Author Geir Isene

Merry X-Mas!

Geir Isene 34 Comments

Celebrating another year of blogging. Celebrating a year of hefty contributions from the regular readers here with a third blog post racking up more than 1000 replies. Celebrating free thinking, free will and being a work in progress. Celebrating X-Mas!

Time to pause, chill, read a book, chew on some food (for thought), embrace the family, the traditions and the slow motion of time. Time to go Nisse and put on a Santa costume and visit your customers and to give them a hug.

nissene

Brendan and Geir goes nissing

After X-Mas there are a couple blog posts lined up – one about goals and dreams, another about evaluation.

Take care and have a joyful X-Mas!

What worked? And Why?

Geir Isene 384 Comments

This blog post is inspired by one of the many excellent contributors here, our One and Only Maria.

In my blog post “Scientology thought experiment“, I asked about what the future could hold if Scientology as described by L. Ron Hubbard would conquer the world. My conclusion went like this:

The CoS will expand into every corner of the world as it cannot do anything but expand per policy. It aims to free every person on Earth. And by the use of Scientology tech since that is actually the only way to set someone free. Everyone should then be a scientologist and would be on the org board of the CoS. They would then have to be on a regular course schedule per week and would be subject to ethics actions if not. If they do any out ethics in life, they would again be subject to the ethics tech. They would train and they would go up the Bridge. They would enter into leadership positions in the government and in all spheres of influence. And again, if they did anything unethical, they would be subject to ethics, tech and admin. They would be required to use policy to handle admin situations, and as LRH admin tech is in fact the only workable admin tech there is, using anything else would have to come under the heading of squirreling or out-ethics. Thus admin tech would be in use most everywhere. Leaders would lead according to LRH scriptures as doing otherwise is again counter intentional and out ethics. It should only be natural that they would want to be ethical as LRH has laid out, use the tech standardly and apply policy appropriately. Out ethics is treated with the ethics gradient and there would be a swifter justice system than the cumbersome judicial system we see in our society today. As no Scientologist could take another Scientologist to court (forbidden by policy), then our system of Law and Order would naturally be replaced by LRH’s ethics and justice policies. Every citizen would deem it only natural to write KRs on any outpoint they see, be it in the work place, in the Church structure, amongst friends or in families. PTSness is thus reported as per policy as it is a crime to do otherwise. No criticism of Scientology would ever happen as that is a suppressive act, and no one would leave Scientology and tell about it as that, too would be suppressive. No one would create any problems, and no one would have any unkind thoughts of LRH, Mary Sue or the CoS Management. Wars would be handled before any ARC break could escalate to that level of conflict. No drugs would be peddled, and the insane would be given the Introspection Rundown and then be given the proper auditing actions to again return to the Bridge and continue on their road to freedom. There would be no splinter groups as the CoS would hold it’s LRH given monopoly on all the tech. Psychiatry would long since have been obliterated and the same with psychology or any other practice targeted by LRH’s orders, advices or policy. Other religions would be tolerated, but only to the point where they would not in any way interfere with the progress up the Bridge for any individual. Christians would be crammed according to the Class VIII tapes as LRH says Jesus Christ did not exist. People would be free to worship their version f the 8th dynamic as LRH touched very little upon that subject. Since we would have a perfectly run society, KSW and Keep Admin Working would be enforced to ensure that no working installation would ever be tampered with and fall astray. It would be a society in harmony, of fun, laughter, ARC and respect for LRH. It would be a world without war, criminality and insanity. It would be a world that all of us have desired since millions of years.

Maria summed up the big thread with:

I’d like to suggest that this OP is not a thought experiment at all. It is a logic experiment. It runs in fits and starts because it is attempting to construct a world out of illogical and fallacious thinking. The C of S IS the real thought experiment, carried out in physical reality.

And then she proposed her own thought experiment that several contributors voted to put up as a separate blog post:

I am conducting my own thought experiments in knowing how to know. Part of that has been sorting out EXACTLY what were the effective agencies of change that resulted genuine “wins” or insights while engaging in Scientology processes. I am not interested in theories or models. I am interested in WHAT OCCURRED that effected / resulted in a change of consciousness / reality in ways seen to be beneficial.

Current questions I am examining are:

  1. Why was the communication course, circa 1976 to 1978 so life changing for many?
  2. What exactly happens at the point of cognition/EP of a process?
  3. Why is 2WC so beneficial and under what conditions?
  4. What exactly happens when there is a floating needle?
  5. What exactly happens when a person has VGIs? i.e. what have they “acquired” that produces such a massive sense of satisfaction?
  6. What is the ultimate punishment – i.e. when we want to really punish someone, what do we do to really PUNISH them. Death penalty doesn’t count – it ends the game. I am thinking that by observing what the ultimate punishment is, we can extrapolate its opposite and work out what the ultimate reward probably is.
  7. What activities will invariably result in bad indicators? And what are the opposite activities to those?
  8. For those who have moments of extreme “illumination” or “enlightenment,” what happened? What shift occurred? How do you see the world differently?

And so the question becomes: What worked? And why?

Describe anything – plain and simple with WOIM (new version: 1.6)

Geir Isene 8 Comments

Another update to your favorite descriptive system.

From the ad: “WOIM is an Outliner, a TODO-list solution, a project management tool, a Business Process Management aid, a data modeler, a Use Case facilitator, a way to describe the human DNA or the history of the universe 😉 It can also encrypt your lists and be used as a very structured  password safe.”

WOIM (Warnier/Orr/Isene/Möller) is a plain text way to describe whatever. Used together with the greatest text editor invented (VIM) and the WOIM plugin, you have an elegant solution on your PC.

The new version 1.6 includes the possibility of adding pre-formated or literal blocks of text inside a WOIM list. With this you can add blocks of programming code or other fancy text without having to worry about WOIM markup inside such a block.

As usual, the VIM plugin for WOIM lists follows suit, and is now available in version 1.6 as well. Go frolic.

A Scientology thought experiment

Geir Isene 1,130 Comments

Here’s one for the readers with at least some familiarity with Scientology. Expanding on my recent blog post on L. Ron Hubbard’s Administrative Technology and adding the whole gamut of Ethics Technology and mental/spiritual Technology:

What would the world be like if Scientology totally won out?

What if there was a World Organizing Board and the whole of our society structure was utterly and completely run by LRH policy and ethics, and where tech ruled the scene?

How would the world at large look like? How would the world function? Countries? Democracy? Religions?

How would our daily lives be? Would family life be different?

What would we do at work? On vacation?

Anything we couldn’t do?

What would be significantly different?

Pitch in and help me paint a realistic picture of a Scientology World.

On L. Ron Hubbard’s Administrative Technology

Geir Isene 372 Comments

When I posted a link to my latest blog post (“Why do we struggle“) on a independent Scientology mailing list, one of the readers responded to this paragraph:

“Never mind that there is not one single example where LRH admin tech has made it as good or better than comparable organizational methodologies. But in the minds of those who blindly accepted the data presented, LRH admin tech is still the greatest. Even as Hubbard himself so rightly points out that one should look for the real results, not the PR or the smooth talk or the words, scientologists continue to buy the PR hook, line and sinker.”

… with this:

“ There are two areas where LRH admin tech worked. First The growth of the missions. Their job was to sell intangibles, and high priced intangibles at that. And they succeeded, and expanded. They in fact became more successful than the Orgs.”

This got me thinking… And then I realized that this only validates the thesis that LRH Admin Tech does not work. In fact, the more you use it, the more an organization will fail. At the very top, we find perhaps the most failing of all Scientology organizations, the RTC (Religious Technology Center) headed by David Miscavige. RTC is the most adamant and insistent on the application of every aspect of LRH Admin Tech to the letter. To the dot. Below that, another failing organization, the Scientology Executive Strata. Just read the many descriptions from people who worked there for years and you will see how much of a failure those organizations are and have been.

As we move down the hierarchy, the autism regarding following LRH policies to the last comma and period slowly dwindles, but it isn’t until you get to some rogue mission that you find something resembling normal success rate compared to other areas of society.

And when you look at missions back in the 60’s and 70’s when there was less LRH Admin Tech in existence, then you find some good cowboy successes. Running as they wanted and in the face of pressure from the above. They succeeded despite the LRH Admin Tech and not because of it.

So my answer to my fellow mailing list member read like this:

“Come to think of it, the missions growing in the early days are the perfect example of LRH Admin Tech being a failure. Because it supplies the gradient scale of: The more you use LRH Admin Tech, the more you will fail… All the way from the top (RTC) and the way out to the missions and even further out to the missions back when there was less Admin Tech in existence and even further out to organizations that have no knowledge of the Admin Tech at all. The gradient scale is there.”

As a whole, LRH Admin Tech is a failure. At best it is simply out-dated. But in general I see it creating over-bureaucratic machines turning individual intelligence, responsibility and creativity into robotism. The early Scientology missions managed to retain their integrity and creativity. When the management finally stomped it out, the missions were suffocated.

The person on the mailing list also added this:

“The other area where LRH admin tech worked was in Evaluation. At least it did sometime.”

I have seen no real evidence where LRH evaluation tech as a whole body of knowledge has outwitted other comparable tech or common sense. I would like to hear about cases where it was used and the results were clearly and unquestionably above the norm.

All of this is not to say that there are no merits to LRH admin tech. There are pieces of that technology I have seen work and that I continue to use; Like:

  • how to evaluating people in a recruitment process (look for earlier proven results rather than personality)
  • “look, don’t listen” (a manager should look for real results rather than only listening to what someone says)
  • several issues on courage and purpose that does wonders in raising morale (as can be seen in the church as people go to great lengths to follow orders beyond their own good judgment – so use the issues with care)
  • LRH was perhaps the first to conceive the whole organizational board as a process. This is a stroke of genius although I do not agree with it being done that way.
  • policies on how to cut down internal “noise” and unproductivity in an organization
  • policies on how to evaluate results and statistics (use with care as it is presented somewhat simplistic)
  • policies on how to make production flow (parallels the concepts in Lean but should be used with caution in an organization where creativity is important)
  • the Admin Scale
  • … and more; I recommend reading the LRH books on administration if only for tips on how to handle certain situations, but not for wholesale usage

There is an organization called WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises) who’s mission is to spread the use of LRH Admin Tech in enterprises and in governments and through that recruit scientologists for the church. Again – Use with caution.

Why do we struggle?

Geir Isene 108 Comments

A friend of mine asked me to write a blog post illuminating why so many ex-members of the Church of Scientology struggle in life. And why I seem to better handle the transition to real life from the strict rule-based confinement of toeing the Scientology party-line.

It is well documented that scientologists inside the church is struggling – despite the daily polishing of a PR facade, the following of the supposed-tos and putting on the right attitude, smile and clothing. While the structure and the rules of the church will compensate for individual abilities, when one leaves the crutches, the limping begins.

I have covered this from one angle before. Let me expand.

I have struggled. I have been in pain. Because I compromised with my integrity during my 25 years in the Church of Scientology. And I have struggled with getting back to Me just as much as I compromised with Me.

Fortunately I retained my ability to judge for myself better than most of the scientologists I know. Most of them are still in the church.

Shedding what data I somewhat blindly accepted and regaining Myself more fully has been an interesting exploration. And it continues as a joyful exploration of free will. Love and passion has become stronger and people have become more amazing.

When I left in 2009, I had personal meetings with 25 close scientologist friends to let them know my reasons for departing with the organization. One of them is a business owner. He’s doing quite good and confided in me that he was sick and tired of the church staff telling him how to run his business – because “none of them would be able to run a hot dog stand in the middle of Oslo“. The staff thought they knew how to run his business. In fact they knew how to run any business – even the largest enterprises on the planet. Because they were armed with L. Ron Hubbard’s administrative technology – the ultimate in organizational tools. Never mind that they run a church that would be bankrupt were it not for zero staff pay and pure donations from squeezed parishioners. Never mind that there is not one single example where LRH admin tech has made it as good or better than comparable organizational methodologies. But in the minds of those who blindly accepted the data presented, LRH admin tech is still the greatest. Even as Hubbard himself so rightly points out that one should look for the real results, not the PR or the smooth talk or the words, scientologists continue to buy the PR hook, line and sinker.

Buying some data without you yourself seeing it is actually true is a slippery slope. When it becomes a habit, you’re in for some real trouble. Whereas it can work to acquire robotic views inside a robotic system such as in the military, out in real life society, robotism doesn’t get you very far. That is why so many struggle when they leave the church. They struggle to regain Self – their personal judgment and integrity.

Most ex-scientologists struggle. There is even whole communities built up around the concept of “ex scientologists” where some continue to moan and bitch even a decade after they left. And it seems the higher in the church hierarchy and the longer they were in, the more they struggle. I have seen plenty of top brass within the church struggling to hold a decent job after they left. Well, the closer to the guy at the helm, the more you are coerced or forced to abandon your own critical thinking faculties. And the more work you have cut out for yourself in finding your way back to You.

The more I think about it, the more weird it seems to have a set path to freedom.

Frankly, You have the sole responsibility of finding your own path to your own freedom. Be inspired by others, scientists and gurus, mom and dad. But make sure that you take it as inspiration and not a supplantation of You. And may these words be nothing more than inspirational.

“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.” (Blaise Pascal)

Nerdvana – second circle

Geir Isene 3 Comments

When I first saw the light of Nerdvana and converted from Windows to Linux some 12 years ago, I was eager to explore my newfound freedom. I tried some 30+ Window Managers until I settled on Pekwm. For 7 years I was a loyal Pekwm user, and as some may have noticed I am enthusiastic about the tools I use. I tweaked it to perfection until Pekwm was exactly as I wanted it.

One of the perks of running a company like FreeCode is that I get to work with some amazing tech people. The other day Kim Tore showed me his Window Manager (yeah, it was like “I show you mine if you show me yours”). It was awesome. It was “tiling” – where the WM takes automatic care of window placement. But with a config file in Lua(!), it wasn’t awesome enough. But my interest was sparked, like back in the days of exploration where I was on my big WM hunt.

Then I found i3. What a find! It’s the best yet – clean, well documented and behaving just like I could have dreamed of. It’s fucking amazing.

If you are interested in a Window Manager you can customize to your hearts content with a clean config file and excellent docs, you should take a look at i3. As they say on the website: “Do What I Mean. Good Docs. Clean Code. Sounds good? Then you will love i3.” And you will. For reference; here’s my dotiles; .xsession, .i3/config, conkyrc. Enjoy 🙂

Crazy and Amazing

Geir Isene 284 Comments

Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Leo Tolstoy, Mozart, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Munch, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Ernest Hemingway, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Georg Cantor, Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig Boltzmann, Martin Luther, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kurt Gödel, Michael Faraday, Alan Turing, John Keats, Princess Diana, Richard Wagner, Victor Hugo, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, J. K. Rowling, Friederich Nietzsche, Ingmar Bergman…

…were all more or less insane. Yet they contributed greatly in their fields. They ware amazing people creating some amazing results for this world. Should we seek to dampen such creative insanity? Would the world be better off if they were not insane? Should we seek to uniform or inspire diversity – even though we may not like the diversity that is catalyzed by our inspiration?