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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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What turns it on will turn it off
by Phil Spickler
2 Feb 1999

In the name of the great mystery and the 10,000 things, permit me to 
send cheerful salutations to all my fellow travelers as we course 
along the middle way.

To begin: what turns it on will turn it off -- this is almost 
universally true when one is speaking of something like a light 
switch. Automobiles and the timing mechanisms for H-bombs aren't near 
as dependable. The way out is through -- I wonder if that's something 
out of the Pali Canon, or is limited to notions of Book I - style 
engram running.  I suppose what turns me on will also and inevitably 
turn me off, at least I hope so, 'cause I hate the idea of running my 
batteries completely down to dead, since my spiritual AAA card got 
lost awhile back.  But enough of the entertainment side of this 
message.  I should like to get down to brass tacks almost 
immediately, without a lot of dawdling around.

Prisons and Prison Planet: the Possibility of an Analogy

If you've ever spent much time in prison, or if you've ever visited 
prison out of either curiosity or missionary zeal, or better yet if 
you've just gone to the library and gotten a few books out about 
prisons and prisoners, one thing sticks out or protrudes in such a 
way as to be unavoidable.  This is to say that almost everyone, every 
prisoner you may ever talk to in a prison, feels that (a) they 
shouldn't be there; (b) they were wrongfully convicted, (c) of 
something that they are innocent of.  This is the no-fooling, 
gosh-awful amazing truth, whether they're on Death Row or just 
cleaning up roadside debris as a result of being convicted of driving 
under the influence: the answer you will get from a percentage 
approaching 100 is "Innocent -- didn't do it -- shouldn't be here." 
Modern justice or justice systems have endeavored in the recent 
decades to go to very great lengths to ensure that folks are 
convicted and imprisoned only after great care is taken to ensure 
that innocent folks aren't being falsely imprisoned or executed. 
Since we have a system, in the United States at least, that is called 
the adversarial system of justice, no matter what a person may have 
done, they are absolutely encouraged not to admit doing it and to 
plead "Not guilty" or "Innocent."  It has been said that this is a 
pretty wacky system of justice, and that what we should be doing is 
encouraging everyone, from small children right up to the worst 
felon, to come clean, tell the truth, take responsibility for the 
deed  and the punishment that goes with it, which gives the 
individual a chance to balance the scales of justice and clean up 
their karma and get prepped up for another shot at the dharma.

But anyway, let's pick up the hope of creating the aforementioned 
analogy.  Those reading this have probably already figured out what's 
coming next, and should be dictating hate messages and poison-pen 
letters to me as fast as possible, because I'm about to take a 
terribly unpleasant swipe at the notion that this is a prison planet 
and that we, the people of Earth, are really just a bunch of pretty 
nice sweet kindly little thetans who, through the awful deeds of 
intergalactic universe-wide SPs have been stuck here and had our 
senses and abilities so confused that we don't have a chance of 
making a prison break, or even conducting a good prison riot.  So the 
prison-planet theorists have decided that the condition we're in is 
that of victim, and that we've unfairly been given this giant 
motivator, and that we are innocent of any and all crimes that would 
cause us to deserve such an 'orrible sentence.

Well, that is one way of looking at things, and it certainly keeps 
some of our brethren (jailhouse lawyers, if you will) working night 
and day to solve the difficulties of the prison and make it possible 
for some, if not everyone, to go free, whether they deserve to or 
not.  I think a much healthier and more soul-satisfying approach to 
this whole notion of prison-planethood and why any or all of us may 
be imprisoned here can be found by taking a good look at Flow 2, or 
the overt track, which is the same message I might give if I dressed 
up in my ministerial costume and went to San Quentin at the 
invitation of the Association of Prisoners for Higher Understanding 
and Enlightenment and gave them a lecture that on the proper gradient 
would help them to look at enough cause and effect, the notion of the 
overt/motivator sequence, the idea of karma if you will, so that some 
of the enlightenment and relief that can be easily and regularly 
produced in human beings by acquainting them with what used to be 
called Grade 2 tech would become theirs.  And instead of spending 
their months or years totally confusing their universes by attempting 
to evade responsibility and refusing to confront the acts or actions 
which finally got them in that predicament, they could instead arrive 
in the present moment that they find themselves in and actually 
commence the steps toward a greater freedom by simply being able to 
have the current moment and living it as it is.

I would suggest to the folks who espouse the prison-planet 
explanation for Earth and its people that they've got the cart in 
front of the horse by attempting to quickly or suddenly shorten their 
sentence on this earthly prison, and would better spend their time 
looking for and correctly owning the deeds or misdeeds that would 
serve  (from the standpoint of responsibility) to enlighten them as 
to why they/we are here.  As I said, this is a very unpleasant 
analogy and suggests that if the prison-planet premise (watch that 
alliteration!) is true, then the reasons for us being here, 
individually and collectively, are in accordance with the notion of 
"Let the punishment fit the crime" (see Gilbert and Sullivan).

Now it's often true (or observable, I should say) that when something 
pretty awful happens to someone, they might at a later date say, "Gee 
whiz!  I wonder what I did to deserve that?"  That's often said 
facetiously, but it does start to approximate what they need to find 
out if they're ever going to be able to let go of the facsimiles of 
the big motivator.  If you've ever worked much as an auditor, you 
know that you can bring a big grin, a laugh, and very good indicators 
to almost anyone's face by just getting them to tell you about overts 
and withholds.  Folks quickly reach the point where they in fact kind 
of get proud of some of the awful things they've done, provided that 
you don't sit in judgment of them.

Well, so it would seem then, some of the folks here on Earth have 
concluded that Earth is a pretty fancy but horrible prison, and like 
prisoners in regular prisons there is a feeling that the sentence is 
incorrect, that the crime or crimes of which they were accused and 
convicted and sentenced for are not true, and that in essence they 
are innocent and wrongly and falsely imprisoned and should be 
released at once if possible.  At one point in time, Mr. Hubbard, 
feeling more like one of the gang, said something to the effect of 
"Who do you think we are?  Intergalactic criminals, pirates, 
saboteurs, con men, pimps, traitors, etc etc. etc. -- you get the 
idea."  I think I was there for that talk, and I didn't see a bad 
indicator in the house.  There was nothing like putting folks like us 
at cause to get good indicators.  If the guy can't find any crime 
he's committed to balance his punishment, I have found in some cases 
that you can get the person to invent or imagine what they might have 
had to have done and now be withholding to have encountered such a 
horrible fate.

Now I'm not opposed to games that come under the heading of "Let's 
pretend," and I think that "Let's pretend that this is a prison 
planet" can and could be an awful lot of fun and one which the 
game-makers and players, etc., could definitely get a lot of mileage 
out of, and it quickly and easily helps one to see who are the 
enemies or opponents and whether it's a takeoff on E.E. Doc Smith's 
"Lensman" series or whatever, it's good sport.  It might be 
considered bad form to talk about the invention as though it's not a 
game, and/or to turn it into, as Ron did, God help his immortal soul, 
when he issued those awful words in "Keeping Scientology Working," 
namely, "Scientology is a deadly serious business."  Oy veh is mir! 
(Yiddish for "Oh woe is me"): and so went the last chance for the 
game being fun.  Now it was just aberrated, and not fun, but deadly 
serious -- tsk, tsk, tsk.

Well, anyway, I'm hoping to hear from any or all who have an opinion, 
good or bad, some thoughts, true or false, regarding the analogy set 
forth in this poor paper, as well as anything else I may have said 
about such notions. I think it should still be possible to play the 
game called "Prison Planet" and have a lot of fun doing it, although 
I think it gets a lot less expensive and a lot more lighthearted and 
a lot more fun for those that play -- in fact it could become a very 
popular board or video game called "Prison Planet (TM)" -- but in any 
event, here's to the game and my fervent hope is that the information 
contained in this isn't so truthful that it acts as a game-ender.  I 
shall go so far as to say that anything and everything I've said 
tonight was just for fun, I was only kidding, and as anyone will tell 
you, I'm a notorious liar.

Love, Phil