REALITY AS AGREEMENT

by Frank Gordon, USA

In Another Look at Basics- #10, reality was viewed as a collection of mental maps or models which serve as helpful guides in negotiating one's way through life. Then #11 examined the connections between reality, self-determinism and randomity.

Since Hubbard asserted that reality is basically agreement (1), let's look at some different kinds of agreement.

Mini-realities
As one moves through the day, he meets individuals who are members of groups having shared agreements.

He might meet an alcoholic staggering into a bar (a member of AA), or a Catholic priest reading a breviary (a member of a group striving to avoid hell and gain the delights of heaven).

These groups can vary in size from two to all living beings. A married couple can share their own private ideas about sex, children and what the rules of their marriage are. Two people can also have some odd agreements about life, what the French call folie a deux, or nuttiness for two.

Reality as the Majority
Hubbard stated that reality isn't what you think it is, but what the majority thinks it is. (2)

I have difficulty with this. Consider the following story:

A cute kitten wandered into a Catholic parochial school. One little girl asked, "Is it a boy-cat or a girl-cat?" The teaching nuns were flustered, until a clever boy suggested, "Let's take a vote on it." They did and the majority voted that it was a girl-cat. Later, another boy (a budding scientist, perhaps?) made a private examination of the kitten and found that it was a boy-cat.

Juries can vote on guilt or innocence, and unanimity rules. Majority beliefs have consequences, and so an innocent man can be treated "as-if" he were guilty, and hung.

Reality And Apparency
In Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, 1972; Hubbard states that "REALITY is the way things appear. REALITY IS APPARENCY (3). To do anything about reality one must search into and discover what underlies the APPARENCY...We see an APPARENCY which has the CYCLE OF ACTION OF CREATE-SURVIVE-DESTROY." FOT, p.22.

"Because everyone AGREES that this is the way things are, they go that way. The cycle is not TRUE. It is only apparent. It is APPARENT because we believe we see it. It is APPARENT because we AGREE that it should be so." FOT, p.20.

"More basically this CYCLE OF ACTION contains nothing but CREATION." FOT, p.22.

As distinct from the Apparent Cycle of Action above, he states that "THE ACTUAL (4) CYCLE OF ACTION is as follows: CREATE, create-create-create, create-counter-create, (or) no creation, nothingness."

Thus, as Hubbard uses the term reality; he is referring to an agreed upon apparency, which is not necessarily true about the actual situation.

Levels of Agreement
Implied or informal agreements are not made explicit, and frequently result from imitation or family pressure. For example, most of us when beginning school, are not asked if we wish to go. This is assumed, it's "the way things are done."

Thus the levels of agreement can go from relatively informal, implied or oral agreements, on to the most formal written agreement which is the contract.

The Contract
The Contract is an agreement (5) between two or more persons (or beings) which creates an obligation (6) to do or not to do a particular thing. Its essentials are competent (7) parties, subject matter, a legal consideration (8), mutuality (9) of agreement, and mutuality of obligation.

Using this definition as a starting point, we may view MEST (matter, energy, space, and time; or the physical universe) as a vast, materialized and continuing contract. One which is enforced, negotiated and re-negotiated, fulfilled as promised (10) or not, and includes various penalties for non-performance.

From the standpoint of dependability, consistency of performance, and keeping one's promises; MEST might well be called: "Old Reliable," and be the proper recipient of that ancient accolade: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"

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1 Tech Vol I, p.350: "Reality is agreement; too much agreement under duress brings about the banishment of one's entire consciousness.

2. Reality 4. is not what the individual thinks reality is. Reality is what the majority agrees it is. Tech Dict 1979, p.338.

3. Apparency 2: what appears to be, as distinct from what actually IS. (FOT, p.19)
   Reality 2: is the agreed-upon apparency of existence. (Control & the Mechanics of Start Change Stop p.11).
   Reality 5: the degree of agreement reached by two ends of a communication line. In essence, it is the degree of duplication achieved between Cause and Effect. That which is REAL is REAL simply because it is agreed upon, and for no other reason. (Dn 55!, p.35).
   NOTE: These are from the Tech Dict, 1979.

4. Actual: that which is really true; that which exists despite all apparencies; that which underlies the way things seem to be; the way things really are. (FOT, p.20). Actuality: (Scn Axiom 27) an actuality can exist for one individually, but when it is agreed with by others it can then be said to be a reality (PXL, p.175).

5. Agreement: The act of two or more persons who unite in expressing a mutual and common purpose. (This and the following definitions are from Black's Law Dictionary 1979).

6. Obligation: That which a person is bound to do or forbear...Law or duty binding parties to perform their agreement.

7. Competent means having sufficient ability or authority.

8. Consideration: the inducement to a contract. The cause, motive, price, or impelling influence which induces a contracting party to enter into a contract.

9. Mutuality means that obligation rests on each party to do or permit doing of something in consideration of other party's act or promise; neither party being bound unless both are bound.

10. Promise: A manifestation of intention to act or refrain from acting in a specified way, so made as to justify a promisee in understanding that a commitment has been made.