Self-determinism...  
 

"The most desirable state in an individual is complete self-determinism. Such self-determinism may be altered and shaped to some degree by education and environment, but so long as the individual is not aberrated, he is in possession of self-determinism. So long as he is self-determined in his actions he adjusts himself successfully to the degree that his environment will permit such an adjustment. He will be more forceful, effective and happier in that environment than when aberrated. ...

"The basic individual is not a buried unknown or a different person, but an intensity of all that is best and most able in the person. The basic individual equals the same person minus his pain and dramatizations."

—L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard
This excerpt was taken from the book, The Dynamics of Life by L. Ron Hubbard.

 

   
 

The Goal of Man

The goal of man, the lowest common denominator of all his activities, the dynamic principle of his existence, has long been sought. Should such an answer be discovered, it is inevitable that from it many answers would follow. It would explain all phenomena of behavior; it would lead toward a solution of man’s major problems; and, most of all, it should be workable.

Such an answer has been discovered. It is:

The Dynamic Principle of Existence Is Survival.

The goal of life can be considered to be infinite survival. Man, as a life form, can be demonstrated to obey in all his actions and purposes the one command: “Survive!”

It is not a new thought that man is surviving. It is a new thought that man is motivated only by survival.

That his single goal is survival does not mean that he is the optimum survival mechanism which life has attained or will develop. The goal of the dinosaur was also survival and the dinosaur isn’t extant anymore.

Obedience to this command, “Survive!” does not mean that every attempt to obey is uniformly successful. Changing environment, mutation (change in the form or nature of something) and many other things work against any one organism attaining infallible survival techniques or form.

What would be the optimum survival characteristics of various life forms? They would have to have various fundamental characteristics, differing from one species to the next just as one environment differs from the next.

This is important, since it has been but poorly considered in the past that a set of survival characteristics in one species would not be survival characteristics in another.

The methods of survival can be summed under the headings of food, protection (defensive and offensive) and procreation. There are no existing life forms which lack solutions to these problems. Every life form errs, one way or another, by holding a characteristic too long or developing characteristics which may lead to its extinction. But the developments which bring about successfulness of form are far more striking than their errors. The naturalist and biologist are continually resolving the characteristics of this or that life form by discovering that need rather than whim governs such developments. The hinges of the clam shell, the awesome “face” on the wings of the butterfly, have survival value.

The goals of man, then, stem from the single goal of survival through a conquest of the material universe. The success of his survival is measured in terms of the broad survival of all.

The Dynamics

Every individual is made up of a central thrust through existence. This drive, this thrust through existence, is survival. It is the effort on the part of the organism to survive.

We call the urge toward survival a dynamic.

As this urge becomes enturbulated (put into a state of agitation or disturbance) or influenced by outside forces, it is either suppressed or it is diluted with other people’s purposes. That is to say, other people force their purposes on the individual. In either way, the dynamic itself becomes to some slight degree enturbulated.

As the survival dynamic is cut back or as it is entered or acted upon by other influences—other people and the regular suppressors of life, such as the absence of food, clothing and shelter—this dynamic can become more and more enturbulated until it is headed toward death, or succumb, exactly in the opposite direction.

The dynamic goes toward succumb in the exact ratio that it is enturbulated. It goes toward survival in the exact ratio that it is clean and clear.

That is regarding it as just one dynamic. If we take a look at this dynamic through a magnifying glass, we find that in this one thrust there are actually eight thrusts, or eight dynamics.


First dynamic
The first dynamic is the urge toward existence as one’s self. It is the effort to survive as an individual, to be an individual, to attain the highest level of survival for the longest possible time for self. Here we have individuality expressed fully.

Second dynamic
The second dynamic is the urge toward existence as a future generation. It has two compartments: sex; and the family unit, including the rearing of children.

Third dynamic
The third dynamic is the urge to survive as part of a group, with the individual himself furnishing this motivation. Any group, temporary or permanent, political or social, is part of the third dynamic, and each one is a third dynamic.

Fourth dynamic
The fourth dynamic is survival through man as a species. Whereas the white race would be considered a third dynamic, all the races of man together would be considered the fourth dynamic.

Fifth dynamic
The fifth dynamic is the urge to survive for any and every form of life. These would include all living things, whether animal or vegetable, anything directly and intimately motivated by life. It is the individual’s effort to survive to make life survive.

Sixth dynamic
The sixth dynamic is the urge toward existence as the physical universe. It is the drive of the individual to enhance the survival of all matter, energy, space and time—the component parts of the physical universe which we call MEST. The individual actually has a thrust for the survival of the material universe.

seventh dynamic
The seventh dynamic is the urge toward existence as or of spirits. Anything spiritual, with or without identity, would come under the heading of the seventh dynamic. This is separate from the physical universe and is the source of life itself. Thus there is an effort for the survival of life source.

Eighth dynamic
The eighth dynamic is the urge toward existence as infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being. This can be called the infinity or God dynamic.

Find out how to become happy and prosperous on all of your eight dynamics, as described in this article. Order your copy of The Scientology Handbook today!

 

 
Self-determinism...
The Goal of Man
The Scientology Handbook
 
 

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