The wrong thing to do...

The wrong thing to do...

By Lana Mitchell

When I was in the Sea Org at the Int base, we had “Source Night” on Saturday nights, and it consisted of listening to an LRH lecture and reading along with the transcript.

Over the 13 years I was there must have been at least 4 or 5 times that the LRH lecture THE WRONG THING TO DO IS NOTHING was played – and every time (particularly as we got into the 2000’s) there was an indirect or a very direct implication that we, as staff, were not taking responsibility for the scene at the base. There was such pressure brought on us regarding this lecture that I had developed quite a ridge on the lecture – and on its contents.

Recently I restudied the lecture. I was amazed at the different message that I got out of the lecture and how very different the concepts are when a) I am not longer in the hostile environment I was in, b) when I have my own case progressing well and am moving up The Bridge, and c) when I have a new look (a bright one) on the future of Scientology and my own involvement and responsibility for it.

Some of you reading this may or may not have the same ridge that I had on this lecture – but I thought you would enjoy reading this section in a new unit of time. I don’t feel pawnish (or privatish) any more – but I certainly had done for quite a long time.

My view at this time is that there is much to this game Scientology – and I am all for playing it rather than bailing out.

Here is the excerpt:

THE WRONG THING TO DO IS NOTHING, 17 Nov 1954:

"Now, essentially, the physical universe is a game. Game is a third dynamic operation, so is auditing, so is communication - third dynamic.

"This universe would have no value whatsoever unless it could be used as a playing field. That would have no value.

"Now, in the Philadelphia Lectures, 1953, and in the Doctorate Lectures, late 52, this was pretty thoroughly covered -- this matter of games. And the truth of the matter is, is there -- as far as the reason why is concerned, of existence, there is no reason why.

"So a person only becomes baffled about a reason why when it has ceased to be a game. Well, how could it cease to be a game? By a person no longer being a player. A person is no longer a player. A person becomes a pawn. What do you think a pawn on a chessboard thinks about?

"It waits there for somebody else to move it. It might sit there and look at the rest of the board maybe, but it's merely a spectator. Somebody else has got to come along and move it on another square.

"Of course, there's one step lower than this, that's a broken pawn. But the preclear who comes in and sits in the chair and waits for the auditor to move him into various positions on the board and just moves simply because the auditor said so, kind of wonders what's going to happen and expects something to happen, maybe and maybe not. But he's just there, you know? He's in this situation of a pawn.

"The auditor's mission is to bring him up a where he can be to some degree a player. If he can't play a game, he can't do anything because there's nothing else to do. That's the hideous part of all this. People come around they tell you, "Now, life is serious. It's important".

"You know what they're trying to do? Trying to make a pawn out of you. That's how you make pawns. You come up to some somebody and you say, "Now, listen. Life is serious. It's important, so forth and so on. And you are an 'it', you know, and it's very serious and it's very important, and you move when I move you."

"Next thing you know, why you feel kind of pawnish or if you’re in the army, privatish." LRH

Comments

# Tom M 2013-02-20 09:22

Wow Lana, good insight. I remember sitting at Int on Source Night listening to this tape and feeling the same way and thinking "Why don't i get the message. Maybe I don't belong here (at Int)". EVERYONE was a pawn at Int. Everyone. Thanks for this.
ML Tom

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:06

Thanks Tom - wonder what would have happened if each of us, sitting there, had realised we did all have the same view. I guess we were all PAWNS as we allowed ourselves to be. Lesson learned for each and every one of us.

# tunedal 2013-02-20 09:55

Yes, it is fascinating how different study is now compared to before. I studied the tone scale in full yesterday and the line to that bulletin was 100% clean. No attention on anything but the words written on that page. And the thought: what can I do with this tech? Liberating.

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:09

So right Tunedal! And, as you progress up the Bridge, it changes too. I guess that is where the old datum of number of times over the material equals certainty and results. Our own postulates and considerations and point of view changes -- and then suddenly there is a new view to the lecture, book or policy.

# SKM 2013-02-20 11:34

Well said
and great quote.

Love,
SKM

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:10

Thanks SKM!

# Thoughtful 2013-02-20 15:24

Isn't it AMAZING the power in this one excerpt — a few minutes out of thousands of hours of the same. What people are missing. I too was sitting in the same audience all the while you were there, Lana, and it's amazing seeing this again and how far reaching the applicability is.

Lana, a big thank you for reacquainting us with the power and sheer joy of the tech that so many people have forgotten.

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:12

Thoughtful: Glad you agree. I have also found my own desire and reach to study and learn has been rekindled -- when there had been just a failed purpose earlier.

# Bernie Wimbush 2013-02-20 17:36

And in those other thousands of hours are many more pearls and they have the power to improve our lives if only we use them. We can create miracles.

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:13

So true Bernie. Pearls, diamonds and the like. Your refreshing new (old) look on the body of work inspires me!

# Chris Mann 2013-02-21 12:57

I wasnt there, in that situation, but this is a very applicable quote. Thats what its about, stuff like that. I think it's a pretty rare thing in this world to read a few simple paragraphs and have it be so life-changing.

# Chris Mann 2013-02-21 13:02

Oh, one more thing: I did a few courses in the Church after I was fully cognited that something was wrong- after the Truth Rundown came out. One change that happened in me was I started re-studying things and found I was blowing a lot of false data and enforced interpretations on things. The data become simpler and a lot easier to understand.

# Thoughtful 2013-02-21 13:45

Very interesting Chris! That aligns with LRH's A to E steps which I believe are the organic steps that anyone follows upon leaving a suppressive group, specifically the step of retraining. I don't see the retraining step as a punishment, I see it as a chance to gain tremendous new insight and blow enormous chunks of false data, from earlier having studied the tech in a dangerous environment. Personally I want to restudy, which I also think would not take long. Thanks for this.

# Chris Mann 2013-02-22 08:44

On the Truth Rundown- I should thank you. Watching your interview I remember thinking (and saying) "this guy is telling the truth". You werent nattering or lying and it just was there to be confronted. What happened there was a de-PTSing. I finally knew what the problem was. Then I started asking questions.

# Lana M 2013-02-25 10:15

Great observation Chris. There is a change that occurs, I agree. It is interesting how the false data surfaces when you go back and restudy. And it just peels off and a whole new level of understanding is now visible.

# Silvia 2013-02-22 12:53

Lana, hello and thank you. It revitalized the aspect of Games - ie, more uptone, less solid. Also your write up made me realize that those sessions of Tape Play ended in "enforced communication" plus those implyiong you were responsible for the base scene were, as well, enforcing a very low tone Reality. However, the main upset may come because they (whoever they were) added an latered Comm and R to the simple, honest Comm adn R from LRH via his tape. Thanks you - SILVIA

# Lana M 2013-02-22 14:06

yep - you duplicated the situation entirely! Thank you Silvia

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“As the only crime in the universe seems to be to communicate, and as the only saving grace of an awareness of awareness unit is to communicate, we can readily understand that an entanglement of communication is certain to result. What we should understand – and much more happily – is that it can now be resolved.”

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