Sunday, January 04, 2009

Further comments on Personal Integrity

I wish the guy who is making these comments would change his screen name. His comments are okay, but his screen name isn't. I have rules about responding to comments and I don't like to violate them. I'm making an exception here because I think some of the comments are good and I want to respond.

So dude, please do me a favor and change your screen name to something more acceptable.

Anyway, the comment was to this article, Scientology is Wisdom: Personal Integrity. The comment began: Thanks for answering, Grahame. My trouble with your example is that you're suggesting people learn by their own anecdotal experience, but anecdotal evidence isn't very good when it comes to medical treatments.

My article has absolutely nothing to do with medical treatment. When one has a physical problem then one gets physical (medical) treatment. My example involved something that addressed spiritual trauma. By concentrating on an example you are missing the whole point of personal integrity. I suggest you read Personal Integrity again.

Your comments on people learning is again missing the point. Personal Integrity is about a person observing for themselves and then having the integrity to stick by what they have observed.

Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, had personal integrity. She observed something that was wrong and she had the courage to know and say what she had observed. Because of her and others like her the rights of all Americans were strengthened. If she had simply listened to the authorities of the time who "knew" that black people should be segregated from the "superior" whites, then she would have moved to her "correct" place on the bus and we would have heard no more of her and perhaps no more of the civil rights movement. But she had the guts to stand up to "authority" and say "No! I observe that this is wrong and I'm going to do something about it." That's what personal integrity is all about.

Your comments seem to want to invalidate "observation" by calling it "anecdotal experience". Read the story of the discovery of Penicillin and you will see how much the word "observe" is used. Observation is the essence of discovery and therefore the essence of learning.

On a much lesser scale than Rosa Parks, I have observed that everything I've done in Scientology so far has worked and made my life a thousand times better than it was before. I have observed that and I will stick by it because it is true for me.

The rest of your comment was about a subject I don't discuss (see my rules about comments). I don't discuss what it is or what it isn't, however I will say this: All levels in Scientology consist of a series of actions that one does. There are no "stories". One studies some theory, one studies some techniques, one practices the techniques and then one does it. At that point you can see if the theory bears out because you are doing it and seeing the results.

Scientology is not something you discuss. It is something you study and then do. And at that point Personal Integrity enters in again because when you "do," you should observe so that you will know if you got the predicted result or not.

When I have done the techniques of the Scientology Levels that I have completed I have observed that I have gotten the results without a doubt. I got those results to such a degree that my certainty of the truth of the theory behind those results is unshakable.

Thanks for your comments.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted you to know I love your blog. I've been reading it for the past few weeks. I'm not a Scientologist but am interested in the subject. Your regular and informative posts are much appreciated when I get home from work every day.

Grahame said...

Thanks Eric, I'll try to keep it up.

Unknown said...

Hi Grahame,

Your comments are very helpful. It is very useful for me to see that one has a very clear view of personnal integrity. Your example with Rosa Parks speaks by himself.

Thank you for this clear view.

Pierre