Dictionary

This home page is intended for those who have a fairly deep understanding of Scientology before hand, and therefore does not include a glossary. For words you do not understand you are therefore referred to:

http://www.sgmt.at/ClearbirdE2010/Clearbird2004/appendix_a/99gloss_frame.htm

(Note that "service facsimile" is entered under "service computation".)

Added January 2023: We are working on adding 2 or 3 Scientology dictionaries to our downloads. Subscribers to our newsletter will be advised, otherwise hold an eye open on our latest news on the left.

Added May 2023: A separate section for directories has been added with Leo Swart's dictionary in it.

Some will wonder why I do not refer to the Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary (my edition was the first printing of 1975, and when I got it I also got many pages of errata, which I soon lost!). So if you are not in a hurry to look up a word, here is a rather long winded preamble.

Language has existed for many years without dictionaries. The following appears in my digital edition of Britannica Student Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009. under "reference books."

"The earliest English dictionaries were compiled to explain difficult and foreign words. Easy words were not included because it was felt that everyone knew them. The first English dictionary, Robert Cawdrey's 'A Table Alphabeticall', 1604, was little more than a list of words in Latin and French texts. As dictionaries developed the easy words were included with the hard ones. Even then no attempt was made to include all the words in the English language. Nathan Bailey, who gave the English people 'An Universal Etymological English Dictionary', in 1721, made it clear that he had included only those words in good standing. When Dr. Samuel Johnson was asked to prepare an English dictionary he readily accepted, pleased to be able to serve as a literary dictator in choosing the proper words. Johnson's great 'Dictionary, with a Grammar and History of the English Language' appeared in 1755 and was reprinted countless times in the following century."

Scientology existed for 15 years without a Scientology dictionary, so it could be said that extremely strong insistence about looking up every possible word, which is sometimes found in Scientology (in and outside the official body), may be a little exaggerated sometimes. Though it is wise to have some agreement on the meaning of words one is talking about.

The history of the Scientology Dictionary is little known, but I do have some experience of it. When I was on staff at Saint Hill, East Grinstead, England from 1964 to 1968 apparently Ron Hubbard became aware that we had no Scientology dictionary. He had been working on the technology of study, which did emphasis the necessity of knowing the meaning of words one used, what one was studying. So he ordered a dictionary to be made, and he ordered two stages. First there was to be a free little dictionary, which was to advertise a comprehensive full dictionary. A little free dictionary was made (and I know it was translated to Danish - translating a dictionary is an interesting task!) and people used it and there was a demand for it. But some how the project of the full product (a comprehensive dictionary to be sold) did not go into action. My staff experience leads me to guess that other important projects came up and shoved it down in priority. And competent staff may have been transferred off the project. Some how Ron discovered that his order had not been carried out, and (after I left staff) the thing was produced, which accounts for the very late date of the first printing - 1975, fifteen years after the start of Scientology.

The literary world has standards for what should be included in a dictionary, which I won't go into here. But I do have my own standard. For each word a dictionary should include a simple definition of each meaning of the word, and it helps to have an example of its use. Those making the Scientology dictionary could not be that simple. They were bound by a Scientology tradition, where you had to study all Ron had said or written on a subject (even things cancelled). Therefore dictionary makers in Scientology had to comb Ron's works to find the meaning(s) of each word, which makes a very cumbersome work (in my opinion). Therefore I recommend Clearbird's dictionary. And I'd appreciate it if you found something in this home page which you do not understand, and which you can not find in Clearbird, let me know via ant.phillips@post8.tele.dk

Antony Phillips. February 2010.

Added August 2017.So far as I can remember, Ron's orders  (which I have not seen) about making the dictionary included the fact that the dictionary should only include direct quotes of what he had said or written, which severely limited dictionary makers possibilities. The instructions included the fact that if they absolutely couldn't find a reference they could refer to him, and that is why you see certain definitions have that wording indicating that he is being called upon to give a definition. It is ironical that elsewhere he has said that dictionaries should include examples of the use of the word (or something to that effect, I can't recall exactly where or what). Ant, August 7th 2017