What Scn book snagged you?

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For me it was "The Problems of Work", especially the last chapter "The Man Who Succeeds" which I found in pamphlet form on the classroom front table when I was at college (no idea how it got there). My view on it now is more nuanced because I'm more sceptical of LRH's insistence that it was nearly impossible to be overworked; if you want your staff to work upwards of 80 hours a week for little reward, it's convenient to believe that.

I always wondered what others thought of that book. That was one of the easiest books for me, to read. I bought into the whole thing partly because it was so easy to read. That's really weird when you think about it. I don't remember much about it now although as I type some of it is coming back such as "The Cycle of Action". I was just a kid almost. What I didn't understand fully never mattered it seems somehow I faked my way through it all. What I got out of it was some implied attitude of, "Study, and work hard for the leader." And yes, I bought into that as well. I often wondered just how much of that stuff is still controling my way of thinking and acting or looking at the world. Hopefully, not much.

 

[dchoiceisalwaysrs]

DMSMH was the book that I picked out of my best friend's bookshelf a month after finishing high school. I carried it across the country studying it and restudying it and tried to get another high school buddy to read it and co-audit with me. Sure I was the President of the Physics club but..Nope, my friend was going to be a photographer and hire me as his miracle film developer in his lab.

Then I went to college, wanted to study biophysics, oh yes really really grok that 'elan vital' stuff, but it was not available near me, so I took Biochemistry and while in college I went for help to be able to study better. I tried to get the college psychologist or psychiatrist to read it and audit me with the techniques. But nope it was a Rorschach test/discussion bewildered I then blew college because I was not allowed to interrupt the professor so much during lectures..with all my questions. What the fuck good is studying if you can't ask questions like the great men of the Renaissance did. I wasn't just going to have un-inspected opinions be shoved down my throat. I wanted the truth...lol
That was it...I decided I would set up a commune and Clear the planet. Yah know ...fix up the suffering and injustices and inequities that my 8 week mid-high school summer tour of Europe, had shown there was a need for. Hell, if Michelangelo could carve a perhaps 12 foot David and Versailles could be built, then I could use the great techniques proven by the 273 Clears that Physicist and Dr. Hubbard had produced.

.........

37 years later... anonymous arrived...I read every waking hour for weeks... Scientology leaders were psychopathic...and I escaped like I was shot from a Volcano...

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

I always wondered what others thought of that book. That was one of the easiest books for me, to read. I bought into the whole thing partly because it was so easy to read. That's really weird when you think about it. I don't remember much about it now although as I type some of it is coming back such as "The Cycle of Action". I was just a kid almost. What I didn't understand fully never mattered it seems somehow I faked my way through it all. What I got out of it was some implied attitude of, "Study, and work hard for the leader." And yes, I bought into that as well. I often wondered just how much of that stuff is still controling my way of thinking and acting or looking at the world. Hopefully, not much.

Thanks for replying. What appealed to me at the time about that "Man Who Succeeds" chapter was that it released me from most of the guilt I was feeling about not having worked harder on my thesis; with hindsight, I think I might have been mildly depressed. The book also deals with the core Scn concepts of control (start, change and stop and the stable datum), which ecouraged me to believe I could put some order into my environment and life. (38 years later, my desk is still a mess.)

 

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Thanks for replying. What appealed to me at the time about that "Man Who Succeeds" chapter was that it released me from most of the guilt I was feeling about not having worked harder on my thesis; with hindsight, I think I might have been mildly depressed. The book also deals with the core Scn concepts of control (start, change and stop and the stable datum), which ecouraged me to believe I could put some order into my environment and life. (38 years later, my desk is still a mess.)

I forgot about the Stable Datum. Another horrible concept. For most of us, I believe, "Scientology works!", was the Stable Datum we all clung to for so long. The concept of the "Stable Datum" itself was the other Stable Datum we all clung to. It is things like this that I try to discard. I don't want to think like a Scientologist anymore and I have to a large degree succeeded.