Auditing the self

 

The Scientology E-Meter

The Church of Scientology is an organization whose ideas many people would find outlandish, but one of their techniques is worth our attention. Scientologists use auditing as part of their program. Auditing is more familiar to us in the context of the stock of a business or the trading accounts of a charity. My local store, for example, always has a minimum of one person checking stock, making notes, auditing. The store is on permanent hyper-audit.

But is it possible to audit the self? Scientology has auditors, mentor figures, who oversee the auditing. Indeed, we have auditors throughout our lives. Parents, teachers, priests, therapists - all these people audit us, take stock of us and report back, hopefully so that we can better ourselves.

But can a person audit himself? The first and most obvious objection to self-auditing - autognosis, as I've termed it - is confirmation basis. That is, to quote Paul Simon, a man hears what he wants to hear and he disregards the rest. We are anxious to review and revel in our more positive character traits. The other stuff? Not so keen, perhaps.

But taking stock of yourself and being honest about it remains both a possibility and something devoutly to be desired. There is the proviso that it is not always advisable to go too far into the cave of the self. You don't know what you might find there. Knowing oneself isn't necessarily a trip to the sunlit uplands, but can equally be a descent down cold and mossy stone steps that lead to the cellar.

So it is instructive to remember that when Socrates visited the oracle at Delphi, and read the famous inscription 'Know thyself', there was a second injunction, 'Everything in moderation'. If these two clauses are run together, we are being instructed, with Socrates as our proxy, to know ourselves in moderation.

But self-knowledge is possible and desirable. As noted in previous episodes, if things outside your window take a turn for the worse, it will be a useful tool to know your own strengths and weaknesses. So, self-audit. You never know what you might turn up, provided you are honest with yourself.