You Don't Fly in a Nest

Getting Kicked Out—and UP
S learn to fly by a very simple
method: they learn by flying.
Along about the time the fledglings begin to sprout their tail
feathers and are climbing up onto
the edge of the nest to peer over
the side, Mamma Bird or Papa Bird
gives them a gentle nudge. The
fledglings begin to fall, spread
their wings -- and they are flying.
Of course, some do go over the side of the
nest before they've enough feathers to support
them and die when they hit the ground; but,
proportionately, their numbers are few.

In the realm of human relationships, the
process is far less clear-cut and is frequently never quite accomplished. Children are very
seldom taught the time will come when they
will go forth in the world to make their own
way as adult men and women and that they must
be prepared to break the ties of dependence
upon the home and family. And so most adults,
when they begin to feel overwhelmed by the
pressures of the world, either return in one
way or another to their families or seek a
surrogate family relationship in which they
will feel protected and cared for.

Human parents who say to their children,
"Henceforth you are on your own", and refuse
to accept the children back into the nest once
they have gone into the world, are considered,
at least in this culture, cruel. The same attitude is shown toward the teacher who, having
taught his students and sent them out into the
world, refuses to teach and protect them further.

The question then arises: How can one
best impress upon those for whom we have cared
or whom we have trained that they must, henceforth, stand upon their own feet and use their
own strength and maturity and learning to make
their own way? The Zen Masters have a system:
When their students become completely dependent upon them, they reject the students utterly. Some of the students do not survive this
treatment, but many do and go forth to become
Masters in their own right.

Observing the events in the field of
dianetics/scientology during the last few
years, it would seem that some such process
has been in operation. There were Welgos and
Chapdelaine and Coulter and Howes and Winter
and Purcell -- and numbers of others who learned
from Hubbard and then began to expand upon
that learning and to apply it in different
ways. As soon as it became apparent that these
persons were bent upon exploring beyond the
areas Hubbard included in his teaching, they
were rejected; even more, some of them were
attacked. Some of these fell by the wayside,
but those who kept on their chosen course have
all added something of value to the general
body of knowledge and techniques about the
problems of Mankind and their solution. Anyone
who has ever watched a mother bird driving off
her offspring when they are able to fend for
themselves, or who has watched a mother dog
snap and snarl at her puppies when the time has
come to wean them, cannot help but be struck
by the similarity between these actions of Nature's creatures and what has happened to students of di
anetics and
scientology
who began to
think for
themselves.

There have
been a lot of
words written and
a lot of emotion
thrown around about what Hubbard does or
does not do. And most of
it (probably including
this polemic) has been
wasted. The fart is that
these excommunicated individuals have gone ahead
and done some very valid
work on their own. Most have been successful,
one way or another, in helping individuals toward the stated goals Hubbard had when he
brought out Book One. And most of them will
quite probably admit that Hubbard's actions
toward them were instrumental in providing
some of their 4rive to achieve.

A recent issue of ABILITY made a lot of
people (including myself) angry. It wasn't
until after I'd blown that anger in a rather
forcefully-phrased postcard to Hubbard that it
occurred to me that maybe Hubbard intended to
make us angry! Every good auditor knows that
there comes a time in processing every case
when the only appropriate technique is to make
the pre-clear hopping mad -- so mad he'll express that anger regardless of consequences.
Now, if you're processing a whole lot of people en masse, there will come a time when the
optimum technique will be to make as many of
those people as possible angry. And everyone
who has ever been a pre-clear knows that a
really effective auditor is, at times, just
about the most incomprehensible thing there
is. It isn't until after the processing has
taken effect that the auditor's actions become
comprehensible and, from the more understanding viewpoint of looking backward, quite proper and inevitable in terms of the situation.

In fact, maybe every-thins Hubbard has
done since he brought out the first book has
been one grand processing session for all of
us who've ever had anything to do with dianetics/scientology. It isn't impossible,
though there are those who will say it's highly improbable. The FACT is that a very large
number, indeed, of those who have participated
in the field ARE more effective, happier,
healthier and, yes, saner, than they were before. The number could be much larger, of
course, but those who have fallen by the wayside have always been those who have refused
to make use of opportunities offered them.

So, maybe instead of all the criticism
and antagonism that so many of us have been
throwing at Ron in the past -- maybe, instead,
we should say, "Thanks". And maybe some of us
have even grown big enough to add, "You're doing a swell job".

Ron probably doesn't need it, but I sort
of think he'd like it, anyhow.