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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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Whatever happened to the sperm-ovum sequence?
by Phil Spickler
17 Jul 1998

Back in the almost prehistoric days of Book 1 Dianetics, and in the 
quest for the Holy Grail known as Clear, there was the belief, nay, 
the postulate, nay, the fact, that if you could reach something 
called Basic- Basic, namely the great-great-great-great-grandfather 
of all engrams, and then run this incident to erasure and clean up 
everything that lay upon it, you would indeed be looking at a Clear. 
Some preclears in the quest for Basic- Basic ran into an incident or 
set of incidents that came to be described as the sperm-ovum 
sequence, and for a few of these, at least, this proved to be 
Basic-Basic.  As an aside, the business of going earlier often led 
people into incidents that for all intents and purposes were quite a 
bit earlier than anything having to do with the this-lifetime body -- 
this phenomenon got treated in all kinds of different ways, depending 
on who you were and who was doing the auditing, since prior to the 
publishing of the Dianetic axioms, the 1950 picture was essentially 
this lifetime and four dynamics: not a bad package.  And if it wasn't 
horribly abused by attempting to audit people past enormous wins, 
there were indeed a fair number of people who did, if but 
temporarily, achieve states that looked pretty darned clear.  One of 
the most famous at that time was a chap known as The Minnesota Clear, 
and he exhibited practically all of the attributes that a Clear 
should possess, as described in _Dianetics, the Modern Science of 
Mental Health_.  I kind of lost track of his exploits, but a few 
years later heard that he had become a Catholic priest.  I shall make 
no further comment about him at this time.

But anyway, let's pick up our story at the sperm-ovum sequence and 
look at some of the fascinating aspects that appear with an increased 
understanding of just what this sequence is all about.  As we know, 
Ron Hubbard, in some ways along the same chain as Sigmund Freud, was 
looking for hidden influences that could and did explain much of the 
aberrated behavior of human beings. Is it possible that the 
interaction between sperm and ovum, the two consitutents of the human 
body, could contain pre-programed survival items that might later 
become dramatized by the mature product of such a union?  I'd say the 
answer to that question is "YES."  Just for example, consider the 
life of a single sperm in intense competition with millions of its 
own kind in a desperate struggle to be Number 1.  In the world of the 
sperm, there's no analytical fooling around, there's no 
pan-determined looking out for the welfare of others, there's no 
"After you, my dear Alphonse" -- it's absolute tooth and claw, with 
the whole potential for the survival of the human race built into 
each one  of these individuals, with only one chance to create the 
union that will create the possibility of biological immortality. 
The stakes are pretty high, the goal extremely important, and if you 
can imagine the struggle and then look at some of the characters, 
mostly male, that have been spawned in this world, you may, with a 
great chuckle or even a succession of loud laughs, get the idea of 
what drives some of our most frantic and fanatic historical figures 
into the enormous excesses that their lives display to the rest of 
us.  For a moment let's turn our attention to the ovum.  Here again 
we have one single possibility for this individual to attain 
biological immortality; the ovum in its environment is more or less 
in a passive state, unable to actively influence its position but 
intending with all its heart and soul to reach a point that will be 
most favorable to the consummation of the union.  The ovum cannot 
penetrate the sperm, but must serve itself as a target and intend 
with all its might to be penetrated.  There are of course numerous 
attitudes, emotions, intentions, and postulates built into and around 
this amazing creature that can and do often explain behavioral 
problems in both sexes, just as those of the sperm also can explain 
behavioral problems in both sexes, since once the union of the two 
does occur, all the memories and desperate possibilities that both 
have been through become part and parcel of the product of that union.

It is somewhat laughable, as well as extremely tragic, to see the 
degree to which mature specimens of our biology are driven to make 
the sperm-ovum sequence possible, without perhaps consciously 
realizing that the whole future of the human race depends on this 
sequence, not on Scientology or Dianetics as Ron, without putting his 
tongue into his cheek, claimed in the bulletin "Keeping Scientology 
Working."  Anyhow, in the shaping of individual humans and their 
destiny, most of us don't laugh about and are made uncomfortable by 
being told that the biggest reason for our existence is simply to 
make possible future existence, and that it in large part consists of 
getting these microorganisms into a favorable location for this to 
happen; that we're just a bunch of good-looking seedbearers.  Well, 
we're all fond of thinking there's a lot more to it than that, and I 
would tend to agree that this is the case; howsomever, this seems to 
be a big part of what it's all about, and many of the constructs of 
civilization and the great and various trappings that we clothe our 
actions in come down to this simple basic point of survival.  Does 
this throw out all the ideas about theta and thetans and spiritual 
immortality and high states of conssciousness?  I don't think so, but 
I think you'll agree with me that the influences hidden in this area 
and dramatized by human beings, both sadly and humorously, contribute 
a great deal to the Sturm-und- Drang of life, and certainly can and 
often do make great fools of us.

When Ron Hubbard wrote _Advanced Procedures and Axioms_ and published 
it, this became one of his least popular books, and in one or more 
talks that I heard him make in 1957, in a meeting we were having 
about book sales, he claimed with lots of laughing that one of the 
big reasons that this book never sold very well was that in it he had 
said the basic aberration is to be human, and that an immortal 
consciousness couldn't get any crazier than when it was trying to do 
the only thing it could do, which is survive.  Yes, for an immortal 
consciousness to get on the kick of trying to survive as an immortal 
biological entity could be kind of nuts, don't you think?

Well, join with me in having a good laugh as I quote the lines of an 
early Scientologist by the name of William Shakespeare, whose 
character Puck in _Midsummer Night's Dream_ said, "What fools these 
mortals be!" and enjoy the startling realization that Basic-Basic is 
probably not the sperm-ovum sequence but simply the intention to be 
human.  Thank you for bearing with me in this, my midsummer night's 
dream, and I shall look forward to the silent minority and majority 
of IVy subscribers piping up to set the record straight as I retire 
to my alfalfa farm and count sheep as sleep o'ercomes my soul.  Love, 
Phil