From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 7 - August 1992
Conferences - 1992
By Antony A Phillips, Denmark.
May be you wonder why we produce this little magazine. What is the
purpose of it, why use up the precious free time of so many (hundreds
of) people? Is not it a little like the old scientology orgs, where
one person audited to every few hundred that did admin??
Put another way, why spend all that time writing and talking, when one
could be - doing - really important things like auditing and bettering
the worlds condition, and one's own town's condition, and even
handling one's mother in law terminatedly (as we used to say in the
church, but here I only meant handling her compulsive outflow - not
the coffin solution to irritating relations).
Restart seriously
Whoops. Lets starta gain (awhat? A gain!). What is the purpose of this
little paper (magazine)?
I can tell you what it is not. It is not to produce a magazine for
scientologists. Maybe you thought it was, and perhaps that is not a
bad purpose, but we go deeper, more fundamental, are more - right -
(whoops, looks like there are shadows of a service fac there!) than
that.
And we have looked pretty thoroughly at our purpose, and formulated
and reformulated it many times. And maybe we will reformulate it many
times more - it is probably a bit healthier to change your mind than
to be fixed and rigid. (That last sentence is to prevent you making me
wrong next time we reformulate the purpose - I do so hate being made
wrong, perhaps because it invalidates my basic beingness).
Down to Brass Tacks
The purpose behind IVy is to increase communication amongst those who
regard themselves as inheriting, and/or using, some or all of the
positive things Ron promulgated.
This purpose gives a far wider horizon that just giving out a paper. A
long time ago (1985, I think) at the second Free Scientology
Conference in Switzerland, an International Communication Network was
formed. You have never heard of it? Well, it failed (after getting
about 20 relay points willing and able in nearly as many countries). I
think one major reason for its failure was the adding of another
purpose (that of being a 'Qual' for free scientology tech). We do not
intend to add purposes above and beyond helping communication flourish
amongst free Scn.
More than a mag
But you can see that our purpose is wider than a magazine, though a
mag is one good means of achieving our purpose. Therefore this article
is headed Conferences. We like to see communication flourishing
amongst free scientologist (actually amongst - all - scns). And we
have seen much communication occur at conferences. So we would like to
encourage conferences, and last year we were very pleased to bring
reports on three conferences that occurred in Europe.
This year we had hoped to give advanced warning of conferences, so
those who needed to plan in advance could do so, and thus more would
be able to attend. However things have not gone as we intended. From
the Metapshychology area we learned that they did not want their 1992
conference publicized in - IVy. - This may seem a bit odd to you.
However it has its reasons. Firstly, though I regard Metapsychology to
be well within the tradition of scn, there is not whole hearted
agreement with me on that point. And secondly Metapsychology is making
very deep inroads (quite amazing when you compare with the mess
scientology has made) in important areas, and an association with the
name scientology acts strongly against that praiseworthy activity. If
you want to go to a Metapsychology Conference (which I warmly
reccomend) then contact the IRM. I can give you the addresses.
The next conference we talked about last year was the Source
Conference held in Holland. This was planned to occur in England, but
I got this simple message from Ray Kemp in my telephone answerer: "We
cannot find anyone who is willing to take the responsibility of
organising a conference in England". Thats the news there.
The last one was the Rons Org Conference. Here we have positive news:
Probably November 1992, possibly in Switzerland. Full details not yet
available, but if you drop me a line at Box 78, I'll forward details
on to you.
As for conferences in other continents - well the paper you are
reading has suddenly gone red because I am blushing so deeply. The
fact is that we are not - yet - as international as our title claims.
Let us change the subject.
MiniConferences
Ron once wrote a policy "Why Orgs Stay Small" which (I love
generalities with one specific in) I don't think anybody but I
understood. I have run a couple of groups using this principle in the
70's.
- A Group is a proper size when the individuals in it can easily
approach the manager of that group on a friendly basis and be sure he
knows what they're doing and why and if they are doing it. LRH, "Why
Organizations Stay Small" VII, 308. -
In the two recent conferences I attended I observed the following:
1. People got a lot out of meeting other 'ordinary people'.
2. Conferences in English had a language barrier for many.
3. Travelling far, luxurious accomodation, and costly speakers
(perhaps travelling across oceans) made things expensive, and
communication itself is free (you sometimes pay for the media).
Additionally, I felt that if people had more time together, without
attention on 'important people', they might possibly become a little
active themselves, realize that they were also important people, and
they was no absolute neccessity for some one with authority to act,
before anything happened. Given a relaxed, ARC atmosphere, there might
be many things they might realise, without promptings or permissions
from almighty beings, Gurus, opinion leaders or little Hitlers..
Therefore a little plan, an experiment, was set in action. In our
sister magazine, - Uafhngige Synspunkter, - which has no English
material in it, a little announcement was made of a little conference
which would be cheap, to take place in the scandinavien languages
(which are more or less mutually understandable).We also announced
that we would help with the fares of people who came from the more
distant parts of Scandinavia.
There was no big campaign to get people to come. The conference was
held in the middle of June. There were ten attenders, from Denmark,
Norway and Sweden. The cost was 100 Kr (about 10 pounds or $15) which
covered one hot meal (Pizza) and running refreshments with small
cakes. Neccesary overnight facilities were provided free with friends
and in a primitive manner (those that stayed with me slept on a
mattress on the floor). And half the travel expenses were refunded to
them that asked for it.
The conference was largely in small groups (three to four people),
where people got to know each other, helped each other, and talked a
little about the third dynamic we are members of. And it was
successfull.
If you would like to have a little more communication than - IVy -
gives you, why not organise a little something in your area. I reckon
your local distributor (or I) will help with addresses or mailings.
And there is no H. issueing policy you must adhere to. So you can do
what you and your (perhaps new) friends want! - Freedom! -
- Of course - there are many ways to increase communication. Small
(inexperienced and innocent) can be beautiful.