You may have wondered why we have said so little in Scientology about the reactive mind.

That it hasn’t been mentioned lately doesn’t mean everyone changed his ideas and decided it didn’t exist.

In Dianetics the reactive mind was that thinkingness which went on without analytical inspection. The reactive mind was described fully and accurately in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

The whole of Freudian Analysis concerns itself with treating the reactive mind.

Freud called it the Unconscious, amongst other things.

The whole of German (and U.S.) psychology concerns itself with examining the reactive mind.

Only Dianetics laid bare the full anatomy of the reactive mind. That anatomy is concerned with mental image pictures ordinarily unseen by the person which nevertheless dictate his illnesses and responses.

The primary characteristic of the reactive mind is response to a situation without analytical inspection. People react without volition. They do strange things when confronted with stimuli. Offer a man a cup of coffee. He twitches. He doesn’t know why he did. Wink at a girl and she gets an earache. She doesn’t know why she did. This is the reactive mind at work. Think of going for a drive — get tired. Decide to study — get a stomach ache. These are reactive mind actions. And the pity of it is the man didn’t know it was the cup of coffee that made him twitch. The girl didn’t know it was the wink which gave her an earache. Because it is an illogical connection. But that is the stock-in-trade of the reactive mind — everything equals everything.

If you really want to know more about this strange mind you should study Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health thoroughly. It’s enough here to say it still exists and still accounts for all one’s “unaccountable” actions.

Scientology went upstairs from Dianetics into the area of the spirit. But that didn’t mean that all we knew was forgotten. Far from it.

In Scientology we find the source of creation, of good, of evil. We also find the source of the reactive mind.

The spirit is the source of all. You are a spirit. These are the basic lessons of Scientology.

These are heady lessons. They are not easily learned. Man would rather be approached slowly than leapt upon. He shudders away from truth when truth seeks to pinpoint him as the responsible party.

In Scientology we have found that a person can be so far below apathy that he doesn’t know what he is doing. And so he can have a reactive mind.

Clearing in Dianetics consisted of getting rid of the reactive mind by erasing it and learning to handle it. That’s a long task.

Clearing in Scientology consists of discovering the source of the reactive mind itself and making it vanish. That’s a short, fast task.

The basic difference between Dianetics and Scientology is this: Dianetics attacked the reactive mind on a materialistic level. Scientology, amongst other things, attacks the reactive mind on a spiritual level. Scientology works faster, better and more stably than Dianetics ever did.

In clearing, the reactive mind vanishes. That is not the primary Scientology target in clearing but it is a worthwhile one.

Freud’s Unconscious is conquered territory. The German psychologist’s “mind” is conquered territory.

Conquest comes in Clearing. And fast Clearing is done by Scientology.

There are many real proofs of this. A reactive mind can be seen on a lie detector or any skin galvanometer. When it is gone, these machines do not react on the person. And there are other proofs as substantial.

That Scientology has whipped the reactive mind is brand-new news. That the ills of Man can be healed only by an address to the spirit is news. That no materialistic means, no medicines, no treatments by matter permanently heal or cure anything is a demonstrable fact.

In Dianetics it was a large forward step well meriting its acclaim to identify the anatomy of the Freudian subconscious.

In Scientology it is a large forward step again to find that the reactive mind

vanishes before the strong spirit.

And it is another great step now to know that any material means or defense can come to nothing in the end:

The spirit is the source of all creation. You are a spirit.