The ancient Hindu Rishis, or sages, were onto something when they referred to the activities of the world as the "Play of the Mother," the Mother being the creatrix of the universe. She is said to laugh at the sport even when it becomes what to us may seem cruel and tragic, and the reason is that She knows that even those who are killed in the game do not really die, and that the apparent grimness of the proceedings is but a temporary condition, about as catastrophic as that which occurs when the opposing team scores a touchdown. Or, to be more precise, as catastrophic as such a touchdown would appear to a spectator who had attended both schools and was, therefore, not cheering for either team.
Scientology agrees that life is a game, or rather, it consists of many games, and we can be quite detached about those games in which we are not involved. If we were not involved in life, we could be detached about all the games. But games are essential to our well-being,
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or else we would not play them. Certainly there is a lot of discomfort and even pain and sorrow attached to the playing of games. We skin our legs sliding into second base, we get rapped in the shins with a hockey stick, we are sad when an opponent checkmates the king, and we can be devastated when one of our investments turns out badly. But we feel impelled to play them for four very good reasons: interest, contest, activity, and possession. So says Scientology, inviting us to notice the similarity between games and life itself.
A game is a contest between individuals or teams. It has three factors: freedom, barriers, and purposes. The last of these requires the least explanation. Everyone can understand the purpose of a game; it is to outscore the opponent and win. If there were no possibility for either opponent to win, there would be a no-game. Since the purposes of the opponents are at war, problems are created, and all problems consist of purpose-counter-purpose, as we saw in the last chapter.
Freedom can never be absolute. Those who lead great crusades for freedom speak of absolute freedom, but absolute freedom is the father of failure. It is a no-game condition.
Barriers can never be total. We have seen attempts to create societies in which the barriers, while not total, have far outweighed the freedoms, and these either have failed or are in the process of failing. The slave-holder is enslaved by the slavery he has imposed. The dictator is the pawn of his own dictates. Total barriers also provide a no-game condition.
Freedom and barriers must exist side by side. And
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they must balance each other. Only the Utopians try to tip the balance in favor of total freedom. Only the fearful try to tip it in favor of total barriers. Freedom can only exist when there are barriers to limit it, and when those barriers are known. Laws are barriers, and without laws the resulting total freedom would end in chaos and finally in the imposition of total barriers. But the laws must be set down in advance so that the players, the citizens, may know what it is they cannot do. It is the same in a game: the rules must be known in advance of the game, so that the contestants may know what they are free to do and what they are barred from doing.
There are barriers in the physical universe, those so-called "natural laws" that limit actions. We may not like gravity when our purpose is to land a man on the moon, but without gravity we could not live on earth at all. We may not like friction when we find our automobiles wearing out, but without friction those same automobiles could not move down the street. We may not like time when there is much to do and so little time in which to do it, but without time there would be no motion and, therefore, no action. We would not be able to do anything. It is the barriers that make our essential freedoms possible. It is freedom that makes the barriers bearable.
The easiest sort of nation to enslave is the one that thinks only in terms of freedom. Such a nation will look upon barriers as evil, and no leader will dare to impose any. In fact, the whole trend will be in the direction of removing barriers, or laws, and so the barriers will be
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diminished, although that is only the temporary and apparent trend, since with the destruction of barriers will come the disappearance of order. When order vanishes, no man is free, for there can be no freedom in a dog-eat-dog society. And it is at this point that the people begin to look for a saviour who will promise the return of order - that is, the reimposition of the barriers - and soon the balance will have tipped the other way, and the people will be longing for freedom again. Those who howl their silly chant of "Shut it down" on the campuses of colleges and universities may some day wish that they had accepted instead the education that the taxpayers were once willing to provide for them.
Before proceeding any further with the subject of games, we must first make a slight detour by way of the dynamics of Scientology. You will remember that there were four dynamics in Dianetics; since then, four more have been postulated, and the original four have been somewhat refined, although their essential purport has not been changed. The eight dynamics are: (1) The urge toward existence as the self; the Self Dynamic. (2) The urge toward existence through sex, including both the act of procreation and the preservation of the family; the Sex Dynamic. (3) The urge toward existence as part of a group; the Group Dynamic. (4) The urge toward existence as part of mankind; the Mankind Dynamic. (5) The urge toward existence as part of the animal kingdom; the Animal Dynamic. (6) The urge toward existence as a part of the physical universe; the Universe Dynamic. (7) The urge toward existence as a part of the spiritual universe; the Spiritual Dynamic.
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(8) The urge toward existence as a part of Infinity, or the Supreme Being; the Infinity, or God, Dynamic.
Scientology deals with the first seven of these as known conditions, leaving the eighth to be individually discovered by someone who has expanded fully into the first seven. The process is one of expansion from dynamic to dynamic. The new-born infant operates only within the first dynamic and does not reach out beyond his own self until he finds his place as a member of the family. As he begins to participate in sports, joins a club, or in some other way becomes part of a group, working for the well-being of that group, he expands into the third dynamic. And so it goes; that is, it goes that way if he is relatively free of serious aberrations, for there are those who never get beyond the first dynamic.
And so to return to games. Football, baseball, wars, etc., are engaged in by those operating for the time of the game on the third dynamic, that is, the group dynamic. At times, the dynamics may be combined to oppose others of the dynamics; that is, the self dynamic can join with the group dynamic to play a game in opposition to the universe dynamic, as in distant space travel.
Each individual is constantly engaged in several games, and it behooves him to learn which of the dynamics are on his side in any particular game and which are opposed. If he confines himself to playing on the first dynamic, he must eventually lose, since some combination of any of the other six will be arrayed against him and he will be outnumbered. Playing on the first
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dynamic alone is called self-determinism and it can only win with any degree of regularity when it is employed in playing against another who is self-determined, as in tennis singles or chess. There is also pan-determinism, wherein one can play both sides of a game, as some chess masters do, playing both sides of the board in order to work out some new strategy.
A judge must be pan-determined in hearing a case at law if he is to arrive at an equitable decision between the contending parties. But he will become self-determined on Saturday afternoon when he hacks it out with his family physician on the golf course. In the first instance, the judge is larger than the game, since he is properly pan-determined, for it is his duty to play both sides of that particular game. In the second instance, the game is larger than he, which does not mean that he cannot win it, but only that he cannot play both sides. If the judge were to come to prominence, attaining a position that would enable him to assume the dictatorship of his country, the game would become even larger, and as he tried to be pan-determined concerning the multitude of games involved in the running of a nation, he would fall far short of the mark. He might manage the ability to be pan-determined regarding two parties to a law suit, but not regarding two hundred million citizens of his country. In the first case he was capable of displaying a commendable impartiality, but in the second impartiality is well-nigh impossible. If he is drawn into siding with one or another of the factions in his government, he will lose pan-determinism over the others, and his enemies, operating on the first and third dynamics and
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possibly even the fourth, will sooner or later topple him to defeat.
Pan-determinism, when aberrant, seeks to control everyone else; when not aberrant, it properly determines the two sides of a game. Our mythical judge was not aberrant when he presided over his court, but he was aberrant when he tried to control his whole country.
There is still one more important factor having to do with games and life, and that is the matter of choice. Sometimes one is made to play games in which one does not want to become engaged, such games as that of fighting in a war, paying high income taxes, or enacting the role of the victim of a holdup man. If he is forced to play in too many games not of his own choosing, he will either permit himself to be swept into a state of false pan-determinism or fall into apathy.
One's ability to play the game of life well depends, then, on one's acceptance of both freedom and barriers, a good understanding of the purposes involved, both one's own and others', and one's power to choose whether or not to play.
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