The Second Dynamic

Sam — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:47:13 +0000

As a Scientologist, I’m still quite impressed with the practicality of my own religion. Take relationships for example; there is a wealth of information in Scientology texts on this subject which, as many of us know anyway, is inseparable from the subject of communication. Scientology describes urges toward survival, called Dynamics, including the first four which are (1) self; (2) sex and the family; (3) groups; and (4) mankind. As I’ve just attended a wedding, congratulated a friend on his recent engagement, and been on a holiday of sorts with my girlfriend, I thought I’d share some wisdom on the Second Dynamic…

In 1981 a book was published by Scientologist writer Cass Pool which sought to bring together Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s written and transcribed material on the subject of the Second Dynamic, including sex, marriage, birth, raising children and more. Here’s a snippet from the first part of that book:

On the Second Dynamic we have a great many more adventures of considerable moment.

If you don’t think a Second Dynamic is adventurous, you should process some fellow on his wedding. The bride is supposed to be nervous, but you will find out this man has been in a state of shock all the years since the wedding. It will turn on terror charges and everything else. It doesn’t matter if he just went up before the Justice of Peace and the Justice simply put his stamp on the form and said, “OK kids, you’re married. Ten bucks, please.” It doesn’t matter how informal this thing was, we have still got a shock case.

That adventure into the very solid Second Dynamic is pretty darn aberrative because he is not accustomed to adventures on the Second Dynamic. When he is walking up and down the hospital hall waiting for the word as to whether he’s a father of twins, triplets or an idiot, he is undergoing a lot of stress.

Son comes home and sets his bag down kind of sheepishly just inside the living room door so he can pick it up and run. Dad is sitting there at the supper table and says, “How are you son? Gee, I didn’t know it was Easter vacation already.” And the son says, “It’s not. I was expelled.” It is an adventure. There is action, action, action on the First and Second Dynamics.

We are talking about more than just a bunch of sensation when we are talking about the Second Dynamic. We are talking about the sexual act, the begetting of children, the holding together and raising of a family and the management of the group these things represent.

We are talking about a lot more than what Freud meant when he said that nasty word that shocked the whole of late Victorian Europe, the “Libido Theory.”—L. Ron Hubbard, April 1966

I think that’s a refreshing look at the subject.

(And on a completely random note, HTML purists will notice my use of tags to provide definitions. I’m sorry. Better than having misunderstood words, I promise.)

Sam Butler » family

The Second Dynamic