Processing Section

     Here begin the lists of questions by which the individual can explore his past and improve his reactions toward life. Dianetically speaking, this self-processing section could be called "Straightwire."(1) It is not "auto-processing." The reader is actually being processed by the author.

     In the full use of Dianetics these questions could be considered as preparatory to co-auditing. The auditor is assisted by these lists in that they open a case(2) for the running of engrams and secondaries(3) and raise the preclear(4) on a tone scale. These question sections, 50 far as is known at this time, will not run out engrams and secondaries as such but will desensitize(5) them to a marked extent with a consequent improvement in the mental and physical being of the individual.

     An auditor, as the practitioner in Dianetics is called since he both listens and computes, can use these questions during a session with a preclear. Further, two people can work with these sections - one of them asking the questions of another who answers - or both of them reading the questions and both of them attempting to get a recall on such an incident as that one called for.

     These lists are used repetitively; that is to say the individual goes over them again and again. There is no finite period to the work. The reason the recall of these questions is important is that they reveal and discharge locks(6) which hive formed above the basic(7) engrams and secondaries. The discharging of these locks renders engrams and secondaries relatively ineffective. A full Dianetic clearing(8) of the individual's engrams and secondaries gives the highest possible attainable results, but these questions provide self-processing which prepares the case for such an action and are in themselves highly beneficial.

     In the process of using these questions the preclear may discover many manifestations in himself. He may experience considerable emotional release. He may become angry at the recollection of some of the things which have happened to him and he may even feel like crying over some of the losses he has sustained(9) and indeed may very well cry However, the intent of these questions is not to focus the self-processor's attention upon the bad things which have happened to him but upon the good things which have taken place in his life. A concentration upon these happier circumstances tends to discharge the unhappy circumstances and render them far less forceful.

     These questions are based upon the Dianetic discoveries, axioms(10) and postulates which have done so much toward amplifying the understanding of people, concerning the nature of existence and their roles in it. Life can be considered to have as its fundamental purpose survival in the material universe. When one closely examines survival he discovers that the concept embraces all the activities of an individual, a group, a state, life itself or the material universe.

     The material universe is composed of matter, energy space and time. Life can then be considered to be engaged upon the conquest of matter, energy space and time, including other life forms, organisms and persons. If an organism or a group has been successful in handling other organisms, groups and the material universe, its survival potential is very great. If the organism has been unsuccessful, its survival potential is lower. Its moments of success, as its moments of pain, are highly charged.(11) It is possible, by certain processes, to remove the charge from painful incidents. One of the ways of doing this is to lay the stress and concentration of the organism upon the times it has been successful in surviving.

     With the invention of language man brought upon himself an unexpected source of aberration. While language itself is very far from the whole reason an organism is less successful than it might be, our current social order lays undue stress upon language. Words are only symbols which represent actions. A child learns these actions very early and learns the symbols which represent the actions. Later on he begins to mistake the action for the symbol and begins to believe the words themselves have force and power which they do not. If you believe that words have force and power, hold your hand in front of your mouth and say a few words. You will see how negligible is the force of utterance, no matter what words you use. Underlying this mistaken emphasis on the force of words lie actual physical actions of which the words are the symbols. The main point then is that words are not powerful but actions are. For example, when an individual has been told to hold still he obeys simply because he has experienced earlier in his life the action of being made to hold still by physical force.

     For many reasons it is important for the organism to increase its mobility The discovery of all the times the organism has been told to hold still and has obeyed has some therapeutic value but the discovery of actual incidents when the organism has been physically forced to remain motionless is much more important in restoring the mobility of the organism.

     These lists, then, tend to devaluate the importance of language. This is only one of their many functions but an important one; therefore, the reading of these lists should direct the individual to moments action took place, not when somebody said it took place. Just as hearsay evidence(12) is not admissible in a court of law, so are words and phrases given to the individual by others inadmissible in self-processing. For instance, when one is asked for a time when somebody went away one should not try to recall the time when somebody said somebody went away or the statement that somebody was going away but the actual physical departure, regardless of what was said.

     You will find that words are communicated through the physical universe to other organisms. Sounds, for instance, originate within the organism, are translated into sound waves and reach the other person as sound waves. The written word is made into symbols of ink, which are then seen, the other physical fact of light, by another organism. Whereas there may very well be such things as ESP,(13) it is not aberrative.

     There are many perceptions, which is to say channels, through which one can contact the physical universe. You are aware of the physical universe because of sight, sound, mouth and other message systems. Therefore, each time you are asked to recall an incident of a certain kind you will be asked, after you have recalled it, to pay attention to a certain sense channel which was present during the time when you experienced the incident. The circular disc is provided for this purpose. You will notice the disc: has two sides. The perceptions or sense messages listed on one side are different from those on the other side. As you read the questions one after the other you should read them through a slot provided in this disc. Going to the next question you should rotate the slot once counterclockwise for each new question. This will give you a new perception. For instance the question may pertain(14) to a time somebody went away from you. You will recall a time when this occurred, selecting the moment of actual physical departure. Undoubtedly you will get some perception of the scene and you may even get a very full perception of the scene. Many people see, feel, hear and Otherwise perceive memories when they recall them. Some people are too occluded.(15) These lists wipe away occlusion. As you recall the person walking away from you then, you are not supposed to recall merely the concept that somebody had walked away, but the moment when they actually did and get as many perceptions as possible of them doing so. The disc which overlies this question will have upright at random one particular perception. That perception may be sound - thus you should attempt to recover whatever sounds were present when this individual walked away as the particular emphasis of perception. If you are unable to recover the sounds as such, hearing them again, at least recover the concept of what they may have been.

     If you will examine this disc, you will find that it lists six perceptions with which you have contacted the physical universe. Actually there are many more of these than six.

     When the word emotion is upright above a question after you have recalled the incident suggested by the question, you then try to recall in particular and feel again, if possible, the emotion you felt at the time. When the next question is addressed the disc is rotated one turn counterclockwise. You will find that loudness is now upright. You should get an incident in recall suggested by the question and having perceived the incident you should then give your attention in particular to the loudness of the various sounds in the incident.

     Going to the next question, you should rotate the disc once more counterclockwise. You will find that body position is now upright. You should read the question and recall some incident it suggests, perceive it as well as you possibly can and then give particular attention to the position your own body was in at the time the incident occurred. Going to the next question and rotating the disc once more you will find that sound is now upright. You should recall the incident the question calls for and then give particular attention to the sounds in that incident. Going to the next question and rotating the disc once more, you will find that weight is upright. In the incident you recall you should then give attention to the heaviness of things, including the pull of gravity on yourself and the weight of anything you may actually be supporting in the incident such as your clothes, a ball or any other thing which you are actually holding at the time the incident occurred.

     Rotating the disc once more to the next question on the list, you will find that personal motion falls upright. When you have answered the question then you should give attention to the motion which you yourself were undertaking at the time the incident occurred.

     Every time you go to a new page you should turn the disc upside down. You will find here a new set of perceptics.(16) These, of course, are applied in such a way that when you go over the list a second time you will probably not have the same perception, as these things fall at random. Thus while you might have answered a question the first time about somebody coming toward you with attention to sound called for by the disc, the next time you reach this question, on going over the list again, you may find emotion upright. You should then contact any and all emotion on the second time, whereas you contacted the sound the first time. You will find on the reverse side of the disc the perceptions of sight, smell, touch, color, tone and external motion. Sight is what you actually saw at the time. A person whose perceptions are in good condition will see again what he has seen before when the incident actually occurred. Thus sight calls for what was seen while the incident called for was taking place. Smell requests the individual to recall any and all odors which were present during the scene he is recalling. Touch requests the recall of anything the individual was actually touching at the time with the sensation of touch, including pressure. One is always in contact with the material world in terms of touch, even if only the touch of his feet on the ground or the feel of his clothes upon him. The perception of color, when upright, should cause the individual to try to perceive again the color which was contained in the scene called for. When tone is requested the individual should attempt to contact the quality of the sound present when the scene occurred. When external motion is upright, the individual, in recalling the incident called for by the question, should attempt to perceive in the incident recalled the movement contained in the incident, the motion of other people or objects or of energy

     As one goes over these questions then with the disc, he is exploring his own life and during that exploration is attempting to call into view with the highest possible level of reality those things he has perceived. The immediate result is a heightening of perception of his present-time world. Another result is a strengthening of his memory. Yet another result is the rearrangement and reevaluation of things which have happened to him. Another and more mechanical and fundamental result is the deintensification of unpleasant experiences - like bringing them into the light. For a while one may feel it is better to forget unpleasant things. Forgotten, they have more force and destructive quality than when examined.

     The individual will find himself, as he repeatedly uses a list, getting earlier and earlier incidents. It is not impossible for him to remember straight back to the earliest beginnings of his life, much less his infancy

     Again, and it cannot be emphasized too strongly these questions are requesting actual physical actions, not statements about physical actions. It is perfectly legitimate to recall scenes which have been seen in the movies or read about in books, but when one recalls such scenes one should have full awareness, in the case of the movies, of the screen and the seat and where the incident is taking place and when. In the case of books one should get not the scene the author would like the reader to see but the actual scene of reading and the recall should be recaptured in terms of print and sitting in a chair, not in terms of imagining.

     There is a great deal of technology out of sight back of these questions. Ail that is important is that this operation, continued persistently going over one list and then another and recalling the things required, considerably improves the individual's thinking and acting abilities and his physical well-being and considerably enhances his relationship with his present environment.

     You will find the very last list is named the "End of Session List." This means that after you have worked a list, or worked as long as you desire to, during any one period of self-processing, you should turn to the "End of Session List" and answer the questions as a routine operation.

     You will also find a list entitled "When Uncomfortable," which is placed next to the last in the book. If you find during a session of self-processing that you grow considerably uncomfortable or unhappy, you should then turn to the "When Uncomfortable" list. Using it should restore your good spirit swiftly

     If you find it is extremely difficult to recall any one question in these lists, simply pass over it and go to the next question. If you find you are having difficulty in answering any of these lists you will do better if some friend reads them to you.

     If undergoing self-processing makes you extremely unhappy it is probable that your case should be given the attention of a Dianetic auditor until such time as you are capable of handling this matter for yourself

     You can go over a list many times before going on to the next list or you can continue on through all of the lists consecutively without repeating any. You will probably find that going over each list many times before going on to the next will work better than going through the book consecutively You will notice that after you have been over the same memory several times, even though it be an unpleasant one, that it will cease to have any effect upon you. This means its intensity is decreasing and that the energy which it contained and which was affecting your present-time life is dissipating.(17) If you can remember several incidents of the same kind, do so; and if they are troublesome to you, simply go over the things you remembered once more, one after the other, and then again. This, Dianetically speaking, is called Repetitive Straightwire.(18) It deintensifies unpleasant memories. However, this list is aimed toward the recall of pleasant incidents. Pleasant incidents do not deintensify as unpleasant ones do but, underneath the level of attention, deintensify unpleasant incidents when the pleasant incident is recalled.

     All you really need to work these lists is to know that actions, not words, are required and that the disc should be used to give you the particular kind of recall you should have on the recollection called for. If you lose the disc you will note that the side of the page has a list of the perceptions for your reference. When using the side-of-the-page list you should merely take the recalls, the perceptions, consecutively one after the other and use them the same way you used them with the disc.

     Don't simply answer questions yes or no. Select an actual moment in your life called for by the question. Try to resense that moment with the perceptic called for on the disc.

     If going over the questions makes you unhappy, simply continue with the list you are working, over and over. The unhappiness should "wear out" after unhappy incidents are recalled many times. The feeling will turn to one of relief.

     Some people are frightened at the idea of persevering with these questions. Certainly you've got more nerve than that. The worst they could do is kill you.

     Don't be surprised if you feel sleepy after using some of these questions. The sleepiness is only a symptom of relaxing. The very least this book can do for you is replace your sedatives!(19)

     If while answering these questions, you begin to yawn, that is good. Yawning is a release of former periods of unconsciousness. You may yawn so much the tears come out of your eyes. That is progress.

     Should you feel very groggy while answering these questions, that is only 'boil-off "the manifestation of former periods of unconsciousness boiling off Simply persist in recalling the incident or others like it and the feeling will pass away leaving you more alert than before. If you interrupt this "boil-off" and stop your session, you may feel cross or irritable. This grogginess occasionally amounts to nearly complete unconsciousness, but it always goes away That unconsciousness was what was keeping you from being high on the tone scale.

     Occasionally "ague or even sharp pains may turn on and off as you are answering questions. Don't try to find out where they came from. They will go away if you persist with these questions. Simply ignore them. They are the ghosts of what they used to call psychosomatic ills, former injuries restimulated.(20)

     An individual is suppressed by these deposits of past pain and unconsciousness. Self Analysis makes such past moments pass away and deintensify at least partially without your having to find out what was in them.

     A full description of these manifestations and their causes occurs in Science of Survival, the popular text on Dianetics, which you will find on the book list in the back of this book.

Important
Use lists many times. Try for the earliest incident you can get for each question.