6.12 What is disconnection?
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This article is from the Scientology Catechism, by scninfo@pcnet.com (Scientology Information Server) with numerous contributions by others.
6.12 What is disconnection?
A Scientologist can have trouble making spiritual
progress in his auditing or training if he is connected
to someone who is suppressive or who is antagonistic to
Scientology or its tenets. He will get better from
Scientology, but then may lose his gains because he is
being invalidated by the antagonistic person. In order to
resolve this, he either handles the other person's
antagonism with true data about the Church, or as a last
resort when all attempts to handle have failed, he
disconnects from the person.
In 1983, L. Ron Hubbard clearly defined the two terms,
"disconnect" and "handle," as related to this subject:
"The term 'handle' most commonly means to smooth out a
situation with another person by applying the technology
of communication.
"The term 'disconnection' is defined as a self-determined
decision made by an individual that he is not going to be
connected to another. It is a severing of a communication
line.
"The basic principle of handle or disconnect exists in
any group and ours is no different.
"It is much like trying to deal with a criminal. If he
will not handle, the society resorts to the only other
solution: It `disconnects' the criminal from the society.
In other words, they remove the guy from society and put
him in a prison because he won't 'handle' his problem or
otherwise cease to commit criminal acts against others."
A person who disconnects is simply exercising his right
to communicate or not to communicate with a particular
person. This is one of the most fundamental rights of
man. "Communication, however, is a two-way flow," Mr.
Hubbard pointed out. "If one has the right to
communicate, then one must also have the right to not
receive communication from another. It is this latter
corollary of the right to communicate that gives us our
right to privacy."
Another example is marriage. In a monogamous society, the
agreement is that one will be married to only one person
at a time. If one partner, say the husband, starts to
have second dynamic relations with a person other than
his partner, the wife has the right to insist either that
this communication cease or that the marriage itself
ends. In this example, the optimum solution would be for
the wife to resolve the situation through communication
so that her husband, who is violating the agreements, is
handled. But if this is not possible, then the wife has
no choice other than to disconnect (sever the marriage
communication lines if only by separation). To do
otherwise will only bring disaster, as the wife is
connected to someone antagonistic to the original
agreements on which the marriage is based. With the
technology of handle or disconnect, Scientologists are,
in actual fact, doing nothing different than any society,
group or marriage down through thousands of years.
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