L. Ron Hubbard discovered three primary barriers which keep one from successfully studying a subject. Despite all that had been written on the subject, these three barriers, simple as they are, had never been isolated as the keys to effective education. For want of this data, the toll in poorly educated students, unfulfilled potential and frustration is incalculable.
The First Barrier — Lack of Mass
Attempting to educate someone without the mass (or object) that he is going to be involved with can make study exceedingly difficult. This is the first barrier to study.
For example, if one is studying tractors, the printed page and the spoken word are no substitute for an actual tractor. The lack of a tractor to associate with the written word, or at least pictures of a tractor, can close off a person's understanding of the subject.
Definite physiological reactions occur when trying to educate a person in a subject without the object actually present or available. A student who encounters this barrier will feel squashed, bent, sort of spinny, sort of dead, bored and exasperated. He can wind up with his face feeling squashed, with headaches and with his stomach feeling funny. He can feel dizzy from time to time and very often his eyes will hurt. These reactions are quite common but are often attributed to poor lighting or studying too late at night or any number of other incorrect reasons. The real cause is lack of the mass of the subject one is studying.
The remedy to this barrier is to supply the object itself — in the example above, the tractor, or a reasonable substitute for one. Some educators have instinctively known this, but usually it was applied to younger students and it certainly was never given the importance it warrants at any level of education.
