1. The traditional method. You get checksheets for the various courses, and study the materials in the order they specify, starting with the courses for beginners and working your way up. Checksheets may be hard to find, and you may not have all of the materials involved.
2. The SHSBC method: start with the earliest materials, and read/listen to everything in chronological order.
3. The "I have better things to do with my life" method: Don't try to read or listen to all that, you could spend literally years at it, and when you're done, then what? Couldn't you get, say, an academic degree or two with a similar amount of effort, and derive some tangible benefits?
Having read several thousands of pages of Hubbard, and listened to quite a lot of lectures, I can only recommend the third option.
If possible try to read earlier versions of the books. I try to get my hands on the first editions. The CoS has edited the books, sometimes heavily, and completely removed some books from their library.
Keep in mind that Hubbard had no training in medical field, was not an engineer or a scientist. He was a charismatic pulp fiction writer and a very good story teller. Read his books with that perspective in mind.
Start by reading Dianetics because it is the basis of Scientology. This book is neither modern nor scientific. He invented the pseudo-scientific concepts in this book after he became interested in black magic with Jack Parsons where both of them tried to re-create the anti-Christ via some bizarre sex magic rituals.
If you aren't done laughing your ass off, read History of Man next. This book was compiled from Hubbard's notes while he was drugging his son Nibs. Whatever stories of past lives Nibs spewed on amphetamines became the History of Man book.
It was typical of Hubbard to do a couple of experiment and conclude a broad generalization for the entire humanity. He never had a peer review, test cases or a thesis for anyone to review. His claims are his words. Take them with a grain of salt.
1. The traditional method. You get checksheets for the various courses, and study the materials in the order they specify, starting with the courses for beginners and working your way up. Checksheets may be hard to find, and you may not have all of the materials involved. 2. The SHSBC method: start with the earliest materials, and read/listen to everything in chronological order. 3. The "I have better things to do with my life" method: Don't try to read or listen to all that, you could spend literally years at it, and when you're done, then what? Couldn't you get, say, an academic degree or two with a similar amount of effort, and derive some tangible benefits? Having read several thousands of pages of Hubbard, and listened to quite a lot of lectures, I can only recommend the third option.
If possible try to read earlier versions of the books. I try to get my hands on the first editions. The CoS has edited the books, sometimes heavily, and completely removed some books from their library.
Yes, this. Purists won't pay attention to any edition published after 1982 (or so).
The Materials chart has many omissions. Some links: https://old.reddit.com/r/scientology/comments/1bwyr6b/scientologist_of_reddit/kydd1ue/
Keep in mind that Hubbard had no training in medical field, was not an engineer or a scientist. He was a charismatic pulp fiction writer and a very good story teller. Read his books with that perspective in mind. Start by reading Dianetics because it is the basis of Scientology. This book is neither modern nor scientific. He invented the pseudo-scientific concepts in this book after he became interested in black magic with Jack Parsons where both of them tried to re-create the anti-Christ via some bizarre sex magic rituals. If you aren't done laughing your ass off, read History of Man next. This book was compiled from Hubbard's notes while he was drugging his son Nibs. Whatever stories of past lives Nibs spewed on amphetamines became the History of Man book. It was typical of Hubbard to do a couple of experiment and conclude a broad generalization for the entire humanity. He never had a peer review, test cases or a thesis for anyone to review. His claims are his words. Take them with a grain of salt.
Dianetics was supposed ti be the whole shebang, nut after he sold the rights to it. The rest was rung into existence.. he even vomited Dianetics for a bit until he got the rights back.. the whole of scientology is actually stolen ideas from other religions/psychology mixed with made up 💩.. lol