Firstly, one can use the relevant parts of scientology to resolve ones major life issues and gain a stability in ones life. These are emergency situations and problems that one has on one’s mind the most.

This often involves getting some auditing like dianetics or scientology life repair, studying PTS/SP tech, or doing a communication/TRs course. Scientology assists are also very good for spiritually healing the body in times of pain and discomfort.

Secondly, one can gain a good grasp of the fundamentals of scientology teachings. This doesn’t take forever and once this stage is complete one is really on the path to a better existence, in many ways.

All the basic scientology teachings should be studied, from the philosophical writings of how life happened and is – the factors and the axioms -, the ethical considerations and formulas, the ARC triangle and the many scientology scales….to the communication formula, dianetic principles, and a good grasp of the goals and purposes of scientology in it’s practical, personal and spiritual senses.

Good books for these are Scientology 0-8: The Book of The Basics, The Fundamentals of Thought, A New Slant on Life, Scientology 8-8008, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and Dianetics Today.

Thirdly, one can follow ones interest line in scientology teachings and take up a formal study of it to really gain a complete understanding of the material. Often one would consult ones goals and purposes in life, and align this to the area of study undertaken. A prerequisite to this is to learn and apply study technology in order to be able to gain a full grasp of scientology teachings.

Bad study habits can obstruct gaining an understanding of the material one is learning. For example, skim reading isn’t a very appropriate approach to studying and achieving understanding.

I hope this post has been useful to the beginner in planning a general path to improving one’s life with scientology.

The advice is actually cryptically suggested in the title of my post ‘How to Use Scientology”. The idea is that if you’re going to study the subject – study it to USE, not for reasons that aren’t to do with USING.

LRH commented on how the VALUE of knowledge to a person is directly related to how one uses that knowledge. (see LRH study materials.) Many people evidently have ulterior motives to studying a subject, perhaps for reasons of status, “Look, I have a degree!”…

…And those types of people often don’t fully understand the subject they studied because they don’t ever use it in their life. This devalues the subject they studied.

So, here comes my advice to you. If you’re going to study Scientology (or ANY subject), study it for a purpose related to using it or doing something. Whenever you come across a datum in Scientology, try and work out how you can use it to improve your life.

For instance, read up on ARC (Affinity, Reality and Communication) and create examples on how to use it in your life. Then actually use it. Observe and evaluate whether use of that particular concept has helped you or been useful to you.

But if you don’t study scientology for use, but only as a piece of theory to file away somewhere, then you might as well not bother with it, IMO.

The big question to ask yourself when studying a subject or choosing a subject to study is “How am I going to use this subject?”.