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Hi Pete,
I really enjoyed reading through that Beginners Guide. It certainly quickly refreshed me as to the basic mechanics of TROM. I have taken the liberty of making some proofreader-type of suggestions in red. I was mostly looking to ensure that a complete non-scientologist "beginner" could "get it": The Theory The emotional disorders which have been variously labeled as Engrams, mental breakdowns, neurosis and psychosis, compulsions and inhibitions, are all the product of emotionally painful, or "charged", conflicts that occur in life. Dr. Eric Berne made the significant observation that in his patients that these conflicts occurred in the first 6 years of life when the child was most easily overwhelmed by the people in control of his life, i.e. his mother, father, other adult relatives, brothers and sisters and eventually teachers. These persons were in the position to oppose the efforts of the child to get the toy or food or affection he was trying to get. In my own experience these unresolved conflicts will then reoccur after the age of 6 when individuals are confronted with authority figures like teachers or bosses or government agents, etc. who stop us from achieving whatever we are trying to achieve and we feel we cannot succeed in overcoming their opposition and thus give up. (When) The taxman audits your tax return and decides to disallow you deductions and charge you more than you think you owe for taxes. (And) You feel that you can do nothing about this "unfair" action. This leaves you with an emotionally charged conflict and with no way to resolve or fix or relieve the upset. If you could refuse to pay or go to a higher authority and be listened to you could be relieved of the emotional charge and conflict but once you decide that "nothing can be done" then you are stuck with the unresolved conflict. This conflict and its emotional charge will come up the next time you deal with an authority figure at which time you will feel justified in doing something drastic to deal with the new conflict. Your destructive response to the new situation will be driven by your emotional charge from the previous overwhelm. The child while having the least ability to overcome adversity for this lifetime also has the strongest emotional charge from the failure. The child does not yet have enough experience with life to realize that if he fails today he may try again tomorrow. Every conflict for the child is life or death in importance to him. Any loss is severe and very emotionally distressing. This combination of effort by the child overwhelmed by the effort of another with its very strong emotional charge is the memory that returns later in life under similar circumstances to appear as an engram, mental breakdown, neurosis or psychosis, inhibitions or compulsions. These negative, painful misemotional moments are a replay of that earlier emotionally charged conflict and will result in the irrational action taken now, which is usually recognized as an insane response. The response based on the emotion contained in a childhood blocked effort will at least be out of proportion to the present situation. At its simplest the original incident is one where I tried to be something or do something and was blocked by someone else. I got very upset at the stoppage. An example of this situation could be like this. I want to go to the beach to play in the sand so I talk to my sister and brother and we all agree that would be fun. Next we talk to dad and find he is opposed to the idea. I try pleading, antagonism, anger, grief, and finally give up at apathy as being unable to get dad to take us to the beach. Keep in mind that to be really aberrative, or causing faulty, irrational reactions, later in life this incident has to contain VERY strong emotions and upsets and emotional charge. The result will probably have me not talk to my dad for weeks afterward. Later in life I find that I feel it is hopeless any time I must try to convince another person to do something for me. The new situation could be something like trying to convince a customer that they should buy the product I have been hired to sell. Any time I contemplate asking them to buy the product I feel it will just be hopeless so why try. I would not be aware of the original incident at this point of restimulation, only the emotional charge or some physical sensations of pain or stuffy nose (from the earlier grief charge) or upset stomach (tight abdominal muscles) will be sensed. The solution is to find and review that original conflict. By re-experiencing the original effort and counter effort and the emotional feeling I had at that time I find that the emotional charge dissipates. Since the emotional charge is the glue that holds the effort, counter effort and charge together the loss of the charge causes the conflict to fall apart. Without its emotional charge the incident is unable to influence my actions in the present time. I also no longer feel unhappy with my dad. This is the therapy called timebreaking that will be discussed more fully later. Each emotionally charged conflict in early life that I timebreak will cease to influence me from then on. So from the very start with the timebreaking therapy you are regaining your ability to win at life. The next step. Let's say I had just timebroken the above incident and decided that to do well in the sales job I need to look for any other incidents related to talking to people and selling things to make sure nothing else will interfere. The theory of TROM demonstrates that there are actually two conflicts in life that we can get into on any subject. Since there are two sides to each conflict there are two sides to two conflicts or four ways I could be overwhelmed to create a misemotional incident that needs timebreaking. The two conflicts are To try to be or do something opposed by to force you not to do or be something To try to not be or do something opposed by to force you to be or do that thing In the TROM book these are reduced to: 1. Must Be Known opposed to 4. Must Not Known (Know?) 2. Must not Be Known opposed to 3. Must Know As you are overwhelmed at trying to do each of these efforts you give up doing it and move to the next numbered position. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Since on any subject you start a 1 and end up at 4 you will want to look for the upsets starting at 4 and working back to 1. The terms used above are defined as; Must - is used to indicate that this is a very important highly emotionally charged conflict. Be Known - is used to mean bring into existence, create. i.e. (remove "if) I pull a rabbit out of a hat so that it can be known. Or, I (remove 'll) will get an education and certificate and become a medical doctor, so that I can be known as a Doctor. Not Be Known - means to conceal, cause to vanish or cease to exist and to no longer do that thing. i.e. if I put the light under a basket then it can't be seen and can't be known. Or if I blow the candle out it can no longer produce light. If I loose (lose) my license to practice medicine I can no longer work as a Doctor. Know - means to force another to produce the effect so I can experience it. Not know - means to stop another from producing the effect so I will not perceive it. The building inspector that red tags a project is putting a stop to the construction of a building. On selling then the four positions in the two games of conflict are: 1. I want to sell things to the customer 2. I failed at selling to customers so never want to sell again 3. I want others to sell things to me so I will force someone who does not want to sell things to sell to me. 4. I was sold something that was so upsetting that I no longer want to be sold to or have others sell. The conflicts occur as 1 against 4 and 2 against 3 but as we each go through life we have our overwhelming losses in the order 1, 2, 3, 4. We first try to sell and when overwhelmed so that we can no longer emotionally stand to sell we move to position 2 and try to never sell. Since the world is full of all kinds of people we eventually find someone who will oppose any position we take on any subject. Eventually a position 2 person who does not want to sell runs into a position 3 person who wants to reform him. The 3 will force the 2 to sell again but 2 cannot so the most that can happen is 2 will be overwhelmed at trying not to sell and take on the personality of 3. The person at 2 will now behave like 3 and try to force others to sell. Eventually 3 runs into a 2 who overwhelms him and the 3 in overwhelm moves to 4 where he wants nothing to do with sellers or will even try to prevent persons from selling. Lets say that at position 4 on sales the person gets a job where he can fine persons for selling without a license. He does this till he runs into a position 1 salesman who convinces him that what he is doing is causing salesmen to starve to death. This is overwhelming to the position 4 person so he quits the job of stopping salesmen. When a position 4 is overwhelmed he takes the personality of the position 1 person, he will now try to be and do something but he cannot be a salesman as he is in failure on this subject so he will pick another occupation to do. He might be a butcher, baker, candlestick maker etc. etc.. It is likely that the new occupation contrast with the old one. If he was overwhelmed on the subject of selling he would not likely become a buyer but might get into manufacturing and have someone else do the selling. He could easily become a holy man and take a vow of poverty so he will have nothing to do with buying and selling. Overwhelm Overwhelm occurs when you are so beaten down by the opposition that you give up in despair. The emotion is apathy, (add comma) the feeling is hopelessness. You feel that there is just no way you can ever succeed at pursuing this effort because the other person is "too strong" or "an authority" or "paid by city hall and no one can fight city hall" or whatever. The result is that YOU decide that you cannot go on and give up and YOU decide that you will never try that again. Obviously, this does not happen very often for most adults. They get up each day and go out and do a job and pay the bills through good times and bad. For children with less experience and resources overwhelms happen more easily.
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