Showing titles in Motivation & Self-Improvement

From his adventurous youth in a rough-and-tumble American West to his far-flung trek across a still-mysterious Asia; from his two-decade search for the essence of life to the triumph of Dianetics and Scientology - such is the story Ron recounts in a lecture so legendary, it has been heard by millions. How could one man discover the source of all human aberration and provide an actual technology by which man could rise to greater heights of honesty, decency, and personal freedom? The answer is here, in Ron’s personal account of his long journey to bring about a new state of being.

Your mind: It is your constant companion. You live with it 24 hours a day, every day of your life. Yet man has known practically nothing about how it works. And from marriages that end in divorce to careers that wind up in frustration, from tensions that interfere with work to conflicts that divide nations, virtually every human crisis can be traced to man’s ignorance of the mind. Imagine, then, the potential benefits of finding the answers....

Everyone performs certain routine tasks automatically. Driving a car would be awkward indeed if one had to think newly of every tiny procedure. But what happens when someone puts a whole field of thought and action "on automatic"? His education, for example? Or his work? Or even his entire life? The answers are here and they open a completely new perspective on the mind. To the degree an individual has withdrawn from participation in an area of life, he substitutes an automatic mental mechanism for himself. Here, then, are the semental mechanisms and exactly how they undermine an individual’s power of decision.

What motivates life? What motivates Man? Those were the questions Ron posed when seeking workable answers to the problems of both the individual and society. After examining the whole of life in its variety and complexity, he isolated a common denominator to all living things - the Dynamic Principle of Existence: Survive! Here was a watershed breakthrough in Man’s understanding of Man.

Today weapons exist powerful enough to annihilate whole nations. And violence has become commonplace, often in disregard of human life. Why has there been such a lessening of moral responsibility and, most important, what can be done about it? In providing the answers to these questions, Ron explores the history of Man’s research and investigation in the field of the human spirit. As he details many remarkable phenomena familiar in past ages, yet unknown to most people today, what emerges is that as mechanical technologies became ascendant, nothing parallel emerged to bring religion into the realm of day-to-day application.

When still a young man attending university, Ron observed that those working in the humanities had no training in the exact sciences. Believing that the precision of the scientific method might furnish a solution to the problems of life and livingness, he urged faculty members of the psychology department to apply the principles of physics to the field of the mind. It was an entirely novel approach. And when no one took up the challenge - either then or in later years - Ron undertook the task himself. Unlocking a wealth of answers about human beings and their potentials, he did indeed resolve the long-standing riddle of the mind.

From the dawn of time, Man has cherished the hope he could achieve a greater freedom. That hope, articulated by the greatest religious leaders across the centuries, has time and again renewed his strength to face the future. But with no practical means to convert hope to reality, the goal of a greater freedom remained, for most if not all, a distant and unattainable dream.Then, with the onset of the twentieth century, came the rapid and unprecedented advance of the physical sciences.

Since time immemorial, Man has sought to liberate the soul from the body and so achieve immortality. In this account of the religious heritage that stands behind Scientology, Ron recounts the extraordinary story of man’s epic quest for a way to attain that goal. Embracing a tradition from the very dawn of civilization, here is the history of man’s relentless pursuit of the knowledge which inspired this planet’s great philosophies and religions.

Here is a story that begins with Ron’s immersion in a deeply spiritual, deeply traditional Asia, where he met and befriended - among other savants - the last of the great magicians whose predecessors served in the court of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Yet not withstanding the feats that testified to remarkable powers, here was a land where wisdom was deemed sacred - so sacred, in fact, these Oriental holy men declined to use their considerable abilities to solve the real and urgent problems of living.

Every human being seeks to know the truth about himself and to resolve to his own satisfaction the mysteries of life. And therefore, for many thousands of years, countless philosophical and religious teachings have sought to enlighten people with answers. But where their practitioners insisted - indeed, demanded - that their answers must be the answers, they blocked the road to greater freedom for millions of people. For as history tells, to force an individual to accept a truth instead of permitting him to find truth is a road not to freedom, but to slavery of thought and belief.

It has no mass or location. It is not energy. Yet it is alive. And it gives life. Such are the characteristics of “a life-giving unit” - the source not only of all thought, but of all that is decent, ethical and noble. Indeed, this is you. The discovery that each individual is, in fact, a source of life radically alters the relationship between Man and the material universe. Based not on faith or belief but on axioms as precise and workable as any in science, it has been conclusively determined that the life-giving unit preceded matter, energy, space and time.

Designated by L. Ron Hubbard as Book One of Scientology. After having fully unified and codified the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology came the refinement of their fundamentals. Originally published as a résumé of Scientology for use in translations into non-English tongues, this book is of inestimable value to both the beginner and advanced student of the mind, spirit and life. Equipped with this book alone, one can begin a practice and perform seeming miracle changes in the states of well-being, ability and intelligence of people.

Money is, of course, something with which everyone is familiar. But how many people truly understand the role money plays in the society? Judging from the duress and anxiety associated with this subject, few people are aware of the real purpose and function of money. Here Ron delineates its proper role in assisting the survival of individuals, groups and cultures. What becomes clear is that money owes its unsavory reputation not to its use, but to its abuse.

Help pervades every part of life. Yet few people realize the degree to which it determines their survival. For the willingness to give and receive help lies at the foundation of all human reactions and behavior. How does one increase a person's confidence, improve his ability to communicate with others and heighten his interest in life? The answers all start with help, and they are contained in a series of techniques so effective they can practically "awaken the dead."

In his lifelong quest to uncover the answers to life and Man, Ron discovered that all life forms, from the lowest to the highest, are motivated by a single command: Survive! Yet questions still remained. What exactly is life and how does it accomplish its purpose of survival? Is life merely live matter? Or does it contain another quality altogether? Thus Ron set out to isolate and identify the very essence of life itself.

Since the deployment of the first atomic weapons, people everywhere have lived with the possibility that everything they hold dear - their lives, their families, their careers and even the human species itself - could be extinguished in a few moments of devastation. Such consequences would be so overwhelming that, for many, the only defense is a hope it will never happen. Yet as the number of countries with atomic and nuclear weapons has risen and an international black market actively trades nuclear materials, action is likely to prove a far stronger deterrent than hope.

No matter the varied experiences or activities of individuals, everyone is seeking to survive and that is the only common denominator to all life. Then, examining life still more closely, he further discovered that survival subdivided into eight separate urges or drives, known as the Eight Dynamics. In brief, one seeks to survive for (1) oneself, (2) the family and the future generation, (3) one's group, (4) Mankind, (5) all life organisms, (6) the physical universe, (7) as or for spirits, and (8) the Supreme Being, or infinity.

In a world of unpredictable forces racing headlong toward an uncertain future, how can a single individual control his own fate? How can he safeguard the well-being of his family, the prosperity of his group and the security of his nation? Must he mutely await the next unforeseen blow, which might well signal the end of all dreams and aspirations? Or should he endeavor by whatever means, through whatever plan, to secure the future for those he cherishes and the society in which he lives? Here, then, is Ron's unforgettable answer to such questions.

What is life? Such was the central question Ron posed when setting out to unravel the riddle of human existence. After examining all aspects and elements of existence, he arrived at an altogether startling discovery - one which suddenly clarified all life’s various phenomena: Life is a game. In this lecture, Ron explains why life is best understood by likening it to a game, whereupon he defines both its prerequisites and conditions, showing that it follows the rules of any game.

This is the story of how L. Ron Hubbard discovered the reactive mind and developed the procedures to get rid of it. Originally written for a national magazine - published to coincide with the release of Dianetics...Originally written and published in national magazines to coincide with the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, here is L. Ron Hubbard’s own story of his developmental trail and two decade journey to the discovery of the reactive mind.