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The following first appeared in the private email list IVy-subscribers,
which was available to all those who subscribed to the
printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
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Owned and misowned
by Phil Spickler
2 Mar 2001

Hello to those who know everything, but must deny it in order to be!
         One of my favorite topics has to do with ownership, which might have
something to do with the notion of havingness, and misownership, which also
might have something to do with havingness.

        That famous/infamous philosopher and science fiction writer of the
20th Century, L. Ron Hubbard, had in that century quite a bit to say on all
the aforementioned topics and wrote some very useful thoughts about such
matters that could be, and were, translated into tech or technology, or the
processes and procedures that are used in the art/science of auditing.

         Ah yes, the auditor: a lovely idea, especially when you take it out
of accountancy and simply define it in the science of sound as "the
listener," or "someone who listens," or "someone who knows how to listen,
someone who is willing and able to listen."  And of course, to listen with a
true auditor's ear is to listen in a way that far transcends the ordinary
listening of the ordinary listener.

        But more about auditors and auditing later on, or perhaps another
time.  One of the reasons why you might wish to classify misowning or
misownership in the Havingness column is that one of the ways we creators get
things to persist long enough to have experience of them through time is to
make something, and then say "That's not mine -- I didn't make it," which
suggests that its true authorship or authority comes from elsewhere.  Now
that said of ideas about a creation, especially if they get buried a bit,
guarantees, if so desired, eternities of persistence, and if you want to
clear someone pretty damn quickly without fussing around too much, just help
the person to sort out all of the things that are persisting in an unwanted
sense in the chap's area that got there because he/she made them and then
denied their authorship, and either specifically assigned it elswwhere or
just said in a general way "Something or someone else made that."

      You must also help him, on the other hand, in the sense of a corollary,
to find all the unwanted persistences that others did make and are making
which he/she is falsely claiming the authorship, the creatorship, of; because
you see, this is in large what makes up what we call a person's case -- it's
all lies about who created what, misconceptions, and even though we call it
"case" and moralize about its badness, its very persistence brings it under
the heading of "Havingness," something that's there, that can be counted on,
and is made to be there, like it or not.

        Fortunately or unfortunately, this posting is put on a 15-minute
chess clock, and the time just ran out, just when there's quite a bit to say
in extension regarding this fascinating shortcut to clearing.  I hope some
others (not too many) might have something to say about this, especially if
they've had the experience of clearing up misownership for themselves and
others; and I, on the other hand, shall attempt in the very near future to
carry on with further outrageous thoughts about such matters.

        Bon chance, et au revoir --
         Philippe