From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 4 - December 1991
 
Have you Bypassed the Crock of Gold?
By Antony A Phillips, Denmark

There is an old tradition that there is a crock of gold at the foot of 
the rainbow.

I reckon that there is something far more valuable at the end of the 
bridge.

Trouble is that you never can get to the foot of the rainbow, and it 
does seem a bit hard to get to the end of the bridge.

I think one of Ron's really outstanding achievements was the creation 
of the bridge in the form of the Gradation chart. In the early days he 
released a lot of high level processes (there was no Gradation chart 
then). But it appears that he soon found out that many people could 
not run them. And he then spent fifteen years mainly on making 
routines which reached 'further south' (as he put it - you could say 
lower down). His persistence at this, against many discouragements, as 
well as his ultimate success, are truly remarkable. And in 1964 he 
released the first Gradation chart, which went up to level VII - 
power.

This was the first carefully layed out bridge.

In the early 50's one was encouraged to self-audit ("Self Analysis", 
"Handbook for Preclears" and more). Then it was discovered that the pc 
alone was junior to the bank, and self auditing was not workable and 
was - a bad thing.

Later, for people who had done the grades, solo auditing was 
'discovered'. It was fine to solo audit so long as one was ready for 
it, and had a case supervisor to supervise ones auditing.

I would suggest that as one's causativeness and understanding increase 
there will come a time when a case supervisor is not really necessary 
while one solo audits - and in fact there is evidence that some have 
achieved this stage, at least with regard to some processing.

I would also imagine that there will come a time when auditing as we 
know it becomes unnecessary - just as the person who has been well run 
on Grade I (problems), and has an understanding of problems (perhaps 
by training and auditing on level I) seldom needs to be audited when 
he gets a problem, but handles it without auditing, so will other 
types of auditing become nnecessary - one just handles what needs 
handling directly.

What is a bridge for?

Imagine a bridge across a bog.

It is a well engineered and rather costly affair. If you fell off it 
in the middle, you would get muddy, have an unpleasant time, and might 
actually drown. Certainly your progress to your distant goal would be 
impeded.

But near the end of the bridge, if you fell off it, things possibly 
would not be so bad. The bridge has passed over the bog, and has 
reached a low lying but firm ground. You would fall onto dry ground, 
and perhaps a bush would break your fall.

What happens at the end of the bridge? Perhaps the bridge carries a 
motorway over a long and very varied plain. At the end of the bridge 
the motorway continues. In fact if you are going very fast, with your 
eyes on the road and not on what is happening on either side, it would 
look exactly like the bridge.

Perhaps your goal is to reach a town many miles further on over the 
plain. In that case keep your eyes on the road, and proceed at the 
fastest safe speed.

But don't be fooled into thinking that you are still on a bridge. If 
there is time enough before you have to get to the distant town, you 
can stop, get off the motorway, and have a look at the scenery, or 
whatever else interests you.

But what if the town in the far distance does not interest you? 
Realize that you are over the bridge. The land around you is safe to 
walk on, to explore, to enjoy. Raging rivers, and muddy swamps with 
crocodiles are a thing of the past. (Actually it might be more 
accurate to say that they may still be there, but - you - have 
achieved enough causativeness and understanding to handle them 
lightly.)

Maybe you are racing along, bypassing hundreds of crocks of gold, with 
the fixed idea that you are on an endless (or terribly long) bridge, 
which will blow up with an atomic explosion in a couple of minutes (or 
in the next five years).

The EP of your Bridge?

So it would be wise to ask what the end phenomenon of the bridge 
itself is. I guess the end phenomenon is something in the direction of 
that you are pretty well cause over life, and do not get into trouble 
which you can not get yourself out of. With help from others perhaps, 
living is somewhat a group affair, but you have enough tech and 
ability to be able to case supervise and audit yourself, if there is 
need or desire. I would further suggest that those who do not have 
tech training (and experience of auditing others) will never reach the 
end of the bridge. And possibly a good understanding of the Data 
Series is a prerequisite.

I imagine that the bridge, unlike material bridges, has a gradient 
ending. You come to a stage where you need very little auditing from 
others, and then a stage where you (with deep tech knowledge) can case 
supervise yourself, very probably after chatting to friends who are 
also around that level, but have somewhat different tech backgrounds.

Honestly, with the absolute goal of 'Total Freedom' whichthe church 
had mocked up for us, did you expect to need a bridge when you were 
totally free? Where did you expect the bridge to end?

If the ideas I have mooted here seem a bit unreal and unachievable, I 
would suggest you read Leonard Dunn's article on postulating (one of 
the 'Thoughts of a Septuagenarian Scientologist' series, in 
"Reconnection" 22), and Jon Zegal's article "Religious Freedom - What 
it is and what it is not" in "The Free Spirit" (USA) volume III no.3.

In the "Philedalphia Doctorate Lectures", Ron has talked about various 
Eastern religions and philosophies being 90% truth, and 10% totally 
inverted truth, the latter 10% turning them into traps.

What can you do after the Bridge

When you have reached the end of your bridge, you will be able to 
examine and use any and all of these and many other practices without 
falling on your head, and needing someone else to dig you out. I 
invite you to go into Strubes Bookshop (Strubes Bookshop is one of two 
bookshops in Copenhagen, whose shelves are loaded with all sorts of 
books, on pyramids, meditation, out of the body experiences, life 
after death, diet, etc. etc. etc. It is packed full of 'other 
practices'!) one day and see all the interesting things there. There 
are loads of them. Before you reach the end of the bridge, you could 
be in trouble if you followed some of them. But at the end of the 
bridge, with the data series tucked under your belt, they are all 
yours, should they interest you.

Somehow the idea (reality we can say) has got built up that we should 
not look at (confront you could say) other practices (let alone so 
called squirrels), that it would be dangerous to do so.

Does that sound like progress on the so called road to Total Freedom?

But let me end on a 'loyal to Hubbard' note. There are many 
Scientology techniques one can use when one is near or at the end of 
the bridge. In the last few months in Copenhagen I have heard of the 
following being done, all Solo: Grade 0, Suppressed Person Rundown, 
GPMs as in the red volumes, PAB7 processes, false data - stripping, 
Straight Wire.

The situation is very interesting, these things are more and more 
being done outside the spheres of influence of orgs and centres. They 
are being done (solo, which means on themselves) by trained and fairly 
experienced auditors, who are in comm with others of like nature. And 
the cost has been mostly in time, rather than money.

And there has been as much enthusiasm over results as you may have 
read in glossy promotional material from flag. You may not have heard 
of it, no doubt, because it is a sort of cottage industry without a 
highly geared department of promotion. And also because folk still 
have a feeling that others might think it a bit wrong to do such 
things.

The message I have is that Scientology really works - all the way. To 
get all you want out of it you will need to have experience as an 
auditor. And it is not (despite the impression you might get in the 
old church, like I did when I did the HRD internship) difficult.

And there are many free scientologists around if you need case 
supervising or a chat.

I do not believe that we have to, must, or ought to, clear the planet. 
But it can be fun to help a friend or neighbour.

This article was originally published in the Danish language magazine 
Uafh‘ngige Synspunkter (Independent Viewpoints) in 1986 and has been 
slightly revised.