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First use of "mental image picture"?

Chris.O

New Member
I'm trying to track down when exactly the term "mental image picture" entered Scientology. The earliest reference I've found to it is in one of the mid-1954 Phoenix Lectures, specifically a lecture called "Axioms". Does anyone know of an earlier occurrence?
 

Chris.O

New Member
Thanks Mike. Interesting to see that the concept is an older one - another sign, I guess, of Hubbard's plagiarism. However, what I'm looking at is specifically the phrase "mental image picture", which seems to be a uniquely Hubbardian coining. I've not found any usage of that phrase in any source prior to The Phoenix Lectures. The way he uses it is interesting - the concept is mentioned casually and he seems to expect it to be understood, which makes me suspect that he may have coined the phrase before then.
 

Veda

Sponsor
I'm trying to track down when exactly the term "mental image picture" entered Scientology. The earliest reference I've found to it is in one of the mid-1954 Phoenix Lectures, specifically a lecture called "Axioms". Does anyone know of an earlier occurrence?
Just scanning through the now out of print 1968 edition of the book, The Phoenix Lectures.

455079741.0.m.jpg


I see mental image picture used on page 168.

It's used, here, as synonymous with facsimiles.

Mental Image Picture is a redundant term. One would think that Mental Picture would have sufficed, but Hubbard sometimes liked to do things in threes.

The earlier use of term facsimile allowed for numerous avenues of perception, with no particular emphasis on sight (visio), but Hubbard had decided that mental recordings always involved an image, even if the image consisted only of blackness.

The next use of Mental Image Picture can be found in Hubbard's hoax Russian Textbook on Psycho-Politics a.k.a. The Brainwashing Manual, of 1955.

Brainwashing-front.jpg


The Brainwashing Manual has been described as the blueprint for Scientology.
 
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programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
I'm trying to track down when exactly the term "mental image picture" entered Scientology. The earliest reference I've found to it is in one of the mid-1954 Phoenix Lectures, specifically a lecture called "Axioms". Does anyone know of an earlier occurrence?
Why does it matter to find the 1st occurrence of this term in Scientology? Just curious.
 

ThetanExterior

Gold Meritorious Patron
In Child Dianetics (1951), in the Glossary it defines "Engram" as "A mental image picture of an experience containing pain, unconsciousness, and a real or fancied threat to survival".

I don't know if this was in the original book or was added to a later edition.
 

pineapple

Silver Meritorious Patron
Why does it matter to find the 1st occurrence of this term in Scientology? Just curious.
It's a point of scholarly interest. In DMSMH the all-important thing was prenatal engrams, where there was no "visio," since there's nothing to see in the womb; if there was visio it must be dub-in. The emphasis was on the aberrative phrases in engrams, which the foetus can record, though it doesn't understand language. The phrases work like post-hypnotic suggestions. Then in later Dns the picture is the all-important thing, and aberrative phrases are more like a historical feature that's left in, but seldom mentioned. When did LRH decide that "a picture was worth a thousand words"? I think the reason why is pretty obvious: engrams with no picture would be pretty boring. But when? When was the turning point?
 

Chris.O

New Member
It's of significant interest because it helps to pin-point the origins of the Brainwashing Manual. Check out chapter 7, "Anatomy of Stimulus-Response Mechanisms of Man" (see http://www.apfn.org/pdf/The_Brainwashing_Manual.pdf). The concepts it describes appear to be pure, undiluted Scientology doctrine — not Dianetics — and it contains the expression "mental image picture". It's still in modern copies of the manual issued by far-right groups. I've not found any trace of that term appearing in print from anyone prior to Hubbard's July 1954 Phoenix Lectures. I don't think Child Dianetics counts, as that appears to be an addition to a later edition.

So my hypothesis is that the manual could not have been compiled before July 1954, based purely on that evidence. (I know there's other evidence pointing to July 1955 as the time when Hubbard wrote it but I'm trying to work out the earliest it could have been written.) My hypothesis stands up only as long as "mental image picture" doesn't pre-date mid-1954, hence my interest in any earlier occurrences.
 

Veda

Sponsor
It's of significant interest because it helps to pin-point the origins of the Brainwashing Manual. Check out chapter 7, "Anatomy of Stimulus-Response Mechanisms of Man" (see http://www.apfn.org/pdf/The_Brainwashing_Manual.pdf). The concepts it describes appear to be pure, undiluted Scientology doctrine — not Dianetics — and it contains the expression "mental image picture". It's still in modern copies of the manual issued by far-right groups. I've not found any trace of that term appearing in print from anyone prior to Hubbard's July 1954 Phoenix Lectures. I don't think Child Dianetics counts, as that appears to be an addition to a later edition.

So my hypothesis is that the manual could not have been compiled before July 1954, based purely on that evidence. (I know there's other evidence pointing to July 1955 as the time when Hubbard wrote it but I'm trying to work out the earliest it could have been written.) My hypothesis stands up only as long as "mental image picture" doesn't pre-date mid-1954, hence my interest in any earlier occurrences.
Your efforts at untangling the spider web of Hubbard's mischief as manifest in his remarkably successful hoax which he called the Brainwashing Manual will probably not convince those who regard the Brainwashing Manual as an authentic Russian document.

It's been over sixty years and there's yet to appear an edition of the (not copyrighted) Manual that is not peppered with Hubbardisms. This is surprising for a document that is supposed to have originated during the 1930s.

Besides the multiple mentions of Dianetics in the Manual, there's also the use of Hubbardisms such as thinkingness, and both Pain Drug Hypnosis and P.D.H.

Thinkingness appears in Scientology in 1953.

P.D.H. and Pain-Drug Hypnosis appear around 1952.

Perhaps some curious person might search for the use of these terms prior to their appearance in Scientology.
 
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Chris.O

New Member
"Thinkingness" was used well before Hubbard - as far back as 1854, according to Google. PDH can be much more precisely identified. It was coined by Hubbard for Science of Survival in 1951. There are no previous discoverable uses of the term.
 

Veda

Sponsor
"Thinkingness" was used well before Hubbard - as far back as 1854, according to Google. PDH can be much more precisely identified. It was coined by Hubbard for Science of Survival in 1951. There are no previous discoverable uses of the term.
That's interesting.

I don't recall Hubbard using the term P.D.H. in Science of Survival, although I do recall the act of drugging combined with hypnosis being discussed, but I'll take your word for it.

In any event, Pain Drug Hypnosis and P.D.H., if you're looking for a uniquely Hubbardian coining, might be preferable since, as you note, there are no previous discoverable uses of the term, and, apparently, the same cannot be said for thinkingness and mental image picture.

Myself, I find that if someone does not regard as troubling the Manual's numerous references to Dianetics, with sentences such as, "Dianetics is the only entirely American development in the field of the human mind," (and therefore must be smashed to enable the Soviet plan for world dominion to prevail, etc.), and is not concerned that no edition of the Manual can be located in which these multiple references to Dianetics do not appear - except for the 1968 Scientology edition where "Church of Scientology" replaces Dianetics - then that person is not going to respond to anything I have to say.
 

Terril park

Sponsor
That's interesting.

I don't recall Hubbard using the term P.D.H. in Science of Survival, although I do recall the act of drugging combined with hypnosis being discussed, but I'll take your word for it.

In any event, Pain Drug Hypnosis and P.D.H., if you're looking for a uniquely Hubbardian coining, might be preferable since, as you note, there are no previous discoverable uses of the term, and, apparently, the same cannot be said for thinkingness and mental image picture.

Myself, I find that if someone does not regard as troubling the Manual's numerous references to Dianetics, with sentences such as, "Dianetics is the only entirely American development in the field of the human mind," (and therefore must be smashed to enable the Soviet plan for world dominion to prevail, etc.), and is not concerned that no edition of the Manual can be located in which these multiple references to Dianetics do not appear - except for the 1968 Scientology edition where "Church of Scientology" replaces Dianetics - then that person is not going to respond to anything I have to say.
This on a quick glance does not use the term PDH. But its in a related area ,psychopolitics, from the thirties.


https://www.fhu.com/articles/brainwashing1.html

"Preface by Kenneth Goff
From May 2, 1936, to October 10, 1939, I was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, operating under my own name, Kenneth Goff, and also the alias John Keats. In 1939, I voluntarily appeared before the Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., which was chairmanned at that time by Martin Dies, and my testimony can be found in Volume 9 of that year's Congressional Report.
During the period that I was a member of the Communist Party, I attended their school which was located at 113 E. Wells St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and operated under the name Eugene Debs Labor School. Here we were trained in all phases of warfare, both psychological and physical, for the destruction of the Capitalistic society and Christian civilization. In one portion of our studies we went thoroughly into the matter of psychopolitics. This was the art of capturing the minds of a nation through brainwashing and fake mental health -- the subjecting of whole nations of people to the rule of the Kremlin by capturing their minds. We were taught that the degradation of the populace is less inhuman than their destruction by bombs, for to an animal lives only once, any life is sweeter than death. The end of a war is the control of a conquered people. If a people can be conquered in the absence of war, the end of war will have been achieved without the destructions of war. "
 

Veda

Sponsor
This on a quick glance does not use the term PDH. But its in a related area ,psychopolitics, from the thirties.


https://www.fhu.com/articles/brainwashing1.html

"Preface by Kenneth Goff
From May 2, 1936, to October 10, 1939, I was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, operating under my own name, Kenneth Goff, and also the alias John Keats. In 1939, I voluntarily appeared before the Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., which was chairmanned at that time by Martin Dies, and my testimony can be found in Volume 9 of that year's Congressional Report.
During the period that I was a member of the Communist Party, I attended their school which was located at 113 E. Wells St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and operated under the name Eugene Debs Labor School. Here we were trained in all phases of warfare, both psychological and physical, for the destruction of the Capitalistic society and Christian civilization. In one portion of our studies we went thoroughly into the matter of psychopolitics. This was the art of capturing the minds of a nation through brainwashing and fake mental health -- the subjecting of whole nations of people to the rule of the Kremlin by capturing their minds. We were taught that the degradation of the populace is less inhuman than their destruction by bombs, for to an animal lives only once, any life is sweeter than death. The end of a war is the control of a conquered people. If a people can be conquered in the absence of war, the end of war will have been achieved without the destructions of war. "
What you've presented is an incomplete version of the Roy Masters edition of the Manual. Masters wrote an additional Introduction to the Manual in 1991, and even taught classes on the Manual, which he took completely seriously.

Masters' version of the Manual is Goff's 1956 version of Hubbard's 1955 Manual, except that Masters removed "ness" from "thinkingness."

Here's the complete Roy Masters edition of the Manual. It contains both P.D.H and multiple references to Dianetics.

https://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/brainwsh.shtml
 
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cakemaker

Patron Meritorious
Your efforts at untangling the spider web of Hubbard's mischief as manifest in his remarkably successful hoax which he called the Brainwashing Manual will probably not convince those who regard the Brainwashing Manual as an authentic Russian document.

It's been over sixty years and there's yet to appear an edition of the (not copyrighted) Manual that is not peppered with Hubbardisms. This is surprising for a document that is supposed to have originated during the 1930s.

Besides the multiple mentions of Dianetics in the Manual, there's also the use of Hubbardisms such as thinkingness, and both Pain Drug Hypnosis and P.D.H.

Thinkingness appears in Scientology in 1953.

P.D.H. and Pain-Drug Hypnosis appear around 1952.

Perhaps some curious person might search for the use of these terms prior to their appearance in Scientology.
A good thread about the Brainwashing Manual:

http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/black-scientology-the-brainwashing-manual.7883/

RON JR.:
Dad wrote every word of it. Barbara Bryan and my wife typed the manuscript off his dictation. And then we took it up to New York and tried to get them to do a program on it with Charles Collingwood at CBS. Dad also tried to sell it to the FBI. Years later they snuck it into the Library of Congress, and somebody else came by and said, "Oh lookee, it was found in the Library of Congress!" which is a lot of baloney.
Of course, in the book Hubbard plugs Dianetics by having "Beria" mention Dianetics as a key target of "Russian psychopolitics." "Beria" calls Dianetics a threat to "his" program of implementing "Russian" psychopolitical brainwashing techniques to undermine the West.
 

Helena Handbasket

Gold Meritorious Patron
It's a point of scholarly interest. In DMSMH the all-important thing was prenatal engrams, where there was no "visio," since there's nothing to see in the womb; if there was visio it must be dub-in. The emphasis was on the aberrative phrases in engrams, which the foetus can record, though it doesn't understand language. The phrases work like post-hypnotic suggestions. Then in later Dns the picture is the all-important thing, and aberrative phrases are more like a historical feature that's left in, but seldom mentioned. When did LRH decide that "a picture was worth a thousand words"? I think the reason why is pretty obvious: engrams with no picture would be pretty boring. But when? When was the turning point?
There are emotional engrams with feelings but no pictures. These can be a whole lot worse than silly little things like accidents and broken bones.

Then there's the whole track -- engrams from previous lives. No Dianetic auditing is complete if there are major whole-track engrams left in restimulation.


Helena
 

Gib

Crusader
A good thread about the Brainwashing Manual:

http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/black-scientology-the-brainwashing-manual.7883/

RON JR.:
Dad wrote every word of it. Barbara Bryan and my wife typed the manuscript off his dictation. And then we took it up to New York and tried to get them to do a program on it with Charles Collingwood at CBS. Dad also tried to sell it to the FBI. Years later they snuck it into the Library of Congress, and somebody else came by and said, "Oh lookee, it was found in the Library of Congress!" which is a lot of baloney.
Of course, in the book Hubbard plugs Dianetics by having "Beria" mention Dianetics as a key target of "Russian psychopolitics." "Beria" calls Dianetics a threat to "his" program of implementing "Russian" psychopolitical brainwashing techniques to undermine the West.
yep, a good little tread to read. Even Veda posted on it.

IMHO, what Sanborne said and then what Hubbard did to dictate or write the Brainwashing Manual is Hubbard's use of rhetoric as a writer. Afterall Ron said he was first and foremost a writer, except he left out the word rhetoric, LOL.

Anyways, IMHO, the brainwashing manual is the same story or theme or plot as Excalibur. Hubbard said every story has to have a weenie, that means something everybody is after. And of course, the plot with Excalibur was it was so powerful on the secrets of life, that some people jumped out of windows. Similar, we have brainwashing manual, Russians want my Ron technology and will pay me big bucks. Ron rhetorically makes hisself the hero for not working for the Russians, the work was free so keep it so. LOL

The same or similar theme is throughout scientology, the mystery of clear, and the ultimate mystery of the OT levels, where Ron's rhetorical speech just like a President of the USA address to the Union, was RJ67, which you have to listen to on OT3.

Gotta love the recent interview between Aaron and Chait explaing the great mystery of the OT levels which turn out to be not what Ron rhetorically stated they were.

 
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