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SRA's

The Oracle

Gold Meritorious Patron
Ivan never yelled at me.

I saw him "yell" at someone else once and the person he was yelling at started to laugh.

So I started to laugh.

This is my only knowledge about Ivan's yelling.
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
Ivan never yelled at me.

I saw him "yell" at someone else once and the person he was yelling at started to laugh.

So I started to laugh.

This is my only knowledge about Ivan's yelling.

Huh.

I could have sworn you were justifying SRAs. But I guess you weren't.

That must have been frustrating for you to be accused of justifying SRAs when you weren't.

Sorry.
 

The Oracle

Gold Meritorious Patron
Well, I am not above justifying SRA's!

I gave my mother in law an SRA!

And once I was cornered on a dark street in New York by a guy with a knife and I gave him an SRA! (Figured I was probably going to die and had nothing to loose).

I've punched a few other people too, but they were always men much bigger than I was. Or girls who hit me first.

But I knew Ivan and I don't think anyone who ever worked under him would package him in a group of abusive people, which I know there were in the Sea Org.

Ivan really cared about the people in front of him, and he loved the people who worked under him.

He finally got in huge trouble himself and left the Sea Org for trying to protect his staff from the kind of abuse we are talking about right now.
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
Well, I am not above justifying SRA's!

I gave my mother in law an SRA!

And once I was cornered on a dark street in New York by a guy with a knife and I gave him an SRA! (Figured I was probably going to die and had nothing to loose).

I've punched a few other people too, but they were always men much bigger than I was. Or girls who hit me first.

But I knew Ivan and I don't think anyone who ever worked under him would package him in a group of abusive people, which I know there were in the Sea Org.

Ivan really cared about the people in front of him, and he loved the people who worked under him.

He finally got in huge trouble himself and left the Sea Org for trying to protect his staff from the kind of abuse we are talking about right now.

And I'm certainly not without sin, either.

I've given some scorchers.

I've received them, too.

My point is that what you learn in order to survive in a Scientology-run environment is hardly ever valid in the real world. The dispensing of SRAs as a solution to confusions or problems with co-workers, or obstacles to production, is certainly a lesson from Scientology that is destructive.

And if anyone disagrees with me on this, I'll give them a John Sweeney-style SRA until they agree!

(Just kidding)
 
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The Oracle

Gold Meritorious Patron
Oh Yeah! I've never punished my children but I've given them a few SRA's.

Like the time they stuck a cap gun up my dogs butt and shot it off.

Little boys...............

They certainly do want to explore at a young age where no man has gone before!
 
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Lulu Belle

Moonbat
But I knew Ivan and I don't think anyone who ever worked under him would package him in a group of abusive people, which I know there were in the Sea Org.

Ivan really cared about the people in front of him, and he loved the people who worked under him.

He finally got in huge trouble himself and left the Sea Org for trying to protect his staff from the kind of abuse we are talking about right now.


I would have to say that I agree with this.

There were people who thought that Ivan was abusive. He certainly could be a screamer. Jerry Mulkey was the NOTs Tech Sec, and for some reason Ivan would really go off on him big time. Many Thursdays after 2:00 when the NOTs VSD or hours had crashed, I heard the walls shake as Ivan was launching into Jerry in his office.

He used to go off on Enid Byrne a lot, too.

But Ivan did protect the org and protect the staff as much as he could from management. He never said it, but I think he perceived management to be the biggest enemy to the growth and survivial of the org.

I think he perceived correctly.
 
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Free to shine

Shiny & Free
My SRA experience was long ago, 1982 but it not something you forget.
I had finished an intensive stint on a special project and wanted a LOA as I was 5 months pregnant, exhausted beyond exhausted and experiencing worrying symptoms. I feared for the health of my baby, and my own. My senior screamed at me for at least a half hour, this woman who I had once loved as a substitute mother and left me splattered across the walls. The basis of the SRA was that 'in good times the bad hats leave' and I was a Bad Hat and a despicable human being to want a break. (This was CL4 org). It was vicious, nasty, totally uncalled for and I had just pulled off a great event so I certainly could not be called downstat. I think she was though. It was 1982. :coolwink:
That SRA changed my life though it took me weeks to recover and I never went back on staff. I got medical attention and had a healthy baby, so I suppose she did me a favour in the end.

Oh, I did see her many years later in passing and she greeted me with great affection and asked where I had been. I went into social mode and got out of there as fast as I could.
 

Jimmy Cricket

Patron with Honors
When I had SRAs given to me, they were sometimes referred to as "a two by four to the being" to knock sense and compliance into me. For me, SRAs never involved physical contact, just extreme impingement designed to cave me in and then try to force me to blindly and unquestioningly comply with unpleasant or impossible orders.

========================

"Severe Reality Adjustment" is one of the many terms censored by Co$:

http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/CoS/censlist.html

SRA training drills:

http://alley.ethercat.com/cgi-bin/xint/xint.cgi?2

(snip)

I've overheard in Del Sol on the top floor when CMO Int was still using it as office space, a training session of how to give a 'severe reality adjustment' (SRA Severe Reality Adjustment). This consisted of sceaming loudly some question or invalidative comment and slamming ones hand on a desktop loudly to punctuate one's SRA message. It was a sick administrative technique coming right from CMO Int, to a CMO Int staffer who was going out to do execute this little SRA routine on some hapless screwup lower echelon Sea Org member in LA or Flag. There was this deadly life threatening air that was developed by certain CMO messengers, the 'kickass' mentality and attitude, that was a prized characteristic if one possessed it. I was completely numb to this, it was as if I didn't see what I was seeing. I haven't mentioned this SRA drilling ever before, I haven't even thought about it. This whole mentality of impinging on someone else, and forcing them to confront what they were doing wrong on their posts, was a core characteristic to the mindset at Int, that persists to this day. It is a characteristic which I have not isolated to which particular writings of Hubbard are the ones responsible for keeping that attitude as a key tool that Int Execs have to possess as a necessity if they are to be successful. I don't think this SRA drilling is still done any longer. But I do not know. I saw it being done in the late 1980's in Del Sol.
 

Zinjifar

Silver Meritorious Sponsor
When I had SRAs given to me, they were sometimes referred to as "a two by four to the being" to knock sense and compliance into me. For me, SRAs never involved physical contact, just extreme impingement designed to cave me in and then try to force me to blindly and unquestioningly comply with unpleasant or impossible orders.

Not meant as a correction, but as just an addendum to what you say, the SRA is in *lieu* of physical assault, but, the threat of escalation to actual physical assault is always inherent.

The 'Sound and Fury' doesn't signify 'nothing'; it signifies 'cave now or be crushed'

Zinj
 

Ralph Hilton

Patron Meritorious
It has some similarity to the Reporter TRs which SO were drilled on in the 70s. Originally issued as HCOB 10 Dec 1969 .
The main reference I recall is the "Bait and Badger" technique described in Esto Series 16.
 

Royal Prince Xenu

Trust the Psi Corps.
I had one guy start an SRA on me, and I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about--it was with such force that I wasn't three feet in back of my head, I was three feet outside the building in the street.

When I finally got what he prating about, I knew that he had completely gotten the situation totally upside down and was able to hold my space--non of his attack had any further effect.

I stood there, let him finish, and after he had walked off, promptly wrote a KR with the real facts. This started a KR war, and on the last inaccurate one from him, I just scribbled "write 'em up!' and sent it back to him.

Although I was never SO, I think those people respected me because they had learned I didn't take no shit from no one.
 

Zinjifar

Silver Meritorious Sponsor
I had one guy start an SRA on me, and I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about--it was with such force that I wasn't three feet in back of my head, I was three feet outside the building in the street.

When I finally got what he prating about, I knew that he had completely gotten the situation totally upside down and was able to hold my space--non of his attack had any further effect.

I stood there, let him finish, and after he had walked off, promptly wrote a KR with the real facts. This started a KR war, and on the last inaccurate one from him, I just scribbled "write 'em up!' and sent it back to him.

Although I was never SO, I think those people respected me because they had learned I didn't take no shit from no one.

Scientology gives whole new meaning to the term 'bully pulpit'

Zinj
 

Tanstaafl

Crusader
I am royally pissed that I was never on the end of an SRA. I really want to know whether I would cave-in or fall on the floor laughing - I'm sure it would be one or another. If anyone on the forum is visiting Blighty at any time and has some mastery of the SRA tech then please get in touch. :)
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I am royally pissed that I was never on the end of an SRA. I really want to know whether I would cave-in or fall on the floor laughing - I'm sure it would be one or another. If anyone on the forum is visiting Blighty at any time and has some mastery of the SRA tech then please get in touch. :)

The problem is that for it to be effective there has to be a fair degree of truth in it. It's like bullbaiting. Generic bullbaiting is OK up to a point, but to really bullbait you have to bullbait with very personal reality. Prior knowledge of the person is not necessary to bullbait well as long as your observation is very acute. It doesn't work like that if you're giving someone an SRA based on his production record (unless you're adept at pulling up and seeing his pictures).

Paul
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
I am royally pissed that I was never on the end of an SRA. I really want to know whether I would cave-in or fall on the floor laughing - I'm sure it would be one or another. If anyone on the forum is visiting Blighty at any time and has some mastery of the SRA tech then please get in touch. :)

Where's Blighty?
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
The problem is that for it to be effective there has to be a fair degree of truth in it. It's like bullbaiting. Generic bullbaiting is OK up to a point, but to really bullbait you have to bullbait with very personal reality. Prior knowledge of the person is not necessary to bullbait well as long as your observation is very acute. It doesn't work like that if you're giving someone an SRA based on his production record.

Paul

Exactly, and you have to put a perverse and preferably unjust twist on it, too. You must intentionally misduplicate something and then really drive it in.

For example:

Let's say you're the PES and you have been off post all week handling a "Hill 10" that was created when it was decided that your org is going to be the next Saint Hill Size Org, and a management team arrived last week to get you there. You've been working every day with the Flag Rep, because you have been ordered to do so by the management team, getting "compliance" on the project orders they have given you.

None of the orders has had anything to do with getting new people in and onto service, and it's the end of the week, a Wednesday night, and your First Services Starts have totally crashed.

You are frantic. You now have to make sure that the targets you have been working on with the Flag Rep get complied with, going around taking pictures of receipts and checksheets for the compliance reports, but you also have to go out and hand out promo and get someone in and onto course. You have absolutely no prospects because you have not been developing any from being pulled off your post.

The ED of the org comes in and says, "Hey man, where are the FSSes for the week?"

"Zero."

"What? Come on! Where's Mrs. Zikes? I thought she was supposed to be here at 7pm to start?"

"No show."

"Oh Jesus!"

You say, "I'm calling all these lists and I think I might be able to get Brian's brother's wife in on the How to Pick Your Nose Course tonight."

"OK. Let me know how it goes. I'm going to see if I can get Pam to get her dad to finally come in."

"Sorry man."

"I understand. Get on it!"

So you're frantically calling every beaten down number you can get off of recent booksales receipts, anything. Then you're going to take that stack of promo out and see if you can get someone in from the street." Totally desperate.

You made 9 calls and you've been hung up on for the third time. So you set down the phone and put your head in your hands. You have to think.

Just then, the Mission First walks into your office.

"Where are the Compliance Reports?"

"My First Service Starts are crashed and I have to get an FSS right now, and then I'll...."

Your daughter is outside your office stamping promo, two public are standing in the bookstore, and the mission first takes a deep breath while you are about to say what you are planning to do to handle both, when he says....

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HANDING ME A PROBLEM??? YOUR ORG IS GOING SAINT HILL SIZE NOW DESPITE YOUR FUCKING DB CI. YOU HAD BETTER GET THOSE CRs IN TO ME NOW. MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS ORG FAIL??? IT'S OBVIOUS YOU ARE THE ONE TO HAVE HELD DOWN THIS PLACE FOR YEARS ANYWAY AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO DO THAT ANYMORE!!! I WANT THOSE CRs ON MY DESK IN TEN MINUTES OR YOU ARE OFF POST IMMEDIATELY!! DO YOU GOT THAT?"

It gives you a sick feeling in your stomach. You want to defend yourself, but you feel the tears welling up and you know that if you talk, if you say anything, you will just make it ten times worse. You are constantly thinking, even in your sleep of how great it would be to have a Saint Hill Size org. It means everything to you. But you can't even think of that right now. Your brain freezes solid on the injustice of this accusation, invalidation, humiliation. Plus you'll make an ass of your self for crying in front of your daughter, who is standing there watching you. So you say "Yes sir" and try to keep tears from coming in to your eyes and your head from exploding.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY???"

"YES SIR!"

"GOOD!"

After enduring enough of this, you get worn down and convinced that you are truly a DB who is trying to destroy his org, and that everything you do is probably suppressive.

At that point, SRAs seem normal to you.

And you begin to look like Helena Kobrin.
 
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