It's as Easy as Learning to Milk a Cow

It's as Easy as Learning to Milk a Cow -- and the Only "Danger" Is In
Accepting the Advice of Those Who Warn You Not to Try It
-TO
voL
El
1
— o
By ART COULTER
ECENTLY I have come in contact with
an idea that is so ridiculous, it
makes me "mad". It is the idea
that it is "impossible" or even
"dangerous" to work alone. It is being
put out by people whose primary interest
is in making money out of "suckers" -- persons who are reactively disturbed by the
fact that Synergetics is available at a
nominal cost -- free to those in need -- and
who see in Synergetics a threat to their
income.

Synergetics daily demonstrates that
the average person can work alone -- and
achieve results far superior to those
produced by phonies who charge fantastic
fees for extravagantly advertised "cures".
But I'll stick my neck out a bit further
on this. I say, without qualification,
that the average person can use the psychological tools of any school, working
all alone by himself", and that he can
do this with considerable benefit and
without any danger to himself.

Please note that I said psychological
tools. This does not apply to the use of
drugs or surgery. I don't advocate mescaline or carbon dioxide by anyone who
doesn't have a thoro knowledge of what
these things might do. Nor do I advocate
self-hypnosis or similar techniques• except possibly under special circumstances.
But tools which require merely some" mental action" by the subject are perfectly
safe. The worst they can do is make you
uncomfortable for awhile, or perhaps
overly irritable for a day or so, or give
you a sleepless night. But the human mind
is tough. It has built-in protections and
recuperative powers that could drive a
safety engineer green with envy.

Working alone is an ability. Some have
it naturally, others do not. But it can
be learned, and it is comparatively easy
to learn. It is about as hard as learning
how to make pancakes or sew on buttons or
change a tire. It is considerably easier
than learning how to drive a car or play
the piano or speak French. I've never
milked a cow -- one of my secret ambitions
is to milk one some day -- but from what
I've been told, I'd say working alone is
certainly no harder than learning to milk.

Most so-called "difficulties " in working alone are really missed opportunities.
You start to work on your own case. "The
mind knows how the mind operates"; before
long your mind presents to you exactly
the problems you need to work on next.
But because there is a problem, there may
be a certain amount of discomfort connected with it. So, naturally enough, you
shy away from it. And if you believe what
the get - rich-quick - on-your-money boys
want you to believe, you conclude that
"working alone is difficult".

Poppycock!
Sure, it maybe uncomfortable at first.
But that's the sign of pain about to discharge. The first rule of working alone
is, keep working. You have a "tolerance
level" for discomfort, and let me tell
you, your mind is n o t going to present
you with stuff beyond that tolerance
level -- because that mind of yours is fantastically good; it's the most super-accurate, foolproof computer anybody ever
dreamed of. Trust your awn mind. You'll
be repaid for that trust beyond your
wildest dreams.

The second rule of working alone is,
evaluate your work- alone technique. Do
this, briefly, about every third session.
Working alone is an experience, and you
can learn from experience. If you find
you "dope off" with a certain technique,
try to find out why. You can learn to
turn "dope-off" off after awhile, and
with this ability mastered, you'll find
you can turn other things off, too.

There are a lot of other things you
can do to learn to work alone. I've collected them below in a''Work Alone Code".
This is something you can revise to suit
yourself on the basis of experience.

None of this means you should not also
take advantage of good group coaching (or
auditing), etc., even if you have to pay
out good money for it. But be wary of the
guy who advises you not to work 'alone. He
isn't interested in you, he's interested
in your green stuff, and he'll soak you
for all he can get. To say nothing of
wasting your time!
THE WORK-ALONE CODE
1. When a difficulty or discomfort is encountered, keep working.
2. Evaluate your work-alone technique periodically.
3. Set up a definite schedule for working
alone and stick to it.
4. Make your sessions short; about 15 minutes or half an hour is fine.
5. Do a session review after each session.
You'll be surprised at how much material turns
up the second time around.
6. Keep a notebook, and write down briefly
high-spots of each session. Review occasionally.
7. If a technique doesn't work, drop it.
8. Invent your own techniques.
9. Don't work alone exclusively if it's
possible to work with others as well.