Muster Announcement at Tampa Foundation

Today, I got Lynn Irons to give me permission to speak briefly at the staff muster after lunch.

I just wanted to say “Thank you” to the staff, and to express some of the admiration I have for what they’ve created in their org.  The space, the constant wins in both the co-audit and the Academy, the welcoming atmosphere, et al.

I got the chance to, took it, and it went well.  I was pleasantly surprised to get a standing ovation from the staff as I came up to the front of the room to speak.  Very kind of them.  Several expressed afterwards that they really liked hearing my bit.

Study Wins

I had a couple of very cool wins on study today.  Still working on the PDC, up to lecture 23 so far.  Tons of good data, though much of it is, of course, a rehash of things I already know.

But, in the department of things I already “know” but hadn’t really fully understood yet (I guess I could use the word “grocked” there), comes the idea that I don’t actually have to go into agreement with the MEST universe if I want to make a postulate stick.  Honestly, I make the postulate, I make it stick in my universe, and if others want to play with me, it’ll stick in a shared universe, and we’re all good to go.  In other words, MEST can ask me for permission to play, instead of the other way around.  Very, very much in the “Duh!” category this long into my Scientology career, and made me apologize (jokingly) to Ron for being a slow learner, but still a crucial realization.

Ties in nicely with the bit a few weeks ago about universes and postulates.

Another I had was more in the category of blowing suppressive garbage out of my mind.  I realized that I was actually worried that I’d go out of R with people if I went too uptone for them.  After all, R really only extends up and down about 1 point on the Tone Scale.  Of course I won’t have to worry about that!  Worst case scenario is I’ll have to mock up social circuitry to bridge the gap.  Same way it’s done all over the world, but reversed in terms of tone difference (lower instead of higher than the being).  That also means I’ll be in control of it, no automaticity.  Definitely some suppressive’s idea for a good way to hold me back.  I have to admire it as well-done evil.  Evil, definitely, but done well enough that I took the thought as being my own till I had a chance to examine it.

The bigger win is the realization I’d been getting OT backwards, and knowing now what direction to move in.  Guess I had to realize where I was before that could happen, so it makes sense that the universes/postulates win would happen first, then this one.  So I’m on my way now, spiritually.  Feels good. I have a very good feeling about this journey!

Interesting Thought

I had an interesting session on Tuesday night.  Realized what a pain we (thetans) must be to bodies/GEs.  We come in, take over as absolute rulers and even “gods”, and then bang these things up in the most imaginative ways we can come up with!

Imagine the poor GE, sitting there, minding its own business, trying to run an operational body based on millions of years of trial-error solutions that, it knows will work, and then suddenly, “Hey, wait!  Does ‘white water kayaking’ mean what it sounds like?”

The incident we ran was hard to nail down.  A location I don’t consciously remember, but definitely a this-lifetime engram.  And a hard time identifying the valences in it.  Definitely an ally computation in one part.  One masculine voice, the ally, and one feminine voice, seen as a threat.

It suddenly occurred to me, now, several days later, that those might have been my grandparents.  I have many of the usual life-continuum/ally valence issues with Grandpa Dick, including having the same first name.  I know I was around him, but I can’t remember more than a few quick glimpses.  And so on.

Definitely an interesting possibility.  Will have to see if more comes up in future sessions!

Auditing is really quite an adventure!  Never know what I’ll discover about myself next!

May 9th Dianetics Event

Had the anniversary celebration for Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health at Flag, in Clearwater, tonight.  Was fun!  There was a great speech by a leader of the local Nation of Islam leader, since they’re doing Dianetics processing very heavily in their mosque these days.  Very good speaker, very ministerial, and quite entertaining.  He had a line about people he has known for years saying things like, “I’m not quite sure I really know the new Brother James (that’s his name)”, and replying, “That’s okay, I’m not that familiar with him myself.  But I’m sure that, when I get to know him, I’ll like him.  Even more, I’ll love him.”  It’s a good way to sum up the journey of self-discovery in Dianetics.

Was also good seeing some of my close friends, like Paul and Jacquie, get awarded and recognized for their hard work.

The event, as always, wore my knee out, with all the standing ovations.  Worth it, but I’m definitely paying the price.

The opening music was wonderful.  The woman who sang the lead in the songs was beautiful, had a great voice, and brought a definite joie de vivre to the stage.  And she had the vocal strength to be heard over the band (which some haven’t had at prior events).  No clue who she is, but it was a great opening for the event.

Before the event, we had dinner at the Garden restaurant in the hotel, and it was delicious.  I’m SO glad they brought in that chef a couple of years ago.  The food was good before, but now it’s simply awesome.

Definitely a good event.  Worth the drive, worth the throbbing knee, et al.  I’m glad I went!

Movie Review: Thor

Thor rocks.  Saw it in IMAX 3D, which means the price of admission was pretty comparable to buying a new car (at least I didn’t get popcorn – I really can’t afford another mortgage right now).

The 3D is wasted in most of the movie.  They really haven’t got it working right yet.  It’s much better than ‘70s 3D, but that’s setting the bar pretty low.  There are bits where the 3D really made the scene.  A few flying shots, etc., where it was quite good.  Most of the rest of the time, it just made my eyes water and my head hurt.  Much like Avatar did (which is no surprise, as that’s the movie that the new 3D tech was created for).

IMAX makes a big difference, of course.  But I think regular IMAX would have been good enough.  The movie would be just as worth seeing.

I won’t go into details, not that they’d spoil anything for anyone who knows the comics, et al, but because they’ve been gone into all over the darn place and there’s no reason for me to repeat them.

The story is good, the acting works for me, the special effects (especially Bifrost) are awesome, the fights scenes (superhuman and otherwise) are excellent, I liked the jokes, and the movie is definitely worth a repeat in the theatre (once my headache fades), just not in 3D next time.

10 out of 10.  (Iron Man was about 15 out of 10, so take my ratings as you like them.)