Marty Rathbun recently posted a couple of ads blog entries (here and here) about a Scientology concept called the “service facsimile.” Translated into English, it’s basically a delusion that people choose over reality.
I’m not going to go into great detail about the “service fac”; rather, I want to simply reprint a couple of paragraphs of the policy that Marty quoted (HCOB 5 Sept 1978 ANATOMY OF A SERVICE FACSIMILE). A quick definition: “Stable datum” is a piece of information considered to be fixed, that puts related information into context.
“How does this stable datum become so fixed? It gets fixed, and more and more firmly as time goes on, by the confusion it is supposed to handle but doesn’t.
“The stable datum was adopted in lieu of inspection. The person ceased to inspect, he fell back from inspecting, he fell back from living. He put the datum there to substitute for his own observation and his own coping with life, and at that moment he started an accumulation of confusion.
“That which is not confronted and inspected tends to persist. Thus in the absence of his own confronting mass collects. The stable datum forbids inspection. It’s an automatic solution. It’s ‘safe.’ It solves everything. He no longer has to inspect to solve, so he never anises [sic] the mass. He gets caught in the middle of the mass. And it collects more and more confusion and his ability to inspect becomes less and less. The more he isn’t confronting, the less he can confront. This becomes a dwindling spiral.
“So the thing he has adopted to handle his environment for him is the thing which reduces his ability to handle his environment.” — LRH
That may well be the best summary of Scientology I have ever read.
ML,
Caliwog
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