DWINDLING SPIRAL

A slide that feeds itself: the worse a person, a group or a society gets, the more able it becomes to get worse still. Each drop makes the next drop easier, which is why decline picks up speed rather than levelling off.

From the AOGP Abridged Scientology Dictionary — based on original LRH source materials, updated through 1982.

Usage

A person does something he should not have done, then justifies it by finding fault with the person he did it to, which makes the next such act easier — and down he goes. The same pattern shows up in a failing company or a declining country.

Why It Matters

The spiral explains why trouble accelerates instead of correcting itself, and why waiting for things to level out does not work. Auditing reverses the direction by handling what started it.

Related Concepts

  • ENTHETAMeans enturbulated theta (thought or life): especially refers to communications, which, based on lies and confusions, are slanderous, choppy or destructive in an attempt to overwhelm or suppress a person, group, area…
  • THETAEnergy peculiar to life or a thetan which acts upon material in the physical universe and animates it, mobilizes it and changes the form and or state of it.
  • TONE SCALEA scale measuring and relating the various factors of behavior, emotion and thought to levels on the scale.
  • OVERT-MOTIVATOR SEQUENCEThe sequence wherein someone who has committed an overt has to claim the existence of motivators.

Deepen your understanding

Explore more terms in the AOGP Abridged Scientology Dictionary or reach out for personalized guidance.