A Service Computation is a type of consideration or fixed idea the individual holds onto firmly which is of service to him. Let us define and explain:

Definitions:
Service:  The action of giving assistance or support to. A way of providing a person with the use of something. Work done. Duty performed.

Examples: A butler is of service to the master. An accountant provides a service by keeping the accounts straight. A lawyer performs a service by defending his client in court.

Compute: To determine the outcome of something by a calculation or thought process.

Computation:  1. The act, process or method of computing. 2. The result of computing. 3. A calculation.

Examples: "If I work hard I'll succeed". "If you eat your vitamins you'll grow up healthy". 
"2+2 = 4". "Real estate owners get rich, so I should own some real estate".

Analytical computations are useful.

The type of computations we are interested in on Grade 4 are the "stupid ones". They have their own technical definition:

Computation (technical definition): That aberrated fixed idea that one must be in a certain state in order to succeed. The computation may thus state: "I must entertain in order to be alive" or "I must be dignified in order to succeed" or "I must own much in order to live". A computation is simply stated. It is always aberrated. A computation is troublesome because it apparently tells the individual how to survive. All computations are non-survival. Computations are held in place wholly to invalidate others.

Other Examples: "If I have a shiny car people will respect me". "If I cry and whine my mother will feel sorry". "If only I know the tax laws in and out I will succeed". 

A Service Computation: Is a type of computation held by the person himself (not the Bank). It is designed to make self right and others wrong. Or to dominate others or escape domination. It is designed to increase or enhance the person's own survival and injure the survival of others.

Examples: "People help whiners". "If I scream and yell I'll win". "If I'm invisible I'll survive". "Flashy people succeed". "Crime is ok if you can get away with it". "I'll just bully others so I get what I want".

A Service Computation is a computation, not a doingness, beingness or havingness. In most of Ron Hubbard's writings it is called a "Service Facsimile" but it is clearly defined as a computation on Grade 4. Thus we will use the term Service Computation here on Level 4 to make it easier to communicate to students and pc's.

It is a computation that the pc adopted in a dangerous situation, when he felt threatened by something and could not cope with it. Instead he blocked it off. It is called a Service Computation because he uses it; it is "of service" to him.

Aberration and Survival
Any aberration on any subject has been of some use to the person having it at some time or other. When you trace it back you will run into it. At some time it was of some use. It was good camouflage. An illness or injury made him noticed by somebody and he received tender care. 

People felt sorry for the guy and spared his life. People feared his rage and outbursts and let him have his way. There are many other possibilities. But at some point it was of use, or he wouldn't keep on holding on to it. But if you look at it in his present environment, if you look at it in the light of survival, you will find it is very non-survival. This is basically true for any type of aberration you run into on a case. Usually he will just realize this in routine auditing. You take him down some Chain and suddenly he will cognite and the whole thing will As-is. "Oh, I was trying to be motionless so the killers wouldn't see me! Ha, ha, ha... That's why I am motionless when I am facing the boss!" The whole subject usually blows right there.

 There are however certain aberrations that has become so "dear and useful" to him so he just won't let go. You can offer him a million bucks or immortality. The answer is still "No, I think I'll hang onto this a little longer". To let go of it would to him mean that he would be buried in a complete confusion and be wiped out.

The pc picked them up  because he couldn't stand the confusion in some situation, so he found a safe solution. A safe solution is always adopted as a protection against the environment and its negative influences. He adopted a safe solution in a dangerous situation and he survived. His safe solution became his stable datum. He has held onto it ever since. It is the computation, the fixed idea, he uses to handle life with, his Service Computation. There can be many such computations on a case. But some of them are more dear and considered an absolute necessity by him to his continued existence.

The Thetan and Ideas
An idea is the 'thing' most natural to represent a thetan. An idea as such doesn't have any mass. And it appears to have some wisdom in it so it's very easily put in the place of a thetan. Thus the idea, the stable datum he has adopted, is substituted for himself as a thetan. A thetan is capable of observations and of changing his mind. An idea is not. It is at best a bright light in the dark. It makes you understand something. At its worst it prevents you from looking, evaluating and understanding. That's a fixed idea, a prejudice, a haste to judgment, a jump to conclusions. "Who needs to look - all dogs are vicious ands should be shot."

How does this stable datum become a fixed idea? It gets fixed, and more and more firmly put in place as time goes on, by the confusion it is supposed to handle but doesn't. It accumulates so many incidents of meeting dogs, of shooting dogs, of chasing dogs and being chased by dogs; it really gets fixed. It gets buried under these long Chains of incidents of Overts, motivators, ARC breaks, and problems, and so on.

Just take a look at clashes between population groups and races. If you take a look at racially charged periods in history and  around the world you will find people ready to kill or die for such fixed ideas on a larger third dynamic and fourth dynamic scale.
 

The stable datum was put in place so the person didn't have to observe directly and put himself at risk. The person ceased to inspect; he withdrew from inspecting; he withdrew from living. He put the datum there as a substitute for his own direct observation and his own understanding and coping with life. At that moment he started to build up a confusion. It became the barrier in the stream that all kinds of stuff would hang onto and build up around - the dam that kept the water and junk in place and prevented a flooding.

That which is not confronted and inspected tends to persist. Thus in the absence of his own confronting mental mass piles up. (You can actually observe this on a Meter as the Tone Arm will go up when you get into such an area. The rising TA indicates mass is being restimulated). This stable datum forbids inspection. It's an automatic solution, a haste to judgment, a prejudice. It is 'safe'. It solves everything. He no longer has to inspect to solve, so he never As-is-es the mass. He gets caught in the middle of the mass. And it collects more and more incidents and confusions and his ability to observe and inspect becomes less and less. The more he isn't confronting, the less he can confront. This becomes a dwindling spiral.

So the thing the individual has adopted to handle his environment for him is the thing which reduces his ability to handle his environment. You have to be able to observe and confront to handle something. But now the "safe solution" is in place so he doesn't have to do that.

A lot of these solutions will blow in routine auditing. But those aberrated ideas and fixed solutions which seem to resist and persist despite any number of approaches are rooted deeply in this mechanism. These things are not beingnesses, doingnesses or havingnesses. They are the Service Computations behind that generate them. 

So a Service Computation can be behind a compulsive doingness such as having to clean all the time. It could be, "Only people with clean homes succeed", which would be the computation behind. This could also lead to choice of profession, such as janitor (which is a beingness). The havingness could be a spotless home.

We want however the computations here. So we have to use a different approach. We have to find the ideas and computations directly that are so fixed. Pull the fixed idea itself and you will free the individual up to be able to look and inspect and As-is all kinds of things. He will cognite on the obsessive and compulsive beingnesses (such as valences), doingnesses (such as compulsions and destructive fights) and havingesses (such as junk or possessions that really do him in).  When that happens all the built up mass and confusion will suddenly have been unstuck. The barrier in the stream has been removed; the dam has been broken; and now all the built up water, the clutter and junk are going downstream fast.

In Service Computation handling you will see these phenomena as Tone Arm action.  When the fixed idea has been pulled the confusion, which had been piling up and dammed up for so long, is now running off.

Right/Wrong and Survival
Right and wrong are the markers of survival. In order to survive you have to be right. There is of course an analytical way to be right about something. There is nothing wrong in seeking to do the right thing, be the right way or have the right things for survival and recognize when this is the case. There certainly is a level where true rightness is analytical.

But at some point this gets abandoned. The individual gets caught up in being, doing or having the right things but not willing to admit that this is not the case all the time. The rightness and wrongness has ceased to be analytical or make sense. When it drops below that point it's aberration.

At some point you slide down from survive to succumb. You are not engaged in survival anymore, but in being right. That is the beginning of succumb. The moment one becomes worried about his own survival he enters into the practice to dominate in order to survive.

It goes this way: it starts with insisting upon survival, followed by the need to dominate, followed then by the need to "be right". These postulates, following upon each other, are going downhill. So you have now gotten an aberrated rightness or wrongness. The game of domination consists of making the other guy wrong in order for self to be right. That is how the Service Computation works and reacts.

The reason the Service Computation isn't rational is because the way the Bank 'thinks'. If the individual is surviving he must be right.  You have reactive thing, the A=A=A type of thinking, along this line. To survive is to be right. To be right is to survive. To be wrong is to succumb. People will defend the most fantastic wrongnesses on the basis they are being right. To admit they are wrong is to admit to succumb.

In the present and at any point along the track, the fellow is trying to be right, trying to be right, trying to be right. Whatever he's doing he's trying to be right. In order to survive you have to be right more than you're wrong so you get the obsession to be right in order to survive. 

But there is a lie in this - because a thetan can't do anything else but survive. He is an immortal spirit and as such above succumb and survive. He can identify himself with the body so closely so he is convinced he can't survive. He can identify himself with his possessions and creations which are all part of this universe and can be wiped out and destroyed. But as far as the thetan himself goes it is a lie. He is being caught up in the game to an extent where he takes these losses completely personal.

It isn't that trying to be right is wrong - it's obsessively being right about something that's doing him in. That's when the individual is no longer able to select his own course of action or behavior. When he is obsessively following a course of behavior which he refuses to inspect or change in order to be right.

There is nothing sane about a Service Computation, there is no good sense to it. The computation does not fit the incident or event occurring. It simply enforces or prevents perception. It destroys freedom of choice, the ability to be happy or normal or active; it destroys his power.

In the zone or area to which he applies a Service Computation you'll see the individual follow a dwindling spiral. But the irony is that he himself is putting it in place and holding on to it and enforcing it to happen.

The intention to be right is the strongest intention in the universe. Above that you have the effort to dominate and above that you have the effort to survive. These things are strong. But when we say intention we're talking about a mental activity. A thinking activity. An intentional activity.

Survival actually just happens, whether you intend it or not. Domination - that will just happens in certain situations. Those are not necessarily intended things. But you get down along the level of intended  things and there you find right-wrong at the top. That is the strongest intention in the universe.

A Service Computation is always an aberrated solution. It always exists right here and now and he applies it on his environment. He's doing it. It's his solution. Overwhelmed as he is by it, he is still doing it. It's aberrated because it's an uninspected solution. And it is something that everyone else is telling the pc is wrong,  but that just causes him to insist that he is right. It was the perfect solution when he first got hold of it. But now it runs his life; it's living his life for him. And it doesn't even vaguely begin to take care of his life.

That is the anatomy of the Service Computation.

You are going to find these on any pc you audit. A Service Computation is the clue, the key to a pc's case. The route to succumb which he blindly asserts is his route to survival. And every pc has more than one of these.

Fortunately, we have the tech to get him out of the mess.

A Service Computation is closely related to evil intentions.
We have for a while known what that looks like on the Meter. The needle phenomena called a Rock Slam (R/S) is a wild slashing back and forth of the needle. This needle behavior indicates an evil, destructive intention on the case is in restimulation.

When you understand the anatomy of Service Computations and the right-wrong, dominate and survive computations that go into this it becomes obvious that this has to do with evil intentions. Also, you have to understand that an R/S always means a hidden, evil intention - the total reason for an R/S is the intention to make wrong. In order to get someone else to succumb they have to be made wrong.

When the Service Computation was first adopted it was absolutely right. Then it became a method of survival, and after that it was a method of dominating, and then it was a method of being right in order to make others wrong.

And during all that the person piled up enough Overts so that the communication line got switched around completely. What was right about it is now wrong about it; and what was once wrong is now right. You see that is a 180 degrees turn-around.  This is due to the Bank think of A=A=A. Here rightness becomes wrongness. Overts and Withholds are committed due to these fixed ideas and get piled up on top of this Service Computation.

A Service Computation isn't a facsimile in the Bank. But the guy himself keeps Bank facsimiles in restimulation because he "knows what's best". The computation will keep selected masses and facsimiles in the Bank in chronic restimulation. It can result in a 'bad temper' including high blood pressure and alcoholic tendencies; it can be an illness that needs constant medical care; the appearance of being wise, including long bird and strong glasses and being absent minded; or being tougher than anybody else, including be a body building fanatic and loving war movies. Incidents and facsimiles supporting these traits can all be found in the Banks of these individuals. Special traits can all be traced back to incidents and facsimiles in the Bank. But these incidents are intentionally being kept in restimulation. It is the being himself who does this. He is putting the fixed idea there; the fixed idea keeps the pot boiling - not the Bank by itself.

Normally we see aberration in the individual as a dramatization. That means the individual is unknowingly acting out the content of some incident or part of his Bank. He is at the effect point of his Bank. But when we are talking about Service Computations something else is happening. The individual digs up  things from his Bank in order to make somebody else wrong. 

It's somewhat like somebody suing for damages, pain and suffering after a minor traffic accident. There is no end to the complaints he and his lawyer can squeeze out of the accident. Any little bruise or discomfort is held on to and being documented so it can be used. A stomp of a toe is made into a life ruining event. An unrelated bump of the head had to be caused by the accident. In other words, with a Service Computation at work it's intended to keep all these things alive and restimulated and blame it on somebody else in order to make them wrong and responsible for it.

The intention is to be right and make others wrong, to dominate others and escape domination for self, to aid own survival and hinder the survival of others. That is the Service Computation - a close relative to the hidden, evil intention that is behind the Rock Slam.

This does not mean you will see Rock Slams in connection with every Service Computation you run. You also have to understand that an evil purpose and a Service Computation are two distinctly different things - each with their own definition. They are related - that's all we are pointing out. But if you in general auditing run into a Rock Slam you should be aware of, that you have run into an area of a heavy aberration. You have located a key point that keeps a case aberrated. You may find an evil purpose or a non-survival Service Computation. Make good notes of any purposes or computations the pc expresses in an area that R/S'es. Service Computations can be hard to catch in general auditing but a smart auditor can catch a few of them on such occasions. He may even fish around a bit if it doesn't interfere with the process too much (such as in confessional auditing). If he makes good notes, circles it and marks it in the Folder Summary it can be handled at a later time. The least he should do is to make full notes of the pc's statements and on what subject and auditor's exact questions so this can be checked out carefully later. Because this is a key area to address and  take apart in order to handle pc's aberrations. (The auditor would of course not Q&A with the R/S by trying to handle right away. He carries on with what he is doing  after handling the 'origination' (TR-4), but he keeps excellent notes).

Rock slams means 'evil intent or computation'. But Rock Slams are not the only Meter phenomena connected with Service Computations. A rising TA can be caused by that as well. A rising TA means "non confront". Here are some early observations concerning that:

An R/S (to return to that subject) does not mean, that you should condemn a pc. The R/S means an evil intention or evil computation is in restimulation on the case. It is something to investigate. The real proof would be in the person's performance and production record. So don't fear Rock Slams or 'Rock Slammers'. Only fear somebody dramatizing evil intentions in his or her behavior rather constantly.

But what you should suspect, when you see an R/S on an individual, is that he may be consumed by an evil intention which he himself is generating in that instant. In its purest form this phenomenon means, that the area in which the pc is R/Sing, is an area he only wishes to cause harm to.  In such a case he will go to great lengths and by many hidden back-roads to carry out his evil intention in a covert way as to not be caught or suspected.

What is causing the R/S is the evil intention itself. The evil intention is not closely attached to terminals. The evil intention can be associated with many terminals. The individual is looking for a range of targets to destroy with his gun, you could say. The gun being the evil intention.

When the R/S is in restimulation it dominates the individual. He has been overwhelmed by it. In that area he has no freedom of choice. The evil intention can consume him and make him act very irrational.

The Service Computation forbids inspection - including inspection of its own existence. That's why it does not respond to ordinary auditing. But when addressed at the right-wrong level the pc gives it up easily because it triggers its very reason for being. In that area the pc has no power of choice.

Numerous Service Computations
When handling Service Computations you will soon realize that you are not just dealing with one computation. You will find many Service Computations which then add up to the big one.

It is also finding what the pc had done with the Service Computations to make others wrong which is important, not just finding them. That is why the most effective processing includes Engram running. When you find all the major computations and run them out this way you are likely to get a complete character change.

So by using Engram running, when possible,  we have a more thorough method of handling Service Computations than ever before - we also have a more reliable route to the handling of  R/Ses.

You will actually see several Service Computations come off and run well and you may believe you have gotten to the bottom of things. But all these contacted computations are actually covering the central Service Computation that is in restimulation and in use in present time. As you get these lesser Service Computations out of the way the central one will come to view.

On the first ones you find the most you can hope for is that you found something that blew the TA down and moved you closer to finding the main Service Computation. So you take each of them and run them.

If you've found a valid Service Computation the needle will become looser and the TA will be in reasonable range. You would take it in the Brackets right-wrong dominate-escape domination and so on (see below for exact procedure). The pc will run off the automatic answers. But you should suspect that you will have to find and run several such computations before THE central computation on the case comes into view.  You actually have to unburden the central computation on the case, but by doing so you are already beginning to reverse the dwindling spiral the pc has been following. You are restoring the individual's ability to handle his environment because he is now seeing it, he is now beginning to confront it.

It can also happen, that you found something that isn't really a Service Computation - yet it was still the pc's item to a valid L&N question. It could be a beingness, a doingness or a havingness and not a computation. The way you would really find out (without evaluation or invalidation) is, that it does not run in the right-wrong, dominate, survive Brackets. In such a case you have a reading item but obviously not a Service Computation. Per the procedure below you simply Prep-check such items to get the charge off and get an EP. It will help you in unburdening the central Service Computation all the same.

The central Service Computation is what you ultimately want. Not until you have pulled the main Service Computation out by its roots are you done. By doing so you have returned him to sanity. He is now able to inspect; he no longer needs a "safe solution."

It is the most dangerous thing in the world to have a "safe solution". People can do the most terrible crimes because of that or they can die from it. Any sanity can go down the drain with it.