The ARS Acronym/Terminology FAQ v3.5

by Martin Hunt
Stand: 22 Jul 2000
Quelle: alt.religion.scientology

M

M1,

or M1 Word Clearing, one of the 9 methods of the endless word clearing used in Scientology. M1 is done on a Meter, and locates charge or upset on words chains by subject, taking each back in time (often to fabricated past lives). M1 supposedly makes the recipient "Superliterate", able to "fast flow" through course checksheets without doing demos or checkouts. See also M8.

M2,

metered word clearing done by having the student read aloud, then look up each word stumbled over or that reads on the meter.

M3,

verbal word clearing done by the supervisor in the classroom and used whenever a student says s/he doesn't understand something. The sup then asks them to look earlier for a word that isn't understood, (the implication of Hubbard's perfection being implicit; if Hubbard wasn't clear or used the wrong word, this is just not acknowledged) has the student look it up in a dictionary, and then use it in sentences in the usual way. M3 is one of the most commonly-used methods of word clearing, along with M4 and self-study. In self-study, every word found is looked up, used in sentences, and cleared in each definition, pronunciation, and the derivation, as in all word clearing. "Set" is checked in all its permutations that were known already since childhood. "To" is diligently looked up, although it has little or no intrinsic meaning. "The" and "a" and "an" are all checked repeatedly, "definitions" memorized without being understood for the next supervisor star-rate checkout. For all their word-clearing, Scientologists are not particularly adept at language, missing the fact that most words are learned via context and use, not endless consultation of dry, dead, dictionaries. The average student in Scientology may spend hours each day flipping through the dictionaries, yet they don't seem to benefit from the activity at all. "Word clearing" is an integral part of the brainwashing in the cult. Its real aim is to make people compliant by doing absurd and meaningless repetitive tasks while instilling the cult's twisted semantics and thousands of neologisms and redefinitions from the two large cult dictionaries of such key terms as "critical thought", redefined as a completely negative activity. It is Orwell's _1984_ brought to life by another, albeit inferior, Science Fiction writer.

M4,

metered classroom word clearing. The student is asked to focus on sections of text of about paragraph to page size and asked if there's an MU, then the meter is checked for any reaction. The word so metaphysically located is then looked up and cleared in the usual way. M4 is one of the most common forms of word clearing, along with M3 and self-study, as the students works by themselves to "clear up their MUs". Not clearing up one's own MUs may result in ethics actions being taken for going by MUs, a serious offense. This is another cult catch-22 situation, as all students can be asked for definitions of words like "be" or something equally ridiculous, hesitate, and end up in trouble. During star-rate checkouts, definitions are often demanded out of the blue. "What's the definition of 'too'?", "The number 2?", "Flunk!" being a common occurrence with no recourse given. Any opposition to the obvious unfairness of the situation just gets the person in more hot water in the totalitarian system. Any opposition or complaints are, after all, a sign of 'natter' produced by, you guessed it, MUs! Word clearing is an integral part of Scientology brainwashing.

M5,

the student is asked what words mean from a list, as in auditing commands. The ones the person can't define quickly and accurately are flunked.

M6,

key word clearing. The most important words relating to a specific post are looked up and word cleared in a dictionary upon any hint of slowness or hesitancy on the part of the staff member. This is based on the idea that so-called "MUs" can thwart someone's production on post; an untested idea, to put it mildly.

M7,

used for illiterates, children, and foreign-language persons. The student is made to read aloud, and at each omission or stumble or hesitation or frown, the word is explained to the person verbally or looked up for him or her by the twin or word clearer.

M8,

part of the Primary Rundown, its end product is superliteracy. An alphabetical list of every word in the materials being studied, such as a book or tape, is looked up. This is the most thorough methods of W/Cing. Its requirement for the exalted state of "superliteracy" has been superseded by M1, or was at one time in the cult.

M9,

unmetered word clearing action. Student is made to read the text aloud while the word clearer follows along in another copy of the text. When the student stumbles or frowns or coughs, etc., the word is thoroughly looked up and "cleared" by the usual method.

MAA,

Master At Arms. A Sea Org (highly indoctrinated Scientologists who sign billion-year contracts) Ethics Officer, responsible for keeping Ethics in (keeping the all-important production up; someone who produces well in Scientology is almost always regarded as being in-Ethics; the ends justify the means is policy.) Their lower org equivalent is called an Ethics Officer, or EO.

Marcab Confederacy,

a galactic confederation and the denizens thereof. It is a star system in the astronomy charts. It is also supposed to be the source of most of the destructive suppressive influences attacking the Earth at this time and in the past. For the last 100,000 years they've been driving cars, wearing business suits and fedora hats, using telephones, and flying spaceships. Remember that episode of Star Trek? "The Marcabians are coming to Earth, and they're going to lay waste to it, according to Captain Bill."

Meatball,

A derogatory Free Zone (qv) term for people who don't believe in their strange ideas. (act) See Basher.

Mental Image Picture,

a picture in the Reactive mind, the repository of memories of painful and unconscious moments. "Bob has a stuck mental image picture of an atom bomb going off on top of his head 200 trillion years ago."

Merchant of Chaos,

a cult synonym for an anti-Scientologist or Suppressive Person. A bad person; a person who speaks ill of Scientology, and should therefore be punished.

MEST,

Matter, Energy, Space, and Time; the constituents of the physical universe, or the physical universe itself. Seen as a lesser domain than the spiritual or Theta realm.

Milgram Experiment,

the; a psychological influence process. "A very famous psychology experiment with a rather depressing result. Milgram's subjects were put in front of a device that was supposed to administer electric shocks to someone in another room (the other person was actually an actor who responded as if he were being shocked) and were then ordered by Milgram to administer increasing levels of shocks, even levels that were marked as 'dangerous' on the device and that elicited a simulation of agony from the actor. He found that most of his subjects obeyed him, even when they generally believed that they were injuring the other person. The experiment basically showed that the 'Nuremberg defense' mindset is alive and well in the US; people are conditioned to obey authority and will compromise their own principles to do so. The experiment was done in the late '60s or early '70s; I doubt things have gotten better since then. Remember that most Americans now think of the late '60s and early '70s as one of the worst periods in American history, and cite 'lack of respect for authority' as one of the main reasons for why it was so terrible." - Eric Bohlman. Read Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, by Stanley Milgram (Harper & Row, 1974).

Misemotional,

describing a display of inappropriate emotion; for example, crying for no reason. "Mary has been misemotional since her last action; she needs a repair."

Mission,

1. the Newspeak-corrected term for a cult franchise, as Hubbard originally and more accurately called them before the "religious angle" was adopted to garner tax breaks for his company. Last heard, the package used to set up a Mission could be bought for US $56,000. A year or two ago, the Co$ management gloated that 1,000 mission franchises had been sold at $56,000 each. That works out to $56,000,000 all told. If the cult's total annual gross is $300,000,000, then this one source accounts for nearly 1/5. These franchises are meant to pay their owners 15%, trouble is, if your Mission ever makes it, it will be taken away from you. Missions cannot train auditors, but they can deliver low-level courses and processing; they are meant to send their "products" on to the next higher org on the ladder, the nearest Class V Org. 2. A set of orders given to Missionaires (Sea Org members sent to clay demo and then carry out some orders) to go out and do an action, usually gathering money from low-level Scientology Orgs, getting back "blown" staff members, and so forth. Missions are notoriously violent in their methods, and lower-level orgs live in fear of getting a set of these Sea Org bully-boys with their daggers and uniforms in to "put in their ethics" (make them fork over more money) and "get their stats up" with intimidation tactics. Missions are sometimes given absolute ethics authority, meaning they are allowed to do anything to "get ethics in".

Missionaire,

a Sea Org member specially trained to do a Mission, and given orders, (which are often clay-demoed) and sent out to get something done. "The Missionaires from Up-Lines arrived, and demanded $25,000 from our local Org."

Misunderstood,

misuderstood word, see M/U, M3, M4.

Mock Up,

to make up; particularly mental imagery, but may also apply to physical things. Scientologists may often confuse external reality with imagination or fantasy, and may well not see the difference between imagining a wall, and taking a hammer and nails and building one. "Mock up a wall. Thank you. Now destroy that wall. Thank you."

Motivator,

a nasty thing that one "pulls in" as a result of having prior overts, undisclosed naughty acts. In other words, anything that happens to you is your own fault; you deserved it because you are essentially evil. "The cult of Scientology has lots of motivators; they keep saying 'look what they did to us!'"

M/U,

Mis-U, or MU; a misunderstood word, meant to cause everything from blows (sudden departures) to overts and withholds, and actually being the root cause of SPs. Because of the centricity of "MUs" and their destructive potential it is a crime to go by them when studying, and subjects the student to the risk of getting a kangaroo "court of ethics". The cult is fanatical about not going by one, and insists that everyone look things up endlessly in dictionaries and go through every definition. This becomes quite tedious with words like "to", "set", and "be." Extensive pieces of the "tech" are devoted to "word clearing", qv, and so the hapless student ends up trapped in a arbitrary system which may punish or help, punish or help, alternately, with the word clearing or the ethics actions. The very definition of "MU" is mutable and arbitrary in that it is a word that makes one frown or blink or stumble on or slow down on reading, etc., as spotted by others - all of this adds to the coercive, conforming, and group- pressure nature of the beast. See M3, M4 for more on this topic. "Look up your M/Us and quit your nattering Mister, or I'll have you busted down to Ethics!"

M/U Phenomena,

the emotional upset leading to Blows, disappearances from the organization, that follows going by a misunderstood word, according to the cult's "study tech." M/U Phenomena is the only reason someone gives up on Scientology, according to Hubbard. If you think it is all nonsense, it is because you went by a word you didn't understand. If you think it is dangerous, and that the RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force; the cult's gulag) is repressive and sick, you just have an M/U. If you think the Purification Rundown is bizarre, you have an M/U, and it is your problem. Get it?