A Little Perspective

Excerpted from “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, a 1964 essay by Richard J. Hofstadter:

“The paranoid spokesman, sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms — he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization… he does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated — if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.

“The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman — sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed, he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced. The paranoid’s interpretation of history is distinctly personal: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone’s will. Very often, the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional).

“It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is, on many counts, the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him. The enemy may be the cosmopolitan intellectual, but the paranoid will outdo him in the apparatus of scholarship, even of pedantry. Secret organizations, set up to combat secret organizations, give the same flattery. The Ku Klux Klan imitated Catholicism to the point of donning priestly vestments, developing an elaborate ritual and an equally elaborate hierarchy. The John Birch Society emulates Communist cells and quasi-secret operation through “front” groups, and preaches a ruthless prosecution of the ideological war along lines very similar to those it finds in the Communist enemy. Spokesmen of the various fundamentalist anti-Communist “crusades” openly express their admiration for the dedication and discipline the Communist cause calls forth.”

Cults, Enemies and Shadows

In the early eighties with the figurative barbarians at the gates of his Scientology kingdom  L. Ron Hubbard wrote a dispatch to his personal services organization, Author Services Inc. (ASI), that stated in sum and substance: a man’s worth can be judged by the stature of his enemies.  At the time he was referring to the fact that virtually all major news media, the U.S. Department of Justice (including the FBI), the IRS, and a number of other state, provincial and federal agencies in several countries were in hot pursuit of Ron.

In its context the advice from Ron seemed intended to steady the resolve and nerve of those he had appointed with defending against his formidable enemies.  There is some truth to his little axiom.  Whether it is honorable to have so many law enforcement agencies after you is another question entirely.  Under Ron’s standard, Osama Bin Laden would be more worthy than anyone in recent memory – including Ron himself.

Something I find interesting is the number of people who twenty-seven years after Ron’s death seem to derive their own sense of worth by virtue of obsessively continuing to go after L. Ron Hubbard.  More than a quarter century after Ron’s death it seems that an active cult thrives on the central religious practice of spitting on his grave.

Ironically, the members of the cult regularly, blatantly and shameless exhibit many of the behaviors they so indignantly protest in the cult Ron left behind. They engage in thought-stopping, censorship by censure, judgmentalism, stereotyping, ‘ends justify the mean’s,’ etc.  You name the cult characteristic they accuse Ron of and they have it down in spades themselves. If someone gives Ron the slightest credit for ever having displayed any human tendency that individual is castigated, condemned and shunned violently.  If a member of the anti Ron cult steadfastly pledges allegiance to, and demonstrates it consistently,  condemning everything about Ron or the cult he left behind – or even anyone who credits Ron with any act that cannot be characterized as demonic -, why, that member is honored and can be seen to do no wrong.  Hell, he could figuratively get away with murder.

The central, most unifying unwritten tenet of the anti Ron cult is that solely by virtue of condemning Ron they are somehow victims and have thus demonstrated honorable behavior.  Notwithstanding that while the church of Scientology is renowned for over-aggressive dealings with critics, the most prominent members of the anti-Ron cult have never had a glove laid upon them by Scientology.  Most cult members attempt to position themselves with those who have in fact been dogged by Scientology. However, they have also conveniently  omitted from the hagiographies they have constructed for their heroes that most of the folks they emulate have sold out to Scientology for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.  So, you can add hyporcrisy to the list of cult-like qualities of those obsessing with Ron.

One theme I believe that may have been apparent in Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior is that Ron Hubbard became the effect of factors he could have conquered by application of the very principles he codified.  In particular, Ron’s decision to engage with and destroy his enemies resulted in his unhappy demise.  It stemmed from his violation of the following fundamental Dianetics and Scientology principle which violation mars the cult of his creation to this day: that which one obsessively resists one becomes.  It seems to me that by so aggressively demonizing Hubbard, his enemies have followed suit on that score too.

It makes me think that Ron (and the cult that arose to demonize him and yet wound up mimicking him) should have taken the advice of Lao Tzu to heart when he wrote in the Tao Te Ching that one ought to consider one’s enemy as the shadow he himself casts.

related reading: The Great Middle Path Redux

‘Scientology Warrior’ Now On Kindle

 

The book that the Scientology critic cult is attempting to censor more vigorously than the church of Scientology is now available in Kindle format, Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior on Kindle.

Ten Reasons to Avoid ‘Scientology Warrior’

Ten reasons why you should not read Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior:

1. If you read it, you might get the idea that Scientology is something that one ought to graduate from.  This could be particularly troubling for folk who can’t seem to get over the reunion-of-the-folks-from-the-good-old-days mentality.
2. If you read it, you might get the idea that for Scientology to assert the idea some of its ideas are sacred and ought to remain hidden is the height of hypocrisy. This could be particularly difficult for those who cling to a sense of mystical superiority over mere mortals.
3. If you read it, you might get the idea that Scientology is nothing more than, as Ron once noted, ‘a workable technology’.  This could be particularly trying for those who assert ‘total certainty’ on the ‘only road to total freedom.’
4. If you read it, you might become curious as to the evolution of psychotherapeutic and spiritual practices during the time Scientology has existed.  This could be particularly upsetting to those who find comfort in knowing without doubt that anything developed or discussed outside the halls of Scientology is destructive, dangerous business.
5. If you read it, you might get the idea that having to have someone to blame or fight is a severe limitation to one’s spiritual growth.   This could be particularly disconcerting to the ‘onward Scientology soldier’ set.
6. If you read it, you will more than likely doubt every utterance emanating from the church of Scientology from David Miscavige on down.   This could be particularly perplexing for those who find solace in relying upon those they have decided are ‘on Source’ or ‘with Ron’ or ‘with Scientology.’
7. If you read it, you might find out that L. Ron Hubbard did not live an immaculate resurrection as popularly accepted.   This could be particularly enturbulating to those whose gains in Scientology are based upon the  foundation of the stable datum of ‘doing what Ron would do.’
8. If you read it, you will more than likely forever lose the ‘ends justify the means’ think that Scientology implants upon its members.   This will be particularly jarring to those weaklings who take some measure of pride in judging, denigrating, and black pr’ing those who don’t see eye to eye with them on Scientology.
9. If you read it, you might find out that much of Scientology takes away the positive that it is also capable of producing.  This will be particularly unsettling to those who have a weak understanding on the observable mechanics that make Scientology produce results .
10. If you read it, you might not continue to think Ron is Buddha reincarnated or, on the other hand, a grand con man.  This will be particularly troubling to those whose gains were founded upon, or bolstered by, belief. It will also cause consternation to those who have found  a safe solution in targeting Ron as inherently evil.

Now Available at Amazon Books: click here: Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior

Fear

L. Ron Hubbard once designated the entry level of Scientology as Scientology Zero.  Scientology Zero consisted initially of demonstrating to a person that the environment was not as dangerous as he had been led to believe. It educated a person on the existence of merchants of chaos who traffic in painting a picture of danger so that they can profit by protecting one from that danger.  It is the old organized crime protection racket.

As we have seen over the years Scientology has become that which Scientology Zero warned of.  The church continually plies its public with end-of-world scenarios that can only be handled by contributing more greenbacks to the church.  Some folks on the outside engage in a similar game of designating the church as the enemy that will consume humanity if not combatted continually.

One purpose of this blog from the outset was to demonstrate that the church of Scientology was not something to be feared; that it in fact had simply perfected the protection racket game, giving folk the illusion that it was something to continually fear.

I came across a little something by Bruce Lipton from The Biology of Belief (Hay House, Inc. 2005) that explains why obsessing with fear inhibits growth:

In a response similar to that displayed by cells, humans unavoidably restrict their growth behaviors when they shift into a protective mode.  If you’re running from a mountain lion, it’s not a good idea to expend energy on growth.  In order to survive – that is, escape the lion – you summon all your energy for your fight or flight response.  Redistributing energy reserves to fuel the protection response inevitably results in curtailment of growth…

…Inhibiting growth processes is also debilitating in that growth is a process that not only expends energy but is also required to produce energy. Consequently, a sustained protection response inhibits the creation of life-sustaining energy. The longer you stay in protection, the more you consume your energy reserves, which in turn, compromises your growth.  In fact, you can shut down growth processes so completely that it becomes a truism that you can be ‘scared to death.’ 

Maybe that is a scientific explanation for Lao Tzu’s having wrote the following in the Tao Te Ching:

There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy.  Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.

Bad To The Bone

Excerpt from Chapter One of The Enemy Formula:

Chapter One

 

The Zen of Basketball

Zen:  A total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts. – The Urban Dictionary

 

     Caveat emptor (buyer, beware). I may be crazy – and this book of my recollections therefore may just be laced with delusion.

It all depends on whether you buy into the genetic theory of mental health. That is the school of thought that maintains we are simply organisms, unthinkingly carrying on the genetic, cellular commands we are born with. That is the very theory that L. Ron Hubbard eschewed in developing Scientology. Scientology is predicated upon the idea that the spirit (called thetan in Scientology) and its considerations are senior to the mind and the body, and that ultimately every one of us is capable of sanity and of becoming the captain of his own destiny – irrespective of genetic or biological make-up.

The church of Scientology has apparently done away with such core Hubbard principles.  Corporate Scientology leader David Miscavige sent my former wife to Clearwater Florida to visit reporters Tom Tobin and Joe Childs of the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) in mid 2009. She came with a script to read to the reporters, one no doubt carefully crafted by Miscavige himself. It would be Corporate Scientology’s answer to an interview I had given, exposing a culture of violence created by Miscavige at the highest levels of his church.

In embarrassed, halting phrases my former wife told the reporters that I had a family history of insanity and the “church” was concerned that I had picked up the insanity gene. When the reporters attempted to make some sense of the relevance of those claims, my former wife, on cue, stood, turned and walked from the room, noting with finality, “This is not a deposition; I’m not here to answer questions.” When official Scientology spokesperson Tommy Davis was confronted with the claims I’d made about violence in the church, he shouted, with veins popping from his neck, “Marty Rathbun is a fucking lunatic. He’s psychotic!”

Miscavige came up with this brilliant public relations move based on an analysis of my church counseling folders. Those folders note, in meticulous detail, every significant event of my life, and of many prior lives as well. It is a policy of the corporate Scientologists to find bits of embarrassing confession from a former member’s past, and then allude to one of these bits publicly.  The hope is that the target will quail, for fear of any more particulars being revealed.

In order to erase any influence such attempted blackmail might otherwise have, let’s get right to the heart of Miscavige’s allusion to the matter he seems to believe is my Achilles’ heel.

Insanity runs deep in my family. My mother received multiple electro-convulsive shock therapy treatments while pregnant with me.  I found that out through Scientology counseling which probes into pre-natal, and even previous lifetime, incidents of the being.  I told my Scientology counselor that I recalled my mother being taken off to a private psychiatric facility while I resided in her womb.  When she was hit with electro-convulsive shock I, the spirit, was hurtled out of the body and witnessed the rest of the ‘treatment’ from above looking down at the psychiatrist and his assistants and my mother’s body strapped to the table.  When the violence was over, I contemplated leaving and finding another mother and another fetus to occupy.  But, my conscience struck me and I decided I would weather the storm, stick around and help the mother I had initially chosen.  When I was in my early thirties I told my aunt about these recollections and her jaw dropped.  My descriptions of the facility and the surrounds and the event were accurate in all details.  And that, in essence, is Scientology Inc.’s blackmail on me: I am a lunatic by virtue of carrying my mother’s genes, complicated and compounded by my fetal electro-shock experience…

Can I Get A Witness?

At its core Scientology revolves around the auditing process.  The word auditing comes from the Latin root audire which means to listen, or to listen and compute.  The entire purpose of a Scientology auditor is to provide a construct through which an individual may look at his or her life in such an honest fashion that that which is viewed no longer has a hold on that person.  Scientology postulates that ‘charge’ (mental energy) ‘erases’ through that process.  One could just as easily postulate that one’s witnessed experience objectifies.  That is, one’s experience moves from the subjective (part of, and thus affecting, oneself) to the objective.  In that construct, matters of the mind that tend to drive one on an automatic basis are no longer hidden and automatic.  Objectivized matter of the mind is no more capable of driving you than any other person or idea that you can clearly see as apart from yourself. Your own choice in the matter of what to do, what to choose, what to pursue and what to react to is restored to you.  Each time one witnesses in this wise one recognizes that much more the true nature of self, apart from, and thus less subject to, matter, energy, space and time.  Witnessing led the Buddha toward recognizing the impermanent nature of matter, energy, space and time.

It is my view that any time devoted to honestly viewing the content of your mind, your experience, is progress in moving the external world back out of one’s head where it no longer drives you.  There used to be a saying in Scientology, ‘any auditing is better than no auditing.’  No matter what processes, what grades, what levels attained or not, every hour spent objectivizing the subjective is net gain.  There is so much emphasis included in Scientology about the attainment of grades and levels, and purported permanent states of consciousness that the failure to attain very high on the Scientology Bridge (the chart of progressive grades and levels of spiritual attainment) tends to serve to invalidate the work a person did execute in witnessing his or her own mind.

Scientology contains so much dogma asserting superiority to and difference from all other forms of witnessing that people tend to lose site that they spent a tremendous amount of time and effort doing just that, witnessing.  I use the term ‘witnessing’ because it is a generic term that captures what is at the heart of all effective psychotherapeutic and spiritual practices.  Most forms of meditation (Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, et al), most forms of psychotherapy, and Scientology too, create a desirable effect to the extent the individual applying it fully, honestly views the mind.

Any meditator who discounts effective psychotherapy that accomplishes the same result as meditation, or any psychotherapist who discounts effective meditation that accomplishes the same result as psychotherapy, is as narrow minded and prejudiced as any Scientologist who discounts meditation and psychotherapy wholesale.   Corollary, any former Scientologist who discounts his own blood, sweat and tears exerted in confronting his own demons with Scientology is selling himself short.  Witnessing is witnessing.  Meditation, effective psychotherapy, and Scientology are all different methods of helping – and are workable to the degree they allow –  an individual to witness his own mind and its experiences.

Do yourself a favor.  Try to consider that someone who has spent time in other similar practices has spent time witnessing just as you did in Scientology.  See if that doesn’t open up an interesting world of increased affinity, reality and communication.  Just as importantly, validate the time and effort you put in likewise.  You might find you are in better shape than you have previously permitted yourself to believe.

The Psychopath Test

References:

Judgment

Sitting In Judgment

I am adding The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson to my recommended reading list.   This short excerpt from What Is Wrong With Scientology explains why:

Ironically, perhaps the best way to understand the most fundamental flaw in the Scientology system of dealing with the influence of sociopaths is to read a book that touches on corporate Scientology’s vehement, costly protests against the alleged failure of the field of psychiatry to do the same.  In The Psychopath Test, Ronson chronicles a member of corporate Scientology’s Citizens Commission on Human Rights (a group established to “clean up the field of mental healing”) and his quest to free an allegedly falsely labeled psychopath from a United Kingdom mental institution.

Ronson becomes fascinated with the apparent terrible injustice of “Tony’s” (pseudonym) incarceration.  As Ronson researches the matter in greater depth, he comes to find the Bob Hare psychopath test, or checklist, rather rational and workable.  The more time Ronson spends with Tony, the more he begins to doubt the fellow’s sanity against the psychopath test.  Out of curiosity, Ronson puts the test to use on a businessman who is unrelated to the matter of Tony.  When he completes the analysis, Ronson shares his condemning findings with a fellow journalist.  His colleague points out that Ronson only spent a couple hours with the target, and perhaps his journalistic “skill” of catching a target out on lurid admissions, and his preconceived notions of guilt, played a part in his finding.  Ronson, in his honest and entertaining style, rides the rollercoaster of enthusiastic certainty to self-deprecating doubt in his own and others’ use of the psychopath test.

Ultimately, Ronson causes the reader to consider that while there is a tremendous, accurate compilation of information that helps us detect sociopathy, can any one of us be trusted with the power to judge and sentence anyone else against that information?  Are any of us worthy of the God-like power to condemn another to a life of quarantine and isolation?  Do we, in wielding such a powerful tool of knowledge, tend to take on the characteristics of the sociopath when we sit in judgment?

Ronson seems to wind up in much the same place L. Ron Hubbard did when he published this statement: “I have come to find that man cannot be trusted with justice.”  While Hubbard persevered and constructed an elaborate system of justice intended to overcome that fatal flaw of humankind, for whatever reason, his lack of trust was proved justified by his own creation.

Ultimately, though, L. Ron Hubbard said that the only guarantee that one would not wind up on the receiving end of a sociopath’s club was to understand how to identify one in the first place.  And that conclusion was echoed by Martha Stout.  The founder of Scientology and his long-time nemeses in the field of mental health ended up agreeing on one unifying principle: When it comes to the havoc others can wreak upon one’s life, the best protection is the truth – know it, and it shall set you free.

And so my recommended remedy in dealing with the very real problem of sociopathy, or the suppressive person, is as follows:

• Learn for oneself how to evaluate the worthiness and value of one’s fellows.
• Never forfeit your judgment to some authority, no matter how apparently wise and judicious, when it comes to judging the merits of others.
• Strive to be worthy of the trust of those you care about.

 

The Way Out Is The Way Up

I received a report that IAS was pressure regging for vital projects that the church’s anti-psych arm CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) is working on. CCHR hack Bruce Wiseman is doing briefings on the vital necessity of killing some federal health budget.  The reason?  It includes funding of facial recognition technology research to detect and prevent  terrorist  attacks and mass murders.

Now, certainly there are abuses with facial recognition – most notably by criminal commercial identity theft operations.   But, to attack the technology of micro facial expression qua micro facial expression technology is pure caveman regression.  Unfortunately, the impetus for such regressive activity is woven into the woof and warp of a ‘science’ that was once heralded by one pundit as on par in terms of importance as ‘the  caveman’s  first discovery of fire.’

Let me illustrate how ironic, and regressive, this mentality is.

I spent seventeen years as an Inspector General, including seven as the Inspector General, within the church of Scientology.   In spite of impressions folks might have about that activity given the importance media has placed on the abuses I have exposed and confessed to, I became skilled at rapidly and accurately getting to the truth of various matters utilizing discoveries of L. Ron Hubbard.

In any given day I was called upon to determine the truth underlying several situations.  That usually entailed having to rapidly determine who was telling the truth and who was lying. The environment made that a rather difficult task given that Scientology managers used LRH tech themselves rather artfully to deflect attention, redistribute blame, and stay out of trouble.  Scientology management was a breeding ground for accomplished liars.

How I navigated that swamp was by understanding and utilizing LRH technology better than the expert artful dodgers.   While David Miscavige was fixated on the e-meter, treating it much like a lie detector, with the oft-repeated ‘put him on the meter’ order, I preferred not to use the meter.  When I did, I wound up relying more on facial and body indicators than on meter phenomena.   After all, indicators take precedence over the meter (all that you know when the meter reads is that the meter read; arc break f/ns, the meter reads on the auditor first, etc., etc.).

In the course of my in-depth study of everything L. Ron Hubbard ever said about the tone scale, indicators, and investigation (the Data Series and beyond), and out of survival and success pressure, I began to discover things for myself.   One of the most important things I discovered were common facial and body indicators – that are nowhere covered in the writings or lectures of L. Ron Hubbard, but are completely and utterly consistent with what he did write and lecture about.  In fact, application of what he did write inevitably led to the recognition of those indicators.

One critical indicator I noted over and over was the fake smile – curling of the lips, while the eyes remain cold as ice.  In the late nineties I was called upon to train a young crop of security officers for RTC.  Miscavige caught wind that I was imparting such data along with their training on application of the tone scale in investigations.  I was actually training them to increase their peripheral vision so that they could note how 1.1’s were so adept at showing their true emotion the micro second that you took your eyes off of them.  Miscavige went ballistic accusing me of ‘squirreling’.  That made perfect sense to me, since he was probably the first person I spotted the fake smile, and the masked true emotion, on.  After all, he could serve as the poster boy for it.

But, this is not a criticism of David Miscavige.   The problem is far deeper than that in Scientology.  No doubt, many Scientologists outside of the corporate walls would have – and have had – the same reaction to me evolving Scientology like the science I consider it to be.

The impetus for this essay was our watching of a TV series that someone recommended to me called Lie To Me (available on Netflix) starring Tim Roth.  Incidentally, I can’t recall who recommended it – and I would appreciate it if whoever it was reminded me.   While the show is fiction, it is based upon the established science of micro facial expression reading.   I found a number of the indicators that the psychologists have now catalogued and standardized in their training were the very ones I recognized and used while utilizing and expanding upon LRH tone scale tech professionally.  In other words, other fields of the mind are expanding on tone scale tech, while being deprived of LRH’s discoveries by Scientology’s cult-like, insulatory practices.

I recommend the series to anyone who is familiar with tone scale technology as developed by L. Ron Hubbard.   See how consistent micro expression tech is with tone scale tech.  See how far back in the stone ages tone scale tech is in comparison to micro expression tech.  See how far micro expression tech could go with a grounding in tone scale tech.  See how the protagonist uses his tech – naturally applying the auditors code, and beyond, by among other things, parking Scientology-brand ‘judgmentalism’ at the door.  I think you might get a greater appreciation for my mantra to integrate, evolve and transcend.  You won’t be disappointed even if you don’t see the tech parallels I am making, because the series is very entertaining in its own right.

Every day I see more evidence that the way out and up for Scientology and Scientologists is to integrate, evolve and transcend.   In the meantime, Scientologists are campaigning for segregation, devolution and regression.   Wake up. The way out is the way up.

The Blame Game

I just received another volley from an irate, prominent self-anointed  ‘with Ron’  type of ‘Independent Scientologist’.  It was actually an attempt to control through command, assigning me a Treason condition with instructions – after lengthy evaluations – to first apply the Confusion formula.

I only raise the matter here because it is live evidence of two of the most insidious elements of Scientology that in my estimation are at the root of its demise.  It is a great learning opportunity.

The first I will address here, blame.  The propensity to find and assign blame is woven into the woof and warp of Scientology, making it perhaps one of the most difficult character deficiencies to remedy in a veteran member.

The rather lengthy screed I received pronounced me guilty of the current horrid state of Scientology on the planet today.  One central allegation was that I allegedly totally mishandled the corporate Scientology attacks upon me and my family, by …’  Your response to the attack of Miscavige is quite predictably stimulus and response…rather than tangling with the cur dogs nipping at the wheels of the fire engine, you have become one of them.’                            .’

Not more than a month ago two other prominent ‘Independent Scientologists’ as much as accused me of being a suppressive person for failing to automatically and continuously attack David Miscavige and blame him for virtually every shortcoming of Scientology – really on a stimulus-response basis.

The common denominator of these self-professed ‘with Ron’ Indies on both sides of the GPM (goals problem mass – the resultant mass from the collision of opposite intentions or flows colliding) is the seemingly stimulus-response tendency to blame.  In all of their authoritative, judgmental communications the overriding theme is to assign responsibility for whatever it is they are suffering upon another.  Ironically, anyone who witnessed much of Miscavige in action knows that his stimulus-response habit of blaming is perhaps his most destructive and prevelant tendancy.

Here is a central dichotomy with Scientology.  The technology, in pure, sane application can deliver a person to the state where he or she truly understands that he or she is responsible for his or her own condition.  In fact, a person only reaches the pinnacle of the state of Clear, by recognizing this fully and thus losing all inclination to engage in blame.  Yet, I ask you to examine the matter for yourself and see whether there are not other conditionings added to the mix along the route that make that realization in practice short-lived.

I was also accused of ‘You are not getting people to do, you are getting people to question and think about.’

Good point.  Here, I’ll ask people to do something.

Get yourself a copy of the Tao Te Ching, preferably ‘a new English version’ by Stephen Mitchell.

Read it more than once at your leisure, and particularly when you sense the onset of anxiety.

Learn to let go.  I assure you that if you work on it it will move you on up a little higher in disposition and character.

Since apparently the ‘with Ron’ guys won’t listen to Ron on the matter of blame, maybe they’ll listen to Lao Tzu:

Failure is an opportunity.

If you blame someone else,

There is no end to the blame.