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The following first appeared in the private email list IVy-subscribers,
which is available to all those who subscribe to the
printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
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More of the Truth Revealed
by Phil Spickler
17 Aug 00

Dear Thom,
         Thanks a million for helping to answer the question that Rowland
raised concerning regression techniques or therapies that existed prior to
Dianetics.  Thanks also for being so good as to give us the name of the book
and its author.  It's now on my must-read list.

       When your posting showed up, I had been just about to mention General
Semantics and its creator, Count Alfred Korzybski, and his brilliant (if
somewhat difficult-to-read) tome entitled _Science of Sanity_; all of his
stuff being directly antecedent to Dianetics, where such ideas as A=A were
originally formulated, not to speak of the fact that Korzybski also mentioned
using such therapies to help treat cases of "shell shock," battle fatigue and
neurosis, both during and after World War I.

          Ron, however much he might have learned from earlier techniques of
stress and shock reduction, as well as regular engram running pre-Dianetics,
did make some gigantic contributions, both to the idea and its possibilities,
as follows.  He put in place the idea that each one of us has a mind, and
that it's our property: it's not owned by God, country, the American or
international psychiatric and/or psychological associations or doctors in
general, who were supposed to be the only people licensed to examine your
mind and its contents.  So the old redhead claimed a new freedom for all of
us, which is the freedom to get familiar with what the mind is and to explore
and understand its content.  This was a giant leap forward for humanity, and
a chance to take back what should be our prime responsibility, which is to
know our own mind.

        He also put a lot of early ideas into a format that made it possible
for regular folks who possessed some fair degree of intelligence and who
could understand the model to use Dianetics freely to help themselves, their
friends, families, and business associates.  At last, a do-it-yourself
therapy!  That was another and outstanding breakthrough in the field of the
mind and its content, and another great freedom.

       And in many respects, and very importantly, acting as a consumer
advocate he took on the medical, psychiatric, psychological, psychoanalytic
monopoly, and he had the courage to expose many of their worst abuses -- and
believe you me, in 1950, these abuses would be considered incredible 50 years
later by the more humane possibilities that some of the aforementioned groups
are now bound by.

        So yes, it was quite an act of courageous consumer advocacy to take on
those entrenched poweres, and in the early days of Dianetics, at least a
couple of them went out of their way to do as much damage as they could to
Dianetics and its founder, since Dianetics not only challenged their whole
disarray of technology and fundamental assumptions about a human being and
the mind, but worst of all, Ron threatened to expose and bring to the light
of day their worst and most unpleasant abuses of the humankind that happened
to fall prey to their offices.  And finally, and perhaps most basic in this
world to all attacks, Dianetics loomed as a giant threat to the finances and
income of said groups.

       We shall leave out of this message the fact that in later years, after
Ron went through the GPM fighting these groups, he went through the crossover
and took on the character of the very thing that he had opposed in those
groups, which lends weight to one of Ron's aphorisms, namely, "All games are
aberrative -- some are fun."

        But anyhow, circa 1950, and notwithstanding any other criticisms one
might wish to make of Ron, Dianetics and its hope and promise and his
advocacy in taking on the mental health establishment were then and still
stand now as a monument to real courage and a strong intention to do
something for the human condition.

       So I will end with "let's continue with the notion of freedom and power
to the people" -- even if they don't always use it well, it's better than the
dictators and tyrants, both in government, religious institutions, and
elsewhere that want it all for themselves.

       Again, thanks to Thom Pearson for a great contribution to IVy-subs!

         --Phil