LITERARY ARCHAEOLOGY
by Frank Gordon USA

The Logics and Pre-logics of Hubbard were very useful to him in the
development of Dianetics and Scientology. They are also useful in
organizing any subject.

One such possible new science might be called Literary Archaeology, which
would be the science of extracting useful knowledge from old literary
materials.

A basic assumption of Literary Archaeology is that knowledge and even
wisdom can be encoded into literary materials and regained by the proper
efforts See (MATT 13,52).

The Benchmark Hypothesis of the Four Gospels (see IVy xx, p.x) is an
example of such an attempt to reveal a deeper structure in religious
materials. There are various ways to do this.

By Sequence:
In the Sermon on the Mount, it states "Judge (or criticize) not, that ye
be not judged." MATT 7:1. Then, "Give not that which is holy unto the
dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine..." MATT 7:6!

Interesting! Immediately after being told not to judge, you are tempted
to consider others as dogs or swine, and what you have as holy pearls.

How to reconcile these two rules? This sets up a dynamic tension
characteristic of these materials, with a finely jeweled (stable datum)
pivot (the story) as an aligning Logic 10 (1)

Another example of the importance of sequence is in the Kyrie. In the
early Catholic Mass, this was a section of Greek embedded in the Latin.
The sequence (translated into English) was this:

   Priest:Lord have mercy.
   Acolyte:Lord have mercy.
   Priest:Lord have mercy.
   Acolyte:Christ have mercy!
   Priest:Christ have mercy.
   Acolyte:Christ have mercy.
   Priest:Lord have mercy.
   Acolyte:Lord have mercy.

A curious and instructive event occurs in this sequence. In his second
response, the Acolyte "rebels!" as it were -- I added the "!" to
emphasize this -- and does not follow tradition. But the Priest, instead
of berating him, acknowleges and duplicates his response, before
returning to the standard litany.

In the latest English version of the Mass now used by the Church, this
momentary reversal of control (and a handling of the Acolyte's
"origination") has been removed, and replaced by a flat: "Lord, Lord,
Christ, Christ, Lord, Lord" in which the Priest remains the only source
point and the Acolyte remains total effect. This is an example of the
distortion mentioned in Corollary CLA1.2.

By Dramatizing or Acting Out:
One may run or dramatize a key story like a higher level or positive
theta engram (What would you call it?), to develop its encoded knowledge.

For example: In LUKE:18,10; two men went up into the temple to pray. One
thanked God for being so righteous and following all the traditions. The
other beat his breast as a "sinner." It ends by saying he was the one who
went away "justified." (NOTE: Many of these parables have such a STANDARD
ANSWER to act as a "fixative" for those who don't want to dig).

Verbalizing alone won't do, but by dramatizing and exploring this, key
elements of rightness, wrongness, and justification can be clarified. One
can even see that in many ways he is both of these worshippers.

-----

1. Logic 10: The value of a datum (and a basic archetypal recurring
event) is established by the amount of alignment (relationship) it
imparts to other data (whole classes of events). For me, good parables
and fairy tales can fulfill Axiom 10 and act as key-pivots around which
data can be aligned. Old people's stories can also do this and serve to
condense and summarize a kind of common sense.

Some Possible Literary Archaeology Axioms and Corollaries:

LA1: All great or sacred writing is designed to reach into the distant
future, and transmit practical wisdom.

CorLA1.1: Successful transmission depends upon relay stations separated
by some time interval.

CorLA1.2: The required time interval becomes shorter as introduced noise
and distortion become greater.

LA2: In sacred writings, the intent is to transmit these scriptures as a
dogma not to be changed or distorted, until it reaches someone who can
decode the encoded wisdom and use it.

CorLA2: a transmission line is designed to remain essentially
unassimilated until it reaches a suitable receiver.

LA3: The long-range artistic means employed for transmission by literary
works involve special techniques. One of the aims of Literary Archaeology
is the discovery of these techniques.

                               ***

Studies in Literary Archaeology #1

THE BENCHMARK HYPOTHESIS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS
by Frank Gordon USA

My early interests, school training and orientation were primarily
scientific. But later on, I became curious about the Christian religion
and its New Testament.

I had trouble understanding it, and concluded that this might be a matter
of lanuage, and so sent off a letter to another protein chemist I had
known at Harvard, and asked him for a New Testament in Hebrew. Perhaps in
this language, it would cohere better poetically, and be more
understandable.

This was a back-translation from the Greek, and was not helpful. I then
went to the original Greek, and here things began to make more sense,
which I will consider later.

First, I wanted to find some kind of overarching structure. What was this
Kingdom of Heaven material all about? Such a Kingdom literally would
involve the starry skies, and this led me to look at Astrology.

A Clue from Astrology
Previously, at an Episcopal retreat, I had been exposed to an old image,
a poster of a man opposing a lion, crossed by a bull opposing an eagle.
Relating this to Astrolgy, these become the four fixed signs: Aquarius
(man the humanitarian, fixed air), Leo (the proud impulsive lion, fixed
fire), Taurus (the steady plodding bull, fixed earth), and Scorpio (the
mystical eagle serpent scorpion, fixed water).

Oddly, these corresponded to the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
Johnny, and when you trace out their relative positions in space, they
"make the sign of the cross."

But does Aquarius correspond in character to Matthew, Leo with Mark, etc?
It appears that they do. Matthew the broad humanitarian, Mark with his
fiery impulsiveness "and straightway..", Luke, the plodding historian,
and John the mystical with his miracles and conversion of water into
wine.

Using Astrological thought-forms, one can continue with the Sun (Jesus?)
moving through twelve signs (disciples?).

The Hypothesis
And now, to the Benchmark Hypothesis: There is a precession of the
equinoxes, which moves through a cycle of about 25,100 years due to a
very slow earth wobble.

Therefore the Vernal Equinox, or Tropical spring point, only coincides
with zero degrees Sidereal Aries (the constellation) once during that
cycle.

This slow cycle is probably reflected in the Greek myth of The Voyage of
the Argos (which means lazy and slow).

Putting this all together, one can hypothesize that at the beginning of
Spring, the day of Jesus' resurrection at sunrise, there was an exact
coincidence of the House System, the Tropical Zodiac, and the Sidereal
Zodiac; and that this was a special event which would not recur for
another 25,100 years. thus it served as a benchmark.

Such an exact correspondence implies that the influences of each starry
constellation could then flow in a pure unadulterated form to the earth.

This provided a favorable time for the study of these twelve personality
types, with reports (in a special mytho-poetic scientific form?) by the
four fixed types.

Other Possibilities
There are other possibilities (to be developed) stemming from this
hypothesis, e.g., the true beginning of the Aquarian Age could relate to
the establishment on earth of controlled hydrogen fusion, when celestial
Aquarian fixed air influences flow through Cardinal Fire (Tropical
Aries).

                                              ***

Studies in Literary Archaeology #2

FABLE UPDATE: THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG(1)

by Brennen Moran(2) & Frank Gordon USA

   Once upon a time I, Garumpie, became more than a frog, but it was only
for one brief astonishing moment.
   "Garumph!"
   But I treasure the memory of that moment.
   "Garumph!"
   I was the Princess' Pet Frog, with a bejeweled collar and a golden
chain for her to walk me with.
   The Princess was very kind to me, and would ask, "Would you like to go
for a stroll, Gumfie?"
   Gumfie was her latest endearment for me, and of course I would reply
happily, "Garumph!"
   She would not only take me on afternoon strolls through the park, but
would make me breakfast in my beauiful cage. She was very kind to me, and
always saw to it that I had a change of water, shavings, and a good meal
of scientifically passivized flies in the evening.
   One evening as she was stroking my slimy green head, and murmuring
endearments, like, "Nice dear little Gumfie!" she was apparently carried
away by my froggy charms.
   The Princess kissed me!
   I surprised her terribly, I now realize, by transforming into the most
beautiful and astonishingly god-like figure of a Prince!
   Startled and horrified by this most remarkable event, she ran into the
corner of the room and stood with her back to the wall.
   "GARUMPIE!" she screamed, "What have you done! Get away from me, you
awful creature! Just get away from me!"
   I was quite startled myself when I witnessed her extraodinary
reaction, and replied as calmly as I could.
   "But dearest Princess, this is who I really am..."
   I tried to explain to her how much better I could love her as a
Prince, and all the things we could do together.
   But she wouldn't listen and as she trembled in terror, began to mumble
incoherently.
   "You'll just sexually harass me.. or rape me.." Her voice rose to a
screech. "And worse yet, you'll probably want to marry me! Oh no! No!
Never!"
   The Princess finally threw herself out of the living room window, and
took to the woods. I could hear her crazed hysterical screaming for some
time.
   I contemplated my strange situation for some time, and thought about
how her father, the King, pampered her every whim. Perhaps it was not
very courageous of me, but I finally conformed back to my amphibian
identity as a now sadder and wiser frog.(3)
   When I saw her open the front door slowly and peek in, I let out what
I hope sounded like a cheerful croak, "Garumph!"
   The Princess ran over to me sobbing, "I'm so sorry, Gumfie. You surely
know I couldn't live without you."
   So I had finally learned my place, had I?
   "Grr...rumph..."
   But perhaps she will slip up, and kiss me again.
   "Hmmm..."(4)

                             ***

1. It is probable that many fairy tales express event archetypes; i.e.,
underlying patterns which continually recur.

This is hinted at by the usual introduction "Once upon a time," which may
also be translated as "There was once, even as there is now."

One way of studying these patterns is to explore possible variations, as
above.

2. Brennen is a High School student who provided the original idea for
this version of the Frog Prince story.

3. Here it has become clear that the response of the Princess and her
position have made her an SP (a suppressive person in Hubbard's terms)

4. The Prince, now forced back into the diminished pet frog identity, has
now become a PTP (Potential Trouble Source) for the Princess.

                                             ***

Studies in Literary Archaeology #3

SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET
by Frank Gordon USA

Any work of fiction, in a story, novel or play, results from stitching
together a series of familiar and often repeated incidents from everyday
life.

An examination of these oft-repeated experiences can be made by selecting
out one of them and dramatizing it in a small group, not for production;
but for running it over and over like an engram to get a clearer idea of
its inner content.

The opening of Hamlet
Hamlet is a long play, with much beautiful poetry and images, so it is a
temptation to speed one's way through it. But let's not do this, but
instead take our time and explore just the opening scene.

In Shakespare's plays, stage directions are very sparse, so clues must be
sought in the verbal interchanges.

Let's examine the opening text of Hamlet. Here we have a single man on
the stage with a bell tolling midnight. A possible dramatization of this
is to open the scene with a sentry who is frightened and cold enough to
have forgotten who he is, that he is a sentry. His pike is against the
wall, and he is blowing on his hands and trying to keep warm, through the
first six or so tolls of the bell.

1. Act I of Hamlet, Scene I - Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo.
Bernardo. "Who's there?"
Bernado is NOT the sentry, and his voice is coming out of the dark. So
the odd thing about this opening is that the wrong person, Bernardo, is
doing the challenging.

Francisco. "Nay, answer me: stand and unfold yourself."
Francisco was supposed to be the sentry, the one uttering this challenge.
But someone else is doing it and trying to take over his job. This
reminds him of who he is supposed to be and he asserts himself. Recalled
to his role, he picks up his pike, and returns the challenge.

Bernardo. "Long live the king!"
Francisco. "Bernardo?"
Bernardo. "He."
Francisco. "You come most carefully upon your hour."

Bernardo. Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
That a bell is striking midnight combined with the shortness of the
opening lines indicates that these final gongs are interspersed with the
opening lines. This rapid interchange, combined with the bell,
establishes a sense of driving tension; and the two opening lines
encapsulate the recurring event of who has the authority to request
identification, or to demand that the other person "unfold himself." A
kind of "Who are you, and by what right do you, etc." or "I'll ask the
questions here!" I.e., who's in control? This brings to mind Hubbard's
comment: "The greatest unreality is the unreality of control," and by
implication, the importance of establishing it.

Francisco. "For this relief much thanks: tis bitter cold, and I am sick
at heart."
Bernardo: "Have you had quiet guard?"
Francisco. "Not a mouse stirring."

Bernardo. "Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, the
rivals of my watch, bid them make haste."
At this point Bernardo, who begins with a confident attitude, suddenly
realizes that he is going to be left alone on a parapet where a ghost has
appeared, the ghost of some mysterious and painful past incident --
comparable to an engram; and he becomes anxious for support.

Who's there?
The play begins with a basic question, a whatsit?, and in addition to who
can ask, and who must answer this question; we have the additional "Who's
there?" of the ghost which has been appearing.

This question is common to the beginning of any story and recurs
frequently in life. Shakespeare's dramatic skill is revealed, not only in
his beginning with such a key question, but by his use of the
attention-getting bell.