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The following first appeared in the private email list IVy-subscribers,
which is available to all those who subscribe to the
printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
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Just a little more about Service Facsimiles
by Phil Spickler
29 Feb 00

          Having finally realized that Ron Hubbard didn't discover the Service
Facsimile, but actually invented it, and that there was never anything like
that going on in human dynamics (just kidding), I shall briefly attempt in
this poem to say a few more words about this very fun subject.

       It has, since 1951, been a lot of fun to listen to and observe other
people's and groups' service facsimiles; and before people took their "cases"
so seriously, it was not considered bad manners, or even horribly evaluative
or invalidative, among us early Dianeticists to point out one another's
service facs.  And if someone did get all wrought up over such a thing, you
could give them a session on it, or they could give you a session, and end up
with a lot of laughter and insight as a result.

        I think the fundamental thing about the whole idea of service facs and
the idea that made what Hubbard had to say about them so unpopular, was that
the service fac is put in place by the guy's own self-determinism, his
conscious self-determinism; and I've yet to find anybody that gets happy when
you tell them that they have aberrated themselves.  Talk about a game-spoiler
and something that's really bad for business!  Nevertheless, there is that
vital point in time before the things that the guy uses to disable himself
come into restimulation when postulates or decisions or whatever get made
that make the whole service facsimile idea possible.

        The idea is also, and much more early on the time track, found as a
basic premise of Buddhism, in which Buddha was alleged to have said (and here
I must paraphrase, since I think I was dozing 2500 years ago when he said
what follows), namely, it is by our own hand that we are goofed up, and it is
by our own hand that we are elevated to the highest of enlightenments.

         So Ron, who had a valence that always thought it really was the
Buddha, Siddhartha, that is -- that Buddha -- was simply stating in 1951, in
his little book called _Advanced Procedures and Axioms_, that very selfsame
idea, which is to say, the guy is aberrated and disabled and goofed up by his
own self-determinism; and that if you can get him to spot tha point where he
so decided to be crazy, sick or what have you, he could change his mind about
that, and that would be the end of that service facsimile.

       And yes, that's never been a very popular idea.  People like to feel
that they and their fellows got screwed up by something outside of
themselves.  Dianeticists and early Scientologists used to laugh at such
ideas, but as time-and-a half has gone by it has certainly become popular
again to presume that the condition of folks, and Earth in general, is in the
hands of forces outside of ourselves, which has now put us on a par with all
the so-called primitive tribes that often have the amusing habit of
subscribing natural phenomena and events in their personal lives to forces
far outside their own control, forces that you must at some time come to
worship and obey and placate.

       Anyhow, Ron Hubbard's most basic of all basic service facsimiles, like
it or not, is the decision to be human.  And of course, once that decision is
made, you get to experience all things human -- Life, Death, sickness,
health, sanity, insanity, and the list goes on and on of all the amazing and
wonderful things that being human makes it possible to experience.

         Being human has got a bad name, mostly by people who don't want to
take responsibility for deciding to be human and have started feeling too
wounded by the state to have any further enjoyment or plseasure in it.  This
is really too bad, but auditing was invented and still exists to help such
folks to get back to the enjoyment that comes from the decision to be human.
It's also the fastest shortcut on Earth to a full appreciation of the
immortality that lies behind human, although I recommend not moving too far
in that direction, unless a whole lot of nothing really appeals to you.

         Anyhow, an immortal that assumes the valence of a human has now got
his or her hands on something invaluable, which is to say the best excuse or
chain of excuses ever to be found in any universe for failure.  And that's
something that immortals treasure, because when they're being immortals they
just don't have any excuses at all -- in fact, they don't have anything.

        Well, that's enough of this bedtime story for now.  There's still some
funny things to be said about service facsimiles that Ron came up with over
the years in an effort to help those that have eyes but cannot see have some
fun with the idea.  And so, until later, I remain, a pleasant/unpleasant
reminder, signpost, on the road to anywhere/nowhere.

        All the best/worst,
          Phil