************* The following message is relayed to you by [email protected] ************ Reprinted from International Viewpoints #38 with permission of Antony Phillips
Exploring the Difficulty vs. Finding the Right Process by Frank Gordon, USA As a general rule, in order for any process to be effective in helping to solve a problem or relieve bypassed charge, it must focus attention directly on the problem. If attention is on the e-meter, auditor, or a predetermined "standard" process, then it is off target, and will increase rather than reduce the charge. Matching the process with the problem I've been run on processes that didn't "make sense" to me. When that happened, "My main concern became to answer the question in such a way that the auditor would stop asking it."1 And "In the past, I've seen them (the CCHs) as 'meaningless.' Follow orders, dig a hole and fill it up. Like rote school work, do it; pass the course, get your grade and go on to another grade, a meaningless grind."2 As far as I'm concerned, for a process to work, I need to understand how and why it will help me with a particular difficulty. This means exploring the problem enough to see how the process applies. And ".. something that is not sufficiently emphasized about Hubbard's own approach to auditing, is how he led into a process and made it real and important to the pc."3 Attention fixed on the process Attention can become fixed on a search for "the right process," and pulled away from a more careful as-issing of the difficulty. This became clearer to me after reading a replay4 of an experience reported on the TROM-List which echoed one of my own. Here is a brief excerpt: "Well, I was having a really bad persistent PT problem the other day that had really gotten out of hand .. so why don't I do some RI .. now that I have done some RI, why don't I timebreak6 the incident that I'm upset about, so I did that .. I figured I would do some creative RI to finish off .. I got frustrated .. I guess frustration is a change so that I should keep doing this until there is no more change .. the frustration got worse and I felt really awful .. I went back to the office .. after I got there I quickly got overwhelmed by this PT problem and actually broke down and cried a few times .. I went to bed, tossed and turned for quite a while .. although I felt very good while timebreaking and at the tail end of doing RI, doing the TROM didn't seem to help my emotional state at all afterwards... In fact afterwards I started getting very bizarre ideas on how to deal with the situation."7 My attention on finding the right process After reading this, I recalled a similar experience. A friend of mine got sick, and I felt it was somehow my fault. I really felt horrible, and went through The Book of Case Remedies trying different approaches. Nothing worked, and I just felt worse and began to have burning hot spots in my body. I had lost weight and obviously looked bad, since another friend asked me, "Are you dieting or dying?" My attention directly on the difficulty Then I gave up looking for some "right process" and simply lay down and thought, "OK, I'm going to let whatever comes up, come up, no matter how horrible it is." As I let go, a scene of what looked like a Portuguese fishing village came up. It had white buildings with red-tiled roofs and was on the ocean. As the scene appeared, I had the feeling that I was supposed to be the protective spirit for that village and had failed to protect them. As I had this thought, the hot spots suddenly vanished and I felt fine! Such a simple action, and such a vast relief! It was miraculous! Similar experiences I have had similar experiences, some of which I reported in "The Release of Backflow to Suppression," IVy 19, p.25. One paralleled the above: "At one time alone in my apartment, I had become almost frantic .. so I lay down and let come up whatever came up. "Finally the thought 'Destroy myself appeared and with it a slight loosening. This was certainly a negative and destructive thought, but I was interested in the accompanying relaxation and probed this area and expanded it. Surprisingly, in about 3 minutes I felt fine again." In the cases above, it seems that looking elsewhere for a process (or solution), was ineffective. In my case, I found it better to directly explore the upset. The above examples are not given to denigrate the value of TROM with its running of RI, time-breaking and postulates, or The Book of Case Remedies; but to emphasize the importance of first closely contacting and exploring the problem. Resolving the actual area of difficulty or by-passed charge is primary; the method chosen is secondary. The value of non-resistance I've read about an aspect of the martial arts where you don't resist, but keep control by pushing the other person in the direction he's already going. This can throw him off balance. The technique of non-resistance was also used effectively in the political realm by Gandhi, and by Civil Rights workers for African-American voting rights in the United States.2 Observations by others John McMaster in "Effortlessly Creating a Safe Space," IVy 34, p.18, recognized the importance of directly exploring the difficulty, and had good results when he let the pc choose the question to work on. He asked, "What question would you like me to ask you so you could find out what you're looking for?" Then listed, got a good question, asked it until the pc wanted to change it, and then asked that. Flemming Funch noted in an e-mail that ex-Scientologists could be difficult to work with, because they had preconceived notions about what Standard Procedure should be used. Here again, attention was shifted off the difficulty and onto a supposed solution. Geoffrey Filbert in Excalibur Revisited noted that before running any correction list, he would first ask the pc what he thought needed to be repaired. Hubbard himself, although he set up rote routines for others to make up for their lack of understanding of what was important, essentially personalized and tailored his procedures to the needs of the pc in front of him with his emphasis on the importance of live two-way communication. Hubbard's reasons for rote processes is given on a tape, "The Fundamentals of Auditing," 11 January 1955: "Well, you know the fundamentals .. If you were capable of applying the axioms of scientology immediately to the problem of another fellow human being, you could theoretically dream up enough processes to satisfy adequately every single condition which you would meet. But it has been found by experience that auditors do not do this. So we have codified processes."1 Summary A process, if not on-target and poorly selected, can actually act as a suppressor. So it is not primarily a case of selecting a predetermined "right process," but allowing the appropriate process to arise from thoroughly exploring the nature of the charge. One way I found of doing this was to "Let come up, whatever comes up, no matter how 'horrible' it is." 1 See "Objectives (10)," IVy 36, p.37. 2 Above, p.38. 3 Above, p.37. 4 TROM-l is an internet list open to anyone. At the moment a number of earlier communications are being repeated (replayed) as well as participants commenting and helping each other with regard to making TROM work. This one was played on 29 March 1995. 5 RI in TROM refers to the Remedy of Importance which roughly parallels the Repair of Havingness. 6 "The general action of simultaneously viewing a 'then' and a 'now' scene is called Timebreaking." TROM, p.14. 7 This report shows that attention was primarily on the process. This is shown by the questions he had about the right process: "..so why don't I do some RI .. now that I have done some RI, why don't I timebreak the incident .. I got frustrated .. I guess frustration is a change so that I should keep doing this until there is no more change." Nowhere in this section was attention directly on the difficulty. 1 Eugene T. Gendlin in his paperback Focusing considers this sense of bodily relaxation as a positive guide towards resolving a confusion or upset. My "Let come up whatever comes up," followed by exploring any sense of loosening, was my version of what Gendlin calls "focusing." 2 Non-resistance is similar to ending a game in TROM by adopting a complementary postulate. It is also similar to the way John McMaster handled aggressive interviews about Scientology designed to make him angry. He remained unruffled and pleasantly friendly. 1 Quoted in L. Kin, From the Bottom to the Top: The Way Out. p.37. http://www.ivymag.org/IVy.html IVy, the familiar name for "International Viewpoints" is an on paper magazine, sent five times a year Internationally to those who subscribe. Here is the place to look if you are interested in using Freezone Clearing and Enhancement Technology to help yourself and others. Here is the place to look if you are interested in scientology technology, used independently (outside the sphere of influence of the Church of Scientology). Here is where you can read about the early days of Scientology, when many of the positive basics were established, and read about the personalities of that time, those who are rarely mentioned, and never positively, in the present day church... Here is where you can learn something of the early history of the subject. Here is where you regain hope of achieving the things you expected from Scientology --and more... 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