OVERT ACT
A harmful act — something done, or deliberately not done, that does the most harm across the areas of life a person is responsible for. It is not simply injuring somebody. Failing to stop something destructive can be an overt act, and so can helping something that will do wider harm.
From the AOGP Abridged Scientology Dictionary — based on original LRH source materials, updated through 1982.
Usage
A person who says nothing while a colleague is being cheated has committed an overt act by omission, even though he did nothing at all. What makes an act overt is the breadth of the harm, not the force of it.
Why It Matters
Harming everything and helping everything alike can both be overt acts, which is why the measure is what it does across all of a person's life rather than to one person. Overts are what a person then hides, and hiding them is what does the lasting damage.
Related Concepts
- OVERT-MOTIVATOR SEQUENCE — The sequence wherein someone who has committed an overt has to claim the existence of motivators.
- MOTIVATOR — The consideration and dramatization that one has been wronged by the action of another or a group, and which is characterized by constant complaint with no real action undertaken to resolve the situation.
- WITHHOLD — An undisclosed contra-survival act.
- DYNAMIC(S) — The urge, thrust and purpose of life - SURVIVE! - in its eight manifestations. - THE FIRST DYNAMIC IVWKHXUJHWRZDUGH[LVWHQFHDVRQHVVHOI+HUHZHKDYH individuality expressed fully.
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