CHAPTER 44
ETHICS, MORALITY, AND THE DYNAMICS

Morality consists of trying to do what is good or right by obeying the rules of society or a particular group or a particular code of behavior and conduct.

Ethics, on the other hand, consists of attempting to do what is truly good or right in the absolute sense.

These two often come into conflict.

In the beginning, the being's ethical sense is very high. He desires to associate with other beings and he desires to operate in an optimum manner.

But the being is inexperienced and the games and struggles are fun and gradually he looses sight of what is optimum.

And eventually he decays to the point where he feels the need for some external moral code to help him behave in an optimum manner.

This fails, but he blames the failure on other's immorality, and so he begins to impose his moral codes on others.

This in turn leads to further conflict.

Soon he is fighting to force others to be good and violating his own ethics every step of the way.

And if he goes too far with this, he looses his feeling of community with other beings and thereafter seeks to enslave them.

But people do not stay frozen at the bottom of this pattern. Luckily, it is always possible for us to start over.

And so we shift between three different states of operation.

a) Operating from a sense of ethics. In this case one is unrestrained in a relative sense.

b) Operating from a ridged moral code. In this case one imposes heavy restraints on oneself and others. Here one often suffers from regrets and suffers as well from the side effects of having many withholds.

c) Operating in negation of morality. In this case the surface appearance is of operating without restraints, but the unconscious restraints are greater because deep down one is in conflict with oneself. Here one has few regrets, and the withholds are present but unreal, however one suffers extensively from pulling in motivators for the overts that one has committed.

Obviously, one is better off operating in an ethical manner. But that leaves one with the problem of judging what is optimum. And this raises the question of optimum by what standard?

Let's begin by looking over some potential standards in this area.

44.1 The Dynamics of Survival

Hubbard took the general urge to survive and divided it into 8 dynamics or sphere's of operation. This system of dynamics is used extensively in orthodox Scientology.

Although it is limited by its emphasis on survival (we will be looking beyond it shortly), it is quite valuable in categorizing things and should be learned for that reason.

This pattern has occasionally been used in processes in this book although no attention has been called to it.

Note that there is no true question of survival for an immortal spirit that cannot die. But your participation in the current game at this time does depend on various things beginning with bodily survival.

Note that these dynamics form a widening sphere with the higher ones encompassing the lower ones (in other words, if mankind is destroyed, then the body and family etc. are destroyed as well because they are part of mankind).

These 8 dynamics are:

Dynamic 1: Physical or bodily survival. This includes things like food, sleep, shelter, and the avoidance of illness and injury.

If you only work with this system of 8 dynamics, you will also be tempted to put your own urges towards things such as aesthetics into this first dynamic, but that transcends physical survival and we will leave it for later.

Dynamic 2: Survival through intimate relationships, sex, family, and children.

Dynamic 3: Survival though groups

Dynamic 4: Survival through society, race, and mankind.

Note that orthodox Scientology does not usually mention society here, but the keynote of this dynamic is groups that you are born into and have to come to terms with rather than groups that you enter and leave by choice as in the 3rd dynamic.

- From a science fiction perspective (the spirit having used other body types at various times), one would substitute the appropriate species of which one was a part in place of mankind.

Dynamic 5: Survival through lifeforms. This includes plants and animals and of course includes mankind as well (and alien lifeforms too if they should show up).

Dynamic 6: Survival through the physical universe

Dynamic 7: Survival through thought, theta, or spirits.

This is a bit of a catchall for non-physical things which affect survival.

Factors involving thought or theta are better categorized from a higher perspective than survival and we will be looking at that later.

Actions involving spirits are non-obvious in the current game but may be present and are certainly valid as a category because people think about these things.

Dynamic 8: God or infinity or all of creation

- From the lowest perspective, this includes all things involved in religion and worship. From higher perspectives, it would include contemplation of or operation as a part of a universal mind or an infinite life static or survival through infinite creation.

But again, we are tempted to put things here which extend beyond simple survival.

44.2 A Process on the Dynamics

Before we start examining this further, lets see if we can do a bit of processing in this area.

These are simple repetitive processes.

44.2.1

a) How could your body aid your survival

b) How could you aid your body's survival

44.2.2

a) How could your family or intimate partners aid your survival

b) How could you aid your family or intimate partners' survival

44.2.3

Note that this would include jobs, clubs, informal groups,

or formal organizations.

a) How could groups that you are a part of aid your survival

b) How could you aid the survival of groups that you are a part of

44.2.4

a) How could society aid your survival

b) How could you aid society's survival

44.2.5

a) How could lifeforms aid your survival

b) How could you aid lifeform's survival

44.2.6

a) How could the physical universe aid your survival

b) How could you aid the physical universe's survival

44.2.7

a) How could spirits aid your survival

b) How could you aid spirits' survival

44.2.8

a) How could god or an infinity of creation aid your survival

b) How could you aid god or an infinity of creation's survival

44.3 The Greatest Good

One of the common ethical standards is to operate for the greatest good for the greatest number.

A Scientology reinterpretation of this is to work for the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics. This is an improvement because it broadens one's perspective and helps one to sort out the potential effects that one might create by calling one's attention to various areas.

But both of these have a potential liability in that they involve bean counting.

There might be, let us say, ten people and so one can justify enslaving or sacrificing one of them for the sake of the others. This may get one into trouble and conflict with one's own sense of ethics.

This is not to say that it is a bad standard. One would prefer to feed the many rather than the few. But if it is used as a stiff rule and used to justify one's harmful acts rather than considering it to be a useful guideline and consulting it along with other factors, one will surely do things that one later regrets.

If anything that you have done came to mind, clear it up as a harmful act as discussed in the chapter on overts, motivators, and withholds.

Now run the following process to improve your judgment in this area. Alternate the two commands.

a) think of a situation where making a choice based on the greatest good for the greatest number would lead to an optimum action.

b) think of a situation where making a choice based on the greatest good for the greatest number would lead to an undesirable action.

44.4 The Golden Rule

Now we come to Christ's wise saying.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

This is an excellent rule, but again it can fail due to unthinking and literal minded interpretations.

If one likes fish, it is not that one should inflict it upon another who dislikes fish. Rather, it is to view the effect from their viewpoint instead of inflicting your own viewpoint upon them.

But even an ideal interpretation only addresses one person's relationship to another and ignores the broader effects.

Again, let's see if we can broaden one's judgment.

a) think of a situation where making a choice based on the golden rule would lead to an optimum action.

b) think of a situation where making a choice based on the golden rule would lead to an undesirable action.

44.5 Serving a Higher Purpose

Now we come to a rule which has often been used to justify terrible deeds.

And yet it has its sphere of operation.

When one suffers from fear and weakness, the ideal of serving a higher purpose helps one put aside one's limitations and win success in the face of supposedly inevitable failure.

So let us evaluate this one and see where it is best used.

a) think of a situation where making a choice based on serving a higher purpose would lead to an optimum action.

b) think of a situation where making a choice based on serving a higher purpose would lead to an undesirable action.

44.6 Infinite Creation

My own personal belief is that at the highest levels we are evolving towards participating in a dance of infinite creation.

If we are indeed the fragments or reflections of a godlike nothingness of infinite potential, then the goal would be to balance the nothingness with the projection of an infinity of creation, and to do this consciously rather than being trapped within the creations.

This in turn suggests that there would be another range of dynamics, not oriented towards physical survival but instead oriented towards creation.

Here I will only introduce a possible pattern of higher dynamics which would align with a spirit striving for an infinity of creation. This will be discussed more in a subsequent chapter.

Dynamic 1 (9): Ethics

Dynamic 2 (10): Aesthetics

Dynamic 3 (11): Construction (building things)

Dynamic 4 (12): Reason (mathematics, logic, etc.)

Dynamic 5 (13): Variety (change)

Dynamic 6 (14): Games

Dynamic 7 (15): Understanding

Dynamic 8 (16): Creation

This to some degree forms a pattern which harmonics on the earlier set of survival dynamics. Ethics, as the contemplation of optimum action, for example, would harmonic on bodily survival, and aesthetics would harmonic on love and sexual activity and so on. There is more on this in the Super Scio book.

Note that an infinity of creation would require an infinity of creators and therefore encompasses others as well as oneself.

Although these are really oriented towards a richness of creation, they can be seen in terms of enhancing one's survival as a spirit.

To get a view of this, fit each of the 8 points above into the following process:

a) How could your ____ enhance the survival of others

b) How could others ____ enhance your survival

We will be covering a bit more on this system later, so you can skip this process for now if it seems to unreal.

But you can run the judgment process on each of the above points when you are ready.

Fill in the blanks with each of the 8 items listed above.

a) think of a situation where making a choice based on increasing _____ would lead to an optimum action.

b) think of a situation where making a choice based on increasing _____ would lead to an undesirable action.

44.7 Evaluating Some Basic Ideas

Now look back at the dozen points suggested in the introduction

as being desirable attitudes and things to work towards.

Although these are exceptionally good ideas, nothing works absolutely.

So lets fit each of those into the judgment process and examine them.

a) think of a situation where making a choice based on _____ would lead to an optimum action.

b) think of a situation where making a choice based on _____ would lead to an undesirable action.

44.8 Mocking Up Your Own Standards

Now see if you can think up some other useful standards for optimum behavior and operation.

For each one which you like, fit it into the judgment process above and see where it leads.

44.9 Summary

The end product of this should be the ability to think and judge freely, knowing many useful standards and being capable of evaluating situations for optimum action on a moment to moment basis in present time.