Help with trauma

One of the simplest and most effective ways to help a person who has their attention fixed on something unpleasant, such as an accident or disaster, is the Locational Assist.

I've used it many times to help people in such a condition and it never fails. Just a couple of weeks ago I helped a guy who was having a panic attack. It took about 30 minutes but at the end of the assist the attack had gone and he was bright and smiling.

Southern California Wild Fires

When the wild fires struck Southern California a call went out to Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Los Angeles to mobilize and give assistance to the Red Cross. A group immediately went out to the evacuation area at San Bernardino Airport giving comfort and help to the people who had lost their homes or were waiting to see if they still had a home to return to. More help is on-going and I'll post it here as I learn more.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are experienced in disaster relief having assisted in rescue and relief operations all over the world. They not only give the sort of physical help people need, such as providing food and shelter, but they also provide the practical spiritual help needed to overcome the stress and trauma of disaster situations.

If you or someone you know needs help with the stress or trauma of a disaster, or even of a small disaster of everyday life then call 1 800 HELP 4 YU.

Contributions to Disaster Relief

To donate to the Volunteer Minister Program call Volunteer Ministers International at 1-800-435-7498 or (323) 960-3560 or sent to Volunteer Ministers International, 6331 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 708, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

For details on how to donate to the Red Cross in Southern California go to http://www.acrossla.org/

You can also donate via "Operation: Lend-A-Hand", being run by a local radio station. Just go to http://www.kabc.com/viewentry.asp?id=285197&pt=detailed%20information.

All the above donations are tax deductible.

What is Truth?

Now that is quite a philosophical question isn't it? Well, it is answered in the Scientology Axioms. By-the-way, Axiom has various definitions, the one being used here is "an established rule or principle or a self-evident truth."

In Axiom 38 Truth is defined as:
   1. Truth is the exact consideration.
   2. Truth is the exact time, place, form and event.

(My note: A consideration is a thought or idea about something, so this definition covers both the subjective and objective spheres.)

This definition has many applications in life. Example: a friend of mine was very nervous when it came to speaking in front of groups. Using a technique in Scientology called "false data stripping," I helped him to find the idea (consideration) he had about groups that was causing this. It turned out he had a fixed idea that groups always heckled speakers. This came from a difficult situation he'd been in with a group and shortly after, while still under a great deal of stress, someone had said to him that groups always heckled speakers. He had taken this as true and as the explanation for his difficulties. Later he forgot that he'd accepted this idea but it hung around and caused him endless problems. Getting the exact consideration he had about groups (the truth in other words) enabled him to change his mind and the problem with groups ended right there and then.

Another, more objective example, and something I do almost every day is finding and correcting bugs in computer programs. "It's hanging up" says the user. So I get her to define this more exactly - When does it hang up? Where in the program? What does the screen show at the time? What happens exactly? I get the exact time, place, form and event of the problem then I know where to look in the program and can solve it.

So this is a very practical definition of truth.

Scientology and Metaphysics

I've been gradually moving through the branches of philosophy and showing how Scientology encompasses each. Now we come to metaphysics. This is probably the most difficult branch of philosophy to define. Wikipedia gives a long definition while Webster's 1828 dictionary gives a simpler one.

Originally metaphysics was used to describe the books (and hence the subjects in those books) by Aristotle that came after (meta) his books about physics. Metaphysics has expanded over the centuries to include anything that doesn't fit into the rest of philosophy, so in a way it still lives up to its original definition although it could now be called meta-philosophy. To keep it simple, or as simple as I can, I'll define it like this: it covers the basic concepts of what underlies existence. Concepts such as being, existence, causation, space, time, knowledge, mind, spirit and many more fall into metaphysics. Unfortunately the more you dig into what it means the more complicated and convoluted it becomes. So I'll stop there.

Scientology covers the area of metaphysics in its usual practical way. The Prelogics are probably the first summation of L. Ron Hubbard's discoveries in this area, defining the common denominator of all life impulses and how universes are created. Next came the Factors which cover being, existence, causation and much more. Finally the Scientology Axioms sum up everything (literally).

These fundamentals are given very concisely and when you first read them may be too concentrated to easily digest, so in the next couple of days I'll give you examples of how they can be used in life.

Rekindle the failed purpose

While researching how to get things done (as part of the organizational philosophy of Scientology) L. Ron Hubbard hit the problem of mankind's tendency to stop things. For example stressing what shouldn't be done rather than what should be done - most laws epitomize this.

From this research he discovered that behind every stop there is a failed purpose. An example of this was a friend of mine who just couldn't seem to have a successful relationship, everything he did in the area seemed to hit a barrier - a stop - and he was very apathetic about the whole thing. When I was helping him it turned out that he'd had the purpose to have a successful marriage but his first marriage had failed dismally.

The solution? Mr. Hubbard discovered a law - "All you have to do to restore life and action is to rekindle the failed purpose. The stops will at once blow." ("blow" = go away). I had my friend look at his original purpose and times when he'd had success with it and he once more got the idea that the purpose could be attained. Within a week or two he was dating and a year later had remarried - a big improvement over 3-years of nothing happening.

The data on failed purposes can be found in Organization Executive Course Volume 0.