GROUP PROCESSING DEMONSTRATION

A lecture given on 1 October 1951

Self- determined Effort Processing

Now, you have all got pencils and paper. I want you to make a list— this is just very personal unto you— of the five things you think ought to be corrected about yourself; number the list, one, two, three, four, five.

I don’t care what they are— five things you think ought to be corrected about yourself.

Nobody else is going to see this list; it’s not going to be handed in to anybody and if you hide it very carefully with your hand your next- door neighbor is not going to read it. So be very frank about what you put down there as the five things you find wrong with yourself that you would like to correct.

Now, this is very pertinent to what we are doing, though it might not seem so for the moment: Do you remember what I have said about depth of unconsciousness in engrams? You can graph the level of unconsciousness in engrams against time. You start with a complete awareness level and, for instance, in an engram caused by a single blow, you get the pattern of a sudden impulse into the motor structure, a moment of swamping of "I." Then there is the pattern of a drug or bacteria unconsciousness— a gradual lessening of consciousness which then goes evenly back up. Those are the only two patterns, but there is also the operation engram, which would be a combination of the two.

You can see that these two patterns are approximately the same. It is where the deepest point of unconsciousness occurs with regard to time that is important. Otherwise, they have the same pattern. But there is a reduction from optimum present- time awareness, then a drop- off and then a return to consciousness.

What is the emotional reaction at the various points of unconsciousness? How does a person feel about time at these points?

This is the whole tone scale in operation. First the person is cheerful, then he is aware of the fact that it has to be done, and then he sets up a concern or an anxiety because of some past experience. Then he starts into it and he is being very brave and he is determining that he is going to take it on as an operation— his own self- determinism. First he is self- determined that he needs it, then he is self- determined that he is going to take it. Then it is happening and all of a sudden his self- determinism starts to fold up and he wants to get out of there! He has come down to fear and definitely into the fleeing category. Then he starts down toward a little bit deeper level and he reaches apathy, and from that point he goes on up the tone scale again. So the tone scale and the depth of unconsciousness form the same pattern.

Now, pain is loss. Pain is always loss; it is a signal of loss. Loss causes it. Let’s say a person burns his finger. What is he trying to do with his hand at the moment he burns the finger? It is not that pain has a purpose in the scheme of things— this is highly mechanistic. What does he try to do with his hand? He pulls it away from the hot object— a very simple reaction. Why does he pull it away from the hot object? To keep from losing more cells.

What does a person do in an appendectomy? He tries to keep from losing the cells. That is what one does in any pain; he tries to keep from losing these things.

Every engram, mechanistically, then, has a holders in it, doesn’t it? Self- determinism itself, in the blurred moments of randomity of effort, is saying, "Hold on!" But there is no clear picture of what the person is holding on to. He holds on to the cells, but also to the engram. Why do people get stuck in engrams? They are holding on to them. They don’t want to have that loss. So they hold on to this moment, and their reaction at the moment— on a blow or something like that— is a resistance to the force. Why is there a resistance to the force? This resistance to the force still contains the person’s trying to hold on to a force, trying to do something about a force. So when something similar shows up in the environment the person regenerates his holding on to what he would lose because of pain, and the engram comes into restimulation. There it is in present time.

A person has to make an effort to hold on to what he is losing. We don’t care if that effort is in his fingertips. He has a conversion center, and we can snip this effort off at the conversion center, not at his fingertips.

The pain is not important but the self- determined effort with regard to this engram is important. Self- determinism with regard to the engram is important.

Somewhere along the line in this engram the person goes into grief of loss, then he goes into apathy and then he just hopes they won’t kill all of him. What about all this pain? The devil with whether the pain is run out, because it is not stored in the cells; it is on a conversion level and he is making a self- determined effort to do something. You don’t care whether he is making a determined effort to push somebody away or pull somebody closer; whatever his self- determinism is, what is the effort? That is what is important.

Now, his self- determinism, no matter his level of awareness, is still flowing through this whole thing. But it evidently doesn’t have to be undone at the level of physical pain. The physical pain is after all a signal system. And sure, there is a theta facsimile of all that physical pain, but the question is solely whether or not the individual self- determines himself into wanting it— holding it. And the area of action and effort is in this conversion unit, not in the structure.

You can do Effort Processing the long, hard way by getting up all of the fingertip effort. But what is the converter- unit effort? That is the only effort you want. That is the area which you as an auditor establish for the preclear through his own experience.

The way you establish that it is there is by getting a moment when he is proceeding toward his goals on a validation level. What is his effort to enjoy himself?

LRH:

Now, I ask all of you, can you pick up a moment when you are enjoying yourself and going toward a goal?

LRH:

And can you locate this effort up in the converter unit? (brief pause)

LRH:

The effort of going toward a goal.

LRH:

All right. Let’s be very specific. Any of you that like to eat (eating, at this stage of Dianetics, is still necessary)— how about the effort of sitting down to the table to pull up the steak?

LRH:

How about the effort of sitting down at the table?

LRH:

You can undoubtedly get some semblance of the effort of sitting down in a chair— physically sitting down in a chair to a table. You can get some semblance of this. Well, that’s the hard way.

LRH:

Let’s get the effort in the converter unit to sit down in the chair. (brief pause)

LRH:

You see, all we want is the moment that you self- determined yourself into sitting down in a chair. That is the signal we want. And all we want is the instant that you decided to sit down in a chair. (pause) All right. Now, what is the effort to stand up? (brief pause)

LRH:

Just that, just the effort to stand up.

LRH:

And you can check it over right here in present time; it is just simply a matter of flexing forward and getting up, that’s all. Now, you can locate where it would be located in these muscles; you are trying to locate it out the other end of the telegraph line. Let’s get it at the home venter of the telegraph line.

LRH:

Now, what is the effort in the converter unit at the moment you decide that you’re going to stand up? What’s the effort? (pause)

LRH:

The way you can get this is by getting the muscular action of standing up, and then see if you can get a moment when maybe you would decide to stand up.

LRH:

How would it feel to decide to stand up?

LRH:

How would it feel to decide to stand up? (pause)

LRH:

All right. What is the muscular effort of taking a breath, a deep breath?

LRH:

What’s the muscular effort of taking a deep breath?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

Go ahead and take one. (brief pause)

LRH:

What is the muscular effort of taking a deep breath?

LRH:

Now, what is the self- determinism effort that converts this muscular effort to take a deep breath? (pause)

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

It’s very easy to find, you see. You just have to locate a moment when you decided to take a deep breath, regardless of who suggested taking a deep breath. The devil with whether people suggest anything or not— evidently they can’t do anything to you. I mean, nobody can do anything to you; you are built out of cast iron. We thought all the time you were built out of putty.

LRH:

Now, what is the effort of sitting down in a car— the physical effort of sitting down in the car? Which door do you get into and how do you get behind the wheel of a car? (pause)

LRH:

Now, can we find a moment of the effort of opening the door of a car, when you determined that you were going to get into a car? (brief pause)

LRH:

Can you locate a moment when you made up your mind you were going to get into a car?

LRH:

What is the effort of dictating that action to yourself?

LRH:

Now, you started to write down a trait or something of the sort, as number one: How did it feel the moment you decided to write that down? (pause)

LRH:

Well, how did it feel writing it down?

LRH:

How does it just generally feel to hold a pencil? (brief pause)

LRH:

Now, that’s how it feels down in the fingers and the muscles. What is the converter sensation? (brief pause) You are suddenly determined to hold a pencil. What is the converter sensation?

LRH:

See what I’m doing for you— I’m just giving you the area of awareness of conversion. With some of you it might take quite a little while with an auditor working. I see from looks on your faces quite a few of you have got it right now.

LRH:

Now, what would be the effort of opening a door? (brief pause)

LRH:

What is the physical effort of opening a door? (pause)

LRH:

Now, what’s the effort of self- determinism to open a door? (pause)

LRH:

Now, what is the effort of holding something? (pause)

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

The effort of something in your hand. What is the effort of something in your hand— holding something? (brief pause)

LRH:

No fair any boil- offs back there.

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

That is, oddly enough, something we don’t have to worry about with this type of processing— boil- off, track- running, any of that. But thank God we know all those things are there now, otherwise with Effort Processing we would just never have learned them.

LRH:

All right. What is the effort of holding something in your hand?

LRH:

Now, what is the effort here, in the converter unit, of lifting something? (brief pause)

LRH:

The effort here of deciding to lift something. (brief pause)

LRH:

Now, what is the effort of trying to push somebody away from you?

LRH:

What is the physical- body effort of trying to push somebody away from you? (pause)

LRH:

What’s the physical- body effort of somebody pushing against you? (pause)

LRH:

Boil- off— that’s not fair.

LRH:

What is this effort of somebody pushing against you?

LRH:

Now, can you locate the feeling of effort of your pushing them away— just physical effort of your pushing somebody away? (pause)

LRH:

If you’re not getting this it’s because I am giving it to you very, very lightly. I see most of you are. The tough way to go about it is to teach a preclear effort by having him see his limbs in the positions of holders and so forth, and you just teach him how that effort feels and what somatics it turns on. You shift his attention around from hand to feet and all of a sudden the person will become concerned with that, and then all you do is pick it up and say, "How does it feel here?"— in the converter unit. It’s a very fast way of doing it but it’s just a little bit dangerous, unless an auditor is sitting there.

LRH:

All right. The effort of pushing somebody away.

LRH:

Now, how does the effort of pushing somebody away feel here, in the converter unit? (pause)

LRH:

A lot of you are getting drowsy.

LRH:

Now, again, what is the physical effort of holding something? (brief pause) If you want to know, just reach along on the inside of your chair and give a little lift. You can tell what the physical effort is— holding something.

LRH:

Now, what is the switchboard impulse of that? (pause)

LRH:

We are tracing impulses. I am more giving you how it is done than trying to do it to you, but I see that it is sure happening to a lot of you. You may have to go on with a preclear like this for a couple of hours— I mean, before you get him Clear.

AUDIENCE:

(laughs)

LRH:

All right. Now, we see these gradient levels of effort in an engram. Each one of these has that.

LRH:

Let me ask you this, broadly: What is the effort here, in the switchboard, of being happy? (pause)

LRH:

What kind of an effort do you make in this area to be happy? (pause)

LRH:

Some of you may occasionally get little flicks of facsimiles of your own face being in different attitudes or being in different expressions, or something like that. This is the effort we want.

LRH:

All right. How does it feel to be bored?

LRH:

What effort do you have to make here, in the switchboard, to be bored?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

If you were a little child and had to sit still for an awfully long time, what effort would you have to make here to be bored? (pause)

LRH:

Now, I didn’t mean to restimulate anything!

LRH:

All right. Now, what effort do you have to make here to be antagonistic? (pause)

LRH:

You can even feel, physically, how you have to be to be antagonistic. You can get that, and you can get this other.

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

What’s the effort you have to make to be antagonistic toward somebody?

LRH:

Now, you can get this. Now, what’s the effort you have to make to be angry?

LRH:

What physical effort— physical effort— do you have to make to be angry, and how does it feel here, in the converter unit? (pause)

LRH:

Physical effort of being angry.

LRH:

And the next one is, what is the physical effort of being afraid?

LRH:

What’s the physical effort of being afraid?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

How does it feel in the switchboard to be afraid? (pause)

LRH:

How does it feel to self- determine yourself into being scared? (pause)

LRH:

It may even be a strange thought to you that you self- determine yourself into being scared, but you do. (pause)

LRH:

What kind of an effort do you have to make to feel sad and cry? What is the effort in the converter?

LRH:

You know what the physical effort is: eyes damp, all of this sort of thing, and boohoo, enMEST discharge, all that.

LRH:

What’s the effort here that you have to make to cry?

LRH:

How do you decide to cry and keep the decision going? (pause)

LRH:

What is the effort in the switchboard?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

Now, what’s the physical effort of apathy?

LRH:

What is the physical effort of apathy?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

You ought to be able to get that one.

AUDIENCE:

(laughter)

LRH:

Physical effort of apathy. All apathy is, is a person trying to move and trying to do this or that and he can’t, so he says, "Kill me. I’m dead."

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

What’s the physical effort of apathy?

LRH:

How does it feel in the converter to make that effort? (pause)

LRH:

What’s the effort sensation here in the converter to be apathetic? (pause)

LRH:

All right. What’s the effort you have to make in the switchboard to die, to be dead?

LRH:

What effort do you have to make up here? (pause)

LRH:

If anybody explodes and splatters on the ceiling, it’s all right— we have a janitor now!

AUDIENCE:

(chuckles)

LRH:

What is the switchboard effort entailed— the actual effort impulse— in being dead? (pause)

AUDIENCE:

How can you do that without being dead?

LRH:

How do you know you haven’t been?

AUDIENCE:

(chuckles)

LRH:

All right. Now, the next one is, what kind of an effort do you make to keep from losing something? (brief pause)

LRH:

What kind of effort do you make to keep from losing something?

LRH:

What kind of a physical feeling do you have to get to keep from losing something?

LRH:

More importantly, how does it feel here, in the converter, to keep from losing something? (brief pause)

LRH:

Something is trying to go away from you, and so on— how do you feel?

LRH:

How does it feel to pull somebody back to you— pull anything back to you— to keep from losing it?

LRH:

How does it feel?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

What would you do physically to keep something from running away from you?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

All right. Now, what is the self- determinism effort to reach out and grab something that’s about to leave you? (pause)

LRH:

Well, how did you feel the last time somebody walked away from you that you didn’t want to go? (pause)

LRH:

Somebody you didn’t want to go away— what effort did you make here to restrain them from leaving? (pause)

LRH:

Something rolling away from you— it’s now out beyond your reach— what effort do you make in your mind to get it to come back to you? (pause)

LRH:

Something starts going out beyond your reach— what effort do you make to make it come back to you?

LRH:

All right. What kind of a physical effort do you have to make to stop time? (pause)

LRH:

Stop something happening by stopping time— what kind of a physical effort do you have to make?

LRH:

What’s the switchboard effort that you make in stopping time?

LRH:

What is your coordination effort to stop time? (pause)

LRH:

Now, what is your feeling when the book is very good and you don’t want it to end? That’s the feeling of keeping time going. You’ve got to have that; it’s a sort of a "stop time" too, but it’s a pleasure stop. How does it feel?

LRH:

The book is too good; you don’t want it to end. How does it feel up here, in the converter? (pause)

LRH:

Now, let me ask you bluntly: What is the sensation of trying to hold an engram in present time— your effort?

AUDIENCE:

(chuckles)

LRH:

What’s the sensation of holding an engram in present time?

LRH:

What is your self- determinism, your effort, to hold an engram in present time? (pause)

LRH:

What’s your effort with regard to an engram that is in present time?

LRH:

You might not be trying to hold it, you might be trying to push it off and its effort might be snarled. Which is your effort?

LRH:

What’s the sensation of trying to hold an engram in present time?

LRH:

What’s the sensation up here in the switchboard? (pause)

LRH:

What’s the sensation of trying to hold on to your headache? (brief pause)

LRH:

When you have a headache, what’s the sensation of trying to hold on to it or push it away?

LRH:

What is your sensation with regard to this headache? (pause)

LRH:

Only, more importantly, minus the somatic, what do you do about it in the converter to hold it there? (pause)

LRH:

I see some of you need a lot of Straightwire on times when you tried to start and stop and expand and contract time, space, energy and so forth. Straightwire will build up this effort until you can get the preclear up to where he is getting it well. A lot of you are sure getting it.

LRH:

Now, what effort are you making in the converter about number one on your list?

LRH:

What physical effort, and then what effort in the switchboard, are you making about number one on the list?

LRH:

What is the motor- switchboard manifestation of the physical effort of number one on your list? You know what number one is.

LRH:

What’s the physical effort with regard to number one— your effort and your self- determinism? (pause)

LRH:

What’s your effort and your self- determinism with regard to number one? (brief pause)

LRH:

Now, some of you got it right on that one; let me give you a little Straightwire on it: When did you consent to number one?

LRH:

When did you consent to number one? (brief pause)

LRH:

When did you consent to have it? (pause)

LRH:

When did you make up your mind that it was necessary?

LRH:

When did you agree to have it? (brief pause)

LRH:

When did you agree on it? (pause)

LRH:

You can undoubtedly later on remember a whole bunch of times when you agreed on it, but just clip one right at the present moment.

LRH:

Now, what’s the physical effort up here?

LRH:

Some of you can clip that off now that you’ve taken the lock off of it.

LRH:

What is this switchboard effort to have number one?

LRH:

And whether you get that one or not, you can undoubtedly get it on the basis of "when did you agree to have it?"

LRH:

All right. Number two. Let’s take it from the point of "when did you agree to have number two?"

LRH:

When did you agree that number two was reality?

LRH:

When you yourself agreed to it— when did you agree that that was reality? (pause)

LRH:

When did you yourself decide that was the stuff? (brief paused

LRH:

When did you decide it was a survival course (which it isn’t, or it wouldn’t be on your list)? (pause)

LRH:

All right. You see, now, we can get number two there. You may or may not be able to contact the physical effort of holding on to it. Let’s try to get the actual physical effort of holding on to it. Number two on the list.

LRH:

It’s a sort of a little spark device. You can contact it. You may have to get a lot of times when you consented to it before you contact exactly what the other one is, but you can contact both of them.

LRH:

As a matter of fact, it really isn’t necessary to contact the spark at all if you can just get some Straight wire on the other; this just takes it all off. But you can release 25 percent of it or something like that just by remembering when you agreed to it.

LRH:

All right. Number three— what is the physical effort?

LRH:

What is the physical effort, whatever it is— what is your effort? You know the physical effort contained in number three. No matter how esoteric or abstract it sounds to you as you look at it there, you know that there is physical effort connected in some way with number three on your list.

LRH:

Just postulate to yourself— imagine what kind of physical effort it would be that is connected with number three.

LRH:

What kind of physical effort would be connected with number three? (pause)

LRH:

Some sort of effort connected with number three.

LRH:

All right. Physical or not— it doesn’t matter— what’s the effort here that keeps number three in action?

LRH:

What’s your effort to keep number three in action, keep it in existence?

LRH:

What is this effort?

LRH:

What is your postulation on it? (pause)

LRH:

What’s your effort to keep number three in existence?

LRH:

How does it feel here in the converter to hold on to it?

LRH:

How does it feel here to have it?

LRH:

What is the radiant sensation from that area to have it?

LRH:

Now, you can remember a time, undoubtedly, when you agreed to it, when you agreed to have it.

LRH:

You can remember a time when you agreed on it; a time exists.

LRH:

All right. Number four— when did you agree to have number four happen to you?

LRH:

When did you agree that number four was the course you should take?

LRH:

Number four— when did you agree to this?

LRH:

It’s there; it’s in existence. When did you decide that number four was reality?

LRH:

I don’t care if you agreed upon it under duress, I don’t care who had talked you into it; all that is important is, when did you agree on it? I don’t care about all the words that preceded it or the engrams connected with it; the only thing important is whether you decided on it or not.

LRH:

See if you can get a time when you decided on it. Well, I’ll tell you a time when you decided on it: You put it down on the list. You decided it was something wrong with you. Can you get that time?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

Tricked, weren’t you?

AUDIENCE:

(laughs)

LRH:

All right, number five, number five. What do you have to do physically, and particularly, what do you have to do to keep number five? (pause)

LRH:

What do you have to do to keep number five?

LRH:

What is this effort here in the converter to keep number five? (pause)

LRH:

I can tell you one effort of keeping number five: pushing a pencil. How does it feel in the converter to push a pencil about number five? (pause)

LRH:

Now, you can recall this one: When is the first time you agreed on number five?

LRH:

When is the first time you, yourself, self- determined number five into existence? (pause)

LRH:

Have you got the time you determined number five into existence? (brief pause)

LRH:

When did you postulate its reality, regardless? (brief pause)

LRH:

All right. Here’s a trick: You agreed upon it; what was the effort of communicating it to yourself?

LRH:

What is the effort flow of communicating it to yourself after you have agreed upon it? (pause)

LRH:

You don’t have to know when it was, you understand, or anything about it, when you try to get this effort flow. All you want to get is "What do I have to do to hold this?" Pow! (pause)

LRH:

"What’s my effort to hold this one?"— number five.

LRH:

I don’t care if you know when it happened or anything else. Just ask yourself that question, just as I asked you there.

LRH:

When did you agree not to get rid of it? (pause)

LRH:

When did you tell yourself not to get rid of it? (pause)

LRH:

Now, when did you tell yourself tonight you weren’t going to get rid of any of these things if I processed you from up here?

AUDIENCE:

(laughs; pause)

LRH:

How does it feel here in your mind to maintain your self- determinism at all costs? (pause)

LRH:

How does it feel here to maintain self- determinism at all costs? (brief pause) All right. How does it feel here in the converter to keep people away from you?

LRH:

What is the impulse up here that keeps people away from you?

LRH:

What do you have to do mentally to keep people at their distance?

LRH:

What physical/ mental reaction do you have to have to keep people off of you?

LRH:

You look at them— how do you do it?

LRH:

What’s the sensation here?

LRH:

All right. Maybe one or two of you have this: What is the sensation of trying to keep me from looking straight into your mind at this moment?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions and chuckles)

LRH:

What effort do you have to put up here in this direction to keep me from looking right straight into your mind?

LRH:

All right. Now, what effort do you have to put out up here to keep from loving everybody?

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; pause)

LRH:

How does it feel to keep yourself from liking everybody?

LRH:

What is this sensation that you have to do? (brief pause)

LRH:

Now, you may or may not be able to recall a time when you agreed not to like everybody.

AUDIENCE:

(reaction)

LRH:

All you have to do is recall a time when you disagreed to like one person.

LRH:

That’s an invalidation on the second dynamic— when you agreed to dislike one person. Just recall a time when you agreed on that— your self- determinism. (pause)

LRH:

All right. What sensation would you have to have to be completely cleared?

AUDIENCE:

(laughter)

LRH:

What electrical sensation, what impulse— anything you want to call it— would you have to have to be completely cleared? (pause)

AUDIENCE:

(reactions)

LRH:

Sounds like a zoo— don’t bother with the yawns, enMEST— phony. We’ll have you all looking like princesses out of the fairy book very shortly anyhow.

LRH:

Now, tell me this: What effort do you have to make to keep from laughing? (brief pause)

LRH:

What effort do you have to make, up here in the converter, to keep from laughing? (pause)

AUDIENCE:

(reactions; someone coughs)

LRH:

Now, what effort do you have to make to cough, up here in the switchboard? Do you recall a time when you agreed to cough?

LRH:

All you have to do if you’ve got a chronic cough is just find a time when you yourself determined you were going to cough. It would blow up.

LRH:

All right. Now, I want you all to go forward on the time track to two weeks from now and experience up here in your minds how it will feel to be in wonderful health and Clear.

LRH:

Go up the time track two weeks from now and feel how it will feel to be in wonderful health, feel happy. And I don’t care whether you come back to present time or not!