Does punishment fit with Scientology?

Does punishment fit with Scientology?

By Bernie Wimbush

We read in the paper of some old veteran being attacked in his or her own home and robbed of a few cents by a bunch of teenagers, and it’s so easy to call for a good flogging, bring back the cane and that today’s youth are all bad.

Wasn’t it Socrates who made the derogatory comments about ‘today’s’ youth a couple of thousand years ago? And so nothing has changed.

In the early history of Australia we were a convict colony. Good old mother England didn’t know what to do with all the naughty girls and boys (and adults) so sent them to Australia. Studies were done of these poor wretches and it was discovered that no amount of floggings, solitary confinements or hard labour made one iota of difference. What was discovered was that if a convict was taught a trade from which he could earn a living he or she didn’t offend again.

Reminds me of a process whereby the handling of a continuous overt was to find the problem the being was trying to solve and fix that.

When we are trying to survive we are going to run into situations we don’t know how to solve and sometimes we get it wrong don’t we? Isn’t the definition of an overt related to non-optimum solutions across the dynamics? Isn’t this subject about mistakes rather than bad people?

In British law there was a principle of “The rule of Thumb.” This allowed a husband to beat his wife providing the stick was no thicker than his thumb. I really can’t see that working with my wife. But not considered an overt back then. Perhaps if there had been more emphasis on communication?

So knowing the principle of the Service Fac, if you tell someone they are wrong, don’t they justify their actions and insist on their rightness? And do it again?

So in auditing we find an overt and handle it. That is the end of it. The PC will forget about it in a few days if not immediately, will he not? I have heard of PCs being sent to Ethics for correction after an overt has been handled in session. Doesn’t auditing work?

And what happens when you tell someone to stop? Apart from LRH’s comment that that is an act of suppression, we are in the right/wrong area again. Try getting him to explain how he was being right (using good TRs and no make wrong) and see what happens.

Isn’t the truth that crime and overts result from illogical ideas in the mind, held in place by mental charge? And isn’t auditing the only thing that fixes that?

So over to you. Does punishment fit with Scientology?

Comments

# steve 2013-02-17 01:44

Nope. Punishment doesn't fit. But it can be fun soome times (laugh).

# Thoughtful 2013-02-17 05:07

Bernie, Thanks for this article. I edited your last line where you asked a question regarding "criticizing DM." No one is criticizing DM or punishing him — that is a misconception. We are pulling withholds, we are running out a group engram, and we are warning people who would otherwise be at risk that there is danger. This is not people dramatizing as victim and blaming their own out ethics on DM. This is people taking responsibility to protect the public from harm, and clear the withholds off the group so it can hopefully one day recover its sanity. That is auditing the group. Sanity is long gone in the CoS and many people are dead because of it. What we are doing IS Scientology.

# Jim Logan 2013-02-17 14:53

I just did a restudy of the 63 Ser Fac tapes. This article points up from another viewpoint, the mechanics of fixing a solution and I've gained a better look at how I might apply the datum "you can be right", without making wrong, and kicking in that fixed solution. Thank you Bernie, with this light touch description, taken, I'm a better being today.

# Silvia 2013-02-18 06:30

No, punishment does not fit at all with Scientology. The purpose is to make a person self determined and capable of power of choice; if punishment is used to obliterate that self determinism and enforce someone elses´s concept of what is right, then the person that should go to ethics is the one using force to drive his R across. Once handled properly also get him in session so his aberrations get handled and he can be himself and let others be as they choose.

# calvin b. duffield 2013-02-20 21:59

Bernie, what a clear, insightful presentation of the age old fixation to apply punishment as "THE" solution!

Your perspective is, to my mind, a bridge,that I din't even recognize existed.

I had wrongfully assumed that metering out punishment, would generally work, as
it certainly did for most of us as schoolkids, when we offended.

I recognize now, that it ONLY works, IF
it is instrumental in helping the being
to spot that they were in fact, acting
against their own best interests and /or
that of their dynamics.

For that realization to occur, there needs be sufficient awareness in the being in the first place. Without that
self realization, no amount of cajoling,
persuasion, or punishment can ever be
effective, and the ser facs and overt/
transgression/ motivator compulsion are
fixed to continue in a spiral of illogical madness.

This is such a fine piece of detective work, Bernie, that you can be assured,I will share it very broadly.

Thanks again,
Calvin.

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