RULES, GAMES AND OT'S
 
                               ACT - 9RA
                              8 July 1993
                    Revised and Expanded 9 July 1993
 
                 Copyright (C) 1993 Homer Wilson Smith
 
     Life is a game.
 
     Games have freedoms, barriers and purposes.
 
     Games also have players.
 
     Players have abilities and limitations that they can use to play
the game.
 
     Games also have rules.  Rules delimit what any player or 'piece'
can do in the process of playing the game.
 
     Games have penalties that occur to players who break the rules.
 
     The game of life has players of many different levels and kinds of
ability.
 
     Like Chess, some people are like Pawns, some like Knights, some
like Bishops and Rooks, and some like Queens etc.
 
     Each has its purpose, usefulness, and sphere of control.
 
     A person might be a Lavender Seller on the street.  He might be a
Pawn.  His options for movement and control are limited, but in a pinch
he can be the winning card, especially when operating in tandem with
another more powerful person.
 
     Another person might be a world leader or President.  He might be
more like a Queen who has almost unlimited freedom of movement and
sphere of control.
 
     In some sense, some players are more 'valuable or important' to the
game than others, in that they have more or less effect on the over all
strategy.  However a properly placed Pawn can be endlessly more
important than a poorly placed Queen.
 
     Besides, a Queen alone can not win against the opposition no matter
how decimated the other side is.  But a Queen with a Pawn can.
 
     However a Queen and a Bishop might be able to do it easier, so if
the Queen had the choice she might sacrifice the Pawn to keep the
Bishop.  So a Bishop is more 'important' than a Pawn, but all pieces are
useful.  (In chess the Pawn can BECOME a Queen, so it is more
complicated than I have made it out to be.)
 
     Now let's take this analogy one step further.  Let's say that
everyone on Earth is a Pawn, no matter what rank or position in life
they hold.  As Ron liked to say, everyone on Earth is a Homo Sap.
 
     But there is this higher state of being called Homo Novis or a
Grade IV release.  In the game of life this might be like being a Knight
on the Chess board.
 
     And then there is another higher state called CLEAR, and those who
make it to this state become Bishops or Rooks in the game of life.
Further there is an even higher state called OT, and those who are in
that state are Queens.
 
     Now it might be that a Pawn has a very ego centric view of life, he
may not be aware that life is a game, or that there are other players
with other abilities such as Bishops and Queens.  He may have the view
that everyone is a Pawn and SHOULD be a Pawn.  Or, if he is a more
advanced Pawn, he may be aware that there are other higher players in
the game and he may even chose to serve those players in their efforts
to win the game.
 
     Each piece in fact may have their own dream of becoming a bigger
and better piece, so that they may be more successful in the game of
life.
 
     Just as the lowly Pawn dreams of one day having the power to jump
wildly across the board to the opposing King's position and squash the
enemy in one stroke, the lowly human wishes to become OT and dispense
with his enemies in one stroke too.
 
     But THAT PARTICULAR ROLE AND ABILITY IS NOT AVAILABLE, EITHER IN
THE GAME OF CHESS OR THE GAME OF LIFE, NO MATTER HOW OT YOU ARE!
 
     A Pawn has no hope of becoming an all powerful being who can kill
his opponent in one fell swoop because THAT WOULD BE BREAKING THE RULES
OF THE GAME!  But he does have hope of becoming a Bishop or a Queen in
an orderly fashion where he will have more than enough power to keep
himself interested in the game of life, AND IN DUE TIME SQUASH HIS
ENEMIES IF THEY DON'T SQUASH HIM FIRST.
 
     Being a Queen is no guarantee of winning the game of chess, and
being an OT is no guarantee of winning the game of life.
 
     Being an OT is merely a guarantee of being able to play a BIGGER
game.  It is a guarantee of getting what you WANT, namely a bigger game.
 
     Your probabilities of winning or losing remain about the same.  Of
course the being who can PLAY the bigger game easily will be able to WIN
the lesser games easily, that's why he can play the bigger games.  But
beings tend to rise to a level of trouble that keeps them on their toes.
So becoming an OT is no guarantee of safety, unless you decide to become
an OT and yet continue to play a Pawn's game.
 
     In fact ANY absolute guarantee of winning any game is BREAKING THE
RULES!
 
     It isn't a game if you can win just as easy as you please.
 
     Preclears are exactly the same way.  They are afraid of losing in
the game of life.  The penalties of losing the game of life are
horrible, enough to make anyone not want to play.  But the lowly Pawn
has no choice.
 
     Thus such beings want power and ability to scare their enemies away
or crush them out of existence, and so secure a 'better' future for
themselves.
 
     By 'better' they don't mean able to play a BIGGER GAME, but having
a game they can more easily win.  They are trying to make the present
game SMALLER by becoming bigger themselves.
 
     This is not itself a problem.
 
     But if you ask them what powers they want and how they would use
them they will invariably give you things that break the rules of life.
 
     They want power to WIN the game of life in one move, not expand
their ability to PLAY the game of life in many moves!
 
     They want power to get rid of the game, to get rid of having to
play.
 
     They want to win the game in order to end it, not to play it more.
 
     They would rather win and end the game than have a long drawn out
volley.
 
     They don't want to play the game of life, they want to end it, and
never have to play it again.
 
     So they are trying to go OT, not to become more able, but to not
need to have to BE able.  They hope by becoming more able they will be
able to wipe out all their enemies for ever and thus have peace.  But
such an all powerful move on the chess board would clearly be breaking
the rules of the game.
 
     Some people want to go OT just so that they can LEAVE the game.
That is fine, but most of them want to smash their enemies first, to
teach them one last lesson, and THEN leave the game.  They don't want to
leave the game and leave the game still running.
 
     Some fear they might run into the game and get trapped in it again
in the future if they just leave it still running.
 
     So it still adds up to wanting to go OT so that they can DESTROY
the game.
 
     One doesn't win a game by ending the game.  One ends the game by
winning or losing the game, within the rules of the game.
 
     You can also leave a game, as long as you are willing to leave the
game running for others to play.
 
     The main thing that gets you stuck IN a game is your desire to
DESTROY the game before you leave it.
 
     But that breaks the rules of the game!
 
     And that includes the game of life.
 
     AN OT IS A BEING WHO HAS MAXIMUM POWER WITHIN THE RULES OF LIFE!
 
     And he depends on the Lavender Seller to do his job just as the
Queen depends on the Pawn.
 
     That is the sum totality of what the Prime Directive is.  It is the
rules of life within which you may exercise your OT powers with out
breaking the rules of life.
 
     This implies that life has rules for higher 'pieces' even if no one
is presently occupying those pieces.
 
     It also implies that if you break the Prime Directive you will end
up in the penalty box, as no one will allow you to play and break the
rules.  You just don't stand a chance.  The game is bigger than any
player while in the game, so if you try to break the rules you will be
canned.  End of Story.
 
     A Queen may be powerful, but you will never catch her making an
illegal move.  The WHOLE congregation would be down on her in a moment,
good guys and bad guys alike!
 
     In the game of life, the GAME and its RULES are all.
 
     Cheaters are removed instantly.  Oh sure, cheating can happen on a
small scale, individuals cheat all the time, ITS PART OF THE RULES THAT
YOU CAN CHEAT IN SOME ARENAS.  But try to cheat the rules themselves,
and bang, you're in the penalty box without appeal.
 
     The game is perfect and it doesn't tolerate breaking the rules.
 
     The fact is that no player CAN break the rules, although he can
want to real bad.
 
     Thus any power that you have as an OT must already exist within the
playing rules of the game you are playing.  Thus if you have a power as
an OT you can be sure that it is within the rules of the game.  And of
course, if the rules of the game set out a certain pattern of power for
a given piece, then that piece must have that entire set of powers.
 
     This means that if you are looking for more power as a piece, you
must first determine what the power package is for the next piece up,
and then step into that role as a whole.
 
     Pieces and power packages are laid out in a very long gradient
scale from human to OT.  You needn't go full OT tomorrow in order to
advance in the game of life today.
 
     Thus to audit this, one needs to get the preclear to understand
that there are higher pieces than he is presently being, and that they
have well defined rules of operation.  He won't be able to step into
those shoes, those higher rules of operation, as long as he is straining
at the rules trying to operate power in violation of those rules.
 
     If he wants power only so that he can not have any enemies, he will
never get any power.  Power is the ability to play against enemies, not
merely not have them.  You can do that too, but not IN the game.  This
game implies two sides with play between them.
 
     There is a difference between WANTING TO HAVE enemies so that you
can vanquish them, and wanting to vanquish them because you don't want
to have enemies.
 
     In other words you can have more power as long as you want it to be
more able to PLAY the game and not WIN the game.  People who have lost
the game too much for too long get sick of playing the game.  They want
to WIN for a change.
 
     However the way out is the way in.  They will never increase their
ability to WIN the game except by increasing their ability to PLAY the
game.  This will lessen how often they lose and thus increase how often
they win up to a point.
 
     An optimum point.
 
     Remember that a being who is winning too much and too often is just
as unhappy as a being who is losing too much and too often.  There's no
ACTION in either winning or losing.  There is only action in play.
 
     It may not seem that way to someone transfixed by the horror of
losing, he would gladly trade that for the 'horror' of winning.  But
this is an aberration that people have developed to make sure that
everyone wants to destroy (win) the game, thus guaranteeing that they
get stuck in it.
 
     So the point is that advancement in the game is always an
advancement into another power package which defines a playing piece.
Your preclear thinks he needs auditing to 'get his powers back', but woe
to him if he ever did, because what he would do with those powers would
break every rule in the book.
 
     No the power is already there.  He need merely step into the role
that has that power.  A Pawn can become a Queen, but only if it can
fully understand what power package a Queen represents and how to use
it.  Usually the Pawn wants the power of the Queen to do something else
besides play a fair game.  So of course he gets no power at all.
 
     Thus auditing is ALWAYS in the direction of UNDERSTANDING.
 
     Specifically, understanding of the game you are in, or wish to step
into.  This understanding encompasses understanding of the rules of the
game, and the nature or 'beingness' of the combatants.  Once you know
completely well what a Queen can do and why, you can then DECIDE to step
into the Queen beingness.  If that involves having super Pawn abilities,
why then you will have super Pawn abilities.
 
     Thus you do not get auditing to get powers that you do not now
have, but to get UNDERSTANDING of the game piece that does have those
powers.  Once you have that understanding, you can occupy that game
piece or not as you will.
 
     That is why auditing goals and opp goals, terminals and opp
terminals and the various being, doing and having's that go along with a
goal is so important.  By specing out the nature of the game that the pc
wants to play or has been playing, he can more accurately determine the
nature and quality of the power packages both he AND HIS OPPOSITION
would have to have in order to HAVE A GOOD GAME.
 
     He actually has to understand both sides, its never a case of 'I
can melt you with my mind and you gotta just stand there and take it',
unless that scenario arises as a proper win state within the game.  Its
always a case of vanquishing your enemies AFTER wanting to HAVE enemies
to vanquish, who might be able to vanquish you first.  You can have
games in which you always win, but why bother?  In any case, THIS game
of life ain't such a game.
 
     So if you want to go OT all you have to do is step into your next
level up OT game shoes.  The only catch is that you must understand
completely those game shoes before you do, and also the game shoes of
your elected opposition.  If you don't, you just won't be able to make
the move.
 
     This is the purpose of auditing, not to return powers to the pc,
but to return or deliver understanding of higher game positions to the
pc with their attendant powers.  The pc is then free to CHOOSE to adopt
that role and power package.
 
     The higher the game piece, the more power is attendant upon it.
But so too does your opponent have more power.  Power is therefore not a
way to make life easier.
 
     It IS a way to make life more LIVABLE, DESIRABLE and PLAYABLE.  You
aren't complaining because you are losing, you are complaining because
ALL YOU DO IS LOSE.  Its a case of LOSING TOO MUCH.  There is no will to
play any more.  Thus good auditing will rehabilitate your present power
package so that you can become a skilled player again at the level you
are presently occupying.  You might still lose, but you won't lose ALL
THE TIME, and you will have fun even if you ARE losing.
 
     Then once you can be and play the level of the game you are at, you
can then aspire to the next piece, one game level up.  You can leave
your days of being a Pawn behind and become a Knight, etc.
 
     Many people want to become full OT just to solve their problems
with being a Pawn.  They want to move mountains so that they don't have
to starve to death for want of a job or money or a girl friend etc.
 
     Body games are Pawn level games.  You don't need to be an OT to
start winning again at the Body game.  If you are still worried about
starving to death, AS A CHRONIC LONG TERM THING, and you aren't having
any fun doing it, then you need to get auditing on your PAWN level, not
your Queen level.
 
     Once you are a competent player again on the Pawn level, THEN you
can consider stepping up to the Knight level or higher.
 
     The higher you go the more power you have, also the more opponents.
Some of those opponents will be players still at the lower levels of the
game who don't want you to be at the higher level of the game or who
doubt you really are.
 
     Each game level has its power package which you need to master, and
often game pieces of one power level look upon the power packages of
higher game pieces with awe, fear and trepidation.  Doubt too.
 
     Like the lowly limited Pawn, the lowly human preclear is not
allowed to move things with his mind (except his body) or kill people at
a distance.  But there may be a piece in the game of life who, like the
Queen in Chess, has this ability to move anywhere and kill anyone.  Or
dump mountains into oceans.
 
     But just as a Queen would not move without good reason, and would
not waste a move, or use her power except in the line of duty, people
who have and have mastered such powers would never use them except in
the playing of their game.  It's their move.  They will do what they
will with it.
 
     You would not expect a Queen to make a move just to PROVE that she
could.  It would be a waste of a move and lessen her chances of playing
the game by forcing an early lose.
 
     In the game of life you can't take back your moves, once you move
you're done.  If you don't want to be done for, you have to make the
right move every time.  Making a move in a certain direction ONLY to
prove that you can, especially to someone else, is not a good idea and
is not playing the game to win.  It's doing something else.
 
     Proving your abilities to yourself or to others MAY be a good move
in the game of life, in which case you would probably do it.  But you
would do it because TO YOUR MIND IT WAS A GOOD MOVE IN THE GAME OF LIFE
and not because of the loudness of the yammer demanding proof.
 
     Some people who don't have special powers doubt those that do.
 
     So the Pawn who can only move forward one square at a time may
doubt the Queen can move in any direction she chooses.
 
     So here's this White Queen and she is supposed to move forward one
square to take a Black Pawn, and the Pawn is saying, 'Prove to me you
can move left or right, or I won't believe you can!'
 
     Poor Pawn.  Who cares?  The Pawn is Queen food.
 
     So the Queen moves forward one square to take the Pawn and the Pawn
says, 'See I told you, you couldn't move left or right!'
 
     Those seeking proof of OT powers, or that the Queen can move left
and right, need to be there when the Queen DOES move left or right or
even diagonally FOR HER OWN REASONS.
 
     Then they will have their proof.
 
     There is no other way.
 
     Homer