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What is pleasure?  
 

"There is therefore a necessity for pleasure, for working, as happiness can be defined, toward known goals over not unknowable obstacles. And the necessity for pleasure is such that a great deal of pain can be borne to attain it. Pleasure is the positive commodity. It is enjoyment of work, contemplation of deeds well done; it is a good book or a good friend; it is taking all the skin off one's knees climbing the Matterhorn;* it is hearing the kid first say 'Daddy'; it is a brawl on the Bund** at Shanghai or the whistle of amour from a doorway; it's adventure and hope and enthusiasm and 'someday I'll learn to paint'; it's eating a good meal or kissing a pretty girl or playing a stiff game of bluff on the stock exchange. It's what man does that he enjoys doing; it's what man does that he enjoys contemplating; it's what man does that he enjoys remembering; and it may be just the talk of things he knows he'll never do."

—L. Ron Hubbard

Excerpt from the book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.  

*Matterhorn: a mountain on the border of Switzerland and Italy. 
**Bund:
a street running along the waterfront in Shanghai (a seaport in eastern China).

 

Son reunites mother and father after twenty-one years

Christmas after Christmas, while growing up in Roosendaal, Holland, Frank Ofman watched the heartwarming and inspiring American movies which portrayed the season as one of warmth and happiness. He saw the large family, the joyous laughter, everyone proudly watching as father made that first slice of Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham-it was idyllic.

And it was the exact reverse of his own life.

Frank lived in a home devoid of everything those movies represented. There was little family life. The father he had never known was dead. His mother, though she loved her son, was constantly ill, nearly dying twice, and lived with a man who abused her. And Frank had learned to hide his feelings.

Yet it was his mother's revelation to him at the age of 13 which set him on a path that would change everything.

"What would you do," she asked him one day out of the blue, "if I told you your father was still alive?"

Aghast at his mother's question, Frank could only stare speechlessly as she haltingly explained.

"We were young," she said "We got together, but he had to leave to America. We wanted to have kids. I sent photos to him when you were born...."

Something had happened those many years ago and despite the original intention, Frank's father never returned to his first love in Holland, or to the son that she bore him. And they lost contact over time.

Widowed from another marriage, his mother had spent the past decade of her life with this abusive boyfriend-and the misery of her past.

What hit Frank the deepest was her obvious suffering.

"She would sit in front of the television and cry for no reason," Frank said, "I wanted to change that."

He vowed that he would find the solution. He decided to go to college and learn enough to travel to America for an internship. Then, he would find his father and somehow set things straight.

"The adventure really started when I first heard about Dianetics in college," Frank relates. "I was 21. A friend had the book and I told him I wanted to read it. I read the first pages, where L. Ron Hubbard says, 'You are beginning an adventure. Treat it as an adventure. And may you never be the same again.' I thought it was very profound."

With these words as inspiration, he moved to America and began the search for his father with little more than a name and old photographs.

In Boston, he began months of fruitless calls, tore through lists of names, checked with the local police department, and visited all the addresses he was referred to. Call after call. House after house. Dead end after dead end.

But just as he was about to give it all up, Frank again found Dianetics as his beacon.

On Newbury Street one afternoon, he met a man from the local Hubbard Dianetics® Foundation.

"I connected him with the book I had read in college," Frank said, "At the time, I wasn't happy. And somehow I knew Dianetics could change that."

Frank enrolled on courses at the Foundation to help improve relationships and to overcome the ups and downs of life that plagued him, while also receiving several hours of Dianetics counseling.

It was after one of those Dianetics sessions that Frank realized he had found the answer to his problems.

"After that session, my life completely changed," Frank says. "I became certain that I could now control my life. And after that session, I knew I would find my father and put together the family I had always wanted."

Things did change-and soon.

"One day, shortly after that session, a man called me and said 'I can tell you where your father is.'"

It was in fact his uncle, his father's brother, and he offered to pick up Frank and take him to his grandmother's house to meet the family.

The resulting reunion was much larger than any he had seen in the American movies he had watched so longingly in Holland. Although his father was in New Hamp-shire on a job, Frank found himself in the midst of a huge family-his grandmother, 48 cousins and 10 aunts and uncles, who each accepted him into the family with open arms.

Reaching his father by phone, Frank stated simply, "This is your son." And his father rushed back to meet him.

"All I had was a photo of him 20 years ago," Frank said, "I could see it was him, but older. He gave me a hug. There was instant reality there and no doubt that I was his son. I looked just like him in his younger photos."

It was the end of the search, but the beginning of a new adventure.

Together they called Frank's mother in Holland, and together they paid her airfare to come to America. She arrived in Boston in time for the holidays.

Frank could tell that his parents still felt strongly about each other, but they had both been through failed relationships and felt they could not get back together. But this is where Frank put his knowledge of Dianetics to work.

Using what he had learned at the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation, he helped them to understand what had happened and to recognize that a happy life together was still possible.

"That year I got to have my first Thanksgiving dinner with my new family in America," Frank said. "It was the realization of that dream in Holland."

But Frank's application of Dianetics didn't stop there.

With his new knowledge of how to handle relationships with other people, Frank taught his mother what to do to safely get out of the abusive relationship in Holland.

Then, qualified as a Hubbard Book Auditor by reading and successfully using Dianetics, Frank applied these principles to her ailing health and addressed the spiritual problems that were at the root of her illness.

After one two-hour session, the trauma that had been the real cause of her chronic illness was resolved. And the illness that had brought her near death twice never recurred.

His mother returned to Holland, ended her relationship, sold the house and returned to America to get married-for the first time-to Frank's father.

Frank proudly gave his mother away at the wedding.

While on course at the Dianetics Foundation, Frank ended his own troubled relationship, found the woman he really loved, and married her.

And today?

Both Frank's and his parents' marriages are stronger than ever. He has the family he always dreamed of. And plenty of Christmases and Thanksgivings to share with them all.

And, says Frank gratefully, "It all started with Dianetics."

For more information on Dianetics or to order your copy of Dianetics or to get more information on the book.

What is pleasure?
Son reunites mother and father after twenty-one years

 

 


New Dianetics® Self-Improvement Package

Presenting the new Dianetics Self-Improvement Package now available in 16 languages; with Dianetics: A Visual Guide to the Mind now available in DVD format!

There is a hidden part of your mind that affects the way you think, feel and act. It’s called the reactive mind because it reacts irrationally—manipulating your thoughts, controlling your emotions, and making you lose confidence and trust in yourself.

Dianetics provides you with the technology to GET RID of your reactive mind and take control of your life. With Dianetics you can achieve:

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The Dianetics® Self-Improvement Package has everything you need to start using Dianetics to handle your reactive mind including:

Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which gives the complete anatomy of the reactive mind and the technology to erase it.

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* DVD Specifications:

Approximately 45 Minutes
NTSC DVD (click here for kit with PAL DVD) Plays on most DVD players in the following countries: USA, Canada, Japan. Available in 16 languages.

Dianetics Lectures and Demonstrations, four one-hour recorded lectures by L. Ron Hubbard, in which you’ll hear him explain and demonstrate the breakthroughs of Dianetics.

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Join the millions who have used Dianetics® technology to become truly well and happy. Take your next step towards getting rid of your reactive mind!

Click here to order your copy of The Dianetics Self-Improvement Package.

 


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