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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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Out of the ashes came the phoenix
by Phil Spickler
29 Oct 00

       Speaking of Phoenix (as in Arizona), 'way back in an earlier century,
the 20th to be exact, and around the mid-1950's, L. Ron Hubbard and Company
were located in Phoenix, Arizona, here in the U.S. of A, and Ron whilst there
gave a bunch of public lectures that were intended to appeal to just regular
folks (pre-Scientologists, if you can stomach that expression) that in truth
were pretty darn easy to understand and contained some real gems of useful
information.

         A lot of their appeal I think rested in the fact that Ron was pretty
young (in his mid-40's), definitely high-toned, and in those days exhibited
quite a sense of humor, plus if it ever might be said that he was having a
streak of brilliance, it was certainly in evidence at that time.  I haven't
heard the series of lectures in quite a few years, but one of the things that
he talked about was "What is our pay as beings for mucking around here in the
physical universe?"; and he went on to make the case that the real "pay" for
a being, the thing that truly determines how rich or poor we are, is
communication.

        From there I think he went on to elaborate on the possibiities and
potentials that were available to anyone who was in good enough shape to be
considered a good communication terminal -- all the things that such a person
could reach or attain to, and all the things that would be reaching or coming
to such a person; and he made, I thought, a very good case for that being a
very simple way to see just how poor or rich a being might be.

        And he went on to say that many people here in the world haven't been
paid in a long time; many of them don't know or have any idea who the
paymaster is, as well as the most valuable currency of all, which is to be in
a state of good communication on all the different flows and certainly across
the eight dynamics (those eight simple and arbitrarily defined divisions that
add up in their totality to that which may be called Life).

        Ron had written a book in the mid-50's called _Dianetics '55_ which is
really all about communication and how it's possible to collect all your back
pay in that department and obtain the future richnesses that come with a real
understanding of how to create ARC.  It's horribly simple, of course, and
extremely powerful information; undercuts just about every possible
complexity following said notion, and is definitely something that is
achievable by the vast numbers of our fellow inhabitants here on this planet.

       But so much for all of that.  In another one of his taped lectures, he
takes up the subject of how the cure can become the illness; how the solution
can turn into the problem.  It answers questions like "Would the medical
doctors of the world be happy if they all woke up tomorrow morning and found
that there was no more sickness or disease on Planet Earth?," or "Would the
lawyers of the world be happy to find out some morning that the peoples of
the earth no longer required their services, that folks were much more prone
to being honest with one another and just working out the details of their
differences with love and understanding?"

       Or, just suppose that starting early next week, there was no more crime
amongst the peoples of Earth.  Would this cause all the police departments
and all the judges and courts of the world to dance in the streets with joy
that there was no more crime or malfeasance?  Or finally, would all the
psychologists and psychiatrists and Scientologists and Dianeticists and
Knowledgists and NPR-ists etc. etc. dance for joy if it came to pass that the
people of Earth were very sane and clear-like and routinely could and did
discover and acquire quite a bit of wisdom on their own, as well as being
self-correcting and -improving folk?

       And last but not least, would all the priests, ministers, rabbis, and
folks that make up the religious figures of all religions, great and small,
on this planet be happy to know that people were their own source of
religious experience and had no need of churches or specific religions to
achieve these benefits?

        Well, I guess I've named enough possibilities here to make a case, and
as my two readers have quickly divined, none of the aforementioned groups
would be happy or dancing for joy or be ecstatic to find out that their
identity and the services that they deliver were no longer needed.  You might
think, if you want to be naive, again mentioning the doctors of Earth, that
they would be overjoyed to find out that there is no more disease.  But I can
assure you, if you care to perform the experiment of chatting with your
doctor, or any random doctor you may come across, that if you propose such a
hypothetical possibility, it will not bring in good indicators.

       And understandably, people who have created a specific identity to
serve Mankind in one way or another are hardly ever, or never, pleased to
find out that they are no longer needed, or that they are actually
postulating that they will be needed by the ongoing creation of all the "bad"
things they are dedicated to curing or eliminating or solving, etc. etc.

        Enough for now.  In a soon-to-follow article, I plan to relate this to
what happens when an individual, in an effort to serve their universe, takes
on the task of getting rid of all the "bad" things in it or solving all of
its sub-optimum problems or determining to replace ignorance with bliss or
wage a war on not-knowingness and reactivity; and the long-term effects of
such an intention, and the identity or identities that exist to serve such
noble work.

       As usual, I've probably said 'way too much, and all you bright folks
out there will have already understood where this is going, and so by the
time it gets printed out in further electronic e-mail form you should be
properly bored and overrun by what you already know.  So from here on out
I'll attempt to keep it light and short, although I assure you it won't be
easy to do.

       So long for now -- I remain, your most disobedient servant,
       Phil