Whenever I see a thread entitled with the name of another ESMBer, I always feel rather uncomfortable. I mean, it’s like we are talking about someone when they are in the same room.
Obviously this doesn’t apply to me – I just lurv it when people are talking about me.
But I appreciate that this wasn’t the intent of Motti in creating this thread, it was a genuine attempt to give recognition to one of the special people that were so rare in the CoS.
I have never met Karen, but from what I have seen and heard, she is someone who really cares about helping others. Being a Class XII may or may not mean much to most ESMBers, and while I don’t accept that Hubbard taught the last word on truth and the Secrets of the Universe, I do respect anyone who had the dedication and ability to get themselves through this highest level of training. Having done a modicum of ‘Tech’ training myself I can have some appreciation of the titanic effort required to do this.
Well Motti, I’m afraid that you have had a rather rude education in what it means to post on a public forum about Scientology. I wish it weren’t this way, but I’ve long since realised that there isn’t much I can do to change things, I just try and make my points in as effective a way as possible and hope that someone listens.
Oh, and to make people laugh sometimes…
Whenever anything that looks as though it might be positive, is said about Scientology, Scientologists, the CoS or Hubbard, inevitably there is a storm of protest, usually involving the odd personal insult or two.
This is entirely understandable – a lot of good people - have been seriously fucked over as a result of being in the cult, and many are very angry as a result.
Understandable, but it isn’t always very helpful to display this anger at every opportunity. Sometimes it might be better to objectively discuss what is before us, instead at railing against perceived outrages against our moral sensibilities.
I’m not saying that people are wrong to be angry, I just think that sometimes we can channel that anger in more positive directions.
What I see in the OP, is a simple story of one person caring enough to want to help another human being, even if it meant breaking a few rules. Unfortunately, this kind of display of humanity is all too rare in the CoS now. But, it is just this sort of act of kindness that made Scientology seem so special to me at one time.
Not any more, obviously.
I well remember my own situation, just a few years ago. I had received a lot of auditing at St Hill (supposedly the most ‘on-source’ in the UK. Hah!) and yet I was feeling totally distraught and wondering if my life was even worth living. Nothing made any sense, I wasn’t ‘winning’, I was getting more and more ‘caved-in’ by the constant invalidation and crushing regging. I really could have done with someone like Karen then. I would have left the cult anyway (eventually), but I really could have used a friend just then.
Yes, you could say that it might have been better if Karen had not done what she did and let that person leave much earlier than they had.
But I bet if you asked this person, they would say that they were glad that Karen showed them this kindness and cared enough to do something about their troubles. It is just this sort of act that makes us feel that there is also goodness in the world.
It does me anyway.
Infinite mentioned Schindler and interestingly, I had already been reminded of the incredibly moving scene from the film ‘Schindler’s List’ where Schindler is presented with a ring made from the gold fillings donated by the people he saved, inscribed with a quote from the Talmud, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."
The Jews that he saved aren’t angry with him for him using them in his factories or for being part of the evil Nazi regime – they recognise him for the good man that he is and thank him for doing what he could to save them.
I think that we too should recognise the good people in Scientology and acknowledge the good that they tried to do, despite the insanity around them.
It doesn’t mean that we support Scientology or any of the other stuff, it just means that we can accept that we were wrong, others were wrong, but there are some good people out there who tried to make things just a little better.
Axiom142