Have you ever wondered what it feels like to shed the shackles of your limitations and emerge renewed? Quenton Stroud joins us for our 20th-episode of season 7 to share his transformative journey to the state of Clear with Independent Scientology, right from the sanctuary of his home. As we chat, Quenton unravels the significance of consistency and the spiritual discipline that he's meticulously woven into his daily life over the past 22 years. It's an intimate look at the strategies that propelled him towards profound self-improvement and the surprising ways his personal development has echoed beyond the confines of individual sessions.
Venture with us into the unexpected territories of personal growth, where overcoming allergies and addictions is just the beginning. I open up about my own experiences, from bidding farewell to a persistent grass allergy to the enhanced intelligence and decision-making that seems to border on a 'spider sense.' Our conversation paints a vivid picture of the shifts in causality and responsibility that come hand-in-hand with this growth, sharing anecdotes that reveal the true depth of such an awakening. It's a testament to the power of presence and the ability to make swift, informed choices—a transformation that Quenton and I have both embraced wholeheartedly.
In our final chapters, we touch on the subtle intricacies of empathy and the profound changes in our interactions with others, especially after completing the Quad Grades. I recount my own path through the Clear Certainty Rundown, a journey that unlocked an entirely new level of connection with the emotional landscapes of others. As Quentin and I part ways, we leave behind thoughts of gratitude and encouragement for all our listeners to explore their own profound connections. This episode is not just a celebration of our 20th but an invitation to discover the enriching practice of independent Scientology and the peace it can bring to your life.
Website: ao-gp.org
Be social and join US!: collegeofindependentscientology.com
Take our personality test and get a free evaluation: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RHJQ6DY
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to shed the shackles of your limitations and emerge renewed? Quenton Stroud joins us for our 20th-episode of season 7 to share his transformative journey to the state of Clear with Independent Scientology, right from the sanctuary of his home. As we chat, Quenton unravels the significance of consistency and the spiritual discipline that he's meticulously woven into his daily life over the past 22 years. It's an intimate look at the strategies that propelled him towards profound self-improvement and the surprising ways his personal development has echoed beyond the confines of individual sessions.
Venture with us into the unexpected territories of personal growth, where overcoming allergies and addictions is just the beginning. I open up about my own experiences, from bidding farewell to a persistent grass allergy to the enhanced intelligence and decision-making that seems to border on a 'spider sense.' Our conversation paints a vivid picture of the shifts in causality and responsibility that come hand-in-hand with this growth, sharing anecdotes that reveal the true depth of such an awakening. It's a testament to the power of presence and the ability to make swift, informed choices—a transformation that Quenton and I have both embraced wholeheartedly.
In our final chapters, we touch on the subtle intricacies of empathy and the profound changes in our interactions with others, especially after completing the Quad Grades. I recount my own path through the Clear Certainty Rundown, a journey that unlocked an entirely new level of connection with the emotional landscapes of others. As Quentin and I part ways, we leave behind thoughts of gratitude and encouragement for all our listeners to explore their own profound connections. This episode is not just a celebration of our 20th but an invitation to discover the enriching practice of independent Scientology and the peace it can bring to your life.
Website: ao-gp.org
Be social and join US!: collegeofindependentscientology.com
Take our personality test and get a free evaluation: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RHJQ6DY
Hey there, independent Scientologists. Discover a new perspective to your bridge by visiting aio-gporg. Get in session with remote auditing using the Theta Meter. Are you curious about where you stand? Head on over to aio-gporg now and take our free personality test. Join the growing group of independent Scientologists today.
Speaker 2:Hi and welcome to another AOGP Scientology outside of the Church broadcast brought to you by the Advance Oregon Be Great Plains. That's us, aio-gporg. I'm here with Quentin Stroud and the title of today's podcast is Going Clear, independent Scientology Tell All this is Season 7. Hard to believe, but Episode 20 for Quentin and I and Scientologist Girl and a few other guests, but we're at 20 episodes for Season 7. So, quentin, congratulations on your attestation to the state of clear this week. Tell us all about it.
Speaker 3:You know, wow, it's really something and thank you for that. It's interesting because when going, when I first started reading books in Scientology, I really just wanted to start with the books, because I wanted this to be a study, not a practice, not a thing that I do, because I wasn't on that line, right, I wasn't feeling that. But as I read, they started to make it more and more sense. It started feeling like this is exactly how I want to live, this is what I want to achieve, this is what I want to feel in my life, and I just kept running with it from that point on.
Speaker 3:My first book I started with was Scientology, a New Slant on Life, and then I went straight into Fundamentals of Thought and then into Dianetics.
Speaker 3:So Dianetics was my yeah, my third book, and so it was just realizing that there's these accomplishments, these achievements, these abilities, this feeling of being that was there, and I had no idea how to make it happen until I did.
Speaker 3:And so, going into auditing for me the first time, which was just doing Dianetics, auditing just with a twin, with a good friend of mine, a good friend of mine at first it was okay, what am I supposed to be doing here. But the more I read, the more I studied, the easier it was to spot the things that was going on in my own mind. Right To spot the things that was going on that I was feeling like, okay, I know something's there, but now I can see it being a thing for me, being a hiccup, being a hangup, being an issue. In Christianity they call it a stronghold. Like you got to tear down these strongholds in your own consciousness, in your own life, and it was some things that I had to deal with some addictions, some considerations, some issues that I have for myself. And as it progressed, as things continued to move on in my auditing, it got bigger.
Speaker 2:Not the issues.
Speaker 3:I was gonna say, not the issues got bigger, but the cognitions, the realizations, the what I know of me and I know I look like a crazy person just talking about this, but what I know of me got bigger and that felt amazing. So I wanted to call this going clear. You know, independent Scientology tells all because it wasn't until I sat down. Well, that's not true. I had a lot of wins on my journey to where I am now even talking to you, but being able to be in my home, in the comfort of my home, in my own space. If I'm tired, I can go lay down in my bed. If I'm hungry, I can go right to my kitchen grab something to eat. I don't have to run around trying to find food and do it. It became so much easier to go clear and to do audity because of independent Scientology and sitting down and being able to just start you know, with these stops in the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah it just. You know I can't tell you how many parking tickets I got, having to go in and try to get some stuff done, so it's just yeah, it's a great, great feeling. Let me say what would probably be the biggest secret of it all for me consistency. That's what I learned, probably more than anything. And even after going clear, lrh gives some references that kind of like say, okay, this is how you know it's time to hit it, like, this is not time to slow down, this is time to, like, ramp it up a bit.
Speaker 3:And so consistency is probably the biggest thing for me, because there's this journey has been 22 years. It's been 22 years Now. That's from that's from when I first started reading the books, okay, but then sitting down and being in session, it actually hadn't been that long. Yeah, it hadn't been that long. If I, if I count my, if I count my sessionable hours, it hasn't been that long. But yeah, consistency is the key. And and and study and go ahead.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, well, would you, would you say that when you say consistency, would you say that consistency would be parallel or analogous to self-discipline or these different things for you?
Speaker 3:For me, it took a lot of self-discipline to be consistent, because I have a lot of big flows in my career, in my business, in my 2D situation. There's a lot of things that can just command your attention. I have to focus on this. I've got to get this done. I've got to get these extra clients taken care of or whatever it is to be. Distance did or does require a lot of self-discipline. For me, it does help to. I have multiple reminders around my house and my Alexa and my phone and my this, and that I have multiple things that say go study, go incision, go do this. It's set up as an important reminder, which means it don't stop until I tell it to stop. These are things that really helped me self-discipline, because this is self-discipline having the constant reminders that this is very important, my self-care is very important. I value that even more so now definitely.
Speaker 2:I think it would be good for our listeners to have a better context of your clear state. Can you give us a little bit of the timeline on the time track of how this whole thing came up? You can go as far back as you want if you get my drift and how this whole thing came about for you and give them the inside skinny on how this whole thing manifested for you, if you'll excuse the term.
Speaker 3:No, I totally get it. I cognize it for me. This is just for me. But I cognize it for me that I am a past life Scientologist. When I first picked up the books and when I first started reading again almost 23 years ago, it was easy reads for me. It was easy to duplicate what was being said. It wasn't weird to me to read it, to understand what was happening in my own mind during this process, in this body, 22 years of the study and courses and training and stuff like that. But if I had to go back, it's been quite a journey and quite a number of decades and time it doesn't. I think it always causes this brief breath in eternity or something like that.
Speaker 2:That's what it says.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a brief breath in eternity. That's what it feels like when you can get an awareness of your whole existence. I carry it out for a reason your whole existence.
Speaker 3:This time that you put in on the cans in front of your auditor in our case remotely and it seems like a brief breath.
Speaker 3:It really does seem like that because of this whole thing For me realizing that I had, my first thing was having to deal with my own body stuff, some addictions, some allergies, like I had some allergic stuff that I had to kind of and as I was auditing they literally went away. I had this crazy strong grass allergy and dynamic auditing. I went back to this whole experience where it got hit upside the head. I'm laying face down in the grass like this or whatever, and I could smell the grass. I could smell it. I could feel the sun, because I was in the field. I could feel the sun on the back of my neck and all this started getting hot and I could feel like my neck getting hot and my back getting hot. I've been in session now just sitting in a cool room, but I'm burning up, just realizing, yeah, this is some messed up stuff that I would have never picked up in psychotherapy or I would have never picked up in other modalities.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I remember you're mentioning that in one of our earlier podcasts and I've actually had people mention your narrative of that and how it got them to realize about things in their own life. I wanted to mention that to you and that they thanked us for you relaying that particular narrative of that incident to them and they brought it up to me in conversation. So other people have that reality as well as to how that sort of thing can happen, because they were using it as an analog.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, I mean, man, it's crazy, the stuff that you don't think is affecting you, or you would never know was affecting you, and putting you in certain relationship conditions, like choosing my relationships. It was so ingram. It was like I was choosing relationships because of ingram. Who does that? Right? I mean, you know what I'm saying and so I would say for me, I felt an increased intelligence. Definitely, my health has improved. I do not take allergy pills anymore. I keep them. And my 2D was like babe, when do you these are expired? They expired like in 2022, 2022, 2022, and I'm like 2023, and I'm like no, 2022. And I say, oh well, I'm just keeping it, just in case I needed them. And he was like why, why do you need these? I haven't had any allergy issues, period, you know, and so it's just been really interesting. So, improved health, yeah, that's been a thing.
Speaker 2:So, as far as your and this is one of the things that he talks about in Dynetics or Book One is, is your ability to respond to things, your decision making, snap decisions, staying in present time, that type of a thing. What did you see improve over this? Now, of course, it should be known that when you realized you were clear. This was what, remind me, wasn't it 2020 that we date located the whole thing at Okay, correct.
Speaker 2:So from that point forward, up until we we nailed it down and got it all cleaned and cleaned up and spotted the other day what happened. I mean, you know what, what, what, what, what changed in those areas?
Speaker 3:So, at the risk of sounding a little wonky, my decision making for me now other people can do what they do, but my decision making for me is akin to kind of like so remember, they talk about Spider man and his spider tingle, his spider sense, and they said, is so keen, it's almost like precognition.
Speaker 2:Right, right Right.
Speaker 3:I experienced that too, yes.
Speaker 3:So for me, my decision making abilities and my awareness of things is so keen, it's almost like precognition, right, where I know something is happening or going to happen and sometimes I actually create it.
Speaker 3:And that's the part about it too right, like you become so responsible as a being that you create stuff because you're like, hey, man, like I'm walking down the street or something like that.
Speaker 3:Like I remember this happened I had on some flip flops you know the beach flip flop kind of thing and I was walking down the street in the Philippines and I was walking pretty briskly because I wanted to get home pretty quickly and I said to myself I said, oh my God, I don't want to trip and mess up my sandals. I said this do you know, not four minutes, five minutes later I'm walking and I look over and I see this dog in the Philippines, the dogs everywhere. I look over and see this dog and I step. I missed the step of the sidewalk, kind of being up a little bit, tripped All the sidewalk, didn't hurt myself, but my sandals tore off like Right. So I got one sandal and because of this and it was either A I perceived that it was going to happen, or B. I posh stated it was going to happen and it happened, but it was messed up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've run into that to myself, where you know, which form of causality was this in differentiating what's called?
Speaker 3:Which came first? The chicken?
Speaker 2:or the egg Right, and that's it can be a liability, but it's, it's a. It's sort of like Well, an analog to it would be you have to know the tool that you're using very well, because you know it's sort of like driving a Mustang GT and you got a five liter engine and you just press the gas a little too much and you're like oh, right.
Speaker 2:You run out in the parking lot and all that because you have all this horsepower Is that? Is that the kind of surge you? You came across back in 2020, when this whole thing went from all the book?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that you'd have.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely, because it was before.
Speaker 3:It was before I left America and started traveling abroad, and so a lot of things, as I look back on my track, a lot of things that I became aware of or happen or even talk to other people about, and the stuff came true.
Speaker 3:You know, whatever like it was, it definitely improved my ability to perceive and to be aware of my, my immediate present you know the power of now kind of I and also beyond my immediate present, and that felt really, really good. It's interesting you talk about using the knowing, the tool that you're using, because going clear for me has also allowed me to think more clearly about how I want to respond to things. Right, talk about responsibility level and think more clearly about how I want to respond to things, because I now understand that my response is causative period, right, but my statement, by posture, by origination, whatever I'm putting out there, is causative. So if I'm in a conversation with my 2D and my relationship and I want to say something because you know we have a whole range of emotions, of the toes, care that we can take advantage of I want to say something, but I didn't realize that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's going to cause a different effect than what I'm wanting to cause right now, so I'll choose a different response. And it has saved countless hours of discussions and challenges and problems and countless hours. And I know that's true because the old me preclear me. I can say that now Wait, am I still considered a preclear?
Speaker 2:No, you're clear Now.
Speaker 3:you're a pre okay, okay, ah, there you go. That makes sense. Well, preclear me. I remember having these arguments and relationships and I don't know who this is for, but it is a good thing. I remember having these arguments and relationships, both platonic and romantic, and they will go for hours, three, four, five hour arguments, and I'm talking about full on, like, like arguments. Now, I've never been a big like. I would never cut somebody out or do anything like that. That's never been my personality. But the feeling be there, right, and the preclear me would want to say whatever I want to say, you know and do whatever you know. And now I'm realizing that I can choose my feelings, my emotions, and I can also choose how I'm going to respond to things. And it's not like out of my tacit, it's not something that just turns on and says you know, it's like I can choose this differently, yeah.
Speaker 2:Would you say? Would you say that your control over reactivity is what now?
Speaker 3:like it's 1000%, Like I have such control because I'm not working from a reactive mind bank and as far as when you're faced with adversity.
Speaker 2:What happened when you're faced with adversity is before to after.
Speaker 3:How about? Hmm, I'm trying to see post clear what adversity? So that's interesting because I think LRA talks about how you have less, a fewer accidents or fewer. You know what I mean, that kind of thing. So I don't really know of any adversities that has come up. If there's anything to talk about, I would probably say no, I can't really think of. I think it's real, for me at least, that when you achieve this state, you don't have as many things come up that seem like adversities. Maybe that's probably a better way to say it. It doesn't seem like an adversity. If it's something I have to handle, okay, I go in and handle it, whether it be financial, whether it be in my relationship, whether it be, you know, whatever. If it's something I have to handle, okay, I'll just go in and handle it.
Speaker 3:I was talking to my best friend and we were talking about some financial stuff that's going on because we're planning this big trip and it's gonna be probably bigger than what we've ever spent on doing an event, and we started talking about the money and I could feel his anxiety level increase because it's a big bite of the apple, right.
Speaker 3:I could feel his anxiety level increase that he even said like this is giving me a nervous breakdown, and I was like, right, but you can just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and you could just such as such as so and so and so and so, and I was just flowing out like the solutions that for me were solutions you know, not you know trying to tell him what to do or evaluate for him, but I could just come up with solutions a lot faster, and so things that happen don't seem like adversities to me. They seem like things that, oh, I wanna move this money here or I need to generate money because I need to make some money, right, so I need to generate more money here. And this is how I'm gonna do it and I'll just put out the call boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'll put out the call and people will start showing up saying, hey, I need some services, I need some help, I need some, you know, whatever. And it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the quote unquote universe is in essence parentheses.
Speaker 3:respond in kind to the degree that you are a theta the solver as opposed to theta the problem, gosh that's so true for me, absolutely so true for me, because my ability, my ability to respond even to like physical body conditions, right, perfect example teeth. This is a thing If you read Dianetics LARAS talks in the chapter on clear and I think it's also in psychosomatic illness, the chapter on psychosomatic illnesses. Laras talks about cavities and teeth being a factor in one's brain. And I don't get cavities. Right, I don't get cavities, and it's something I wouldn't attribute it to my like superb dental hygiene, like I brush my teeth and I floss and I do stuff I gotta do, but it's not like I've never had to have that challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I experienced that too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, while other people who probably have even better you know tools and the sonic brush and the water pitch and they do all this stuff and they stay up to do this. You got another cavity what. Yeah, it's a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have one filling and that was due to something that broke, that the tooth actually just broke. It wasn't even a cavity when I was a kid, at five or six years old, and I would, and I haven't had a cavity since.
Speaker 2:I went and got my teeth checked the other day and the dentist said I can't do anything for you. I just cleaned your teeth. It wasn't anything. Yeah, it wasn't anything to do. You know, I'm 55 years old and he's like, yeah, I've never seen anything like it. I've seen a lot of teeth and yours are in great shape and I was just. You know, I wanted to just go. Styletics, doc, styletics.
Speaker 3:Right, that's the first thought I always think. That's the first thought I think when I think about that. Cause I enjoy a good dessert. I'm gonna be honest with you. One of my addictions was sugar addiction. I enjoy a good sweet and I've totally gotten that under control now. So now I'm choosing when I wanna you know, indulge.
Speaker 3:But you would think, after eating so much sugar or having to be in a sugar addict, any kind of addict misses up your system on some level, right, and it has not been a thing for me. As far as you know, my teeth goes and stuff. So it just feels really good you know, in this independent size, how you tell us all kind of conversation. It feels really good to know that you can improve. You can improve your condition, you can improve your body, you can improve your ability to think and to not have to second guess yourself so much. You know that was a thing Like not second guessing yourself and being very sure about what you know. Yeah, there's a little certainty that comes along with this, and so I feel very good in knowing that.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So my next question is, since we did your clear certainty rundown and your sunshine rundown and everything, can you give a little information on what your experience was with the clear certainty rundown and sunshine rundown? And I've got one other question for you and then we'll end off, but could you give a little retrospective on what it did for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say with a clear certainty rundown, pinpointing okay, I don't wanna say too much, just do it right. But going to the point where you realize what is happening, really right. And I know this is supposed to be a tell all, but I can't tell everything. It's tell all but not everything Right.
Speaker 2:Right, you don't wanna give the spoilers?
Speaker 3:Right, right, but getting to a point where you know that, you know and you realize what's going on up here, you know in the mind, space or whatever, it feels amazing to do that. So the Clear Start to Render really did help me know. Oh, that's what happened, okay, I get it now and yeah, I know that that's the case. The Start to Render was really interesting because I never felt this before and I'm 100% promising this. I felt this level and I talked about it in my success story. I felt this level of empathy and I know, sometimes I think we do the podcast.
Speaker 3:Our Scientologists mean, you know, I think we do this thing because sometimes people can think that we're unfeeling, right, because we have a mastery of our emotions on some level, or seek to have a mastery of our emotions on some level, and so people think, oh, you don't care or you don't feel what I'm feeling, or because you don't have the same emotional responses to certain things, right? So when I was doing the Clear Certainty Render and I'm going through the processes and there's this level of oneness or maybe that's not the right word, pen-determinism probably is probably a better word there was this level of pen-determinism that I got and with that came a huge amount of empathy and a huge amount of realizing like, wow, I can know where you are on the tone scale or I can know where you are in your journey talking about the other person. I can know where you are on your journey and I can empathize with you in that. I see where you are, I get why you feel the way you feel it, I know what you're dealing with, what your own reactive mind and the stuff that you got going on and I get it right and that felt really good. That was a huge win for me, because I've never been one to say that I've been extremely empathetic throughout my lifetime and now I feel that so much.
Speaker 3:And it brought me to. It wasn't tears at first, at first it was just a smile and an awareness. Then I walked upstairs and I looked out over the city and it was this building thing I was on. I looked out over the city and I started crying. I started yeah, I started just tearing up because it was like, yeah, I feel people and I care about people and I wanna help people and I want, like it just was so nice to feel that with the sunshine rundown. And that's just my experience.
Speaker 2:Everybody's gonna have their own, but yeah, well, and this is an interesting segue, because what we are doing now, after your clear certainty rundown or your sunshine rundown, is we're doing the quad grades, the final bits of each grade. Per LRH's advice is on such for somebody that is clear. And we're on the grade one. Just finished grade one quad and having this yesterday and this goes right in line with what you were just saying Do you wanna read this now that you?
Speaker 2:have in front of you and tell everybody about this. Then we can call it.
Speaker 3:So thank you so much.
Speaker 3:So last thing is, after going through this process, right, we had to go and complete my grades, and grade one is what we are now and Jonathan was running me through the havingness for grade one and this is the wind that came up and I wanna just read it to you.
Speaker 3:It says it's so interesting to notice that I was unable to allow other people to have their space. I never realized that it was me being comfortable with large areas and wide open spaces. I can be comfortable with that, but up close and personal space was something that I was unable to easily have. This caused problems for me in more ways than one, and I'm parenthetically, will say this particularly in my relationships, because there was this separation anxiety or I had to. If my 2D was in the bedroom, I had to go to the bedroom. There was this thing about space. It was weird thing, guys, but it says this caused problems for me in more ways than one, but I was never able to recognize the fact that my inability to have someone else having their space, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:The accent on have capitalized.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was never able. I had this inability to have that. I couldn't have, that Someone else could have their own space, Cause I'm here, like why would you need to be away from me? Like that's the thing, right, this is crazy for me, anyway. So the having this I'm sorry, the great one, having this process was really, really helping me, and so I now had this realization that people can have their space, and I laughed so much, my needle floated and I was able to allow other people their space, and this is huge for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this was just a having this process after the grade one process, quad itself, right, and that had to do with the people thing that you talked about on the sunshine rundown. I thought that was really interesting, that it was sort of like okay, and then now this yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:All of this thing, all of this connected. So all I want to say is thank you so much for having me on and being able to share my success story, my win, with the world. This is really powerful. Get in session. I'm just saying get in session. Yeah, as an independent Scientologist, for me, being able to audit and do my courses and stuff all from the comfort of my home feels so good and it just made my life so much easier in so many ways. And so get here.
Speaker 2:It's worth it, I agree. Well, thank you again, Quentin. I really enjoyed having you on again to talk about this, and it's a personal thing. You know it's a very personal thing. Until you get to that point you might not understand what personal means in that sense, but it really is personal and I really appreciate you taking the time to share that personal experience. Thank you so much. So for myself and Quentin, we hope you enjoyed this look into going clear, and all I have to say to Lawrence Wright is put that pipe and smoke that, Lawrence, because clear is a real thing, so namaste and we love you. Bye for now.
Speaker 3:Peace.