Subject: ide0.memo
From: Clearing Archive Roboposter <[email-masked]>
Date: 12 Aug 2000 18:13:14 -0400
Newsgroups: alt.clearing.technology

JOHN GALUSHA:  MY REMEMBRANCE OF A EXTRAORDINARY MAN.  

    On the morning of October 23, 1996, my best friend and partner for the
last 16 years, John Galusha, passed on.  In a life dedicated to helping
others, John not only touched the lives of thousands of people but  also had
a profound effect on all who knew him, whether they knew him well or just
briefly.  I do not know of a single person encountering  John whose
existence was not bettered through their association.   

    John was born  77 years ago in Pueblo, Colorado.  He was raised on a
farm, in a time and community where life was simple.  Where people were not
sure where their next meal was coming from let alone have the comforts so
many of us now enjoy.  You either worked on a ranch or farm, or in the local
steel mill.  Life was hard, but nothing hardened or embittered John Galusha.
He took pleasure in all things around him.   With great interest he drank in
everything.   I know this by the way he would talk to me about things during
that period of his life.  I remember he once described the making of barbed
wire at the steel mill, a subject I previously would have imagined to be
boring beyond belief.  Yet the way he talked about it I found myself not
only interested, but actually fascinated.  It was not so much the subject,
but the enthusiasm with which John observed the world around him that
intrigued me.   The overpowering image I got from his stories was a strong,
lean, tough young man who embraced life, whose attention was ever outward,
not stuck in the introverted "head chewing" that so many of us occupy much
of our lives doing.  But the thing that fascinated John the most was people.
John loved people, was deeply interested by them.  He enjoyed watching them,
listening to them and observing them, but not from some judgmental point of
view.  It was like a child watching a butterfly. 

   In the methodology of Idenics, a system that John developed many years
later,  the cornerstone of  the subject is its nonjudgemental application,
something that takes most practitioners some time to gain proficiency at
doing.  How John was able to do this so effortlessly  has always amazed me.
I think  the application of  Idenics is just an extension of the way John
was naturally.  He operated this way before Idenics, not only in the
previous facilitations he delivered but also in how he dealt with people in
life.  He did not have to learn to be this way or really discover it, it was
the way he always was.  But it took time for him to recognize something that
was as natural to him as breathing, and then learn to communicate it to
others who exist in a world where such an application is so unnatural, even
alien.  

   Having such an intense interest in people, John could not help noticing
the misery and mental anguish that people were experiencing and he wanted to
help them.  But part of his unique character was that he did not consider he
knew anything about people.  This  consideration, and his nonjudging
attitude,  may be in part attributed  to the fact that John did not have
much personal reality  on the mental difficulties that most of us
experience.  I remember once talking with John, and bringing up for
discussion the difficulties people have with regard to how others think
about them.  He said that he was aware that people had such issues, but at
the same time had trouble imagining it since he had never experienced such a
condition himself.   I recall being severely taken aback by his casual
comment.  I thought to myself, "What planet is this guy from who's never
experienced feeling bad about what others thought of him!"  

   Wanting to help people but not considering he knew anything about them he
looked to others for these answers.  Perhaps someone else knew what "made
people tick" and he could learn from them how to help others.  John now
embarked on a career that would span the next 45 years of his life.  

   In 1951 John ordered a book  being advertised in a science fiction
magazine.  The book was "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health".
His interest was not in resolving personal conditions, but in the
possibility of helping others.  He read the book once through, then again
more thoroughly, and then started applying what he had learned with others
and soon had his first auditing practice.  In 1952 he went to Wichita to do
the first Dianetics course being delivered by L. Ron Hubbard.  After the
course he stayed and began working with Hubbard and continued doing so as
Hubbard moved to other cities such as Phoenix, Philadelphia, Camden and
Washington DC.  During these years John worked very closely with Hubbard in
both technical delivery and research.  John assisted in  the training and
processing areas of  Hubbard's organizations as well as the supervision of
technically specialized events such as the early Congresses, ACCs, and the
first Philadelphia Doctorate Course which was delivered in Phoenix.  Even
though he was right in the middle of technical developments and delivery,
John was content to be in the background and simply do his job.  Being
there, when the majority of the subject of Scientology was researched, he
had no attention on being recognized for his contributions.  It was as if
part of him was  in the center of an exciting time, yet another part of him
was on the outside looking in, quietly observing.  His interest was not in
the politics, organization or finances, just in what he could use to help
others.  And as long as he felt he could do this according to his own
integrity, he stayed.  During his time on staff, John continued to deliver
his own auditing  on the side, a practice the Scientology organization
frowned on.  But Hubbard never interfered with John doing this.  In fact,
when Hubbard was too busy to audit his own clients he would send them to John.  

   In 1958 John married Hubbard's personal secretary, Mildred Louise Deen.
Milly was not only a very beautiful woman  but an extremely competent one.
Having once been Lyndon Johnson's secretary while Johnson was the Senate
Majority Leader, Hubbard had had himself a jewel of an assistant who helped
him in the structuring of  his early organization.   But her employment with
Hubbard only lasted until 1960, when she and John  moved back to John's home
state of Colorado where they proceeded to raise a family.  But John never
gave up working with people or learning how he could do more for his
clients.  He continued his own auditing practices, participated in the first
two Saint Hill Special Briefing Courses delivered by Hubbard in England, and
started the first Scientology mission in Denver.  But as the organization of
Scientology became more rigid, John backed off.  He operated on the fringes
helping people as he could according to his own ethical standards.

   I met John in 1980.  Like John, I had had my own career working closely
with Hubbard in the upper echelons of  the Church of Scientology in the
1970s.  But unlike John, I had been quite embroiled in the politics,
organization and management areas of that organization.  My purpose was to
help people, but for years the majority of my time was spent battling the
insanitys of the organization.  My last effort in this uphill battle was in
1980.   I had put together a  project whose success depended on having a
very special person with unique technical expertise.  From all the research
done,  the only person who met these qualifications was a man I had only
previously heard about.  That man was John Galusha.  I went to John and
asked for his assistance.  He agreed, and we began on a very special
partnership and adventure that would  continue for the next 16 years.

   My father once told me that a partnership was the most difficult
relationship to maintain, even harder than a marriage.  I do not doubt this
as I have seen the trials many people in partnerships have had to go
through.  But I feel I have been somewhat blessed in this regard.  In the 16
years I worked with John there was never any real disagreement, argument, or
upset.  He did his job and I did mine.  There was a complete trust on both
sides.  I always completely trusted John in the wearing of his hat.  I
cannot say that I always trusted myself  in how I was wearing my own hat,
but somehow, he trusted me.  I cannot tell you the number of times I confide
in John about doubts in my work, desperately wanting  advice.  But never did
I get "feedback" or advice.   That sort of  help or opinion was not in the
man.  What I got was a question, a facilitation that encouraged me to take a
look, and things got better.   I  realized early on in our relationship,
that John was a very rare individual.  I knew that it was not only a
privilege to know him, but a great privilege to work with him.  I knew that
I might accomplish my purposes in helping others by connecting with this
unique person.  I believed that if I could create an environment where John
could do his work, unabated, great things might be achieved.  This proved to
be a correct action.  John blossomed and made astounding breakthroughs.
Unfortunately, at the this time of his passing, the magnitude and results of
his work have only begun to be realized in the world.    But I will continue
to do my utmost to communicate with, service and deliver to people only in a
manner true to the integrity of  John's work.   

   John Galusha was a simple man.  He had his simple pleasures in life.  He
liked reading and read a lot, gobbling up nearly everything he could lay his
hands on.  He immensely enjoyed working with his hands on almost anything
from fixing an engine to welding a several ton piece of machinery and was
always interested in how the material things in this universe work.  He did
not strive for wealth and success or fame and recognition.  He really did
not care about any of these things.  But what he did care about was his
life's work which was helping others.

   In all the years I knew John, he never had a vicious or bad thing to say
about anyone.  Sure there were things people said and did that he did not
agree with, but not once did I hear him verbally attack any of these people.
There was much that Hubbard did and said that John obviously had strong
disagreement with but I never heard John speak ill of the man.  Many people
have asked John what he thought of Hubbard.  John's response was always very
simple.  A comment like, "He did what he did.  I liked him and considered
him a friend."  I recall many years ago a reporter who was writing a book on
Hubbard came from England to interview John.  After maybe 20 minutes the
reporter came out of the interview very frustrated because he could not get
John to spill any "dirt" on Hubbard that he could use in his book.

    Looking back, I can see that John tried for many years to prepare me for
his leaving.  Eight months ago John became unexpectedly ill.  Those close to
him tried desperately to figure out what was wrong and help in his recovery.
John excepted all assistance graciously and without question or resistance.
Though, what may have been somewhat frustrating to those around him, he also
excepted his illness in the same manner.  He did not complain, he did not
desperately seek to find an explanation or cure.  This response had at times
puzzled me, and trying so hard to "get him well" sometimes frustrated me.
But I can see now that at the end of John's life his caring for others was
as unwavering as it had been throughout his life.  He let us scamper around
doing what we did.  But we were also allowed to prepare for his eventual
passing as each of us had to do.  It is never easy to except the loss of
someone you are close to.  A quick and unexpected passing can spare an
individual the pain of an impending death but can also be quite a shock for
those left behind.    I once asked John for some advice on raising children.
What he told me was one thing that he had done: "I tried to always take
those actions that I thought they would best respond  to."  Perhaps he also
tried to accomplish this with the people he was leaving.  

   Among all the people I have known in my life, I never met one as devoid
of ego as John Galusha.  But  this is something John would have never said
about himself.  He was always looking.  I happen to know that John had one
personal desire in his life.  It was not fame and fortune.  It was something
many have referred to as "enlightenment".  It was never a subject he tried
to cram down anyone else's throat, and only one that he was perfectly
willing and excited to talk about if asked.  John was the most "enlightened"
person I have ever known but he did not consider himself to be
"enlightened".  But just  before passing,  I had greeted him by asking how
he was doing.  John said something to me  that brought me great joy.  He
said  that he had recently let go of any ego that he had still been clinging
too.   

   From time to time over the past few days I would find myself weeping.
Partly I cry out of loss of my friend.  But most of all, I cry  because of
the deep and profound effect this wonderful man has had on my life.  I will
greatly miss you my dear friend, and I wish you the very best.  

 Mike Goldstein

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