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In Scientology 8-80, first published in 1952, L. Ron Hubbard details his early discoveries on the subject of aesthetics and how this subject relates to life itself.

      If there was a culmination to Ron's early research into these matters, it came in the summer of 1965. The setting: his English country house of Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead where so many of his finest photographic landscapes were taken, and where, on one of the first Mellotron Electric Organs capable of synthesizing the human voice, he continued his examination of musical structure. But to grasp what was now at hand, one must look beyond any individual artistic endeavor and focus on the subject of art as a whole.

      As an opening word, and a highly pertinent one, he had previously noted: "Until somebody can define what art is, the world is not likely to become more conscious of it." Yet before one could actually provide that definition, he went on to explain, the subject required codification, i.e., arrangement according to intrinsic rules à la Francis Bacon (generally credited as the first to develop the concept). As a further remark on just how he managed that codification, he particularly cited his "incidental" studies of music and photography--the first informal and, as we have said, conducted on that much prized Mellotron, the second through that thoroughly professional New York Institute of Photography.

[What do we mean by aesthetics? We mean solely and only Beautiful. Beauty is theta. Any wave close to theta is taken by theta for beauty.]

      Yet what followed, and thus what provided the basis for all else to follow, was by no means incidental. For suddenly, and very simply, here was an end to that controversy over definitions, because here was that definition: "ART is a word which summarizesTHE QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION." To which he added: "It therefore follows the laws of communication," and so might be further described in terms of this: "TECHNICAL EXPERTISE ITSELF ADEQUATE TO PRODUCE AN EMOTIONAL IMPACT."

      One could say far more, even as regards Ron's original essay from August 1965, but let us simply appreciate this: with that first definitive explanation of art, came definitive answers to all outstanding questions of art, including problems of presentation, technique, integration and message. Then too, and likewise following from art as that word which summarizes the quality of communication, we find LRH on audience approval, professionalism, color harmony, depth perspective, rhythm, composition, equipment--to cite but a fraction of all we find in L. Ron Hubbard's, ART.




Writer Photographer Filmmaker Maker of music Philosopher of Art