Volume 4, Issue 4, page 10

first seven. The Dynamo calls these "the
widest steps, from one to seven", indicating clearly the promise of greater
things to come. But everything in its
place.

Anger and fear are the enemies we must
combat in the Sixth Step. These are the
emotions that disturb the ideal calm of
our lake,
Why do we get angry or afraid? Defensiveness. Defense against real or imaginary danger. The primitive reaction. Summoning the body's defenses and preparing
to fight for preservation of honor, love,
or life.

The trouble is we still experience
these old defense reactions when there is
no valid danger, or when the danger is
not one we can fight off with claw and
fang. We experience these destructive
emotions when the danger is imaginary and
based upon forgotten, and now invalid,
data. We get angry when the only hope of
victory is in calmness and poise.

How can a man who is built with these
basic defense patterns react in any other
way, in trying situations?
Let's break the problem down into its
component classifications. Let us say
there are three "causes" of anger and
fear.

To begin with the most severe cases,
there are those who dream up grievances
out of whole cloth. They just sit around
and manufacture things to be frightened
of and angry about.

These misguided souls have a compelling
inner need to be martyrs. They have
little touch with external reality, because they have denied themselves as
cause for so long, and have interposed
other persons, places, and things where
they themselves belong in the causation
picture. By the time one has reached the
Sixth Step and has negotiated the first
five hurdles, he should be past this debilitating mental habit if, indeed, he
has summoned the will to face his problems.

The will to face the problems is the
problem. "Dream of dreamers still, ransom
of the will". He must be enticed to the
point that he desires to assume responsibility for efforts and actions, and is
able to see the mechanisms of escape
which he formerly used.

If he does not see himself as cause,
he must start over the seven steps again
and again with the help of a guide and
some such technique as the counterpoint
technique (from post-Hubbardian Wichita)
gently nudged into perception of his role
in his own difficulties.

If you have a good contact with your
Dynamo, he will figure out a method of
indirectly informing you of your error.

The seed of this error is sown in
childhood when the child illogically
blames an unrelated cause to avoid re10
sponsibility. At first he probably knows
he is lying. The dangerous situation
arises when he has so encrusted his view
of the facts with rationalizations that
he is no longer able to see the truth.

After that the shut off memories fester beneath the threshold of consciousness and shifting of blame and responsibility become a conduct pattern which he
will carry over into adulthood, holding
him to immaturity and vitiating his chances of functioning efficiently in an
adult world, as an adult.

The counterpoint technique is to get
the student to observe his fault in others. Let him see it time after time.
Finally, it soaks in that he also has
done this thing which he sees in others.

Our Dynamo has used this technique on
us. I f we go to a show and there is a plot
situation or character which presents an
opening, he will elaborate on the point
or twist it into a more pertinent fable.
He doesn't condemn. He gives a shrewd
analysis. The one of us for which it is
aimed can project it all on the character
in the show until such time as he is
willing to see the fault in himself.

The point is that the one who manufactures grievances is really motivated by
sifted candor. Things he has forgotten.
When the forgotten responsibility is reclaimed, the angers and fears begin to
disintegrate.

Vanity and pride also create false
fabrics in our lives, breed fears and
angers. The Dynamo calls pride a "ragged
doll". This is the best definition I have
ever seen. A worn-out and threadbare bit
of make-believe. Patched up continually
by our sorry self-deceptions and pretensions.

If the student thinks he has "social
position" or any of the other idiotic
props which we grown-up children use to
decorate the stage of life on which we
strut, it would be the best "processing"
for him to take a good hobo trip, riding
freight trains and hitching rides on the
highway.
. Also, he should go hungry and have to
bum a few meals at the back doors; maybe
even (horror of horrors) get a job and go
to work for awhile.

There is reason behind the Brahman's
begging bowl. It destroys the greatest
enemy to integration or spiritual development -- PRIDE.

The second classification of grievance-nurser does not dream them up out of
whole cloth but merely distorts and exaggerates the small things he encounters.
He merely misinterprets events as being
aimed at himself.

Both of these groups are, of course,
paranoid types. Paranoia in its incipient
forms seems to be a very widespread
malady.

The popular habit of blaming others
(PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 12)
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