TR1, I believe. Here it is as described by
Perry Scott:
I thought Bullbait was weird. I had no idea what was in store for me. In this routine, context-free snippets from Alice, printed on a sheet of paper, are read by the student to the coach . . . It's even worse if the coach gets the giggles. The humor is a relief after the stress of TR0 conditioning. However, humor won't advance you on The Bridge. Some of Lewis Carroll's stuff is either terribly imaginative or drug-induced, depending on your opinion of him. (Some think the caterpillar is Carroll's self-portrait, but I digress.)
To pass this exercise without getting a permanent case of the giggles requires you to become virtually humorless. The concept of mental image pictures was introduced in TR0. Here, canned script from a master storyteller conjurs up some fantastic and nonsensical images, which the student must refuse to process or fail the exercise. The result is robotic repetition of nonsense phrases, which some have come to recognize as a hallmark of what passes for conversation in Scientology.
Rather than conditioning you for the real world where nonsense is met with questions for clarification, Ron is conditioning the mark to confront "Scieno-speak." Ron's writing style and propensity to make up words because he couldn't think of the real ones could give a newcomer the giggles if it were not for this exercise. Some of Ron's prose, especially the Operating Thetan levels, is highly imaginative just like Carroll's.
Not only is the confusion technique set down early, but it is constantly reinforced until, ultimately, a person will believe just about anything - and pay handsomely for the privilege of being told what to believe.
Personally, I find that ridiculous. I very much enjoyed doing TRs, including bullbaiting. It NEVER somehow
rendered me humorless. It simply allowed me to gain the
ability to remain calm despite distractions. That is what I got out of it. That is how I interpreted the drill, and that is how I did the drill. I could and did easily pass TR Bullbaiting, many times, and then laugh a few moments later about some joke.
There is so much wrong with Scientology, but then there are also so many STUPID and ABSURD criticisms based on very weird concatentations of logic.
The methods and techniques of TRs, just like the Objectives, in NO WAY cause a person to become some unthinking robot. That is SO incorrect and invalid. Of course, some can and do believe such nonsense. That is the right of "free human beings". To make sense of nonsense. It happens in Scientology, AND it happens everywhere else.
What turns any Scientology participant into a Ronbot is the severe indoctrination into the OEC volume materials, which is based on KSW and the "mission" concept that "Scientology is the ONLY valid way to get out of the trap". It is a "conceptual" trap, and is based on BELIEFS. It is based on FIXED IDEAS, ideas which are fed into the minds of any participant through strict indoctrination. Outside of THAT environment, things like TRs and Objectives can be seen to NOT create any sort of "dumb easily controlled person".
The above quote takes very absurd leaps and makes very absurd conclusions. Yes, there is a robotic repetition of phrases that often passes for conversation in Scientology. Very true. But again, that results from the SEVERE INDOCTRINATION INTO VERY EXACT IDEAS AND BELIEFS, and has little to do with the fact that somebody does a drill repeating nonsensical phrases. When I did the drill with Alice in Wonderland, I aimed to
better my attention, focus and delivery of a statement. That is ALL that I did. It helped. It got me to notice how things such as
attention,
intention and
focus had a GREAT DEAL to do with how well my communication was received.
Dots can be well connected, or not. In the above quote, there are NOT connected well. And, there are so many valid ways that the dots CAN be connected to clearly display the idiocy of Scientology. But, doing so poorly or stupidly, in a way that will remain largely unreal for just about ANYBODY who has ever actually DONE TRs in the real world, doesn't help ANYBODY severe his or her connections with the real lunacy of Scientology - the result of the indoctrination - the network of crazy assumptions and beliefs according to KSW and the OEC volumes aim to expand Scientology and Clear the Planet.
