'The Centre of The Universe':

The Unofficial Story of Zenith Applied Philosophy

"The whole of New Zealand Society is caught in a low-tone reinforcement feedback! The Welfare State promotes cronic low tones" [ Z.A.P Lecture Notes 1:2.5] 

Broadly speaking John Dalhoff’s programme, or courses, involved nine steps known as Sequence Principals.

The completion of the all nine would cost the student around $50,000 (figure taken from NZ Times,16^th December 1984) and the same source estimated 5,000 to 6,000 students had undertaken a course of some sort (as at 30th December 1984)    

The programme bears many of the hallmarks of Scientology’s ‘ Axioms’ (axioms are described as concise statements of basic truths about the nature of the human spirit) and it was contextually necessary to include them as a reference point - weighing this all up, against  Scientology’s reputation for litigious action and ‘the cost of a good lawyer’.    

In 1992 Z.A.P appeared on Scientology’s ‘black-list’ (what they called Subversive Groups) so I’m hoping they’ll view the reproduction of their material compassionately.   

Some how I doubt, Zenith Applied Philosphists (sic) will view my summation and analogies in such a charitable light. 

One Z.A.P ‘drop-out’ stated “the aims of the courses or therapy seems to be to ‘clear the mind’ on decisions about the future”. Then went on to say “this is nothing new – Scientology has claimed to do it in Dianetics”."What Z.A.P does in ‘clearing the mind’ seems to be to rid the will of consciousness in making decisions”. So even early on, the connection between both was formed. 

It is seemingly impossible to get away, from the correlation (content wise) between Z.A.P and Scientology – as I've just indicated some Z.A.P students picked-up on this homogeneity, at a time well prior to the invention of the internet, and readily available information being at ones finger-tip. You may remember I highlighted Kevin McGuire’s consumer complaint, in relation to this, made to the Christchurch Star, November,1977.  

In one of Z.A.P’s own course outlines, a student endorsement (full text below) refers to the ‘Mest Dynamic’. Mest is an acronym coined by L.Ron Hubbard and stands for ‘matter, energy, space and time’. The same student, who rather coincidentally uses the initials RH, goes on to mention “The theta is incredible”. The term theta bears a striking resemblance to ‘thetan’ – Scientology’s concept of a soul or spirit.   

Amongst the other Z.A.P, student references in the above publicity, there is talk of ‘cognations’ or ‘cog’ for short. The Official Scientology and Dianetics Glossary define ‘cognations’ as a new realisation of life. Cognitions result in higher degrees of awareness and consequently greater abilities to succeed with one’s endeavors in life. ‘Cog’ is given as the abbreviation of cognation.

‘Reactive Mind’ is another similitude shared between Z.A.P and Scientology. "Dianetics gets rid of the reactive mind. It's the only thing that does" (Scientolgy’s web site) 

In order for you to aquiant yourself with the ‘tones’ when you run into them later in Part 2, The Scientology Handbook defines ‘The Tone Scale’ as ‘a vital tool for any aspect of life involving one’s fellows—is a scale which shows the successive emotional tones a person can experience. By “tone” is meant the momentary or continuing emotional state of a person. Emotions such as fear, anger, grief, enthusiasm and others which people experience are shown on this graduated scale’

Z.A.P’s founding ‘Sequence Principals’ bear an uncanny resemblence to Scientology’s ‘Overt Motivator Sequence’.

Scientology is founded on ‘Eight Dynamics’ – Z.A.P has/had ‘Eleven Dynamics’.

Z.A.P’s first dynamic: Self                 Scientology first dynamic:  Self

Z.A.P’s 3^rd & 4^th Dynamic: Group      Scientology 3rd dynamic: Groups

Z.A.P’s 5^th Dynamic: Life Forms        Scientology 5^th Dynamic: Life Forms

Z.A.P’s 6^th Dynamic: Physical World  Scientology 6^th: Physical Universe

Z.A.P’s 7^th Dynamic: Spiritual             Scientology 7^th: Spiritual     

TR’s (short for ‘training regimes’) was another paralell term used by Z.A.P, such as the ‘bull-baiting’ exercise you will soon learn more about below. A web site listing some of Scientology’s ‘secrets’ had this rather derogatory desciption on Scientology’s version of these training regimes; ‘TR’s are a series of mind-numbing exercises’.    

Bullbaiting itself is an exercise invented by Scientolgy, given this rather laconic ‘mental picture’ on the forementioned ‘Secrets of Scientology’ site : 'sit with eyes open for hours, not moving laughing or twitching, confronting coach while s/he tries in every way to make you react'.

The most publically know off all Scientology terms is probably ‘operating thetan’ or O.T for short. Amongst the Z.A.P courses, there just happens to be one called ‘O.T Junior’ or if one was at a higher step, they could attend a sales course with the epithet ‘O.T.P.U’.   

Other ‘shared’ terminologies and concepts, be it with subtle changes, between The Church of Scientology & Zenith Applied Philosophy include:

ARC (short for affinity, reality and communication)

Corrective Technology (part of auditing)

Cycle of Action (sequence of actions)

Demo Kits (self explanatory)

Fast Flow (learning method)

‘Fast Flow' – Doing everything you have to do or want to do, as rapidly as possible, without losing control or sacrificing quality – push yourself as much as you can, and you’ll almost automatically rise through the tone scale. Conversely, slow-flow moving and doing things slowly, causes one to sink down the tones’ [Z.A.P Lecture Notes 1: 4.6]