Man Isn't the "Stinker" He Thinks He Is

BOOK REVIEW

BYLINE

How complicated is man?

According to "1,2,3, Man",
published by Jim Welgos of Human Engineering, Fairhope,
Ala., man isn't nearly as complicated as he likes to think
of himself. In fact, he's
probably a lot more simple,
even, then Jim's book -- which
uses a tool (words) that seems
to add to the complication of
existence: semantics.

"1, 2, 3, Man" divides man
into three primary categories,
or parts.

The first part of man is the
consciousness level, which begins at the moment he has form.
Previous to that, there was
only the unawareness which was
aware of all; the nothingness
that pervades everything.

The second part of man is
on the physical level, and the
actions of that form.

Ard the third part is his
alignment with the social
structure of his environment,
and the limitations he has imposed upon his creative ability in order to operate within
the traditional chains of that
society. It is in this latter
part that man sets up the many
castes for himself: the caste
of possession and ownership;
the caste of so-called criminality; the caste of education;
the caste of appearance (beautiful or ugly), etc. "Justice"
and "fairness" exist only on
the social level, and are based
entirely on our agreements.

Some of the agreements under which man operates have to
do with the form itself, and in
this, Welgos quotes Dr. Bess
Mensendieck, M. D., in what
might be considered a slap at
some of the very tenets of Dianetic and similar types of
so-called "therapy".

"A man with a bulging belly
MIGHT be expressing his mother's pregnant condition while
she was carrying him," Welgos
writes, "but it is more likely
that he is the result of a lack
of exercise combined with an
abundance of good food ... A man
with a bald head MIGHT be trying to regress to the prenatal
area of his life with its comforts, but we would put our
money on the fact that he developed an overconcern about
keeping his hair and as a consequence lost it...

"Many of us want to have
complicated reasons for our
troubles because we have accepted the idea that we cannot
be objective about our own
problems. If this were true,
there would be no hope for anyone except through the advice
and experience of someone in a
more professional capacity.
Actually, most of us KNOW what
is wrong with us and why we
have the troubles that we have.
But the acceptance of the social ideas that we are NOT in
control of ourselves and that
we can do nothing or little
toward rebuilding ourselves
into whatever we wish causes
many people to run from therapy to therapy looking for reasons which lie under their
very noses. We scoot and scamper from one philosophy to another cult in order to learn
why we are as we are."

And just so the reader doesn't get the idea the writer
agrees Man is the stinker Man
thinks he is, Welgos chides
Man for seeking to elevate
himself to a level on which he
already exists. For example,
those who feel they are not

operating at the creative level
are reminded they could never
have taken the first breath,
nor continue to breathe, if
they were not creating. "This
is the same as telling you that
you are already perfect," he
says. "The only lack of perfection which it is possible
for you to have is that which
you declare to exist."

The text of the book is taken from "Lessons in Living",
published by Human Engineering.
the book, of 24 mimeographed
pages, sells for $2; a simplified version of an auxiliary
chart, obtainable separately,
is reproduced herewith.

This simplified version of the 'Basic Chart' does not contain the Therapy columns, correlative information or life relationships.

Individuals enter the real world as pure consciousness and live toward the social. The surest path of growth is to proceed from the social toward the consciousness, resolving the problems in reverse order to the manner in which they were acquired. Attempts to develop short-cuts inevitably have led to frustration. One does not jump in understanding frog 'normal' living to lull control oflconsciousness without taking, eventually, all of the steps. This does not eliminate the possibility of 'accidentally' having a moment of complete awareness. The test is the ability to duplicate the experience at will.

HAGGARD FREE ON CALIFORNIA PEYOTE CHARGE

Use of peyote may be against
the law in California, but the
law that classifies it as "of
the genus Lophophora" isn't
very clear, a Los Angeles judge
has ruled in setting Russ Haggard, of the Los Angeles School
of Integration, free.

The decision came, according
to Haggard, after all the court
rulings seemed to be on the
side of the prosecution. However, after both sides had been
heard, over and around a string
of "objections" (a litany used
by attorneys instead of "Ouch,
you're hurting!"), the court
held that although Haggard had
purchased peyote, he had not
known it was classified as a
narcotic, that the drug was
not clearly defined under the
California statute, and therefore, the defendant wasn't
guilty.

(For an explanation by Russ
on his use of peyote, see the
"Dear Editor" section.)

It's durned funny how often
a column needs only two lines.