Okay...I'm gonna take the bait
Fisherman,
I think I’m gonna have to work through responding to your post in several installments…there are so many excellent and well stated questions in your post and, due to circumstances beyond my control, I will not be able to spend the time over the next few days.
I think part of your accurately stated paradoxes stem from—perhaps—that you have not studied and “experienced” the subject of Scn to the extent that Lakey and so many others here on this board have. Needless to say, there is a wide variance of opinion amongst all here. That’s partly probably because Scn is, in my view, in actuality not a philosophy at all.
Istitutional Scientology is an ad hoc, helter skelter, well organized chaos, of which the books are just the tip of the iceberg and, surprisingly, not as “slick” as much of the rest of the materials. It’s like a large raggedy net of ideas, concepts and “one-liners” that seeks to somewhere within the mesh have something for everyone. There is probably not a person alive that wouldn’t find a few things in all of El Ron’s materials that they would agree with or hold to be true from their own perspective, and I find that as most remarkable. Once in the net, all points ”filter and flow” towards the center or core concept—Operating Thetan.
The fabric of the net is, in part, intertwined principles of rudimentary and pop psychology, stage hypnosis, philosophy, Spiritualism, Occultism, Eastern Religions, Sci Fi and anything else that has capability to grab, hold or fix the interest and attention of some folks’ mind and spread a patina of credibility.
Majik, I think, was probably the most important fabric of the net for El Ron. However, from my perspective, there is more—and possibly the most— important fabric…metaphysics.
Over a 20 year period, starting in the mid ‘60’s or so, to varying degrees I had the distinct pleasure of getting to personally know and interact with many of the “old timers”; the big names to the small names; the “Tech” Guru’s to the working-class “Techy’s” to the weird wannabees; the Admin Stars that actually new what they were doing to the cotton pickin’ crazies that El Ron was continually posting in high positions of power and letting them run amok, as long as “the stats were up”. Being on Cl IV org staff during the very important “boom” years of the latter ‘60’s and then, in the SO— wherein I was privy to a plethora of information, reports and data that few So and Scns had access to—along with all the chats and experiences I had with Scns of every stripe and color from around the world lead me to realize in the mid-’70’s that there were two distinctly different Scientologies…and the they were in opposition to each other and were being held together by force, deception and greed.
You see, Scientology is also “a state of mind” and “indulgence in illusions and paranormal sensations”, fostered by one mans prodigious gift to entertain and mesmerize. The many contributors and unwitting collaborators were folks born with what some may term as different or having a “loose screw” but what I—being one of them—would term, as Carlos Casteneda said so poetically, "A Separate Reality’.
These are the folks that made Scn in the early days, and what made it tick while El Ron was alive, and what still makes it tick, albeit sickly, today is not the subject itself so much as the nature of the majority of people that were involved during the various eras, especially the first 30 years.
What is this separate reality?
I honestly don’t know precisely, but I can tell you about what it is for me, and I am confident that some of my words below will “resonate” far better descriptions from many of the folks on this board.
Who am I? I know that there are parts of me that aren’t, in essence “me”. Sometimes I know more of “me” than at other times. When I’m more “me”, it “feels” better, natural… things make more sense…however, it’s transient, random. How can I be more “me” stably, confidently, permanently.
What am I? I sense, feel, experience…I know…that my essence is more than that of mere flesh and bone. I transiently feel bound by some mysterious force, by ropes or chains that chafe and frustrate me. I know I am perceive and am capable of so much more but I just can’t “figure “It” out. I sense, feel, experience…I know…that there is so much more to all of “This”. Somewhere there must be answers…the answer…I want to, I need to, I must, find that “somewhere”. What do I do to find the answers? What are the right questions to ask?
When did “It” all begin? When did all “This” start? When did I begin to be me? When did I start? Is there and end? If there is an end, when will that be? When will I know the answers? Will I ever know the answers?
Where am I? Where is “This”? Where is “It”? Where did I come from? Where am I going? How do I know where to go? How will I know when I get there? Will I know when I get there? Where is “This” going? Where is “It” going? Where do I start? Have a already started and just don’t realize it and, if so,
Why don’t I realize it? Why am I? Why am I here? Why is “This” here? Why is “It” the way it is? Why do I have these questions? Why can’t I find the answers? Why can’t I “see” “It”…Why can’t others “see” ”It”? Why do I “see” and “feel” what I “see” and “Feel”? Why am I different? Why? Why? Why???
In all five of the “W” questions above you can also supplant “I” with ‘We”.
Many of these folks—including Ole Face here—had had “experiences, perceptions, feelings, whatever, that were out of the “ordinary” before ever contacting Scn. In ‘50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s—especially the ‘50’s to mid ‘60’s—they had in effect, few “places to go”. There was no internet, there was no “Information Age”, there was no “Star Wars generation”, “Harry Potter generation. Following on the heels of a global war marked by the most graven savagery, the world was day-in, day-out on the brink of nuclear holocaust.
Scn became a “Community” for these folks, these “back yard", "shade tree", amateur and very bright born meta physicists. Within that community, “Neighborhoods” were established and they had folks that they could interact with, “cross pollinate”, commune and have fellowship with and were no longer isolated and alone. They went from being “outsiders” to “insiders”. Out of these Neighborhoods and Community came White Scientology. It was loose, open and relatively free. However, during this same era, El Ron was conjuring and concocting, unchecked, knitting together the fabric of Black Scientology.
I never…and I doubt most of these folks ever…bought into El Ron The Galactic Guru; El Ron The Genius of All Geniuses; El Ron The Never Wrong.
So, what did I buy into and why?:confused2:
You’re quite the angler, Fisherman. I was gonna conclude my Readers Digest” treatment on the Apollo ’73 thread with why I got “in” and why I went to Flag to work with El Ron but, alas, your lure is too enticing and I’m gonna snap it up. Set your drag and harness ‘cause I’m gonna “run with it.”
I’ll break surface in a few days.
Face