Introduction

     Self Analysis cannot revive the dead.

     Self Analysis will not empty insane asylums or stop war. These are the tasks of the Dianetic auditor and the Group Dianetic Technician.

     But Self Analysis will conduct you on the most interesting adventure in your life. The adventure of you.

     How efficient are you? What are your potentials? How much can you improve? Well, basically your intentions toward yourself and your fellow man are good. Basically, if sometimes clouded(2) over with the not- so-pale(3) cast(4) of bad experience, your potentialities are a great deal better than anyone ever permitted you to believe.

     Take your memory, a small part of your total assets. Is it perfect? Can you, at will, recall everything you have ever learned or heard, every phone number, every name? If you can't you can see that there is room for improvement. Now somebody, with a half-glance at the title page of this book, will try to assume that Self Analysis simply improves memory That is like saying that all a train can do is meet schedules. It does much more. But memory is a starter. If your memory were as accurate as an IBM card(5) index(6) system and even faster, you would be more efficient and more comfortable and it would certainly save writing those notes you have to make. Yes, you probably couldn't have too good a memory on things you've studied and things you need.

     But there are a lot of things as important as memory There's your reaction time. Most people react too slowly in emergencies. Let's say it takes you half a second to pull your hand off a hot stove. That's many times too long a period to have your hand on that stove.

     Or let's say you require a third of a second to see the car ahead stop and to start to put on your own brakes. That's too long. A lot of accidents happen because of slow reaction time.

     In the case of an athlete, reaction time is a direct index(7) as to how capable he may be in a sport. So it assists one in many ways to be able to react quickly.

     Self Analysis speeds up reaction time. Here's a trick. Take a dollar bill, unfolded. Have somebody hold it vertically above your hand. Open your thumb and index finger just below the lower edge of the bill. Now let your friend let go. You try to close thumb and index finger on the bill. Did you miss it, snapping after it had gone all the way through? That's very slow reaction. Did you catch it by its upper edge when it was almost gone? That's much too slow. Did you catch it on Washington's face? That's fair. Or did you catch it on the lower edge, even before it really got started? That's the way it should be. Less accidents, greater general alertness. Well, barring actual physical damage to hand or arm, Self Analysis will speed that up for you.

     Do you have trouble going to sleep or getting up? Do you feel a little tired a lot of the time? Well, that can be remedied.

     As for what they call psychosomatic illnesses(8) - sinusitis,(9) allergies, some heart trouble, "bizarre" aches and pains, poor eyesight, arthritis,(10) etc., etc., etc., down through seventy percent of man's ills Self Analysis should be able to help markedly

     Then there's the matter of how young or old you may look. Self Analysis can make quite a change there.

     And there's the matter of plain ordinary ability to be happy in life and enjoy things. And there Self Analysis shines brightly for it can raise your tone(11) fast enough, usually, so that even you will agree things can be good.

     As my boyhood hero, Charles Russell,(12) the painter, once described a certain potion,(13) "It'd make a jack rabbit spit in a wolf's eye." Now maybe Self Analysis doesn't always have this effect, but it happens regularly enough to be usual. Certain it is that the user often goes through such a period, much to the alarm of his friends. Self Analysis does have an effect as in the song:

I can lick that guy, I can kiss that girl, I can ride that bronc and make him whirl...

     The moral. and caution is "Don't pick too big a wolf." At least not until you've been using this for a while and kind of get things in proportion again.

     In short this is an adventure. How good can you get?

     A lot depends on how good you are potentially - but you can be assured that that's a lot better than you ever supposed. And it's a cinch it's better than your friends would ever tell you.

     Please don't be discouraged if you find yourself pretty low on the self-evaluation chart later on. All is not lost. The processing(14) section can boost you up at a good rate if you keep at it.

     And don't be surprised if you suddenly begin to feel uncomfortable while you're working on the processing section. You can expect that to happen every now and then. Just keep going. If it gets too bad, simply turn to the last section (page 215) and answer those questions a few times and you should start feeling better very soon.

     All I'm trying to tell you is this - adventures are dull if a little excitement doesn't crop up. And you can expect excitement - too much in some places.

     You are going to know a lot about you when you finally finish.

     All this is on your own responsibility. Anything as powerful as these processes can occasionally flare.(15) If you are fairly stable mentally there is no real danger. But I will not mislead you. A man could go mad simply reading this book. If you see somebody who isn't quite as stable as he thinks he is working with Self Analysis, coax it away from him. If he can barely stand mental chicken broth, he has no right to be dining on raw meat. Send him to see a Dianetic auditor. And even if he does throw a wheel,(16) a Dianetic auditor can straighten him out. Just send for an auditor.

     Don't, then, disabuse(17) yourself of the fact that Self Analysis can send the unstable spinning.(18)

     We're dealing here with the root stuff of why men go mad. If it isn't explained in the text, it will be found in a standard work on Dianetics. Even so, it is doubtful if Self Analysis could create as much madness in a year as an income tax blank from our thorough if somewhat knuckle-headed government.

     Now to particulars. You'll find the tests on page 55. You can take the first one. It will give you a figure which will place you on the chart. Don't blame me if it's a low score. Blame your parents or the truant officer.(19)

     Next, it would probably interest you to read the text. It will give you a different viewpoint on things, possibly. It is regretted if it is too simple for the savant(20) or too complex or something. It's simply an effort to write in American a few concepts about the mind based on a lot of technical material in Dianetics but made more palatable.(21) You'll do better on the processing if you read the text.

     The processing section has a large number of parts. You can simply work straight through or work over each one again, and again, until you feel you've sufficiently explored that part of your life. In any case you will go through every section many times.

     To help you there is a two-sided disc in the front of the book. The directions are on it.

     Thus you are prepared to go exploring into your own life. That's an interesting adventure for anyone. I've done what I could to make it easier. Don't be too harsh on me, however, if you get grounded up some long lost river and eaten by cannibals or engrams.(22) The last section will help get you out. What's left of you, anyway

     Don't get fainthearted and slack off though, when you find the going rough. It's easy to quit. And then you'd never know just what you really are, basically

     Going to take the whole trip? You're a brave person. I compliment you.

     May you never be the same again-