From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 9 - November 1992

Book News

Scientology - A Handbook for Use
[2005 December 7th -- The author of this review now wishes to be anonymous,
Antony Phillips, IVy editor]

Volume 1 of "Scientology - More Than a Cult" by L. Kin, has been
available for a while, has been reviewed in "IVy", and if you haven't
read it yet, you should. It's a broad description of the development
of, and life according to, Scientology.

Volume 2, subtitled "A Handbook For Use" goes into the procedures and
application of Auditing Tech in considerable depth. You get the
impression reading this that the author really knows his stuff. He
describes all the basic premises and aspects of Auditing, from Axioms
to ARC Breaks, Book 1 to Banks, Comm skills to C/Sing, with the how-
to's and whys of it, but its more than just a description: throughout,
the various procedures are related back to basics with exceptional
clarity.

For myself, I found reading it a revitalising experience. I had
important realisations about specific ideas as well as on the
interconnectedness of major parts of the subject. Its quite startling
to realise that you didn't know it thoroughly, to experience familiar
ideas falling into place.

Auditor training

Its not assumed that you read these books once and are suddenly an
Auditor. But used as a training manual, with minimal access to other
materials - "Tech Dictionary", axioms and scales, also occasional
references to "Tech Volumes", I have no doubt that they would make the
training much easier.

Paradox

I've always felt there has been a need for easily understandable
materials, a thorough secondary literature on Scientology. On first
reading LRH's books in '68, I wanted to translate them into English,
and then studying up class IV and so on, gradually doing the
Scientology Jigsaw Puzzle, it was far more complex than it could have
been. Also, trying to interest others in it, watching people wade
through the tangle, or cringe at the language or packaging, one
wonders why it had to be all so difficult. It's good business for the
Church, of course, to be the guardians of a narrow, tortuous Path to
Eternity, and easy duplication doesn't make for the construction of
lasting M/Us.

During the formative years it went the way it went, reflecting Ron's
personality, but having now seen how succinctly a current view of the
subject can be put, it occurs to me that paradoxically the major
problem regarding the -credibility- of Scientology has been simply -
lousy communication-.

People have searched everywhere for the -why-: It's too large or
difficult a subject for the culture. There are Enemies. Hubbard was
just this opportunist who spotted a gold mine, or he was, well, God or
something.

Unduplicatableness

But what if it simply comes down to this: he was simply not good at
communicating? For some reason - lack of time, self indulgence, lack
of Artistic Talent (remember - Quality of Communication?), he didn't
resolve his work into acceptable form. We went along with it, out of
admiration for his genius and achievement. Or out of lack of
understanding, or of choice. He remained The Poet Who Mumbled, or had
bad breath. Cyrano de Bergerac (A 17th century French satirist and
early science fiction writer, who ridiculed contemporary religious and
astronomical views. LRH mentions him in his essay on satire at the
start of "Mission Earth". But his relevance here is that he himself
became the subject of later fiction (including Steve Martin's film
"Roxanne") in which his huge and hideous nose makes him shy of
serenading his girl friend with his brilliant poetry, so he has a more
handsome friend front for him, which works. (Presumably "long nose" =
he stank = low regard by offended establishment.)) got help, Ron
didn't. Simply Lack of Acceptable Communication.

The remedy

What L. Kin has done is entirely on policy: He realised he was in a
Condition of Power as an Auditor and a Scientologist, so he wrote up
his Hat. Part of the formula for power.

So we've got, for the first time really, a broadly available
publication of the entire hat of a working auditor and intelligent
scientologist. In 2 paperback books.

Having observed several people being surprised at the clear
explanation of basic ideas, one wonders to what extent the
fragmentation of the movement, the mis-duplication, the deceit, the
fanaticism, would have been avoided if this had been done years ago.

Clarity

Coming back to clarity, this book wasn't written in a hurry. I'm sure
it took years of work, clarification and refinement. Some may miss
Ron's rambling verbosity, but not his clear thinking. Praise should go
to the German Publisher VAP for their courage in taking this on.

Further literature needed

There will be a third volume, "The Solo Levels".

It may be that these books aren't simple enough for ground level
introduction to the subject. They don't refer to the background, where
in the history of civilisation and psychology the roots are. Or how
the subject relates to others areas of contemporary thought, and what
its dangers are. Not that they should, of course, but I'm sure such
information is needed. Who else has the expertise to produce a section
of the better bridge Ron called for? What else would be useful? It
certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to have a library of literature that
can demonstrate conclusively that scientology belongs to those who can
use it.

Meanwhile, if anyone has been interested in auditing at any time, they
maybe should read these books. I'm sure they'll learn something.

Fri Dec  9 01:07:01 EST 2005