
as marvelous
as
modern electronics
are, the analogy stands. It
stands
as
an
analogy. The whole science would
hang together .brightly now
without
that analogy.
But
it .serves in this
place. · . ·
There
are
no demons. No ghosts
and
ghouls
or:
.
Tohs But
there
are
aberrative
circuits.
So
it vvas
rea
~ o n e d It was
a postulate.
And
the '
it became something more.
One
day a .Patient fell asleep.
When awakened
he was found
to
he
"somebody
else."
As
"somebody
else"
he
was· questioned very care
fully.
This
patient,
as "himself," had
a
sonic
memory block,
an
audio
n1emory block and was color-blind.
l ie was
very
nervous
ordinarily.
Just
now, awakened into being
"somebody else" he was calm- He
spoke
in
a lower voice tone. Here,
obviously,
one was
confronting
one
o these electronic screw-ups the
··
savants call schizophrenics.
But
not
so.
This was the
basic ·personality
of
the patient himself, possessed of an
optimum
brain
I t was
very
rapidly
established
that
he
had
color-visio recall
on any
thing, .tone-audio recall, tone-audio
and color-visio imagination
and
en
tire co-ordinati"-ve control.
He
knew
when
he
was
imagining and
when
he
was recalling and that, too, was
sotnething he
had
not been able
to do
before.
He
wanted to
know
son1ething.
He
wanted to
know
when
the
opera
tor
was
going to help him get him
self
squared around.
He had a
lot
of
things
to do.
He
wanted to .help
his wife out so she wouldn'l have to
support the
family. How unlike
the
patient of
an
hour before
He obligingly. did some mental
computations with accuracy ·
and
clarity and then he was permitted to
lie down
and
sleep: He woke up
with
no recollection
of what had
hap
pened.
He had
his
·old
sympton1s.
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h ~ d
in a
normal s t a t e
n1inus
certain
.
· wonderful in
the ·
way
of
ectoplasm?
mental
powers,
·
u s electronic
de-
. · ·
O r did we part
con1pany
with tnany
mons and ·
plus
:general
unhappiness.
I
found that
a
"hardened criminal''
·
With
an
·
obvious
·"criminal mind''
\vas, in basic p . ~ r s o n a l i t y
a sincere.,
intelligent
being
· with a·tnbition and
c o - o p e r . a t i v e n e s s ~
•
This was .
incredible.
If
this \Vas
basic
brain,
. ,
then
.
basic brain was
·good.
Then
man ·was
basically good.
Social nature
was
inherent If
thi
s
\vas ba
sic
brain-
It
was.
That
.
is
·a
' 'clear".
But
we pull ahead -
of
t ~ e
story.
People were
uniforn1ly
miserable
being aberrated. The most miserable
patient on the rolls had
an
aberra
tion
that
tnade
· her
act
"happy"
and
the n1ost nervous
aberee
one would
ever care to encounter had
a
tnaster-
ing
aberration about
·
being always
"calm".
She
said she was
happy
and
tried
to make
he_rself
and everyone
believe it.
He said he
Was
calm. He
instantly
flew ·
into
a
nervous fit if
you
told him J;le
\Vasn't
calm.
Tentatively
and
cautiou
sly a
con
clusion vvas
drawn that
the optitnutn
·brain is the u n ~ b e r r t e d
brain,
that
the
optitnum
brain
is
also
the
basic
personality,
that
the .basic
personali-
ty,
unless organically deranged, was
good.
man . were
bas
ically g o o ~ ;
then onlv
a
'(black enchantn1ent
c o t ~ l d n ~ k e
him eviL
;:
\
\\That \vas
·the
·
source
qf
this
en-
chantnlent?
. . .
.
Did
we
adfi?.it. superstitions and
den1ons
a:
·s ··
actualities
.
'
and
·.
suppose
the ·source · sGn1ething·
-Veird
and
DIANETICS
current
beliefs
and become some
thing
a ·
little more
scientific?
·
The source,
then,
must be the ex:.
terior
world.
A
basic personality; so
anxious to
be
strong, probably
W')ulcl not aberrate itself
without
so
n1e
very
powerful
internal
p e r ~
sonal
devil
at work. ·-
But
with the
devils
and ''things
that go boomp in
.
the
n1ght" .
heaved tnto the scrap
heap, what did we have left?
There
ras
the
exterior
vvorld
and
·
only
the
exterior
world.
Good
enou.gh ;
we'll see if this
\Vorks again. Somehow the exterior
world
gets interior. The individual
becon1es possessed of Orne
un
kno\vns
which set
up
circuits against
.
his
consent,
the individual is
aber
rated,
and
is
less able to survive
"fhe next
hunt
was
for
the u -
known factor. The track
looked
pretty fair, so
far,
but the idea was
to forn1ulate a science
of
thought.
.
And
a science,
at least to
an
en
gineer,
is
something .
pretty precise.
It
has
to
be built on
axioms to which
there are precious
few if any
excep
tions.
It
has
to
produce
predictable
results uniformly and every time
Perhaps engineering sciences are
this way
because natural obstacles
·
oppose
the
engineer,
and n1atter has
a rather
unhandy
y
o f
refusing to
be
overlooked because
·
someone
has
an opinion.
·If
an
engineer
forms an
opinion that
trains
can run in thin
air
and
so
·
omits
the
construction
of
a bridge
across
a stream, gravity
is
55
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going
to
take over
and
spill
one
train
into
one stream. ·
Thus,
if we
are to
have a science
o thought,
it is
going to
be necessary
to
have workable
axioms
which,
ap
plied \vith techniques, will produce
uniform results in all cases and prq-
duce them invariably. •
A great deal
of compartmentation
o the problems had already been
done,
as
previously mentioned or in
,
the
course of work.
This
was neces-
sary
in order to examine the prob
lem
proper
which was
man
in
the
Universe. ·
First we divided what we could
probably
~ i n k about and had
to
think
about from what we probably
didn't have
to
think about, for pur- .
poses of our .solution.
Next
we had\
.
to
think about all men.
Then
a few
men.
Finally
t he individual
man
and
a:t last a portion of the aberrative
pattern
of an individual man.
How
did the
exterior
world be
come
an
interior aberration?
There
were
many
false
starts and
blind passages just as there had been
in detern1ining what an optimun1
brain
would be. There were still so
many
variables
and
possible
errone
ous combinations in
the
computation
that
it looked like something
out
of
Kant.
But
there is no argument
with results. There is-no substitute
for a bridge heavy enough
to
hold a
•
•
tratn.
_
tried,
on
the off-chance
tha
t they
might
be right, several schools of
psychology:-
Jung,
.
Adler.
E ven
Freud. But
not
very
serio-usly be
caus.e _Jver half the _patients on the
56 -
rolls
had
been ·given
very
extensive
courses in psycho-analysis
by ex
perts,
with
no
great
results. The
work of
Pavlov was
rev_iewed in case
there was son1ething there. But n1en
aren't dogs. -Looking back on these
people's
vvork
now, a lot of .things
they did n1ade sense. But reading
their work and using it wh
en one
did
not know, they didn 't n1ake sense,
from
which can be concluded that.
rear-view mirrors six feet wide tell
more to
a
man
who is
driving with
a peephole
in
front
than
he
knew
when
he was approaching
an
object.
Then
came
up another of
a .multi
tude of the doctrines which had
to
be
originated to
resolve this vvork. J he
selection o importances
One looks
at a sea of facts.
Every
drop
in the
sea is like every
other
drop.
Some
few of
the drops
are
of
vast
im
portance. How to find one? How
to tell
when
it is
important?
A .
lot
of
prior
art in
the
field of the mind
and as far as I was concerned, all of
i t-i
s like that. Ten thousand facts,
all
and
each
with
one
apparent unit
importance- value.
Now unerringly
select the right one. Yes, once
one
ha
s fottnd, by some
other
means,
the
right one, . t is very sitnple to look
ov
er
the facts ·
and
pick
out
~
proper
one and
sa
y,
See?
The
re it
\vas
air
the tin1e.
Old Whoo
sis knew what
he
was doing. But try it before you
kno\v
It's
a cinch Old \Vhoosis did
not know or he would have red
tabbed the fact
and thr
o\vn
the
others
a\vay. So, \vith this
new
doctrine of
the selection of
importanc
es, all data
not of personal testing or discovery
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was jettisoned .
I had
been led
up
so
many bli ld alleys
by
·
unthorough
ob
servation and careless
work on the
part of forerunners
in
this business
that
it was tin1e to ·decide
that it
was
much, tnuch.
easier
to c o n s t r ~ c t a
whole
pren1ise
than
it
\ivas
to
go
needle-in-the-paystacking. It was a
rather desperate turn of affairs when
this can1e about. Nothing was
-vvork
ing. I
found
I had
imbibed, uncon
sciously, a
lot
of prior errors
which
\Vere itnpeding the project. There
were literally hundreds of
these
vvhy
everybody
.
kno-vvs that-
which
had
no tnore foundation in
experin1entatiori
or
observation than
a Rotnan omen. ·
So it
-vvas concluded
that
the
ex
terior world got
interior
through
son1e process
entirely
unknown and
unsuspected. There
\vas
rnen1ory.
Hovv 1nuch did we kno\¥ about n1en1-
ory? Hovv n1any ·
kinds
of n1en1ory
n1ight
there
be?
Ho\v
tnany banks
was the nervous systen1
runnipg
on?
The problen1 was
not
7J.Jhere they
were. That was an off-track prob
len1.
The probletn vv s hat they
were.
I
dre\v
up
son1e fancy schetnatics,
threw then1 away and dre\v son1e
n1ore. I
drew
up a genetic bank, a
min1ic bank, a social bank, a scientific
bank. 13ut they were all vvrortg.
They couldn't be ·located
in a
brain
as such.
Then
a
terrible thought
came.
There
\vas this doctrine of
the
selec
tion of in1portances.
But there
vvas
another,
earlier
doctrine-the
intro
duction of
an arbitrary. Introduce
DIANETICS
an
r b i ~ r r y
and
if
it
is only
an arbi
trary, the w h o l ~
c o m p u t ~ i o n
goes
out. What \vas I doing
that had
in
troduced an arbitrary? . Was
there
another
why; everybody
kno\¥S
that- still
in this
·
computation?
It's
hard
to make
your
wits kick
out
things which have been accepted,
unquestioned, froh1 earliest child
hood, hard to suspect
them
.Another
· sea .of facts, and
these
in the
tnem
ory bank
o
the computer trying to
find them.
· There \vas an arbitrary. Who
in
troduced it
I
don't
know
but
it
was
probably
about the third
shan1an
'
ho practiced shortly
after the third
·generation of talking men had begun
to talk.
l\1ind and body.
There's
the
pleasant little hooker.
Take a
good
look at it. Mind
ND
body.
This
is
one
of
those things
like a ghost. Son1ebody said
they
saw one. They
don't
recall just \vho
it \vas or \vhere
but they're
sure
\i\Tho said . they were separate?
vVhere's
the
evidence? Everybody
who
has measured a
mind without
• • 0
the
.
b
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So
let s
consider them a · unity.
Then
the
body
remembers. It may
co-ordinate its
activities in a mecha
nistn called the
brain,
but the fact is
that
the brain is also part of the .
nervous system
and
the nervou
s· sys-
tem extends all through the body. If
you
don t
believe it, pinch yourself .
Then wait
ten
minutes
and go back
to the time you
·
pinched
yourself.
Time travel
back.
Pretend you
are
all back
there.
You will .feel the
pinch;
that s memory.
All right. If the body remembers
and if the mind and
body
are not
necessarily
two
. items,
then
what
n1emories · would be the stt:"ongest?
Why, memories that have
pain
in
them,
of course.
And
then what
memories would
be
the
strongest?
8
Tho
se \vhich vvould
have
the most
phy
sical pain. But
these
are not
re< allable
lVfaybe
it s the wrong
postulate,
maybe people are
in
fifty piec
es not
ju
st one, but let's try it
on
for size.
So I pinched a few patients and
made theni·
pretend
they had n1oved
back
to the moment
of the pinch.
And
it
hurt
them
again.
And
one
young n1an,
\vho
cared
a
great deal
about science and not much
about
his
physical being
volunteered
for a nice,
heavy knockout.
·
And I
took
him back to it and he
recalled it.
Then came the idea
that
maybe
people
remembered
their
operations. ·
And
so
a
technique
was
inv
e
nted
and the next thing I knew I had a .
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aberrated by such smaJl things as be
cause papa loved mama and Jimmy
\ \ ~ a n t e d to love mama
too.
·
And "everybody knew that"
the
workings of the hun1a·n n1ind were
enorn1ously
complex·; so ·
inv9lved
t_hat a complete direct
·
solution of
the
problen1
was
itnpossible.
That, in
effect, the human mind was a Rube
Goldberg device built up of an enor
nlously
unstable
and delicately
bal
anced pile
of odd-shaped
bits of
etnotion
and experience, liable to col-
.
lapse at any ·titne.
. Fron1 the engineering
v i e , ~ l p o i n t ,
that
seen1s a little strange.
Two
bil-
lion years
of ..
evolution,
a billion
successive test n1odels,
would
tend
to
· produce a ·fairly
streamlined,
func
. tional n1echanism. After that much
experience,
anin1al life
would be
ex-
pected to produce
a
truly functional
n1echanisn1-and
Rube
G o l d b e r g s
devices
are amusing
b e c a u ~ e
they are
so insanely
nonfunctional.
It some
how
doesn't
seem probable
that
two
billion years of trial arid
error
de
velopn1ent
could
wirid
up \vith a
clumsy, con1plex, poorly
balanced
mechanisn1
for
survival-and that
jerry-built
thing an absolute
_master
of
all
other
animal
life
Son1e of
those ' 'everybody
kno\VS
that-"
postulates needed
checking
and
checking out of the computation.
First,
everybody knows
that
"to
err is
hun1an".
And
second every-'
body kno\vs that
we
·
are pawns
in the
hairy grasp
of
some
ogre
who
is
and
always
will
be
unkno\vn.
f O
Only this didn't so.und like en- .
gineering
to me. I'd listened
to
the ,
voodoo
drun1s in Cap
Haitien and
the bullhorns in the lama temples
.of the W
s t ~ r n Hills.
The
people
.
who beat those
drums and
blew those
horns were subj-ect to disease,
star
vation
and terror. Looked
like we
.
had
a
ratio at
\Vork
here. The closer
a civilization-or a
n1an-moved
to\vard adtnitting the .ability of the
hun1an n1ind
to
con1pute-the
closer
the
proposition
was entered that
natural obstacles and chaos were sus
ceptible
to orderly
solution-the
bet
ter
he-or
they-fared t the busi
ness
of living.
And
here :ve were
back \vith our original
·
postulate
again,
SURVIVE Now this com
putation \vould
be
warranted only if
it \Vorked. ·
But
it
\Vas a not un\varrantable
conclusion. had had
experience
·
no\v '¥ith basic personct.lity.
Basic
personality could compute like a well
greased
Univac. It
was construc
tive. It
was
rational. It was
sane.
And
so .
we
entered upon the
next
seven
league boot stride
in
this
evo-
·
lution. \Vhat
was sanitv?
It
was
rationality.
A man was sane in the
ratio
that
he
could
compute
accurate
ly, 1in1ited only by information a ~ d
• •
vtewpotnt.
What was
the
optimum
brain?
It
.
was
an entirely rational b r ~ i n . W h a ~
did one have to have to be entirely
rational? \Vhat would any
electronic
con1puter have
to
have?
All data
must
be available
for
inspection.
All
data it contained tnu·st be derived
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f r o m
its own
computation or
it
must
be
·able to compute and check the
data
it
is fed. Tak.e
any
electronic
calculator no,·
on
sec.ond thought,
don t take them.
They re
not
smart
enough
to
be
on the
same
.Plane
with
the
mind because they
are
of a great
ly sub order of magnitude. Very
well, let s take
the
m·ind i t s l f ~ the
optimum mind. Compare it
to
itse lf.
When did man
become sentient? It s
not absolutely necessary
to
the prob
lem or these results to kno\v just
when or where
man eegan to
THINK, but let s
compare
him to
his
fellow
mammals.
What
does
he
have
that the
other mammals
don t
have? What
can
he
do
that
they
can t do? What does h.e have that
they
have?
All
it takes
is
the right question
.What does he have that they have?
He does
have
something-and
he has
something
more than
they
have. Is
·it
the
same order? More
or less.
You
never met a
dog yet that
could drive a car,
or
a
rat that
could
do arithrpetic. But you have men
that couldn t drive a tat, and
men
that
cotddn t
do much better with
arithmetic
than a rat.
How did
such
men vary
from
the average?
It
s:
eemed
that
the
average man
had
a computer
that
was
not only
better, it was infinitely finer than
any anin1al s brain.
vVhen son1ething
happens to that computer, n1an is
no longer MAN
but
a dog or a rat,
for purposes of
comparison
in n1en
tal
pbwer.
- ·Man s
computer
must be
pretty
DIANETICS
good. After all
._those
millions
of · -
years of evolution, it should be-in
fact
it s ~ o u l d by this
time,
have
evolved a perfect
computer, one
that
didn t
give
wrong
answers because
it
couldn t
make a mistake.
We ve
already
developed electronic com
puting
machines so designed, with
such
built-in self-checking circuits,
that
they
c a n ~ t by their
very
nature,
tur out
a
wrong
answer.
Those
machines
stop
themselves
and sum-
.
mon an operator if
something goes
wrong so that the computer
starts
producing
a
wrong
answer.
We know
how to make a machine
that
would
not
only do
that, but set
up
circuits
to find the error, and correct the
erring
circuit. If
men have figured
out ways to do that with a machine
already-
I
had long
since
laid
as
-
de
the idea
that one could do this Job by
dis
secting a neurone. Dead,
_they don t
talk. Now I
had
to lay aside the
idea that
the
brain s
structural
mechanism could even be guessed
at this stage.
But working
on the
heuristic basis of
what-works,
i t is
n()t
necessary
to
·know ow it is
done ,
in
.
terms
of
physical
mechanism
if
we
can show
that
it s
done.
I t was
convenient to use
electronic
circuits
as
analogs, \and
the
analogy of an
electronic brain, because I knew the
· terms of these
things.
The
brain
may
or may
not run on
electric;
cu r-
rents ; what things can be
measured
in and around
it
by voltmeters
are.
interesting.
But
electricity
itself
is·
measured indirectly ·today.
T e r n - ~
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perature
is measured by the co
efficient
of
expansion caused hy
ten1perature. Encephelographs are
~ s e f u l
working around a
brain but
· l1at
doesn t n1ean · that
the
brain
is
as
clttnlsy
and
crude
s
a
vacuum
tube
rig. T h i ~
was
a necessary step
because
if the
problen1
were to be
solved one had to suppose that
the
brain
could
be patched up and vvith
some method decidedly short of
surgery.
So
here \\
7
as what I seemed
to be
~ o r k i n g
\Vith
: a
COi)Jputing
machine
that
could
work
.fron1
data
stored
in
memory
banks, and \Vas so designed
that the computer circ.uits the.
mselves
were inherently
incapable
of mis-
conlputation. The computer was
equipped with .
sensirig devices-the
sensory
organs-which enabled
it to
con1pare
its conclusions
with the ex
ternal
world,
and thus to
use
the
data
of
the external w o r ~ d as part
of
the
checking
feedback circuits.
If
the
derived·an
.
s\\ ers
did ·not match
the
observed ~ x t e r n l world,
since
the
computing circuits were
inher
ently incapable of producing a wrong
-cotnputation, . the.
data
.·
used
. in
the
problem n1ust
itself
be
wrong. Thus,
a perfect,
errorless
con1puter
can
use
external world data to check
the
va
lidity of
and evaluate
ifs
ovvn data
input. nly if
the cornputational
tnechanism
is
inheret)tly error-proof
·would thi be
possible.
But
n1en
have already f i g t ~ r e d qui n1echanical-
.
. .
·ty
sin1ple
ways
of ;
l ~ k i n g
an error-
proof
c o m p u t e r ~ a n . d
.
if .
n1an .
can
~ g u r e ~ t o u t
.at_thi&
s t a g ~ the g a n 1 ~
• 4 : • • ) •
6
t\vo billion years of
~ v o l u t i o n
c o u L ~
and would.
Hovv did the mind work? Well,
to
solve
this problem we did not have to
know.
Dr
Shannon
cotnmented a
few
months ago
that he had tried
every
way he
could
thfnk
of
to con1-
pute .
the n1aterial in the 1nen1ory
bank
of
the brain, and he had been
forced to
conclude that the brain
could not retain
more
than three
months
worth of observations if it
recorded
everything . And
dianetic
research
reveals
that
everyithing
is
recorded and
retained. Dr. 1\fcCul
loch of the University of Illinois
postulating the electronic brain last
year is said
to
have· done some com
putation
to the
. effect
that
if
the
human
brain
cos{ a million dollars
to_
build,
its vacuum tubes would
have to cost about 0.1 cent
each,
. that
the amount
of
power
it
vould
con
sttnle wquld
light
New York
City
and
that it
would take
Niagara
Falls
---
*The
system
of
the error-proof
computer is
easily unders-tood. Imagine a vacuum-tube com
puter
circuit.
I f
one tube foils
to
f* ction prop
erly, the computer will turn out wrong an·swers
every time that . tube. is .required
jn
. the c o m p u t a ~
tion circuit. But suppose we set u p ~
two
identical
c o m p ~ t e r s
now if a vacuum tube
faits,
the two,
running the•
same
problem in parallel, will get
different
answers-whlch
indicates
at
once
that
there is a
defect
somewhere. This
system
is used
in present computers
which,
when the -
different
answer
situation
arises, summon the operator.
But if three computers simultaneously calculate in
parallel on each problem, it is
possible
to de
termine not only that a defect exists in one
com
puter
chain,
but also to determine
which contains
the defect,
and what
the correct answer is. Now
the
defective unit can
be located and replaced
bv
the machine
itself.
No machines man has
made
have that feature; it
requires
o
triple
unit, . and
units are too .expensive. But man s brain
uses
ome eighteen billion·
neurones;
the brain con .af
ford
to
run all problems in triplicate,
and must to
achieve
an
inherently
error-free computer. Only
by
having
an
error
-
free
·
computer
con
the
im
m e n s e ~ y important fuf ction of data-evaluating ·
be
made possible. · · . · ·
.
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to cool
it.
To
these competent e ~ t l e
work
out, isn't
of -
fnuch
use
at
this.
men ,;ve
deliver
up
the problems of time.
And so
the analytical n1ind''
structure. To
date
Dianetics has
not
or the 'analyzer
is
a computer and
violated anything actually known
the.
I'; for our purposes.
~ 1 1
we
about
stt\lcture.
Indeed,
by
studious
want
is
a good
workable
s o l u t ~ o n
·application of dia.netic principles, . The next thing we
must
consider
maybe
the
problem of
structure
can
is
what apparently makes man
a
be better approached.
But at
a swoop, sentient being and that c o n s i d e r a t i o ~
we have all this off our minds. We leads us into the conclusion that
art dealing with
f u ~ c t i o n
and a b i ~ i t y possession of this analyzer raises
and
the adjustment of that function man
far above his
fellow n1arnn1als.
to the
end of obtaining
maximum op-
For as long as
man is
rational; he is
e r a t i o n ~
And we·are
deali _lg
with
an
superior.
When
that rationality re·
inherently
perfect
calculator. , duces,
so
does his
state
of being.
So
We are dealing with a calculator it can be postulated that it is this
which runs entirely on the principle analyzer which places the gap he
that
it
must be
right
and U1USt find
tween a dog
and
a mart.
out
why
if it isn't right. Its code Stndy
of
animals
has
long
bee_
.might be
stated
as And I pledge
popular
with experimental psycholo
Jnyself
to be right first, last.
and
al... gists, but
they
must not
be
mis
ways and to be nothing
1Jut
rtght
and
evaluated. Pavlov's
work
was inter-
.never· to ' be, under any circun
1
- esting; it proved dogs will be d o g s ~
stances,
wrong/' Now
·
by light
of these
new
observa-
Now this is what
you
would_
ex-
tions and
' deductions
it proved more
pect of
an organ d ~ d i c a t e d to c o ~ than
Pavlov knew.
t
proved
men
,puting a life and death
matte:
l ~ k e
weren t
dogs.
Must
be
,an
answer
survival.
If
you or 1 were building here somewhere. Let's see. I've
a
calcu,ator, we'd build one that' trained
a
lot of dogs. I've also train
would always give correct answers. ed a tot of kids.
O ~ c e
I
had
a theory
·N
-
ow, if
the· calculator w·e
built was that if you
trained. a ·
kid as. patiently
also
itself, a personality,
it would
·as
you
trained a dog, then
you
would
·
aintain
that t
was
rig
_
t
as
well. h · b
d"
t
k
·d
'D d
' t
k
.-ave
an
o
e
ten .
t .
1 n
wor
. HaVing obServed thi$ computer in Hrn-m-m. That's right. It didn't
its optimum state as the basic per- work. The more calmly and patiently
sonality,
the conclusion
was
very far one tried to make that kid into a
from a rnere postulate.
And
so .we well-trained
dog- Come here and
wilt call this computer the analyt1cal
he'd run away-hm-111-m. Must be
mind''. We could sub-divide things
further and get complicated by say- , some difference
between
kids and
ing that there is an l as well as a dogs, Well, what do dogs have
that
. computer,
but
this leads
off in
some
-kids
don't
have.
Mentally,
probably
direction
or other
which,
as things
nothing.
But what do
kids have
that-
DIANET'ICS ;
.
•
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dogs
don't
have. A "
good
analytical
n1ind
Let us then
observe this
human
analytical n1ind
more
closely. It "must
have
a ,
characteristic
dissimilar
to
anitnal tninds-minds jn
lo\ver orders
of man1mals. \Ve postulate that this
characteristic
must
have.
a
.
high
sur
vival
value;
it
is
evidently so
protn
inent and
w i d e s p r e ~ d
an
.d
the
an
. a l v z e r ~ h m m n 1 .
,
'fhe· analyzer n1ust
have
· some
quality
which 111akes
.
it
,
a
slightly
different thinking
apparatus than
those
ohserved in rats and dogs.
Not just
sensitivity
and .cotnplexity.
Must have
·something
newer and bet
ter . A·nother principle? \Vell, hardly
a \vhole
principle
but- ·
The rnore rational
the ·
n1ind,
the
1nore
sane
the n1an. The
less
rational
the
n1i
nd,
the
closer
man
approaches
j
n cot1dttct his
cousins
· of the.
n1am
·-
malian fan1ily. vVbat n1akes
the
mind
irrational?
I set t1p a series of experiments,
using
the basic personalities I could
•
contact above or below· the
level of
the aberrated personalities and in
these confirn1ed the clarity
·
and op
timtun performance
of
the b ~ s i c
con1-
·
puter.
Son1e
o
these
patients were
quite aberrated until they were in
an
hypnotic amnesia trance ·at which
time· they could he freed :of operator
controL The aberrations were
·
not
.
present. S t u t t e r ~ r s diq
·
pot stutter.
Harlots
became o r ~ L :
Arithri1etic
'vas easy.
C o l o r - v i $ i
o p e 7 a u ~ i o
re•
calL Color-visio, t o n e ~ u . d i q i r n ~ g i n a :
.
.
.
. .
: . .
'
·· . .
64
tion: Knowledge
of
what-
was imagi
nation
and
what wasn't.. 'The
"de
tnons'' had got parked son1ewhere.
The circuits
and
filters causing ab
erration had been by-passed, to
be
n1ore
precisely technical
and
scien
tific.
N
\V let's postulate
that
the
ab
errative circuits have been son1ehow
introduced
fron1
the
external
world
-covered
that.
ground pretty ·
well,
pretty solid
ground
And here's art answer. The in
troduced
by-pass circuits
and
filters
became
the
aberrations in son1e vvay
we did
not
yet understand . And
what
new con1plexion did this give
the analyzer?
Further
r e s e a r ~ h tended to
indi
cate that the answer n1ight be con
tained in
the tern1 -""detern1inistn".
A careful inspection
of
this ·computa
tion
confirn1
observations.
Nothing
was
violated.
Did it
\VOrk?
Let's
postulate this
perfect com
puter. It is responsible. It has to be ·
responsible. It is r1:ght It
has
to
be
right . Vhat would n1ake it
w ~ o n g ? .
Exterior· cletertninisn1
beyond
its c·a-
pacity
to
reject.
· f
it
could . o t
l ~ i c k
out a false datutn it cz:;ould have
to
compute
with
it. Then, and only t h e n ~
\vould . the perfect
c o m p u ~ e r get
\vrong
answers.
A perfect cotn" '
puter
had
to be s e l f d e t e r m i n ~ d
within the lin1its of necessary efforts ·
to
solve
a problem. No
s e l f ~
determinism, bad
computation.
. .
The n1achine had to b.e in a large .
measure
s e t f ~ d e t e r 1 n i n e d
or
it
would
\
not
work.
That was .. t h ~
conclusjon
·
\ ' . ; '' ' ; • , : ; . • •
'
,1
' ' , ,' '
ASTOUNDING
SCIENCE-FICTION
.
'
.
.
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Good or
bad,
did it
lead to
further
results?
It did .
When
exterior
determinism was
entered
into
a human
being
so as
to
overbalance his
self-determinism the
correctness of
his solutions
fell off
rapidly. ··:
Let's
take any
common
adding
machine.
We put
into
it
the order
that all of
its solutions
must contain
the
~ g u r e 7. We hold
.
down 7 and
put
on
the
computer the
problem of
6xl.
The answer is wrong. But we
still hold down 7. To all intents and
purposes
here, that machine
is
crazy.
Why? Because it
won't