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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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To dream the impossible dream
by Phil Spickler
27 Aug 1998

Dear Friends,

I can see by the shaft of light that bounces off the Sultan's turret 
and briefly penetrates the deep gloom of my cave that the time to 
talk has come again, and so, let's speak of shoes and ships and 
sealing wax and Clears and OTs, or cabbages and kings.

And so a bit more about the '58 Clear -- sounds a bit like an 
automobile model, doesn't it?  Well, it's true; the '58 Clears were 
quite a beautiful Clear model, and may have been, whilst clear, the 
clearest Clears ever.  This may have had a lot to do with the fact 
that they were also known as "Help Clears," and during the period of 
the 19th Advanced Clinical Course, and later on the 20th ACC, there 
was a mood in the Washington Organization and amongst its public that 
took on a festive air of great hope and promise.

Prior to the spring of 1958, the E-meter, which had pretty much been 
the invention of a chap by the name of Volney Matheson, had been a 
rather large cumbersome affair with all kinds of dials and knobs and 
derived its power source by being plugged into a wall socket.  The 
meter, of course, had to step down that line voltage a long ways to 
prevent the electrocution of those daring enough to pick up the cans 
or various and assorted electrodes that went in and out of popularity 
in the early 50's.

To digress for a moment: Ron in the spring of '58, and in order to 
match the new prospects of clearing, had a series of discussions with 
a couple of Scientologists, one a staff member by the name of Don 
Breeding and another an old-timer by the name of Joe Wallace, who 
were both electronic whiz kids and knew a lot about transistors, on 
how to make simple low-powered circuits.  Out of this came the first 
transistorized Wheatstone bridge, powered by a nice rechargeable, 
small nickel-cadmium battery, which was then stuffed into a nice 
little blue metal rectangle with one dial, and thus was born the 
Hubbard Electrometer.  I was entrusted with the task, as Director of 
Administration in those early days, to order all the parts needed for 
these meters, to keep Joe Wallace and Don Breeding happily assembling 
the components, and to make sure that the baking of the blue enamel 
on the E-meter metal box in the oven of the kitchen of the 
organization on 19th Street didn't get so out of hand that the place 
went up in smoke (although a few people did complain of some rather 
strange smells in the air).  If I recall correctly, by the time of 
the 19th ACC, following the very high-toned Freedom Congress (summer 
of 1958), we had enough meters produced for all of the staff and 
students that required them, and the means of advertising and 
marketing them to the field.

Ron had also advertised that he would pay $10 (or something like 
that) to anyone out in the field who wanted to get rid of their 
old-fashioned meters, since they were in truth somewhat dangerous.  I 
can recall seeing some of the things that came in, and the sheer size 
of some of the gadgets was most humorous, looking like something out 
of an old Frankenstein movie.

Anyway, when you bring together a pretty large number of people who 
have pretty well gotten rid of all of the things that interfere with 
the free and ongoing expression of help (a small word meaning aid or 
assistance), and all of these people are living to create and sponsor 
and encourage help on all the flows imaginable, and you compare this 
to the normal sad state of human affairs, and the terrible hang-ups 
that people have, collectively and individually, on the subject of 
help, well, it seemed for awhile there that the real promise of a 
clear world was just around the corner.

As you may have noticed, here we are in 1998 and the world is still 
the world -- it is not Clear by Hubbardian standards, let alone the 
Scientology dynamic.   Well, if you had your heart set on a clear 
planet, you've probably been disappointed.  On the other hand, if 
over the years you'd worked real hard on the idea of having the world 
as it is and including yourself in that, you're probably doing quite 
well.

Whether we talk about a Dianetic Clear (1950), or a Help/Step 6 Clear 
(1958), or a 12-Goal Implant Clear (1963), or a Light Lock on OT 3 
Clear (1966), or a Natural Clear (1978), or an R3R Dianetic Clear or 
any other type of Clear, you may have noticed that they all depended 
on getting rid of something that was supposed to be standing between 
the single-unit You, the PC, and the state of no reactive mind.  Now 
in relation to the subject of Problems, it has long been noted that 
the ability to *have* a problem is a far more successful handling 
than getting rid of the problem.  Furthermore, just as in the physics 
of the MEST universe, Nature abhors a vacuum, so in the spiritual 
universe She likewise seems to abhor a spiritual vacuum and will fill 
it with . . . something.  And I do think it's important to note that 
all these Clears were based on getting rid of the Reactive Mind and 
whatever it was supposed to consist of, and that one-for-one, all of 
these Clears did not endure through time.  In fact, in some of the 
sadder but somewhat humorous cases, folks would go out the door one 
day Clear and back in to Qual the next day saying they didn't feel 
Clear anymore.  This led to all kinds of trouble and reasons given to 
explain what had happened, and up around '67-'68 the answer proved to 
be OT 3, The Wall of Fire.  And of course the guy couldn't understand 
why he couldn't stay Clear until he'd done OT 3.  And of course after 
OT 3 there was a difficult period up until 1978 and the appearance of 
NOTs , in which even OT 3 wouldn't keep the guy Clear -- in fact, in 
his endless efforts to use OT 3 to stay Clear, he might have ended up 
worse off than ever.

And now came the promise of NOTs  and a great relief from OT 3, which 
might be said to have been just a small jot in the midst of a much 
larger view of "what is your case" that was taken by NOTs  auditing.

Hearkening back to 1951-'52, Ron made it pretty clear in the book 
_History of Man_ that a human being was not simply a single-unit 
thetan with a body/mind reactive mind, but that a human being was a 
very complicated composite of all kinds of different things that had 
been mushed together in a balance of theta and MEST that yielded what 
we called a human being.

In the midst of all of this there might be considered one super-big 
soul that might like to call itself "I" or the real you, and if we 
could pull it out of all this other stuff, you'd have a Theta Clear. 
The Theta Clear probably felt kind of naked after all that and in 
order not to feel too lonely would probably try hard to continue as a 
human being.  So then, let's really work hardest on helping the guy 
to be a better player at the game called Life, who fully understands 
that Life, like all games, is aberrative, but also fun, and that we 
possess the tools, the equipment, the mechanics, for not only making 
the guy capable of playing the game of Life for all he's worth, but 
when he falls on his head and crashes, or gets beaten too thoroughly 
or too smashed up so that he starts sounding like a victim and 
doesn't want to play anymore but wants to be a spectator or worse, we 
can now restore his spirit of play and let him taste once again 
enough of his own immortality so as not to be too frightened of Life, 
and once again be able to get out there with the rest of the kids and 
play for all he's worth.  If he's had enough of Life and the game and 
wants off the great wheel, as the Buddhists might call it, we can 
even help him on the road out of existence.  And that, my friends, is 
a big WOW.

Now this information is bad for business, because you can see from 
the history of Scientology and the many movements that have sprung up 
in its wake, it's always necessary to market and sell the reason why 
last season's giant and incredible rundown did not prove to be The 
Rundown that would yield the result that would exist unchanged 
forever.  This information is bad for business because some people 
will cognite that if they wish to take responsibility for how Clear 
they and their dynamics are, they can do so.  Many folks, however, 
have been turned into consumers, rather than creators, of new models 
of Clearing and OTship, and they expect to go into the wisdom shop 
and buy the promises of the new model, rather than making their own. 
This is sort of OK, but it has led to a rather large business of 
selling and marketing spiritual WOWs, and it leaves us, at least many 
of us, as the type of resistive case that is seeking the same thrill 
attained on ______.  In other words, enlightenment junkies or 
addicts.  (Oooh, they're gonna hate me for this!).  Not all that 
different than all the drug users that we've poked fun at over the 
years because they were trying to become totally free using chemicals.

I pause to ask myself at this point why I am stating or suggesting 
such an unpalatable, unkind set of conclusions regarding these 
matters.  I guess it's the desire or hope that I will find some 
agreement out there, or even better, that I shall find out I am 
completely full of alfalfa manure and that those that package, 
promote, market and sell wisdom are really right, and that the axiom 
about Time and what happens to all things that are put onto the time 
stream is false, and that perfectly stable imperishable states of 
Clear (and if you will, OT) are possible and if your time and money 
hold out you can get 'em.

On the other hand, I don't think I've covered anything that is really 
so awfully difficult to confront, and in no way suggests that the 
possibilities inherent in taking responsibility for how clear you and 
your dynamics are going to be is anything other than good news. 
Plus, if you wouldn't mind, please send me all the money you're going 
to save going this other route, and I'll build a giant marble cave 
lined with golden walkways and guarded by sheep in the costumes of 
Beefeaters and Swiss knights, and the whole place will be incredibly 
enormous, and after you get through the last set of gilded golden 
doors, you'll find me sitting on my large behind watching Monday 
Night Football, drinking Coca-Cola and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken 
with a very strange smile upon my face.

Now then, the last is just kidding, as you know, so don't really send 
me all that money -- instead, consider it yours and do as you will 
with it.  You could set up a charity for all the churches and things 
you're going to be putting out of business, if you feel like it.  And 
remember, it has been said that he who laughs last, laughs best -- 
let that be you.   Love, Phil

P.S.  As a suggestion to the wisdom shops, I should like to recommend 
that they devote themselves to dealing with new people who have never 
been exposed to Dianetics and Scientology, or the like, to give them 
a sound basis and a good start on the road to a greater freedom, with 
the expectation that they will reach a point where they will have the 
tools and the responsibility to go on on their own, rather than 
becoming the perpetual property of the wisdom school.  As for the 
old-timers that need it, sell them some good repair and rehab and a 
good kick in the butt to get them going again -- no more ownership by 
the shop.