It was 1994, aboard the Scientology cruise vessel MV Freewinds. It was my first trip to the ship and I signed up for the ship-only course “Secrets of the MEST universe” (MEST = Matter, Energy, Space & Time). It was a wonderful course – struck right to the core of my nerdiness. It enhanced my understanding of physics, a field I have been deeply in love with since my childhood.
Plugging away in the course room, I encountered a word I didn’t know and looked it up in a dictionary. It had a couple of different definitions that both could fit – but the meaning would be very different depending on which definition I used. I called the supervisor.
“I don’t know which of these two definitions to use. And the meaning of the sentence will be very different if I pick that one over the other“, pointing in the dictionary.
Scott looked at me “What do you think?”
“Well, I think it would be that one“, moving the finger to the second definition. Scott looked at me, said “Thank you” and walked away.
“Must have been lucky“, I thought.
The next day I was faced with a similar situation, only this time it was even more difficult to figure out which definition to use.
“Scott, come over here… there is this word…blah-blah-blah“. Scott countered “Well, what do you think?“. Me: “Oh, I think it’s this definition“.
“Thank you“, turning around and attended to another student.
Three is a charm, and an hour or so later I raised my hand. Scott looked over. “Nah, forget it“, taking my hand down. Scott smiled and said “Now you get it“.
For this and many other reasons, he is the best supervisor I’ve ever had.
You just got to take responsibility for your own observations, your own viewpoints and your own learning.
In the article “How to study Scientology” (Ability Magazine, Feb 1959), Hubbard writes:
“You are asked to examine the subject of Scientology on a critical basis—a very critical basis.”
“So then we ask you to look at Scientology, study it, question it, and use it as we present it and you will have discovered something for yourself. And in so doing you might well discover a lot more.”
“When you have applied it as it should be, and applied as it is taught at the school, and still find it unworkable, it is your privilege to question it and, if you like, reject it.“
Geir Isene - uncut 
Apply Scientology?!?! Heretic!! People are to pay for their Bridge and then blame it all on CoS and Hubbard! I would remove HGCs altogether. Who needs PCs? Train and co-audit, or else rot…
That last para – last 2 actually – shows clearer than anything else that Scientologists that have freed themselves from the cult are the only true Scientologists around. I so laugh now at how I used to do weird mental gymnastics when trying to apply some nonsensical policy or order because it “was command intention” or even “because it is LRH policy”
Trusting oneself is a step by step process. It needs a lot of encouragement and an environment that is free of evaluation and invalidation..
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Here’s an only somewhat related, but hopefully interesting, story …
It was 1984, and I had just joined staff at our small, local Class IV Org. I had been blown away from reading LRH’s books a few years earlier, and it had completely reversed my downward trajectory as a high school student (not to mention my life) while I was a teenager. So in the middle of going to college three years later, I decided to take the plunge and signed a 2.5 year contract for staff at my local Org. I did college by day, and staff by night.
When one joins staff, one of the first things that one does (or is supposed to do) is to study the staff orientation material — the “Staff Statuses”. My major in college was engineering (eventually computer science). As it happened, another guy — Mark — had recently read Dianetics and had just signed up for the HQS course. I had talked to Mark briefly at some point, and found out that he had just gotten an engineering degree. He was a very intelligent, inquisitive and energetic type of guy. Mark was pretty brand new to Scientology and was just getting his feet wet. He really liked Dianetics, and was curious about Scientology.
One day, while we were both in the same course room studying, Mark was having a horrible time of it. He was groggy and falling asleep and was practically falling off of his chair. The supervisor had a course room full of students, and had tried finding Mark’s MUs (misunderstood words), but Mark just was not improving. The supervisor took me aside and asked me if I would spend some time helping Mark “find his MUs”.
But I knew that Mark had no concept of what an “MU” was and that just robotically looking for an MU would do no good. So I sat across from Mark, and asked him what was going on. He said something like: “I don’t know, I’m a really good student, and I just don’t know why this is happening. Maybe I didn’t have enough sleep. It doesn’t make any sense, cause I wasn’t tired before getting here.”
So I tried to explain the idea of an MU to him, but Mark was not having it. He was just so groggy, that there was absolutely no way that all this sleepiness and grogginess was because of “words”. No way.
So I said, “Mark, you’re an engineer right?” “Yes,” he said groggily. And I said, “Tell me THE subject in engineering that you are an absolute expert in.” A little less groggily he said, “Well, airplane engines”. I said, “Tell me everything you know about airplane engines.”
And bam! He sat up in his chair, and instantly and energetically started telling me all about airplane engines. He was as awake as could be and just went on and on. He loved them so much. And right in the middle of his talking, I said, “Mark, you’re not groggy anymore”. And he looked at me a little stunned and said, “Wow, you’re right. Well … I … I wonder why … I … I just know a lot about airplane engines I guess …” And I said, “It’s the words, Mark. You know the words behind the subject.” And at that point, he had one of those “ah-hah” moments and the possibility that there might actually be something to this Scientology thing became real to him. And he also became a little more willing to find possible misunderstood words behind the subject of Scientology.
The fact is, if the supervisor had seen what I did, she probably would have scolded me for “not applying standard word clearing tech”. But I just knew that “clearing up his MUs” was not going to do it. He had to get what an MU was and how it could create what he was going through, before he would really benefit from any of it.
I don’t know if I applied “standard Scientology” to the situation … but I felt like I definitely applied Scientology. 🙂
“You just got to take responsibility for your own observations, your own viewpoints and your own learning.”
Amen to that.
And funny thing, wouldn’t that be KRC – Knowledge, Control, Responsibility?
Once I learned about that triangle, and as I recall, it is the senior triangle to ARC, I worked on it too. It came naturally to do so but it also yielded so much gain when I put some focus on it!
I really think that when a person reduces everything down to “LRH says” and therefore it must be so, or rotely agrees with someone else’s interpretation, then the KRC triangle takes a dive and along with it willy nilly so does the ARC triangle.
I recently realized that “considerations” are more like ASSEMBLY (the machine language) where mind is concerned. “Beliefs” are more like C++ (a higher level language), and “thoughts” are more like this message.
It is consistency at all three levels that leads to UNDERSTANDING. This is ARC with self, others and the whole universe.
This is also KRC. Knowledge is made up of the arrangement of considerations, beliefs and thoughts. Responsibility is to maintain consistency in this arrangement. Control is to adavance subsequent considerations, beliefs and thoughts that are consistent with the existing arrangement.
Am I making sense! I wonder…
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Yup, and watch out for the next blog post.
I love you guys! This is becoming my favorite blog!
Cool 🙂
I was lucky cause my genetic lineup is Irish and I use that to the max. Never try to tell an Irish person what to think or how to see something when it’s pure blarney. :-)))