Don’t be serious about Life

Comments by LRH on the subject of illusion and being serious about Life.

“The surest way to get nowhere in life is to be serious about it!” – LRH

“ILLUSION: Any idea, space, energy, object or time concept which one creates himself.” LRH: Book Scientology 8 – 8008 p 203.

“The MEST universe is terrifically interested in control. The theta universe is interested in freedom. It’s interested in aesthetics; it’s interested in creativeness. Your MEST universe is chaos.

“The theta universe is very orderly. It has extra dimensions. And what you miss in the MEST universe is an ability merely to throw out your hand and have some aesthetic creation come into being. That’s theta universe. In the MEST universe you build and build and build and you make this great set very fancy, with great ardure, in a battle of gravity and conquering forces and so on. …

“Well, that’s the difference. So what you miss—what your theta beingness misses, is that aesthetic ability to create—to create at will.”

*ardure: a coined word meaning strong effort; hard work to accomplish or achieve. Formed from the word arduous, delivered from Latin ardu-us, which means “high, steep, difficult.” From ‘Your sensation about living.’ An article by L. Ron Hubbard from R&D Volume 11

‘The reality of one’s own universe is poor because he is in a comatose state of agreement with the MEST universe. It is found on processing, however, that a preclear is in poor condition in direct ratio that he has accepted and agrees and complies with the MEST universe. And is in good and active condition in direct ratio to the degree he can break this flow of agreement and establish his own flows and thus create his own universe.

“One’s appreciation of the MEST universe is almost uniformly the energy which one, himself, places upon the MEST universe. In other words, his illusions. When he loses his hopes and dreams (his illusions), it is because he has lost his ability to emanate energy back at the MEST universe and is dependent upon the energy the MEST universe thrusts at him.”  – LRH: Book Scientology 8 – 8008 p 42.

“The highest one can attain to Truth is to attain to his own illusions”.

LRH: Book Scientology 8 – 8008 p 119, ref The Chart of Attitudes, Column Truth – Hallucination (see this column).

“What is commonly believed to be truth is “agreement upon natural law”. This would be truth of the MEST universe, which would be the lowest common denominator of agreement on any subject”. LRH: Book Scientology 8 – 8008 p 119.

 “Truth, in Scientology, is the study of the lowest common denominator of agreement plus the establishment of the true ability of the thetan. The true ability of the thetan is a truth much higher than the truth of the MEST universe itself”. LRH: Book Scientology 8 – 8008 p 119.

“The aesthetic mind would be that mind which, by an interplay of the dynamics, deals with the nebulous field of art and creation….”

“A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists.” LRH Science of Survival Chapter 18 Level of Mind Alert.

“As you go up toward freedom, you get in more and more into an aesthetic band. You get into, simultaneously, a confidence band. You get higher and higher and higher up the line until you finally achieve something like a violent, fast, highly ecstatic, tremendously emotional type of life.”
Ron Hubbard. Excerpted from the lecture “The Factors”, delivered on 29 October 1954. This can be found in the 8th American Advanced Clinical Course.

 “When you can be your own best audience and when your applause is the best applause you know of, you’re in good shape. And when you can play a real good role—when you can go down here and be the mule or be the general with equal verve, in the total spirit of play, and do it with terrific sincerity—you’re living!” – L. Ron Hubbard Excerpted from the lecture Ability to Accept Direction delivered on 21 December 1953.

“And you get a person as he drops down the Tone Scale, he becomes less and less able to do aesthetics or appreciate aesthetics. One of the most aberrative incidents you had in your – in this lifetime, by the way, was running up to one of your parents and saying, ‘It’s pretty’ and they say, ‘Well, Junior, wash your hands for dinner.’ In other words, they said, ‘Aesthetics – phhh. Aesthetics – nah. What you want to be is practical!’ The use of ‘practicality’ is very poor.

“But do you know that the aesthetic wavelength and that band immediately below it and above it and around – the mid-band of aesthetics – is practically a disintegrator wave. It just thaws through all thought of a lower tone.

 “You can produce a piece of beauty or, if you please, an aesthetic ugliness of such a magnitude that you just stop people in their tracks. You can blow away and erase their anger, hate, discomfort, or anything else with an aesthetic.” – L. Ron Hubbard, Route to Infinity

“Did you ever see a kid start playing? Oh, just – oh, they love to play!
They’re playing cowboy and Indian or something of the sort, and – slurp! –
wonderful! Have a terrific ecstasy.

“You want to know what sensation about living you ought to have: It’s the
same sensation with which you used to play cowboy and Indian. You also know that it isn’t real when you’re playing cowboys and Indians.

“That, by the way, is on the upper strata of ecstasy. It really becomes
ecstasy when you know you have to pretend that it’s real so that it can be
real. You’re really in command of the situation then, and you can have a
good time! It’s fun. One of the biggest control mechanisms there are, is:

‘You’ve got to take this seriously. You’ve really got to be serious about
this. If you’re serious enough about this – hm-hm-hm! – you’ll get somewhere in life.’