a departure from rational thought or behavior; irrational thought or conduct. It means basically to err, to make mistakes, or more specifically to have fixed ideas which are not true. The word is also used in its scientific sense. It means departure from a straight line. If a line should go from A to B, then if it is aberrated it would go from A to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, to some other point, and finally arrive at B. Taken in this sense, it would also mean the lack of straightness or to see crookedly as, for example, a man sees a horse but thinks he sees an elephant. Aberrated conduct would be wrong conduct, or conduct not supported by reason. Aberration is opposed to sanity, which would be its opposite. From the Latin, aberrare, to wander from; Latin, ab, away, errare, to wander.
give (someone) an acknowledgment, something said or done to inform another that his statement or action has been noted, understood and received.
love, liking or any other emotional attitude; the degree of liking. The basic definition of affinity is the consideration of distance, whether good or bad.
an altered or changed reality of something. See also reality in this glossary.
the condition in which a person views anything exactly as it is, without any distortions or lies, at which moment it vanishes and ceases to exist.
statements of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences.
supported, backed up or confirmed.
(of a law or code of conduct, etc.) acted contrary to, broken or violated.
jump the proper person in a chain of command.
to face without flinching or avoiding. The ability to confront is actually the ability to be there comfortably and perceive.
a document containing the fundamental laws of the United States which was put into effect on March 4, 1789. It establishes the form of the national government and defines the rights and liberties of the American people.
a series of actions or an organized campaign that is evil, dishonest or deliberately harmful.
power of choice; power of decision; ability to decide or determine the course of one’s actions.
the actions an individual takes on himself to correct some conduct or situation in which he is involved which is contrary to the ideals and best interests of his group. It is a personal thing. When one is ethical or “has his ethics in,” it is by his own determinism and is done by himself.
is in direct, forceful opposition to or defiance of.
unyielding, rigid and inflexible, used in reference to rules, standards, customs, etc.
Milton Hershey (1857–1945), American businessman and philanthropist who founded the company that became the world’s largest manufacturer of chocolate products. In 1903 Hershey built a factory in Pennsylvania to manufacture five-cent chocolate bars; the business so prospered that “Hershey” became virtually synonymous with chocolate in the US. In order to maintain his constantly expanding need for reliable workers, he began to build an entire town near the factory, including stores, schools, recreational facilities and a large amusement park. In 1909 he built a trade school for orphan boys. Hershey was often criticized for his paternalism and for running a “company town.”
unnecessarily mysterious or elaborate activity or talk to cover up a deception.
separate oneself from someone, a group, etc., and withdraw from involvement with it.
the attempt to lessen an overt act by explaining how it was not really an overt act. See also overt act in this glossary.
the central or most important point or theme of something.
called “mechanical” as it is defined in terms of distance and position. Mechanical in this sense means interpreting or explaining the phenomena of the universe by referring to causally determined physical forces; mechanistic. Mechanical also applies to “acting or performing like a machine—automatic.” Thus, a Mechanical Definition would be one which defined in terms of space or location such as “the car over by the old oak tree” or “the man who lives in the big house.” Here “the old oak tree” and “the big house” are fixed objects and the unfixed objects (“car,” “man”) are a sort of viewpoint. One has identified things by location.
a word which is not understood or wrongly understood.
an aggressive or destructive act received by the person or part of life. The reason it is called a “motivator” is because it tends to prompt that one pays it back—it “motivates” a new overt act.
a reference to the third of three laws of motion formulated by English scientist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). The law of interaction deals with the forces of action and reaction (the two forces that make up the interaction between two objects): Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.
a harmful act or a transgression against the moral code of a group. An overt act is not just injuring someone or something, it is an act of omission or commission which does the least good for the least number of people or areas of life, or the most harm to the greatest number of people or areas of life.
brought on quickly or abruptly.
that which appears to be. Reality is fundamentally agreement; the degree of agreement reached by people. What we agree to be real is real.
bitterly severe.
Scientology is a practical religion dealing with the study of knowledge, which through application of its technology can bring about desirable changes in the conditions of life. It was developed over a third of a century by L. Ron Hubbard. The term Scientology is taken from the Latin word scio (knowing, in the fullest meaning of the word) and the Greek word logos (study of). Scientology is further defined as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.
a revolving shaft with spiral blades that causes a ship to move by the backward thrust of water; a propeller.
a word used in Scientology to designate any body sensation, illness, pain or discomfort. Soma means “body” in Greek.
demonstrating the worst aspects of human nature such as immorality, selfishness and greed.
also called dwindling spiral, the worse someone (or something) gets, the more capacity they have to get worse. Spiral here refers to a progressive downward movement, marking a relentlessly deteriorating state of affairs, and considered to take the form of a spiral. The term comes from aviation where it is used to describe the phenomenon of a plane descending and spiraling in smaller and smaller circles, as in an accident or feat of expert flying, which if not handled can result in loss of control and a crash.
the methods of application of an art or science as opposed to mere knowledge of the science or art itself. In Scientology, the term technology refers to the methods of application of Scientology principles to improve the functions of the mind and rehabilitate the potentials of the spirit, developed by L. Ron Hubbard.
a society that is technologically advanced to the point of space travel. Techno means technology.
the person himself—not his body or his name, the physical universe, his mind or anything else—it is that which is aware of being aware; the identity which is the individual. The term thetan is the individual. The term thetan was coined to eliminate any possible confusion with older, invalid concepts. It comes from the Greek letter theta which the Greeks used to represent thought or perhaps spirit, to which an n is added to make a noun in the modern style used to create words in engineering.
a person with a guilty conscience sleeps poorly due to worry; a variation of the quote, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” from the play King Henry IV by William Shakespeare (1564–1616), which implies that a person of great responsibilities, such as a king, cannot sleep well as a result of constant worry.
an unspoken, unannounced transgression against a moral code by which a person is bound; an overt act that a person committed that he or she is not talking about. Any withhold comes after an overt act.
a variation of the phrase hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, meaning no one has more fury or wrath than a woman whose love has been rejected, or who thinks her worth or dignity has been insulted, slighted, etc.
define or cause to be defined, using a dictionary, any words not fully understood in the material a person is studying.
the subject and action of clearing away the ignorance, misunderstoods and false definitions of words and barriers to their use.
stubborn in adherence to wrong opinion or principles.