Motor:  Late Latin motor, literally ‘mover’ or ‘that which produces motion’.

We will develop this concept starting from Hubbard’s philosophy, which is different and somewhat ambiguous as we shall see.

AXIOM 01. LIFE IS BASICALLY A STATIC.

Definition: a Life Static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time. It has the ability to postulate and to perceive. [Scn 0-8]

 “Life is a static, according to the Axioms. A static has no motion. It has no wave length. The proofs and details of this are elsewhere in Scientology.

This static has the peculiarity of acting as a “mirror”. It records and holds the images of motion. It even can create motion and record and hold the image of that. It records also space and time in order to record motion which is, after all, only “change in space through time”. Played against motion as a kinetic, the static can produce live energy.

In a mind, any mind, the basic beingness is found to be a static on which motion can be recorded, and which, acting against motion, produces energy.”   [Scn 8-80]

Life is what inspires biological organisms, plants, animals and man. Life itself is not part of the physical universe, the bodies or organisms are. Hubbard defines the static in negative as well as positive terms; negatively it is not part of the physical universe. The static on the positive side is or has a potential or ability which is twofold to postulate and to perceive.

Postulates are predictions or calculations of possible futures coupled with the intention to make those predictions come about in reality. They are future directed based on evaluation of the past and/or present data. They may change a pattern of the past or set a pattern for the future. A postulate is such a thought as a kid may have, “I will become a pilot.” Postulates are dynamic and are active or rather pro-active.

Ignoring prophets who claim otherwise, perceptions are limited to past and present and are relatively passive.

Postulates are the product of meta-thinking. Postulates demand consciousness, in order to postulate or calculate a future we have to be able to think about sensations, feelings, intuitions and thoughts. We may therefore conclude that postulates require consciousness which perceptions don’t. Simple and direct awareness suffices in order to perceive.

Conundrum

If animals and plants are alive and the source of life is a static as Hubbard postulates, then we would have to attribute full consciousness to any life form. We have learnt however that animals and plants generally do not consciously plan their futures as postulating would demand. This does not mean that they do not organize for the future or that the animal or plant-mind, does not have organizational ability. It certainly does as we see in beehives, beaver dams and generally in the patterns and arrangements of nature.

The other problem is the no motion part of the concept of static. Hubbard’s statements are ambiguous in this respect. The no motion static yet holds images of motion. This is a cryptic way of saying the static after all contains motion. It may not be motion but it holds or contains motion.

The final part of the conundrum is how static can create motion. How can no motion, create motion and why would it? Or how can a static play against a kinetic? This is of the same character as the creation of something out of nothing, which was utterly forbidden in the ancient Greece philosophy.

In any case even if the static can produce motion, then it is or has energy. Energy is the potential or capability to do work in other words produce motion. This clearly contradicts the definition of static.

Resolution

If we call the life source a ‘motor’, in the sense of mover we might be closer to the truth. A motor is that which imparts motion. We could say that life is the motor or what sets the organism into motion.

In the mind however, there is no doubt that thoughts are moving all the time. What imparts the motion?

What if there is no one to impart the motion, but that the mind consists of motion? What if the mind is made of mental motion or motion of thoughts and desires and so forth? This has been called stream of consciousness and it makes the mind a sort of perpetuum mobile. Perhaps Hubbard after all had some inkling when he wrote:

“If Life—or theta, as it is called in Scientology (ϴ)—is a mirror and a creator of motion which can be mirrored, it follows then that mirror-wise, the whole of the laws of motion, magnetism, energy, matter, space and time can be found in thought, and behavior and even thinking partake of the physical universe laws regarding matter, energy, space and time. Thus even the laws of Newton can be found operative in thought.  [Scn 8-80]

Let’s take the first law of motion, which states that a body remains at rest or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force. If we assume that thought is and has always been in motion, it would continue forever and that motion would not require any input of energy from an external source.

So we can after all state now with some certainty that life is basically a motor. The simple electric motor concept can be reduced to two components a stator and a rotor. Thus we have resolved the conundrum by having life as a motor with a static and a dynamic aspect. In other words the container is static and the content motion.

Thus LIFE IS BASICALLY A MOTOR.