I M Dex
Well-known member
Here's another article I've been working on for my "Dissecting Scientology" book project:
Anyone seeking counseling does so expecting to be successfully addressing the things that are on his or her mind. This is certainly the principle I follow, and would expect any genuine healer or therapist to follow. The only valid function of any practitioner is to facilitate the accomplishing of what the individual is there to try to accomplish. And thus the things taken up in the session would specifically reflect these interests.
In Scientology training materials, L. Ron Hubbard explains that to be effective and successful, auditing (Scientology counseling sessions) has to “parallel the mind”, and that as the auditor, you must “audit the PC in front of you”, that is, to tailor what is addressed in an auditing session to what is relevant for the individual then and there.
And yet, in complete contradiction to this, auditors are instructed and trained to “steer clear of the deadly disease of Q & A”; “Q & A” is a Scientology term, “question based on the preclear’s answer”, which means to proceed in the direction of what the individual (“preclear” is Scientology’s term for the individual being “audited” in the session) expresses in the session, which is considered to be bad form that will disrupt the progress of the session.
There is even a “Training Routines” drill, “TR-4”, aka “Handling Originations”, in which the auditor (Scientology session counselor) is trained to deal with any subject expressed by the preclear by steering him or her back to doing the subject that the auditor is in the process of directing the preclear to focus on.
Hubbard’s superficial version of “paralleling the mind” steers every individual through the same generic pro forma sequence of processes and subjects being addressed in sessions, positing a standard archetypical mental structure and content for everyone, rather recognizing people as unique individuals, each with their own particular formation of interests, priorities and issues. In Scientology, “paralleling the mind” means to follow Hubbard’s projection of everyone generically, rather than to maintain sessions accordingly with what the individual’s mind is presenting. This furthers the program of provoking much cognitive dissonance in people, and at the same time instills and reinforces the process of imposing self-suppression of the dissonance to submit to the auditor who is controlling the session, to accept and generate ways to manufacture some artificial layer of agreement with the ongoing process, to deny one’s internal instincts in favor of the external control.
Hubbard speaks dismissively of the preclear’s originations in sessions as “reactive mind garbage”, “the reactive mind trying to prevent the progress of the auditing”, training auditors to have a dismissive attitude about the preclear and his originations, and to force the generic auditing sequence and script over what the preclear’s mind is presenting.
Once again, anyone seeking counseling does so expecting to be successfully addressing the things that are on his or her mind. But in Scientology, your own particular goals for accomplishing through engaging in sessions are set aside and replaced with the “End Phenomena” of the Scientology “grade chart”, arranged in “levels” of processes, each “level” supposedly resulting in a the “ability gained” associated for that “level”. In Scientology terms, this is what would be called “implanted goals”, presented as the gains you need and want, and as being fully and absolutely accomplished as each “level” is completed. In truth, while some positive things can occur, these are superficial in relation to what they are presented to be, and more importantly, not usually very relevant to the individual’s needs, desires and expectations.
People often are very susceptible to falling for the false idea of defined “levels” of being; many different spiritual or psychological paradigms dangle the promise of “ascending levels of existence”; it’s such an seemingly attractive idea, to so neatly categorize things, but there is no such natural concrete structure or form of existence; it’s a construct, a projection, an illusion.
The Scientology “grade chart”, I.e., the whole of Scientology processing, is aligned, not with paralleling your mind, but paralleling “The mind”. Hubbard cleverly takes advantage of the tendency people have to continue on with something merely because they have become invested in it, despite growing cognitive dissonance and dissatisfaction, unless and until a breaking point is reached. It’s hard to admit to oneself that something you have become so thoroughly invested in has largely turned out to be a painful and unfortunate error in judgement, especially after having been indoctrinated in and taken on a longterm attitude of defending it, and being hostile and/or dismissive when others challenge or question that personal investment.
Anyone seeking counseling does so expecting to be successfully addressing the things that are on his or her mind. This is certainly the principle I follow, and would expect any genuine healer or therapist to follow. The only valid function of any practitioner is to facilitate the accomplishing of what the individual is there to try to accomplish. And thus the things taken up in the session would specifically reflect these interests.
In Scientology training materials, L. Ron Hubbard explains that to be effective and successful, auditing (Scientology counseling sessions) has to “parallel the mind”, and that as the auditor, you must “audit the PC in front of you”, that is, to tailor what is addressed in an auditing session to what is relevant for the individual then and there.
And yet, in complete contradiction to this, auditors are instructed and trained to “steer clear of the deadly disease of Q & A”; “Q & A” is a Scientology term, “question based on the preclear’s answer”, which means to proceed in the direction of what the individual (“preclear” is Scientology’s term for the individual being “audited” in the session) expresses in the session, which is considered to be bad form that will disrupt the progress of the session.
There is even a “Training Routines” drill, “TR-4”, aka “Handling Originations”, in which the auditor (Scientology session counselor) is trained to deal with any subject expressed by the preclear by steering him or her back to doing the subject that the auditor is in the process of directing the preclear to focus on.
Hubbard’s superficial version of “paralleling the mind” steers every individual through the same generic pro forma sequence of processes and subjects being addressed in sessions, positing a standard archetypical mental structure and content for everyone, rather recognizing people as unique individuals, each with their own particular formation of interests, priorities and issues. In Scientology, “paralleling the mind” means to follow Hubbard’s projection of everyone generically, rather than to maintain sessions accordingly with what the individual’s mind is presenting. This furthers the program of provoking much cognitive dissonance in people, and at the same time instills and reinforces the process of imposing self-suppression of the dissonance to submit to the auditor who is controlling the session, to accept and generate ways to manufacture some artificial layer of agreement with the ongoing process, to deny one’s internal instincts in favor of the external control.
Hubbard speaks dismissively of the preclear’s originations in sessions as “reactive mind garbage”, “the reactive mind trying to prevent the progress of the auditing”, training auditors to have a dismissive attitude about the preclear and his originations, and to force the generic auditing sequence and script over what the preclear’s mind is presenting.
Once again, anyone seeking counseling does so expecting to be successfully addressing the things that are on his or her mind. But in Scientology, your own particular goals for accomplishing through engaging in sessions are set aside and replaced with the “End Phenomena” of the Scientology “grade chart”, arranged in “levels” of processes, each “level” supposedly resulting in a the “ability gained” associated for that “level”. In Scientology terms, this is what would be called “implanted goals”, presented as the gains you need and want, and as being fully and absolutely accomplished as each “level” is completed. In truth, while some positive things can occur, these are superficial in relation to what they are presented to be, and more importantly, not usually very relevant to the individual’s needs, desires and expectations.
People often are very susceptible to falling for the false idea of defined “levels” of being; many different spiritual or psychological paradigms dangle the promise of “ascending levels of existence”; it’s such an seemingly attractive idea, to so neatly categorize things, but there is no such natural concrete structure or form of existence; it’s a construct, a projection, an illusion.
The Scientology “grade chart”, I.e., the whole of Scientology processing, is aligned, not with paralleling your mind, but paralleling “The mind”. Hubbard cleverly takes advantage of the tendency people have to continue on with something merely because they have become invested in it, despite growing cognitive dissonance and dissatisfaction, unless and until a breaking point is reached. It’s hard to admit to oneself that something you have become so thoroughly invested in has largely turned out to be a painful and unfortunate error in judgement, especially after having been indoctrinated in and taken on a longterm attitude of defending it, and being hostile and/or dismissive when others challenge or question that personal investment.
