Designated by L. Ron Hubbard as the 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 resume 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.
Contained within are the Conditions of Existence, Eight Dynamics, ARC Triangle, Parts of Man, the full analysis of Life as a Game, and more, including exact processes for individual application of these principles in processing. Here, then, in one book, is the starting point for bringing Scientology to people everywhere.
Customer Reviews:
Extremely InterestingSeptember 23, 2008 0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book basically gives an overview of Scientology principles. Included are some powerful tools I was able to use to improve my life immediately. There are also some ideas presented here that expanded my viewpoint and got me wondering, "Is that possible?"
I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to know more about Scientology or life in general.
Great book!May 13, 2008 7 out of 11 found this review helpful
What's best about this book is the way it's laid out - very simple and practical information a person can use right away and see if Scientology works for themselves.
One very interesting part of the book deals with how life can be viewed as a game, composed of freedom, barriers, and purposes, and somewhere during reading this chapter things just seemed to go "click" and life became a lot simpler for me.
This new edition makes it a lot easier to understand the book with a comprehensive glossary and easy-on-the-eyes layout. I definitely recommend it.
A little esotericApril 13, 2008 6 out of 11 found this review helpful
I bought this book because it was supposed to be one of the first books you might read about Scientology. [...]
Badly explained pseudoscienceMarch 19, 2008 8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is a book that tries to explain some of the basic ideas of Scientology. The main text of the book is only about 120 pages and the rest is a glossary and a list of addresses to Scientology orgs.
The book states that all the ideas in Scientology are scientifially provable, yet no proof is ever offered, even for the most absurd claims (such as that affinity, when low, turn into matter, etc.). I suppose that's one reason it's convenient for this "science" to also call itself a religion, because when asked for proof, they can claim it's a matter of faith.
We're told - as in all Scientology books - that the only reason one fails to understand what one reads is because one went past a word one didn't understand, so you must never do that when reading this book. And it's not an easy read, not because the words are difficult, but simply because most of it doesn't make any sense and it does a rather bad job at trying to make sense of the ideas. But of course, their explanation would be that I just didn't read it carefully enough.
We're also instructed to find some ideas we agree with before studying Scientology further, and told that "those who strike at this work out of some black well of ideological misorientation, some antisocial cravenness, strike at the heart of man" (p.4). In other words, if you disagree with this book, it's because you're an antisocial enemy of mankind. So much for thinking for yourself.
