AboutLaurie Hamilton Expertise I am able to answer questions regarding Scientology practices and procedures, belief system, donations, religious rites, management, administrative and staff matters.
Experience I am a second generation Scientologist whose parents began in Dianetics in 1950 and studied directly with L. Ron Hubbard. I have been personally active in the church for 40 years, have eleven years former staff experience in both technical and administrative areas, and extensive technical and administative training and counseling. I am "clear" and "OT." I come from an extended family of many religions, but my spouse and children are Scientologists, as are my siblings and their spouses, several cousins, nieces, nephews, an aunt, and an uncle. Between us we have had every good and bad experience one might go through in the church at every level.
Question QUESTION: The question you answered a few days ago on this was very enlightening! I started getting confused towards the end though...
"Compulsive seeking of such feedback is indicative of anxiety over one's own existence."
Why do people have anxieties over their existences?
"This can exceed anxiety, to the point of terror"
What makes it exceed to such high levels?
"wherein even momentary lack of validation invokes the specter of disappearance"
The specter of who? What is that?
"In a catch-22 inversion, such a person lives in fear of being actually *seen*"
What is actually being *seen*???
"which is more dangerous still"
Why is it more dangerous?
"so there's the tightrope act - the man behind the curtain in OZ who craves continual praise and trembling and illusions they create, while living in abject terror of being detected."
Wow, when you break it down like that, this exactly reminds me of my little cousin. She's always trying to show off and amaze people with what she can do and what she owns, yet when you give her the attention she seems to crave, she has difficulty facing you and often downright avoids you. She only like 3 or 4 years old... What can I do to help?
ANSWER: "Why do people have anxieties over their existences?"
Because existing, continuing, persisting, surviving is what this universe is about. It impresses upon you that if it doesn't validate you, then you don't exist - and if they can't get feedback showing evidence of their continued existence, their very existence (in their eyes) is invalidated by the physical universe. It's not a conscious, reasoning, calculating thing - it's below the level of the person's awareness - yet it motivates them.
"What makes it exceed to such high levels?"
Well, what would be your reaction to being threatened with non-existence/extinction?
The specter of who? What is that?
Specter is "ghost" or, in this case, "something that haunts you" like the idea of disappearing - ceasing to exist.
What is actually being *seen*???
Since bold type or italics are impossible in the answer box of AllExperts, and I don't usually like to use ALL CAPS, I indicate emphasis by bracketing words in asterisks, like *this.* A person who is under mortal threat from every direction is only safe if they, their real selves, remain undetected. If you actually *see* them, there is the danger you will GET them. Because in their minds, you and everyone else is always and only out to get them.
"Why is it more dangerous?"
Because, since everyone is out to get them, nothing is more dangerous than being detected.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: "It's not a conscious, reasoning, calculating thing - it's below the level of the person's awareness - yet it motivates them."
-So how can we get rid of this unnecessary urge?
"A person who is under mortal threat from every direction is only safe if they, their real selves, remain undetected."
-What are our real selves? Our physical bodies? Our thoughts? Some kind of energetic body?
Also, about my observation of this pattern in my little cousin, is it normal for all or some kids to go through a phase like that? Or should I be worried?
ANSWER: "-So how can we get rid of this unnecessary urge?"
Auditing, if the person is not a full-blown anti-social personality. If they are, Scientology is, at this stage, unable to help such persons.
"-What are our real selves? Our physical bodies? Our thoughts? Some kind of energetic body?"
The real self is the thetan - an awareness of awareness unit which is without mass, motion or position in space or time. It has the ability to put forth ideas and to perceive. One might think of it as a "soul" - keeping in mind that it possesses no physical existence or characteristics.
I don't know your cousin, and there is no such thing as "normal." Every person is an individual. It would be impossible for me to say whether your cousin is a worrisome person or not.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: "Auditing, if the person is not a full-blown anti-social personality."
I thought auditing was a tool used to access and defuse moments of pain from a person's memory bank?
Are there other kinds of auditing? If so, what are they?
If not, is the urge somehow received through a moment of pain? How?
"If they are, Scientology is, *at this stage*, unable to help such persons."
Are there other stages in the works? What are they? Is further research being carried out as we speak or did Hubbard possibly leave a plan to be followed?
"an awareness of awareness unit which is without mass, motion or position in space or time. It has the ability to put forth ideas and to perceive... It possesses no physical existence or characteristics"
Firstly, how do you know?
An awareness of awareness unit? As opposed to just an awareness unit?
Secondly, supposing that this is real, basically our bodies are being controlled by our souls, the real us, from a remote dimension? Like we're playing a video game? Why?
This is getting gnarly, is there a larger picture here?
And back to one of the earlier quotations:
"A person who is under mortal threat from every direction is only safe if they, their real selves, remain undetected."
If our real selves are not in space and time, isn't it a safe bet that they'll remain undetected? So where is the danger coming from?
"It would be impossible for me to say whether your cousin is a worrisome person or not."
No she's awesome, it's just when you I read your description I got reminded of her.
Sorry to keep cross-examining your answers, I'm just hungry for the truth.
Answer Hoooboy. Well, lessee now...
"I thought auditing was a tool used to access and defuse moments of pain from a person's memory bank?
"Are there other kinds of auditing? If so, what are they?
"If not, is the urge somehow received through a moment of pain? How?"
The original kind of auditing, (Dianetic auditing) is basically as you describe. It deals with moment of pain and unconsciousness. It also deals with periods of negative emotion founded upon the earlier trauma. In the case I described, one may assume that a very early incident of being under attack from all sides included pain and unconsciousness or it would not even BE an incident capable of affecting the person later. So, if auditing cleared up that basic incident, then the feeling of being under attack and having to defend one's self could be resolved.
But, yes, there are other kinds of auditing - Scientology auditing. These deal with helping a person to inspect and unsnarl non-optimum ways they think about, and therefore deal with, life, communication, problems, misdeeds, changes, disagreements, etc., etc.
Are there other stages (of Scientology) in the works? What are they? Is further research being carried out as we speak or did Hubbard possibly leave a plan to be followed?
No further research is really being done at this point. However, Ron did leave a series of researched and completed levels to be released as conditions permitted, according to a plan he laid out. I am not privy to the plan. Two levels, OT 9 and "Super Power" are the next to be released when the groundwork for them is completed, and I believe that would be a situation wherein there are ten thousand people working on OT 7 plus some other steps having to do with facilities.
But levels aside, a true antisocial personality could only be resolved if they cooperated with persons directing them to examine and deal with their own minds - and they won't cooperate. So, theoretically, and institutional setting would be required, wherein the person could initially be restrained from doing harm to self and others, while methods were employed to try to obtain their cooperation. I don't know just what methods might work, without researching that issue itself.
"'an awareness of awareness unit which is without mass, motion or position in space or time. It has the ability to put forth ideas and to perceive... It possesses no physical existence or characteristics'
Firstly, how do you know?"
Well, that is how the thetan is defined in Scientology, and I know because I am aware of myself and my relationship to the physcial universe.
"An awareness of awareness unit? As opposed to just an awareness unit?"
Yes - not merely aware, but aware of one's self being aware.
"Secondly, supposing that this is real, basically our bodies are being controlled by our souls, the real us, from a remote dimension? Like we're playing a video game? Why? This is getting gnarly, is there a larger picture here?"
It's not a case of a "remote dimension." It's just that we are not a part of Matter, Energy, Space and Time ("MEST"). MEST is a result of our action and interaction and we coexist with it without being it, being "in" it, or being part of it. Just as if you built a boat, you would not be the boat and would not be part of the boat, but you could sail the boat. "Why" is there a boat? Because you built it.
"'A person who is under mortal threat from every direction is only safe if they, their real selves, remain undetected.'
If our real selves are not in space and time, isn't it a safe bet that they'll remain undetected? So where is the danger coming from?"
Understand I am not speaking of what's true, but what an aberrated person THINKS is true. I'm taking you inside a crazy mind. They conceive of themselves being under attack from all sides when it is not, in fact, the case. They are "stuck" in a past incident during which a threat to survival WAS real, which incident has not been real for a very, very long time. They are reacting to a universe that no longer exists. To a greater or lesser degree, this would be true of most instances of mental error. One is reacting to a mistakenly perceived or imagined universe. So, understand firstly that the person is reacting to an imagined reality. Secondly, if the person were truly aware of themselves, they would not be in that fix. They are quite sure they are a body, or a mind, or a set of beliefs or something, and that is what they are seeking to protect. In the extreme instance of the true antisocial personality, the person "knows" "who they really are," and this is a person with a continual and unremitting urge to do others harm, make nothing of them, keep them down and render them powerless, in the hope of keeping self safe. If others knew how evil their intentions were, they would not leave themselves undefended from the antisocial person's evil scheming, and might in fact deal with that person summarily - with death, isolation, imprisonment, physical restraint, or whatever other means might render them harmless (understand this is not necessarily what a SOCIAL person might do, but what an ANTISOCIAL person is CERTAIN others WOULD do, if they knew what he was up to). Keep in mind, none of this makes sense. These are the workings of a psychotic mind.
So, even the "real self" the person is trying to keep hidden behind a facade of sweetness and light, distraction and misdirection, is not a REAL "real self," but an imaginary one the person believes to be real.
