My Library

She took me to a Scientology franchise center far uptown in Manhattan -- and which center was composed of the ugliest interiors possible. I remember it clearly. Old dark green wallpaper with large PINK palm trees, the paper torn here and there. The furniture -- well, one could actually find better stuff in the streets in those days. I'm not prissy, but I tended to associate aesthetic conditions with states of mind -- and the center flunked this in all regards. Central, or basic, to Hubbard's thesis was the "reactive mind." This can be described various ways, but I'll do it my way -- since I was ultimately to agree in principal and in details as I still do today. The mind sets up "circuits" based on earlier experiences, and these circuits thence tend to work on automatic and subconsciously. When one encounters future experiences, they are automatically processed through these pre-installed circuits in a "reactive" kind of way. One then is not dealing with the new "present time" experiences, but is being influenced, usually negatively, by the past circuits. The new experiences are stimuli which automatically reactivate the old circuits -- often with deplorable results especially regarding emotions, behavior, intelligence, abilities and other kinds of mind-dynamic activity and often resulting in dire physiological circumstances.