When assembling model airplanes at age five, Lars Najbjerg was not just playing—he was preparing for his career.
Growing up in the shadow of the Soviet Union in the height of the Cold War, when he was 18 Najbjerg applied to train as a NATO fighter pilot.
“I knew there was more to being a good pilot that physical ability—there was a psychological factor as well,” he says. “Studying everything I could find on the subject, I read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and I knew I had found something workable. The book changed my whole attitude.”
Of hundreds of applicants, Najbjerg was one of the five accepted. He completed NATO flight school training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas in 1986.
"I've always wanted to test myself—to push myself to the limit,” he says. “As a fighter pilot you learn early on it’s not the airplane that determines your success, it is how well you can cope mentally. Sure, it’s physically demanding to be subjected to pressure nine times stronger than gravity. But the psychological factors are even more important.”
Najbjerg progressed in Scientology, achieving the State of Clear in 1991—a state in which one no longer has his own reactive mind, the hidden source of irrational behavior, unreasonable fears, upsets and insecurities. He describes how the ability he gained made the difference.
"I was testing the spin characteristics of a two-seat aerobatic aircraft. Spinning is a maneuver where the plane is flown out of control, rotating in small circles towards the ground,” he says. “Suddenly, the engine stopped. Instead of reacting with sweaty palms and panic, I analyzed what went wrong and got the engine going. Then I tried the maneuver again. Once more the engine stopped. After several attempts I was able to adjust the engine to correct the problem. I would never have been calm enough to troubleshoot the engine, before I went Clear.”
While he views military defense against the threat of aggression as necessary, he believes that freedom depends on far more fundamental factors.
“War is a social insanity that grows out of ignorance and intolerance,” he says. “It is a terrible solution for lack of one that is more humane. The real challenge is to create a world where we can live together in peace.”
To that end, Najbjerg, 44, devotes his efforts to humanitarian volunteer work. He is chairman of the Humanitarian Association of Denmark, and an active supporter of the Say No To Drugs campaign.
Najbjerg, wife Lisbet, and their five-year-old son Noah live in the town of Them in the Silkeborg municipality on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. Lisbet, a dentist, also holds a staff position at the Church of Scientology Mission of Silkeborg.
View the Lars Najbjerg video at Scientology.org.
