scientology: “dianetics” as it first appeared in “astounding science fiction”

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


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


3/44

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


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


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


6/44

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


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


8/44

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


9/44

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.

51


10/44

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 .


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


12/44

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.

Nothing c


13/44

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


14/44

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

ASTOUNDING SCIEN CE -FICT ION


15/44

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


16/44

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 .

ASTOUNDING

SCIENCE-FICTION


17/44


18/44

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

ASTOUNDING SCIE·N CE -F ICT IO N


19/44

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 - ~

61

•·


20/44

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. · · . · ·

.

ASTOUNDING

SCI.ENCE-FICTIO.N

.

: .


21/44

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 ;

.

•

63


22/44

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

.

'

.

.


23/44

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

scientology: “dianetics” as it first appeared in “astounding science fiction”

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