Ron Hubbard constructed the version of cult indoctrination methods he used from a variety of sources. I know he has been reported as taking it wholecloth from a pair of Scientologists who were teachers. That's one anecdote and it doesn't do several things.
It doesn't prove its own truthfulness. It might be entirely false. It also, even if true, doesn't demonstrate what form study technology was in before Hubbard got it or if he altered it and if he did alter it to what extent and why. It also doesn't explain what it actually does. Just calling it study tech doesn't provide a detailed critical analysis of what it actually is and how it affects minds.
That's worth examining if you want to understand Scientology, and not just Hubbard's claims and names for his creations. He may have lied or been wrong, difficult as that may be to accept.
In this series I intend to revisit Scientology Study Technology and several quotes from Hubbard that may together put it in perspective.
I also may reference other sources or authors if their ideas are relevant. I wrote about this two years ago in Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology and a number of other blog posts.
That's still important and I will quote it but recommend anyone who hasn't read that to read it as it covers a lot of ground.
Hubbard said a lot about study in many different places in Dianetics and Scientology.
Here's a series of quotes where Hubbard shows the physical and mental reactions he labels as corresponding to the barriers to study. I think looking at what he has a student DO and exactly what the phenomena he uses as triggers for responses is key. Just because Hubbard claimed the barriers existed doesn't mean they actually did.
He got students to follow a pattern of behavior with an explanation for the behavior. The behavior should be examined in detail and the explanation Hubbard gave looked at separately.
Hubbard's instructions used real experiences as prompts, so the question is what are those experiences ?
Here's a series of quotes from Hubbard that outline some basic concepts in study technology:
(NOTE; I put all Ron Hubbard quotes in this blog post in red for ease of understanding)
The First Barrier – Lack of Mass
A student who encounters this barrier will tend to feel squashed, bent, sort of spinny, sort of dead, bored and exasperated. He can wind up with his face feeling squashed, with headaches, and with his stomach feeling funny. He can feel dizzy from time to time and very often his eyes can hurt.
The Second Barrier – Too Steep a Gradient
There is a different set of physiological reactions which occur as a result of this barrier. When one hits too steep a gradient, a sort of confusion or reelingness is experienced.
The Third Barrier – the Misunderstood Word
Going past a word or symbol for which one does not have a proper definition gives one a distinctly blank or washed-out feeling. The person will get a "not there" feeling and will begin to feel a nervous hysteria. These are manifestations distinct from either of the other two barriers.
Have you ever come to the bottom of a page only to realize you didn’t remember what you had just read? That is the phenomenon of a misunderstood word, and one will always be found just before the material became blank in your mind.
HCO Bulletin of 25 June 1971 (revised 25 November 1974),
"Barriers to Study" Ron Hubbard
In the Scientology Handbook a simple version of Hubbard's study tech is presented with his method 3 word clearing presented as Basic Word Clearing. It's a foundation of how a Scientologist approaches indoctrination and the materials he studies.
Basic Word Clearing
Basic Word Clearing is the method of finding a misunderstood word by looking earlier in the text for a misunderstood word than where one is having trouble. This is the most basic method of Word Clearing used in Scientology.
A student must know how to keep himself tearing along successfully in his studies. He should be able to handle anything that slows or interferes with his progress. He applies the Study Technology to assist himself.
A student who uses Study Technology will look up each word he comes to that he doesn’t understand and will never leave a word behind him that he doesn’t know the meaning of.
If he runs into trouble, the student himself, his study partner or his instructor (in Scientology called a Supervisor) uses Basic Word Clearing to handle anything that slowed or interfered with his progress.
Waiting to become groggy or to “dope off” (feel tired, sleepy or foggy as though doped or drugged) as the only detection of misunderstood words before handling is waiting too long. If you have ever seen a student falling asleep over his book, then you have seen dope-off. Long before that point, someone should have made the student look for a misunderstood word. The time to look for the misunderstood word is as soon as the student slows down or isn’t quite as “bright” as he was fifteen minutes before. It is not a misunderstood phrase or idea or concept but a misunderstood WORD. This always occurs before the subject itself is not understood.
Basic Word Clearing is done as follows:
1. The student is not flying along and is not so “bright” as he was or he may exhibit just plain lack of enthusiasm or be taking too long on the course or be yawning or disinterested or doodling or daydreaming, etc.
2. The student must then look earlier in the text for a misunderstood word. There is one always; there are no exceptions. It may be that the misunderstood word is two pages or more back, but it is always earlier in the text than where the student is now.
3. The word is found. The student recognizes it in looking back for it. Or, if the student can’t find it, one can take words from the text that could be the misunderstood word and ask, “What does _____ mean?” to see if the student gives the correct definition.
4. The student looks up the word found in a dictionary and clears it per the steps of clearing a misunderstood word described above. He uses it verbally several times in sentences of his own composition until he has obviously demonstrated he understands the word by the composition of his sentences.
5. The student now reads the text that contained the misunderstood word. If he is not now “bright,” eager to get on with it, feeling happier, etc., then there is another misunderstood word earlier in the text. This is found by repeating steps 2–5.
6. When the student is bright and feeling happier, he comes forward, studying the text from where the misunderstood word was to the area of the subject he did not understand (where step 1 began).
The student will now be enthusiastic about his study of the subject, and that is the end result of Basic Word Clearing. (The result won’t be achieved if a misunderstood word was missed or if there is an earlier misunderstood word in the text. If so, repeat steps 2–5.) If the student is now enthusiastic, have him continue studying.
Good Word Clearing is a system of backtracking. You have to look earlier than the point where the student became dull or confused and you’ll find that there’s a word that he doesn’t understand somewhere before the trouble started. If he doesn’t brighten up when the word is found and cleared, there will be a misunderstood word even before that one.
This will be very clear to you if you understand that if it is not resolving, the thing the student is apparently having trouble with is not the thing the student is having trouble with. Otherwise, it would resolve, wouldn’t it? If he knew what he didn’t understand, he could resolve it himself. So to talk to him about what he thinks he doesn’t understand just gets nowhere. The trouble is earlier.
Zeroing In on the Word
The formula is to find out where the student wasn’t having any trouble and find out where the student is now having trouble and the misunderstood word will be in between. It will be at the tag end—the last part—of where he wasn’t having trouble.
Basic Word Clearing is tremendously effective when done as described here. From the Scientology Handbook based on the works of Ron Hubbard
This is a key aspect of study technology. It shows the exact steps Hubbard required and the exact circumstances in which a Scientologist is required to take the steps.
Hubbard wrote: Waiting to become groggy or to “dope off” (feel tired, sleepy or foggy as though doped or drugged) as the only detection of misunderstood words before handling is waiting too long. If you have ever seen a student falling asleep over his book, then you have seen dope-off. End quote.
He described a student feeling tired or groggy as being due to misunderstood words. Okay.
But he also said something else:
These quotes are from the Philadelphia Doctorate Course tapes, a series of lectures delivered by Hubbard in the early fifties.
Originally Posted by PDC-31 pg 16
BASIC AGREEMENT AND PROVE IT!
So, in order to _____ you have to desire it.
Now, this mechanism is, incidently, one of the interesting points of hypnotism.
When a person gets very groggy in hypnosis, he’s been put down to a point where he’s very obedient Ron Hubbard
So a groggy student is told to stop and look up a word, but a hypnotist can have a groggy person be hypnotized and obedient, according to Hubbard. Hmm.
What else did Hubbard say about this ?
Back to the Philadelphia Doctorate Course (PDC) tapes
Originally Posted by PDC-05 pg 7 SCALES OF HANDLING 2.12.52
Well, that’s… that’s very interesting because we have hypnotism which can be demonstrated as a phenomenon,
and we show that the greater and greater agreement,
all you do to hypnotize somebody is just make him agree… agree… agree
and after that he’ll see anything.
He’ll do anything,
he’ll see anything.
He agrees, agrees, agrees.
Originally Posted by PDC-15 pg 4 THE LOGICS:
he has volunteered.
And the next thing you know, you’ll find out he has agreed.
How is all this done?
It’s done by hypnosis; it’s done in various other ways.
Hypnosis is just a sudden agreement.
And uh… it’s done in various ways
and then he comes down this whole long scale of agreement
and things get more and more in agreement
and they are probably more and more actually to his personal discredit
and uh…
antipathetic to his best beingness, habit he’s still going down the line,
and goes down the line further, ...and further, ...and further, ...and further.
And this fellow goes into apathy and he goes further and further
and further. And of course, he goes more and more under control. Ron Hubbard
So, way back in 1952 Hubbard said hypnosis is agreement and a groggy person is obedient.
But Could this really apply to a student reading or listening to a tape ?
Hubbard had definite ideas on this:
Any time anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude…if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject…he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as a hypnotic suggestion….With parity, such as occurs between acquaintances, friends, fellow students and so on, there is no hypnotic suggestion” (Education and Dianetics, 11 November 1950, Research and Discovery, volume 4). Ron Hubbard Source Jon Atack
Here's a longer excerpt:
Any time anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude. There are ways to create and lower the altitude of the subject, but if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject the same way, he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as hypnotic suggestion.” (my italics; Education and Dianetics, 11 November 1950, Research and Discovery Series, volume 4, 1st edition, pp.324-5) source Jon Atack
Here's a longer excerpt:
ALTITUDE INSTRUCTION
“In altitude teaching, somebody is a ‘great authority.’ He is probably teaching some subject that is far more complex than it should be. He has become defensive down through the years, and this is a sort of protective coating that he puts up, along with the idea that the subject will always be a little better known by him than by anybody else and that there are things to know in this subject which he really wouldn’t let anybody else in on. This is altitude instruction … It keeps people in a state of confusion, and when their minds are slightly confused they are in a hypnotic trance. Anytime anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude. There are ways to create and lower the altitude of the subject, but if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject the same way, he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as hypnotic suggestion.” (Hubbard, Research & Discovery, volume 4, p.324)12
One error, however, must be remarked upon. The examination system employed is not much different from a certain hypnotic technique. One induces a state of confusion in the subject by raising his anxieties of what may happen if he does not pass. One then "teaches" at a mind which is anxious and confused. That mind does not then rationalize, it merely records and makes a pattern. If the pattern is sufficiently strong to be regurgitated verbatim on an examination paper, the student is then given a good grade and passed.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard lecture 29 August 1950, "Educational Dianetics." Source Arnie Lerma
Remember how Hubbard described nervous hysteria as coming from misunderstood words ? Isn't that a mind that's confused and anxious ?
So, back in 1950 Hubbard saw altitude, also called authority or prestige or transference, as the key to hypnosis and NOT formal induction. Interesting. So the student could take in what a source provides as hypnotic suggestions and be obedient if groggy, according to Hubbard if altitude has been achieved.
Hubbard had other specific ideas:
Good Word Clearing is a system of backtracking. You have to look earlier than the point where the student became dull or confused and you’ll find that there’s a word that he doesn’t understand somewhere before the trouble started. If he doesn’t brighten up when the word is found and cleared, there will be a misunderstood word even before that one.
This will be very clear to you if you understand that if it is not resolving, the thing the student is apparently having trouble with is not the thing the student is having trouble with. Otherwise, it would resolve, wouldn’t it? If he knew what he didn’t understand, he could resolve it himself. So to talk to him about what he thinks he doesn’t understand just gets nowhere. The trouble is earlier. Ron Hubbard
So Hubbard had directed a student to look earlier and look up words, sometimes English words and sometimes Scientology words to clear as a response to blankness or the not there feeling or washed out feeling or a nervous hysteria. He directed the student to go earlier and that what the student is having trouble with isn't what they are having trouble with. A very confusing statement. Why confuse a student about what they don't get ? Check this out:
Quotes from Ron Hubbard on the Confusion Technique:
[Quote]
Now, if it comes to a pass where it's very important whether or not this person acts or inacts as you wish, in interpersonal relations one of the dirtier tricks is to hang the person up on a maybe and create a confusion. And then create the confusion to the degree that your decision actually is implanted hypnotically.
The way you do this is very simple. When the person advances an argument against your decision, you never confront his argument but confront the premise on which his argument is based. That is the rule. He says, "But my professor always said that water boiled at 212 degrees."
You say, "Your professor of what?"
"My professor of physics."
"What school? How did he know?" Completely off track! You're no longer arguing about whether or not water boils at 212 degrees, but you're arguing about professors. And he will become very annoyed, but he won't know quite what he is annoyed about. You can do this so adroitly and so artfully that you can actually produce a confusion of the depth of hypnosis. The person simply goes down tone scale to a point where they're not sure of their own name.
And at that point you say, "Now, you do agree to go out and draw the water out of the well, don't you?"
"Yes-anything!" And he'll go out and draw the water out of the well.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard Lecture, 20 May 1952 "Decision."
source Lermanet.com
So, according to Hubbard redirection of attention can confuse someone enough to achieve the depth of hypnosis. But that's what his having the student always look for something to resolve that isn't what he's having trouble with does. He's utterly confused. Hubbard had more to say on confusion and hypnosis:
“A confusion can be defined as any set of factors or circumstances which do not seem to have any immediate solution. More broadly, a confusion is random motion.”
“Until one selects one datum, one factor, one particular in a confusion of particles, the confusion continues. The one thing selected and used becomes the stable datum for the remainder.“Any body of knowledge, more particularly and exactly, is built fromone datum. That is its stable datum. Invalidate it and the entire body of knowledge falls apart. A stable datum does not have to be the correct one. It is simply the one that keeps things from being in a confusion and on which others are aligned.” – Ron Hubbard [ref]
RON THE HYPNOTIST
Structure/Function: 11 December 1952 page 1
„All processes are based upon the original observation
that an individual could have implanted in him by hypnosis
and removed at will any obsession or aberration,
compulsion, desire, inhibition which you could think of – by hypnosis.“
Hypnosis, then, was the wild variable;
sometimes it worked,
sometimes it didn’t work.
It worked on some people; it didn’t work on other people.
Any time you have a variable that is as wild as this, study it.
Well, I had a high certainty already –
I had survival. Got that in 1938 or before that. And uh…Ron Hubbard
So he was trying to confuse a student, get them obedient and accepting his altitude and then his definitions for Scientology terms along with English words and his doctrine through tapes and writings.
All this was to get people under his influence ? To overcome the limits hypnosis had of sometimes working and to also be applied remotely. Remember Hubbard described hypnosis as requiring confusion, which his method creates and altitude.
So Hubbard was creating a confusion then with altitude trying to suggest his words as the answer to the confusion. A confusion from contradictions can create mental discomfort and cognitive dissonance. Cognitive Dissonance has a moment of blankness and hesitation.
That's where Hubbard inserted the suggestion. The confused person is meant to accept the suggestion without question. What is the suggestion ? Hubbard's reality through his doctrine.
Hubbard inserted his stable datum to relieve confusion, really to have it taken in on a hypnotic level. Hubbard knew his information didn't need to be correct. It just needed to align information to relieve confusion and control a student.
Here's something else Hubbard said:
Originally Posted by PDC-04 pg6
HOW TO HANDLE THEM
The hypnotist is only interested in one thing, really.
The hypnotist is interested in taking the control of this individual. Ron Hubbard
Originally Posted by STRUCTURE/FUNCTION:11.12.52
I turned around and I had hypnotism.
I had a little advantage there because I was using hypnotism that I had learned in India.
And that doesn’t bear too much resemblance to Western hypnotism.
You’ve got variety of hypnotism there. There are ninety thousand ways of putting a guy out – I swear there must be that many ways.
I mean, you can just run on and on and on.
There’s various things you do;
you treat the perceptic lines in certain ways
and guys go „Ka- boom!“
I have been communicating with Jon Atack and want to give him credit for pointing out something to me. I got close to seeing and stating this but not quite right .
I will quote directly from an email: "I realized that throughout DMSMH he contradicts himself. I'd read it three times and never noticed. Presumably because the 'blank' that he relates to the mu actually occurs during the cognitive dissonance. Once you have confused someone, you insert the suggestions that will put them under your control ('if you knew what was wrong with your mind it, it wouldn't be wrong' is a favorite).Jon Atack
Jon Atack certainly has studied hypnosis and contradictions along with cognitive dissonance theory. I concur with his conclusion, but it fits the information Hubbard himself provided, but had hidden if you don't look through a lot of tapes.
A key is the alleged MU or misunderstood word is actually a cover for any confusion. Sure you will run into English words you didn't know, especially since Hubbard sat with a thesaurus and tried to intentionally make his references difficult to understand to confuse and impress people, to give him altitude as a fake highly educated man. But you will also be confused by contradictions in Scientology and Orwellian reversals Hubbard uses with his terms and phrases.
Remember Hubbard called hypnosis sudden agreement. The key moments of blankness from confusion are the opportunity to get that sudden agreement.
Like Hubbard described with the well. Get a person confused while they accept your altitude and YOU can insert the command hypnotically.
Remember, Hubbard had all processes based on his observations on hypnosis and the variable that on some people it worked and some it didn't. It worked sometimes and it didn't sometimes.
He was trying to control people. All people all the time, or as close as possible. That was his goal with Scientology.
In the next post in this series I hope to show his intentions. With his own words of course.
For further reading I will list several references and the areas they elaborate on.
Regarding mind control in Scientology:
The Critical Factor
The Empty Well
Regarding Dissociation
Exteriorization Versus Dissociation
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