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“that won’t do you any good, it won’t do you a bit of good.” When papa isn’t looking, he tries to light that firecracker anyway. If he fails, all the way down the scale he goes into apathy: “I don’t want to light that firecracker. I don’t like firecrackers.” Then a simple example of theta endeavoring to occupy space: A fellow wants to open the back of his car but the key will not move in the lock. He goes down the tone scale, eventually kicks the car. He is furious with anybody in it too (including his wife when she offers, “But, dear, if you will just operate it smoothly; Junior and I have no trouble.”) He may even get a crowbar and-when the car isn’t looking-try to apply it. That failing, he goes down further in tone about the whole thing, and, although he will not manifest grief (because men in this society don’t cry), he will walk away and say, “I didn’t want to get in the back of that car anyway.” As a matter of fact, he did. All his clothes are in there. Theta has failed in its survival attempt to conquer MEST. THETA’S TENDENCY TO OWN OR BE OWNED There is an additional theory underlying MEST processing. Theta has a tendency not only to extend itself but also to be extended over; that is, it is able to manifest itself as theta over the organisms around it or not able to manifest itself as theta over the organisms and MEST around it. An individual then is either self-determined, which is to say, theta controlled in his own right (in which case he is healthy and sane), or is controlled by organisms and MEST in his environment to the point where he himself is MEST. The individual, in other words, could be said to own or be owned. (When one starts owning MEST, the MEST starts owning him. Did you ever have to mow a lawn?) Ability to own and control and fulfill the various efforts of theta indicates self-determinism. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS Ordinarily persons below 2.0 regard the organisms in their vicinity as MEST and this initiates the battle of the weak and the strong. Here is the general at 1.5 who treats Private Jones as MEST: “Stand at attention! Sit down! Stand up! Salute! About face! To the rear march! To the rear march! To the rear march!!” MEST! In other words, the attempt to dominate by nullification is to treat individuals as though they were MEST. And at some point on the tone scale individuals react to this domination as MEST. Above 2.0 a person tries to understand people, what they are thinking, what they are talking about, to reason with them in spite of the difficulty in trying to maintain a level of agreement with those below the 2.0 band. Human relations are often worked out in this society on a 2.0 basis; worked out almost exclusively on a MEST basis with little attention to theta. It is a matter of who dominates whom. Not too long ago women were regarded as MEST, chattel. Racial prejudice is another fresh patch of blood on the nation’s history. In husband-wife relationships often one or the other considers the companion MEST; one is made to function as a physical universe entity and ARC is lost. Children too fall into the category of MEST, except for a few rare cases raised in high-tone environment. “My child,” is often the parent’s fond manner of alluding to his offspring. But that isn’t “my child.” That is Bobby—a person in his own right. Socialism sounds logical but seems never to attain its principles in practice because, low on the tone scale, it becomes a fine mechanism for the few to take everything away from the many. So we have the concept of interpersonal relations on a MEST basis, which is not at all a solid basis for survival. No one succeeds in owning another organism. It cannot be done. Parents rarely give children a chance. To get angry with a child that is angry is rather unfair. The parent is a giant who, compared with the child, is about twelve feet high. The child acts in a “Little David” fashion in order to impress the giant and to hold his own against it, but the huge monster slaps back at him, saying, “Get mad at me, will you?” The child’s will is quickly suppressed. Perhaps a child will say, “I want to go swimming, daddy.” The parent answers, “No, you can’t go swimming today.” “But Jimmy Jones goes swimming all the time.” SUPPLEMENT NO. 3 to SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL December, 1951 From The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc. Wichita, Kansas MEST Processing L. Ron Hubbard The fundamental axiom underlying MEST processing concerns itself with theta or life force impinging upon the physical universe and attempting the conquest of that universe. In its conquest it attempts to create, conserve, maintain, acquire, destroy, change, occupy, group and disperse matter, energy, space and time—or MEST. The basic purpose of theta is survival and one of its methods toward survival is this conquest. THE CYCLE OF CONQUEST Survival is promoted by the proximity of MEST favorable to survival and by the absence of MEST inhibitive to survival. Theta is engaged upon a cycle of conquest of MEST which begins with an initial uniting, is followed by growth, which is followed by death so that the theta can separate from the MEST with its knowledge about MEST and return for a re-conquest and another cycle. Death could, then, be considered a necessary part of the activity of theta. Death occurs to the organism, but not to the theta and not to the MEST, although alteration takes place in mobility and form. The organism, then, avoids death by avoiding contra-survival matters, energies, spaces and times and by acquiring matters, energies, spaces and times which promote survival. Succumbing to death is a gradient scale as outlined above and as displayed on the tone scale. The loss of a small amount of pro-survival MEST, then, inhibits survival by just that much. The acquisition of contra-survival MEST or collision with it inhibits survival and promotes death by just that much. Theta comes into harmonious conquest of MEST and remains there as long as it can maintain its own self-determinism in regard to what it is doing with MEST. When any particular unit of theta is forced by MEST or any other theta unit in its creation, conservation, maintenance, destruction, acquisition, occupation and dispersal of MEST, it is disturbed in its conquest; when it is inhibited by some other theta unit, some life organism or MEST itself from creating, conserving, maintaining, acquiring, destroying, altering, occupying, grouping and dispersing MEST, it is failing in its mission. When it is being forced to do what it would naturally do, when it is being inhibited from doing what it would naturally do, it is driven down the tone scale and finally to separation. Observe human beings around you, particularly children, and you will see them going through this cycle. A child comes in and asks for a nickel. He can’t have the nickel. He asks again for a nickel, this time rather antagonistically. He can’t have the nickel. So he gets angry, has a tantrum, beats his heels on the floor. He still can’t have the nickel. He becomes covert about wanting it, goes into grief, apathy, withdrawal. In other words, he goes through the whole cycle of the tone scale about one nickel. This is theta trying to acquire a piece of MEST. Or consider theta in an attempt to destroy MEST as a part of its conquest: A little boy wants to blow up a tin can with a firecracker. Papa says no. So the boy says, “I am going to blow up this tin can with a firecracker.” “No.” Tantrum. “Be still,” says papa; Copyright(©) 1951 by L. Ron Hubbard. All Rights Reserved. “I said you can’t go swimming.” The child drops rapidly down the tone scale into grief, and from there into apathy. Finally he says, “I didn’t want to go swimming anyway.” After this cycle of events has happened a number of times, he no longer goes through the anger band, but drops instantly into apathy, becoming an automatic reaction pattern. Eventually when the subject of swimming is brought up he merely says that he doesn’t like to go swimming, giving as an excuse that the water hurts his ears or eyes. Unless a child is growing up in a 3.0 or higher environ, he will encounter this negation reaction pattern. Individuals in the 3.0 band operate by using data and by exchanging ideas; and children understand and use data as well as their parents. Parents are likely to wonder what should be done about allowing a child to run around tearing up his room and breaking things. The answer, of course, is contained in the question: What is the child doing in a room containing expensive MEST? Such a room is certainly not a match for his limited data. See that he has a room in which there are toys that are his; and if he breaks the toys, remember that they are his to break or care for as he chooses. ATTACKING SELF As an individual follows the dwindling spiral downward in regard to MEST, he attacks smaller and smaller spheres of activity or MEST. If he fails on a large sphere, he attacks a smaller one, and failing that then attacks yet a smaller sphere until finally there is but the last sphere available for attack: His own body. Psychosomatic illnesses then become chronic and the individual slides downward toward death. Thus we see that when the theta of the individual is unable to extend itself over the organisms and MEST in the environ, it begins to attack the organism itself, for it seems to be inimical to theta to be owned or to be considered MEST. The attack on the organism of self is an attack on the only MEST available to the theta of the organism, and, more importantly, seems to be an effort on the part of that theta to remove the organism from the living so as to begin a new cycle with another organism where it may have a better chance to survive at optimum. SYMBOLOGY OF LANGUAGE Words are symbols for MEST action. They take on meaning as they are related to actual physical events. The definition of language is in terms of the physical universe and all communication of ideas is accomplished in terms of MEST communication. Language, then, becomes simply a symbol for MEST reality or MEST imaginary objects offered as reality. Language itself is not so aberrative as has been previously validated; the aberrative factor is the MEST action underlying it. True enough, language has some aberrative elements (as is evidenced in the sentence, “He rowed the horse”), and the reactive mind has a glorious time with it. But these words are only symbols of reality. In the warning, “The tiger is biting you,” the danger is not the words, but the fact of the tiger’s biting you—not the language but the MEST action involved. Symbols, compared to the actual MEST actions, are unimportant in MEST processing. A child of ten months gets into the sewing box. Mother can say, “Get out,” but what she says is not important. It is what she does. She forcefully drags him out of the sewing box. The baby has learned the meaning of a bit of language; hereafter “get out” means being pulled out of the sewing box. Later baby observes papa being pushed away while mamma says, “Leave baby alone and get out.” And baby suddenly gets the idea of leaving. How does he get this idea when the words are nothing but vibrations in air? They are not painful. True, but they tie up with something that was painful, that had reality—MEST action: Being pulled out of a sewing box. Baby goes on growing up, seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling, and somehow or other all the combinations of physical contacts with the material universe add up eventually into language. He learns by observing or experiencing with regard to matter, energy, space and time. Later on 0 the actions become translated into symbols but the actions themselves are basic on MEST chains. Underneath all the action phrases which give most trouble in processing— phrases which hold the preclear on the track, which misdirect him, which deny him information, which cause information to be forced upon him, which up-bounce and downbounce him and group his time—are MEST observations. Meanings for these phrases are learned, after the prenatal bank has been filled with engrams, by the preclear’s observation of MEST. The action phrase is only a phrase, so many syllables in the air, so many marks on a piece of paper. The MEST action is actual and real, having to do with motions. Each and every action phrase has its MEST counterpart. Recovering a chain of MEST action locks is more important than recovering a chain of action-phrase locks. Furthermore, every circuit in the case, however it is stated, has its MEST counterpart. A person has the feeling of going through space when he moves on the time track. He thinks in terms of going up, down, sidewise; in reality, he is only moving through time. He has come to think in terms of motion when he is actually going through time because all the words that have been used to describe this are actually in terms of MEST motion: Matter, energy, space and time. To go up means to go up, so he is on the time track and hits a phrase “go up,” and he moves into present time. Stupid reactive mind! It isn’t the words “go up” that make him go up; it is the translation of the phrase reinterpreted by all the times he observed going up or was forced to go up physically. The swiftest method of causing the preclear to recover from obedience to action phrases is to clear him on MEST action locks, not on chains of phrases. AIMS OF MEST PROCESSING MEST processing deals with this root of aberration and physical condition by calling for physical manifestation rather than words. In the past the symbology of language was too often over-stressed to the neglect of the force behind those words. MEST processing reaches into that strata underlying language and processes the individual in the physical universe. It processes his communication lines directed toward matter, energy, space and time. With it words are used somewhat as dreams are used in psychoanalysis, to demonstrate where the actual lock lies. PROCEDURE Several approaches can be used in MEST processing procedure. We might begin by asking for a time when the preclear had an object taken away from him; we are interested in the actual departure of the object, not in the words which accompany the departure. Or we may find times when he drew his hand away from objects. One simple act like this may have collected hundreds of locks when the preclear drew his hand away from an object. A phrase describing the drawing away of the hand is not nearly so important and is not even considered to be a part of this chain. We might ask the preclear, “Is there an action phrase in restimulation?” Yes. “Could you give me the phrase?” “Get up.” “All right. Do you remember a time when anyone made you get up?” “Yeah, my mother used to say that all the time.” The auditor doesn’t want the phrase; it is just a shadow. What he wants to dig out is the time mother pulled the preclear out of bed. Or when brother booted him out. That is the lock desired. Mother could have boosted him out while saying, “Abracadabra. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.” It makes no difference what she said. You want his actual actions of having had to get up. Aberration on getting up could proceed either from being inhibited from getting up or sitting down, or on being enforced in either. The auditor and preclear seek for these. They search for the times the preclear watched somebody get up; the times he had to get up every morning at six; the times mother took him by the feet, threw cold water in his face and got him downstairs, got some breakfast into him and got him off to school. Trace down such a “getting up” chain to the basic MEST action on the chain. When a preclear is responding to too many holders, find the times he was held and made to stay in one place. More important, find when he was stopped. Who used to stop him? Who forced him into motion? What put him in motion? The objective is to find what the words stand for. When the preclear has remembered an incident called for by the question asked, the auditor may request another such incident and yet another and another as called for by the one question. In other words, each question can designate a chain of locks to be scanned, a subject for Repetitive Straight Wire. For example, the auditor asks, “Can you remember a time when you were forced to stay in one place?” “Yes.” “Is there an earlier time when you were forced to stay in one place?” “Yes.” “Now, can you recall an earlier time,” and so on to the earliest incident on the chain. The auditor should take particular care that he does not send the preclear into major engrams or secondaries. If he does so, he must be prepared to run out the incident as an engram or as a secondary, but only if the preclear’s position on the tone scale warrants it. PRO-SURVIVAL/CONTRA-SURVIVAL PROCESSING It will be noted that MEST processing can be divided into two portions. One is devoted to pro-survival objects or actions; the other to contra-survival objects. The difference between the pro-survival object and the contra-survival object is as follows: Harmony exists for the individual when a pro-survival object is near at hand and when the contra-survival object is absent. A point of indecision is reached by the individual, which is to say anxiety, when either a pro-survival object or a contra-survival object is at an uncomfortable distance from him. The tone scale for this purpose on the prosurvival object is, broadly: 4.0 when the pro-survival object is in comfortable proximity; and on down the tone scale to 0.0 as the pro-survival object, energy, space or time recedes and finally disappears. In the matter of the contra-survival object: 4.0 represents the absence of the contra-survival object, energy, space or time; and so on down the tone scale to the point of 0.0 when the object engulfs by proximity. The whole gamut of emotion is run in either case. The validation technique, then, can be used in MEST processing by straightwiring times when pro-survival objects, energies, spaces and times are in harmonious proximity, at least, not threatening to depart from the preclear, and when contrasurvival objects, energies, spaces and times are entirely absent or, if in view at all, have no bearing on the preclear. It might be noted that the period before the known approach of a pro-survival object, energy, space or time may contain more theta than the actual arrival, since this is anticipation toward a goal, and that the period immediately after the recession or departure of a contra-survival object, energy, space or time may contain theta. The achievement of bringing pro-survival objects, energy, space or time into proximity and the achievement of banishing contra-survival objects, energies, spaces and times are apt to be nigh analytical moments containing considerable free theta which is just idle after a long period of hard computation. It should be mentioned again that the preclear must be impressed with the fact that he is being asked for MEST activity and not the word symbols describing activity. One of the ways to demonstrate this to the preclear is to ask him for actual departures and arrivals rather than the stated news that a departure or arrival has taken place. It should be particularly noted by the auditor who is doing MEST processing that he is most in danger of getting grief into restimulation when a pro-survival object, energy, space or time has departed from the preclear and when a contrasurvival object, energy, space or time has approached too closely to be rejected. Similarly, he will find the anxiety of fear or terror manifesting itself when a prosurvival object is on the verge of becoming absent or when a contra-survival object has come almost, but not quite, to the point where it cannot be rejected. The auditor will find lying, deceit and covert hostility where a pro-survival object, energy, space or time appears to be on the verge of departing but has not decisively departed and when a contra-survival object, energy, space or time has demonstrated its force but still may be rejected. The auditor will find hate, anger and destruction manifesting themselves when a pro-survival object, energy, space or time is not actually departing but is not easily recalled and has already receded and where a contra-survival object, energy, space or time is not yet imminent enough to elicit fear but may still be destroyed. The auditor will find antagonism exerted by the preclear toward pro-survival objects when they are still in close proximity but are not quite under the control of the individual and toward contra-survival objects when they appear to be a threat but not yet a fixed threat to the individual. Boredom will be manifested when pro-survival objects, energies, spaces or times have become too distant to be in harmony but not distant enough to threaten actual departure and when contra-survival objects are in sight but pose no real threat to the individual. Happiness and cheerfulness will be found to manifest when the prosurvival object is in comfortable proximity or commingled with the individual and when the contra-survival objects, energies, spaces and times are either absent or very distant. PROCESSING MEMORY RECALLS It is one of the primary axioms of MEST processing that what the individual will do with MEST he will do with his own thoughts and ideas. Thus, if he has been forced to leave alone a great deal of MEST, he will leave alone a great many of his thoughts or perceptions or recalls. If he is forced to accept MEST, he is compelled to remember, and obsessive behavior will result. In other words, to improve the memory of this preclear, it is necessary to bring into view all the MEST, or much of it, which he has been forced to leave alone and to de-intensify the MEST which has been forced upon him. Forgetting and remembering are the basic abstract phrases of thought, so far as can be established at this time, for here the names of things as things and spaces as spaces grow into the complexity of the handling or rejecting of these objects and spaces. Further, the same object, energy, space or time can be both pro-survival and contra-survival. A knife can be pro-survival when working for the individual and contrasurvival when working against him. This engenders an indecision in the preclear which is highly destructive of his ability to reason and make decisions and is a specialized source of anxiety. Mother, for instance, may be and generally is a source of considerable pain and restimulation and in this guise is contra-survival. However, the natural love of a child for a parent and the meaning the parent has in terms of food, clothing, shelter and care make this object a pro-survival one. Hence, there is an indecisiveness and a lack of resolution on the subject of mother. The same may be true of father or the grandparents. Evidently the reason allies disappear from memory can be found in the axiom that an individual approximates with his thoughts and memories his handling of MEST and the handling by MEST of him. The departed ally is fulfilling the basic definition of “forget” and departs in the thoughts as well. The mind can set aside and refuse to consider an item which contains too much indecision, with resulting occlusion. Here is the case of the mind compartmenting itself, recognizing that to stay sane it must lay aside insane subjects. Irrationality and indecision are, more or less, synonymous. MEST processing, then, is of basic importance because it underlies thought and all symbols and communication representing thought. It dives into the vital area of theta conquering MEST, attempting to rehabilitate the individual’s control and ownership of the organism and MEST in his environ. By releasing charge on MEST action, it establishes self-determinism in direct ratio to increased ability to handle MEST. Thus processing an individual in the physical universe and his communication lines directed toward matter, energy, space and time can raise him to a level where theta can continue successfully in its mission of creating, conserving, maintaining, acquiring, destroying, changing, occupying, grouping and dispersing MEST.