From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 16 - April 1994
See Home Page at http://www.ivymag.org


What's it All About, Alfie?(1)

Ray Harman, Australia

'... and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong
wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord:
but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake;
but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a
fire: but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still,
small voice ...' 1 Kings 19:11-12

I suppose many people these days live and work and die and never give
thought to the seventh and eighth dynamics, but the world is crammed
full of people both now and throughout history who do. There's thee
and me for a start. Until lately the results have often not been very
good. Trouble is, people like to follow leaders and so we have many
different groups, and many of these think that they are divinely
inspired
and everyone else is wrong, damned wrong. So we have wars like the
Crusades, and Hindus tearing down Moslem mosques, and the CofS issuing
lawsuits, all in the name of God and LRH. At least the Buddhists are
a step further advanced and don't use violence to achieve their
advancement.

It is in man's nature to follow a great leader. Whether he be
religious
or secular, a convincing leader is followed unthinkingly by many.
How big would Martin Luther King's following be by now had he not
been assassinated? Where would Germany be today if Adolf Hitler had
used Trade instead of War to advance his country's cause?

Seeking God

Following a great leader is a route to meet God, that's the
motivation,
knowingly or unknowingly. And a great many still follow Christ and
Mahomet and LRH and so forth. Some leaders are quite successful while
others are flawed, and so we see WW2, the Jonestown mass suicide,
the Iron Curtain and the siege at Waco, Texas.

Some seek God through nature, the physical universe. This route is
called Nature Mysticism. Here we have the physicist smashing atoms
to discover, hopefully, how God created the universe. The bushwalker,
the surfer, and the gardener are in this category. So are the
Greenpeace
mob(2). They are sometimes militant,
due to the emergency situation they are trying to handle, but luckily
they have the sanity to not use guns to achieve their objectives.
Experiencing drugs or sex or alcohol is another variation of the
Nature
Mysticism route, but unless this one is structured it is dangerous
in that it can easily degenerate into degradation and take the seeker
in the wrong direction totally.

All these different groups are actually fellow travellers, but they
tend to suffer from the trap of specialisation, and lack a view from
a height(3)-to see what they are doing and where they are going
in perspective - from an exterior viewpoint.

Our position

After all the thinking men have gone before us we find ourselves in
present time in the vanguard of the mystical research which is
happening at hitherto unheard of rates of progress. The goal
is to advance spiritually, eliminate the subconscious, be free of
entrapment in the body, to love one's fellow man, and to know
ourselves,
which is to know God, as there is a little bit of God in each of us.
This is the first dynamic goal. I suppose many average Christian or
Moslem footsoldiers may not see beyond living according to the law
and finally having a cup of tea with God and being told, Well Done.
The fourth dynamic goal is higher - to love your fellow man and
to communicate with him such that eventually the Jew may love the
Arab and the Hindu may call the Moslem his brother; that is, to Clear
the planet.

The CofS's goal to clear the Planet didn't happen, so the KSW(4)
policy, at least, was
wrong. It denied a view from a height. But LRH was right to say that
a man is as valuable as he can serve his fellow man.

So, my valuable friends, follow your own mystical route to God. Carry
out your research diligently, and continue to do so, so long as
you can see that you are moving in the right direction. To know
this you must maintain a view from a height. And communicate! Write
up your methods and results, and publish them in IVy!


(1)Title song of film Alfie c. 1966, starred Michael Caine.

(2) Mob: Australian slang for group

(3)Further reading: Isaac Asimov, View From a Height.

(4)Policy which ascribed all useful discovery in the field of the mind
to LRH
and prohibiting anyone else from even trying.


Thu Aug 17 11:10:54 EDT 2006