The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But
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RogerB
Crusader
I'm way behind on this tread . . . . it's moving fast, folks!
this is my response to Raffo's post #4725 on this thread.
Dear Raffo, and all you other good folks reading this thread
Much came to my mind as I read this “response to FoTi” . . . and so, in the vein of exposition, I’ll relate what came to my mind. Please don’t take anything of what I am about to write here as an evaluation of what should be or should have been for you.
In reality, it is a little technical exposition and one based on what came to mind for me as I was reading Raffo’s post. On that basis, the thoughts will be set against the parts that sparked for me.
The first thing to say is that, for me, and based on what I am seeing in Raffo’s posts and certainly based on the video of him at the 4th July FZ party, and also in the nature of many of the positive responders to Raffo, I’d say there has been a rather vast and enhanced upgrading of mood and operating basis.
Having Raffo back on lines (we’ve exchanged PMs and a phone call) and reading what he has had to say has done two key things for me:
a) it has empowered me and raised my spiritual tone level, thus making me more aware, able and accurate (spiritually) and,
b) his dialogue has rekindled in me the truth that one can and should have the positive . . . that is, and what I am really wanting to state here, is that one should only expect, manifest, experience, create and have the positive. I say this in contrast to the “usual” one has (I have) often slipped into of expecting, or continuing to have, experiencing and unwittingly creating the negative and the actually unwanted.
The mechanism is simple, and based on a little bit of negligence and bad habit by us. There’s a sequence to it that we often get trapped with. It oft happens that we were happily doing and having our positive and wanted thing, and some sort of negative or unwanted occurs that we don’t want to experience; and we goof by coming off of the continued expectation of the positive and the continued creation and having of the positive to instead resist or solve the introduced negative. The trap with this is that the continued expectation can then be one of the negative to resist: instead of the prior continued expectation of the wanted and the positive.
I say this because, Raffo with his writings reminded me of this phenomena, and I thus began to restore my ability and capacity of operation wherein, at a physical bodily level, I have begun to operate on the basis of having and expecting and thus putting back in place the prior positive undamaged, unaltered physical bodily conditions of yore.
It has been an interesting experience this past week or two. I’ve had unwanted bodily conditions (hey, I’m well into in my 75th year, what can I say?) evaporating and ceasing to be as I instead found myself being aware of, expecting and having the prior, original (to a degree) body conditions . . . the conditions that existed prior to some old injuries or affects of “age.”
It has been absolutely fascinating to be able to spiritually operate without the automatic resistings of “bad” conditions I’d “suffered” over the years, and to instead of automatically mocking up or having the old resisted injury or effects of aging (or stuck physical universe impression of same) affecting my body, to be able to have the prior unaffected condition.
The big lesson it seems, is that persistent “resistance” at a spiritual level is a wrong answer. Yes, danger and unwanteds in the present are to be handled, with a correct handling; but solutions that include a continued resistance of unwanteds is dumb!
Of course, it is true, the physical body is a lot slower in its change than I am, so, now that the “image” of an aging process or injury is removed, I have the joy of watching the body going through its reparation cycle as things restore to their un-injured or “youthful” condition. It is also true that I have a fair amount of this to deal with . . . hey, I’ve lived an active life, what can I say?
But, to say the least, the changing scenario is quite an experience!
Of course, this little technical truth also operates in the spiritual/mental realm as well.
Hmmmmm, Raffo, you really got me thinking here on this one.
First, I have to say your statement : “The ability to respond in a FEEL GOOD manner to anything that does or does not happen in your life,” is a rather neat statement.
For me, though, I am looking at its application.
For me, there are various levels of operating in the game of relationships.
For example, one of the things I observe since you have come “back on lines” is a tremendous uplifting of the abilities and faculties we spiritual Beings operate with when at our highest level . . . you know, things like spiritual “telepathic” communication and such. You know, the “OT” abilities that some are wont to shout do not exist.
And it appears from what I am reading on the threads, that there has been a resurgence of these faculties and abilities with you on the lines.
There are two comments I would make in this context. One is based on the issue of DUPLICATION, and the other is the PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH ASCENDING TO HIGHER LEVELS OF AWARENESS, ABILITY AND POWERS.
On the issue of duplication, you will remember LRH in his Axioms of SOP 8-C said: “FUNDAMENTAL: The basic action of existence is Duplication.” He then wrote a whole list of Axioms on the subject of duplication . . . not all of which I find to be wholly correct or truthful, by the way. But the above “fundamental” is close enough to work with.
From my personal experience of posting on ESMB, I have found the following. One posts with an expectation (in mind). The outcome of the posting can be either the expectation is met or it is not met.
So the issues now become several:
Who did not duplicate what?
What was not duplicated?
Where was it not duplicated at?
Who duplicated what?
What was duplicated?
Where was it duplicated at?
There are a number of permutations on those possibilities, of course . . . and one could probably also locate further possibilities on the basic theme.
But, basically, I have found I do not have to experience “everything” . . . . while it may be an ideal to be able to “experience anything” . . . the author of that little ditty sure as hell didn’t and wouldn’t! And it may be that to be able to do so would mean that one would not ever again suffer anything
I personally find it unnecessary to experience that which I do not choose to.
My formula for handling this is based on the permutations of the above possibilities for duplication
Personally, I have found that I do not have to duplicate at here, and have and suffer at here what another is either having at or creating from there. It’s his. Leave it there.
If another misduplicates my communication, it is because of one or more of three possibilities: a) I did not communicate precisely enough, b) the other did not receive precisely enough or, c) the other is deliberately refusing to receive the communication and is distorting and misrepresenting the actuality of it.
Spotting which it is, is simple and so are the remedies. And I personally have found it to be a “mug’s game” to accept and duplicate at here the deliberate distorting and misrepresentation (misduplication) that is created at there by those who are in the unfortunate condition of doing this on automatic or who wish to be destructive in this manner. It’s their creation: leave it there (at where they are).
One of course needs to be wise enough to have sensible expectations based on a correct perception of those to whom one is communicating. In a group scenario such as we have on ESMB destructive retaliation is par for the course for some of them Why duplicate it?? 
Well, the refutation of one’s expectations when communicating can come as a hit if one did not expect such a refutation. But all that is handled by having a correct expectation based on correct perception of the terminal(s) being communicated to.
The other side of the coin is to do with one’s “OT” powers and powers of reach, spiritual and telepathic perception and duplication. Realize we do spiritually connect with these characters we communicate with, and to that degree, we do tend to duplicate the condition and the creations they have at their position on the comm-line. The trick, I find, is to not wear their shit here! It’s theirs and, in fact, precise duplication of the scenario is that it is theirs and that it is located there where they are . . . not here where we are.
One of the liabilities of ascending up into the realm of “OT” abilities is that one trips into one’s old failed activities and old misused abilities such as we are discussing here. And one can appear to have “losses” due to it . . . in reality, if one is wise, life is telling one that here is an opportunity to handle an old screwed up ability and restore it to optimum.
This is part of the tech on the ascension crash and burn phenomena Alan discovered.
We can goof by not recognizing we have come up into the next higher level of case and screwed up ability/inability to handle, and instead in error bemoan the strife we experience and begin again in indulging old wrong answer/solutions.
Yes, well . . . . .
LRH said something I read many, many moons ago that I felt was rather clever, even exact; and I’ve retained it as a bit of my operating truth.
He wrote that (and I paraphrase from memory): “The basic overt act on the track is probably the making of another guilty for their actions or cause.”
Committing this overt on others causes them to reduce their powers and cause and position in the game. It caves them in.
And, as I wrote in an earlier post on this thread, it’s the good guys who are most prone to succumb to this action against them to cave them in, make them less and to reduce their cause and power levels and position in the game.
I have snipped the rest of Raffo’s post . . . .
So, folks, be the true, beautiful YOU.
RogerB
this is my response to Raffo's post #4725 on this thread.
A Response to FoTi Post Number 4502 Page 451 - 7 August 2010
The Old Days Aboard the Apollo - 1973
Thank you so much for your enjoyment of my posts, and for your desire to read them. That means the world to me, and I sincerely apologize for not making them all available to you. I don‘t want you to wait either. It actually pains me to think I have invited you to feel an absence of something you want. May I invite you to shift your attention to things that make you feel good, and then bask in the delicious anticipation of the wonderful things that will be there as time goes on. One of the lovely things I got out of reading “Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham) was the idea that desire was not the longing for something that was absent, but the delicious anticipation of what was to come.
Dear Raffo, and all you other good folks reading this thread
Much came to my mind as I read this “response to FoTi” . . .
and so, in the vein of exposition, I’ll relate what came to my mind. Please don’t take anything of what I am about to write here as an evaluation of what should be or should have been for you. In reality, it is a little technical exposition and one based on what came to mind for me as I was reading Raffo’s post. On that basis, the thoughts will be set against the parts that sparked for me.
The first thing to say is that, for me, and based on what I am seeing in Raffo’s posts and certainly based on the video of him at the 4th July FZ party, and also in the nature of many of the positive responders to Raffo, I’d say there has been a rather vast and enhanced upgrading of mood and operating basis.
Having Raffo back on lines (we’ve exchanged PMs and a phone call) and reading what he has had to say has done two key things for me:
a) it has empowered me and raised my spiritual tone level, thus making me more aware, able and accurate (spiritually) and,
b) his dialogue has rekindled in me the truth that one can and should have the positive . . . that is, and what I am really wanting to state here, is that one should only expect, manifest, experience, create and have the positive. I say this in contrast to the “usual” one has (I have) often slipped into of expecting, or continuing to have, experiencing and unwittingly creating the negative and the actually unwanted.
The mechanism is simple, and based on a little bit of negligence and bad habit by us. There’s a sequence to it that we often get trapped with. It oft happens that we were happily doing and having our positive and wanted thing, and some sort of negative or unwanted occurs that we don’t want to experience; and we goof by coming off of the continued expectation of the positive and the continued creation and having of the positive to instead resist or solve the introduced negative. The trap with this is that the continued expectation can then be one of the negative to resist: instead of the prior continued expectation of the wanted and the positive.
I say this because, Raffo with his writings reminded me of this phenomena, and I thus began to restore my ability and capacity of operation wherein, at a physical bodily level, I have begun to operate on the basis of having and expecting and thus putting back in place the prior positive undamaged, unaltered physical bodily conditions of yore.
It has been an interesting experience this past week or two. I’ve had unwanted bodily conditions (hey, I’m well into in my 75th year, what can I say?) evaporating and ceasing to be as I instead found myself being aware of, expecting and having the prior, original (to a degree) body conditions . . . the conditions that existed prior to some old injuries or affects of “age.”
It has been absolutely fascinating to be able to spiritually operate without the automatic resistings of “bad” conditions I’d “suffered” over the years, and to instead of automatically mocking up or having the old resisted injury or effects of aging (or stuck physical universe impression of same) affecting my body, to be able to have the prior unaffected condition.
The big lesson it seems, is that persistent “resistance” at a spiritual level is a wrong answer.
Yes, danger and unwanteds in the present are to be handled, with a correct handling; but solutions that include a continued resistance of unwanteds is dumb! Of course, it is true, the physical body is a lot slower in its change than I am, so, now that the “image” of an aging process or injury is removed, I have the joy of watching the body going through its reparation cycle as things restore to their un-injured or “youthful” condition. It is also true that I have a fair amount of this to deal with . . . hey, I’ve lived an active life, what can I say?
But, to say the least, the changing scenario is quite an experience!
Of course, this little technical truth also operates in the spiritual/mental realm as well.
The Magic Thetan said:In answer to your question, “Can’t you just post here the Chronicles you’ve already written”?
The answer is of course, yes I could, but for many reasons, I choose not to do that at this time.
If you care, here are my reasons:
1) I have a desire to be happy on an ongoing basis, and it appears that I have violated two rules for happy living that I feel are correct.
The two rules are in L Ron Hubbard’s book entitled “Scientology, A New Slant of Life” book. The article is entitled “TWO RULES FOR HAPPY LIVING”, and in my copy of the book, it begins on page 23. The rules he gives at the beginning of the article are:
1. Be able to experience anything.
2. Cause only those things which others can experience easily.
In posting my 1st Chronicle entitled "DISCOVERING THAT YOU ARE OT NOW", on the 28th of July 2010, I violated rule number 2, and I subsequently discovered that I was not able to comfortably experience some of the responses to that posting.
So I need to do some work on myself, and that is exactly what I am doing. I am working to increase my ability to be able to comfortably experience any responses as they occur.
In my Johnny Raff Chronicle Chapter-10, entitled “RESPONSE-ABILITY, I define RESPONSE-ABILITY as follows. “The ability to respond in a FEEL GOOD manner to anything that does or does not happen in your life.”
Hmmmmm, Raffo, you really got me thinking here on this one.
First, I have to say your statement : “The ability to respond in a FEEL GOOD manner to anything that does or does not happen in your life,” is a rather neat statement.
For me, though, I am looking at its application.
For me, there are various levels of operating in the game of relationships.
For example, one of the things I observe since you have come “back on lines” is a tremendous uplifting of the abilities and faculties we spiritual Beings operate with when at our highest level . . . you know, things like spiritual “telepathic” communication and such. You know, the “OT” abilities that some are wont to shout do not exist.
And it appears from what I am reading on the threads, that there has been a resurgence of these faculties and abilities with you on the lines.
There are two comments I would make in this context. One is based on the issue of DUPLICATION, and the other is the PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH ASCENDING TO HIGHER LEVELS OF AWARENESS, ABILITY AND POWERS.
On the issue of duplication, you will remember LRH in his Axioms of SOP 8-C said: “FUNDAMENTAL: The basic action of existence is Duplication.” He then wrote a whole list of Axioms on the subject of duplication . . . not all of which I find to be wholly correct or truthful, by the way. But the above “fundamental” is close enough to work with.
From my personal experience of posting on ESMB, I have found the following. One posts with an expectation (in mind). The outcome of the posting can be either the expectation is met or it is not met.
So the issues now become several:
Who did not duplicate what?
What was not duplicated?
Where was it not duplicated at?
Who duplicated what?
What was duplicated?
Where was it duplicated at?
There are a number of permutations on those possibilities, of course . . . and one could probably also locate further possibilities on the basic theme.
But, basically, I have found I do not have to experience “everything” . . . . while it may be an ideal to be able to “experience anything” . . . the author of that little ditty sure as hell didn’t and wouldn’t! And it may be that to be able to do so would mean that one would not ever again suffer anything
I personally find it unnecessary to experience that which I do not choose to.My formula for handling this is based on the permutations of the above possibilities for duplication
Personally, I have found that I do not have to duplicate at here, and have and suffer at here what another is either having at or creating from there. It’s his. Leave it there.
If another misduplicates my communication, it is because of one or more of three possibilities: a) I did not communicate precisely enough, b) the other did not receive precisely enough or, c) the other is deliberately refusing to receive the communication and is distorting and misrepresenting the actuality of it.
Spotting which it is, is simple and so are the remedies. And I personally have found it to be a “mug’s game” to accept and duplicate at here the deliberate distorting and misrepresentation (misduplication) that is created at there by those who are in the unfortunate condition of doing this on automatic or who wish to be destructive in this manner. It’s their creation: leave it there (at where they are).
One of course needs to be wise enough to have sensible expectations based on a correct perception of those to whom one is communicating. In a group scenario such as we have on ESMB
destructive retaliation is par for the course for some of them Why duplicate it?? The Magic Thetan said:The discovery of my less that feel good responses to some of my postings has also brought me to a few rather unpleasant discoveries:
1) I am not the Grade-0 Communications release that I thought I was. I am apparently not able to listen comfortably to what anyone has to say.
I also did not respond in a feel good, comfortable manner to some of the communications I received after my ESMB postings, so, in truth, I still have work to do to get to the point where I consistently respond positively to any communications I receive.
2) I am not flat on TR-0 Bullbate, for I still am somewhat reactive to invalidation, false accusations and ridicule. (For those unfamiliar with the term, TR-0 stands for Training Routine Number Zero. It is a routine that, among other things, enables you to practice being comfortable in front of another person.
TR-0 Bullbate, is where a coach originates all sorts of communications in an effort to make you uncomfortable. The idea is to give you an opportunity to practice, develop and increase your ability to be comfortable with anything. As you become more proficient, the coach hits you with some pretty nasty communications to see how well you have developed the ability to respond comfortably to these verbal and emotional attacks. If the coach is being true to the intent of the exercise, all of this “bull baiting” will bring you to the point where you are “Willing to experience anything” comfortably. Flat means that you no longer react in any “feel bad“ way.)
My discovery that I did not respond well to some of the responses to my Johnny Raff Chronicle Chapter -1, clearly indicated that I need to re-train, and re-do expanded Grade - 0 to a real world, chronically stable result. It also indicates that I need to increase my ability to comfortably perceive things, and I need to increase my ability and willingness to experience anything.
Well, the refutation of one’s expectations when communicating can come as a hit if one did not expect such a refutation. But all that is handled by having a correct expectation based on correct perception of the terminal(s) being communicated to.
The other side of the coin is to do with one’s “OT” powers and powers of reach, spiritual and telepathic perception and duplication. Realize we do spiritually connect with these characters we communicate with, and to that degree, we do tend to duplicate the condition and the creations they have at their position on the comm-line. The trick, I find, is to not wear their shit here! It’s theirs and, in fact, precise duplication of the scenario is that it is theirs and that it is located there where they are . . . not here where we are.
One of the liabilities of ascending up into the realm of “OT” abilities is that one trips into one’s old failed activities and old misused abilities such as we are discussing here. And one can appear to have “losses” due to it . . . in reality, if one is wise, life is telling one that here is an opportunity to handle an old screwed up ability and restore it to optimum.
This is part of the tech on the ascension crash and burn phenomena Alan discovered.
We can goof by not recognizing we have come up into the next higher level of case and screwed up ability/inability to handle, and instead in error bemoan the strife we experience and begin again in indulging old wrong answer/solutions.
The Magic Thetan said::In alignment with that, by the power invested in me by me, I hereby cancel all of my certificates as an auditor, and I relinquish any status as an OT. (An Operating Thetan - an operational spiritual being who is completely cause over life.)
I also wish to relinquish my Avionics (Space electronics) engineering degree as I am not yet able to engineer my carpet into the air and I relinquish any claim to being a meta or quantum physicist for the same reason.
I do however retain the right to use this degree if I need to, for Carolyn’s three and a half year illness and death devastated our finances and put us into considerable debt. I realize that it is a bit unethical to claim I am an engineer when my engineering skills are not up to par, but I choose to justify this out of a survival need.
I also retain the right to use the OT and the Auditor Class symbols if I need to impress potential clients. I feel justified in doing this, for it appears that I do have the ability to process, train, audit and guide clients to more of the life they want, and less of the life they do not want. For over forty years, I have asked clients if the services they received from me were worth more than the time and money they invested. In forty years, I have only had one person say no, and I refunded their money.
The labels and symbols can of course give a person a false or inaccurate picture of who and what you are, and what you are and are not able to do.
If you say you are a Class-VIII, or a Class XII Qual auditor, or an OT-VII, or an OT anything, people tend to assume that you have abilities that you may or may not actually have.
Over the years I worked with a lot of Dianetics and Scientology auditors from Class-0 to Class-XII. Many of them were also OT this or that, but it truth, they often didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn’t.
Some, for instance, thought that the TR’s were abilities instead of the truth that they were Training Routines designed to assist one with the goal of orchestrating certain abilities into existence.
Some felt that “The 2D” was a label for the person they were having a romantic relationship with, rather than the fact that it is a symbol for our impulse to have sex and create a family.
So I hereby relinquish all of my titles, degrees and the symbols that I have attached to my name in the past.
Further, I wish to apologize to anyone who got a false, partially false or inaccurate picture of who and what I am based on the automatic assumption they may have made because of the symbols I associated with my name. (i.e. OT-VIII, Class VIII, Class-XII Qual auditor, Bachelor of Science engineer, Master of anything, PhD, or any other symbolic designation that my ego and I put next to my name in an effort to impress someone, or to get them to buy services from me based on the idea that I had a degree and therefore I must be a really able and capable guy.) I relinquish any claim to being an OT. I do have some specific abilities that are out of the ordinary, but I prefer to tell about them as part of the story I will delineate in my Johnny Raff Chronicles autobiography.
I have been diagnosed with prostrate cancer and Diabetes, and I have a number of physical ailments, aches and pains that I have not been able to chronically handle with any supposed OT (God-Like) ability. I have been apparently able to produce some healing miracles at times, but I have not been able to do so chronically. I have what others readily symbolize as “An addiction to sugar” especially my mother’s wonderful deserts. I have written a book called, “Health Food Make Me Sick”, and I work daily to use my “OT Powers” to cure myself despite the fact that it has not chronically worked. Thus I am guilty of the insanity of continuing do the same thing, or a similar thing, and expecting different results. Well sane, or insane, I will continue to work on developing a God-Like ability to cure myself, and as of this writing, I have no intention of ever giving up, despite any ridicule or logic that may come my way. I am open to finding workable ways to pull off my miracle healing ability.
Yes, well . . . . .
LRH said something I read many, many moons ago that I felt was rather clever, even exact; and I’ve retained it as a bit of my operating truth.
He wrote that (and I paraphrase from memory): “The basic overt act on the track is probably the making of another guilty for their actions or cause.”
Committing this overt on others causes them to reduce their powers and cause and position in the game. It caves them in.
And, as I wrote in an earlier post on this thread, it’s the good guys who are most prone to succumb to this action against them to cave them in, make them less and to reduce their cause and power levels and position in the game.
I have snipped the rest of Raffo’s post . . . .
So, folks, be the true, beautiful YOU.
RogerB
Infinite
Troublesome Internet Fringe Dweller
Nah, not really. We could play silly Google games all day and come up equal, just depends on what source you prefer. Tell me, do you have any overtly Jewish sites which support "The Straight Dope" (good name) slant?
That he was an anti-semite cannot be doubted. Although, I may have to moderate my claim as to Walt being a member of the American Nazi Party and state he was, for so long as it suited his business interests, a sympathiser. A bit like the Bush family, really.
Enthetan
Master of Disaster
The kind of people who consider Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to be "extreme right", run away screaming at the sight of me. I consider Rush and Glenn to be squishy moderates, as might have been deduced from some of my positions on the Shoot-out thread.
I was at the Tea Party rally in DC on 9/12 last year.
RogerB
Crusader
Nice, Face!
Yes, and sport is a good thing in a young fella's life
Rog
Yes, and sport is a good thing in a young fella's life Rog
“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Sir Winston Churchill
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” Mark Twain
Near the end of my Soph year the Butcher merged his shop with a local grocer and created the first quasi supermarket in our little town. Already a trained meat cutter, I learned to order and handle a produce section, grocery section and Dairy box. I was lightening fast on a cash register and stocking shelves, popular with the customers, many of whom had become very friendly, interested in me and became my own little booster club. Football was becoming my best sport, Lettering as a Soph and in my Junior year I was first string Slotback and Strong Safety (All League, Honorable Mention). Academically I wasn’t a super star but was holding my own in the advance college prep group. I was dating the daughter—a real looker and a Senior— of two professors at the county community college and life was good, life was simple.
Then began a series of events that would drastically alter the course of my life and, eventually, usher me in to Scientology.
My father found another woman in another town about 60 miles away that was more to his liking and just happened to be a wealthy widow. In December of my Junior year he just disappeared one day, called my mother and told her it was over, that he wasn’t coming back and that was final. I didn’t hear squat or see boo of him for 6 months. My mother, of course, was a basket case. She spent hours in tirades about how bad he was and how I was just like him and she pitied any woman that would marry me. Her “fallback” was Jesus and, though already a Born Again, Fundamentalist Christian, she left the bible thumper church that she and my father were longtime members of and fell in with an evangelical, speaking in tongues, literally Holy Roller bunch. Often when I came home at 9:00 after work she’d have a dozen or more of her new “friends” in the house and some of them would be rolling on the floor, shaking and ranting in “tongues” while the rest sat there moaning, “Praise Jesus, Yes Jesus, take me Jesus”. She’d insisted that I always come and say “hello” to each one of them. The look in their eyes was real spooky and it all creeped me out…bad.
School, work and sports, more than ever, became my refuge. I’d leave home early in the morning after my chores and came back late in the evening, do some chores, study some, read some and try to sleep. In some ways my life had not change all that much from my parents situation. I had many friends at school, had all my customer friends at work and my jock buddies. My father had never attended one my games and I could count on one hand the number of times we had done father/son stuff and even then, it was about him. My mother had only been to one game, which we lost, and afterwards she derided for how poorly I and teammates had played. She had also attended a couple choir performances but again, as far as she was concerned I wasn’t and the choir wasn’t very good. Of course, all four years I was in High School I had sung in the Advanced/Madrigal Choir and all four of those years our group received 9 out 9 Superior ratings at the Regional a cappella tournament. I rarely ever talked with anyone about my home life as it was embarrassing to me and seemed pointless. I knew what the solution was—to walk away when I finished High School…that was my hope, my dream and I thought little about my future beyond that.
Our football team that year went from next to last place my Soph year to second place. We had a new coach that was young, really good, inspiring and very much into making us the best men and team we could be. By the end of the year 70% of the starters were my fellow juniors. We had a good shot at being league champions our Senior year. After the season Mr. Head Coach called me into his office for a chat. He told me that as long as I kept my grades up he was confident I could get a scholarship to a Division II school, possibly Division 1AA, maybe even a 1A. He said he’d help me all he could to get one but I needed to make some choices.
I was an OK basketball player but likely to ever be a starter, he said. He was right and I agreed. I was a good Baseball player, a pitcher with a gun for an arm but control problems and it would take a lot of work and practice to be a starter. He was right and I agreed. “Okay, Face,” he said, “here’s my deal, man to man. You give up basketball and baseball. Next semester I’ll get you put in my last period PE class. The rules won’t let me teach to any football but It will let me coach at weight training, agility and conditioning. Both terms this summer school the rules say that me and one other coach can teach body building and conditioning and you take both terms. We gotta get you bigger and quicker. You’re going to be the 2nd string Slotback next year because we’re going to concentrate on the position that you’ve got the best shot at getting a full ride.”
“You’re a real hitter son.” Coach continued. “You gotta a good head for the game and a nose for the ball. Look Face, I know you’ve got some tough stuff going on and I’m not gonna tell you how I know that, but I do, and that’s none of my business. What my business is is to make boys into men and, as far as I’m concerned you’re farther along than most…you just gotta suck it up and put it in the end zone, son. I can and I will help you, but you’re the one that’s gotta carry the ball.” He told me to think about, that it was my decision and up to me, that simple.
For me it was Ms. Angel and the Butcher all over again…someone believed in me, someone was gonna help me and give me a chance. I told Coach, then and there without hesitation, I was in and I wasn’t going to let him down. We stood up and shook hands, eye to eye, man to man. For weeks my head was in the clouds. I was gonna do this…no matter what it took, I was going to give it everything I had…I was going to make this happen! Nothing and no one was going to stop me.
Over the course of the rest of the school year I had less and less time for my personal reading pursuits. My focus was on preparing for the coming football season and my coming opportunity to vault into a new life. My reading shifted to stories of overcoming adversity, of determination and the “Philosophy and Tech” of football.
I could sense it, I could feel it in my heart and soul!
My moment was upon me!
Face
FoTi
Crusader
I Googled and I didn't find any truth of what you said above here.
Is this the Nazi stuff you're talking about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNF86jBByDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i6ozLpNr3Q&feature=related
My father-in-law was a director/producer at Walt Disney Studios. He had been working for Disney since the early days. I never heard any of what you put forth here. I did hear that Walt Disney was anti-union....he didn't want the union in his place of work. My father-in-law said that it was much better for the employees at Disney before the unions got in. He said that the employees made more money before the unions came in. He told me when Disney had to give in to the unions, he was not happy, so he followed what the unions set as wages and the employees made less money. That's the only thing I ever heard. He never had one bad word to say about Walt Disney, and I'm sure I would have heard something if Disney had anything to do with the Nazi Party. So, if you can come up with something to back up what you said....
EP - Ethics Particle
Gold Meritorious Patron
A big "ack" to all posters on this thread!
Hey gang - I'm readin' an tryin to keep up and understand all that is being said... but it is a lot!
The following is something that RogerB said earlier that I really like:
"Personally, I have found that I do not have to duplicate at here, and have and suffer at here what another is either having at or creating from there. It’s his. Leave it there."
That's what I try to "not do" and "do" depending on the situation!
Thanks all,
EP
Hey gang - I'm readin' an tryin to keep up and understand all that is being said... but it is a lot!
The following is something that RogerB said earlier that I really like:
"Personally, I have found that I do not have to duplicate at here, and have and suffer at here what another is either having at or creating from there. It’s his. Leave it there."
That's what I try to "not do" and "do" depending on the situation!
Thanks all,
EP
FoTi
Crusader
[
This is good.
Also.....
Quote: Roger B
"We can goof by not recognizing we have come up into the next higher level of case and screwed up ability/inability to handle, and instead in error bemoan the strife we experience and begin again in indulging old wrong answer/solutions."
Roger....you're so cool. I had to laugh. You need to clone yourself.
This was very helpful, as usual.
Hey gang - I'm readin' an tryin to keep up and understand all that is being said... but it is a lot!
The following is something that RogerB said earlier that I really like:
"Personally, I have found that I do not have to duplicate at here, and have and suffer at here what another is either having at or creating from there. It’s his. Leave it there."
That's what I try to "not do" and "do" depending on the situation!
Thanks all,
EP
This is good.
Also.....
Quote: Roger B
"We can goof by not recognizing we have come up into the next higher level of case and screwed up ability/inability to handle, and instead in error bemoan the strife we experience and begin again in indulging old wrong answer/solutions."
Roger....you're so cool. I had to laugh. You need to clone yourself.
This was very helpful, as usual.
EP - Ethics Particle
Gold Meritorious Patron
Grandmother nailed it...
When she simply said "consider the source".
And you are on the mark too, FoTi and Zinj...and more!
Sounds like 'Blow It Off Tech' EP
Good stuff.
Zinj
When she simply said "consider the source".
And you are on the mark too, FoTi and Zinj...and more!
Infinite
Troublesome Internet Fringe Dweller
Here's a good place to start - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney:_Hollywood's_Dark_Prince
You could also Google "Gunther Lessing" who was Disney's lawyer. Both were regularly seen attending American Nazi Party meetings and rallies. Its also good to think of the interests at work in maintaining the illusion of Disney. A bit like Hubbard in some respects, although the stakes are greater.
FoTi
Crusader
Here's a quote from your reference .....Dark_Prince.
"The book has been called "an effective hatchet job"[2] and the book's claims are disputed by other authors, including ones who have reviewed and published information from the same FBI files as Eliot.[3][4]"
And Ted already beat you to posting the link to the article that mentions "Gunther Lessing". Looks to me like you didn't read the whole article or you're just purposely picking out things to prove your point without looking at the whole picture.
Think what you like. I'm done with this.
Infinite
Troublesome Internet Fringe Dweller
South Park did it for Scientology - Family Guy does it for Disney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LlZ0nmOQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LlZ0nmOQo
The Magic Thetan
Patron with Honors
I've told you many times here that I loved your posts and wanted to hear what you had to say. I don't know how many times I have to say it for you to believe me. I DO ENJOY YOUR POSTS....DO YOU READ ME?
You also put out an invitation to call you. I did. You were too busy to talk at the time.....I understand that. I never heard back from you. You don't seem to really want to talk to me. I don't know why you put out the invitation. It's kind of conflicting and confusing to me. :confused2:
Whether you believe it or not, I care about what happens to you.
Have a nice lunch.
YES I Hear you. Thank you, and again I appologize for anything I did that was not cool.
Nope. I've been in Idaho since the early 80's. I sometimes fantasize about an evening hanging out with friends and fellow travelers from the past. Maybe one day soon huh?
D
The Magic Thetan
Patron with Honors
ig Johnny Raff
I wrote this before I discovered that Ikwdblds told the story on an earlier post about ourt lunch, but hopefully you will enjoy it anyway.
Big Johnny Raff
Chapter - 1 Part - 1
The Johnny Raff Chronicles - The Early Years
Pop Story Number - 1 - Thank You Sweetheart
It had been my intention to first write The Johnny Raff Chronicles - The Scientology Years, then The Post Scientology Years, Then The Early Years and then The Magic Years. I figured it would take twelve books to do that, but some things just can’t wait.
In honor or afaceinthecrowd, who graciously said that my post # 4126 entitled “Cancellation of My Certs” was my best post yet, and in honor of him touching my heart and my memories when he said, “I wanna hear more sometime about your daddy…sounds like he was one helluva character”, I am going to do it.
I am going to jump ahead, and tell you a Pop story. Then, every now and then, I will tell another.
In fact I am so excited about sharing this first one, I am not even going to get it proof read, which a dangerous undertaking for me.
So hear goes.
Pop, or Big Johnny Raff, as he was affectionately known to everyone, was a small town bookie that everybody bet with, from Mayer Casey, to the guy on the street, but there was nothing small about Pop. He was the genuine article - a guy who went head on into life with a gusto - a guy generous to a fault (although it was not a fault - people loved him for it) and a guy we all loved more that we can say.
When Pop was in his later years, he used to sit on the porch and talk to all the woman who came by. Hell, he always talked to all the woman who came by.
One day, a gal sat down with him, and after a bit, she exclaimed her surprise when she discovered that Pop was eighty five.
“Your eighty five?” she exclaimed. “You look great for eighty five.”
With one of Pop inimitable expressions he replied, “I’d rather be sixty, and look like Shit!”
You hear stories about the last thing your father said to you before he died.
Well, toward the very end of his life, I was in the hospital with him on a few different occasions when he was in a coma, but I could always bring him out of it.
I would read him Scientology to piss him off, and it always worked.
“That son of a bitch Hubbard,” he would say as he emerged from the coma. “He owes me money, he welched on a bet.”
Actually he never met Hubbard, but he forever feigned disgust that I had gotten into Hubbard's crazy subject after Pop had paid for me to go to a legitimate engineering college.
However, the last time I visited Pop in the hospital, I couldn’t reach him.
Nothing I did would bring him out of the coma.
I tried reading him Scientology. I even told him that Hubbard was here to pay him the money he owed him, but nothing worked.
So I drifted over to the chair in the corner and my eyes filled with tears at the thought that Big Johnny Raff was on the way out.
Just them, this pretty nurse came in to straighten out the room.
On the way out I said to her, “Thank you sweetheart.”
Well that did it.
Pop came right out of the coma.
“Who you calling sweetheart!”, he said, “That’s my girl!”, and he was gone.
It was the last thing I ever heard him say, and it was Pop to the core.
Very good post, TMT, your best yet IMO.
I wanna hear more sometime about your daddy...sounds like he was one helluva character.
Face
I wrote this before I discovered that Ikwdblds told the story on an earlier post about ourt lunch, but hopefully you will enjoy it anyway.
Big Johnny Raff
Chapter - 1 Part - 1
The Johnny Raff Chronicles - The Early Years
Pop Story Number - 1 - Thank You Sweetheart
It had been my intention to first write The Johnny Raff Chronicles - The Scientology Years, then The Post Scientology Years, Then The Early Years and then The Magic Years. I figured it would take twelve books to do that, but some things just can’t wait. In honor or afaceinthecrowd, who graciously said that my post # 4126 entitled “Cancellation of My Certs” was my best post yet, and in honor of him touching my heart and my memories when he said, “I wanna hear more sometime about your daddy…sounds like he was one helluva character”, I am going to do it.I am going to jump ahead, and tell you a Pop story. Then, every now and then, I will tell another.
In fact I am so excited about sharing this first one, I am not even going to get it proof read, which a dangerous undertaking for me.So hear goes.
Pop, or Big Johnny Raff, as he was affectionately known to everyone, was a small town bookie that everybody bet with, from Mayer Casey, to the guy on the street, but there was nothing small about Pop. He was the genuine article - a guy who went head on into life with a gusto - a guy generous to a fault (although it was not a fault - people loved him for it) and a guy we all loved more that we can say. When Pop was in his later years, he used to sit on the porch and talk to all the woman who came by. Hell, he always talked to all the woman who came by.One day, a gal sat down with him, and after a bit, she exclaimed her surprise when she discovered that Pop was eighty five.
“Your eighty five?” she exclaimed. “You look great for eighty five.”
With one of Pop inimitable expressions he replied, “I’d rather be sixty, and look like Shit!”You hear stories about the last thing your father said to you before he died.
Well, toward the very end of his life, I was in the hospital with him on a few different occasions when he was in a coma, but I could always bring him out of it.
I would read him Scientology to piss him off, and it always worked.
“That son of a bitch Hubbard,” he would say as he emerged from the coma. “He owes me money, he welched on a bet.”Actually he never met Hubbard, but he forever feigned disgust that I had gotten into Hubbard's crazy subject after Pop had paid for me to go to a legitimate engineering college.
However, the last time I visited Pop in the hospital, I couldn’t reach him.
Nothing I did would bring him out of the coma.
I tried reading him Scientology. I even told him that Hubbard was here to pay him the money he owed him, but nothing worked.
So I drifted over to the chair in the corner and my eyes filled with tears at the thought that Big Johnny Raff was on the way out.
Just them, this pretty nurse came in to straighten out the room.
On the way out I said to her, “Thank you sweetheart.”
Well that did it.
Pop came right out of the coma.
“Who you calling sweetheart!”, he said, “That’s my girl!”, and he was gone.
It was the last thing I ever heard him say, and it was Pop to the core.
Last edited:
SweetnessandLight
Crusader
I just love this story! Thanks for sharing it with us Johnny!
It reminds me of something I'd like to post, if I can find it...
Be back later...
It reminds me of something I'd like to post, if I can find it...
Be back later...
SweetnessandLight
Crusader
O.K., This wasn't quite it, but close. It's from the viewpoint of "a woman of a certain age", but I think you'll all get something out of it. Enjoy! (My Dad's last word to me!)
http://thebloggess.com/?p=7069
http://thebloggess.com/?p=7069
- Status