First published by L. Ron Hubbard. These two rules distill a practical approach to happiness and improved relations with others.
Rule One: Be Able to Experience Anything
Those things which we cannot experience tend to persist. They stay with us. They accumulate. A person who cannot experience anger will be troubled by anger — both their own and others'. A person who cannot experience loss will live in fear of losing.
The willingness to experience anything gives a person the greatest freedom. The person who can confront whatever comes their way — who can face it, accept that it is there, and deal with it — is not easily overwhelmed or harmed.
Rule Two: Cause Only Those Things Which Others Are Able to Experience Easily
A harmful act is one that produces an effect the other person cannot easily experience. When one causes only those effects that others can readily have, one's actions cease to be a source of pain or overwhelm to those around them.
This is not simply the golden rule restated. It places responsibility on the individual as cause — to be aware of what effects one is creating and whether the people receiving them can handle them comfortably. The test is not one's own preferences, but the other person's capacity to experience.
It is Rule One that makes Rule Two workable. If one is willing to experience anything, then the effects caused by others lose their power to harm. And the person who can experience anything naturally understands what effects others can or cannot easily have — making Rule Two instinctive rather than enforced.
These two rules, practiced together, create a foundation for personal happiness and harmonious relationships.
— L. Ron Hubbard