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Through his extraordinary journey to the founding of Dianetics and Scientology, Ron did just that. From his adventurous youth in a rough-and-tumble American West to his far-flung trek across a still mysterious Asia; from his two-decade search for the essence of life to the triumph of Dianetics and Scientology - such is the story Ron recounts in a lecture so legendary, it has been heard by millions. How could one man discover the source of all human aberration and provide an actual technology by which Man could rise to greater heights of honesty, decency and personal freedom?

It has been bought and sold in a thousand dramas. It has been preached about from every pulpit - debated, contested, condemned and exalted. And with no means to accurately measure or quantify it, the physical sciences either ignored it or denied its very existence. The human soul. Here, then, is a discovery all the more remarkable for being grounded not merely on faith and belief, but on proofs as irrefutable as any in science. Using the most exact tools of thought to isolate the most inexactly understood aspect of a human being, Ron established that there is, indeed, a soul.

To overcome tyranny is to win freedom as a people, a nation or even Mankind. Yet to benefit fully from their liberties, each man and woman must also be free - as individuals. In regard to freedom as a nation, here is the remarkable story of how one man, the Athenian statesman Pericles, envisioned a better future for Mankind - a future free from tyranny. Thus developed a principle at the heart of modern civilization - specifically, that the individual citizen has a right to his own opinions, a right to be heard and a right to know and participate in government.

On the hard-won and cherished liberties of nations depends everything its citizens hold most dear. In affirming the basic decency and upholding the fundamental rights of each individual, Ron provides an embracive understanding that vitally concerns all.

It betrays the brightest hopes of individuals, drives families apart, incites organizational turmoil and pitches nations into chaos. What malignant seed grows in the human mind that not only prevents individuals from "thinking straight," but forces them to act out their irrationalities? Man's failure over many millennia to find the cause of aberration has exacted an incalculable toll in personal unhappiness and ruined lives. But were the answer found, the horizons would be unlimited. Individuals could achieve the lasting success they desire. Families would thrive, united and strong.

Since the deployment of the first atomic weapons, people everywhere have lived with the possibility that everything they hold dear - their lives, their families, their careers, and even the human species itself - could be extinguished in a few moments of devastation. Such consequences would be so overwhelming that, for many, the only defense is a hope it will never happen. Yet as the number of countries with atomic and nuclear weapons has risen and an international black market actively trades nuclear materials, action is likely to prove a far stronger deterrent than hope.

Help pervades every part of life. Yet few people realize the degree to which it determines their survival. For the willingness to give and receive help lies at the foundation of all human reactions and behavior. How does one increase a person’s confidence, improve his ability to communicate with others and heighten his interest in life? The answers all start with help, and they are contained in a series of techniques so effective they can practically “awaken the dead.”

Your mind: It is your constant companion. You live with it 24 hours a day, every day of your life. Yet Man has known practically nothing about how it works. And from marriages that end in divorce to careers that wind up in frustration, from tensions that interfere with work to conflicts that divide nations, virtually every human crisis can be traced to Man's ignorance of the mind. Imagine, then, the potential benefits of finding the answers.

"People ask me these questions: "How did you ever think about Dianetics?" Well, it doesn’t seem to me that it required much more than the cultural question itself - it has been with Man now for perhaps fifty thousand years: ‘What makes Man tick?’ ‘Why does Man act as Man does act?’ These questions are found in the oldest literature we have." (L. Ron Hubbard)

Every human being seeks to know the truth about himself and to resolve to his own satisfaction the mysteries of life. And therefore, for many thousands of years, countless philosophical and religious teachings have sought to enlighten people with answers. But where their practitioners insisted - indeed, demanded - that their answers must be the answers, they blocked the road to greater freedom for millions of people.

When still a young man attending university, Ron observed that those working in the humanities had no training in the exact sciences. Believing that the precision of the scientific method might furnish a solution to the problems of life and livingness, he urged faculty members of the psychology department to apply the principles of physics to the field of the mind. It was an entirely novel approach. And when no one took up the challenge - either then or in later years - Ron undertook the task himself.

From the dawn of time, man has cherished the hope he could achieve a greater freedom. That hope, articulated by the greatest religious leaders across the centuries, has time and again renewed his strength to face the future. But with no practical means to convert hope to reality, the goal of a greater freedom remained, for most, if not all, a distant and unattainable dream. Then, with the onset of the 20th century, came the rapid and unprecedented advance of the physical sciences.

What motivates life? What motivates Man? Those were the questions Ron posed when seeking workable answers to the problems of both the individual and society. After examining the whole of life in its variety and complexity, he isolated a common denominator to all living things - the Dynamic Principle of Existence: Survive! Here was a watershed breakthrough in Man’s understanding of Man.

Today weapons exist powerful enough to annihilate whole nations. And violence has become commonplace, often in disregard of human life. Why has there been such a lessening of moral responsibility and, most important, what can be done about it? In providing the answers to these questions, Ron explores the history of Man's research and investigation in the field of the human spirit.

In a world of unpredictable forces racing headlong toward an uncertain future, how can a single individual control his own fate? How can he safeguard the well-being of his family, the prosperity of his group and the security of his nation? Must he mutely await the next unforeseen blow, which might well signal the end of all dreams and aspirations? Or should he endeavor by whatever means, through whatever plan, to secure the future for those he cherishes and the society in which he lives? Here, then, is Ron's unforgettable answer to such questions.

Here is a story that begins with Ron's immersion in a deeply spiritual, deeply traditional Asia, where he met and befriended - among other savants - the last of the great magicians whose predecessors served in the court of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Yet notwithstanding the feats that testified to remarkable powers, here was a land where wisdom was deemed sacred - so sacred, in fact, these Oriental holy men declined to use their considerable abilities to solve the real and urgent problems of living.

An extraordinary drama played out across thousands of years, man's long search to penetrate the mystery of "the other fellow" - and thereby to know himself - found its expression not only in philosophy and religion, but even in war and conquest. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, the crucial intensity of this quest, its continuing failure down the centuries accumulated ever-deepening problems for man. Hence, in desperation, he eventually abandoned the search entirely - in 1879, to be precise. And into the vacuum of its failure there stepped a new and deadly theory.