******************************************************** Ken Urquhart writes a regular column in the magazine International Viewpoints called 'IVy on the Wall', and we bring here some of his articles devoted to looking at Jon Atak's book 'A Piece of Blue Sky'. These articles can also be found at http://freezoneamerica.org/ivy/bluesky/. ******************************************************** This one is from International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 63 - August 2003 See Home Page at http://home8.inet.tele.dk/ivy/ IVy on the Wall by Ken Urquhart, USA Red Sky in the Morning: Sailors' Warning Chapter 12 in a Consideration of ' A Piece of Blue Sky ' by Jon Atack Part VII, 'The Independents, 1982-1984,' of Jon Atack's book, and Part VIII, 'Judgements', deal with events occurring after I left the Sea Org. In early November, 1982, they kicked me out as I was walking out. Very little of what Jon writes about therefore, did I personally and directly observe. As before, I don't see any reason to contradict or refute parts of his accounts or his details. I'm not familiar enough with these events to know what, if anything, Jon might have altered or omitted. His bias, as always, is evident. The events of the period give him ample ammunition. Damp fuse I will mention one caveat with regard to one of Jon's sources of information. On page 315, Jon states that a certain person, whose reports Jon cites, 'had been a senior Hubbard Aide.' This particular person came to work at Clearwater as a junior member of the LRH personal Office, in the LRH Pers PRO Bureau. After a few years, he left for California where he spent a couple of years and some of that time near LRH. If in California he'd been promoted to 'senior aide' level, I never heard of it from him or from others who had worked within sight of him. I was in contact with a number of the latter for several months in 1983, as well as with him. I am not saying that he falsely claimed to have been a senior Hubbard aide; I am saying that Jon's statement that he had been, needs independent verification. I strongly suspect that Jon is citing this authority as something he isn't and wasn't. I add that any researcher should address such claims with a certain skepticism. I can well understand that a person who considered him or herself close to LRH could take some pride in the proximity, and I have no reason to quell such personal feelings. However, I spent years in an office next to LRH, privy to 99% of what he inflowed and what he outflowed. I clearly remember who was close to him and who wasn't, and for how long. I have seen claims to 'have worked with LRH' that are very tenuous indeed. The authority of a person who makes such a claim, for whatever purpose (and therefore of that person's information and judgment) may be quite bogus. Likewise, the claims of a `researcher' who presents information from a questionable source as factual, accurate, and complete, must lose credibility and respect. From the Bench Jon Atack took the bulk of his case against LRH and Scientology in this part of his book from one courthouse in America, and from another in England. The American case was the suit the C of S brought against Gerry Armstrong. The cause, the evidence, and the judge's findings, all focus on the discrepancies between the LRH-sponsored C of S myths about the LRH background. The British case involved custody of the children of a formerly-married Scn couple. After their divorce, the husband had custody and the mother left Scn. The mother later sued to recover custody; the judge's opinion and conclusion centered upon Scn as the environment in which the children were at the time being raised, and whether they should remain in that environment. Each judge interpreted the evidence before him strictly in accordance not only with whatever of the law he chose to apply, but also with the middle-class (not to say suburban) values of the society he served as part of that society's self-protecting machinery. That their opinions and findings should be scathing and condemnatory can be no surprise. LRH chose to flout middle-class conventions: the middle class is entitled to bark at him. A higher judgment LRH chose also to flout Truth. In his profession, this is a mightily adventurous thing to do; we have already noted that he was no coward. However, it is also extremely unintelligent. He claimed to be on the Road to Truth; he claimed he was mapping the Road to Truth for all us others. That he should so claim and yet lie through his teeth to aggrandize himself in our eyes and the world's eyes is unambiguously unacceptable. The identity of L.Ron Hubbard, then, is wide open to abuse and criticism. In my opinion, it is a waste of time and attention to attempt to protect that identity from the entheta that it carefully and laboriously created for itself. However, very few of the world's wisest and most enlightened who have demonstrated competent leadership in promoting higher-toned realities died in their beds of peaceful old age and enjoying universal respect. The more effective their communication and the more truthful their realities the more certain they were (in the majority) to suffer directly at the hands of those they sought to help. So, disapproval by the suburbs is not a reliable measure of quality. Prophets now universally-celebrated are not the only ones to have been struck down. In our recent history, for example, an Israeli prime minister who extended the mature hand of magnanimity became the victim of reactionary forces in his own country. A little earlier, a Black American leader in the fight for justice in his own country was gunned down for his temerity. The world of mankind is not one to fool with. What is this world, then, and what is it to stand in judgment over its more enlightened visitors and to condemn them? The stone in the shoe Within man's world there are highly intelligent, aware, enlightened, and constructive individuals who look to help improve conditions for others. They do their work for its own sake, not necessarily for the material reward it might bring. At the other end of the spectrum are the highly intelligent criminals who manipulate humankind and its societal and commercial structures for the sake of the sense of power it brings them. The principal difference between the two is that the `criminal' is entirely selfish. Close to the outstandingly constructive individuals are the highly intelligent, decent, able, and responsible people, aware of the wide and local problems in which they live and capable of responding to them. Close to the criminal level are those to whom criminality is the exciting game and those consumed with greed for the materiality they crave. Between these two lesser extremes is the general population; it lies on a scale rising from fast asleep to somewhat aware, from happily apathetic to willing to be responsible for something, from the animal-like to the possibly spiritual. Were it not for the highly intelligent and able criminals, the enlightened and constructive would bring the world up tone in a probably orderly way. But the criminals make it well-nigh impossible. Several characteristics of the general population of Earth favour the criminals. Chief amongst these characteristics are: 1.Fear of disaster, or the desire to be safe; aversion to risk. 2.Ignorance, or unawareness; severe limitation in perceived choices. 3.Amenity to fixation, and to hypnotic suggestion. 4.Lacking the wisdom to see, and the strength to throw off, the burden of reactive custom, tradition, habit, very long-term inherited attitudes, both individual and collective; addiction to 'now I'm supposed to'. 5.Consuming self-interest in the present and immediate future. 6.Following from all the above, possessing buttons that can be pushed for predictable reactions. Some of the factors inherent in the position of the brilliantly constructive that work against them: A.They are distant in tone level and action level from the general tone and do not easily connect. B.They tend to act as individualists or soloists, and sometimes lack the skills necessary to induce co-operation from either peers or possible customers amongst the general population. C.They are largely unaware of the existence of the criminals; when they fight for what they stand for, they tend to fight the wrong targets. D.Usually (but not always) they are unable to capture the loyalty of the general population; they have no broad and general power-base. E.If they start to build up a broad power-base, they can be easily stopped either by a section of the general population acting out of their 1-6 above, or through the manipulation of part of the population by one or more of the brilliant criminals. F.They do not organize well (if at all) to increase their collective strengths nor to compensate for individual weaknesses. G.They have not agreed on an overall goal, purpose, plan, or policy that move them forward to actually improved conditions for all mankind. The brilliantly clever criminals, on the other hand, have learned to: a.Form loose alliances amongst themselves to achieve mutually rewarding goals. b.Manipulate the characteristics 1-6 listed above for the general population to get the latter behaving in ways that suit the criminals' purposes. c.Keep out of sight while the `leaders' of the population follow the scripts the criminals give them. d.Develop and organize resources to plan and execute, to persist and to perform. Additionally, the criminals are much closer to the population in tone and have no difficulty in relating with them (for their selfish ends) or in maintaining a semblance of ARC with them when in contact with them. No, it's not black-and-white Of course this classification oversimplifies. Any being of magnitude exists on different levels at the same time. Some beings decide to be 'good' beings, some think they would enjoy being criminally inclined for a while. Such decisions depend on `being-print' along with the being's experiences up to the point of decision. Subsequent to such a decision, the `good' and the `criminal' players will to some degree involve themselves in creating what they think they want, and destroying that which opposes them. They form what Hubbard calls Goals Problem Masses, or GPMs. In acting out these efforts the beings can swing from one extreme to the other. For example, `good' being A wants to create a happy community. `Criminal' being B comes along and desires to get the different parts of A's community fighting each other so B can enjoy the resulting confusion and upset. When A perceives B's efforts, A is going to thwart B somehow. When B is challenged he redoubles his efforts. Being A hits back harder and so on. Eventually, each of them will desire to wipe the other out altogether. In Hubbard's terms, each resists the other to such an extreme degree that each becomes the other - i.e., takes on the characteristics of the other that he or she detests and wants most to destroy. Over the course of two or more lifetimes, A and B, then, may switch places. And they may switch places many times over many lifetimes - and their understandings of what is `good,' `bad,' or `criminal' can become very cloudy. Now, in the course of this to-and-fro, each may also key-out occasionally for long or short periods. When keyed-out, each may revert to happily being who he or she had decided to be in the first place. Modes of operation So we have, then, different modes of being and doing: Mode1:the being is in-valence, being who he/she really is, and is acting with full ARC and KRC in the present. Mode2:the being is more-or-less on the original intention but is using force to ward off opposition, and becomes obsessed with winning the point; winning the point becomes more important that the original intention. Force comes into play, and it can be lethal. Mode3:the being flips into the viewpoint of the `enemy' and dramatizes out of that viewpoint. He/she has the crazy idea that forwarding the enemy line is a good solution to his/her inability to keep the enemy from interfering or to obliterate the enemy. The being has given up on vanquishing the enemy overtly and is now other-determined by the supposed enemy. When we speak of beings operating at the extremes, therefore, we are talking about people who at any given moment operate in mode 1 with periods of mode 2 or 3, or are operating only in mode 2 or in mode 3. A relaxed `good' person having a lot of fun, despite the difficulties, getting much done for a great many would be operating in mode 1. A relaxed `criminal' person having fun satisfying his/her selfish desires at the expense of others who are letting him/her get away with it, would be operating in mode 1. A religious leader who uses his/her power to, (say) imprison and execute, or otherwise destroy fellow-clergy, would probably be a `criminal' being in mode 2. A religious leader hot to burn witches, outlaw fornication and adultery, etc. etc., could be a `good' being in mode 2; but he could also be a `criminal' being in mode 3. A politician that turns spy for an antagonistic foreign power could be a `criminal' person in mode 2, or a `good' person in mode 3. Alas: other trouble-makers On the inner edges of each extreme are the individuals with their own urges that are less than extreme - they're somewhat `good' and somewhat `criminal.' These people do not want to live on the very edge, as do the true extremists. And they have their own modes 1, 2, and 3. They also can cause a great deal of trouble for the general population when they get things wrong. Between the inner edges of the extremes, amongst the general population are individuals and sections of society driven by extremists; they let themselves be extensions of the extremists' modes 1, 2, and 3. Then there are those, regardless of class, who are insane and who act insanely, whether institutionalized or not. Their actions may be extreme; their urges and intentions can be insane but are not always extreme. The extremists' urges, on the other hand, are extremely `good,' or extremely `criminal'; their actions are not necessarily insane in the generally accepted sense. None of this denies the fact that the great majority of mankind consists of very decent people doing their level best to live in peace amongst themselves, with their families, their neighbours, and their associates. The dreaded `SP' Hubbard's controversial position was that the 'suppressive person' is the source of all major enturbulation. He said that two-and-a-half percent of the population are SPs. Their direct influence, he maintained, affected a further 17 percent - the people directly connected to one or more SP (or suppressive group). The influence the SPs impose is so enturbulative, according to Hubbard, that the 17 percent connected to them are incapable of operating sanely. Hubbard called them Potential Trouble Sources, or PTSes. If a person in Scn could not make stable case-gain, or learn and apply Scn technology competently, or produce as a staff member, then LRH would suspect the person to be either SP or PTS. This concept was not wholly workable. There is some truth in it. One being's actions can routinely so enturbulate another, who is unable to resolve the resulting restimulation that he fixates on the enturbulation and is unable therefore to function normally. However, LRH emphasized that the SP is an evil person. Very soon after introducing the concept, the action of declaring another an SP became a tool of group politics (as did much of LRH's individual and institutional Ethics system). Some people do do a great deal of harm. Some do much harm on a smaller scale (as in a family), some on a grand scale (as with a nation). Some lessen others' immediate survival, others scar their victims for life and beyond. But there is a self-righteousness and self-justification about LRH's position that does not ring true. I don't think there was any call for him to act suppressively towards a set of people he didn't like and characterized as `suppressive.' In his own career, he himself went out-of-valence and acted suppressively at times; later in his career he acted thus rather generally, and certainly encouraged his followers to act that way. A possible address I accept neither Hubbard's way of judging, nor the world's even more muddled way of not coming to grips with actuality. With the help of hindsight, it seems to me better to have a system that recognizes and distinguishes: (a)the insane individuals of any class - and provides a humane and effective method of meeting their needs while reducing the damage they cause; (b)the extreme spiritual types - that is, the outstandingly able and positive who seek to improve conditions for others, or the spiritually `criminal' - and has the means to separate out from each extreme those who operate in modes 2 and 3. And can educate the latter (or re-educate them) into smoother and more comprehensive ARC and KRC, while strengthening all in-valence positive brilliance (not excluding brilliance that might to some be `criminal'). No, I do not advocate the suppression of criminality on the part of brilliant beings who self-determinedly choose to enjoy being naughty for a while. A point here is that any individual, no matter his or her orientation towards `good' or anything else, can act with results that could fit Hubbard's definition of SP. The important things have little to do with the label of SP. The important things are that a `wicked' being should be in-valence and acting with as much ARC and KRC as he/she knows how; or, on the other hand, is out-of-valence, and forcing self away from ARC and KRC. The former usually need only some guidance; the latter definitely need some form of therapy and probably some degree of coercive control followed by a great deal of guidance. How would it be that an able person causes trouble? According to our analysis, it would be because: (a)although the individual is operating in-valence, he/she is uneducated in how to relate with human beings in general, or with the class of human beings he/she is flowing towards. (b)The individual is operating in-valence but his approach contains flaws which he should have addressed and resolved before opening for business. He needs education in how to organize his production flow, product cycle, and exchange with customers. (c)The individual is operating in mode 2. (d)The individual is operating in mode 3. (e)The most likely: Some combination of the above. In addressing troublesome individuals through this approach, no stigma is placed on anyone; when the individual's result is observed to be upset and confusion, the result is unambiguous, and open for all to see. In dealing with the sources of interpersonal trouble, then, interference from politics is much reduced. [NB. The foregoing can apply to entities who operate (or try to) without bodies; few on Earth possess the awareness and skill levels necessary to address them - and perhaps the will to address them. Those who do address them will get together one day to compare notes and to establish themselves as a professional group in its own right. Spiritual hygiene in the vast reaches of the 7th Dynamic is vital to the spiritual health of Planet Earth.] Equally deserving of address are the outstanding people who hold themselves back from operating actively as who and what they are. In the chaos and confusion caused by troublemakers (a) to (e) above, many able `good' people of the outer extreme and the inner edge hold themselves back. In holding back they deny the world an enormous amount of production and contribution. Reducing enturbulation by addressing (a) to (e) above will encourage them to trust and express themselves; well-designed and executed education will get them going. Likewise, the great crowd of decent and willingly responsible people who want to live in peace with their loved ones will benefit enormously from the results of dealing with (a) to (e). Disenturbulated, they will express themselves according to their in-valence urges for happiness for self and others; they will begin to refuse to put up with any further nonsense of the (a) to (e) kind. Returning to LRH... How do we rate Ron on (a) to (e)? Concerning (a), 'The individual is operating in-valence but is uneducated in how to relate with human beings in general.' I say that LRH's most positive contributions come from who and what he really is, but that he approached mankind with insufficient care and attention, rubbing many the wrong way. He knew perfectly well that one must parallel where people are at in order to develop broad ARC with them. He could enter into high ARC with a stranger or with a small group, but could not do it consistently with very large numbers. Concering (b), 'The individual is operating in-valence but his approach contains flaws...etc.' Some say that Scn did not and could not work on them. LRH would say, 'What was it, exactly, that didn't work?' I sympathise with this response. He might consider that what was done was not Scn at all. The whole question of what didn't work on whom and why requires a lot of research and analysis, a task which is beyond me. Certainly, LRH's organizational approach to presenting and delivering his technology was flawed; I have offered some analysis of this aspect in an earlier article. I believe that LRH allowed himself to slip into operating in mode 2 and perhaps in mode 3. He would thus have caused himself to compound any difficulty he had in (a) and (b). Overall, then, I would classify LRH as (e). Probably, just about all of us are (e), too, unless, of course, we bury ourselves in suburbia. How would we address (a) to (e)? How would we address those reluctant `good' to stand up and be who and what they are? How to disenturbulate the general population? One answer is: one by one. Well, with what kind of approach? Enforcing Standard Technology is out of the question. But, it seems to me, no serious practitioner who is him/herself an outstanding being can get anywhere without paying very serious attention to such basics as: * The Axioms of Scientology * The discipline of sessioning * The discipline of training * The disciplines of association for production and for organization of flow. In developing an approach to resolving (a) to (e), no-one, as I see it, can possibly avoid these subjects. Anyone utilizing these subjects must acknowledge the unique and powerful contribution of a very in-valence L. Ron Hubbard. A wise way of evaluating a being's contribution to the greatest good is to include what we learn from that being's errors. The wrongness of the wise can bring us as much certainty as all their rightness. Of what use, then, is the self-styled `judgment' of a fool mumbling to himself from bench or book? copyright 2003 Kenneth G. Urquhart