Scientology Outside of the Church Podcast
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Scientology Outside of the Church Podcast
SE11EP20 - Independent Scientology: Criticism or Truth
The distinction between criticism and truth lies at the heart of our spiritual growth journey. When someone points out something about us that feels uncomfortable, do we receive it as an attack or as valuable feedback? This fascinating exploration delves into L. Ron Hubbard's statement that "it's not criticism if it's true," offering profound insights into why we react defensively to certain observations.
We examine how criticism connects to what Scientology calls "missed withholds" – actions or thoughts we're hiding, sometimes even from ourselves. When someone's comment touches on these areas, we often respond with disproportionate emotional intensity. As the Southern saying goes, "A hurt dog will holler" – our strongest reactions reveal where we have unexamined issues to address.
What makes this conversation truly transformative is the exploration of how spiritual development changes our relationship with criticism. As we progress, we become less reactive because we've confronted our shortcomings honestly. This creates a state of being "unassailable" – not through building defenses, but through integrity and self-awareness. We begin to recognize when feedback contains truth we can use for growth versus when it's merely someone else's projection.
The hosts share compelling personal experiences that illustrate these principles in action, including a story about maintaining equanimity in the face of rudeness while traveling abroad. These real-world examples demonstrate how auditing and spiritual practice develop the ability to receive feedback without taking it personally – a skill that transforms relationships across all dynamics.
Whether you're new to Scientology concepts or a seasoned practitioner, this episode offers practical wisdom for navigating feedback with grace and using it as a catalyst for personal evolution. How might your life change if you could distinguish between criticism and truth in every interaction?
Visit ao-gp.org to learn more about auditing and training opportunities that can help you develop these abilities in your own life.
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Thank you, thank you so. So all right, welcome to another scientology outside of the church podcast weekend edition, at least when we recorded this, maybe not when you're hearing it. This is season 11, episode 19, and this one is going to be on criticism or truth. That might be a difficult listen for some people, but it's an interesting topic, because how much criticism is criticism and how much is truth? So I'm here with Quentin Stroud. Arthur will be joining us as soon as he can get logged into Zoom to get on from Malaysia, not far from Quentin.
Speaker 2:Quentin, how are you? Hey, I'm doing fantastic. This is going to be a really interesting conversation.
Speaker 1:I'm sort of like eh.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I'm the of like okay, and I'm the one that came up with this concept. Yeah, because we, you know, I think oftentimes I guess it's natural to, when you hear something that seems to be antipathetical to who you are, or what's going on with you, or what you got going on, or what you're wearing or whatever, is often immediately heard as critical or criticism. And I can get that, like I can get why, if somebody says something that you don't like about yourself, that could feel like you're criticizing me. Right, but, per LRH, we need to look at that a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1:The sword of the situation is is it criticism or is it truth? Because LRH says in science of survival, it's not criticism if it's true criticism, if it's true.
Speaker 1:Now the criticizer thinks well, what I'm saying is true. Maybe they're being critical. The receiver might take it as criticism more often than they would truth. So how does a person navigate that? Both as the omitter and the receiver cause distance effect with intention, attention, duplication, understanding and that's basically the idea of the podcast is how do we do this? How does a person do this? And are they justifying, are they trying to minimize? You know that sort of thing too.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll say this from an OT perspective. I will say that you know, when you're, when you're operating in a very high spiritual band, you know, I think that a lot of stuff that is often meant to be critical or meant to be invalidating or harmful, can sometimes just kind of roll off your back.
Speaker 2:You know, it's almost like you become a little bit impervious to the little boom boom boom, boom, boom bullets that people want to shoot at you, and I think that that's amazing when that happens, right when it happens that you know what I, I, I see, I hear your viewpoint, I, I got that. You think that that's true. You know, whatever case may be, and it doesn't really faze you, um, and at the same time, you know being so aware of self, knowing who you are, and somebody to say something that's against that, that can also be very jarring, you know. So it's. It's a bit of a you know, damned if you, damned if you don't, kind of scenario, because you're, you're, you're OT, you're doing well, you're, you're hitting a high level, and it can sometimes bounce off of you or it can be like wait, wait a minute, you don't know who I really am you know right and and you know you also have to take into consideration and this is, this is something that is.
Speaker 1:It is an extremely fine line itself prior to this, and we've mentioned this in a few other episodes where a person doesn't get ARC broken, which is an upset. That's what an ARC break is. It's a break in affinity, reality, communication or understanding. They don't get upset if they don't have a missed withhold, which is something they've withheld. That is a contra survival act. Okay, and a contra survival act is something you've received or you've done. You receive it as a motivator. It motivates you to commit another harmful act if you've already committed an overt. But if you haven't committed an overt, you don't have a withhold. Therefore, the withhold can't be missed. Therefore, you won't be ARC broken per LRA. You won't feel it. You won't feel it.
Speaker 2:You can't become the effect of it.
Speaker 1:Right. So then if and I've even had, and I was stupefied when this person said this to me who was on the OT levels, I was stupefied in a way because I couldn't wrap my head around what they said. And they said I don't get ARC broken anymore because I'm an OT I thought, well, kudos to you. I thought, well, kudos to you. You know, if you are that clean of an individual, you know the physical universe tends to present catch-22s a lot and you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. And I guess it's possible for somebody to be in that position and not and not have, you know, to have that clean of a heart. But I just thought, well, you know, is that, is that really true, that that you're, you're able to do that and and you don't receive anything that arc breaks you at all.
Speaker 1:and therefore, I mean can't be evaluated for at all and take it personal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I'm from Alabama. For those of you who have been listening to the podcast, y'all know I'm from Alabama and you know we have all these colloquial Southern sayings, you know, and my mama used to always say a hurt dog a holler, a hurt dog a holler, a hurt dog a holler. And so if somebody says something to you and you feel like you need to holler back, you know strike back, force your way back or fight back or whatever it can be. It must have been that pricked you somehow. It must have been that hit on something Right, it hit somewhere.
Speaker 2:And so, taking those moments to kind of be self-reflective and kind of say wait a minute, why did that get to me? So you know, growing up in the South and this is just my own little anecdotal thing, but growing up in the South, you know, dealing with racism, there was a lot of times when being called certain expletives and certain words happened right, knowing who I was, even as a young boy, knowing who I was and knowing where I was operating in myself, it didn't hit me like that. You know my brother, on the other hand, my brother would get really pissed off, right, he would get really, really upset. You know, if someone wanted to pull a gun and do all this other stuff, whatever, and I'm like, why are you doing all that? I like you know. So I I just think it really does. It really does hit people differently depending on who they are, where they are in their journey right and and and.
Speaker 1:To put in context what I was saying about this this this particular individual that said that you know they don't get arc broken anymore because they're an ot. The conversation was very defensive. That's why I was stupefied and, like you say with your brother, okay, so you're not ARC broken. Okay, and there wasn't any criticism going on there, but it just made me think okay. So if somebody is telling you the truth and you take it as criticism, that is an ARC break.
Speaker 1:And LRA says when you fly well, fly when you do I'll skip that term for now it's an F-N, a floating needle. You're getting the needle to float, therefore it's flying. When you fly in rudiments, he has an auditor in session. He said 90% of the time what you're going to be handling is ARC brakes, 90% in the technical volume. So if a person is impervious because they don't have any missed withholds and somebody criticizes them, are they telling the truth or are they criticizing them? If the person doesn't take it personal, no, they're not. Like you said, a hurt dog will holler. So if you're not hurting, is it the truth or is it criticism? Because the only thing that isn't criticism is truth, right, which is a funny spin on this.
Speaker 2:And beautifully so, per what you just said, that 90% of when you're finding rudiments which I think is so amazing that LRH refers to them as rudiments which is like the basic of the things that you're dealing with, right? It's like before we get anything accomplished, before we go any deeper, let's fly these rudiments, let's pull on these things and make sure we pull out everything that needs to be pulled out before we try to go into the deep, deep stuff, right? And so I think it's really important that he says that 90% of what you're going to hit is ARC breaks, but, at the same time, a person doesn't get ARC broken unless there's some what Mist with holes, right? So if 90% of what you hit is ARC breaks, then that also means that there's some mist with holes back there as well that have led to the ARC breaks that one is hitting, you know.
Speaker 2:And so I think it's really, really interesting that when you deal with family and I'm speaking in a more practical sense when we deal with family, when we deal with lovers, when we deal with loved ones, when we deal with, you know, bosses and people that work in school and da-da-da, and somebody tries to say something to you that's critical or that feels like it's criticism.
Speaker 2:If it hits, it's okay to stop and say, oh, why did that affect me? So what's what's going on in here, what's going on with me that that affect me? So and take a moment to to do a self-check you know what I mean and not not to spin and you, you know kind of you know interiorize in the matter, but to really just you know, almost kind of be exterior to the incident, to the moment, and be like, let me take an exterior viewpoint of this, let me take a look. And what's interesting about that is you're going to reveal for for yourself, not anybody else's evaluation of you, but you're gonna reveal for yourself maybe there was some truth there and if it was, it'll, it'll as is, it'll vanish, it'll disappear, it'll be like, oh, okay, hey, don't do that anymore right and and the, the.
Speaker 1:The funny thing is and and this and this wasn't necessarily the intended direction that I was headed in this, but it's an interesting point that even if somebody is correct in their assessment of said criticism, even if they're correct, if you don't have anything on it, you don't have an overt. That's being missed as a missed withhold. And or well, it's a withhold. First, a withhold. The missed withhold are two things. Somebody can have a withhold and it hasn't been missed, which is pretty rare but it can be. But the important thing is the missed withhold, because when a person misses your withhold, the side effect is you blow up One. I can't believe you said that. How could you say that about me? Okay, so the result is one of two things is they blow up? How could you say that about me? Okay, so they know, or they should know, with this podcast, with this tech, they are ARC breaking right there when they're blowing up because now somebody has touched on something as a miswithhold and they're wondering do they really know?
Speaker 1:Okay, bing, now somebody has touched on something as a miswithhold and they're wondering do they really know? Okay bing, we have a pimple on the skin of your case. We need to pop it oh boy.
Speaker 1:Pull that festering overt out. However, it isn't criticism if it's true. So you've got the receiver and you've got the omitter, the originator of this. So in looking at something and this is another fine line to this is the LRH's two rules to happy living Only cause those effects others can easily have On the flip side. Be willing to experience anything.
Speaker 2:Be able to experience anything.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's a tall order. That's a tall order. How are you able to experience anything? A hot poker to the side. Are you willing to experience that? I mean, you know that's how it feels when somebody criticizes you. I mean, you know it's an analogy, but it is how it? Seems. Yeah, it's a stab. And if it's a stab, you know you've got something you need to address yourself. Now the question is will you Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And it's interesting because we almost say it without Scientology and all that stuff like that, without Scientology's language. We almost say it naturally. Oh, I'm just poking fun, I'm just poking fun at you. He was picking on me. Ooh, that's smart. Whatever, it could be no-transcript, right, it could be an evaluation, and from that, if one is sane enough and willing to take a look, they can actually use that information to make some changes, make some decisions or whatever, whatever, and start to move forward with it. You know, I will say that when we deal with criticism, obviously there is a natural defensiveness. I think you used that word earlier. There's a natural defensiveness that can come along with it, because there's some things that just should not be right. There's some things that just should not be right. There's some things that just should not be said. There's certain things that just should not be poked at, if you will. And so you know, there's a natural deficiency that comes up. But you can also come at it from a different perspective too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I went to Finn right before we started the podcast on ao-gporg, our main website, and I asked it. I wanted to get the reference on it and what it came up with is based on the technical materials. The concept you're asking about relates to the distinction between criticism and factual observation.
Speaker 1:In the Dianetics and Scientology Dictionary it states that criticism quote criticism, when not borne out in fact, is only an effort to reduce the size of the target of the overt. And this goes back to the State of man Congresses in 1960, where why People Don't Like you is the name of the lecture. He says the reason why people who have committed overts against someone criticize in order to lessen the target of whom they've committed an overt, a contra-survival act, too size in order to lessen the target of whom they've committed an overt or conscious survival act to, because it it it's justified in the fact that if I minimize them, well, it's not that big of a deal because they're they're trash anyway or whatever I mean. But, like you were saying, is when, if you don't, don't have anything on it and you're what's what's your, and I'm sorry to bring bring this into a scientological uh context and conversation. But it's true, I'm a cancer, you're a pisces, piscesces and you you're very much. You just don't take anything personally.
Speaker 2:Pisces are more spiritual. I look at things from a very spiritual lens versus an emotional one, while cancers can sometimes be more emotional and I think it's interesting to state that because it is like you said, emotional one and and why cancers, can you know, sometimes be more emotional. And I and I and I think I think it's interesting to state that because it is like you said it's it's how the person you know what is the intention of your criticism, right? Are you trying to lessen me? Are you trying to invalidate what I'm saying by being critical? Are you trying to you know whatever? Like what's the point of your criticism? Once that's spotted to me, the fight is really over, because I already know what you're doing. I already know you're trying to be manipulative. I already know you're trying to say stuff to coax me to get your way or whatever. So it doesn't really, it doesn't really phase me. The same way, because I can, I can kind of see it from a a God's eye view.
Speaker 1:So to speak, An external, exterior perspective? Yeah, exactly, and that's, that's something that I mean.
Speaker 1:You know, only since I've known you and I've I've worked with you outside of the paradigm of Scientology, and you know, you point things out and everything like that, and you know well, cancerians live through their feelings and all this stuff. I've still always found it's just. It seems to me the way that it is for me, being born on the 25th of June, and you said what was it? You said about what was it? I was on the borderline, the cusp of what was the one that comes before that. What's the Gemini? Gemini, yeah, so I've got this sort of weird funky, composite Gemini slash Cancerian thing going on where I like to study and I understand things.
Speaker 2:Very intelligent, very communicative.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So there's that analyticalness of it and it almost is a damnable quality, because then I'm looking at okay, have I got something on this here? And it's not just. Well, I'll just say it. A cancerian, full-blooded cancerian, can be reactive, quote-unquote, to whatever it is that they're experiencing, especially when you have the mercury retrograde thing going on.
Speaker 2:All this stuff.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was totally oblivious to this stuff and you're pointing it out to me and I'm like God damn, he's right about this. There's these physical universe external influences that have, I mean, and it's observable Time and time and time again, since you pointed out, it's observable Manifest.
Speaker 2:It's observable, and I think that not to go off on that tangent, but I want to stick on the topic, because what we're talking about here is that things that come up in your experience how, how do I process that Right? And even with with over many, many hours of book one, dianetics, auditing myself and also, you know, auditing up the grades, dealing with all this stuff, release, grade release and all these different things, when you hit something that somebody tries to lessen you or invalidate you or criticize you, I always look at the source. I'm like wait a minute, who are you again Like? Look at your life, like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:And if that person and this is actually a Q-ism for me if that person is somebody who I seek to emulate or I seek to be like, or I seek to have something that they might have, or whatever case may be, then I might take their criticism as a you know? Huh, maybe I need to look at something here, but if it's something who I don't want to be like, if it's somebody who I don't want to emulate, I don't want to have what they gotta be like they are, absolutely I'm not going to take that to heart right and and that's you know, that's why I was mentioning, you know, from from your standpoint, from an astrological standpoint, it's, it's you're, you're, I was, I was just.
Speaker 1:I just had a conversation last night where I was saying, well, quentin, quentin's, like you know, somebody does something. And you're like you know, well, there's the door. Bye, you know. And I'm like, well, hold on, hold on, give it, give another chance, and and then, and then it comes around, and then I'm like should have just listened to him in the first place. But that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:What I love about it is that when you're able to make a correct estimation because that's a part of being on the OCA correct estimation, right. When you're able to make correct estimations about things, when you're able to choose the correct target in an argument, when you're able to say, this is the thing that I don't like or this is the thing that's problematic, somebody might hear it as a criticism because there's some miswithholds there. Right, that's where I was headed. I could actually be talking about the actual problem in the situation. Right, and by talking about the actual problem in the situation, that is a correct estimation and a correct target.
Speaker 2:I'm not targeting you. My whole thing is if we're in a relationship, why would I make you the enemy? You sleeping in the bed with me, you bring me dinner. You know what I mean. I'm not going to have no glass ground up in my soup, as LR H says it. I bet you don't have no poison in my soup. No, I'm not making you the enemy, but I am looking at these correct estimations. I'm looking at these things and being critical, perhaps, or stating truth about what's showing up here that needs to be corrected, that cannot be or should not be, and then, therefore, we can move forward if we're both operating at that viewpoint right, If we both come to an understanding of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that goes back to the podcast on overthinking and knowing. If you know, then you're certain that you know, and it sounds, and and it's. It sounds, uh, airy-fairy. But if you have a clean heart and you don't have any overts there, you can, you can see objectively, but you also have to be able to look at where the other person's tone level is. How are they going to take this communication? What is their arc?
Speaker 1:and you krc knowledge, responsibility, control and power power can't, and and then you have to, you default to. It's almost like a flow chart. You, you go, okay, is this a, is this an effect that they can easily have? And I, I need to be willing to experience anything. And then you go to the definition of responsibility, which is sometimes you do something and other times you don't do anything at all. I mean, this is something you have to look at. So there's two, two very different sides to this. And what criticism and truth are. If you're doing a correct evaluation that says there are no fire extinguishers in this building and the kitchen is a fire hazard, is that a criticism or is that a truth? Right, we're talking about a building and somebody who's responsible for that building, who takes care of the grounds and everything might be like how could you say that? Well, it's true.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and it says here, based on Finn, it says the technical material suggests that true observation, based on facts, delivered with helpful intention, differs fundamentally from criticism, which often stems out of other motivations. Right and may not be grounded in fact. And so if it's observably true and delivered with helpful intention, right, because that's a part of communication. Right Intention, deliver it with helpful intention, it might not necessarily be criticism, right, it's not criticism. So, and I'm just going to use this as an example. But if one makes a comment, observably so, about someone's weight, right, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:It might not be easy to receive right or receivable at all, or receivable at all, but if it's delivered with a intention to be helpful, I'm concerned about your health, I'm concerned about your heart, I'm concerned about your. You know your breathing, you know your. You got sleep apnea, whatever. I'm concerned about your health, I'm concerned about your heart, I'm concerned about your breathing, you got sleep apnea or whatever. I'm concerned about this and you might want to consider some weights loss or whatever, or just do some exercising together. That might not necessarily be a criticism, but it could be somebody really really within the intention of trying to help, it could be somebody really, really within the intention of trying to help, and so I think it just takes somebody being a little bit being able to come out of their own oh God, I hate to say it, but coming out of their own protection mechanism, their self-defense or mechanisms.
Speaker 2:Right, right, those mechanisms that just turn on out of whack. Who are you talking to like that? What are you talking about? I look good. I don't care what you say.
Speaker 1:I look good, I'm talking about how you look, sweetie Right, I'm talking about how your heart is beating Right and can you even talk to them about it are? Can you? Can you even talk to them about it? And if you can't, can't talk to them about it, then that goes back to the definition of responsibility. Do something or do nothing at all, and then rules to happy living only cause those effects that others can easily have.
Speaker 1:But you know there's there's two sides of it. If you know that somebody is so defensive about something, whatever it is, whether it's fire, hydrants, weight or whatever, yeah, yeah there yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:You know, a a fact is a fact. And then and then, if you do say it and you get well, that's your opinion from them, then you know what you're dealing with, right. And so what do you do? Well, okay, I took responsibility, knowledge and control and you've done what you can do. That's all there is to it. But I mean, when you're looking at it from an organizational standpoint, that's something completely different, where you know if the place is going to burn down, if it doesn't have fire extinguishers and there are fire hazards in the kitchen, then whether people get their feelings hurt or not is immaterial and unimportant, because it puts everybody at risk. So, a fact is a fact. But it's funny how, when it's the third dynamic or above, you can offend a little bit more without fear of retribution, because it endangers a group or an organization, or the fourth dynamic. I need to see where this goes.
Speaker 2:So yeah, well, what lrh says here in um, what am I reading? This is the auditor's code. It's a lecture on the auditor's code given um novend 1950. And he says he says so what you're actually running into there is the physical pain engram, which is practically all the engram there is, and there are three others which can be, can impinge upon it the painful emotion engram, the insisted communication engram and the invalidated reality engram.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so, of course, if a person you know we're talking about, you know not in the exoneree we're talking about auditing, we're talking about getting rid of engrams, we're talking about, you know, case gain and all this stuff, if a person is having a lot of painful emotion, physical pain engrams and painful emotion engrams that can impinge upon it, or insistent communication engrams.
Speaker 2:This is stuff that, like mama said, daddy said, mama said that, and it kind of hits you and it's like God and it feels like pain, it feels hurtful, you understand, because you're hitting on something that this person has had in their experience, some incident they've had in their experience, and the last one is invalidated reality, totally invalidating somebody's reality, that what of true for them is not being validated, and so these things feel like actual pain, because it says that's really all there is to an engram you know, physical pain, but it says there's three others that can impinge upon it, which is that physical pain engram. Okay, and it says. It says, and they could be all be done forcefully enough so the person would practically fold up, you know, and so we have to be very mindful when we're communicating and when we're dealing with people in our lives. You know, how do we deliver what may be true to you, right, but it might not be easily received or not received at all, because it's hitting on something that you might not be aware of.
Speaker 1:Right, and it just it struck me that where this is also at and this wasn't developed until after 1950. The last podcast where we talked about the CDEI scale, the know K-N-O-W, understand, curious, desired, enforced, inhibited, n-o know and then refuse. The bottom of that scale is what you're describing as a refused reality, inhibited know and refuse. Yes, so it refused is at the bottom. You know this dope hand up this is, this is, isn't, it's a not is of the states of e and axiom 11, and so it's going to be at the bottom of that scale. It's going to be received as a criticism, whereas if it was at the upper end of it, from curious to understand, they're curious about.
Speaker 1:Well, explain to me, not in a defensive way, explain to me why it is you feel that way about that, and you explain it and they understand and they go. Well, you're right, sometimes I, whatever the thing is, and now they're at understand and they can do something about it. And now they're at know, because they know what it is, that it didn't seem like a criticism, it was a truth, and now they can do something with it to modify whatever it is that they're doing in their behavior or actions. That needs to be resolved. So that's the difference between criticism and truth. Truth is no criticism is refused, because when you're criticizing, when you're criticizing, you're refusing.
Speaker 2:You're refusing that situation, that reality, that thing. Yeah, that is yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. Both parties both parties are are refusing. Isn't that interesting? The originator and the receiver well, that's criticism. I'm not that way. They're both refusing right, and so they're both in the same place on the scale.
Speaker 2:Yeah this is why I always, this is why I always say you know, when somebody's trying to come at you that way, my, this is my way I kind of handle it, I lean into it. I lean into it like I don't. I don't come from a place of refusing, so like oh you ugly. You know somebody's like oh you ugly, okay, well, I guess I'm ugly and okay, got it. I see that you see me as ugly.
Speaker 1:Right, right, grant them beingness. Okay, they think I'm ugly, right, I don't have to accept that as a truth if that's true and that gets to the what's true for you is true for you type of a thing. But as one goes up the tone scale, one becomes less and less critical, much more the two rules to happy living type of thing, and they can grant somebody beingness and they can say something about it, or they don't have to say anything at all, to the point to where you see people who, as they go up the bridge, they don't criticize nearly as much, they don't feel the need to criticize, they just observe it for what it is. Okay, that's how that person behaves. I can either be in their orbit or I cannot be in their orbit, and it's their choice. And they will make the choices of being in certain orbits or not being in certain orbits because they, I don't want to say, refuse to be at that tone level. They just accept because it's not refused on the CDEI scale, it's no.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's exactly the point I'm making. And what's interesting is when k, yeah, k-a-n-o-w, right, when you get to a certain place on the bridge, uh, a certain place on the tone scale, where you kind of, at a certain place in your, your own beingness, uh, you kind of don't even pull in criticism like that yeah, you know what I mean it's like. It's like people have opinions and people go. I mean everybody got an opinion, everybody got what they say, everybody got an opinion. But, um, you don't really pull in criticism like that.
Speaker 2:And I think that's really fascinating that as you kind of operate at a certain space, you don't get hit as much or that often with it, right, but if you're operating down at a lower space, you might get hit a little bit more. My spiritual teacher used to tell me he said he says eagles fly alone, buzzards hang with the crowd. Right, eagles fly alone, but buzzards hang with the crowd. And so if you're up there flying alone, if you're doing your thing, you're an apex predator, so to speak. It's like you're doing your thing, like who's going to come for you. But if you're a buzzard, if you're with all the other buzzards and they're cackling and doing whatever, you might get hit a little bit more often.
Speaker 1:Right and that's another point that it didn't even occur to me to mention is in that type of a situation where you're a higher-toned individual, an OT, and what you're saying about you don't receive criticism is because you become unassailable. Why are you unassailable?
Speaker 1:let's look at that for a minute? Why are you unassailable? Why can't, why aren't you pulling in criticism? Because you are. You are living in alignment of your dynamics. You are, are operating at a at a point where it is so obvious and manifest and um palpable to people and You've chosen the people in your orbit around you that you deal with, where you don't receive any criticism because you've I mean just to dumb it down you have all your ducks in a row on your dynamics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the criticism melts away, basically.
Speaker 2:Right, right, you come to a point where you come to a point where, as if you are being observed, if you, if somebody is trying to look at you with a critical eye about the mechanism called the evil eye, you know the evil. Yeah, if they try to look at you with the evil eye, um it, it doesn't, it doesn't phase you because, no, I'm, I'm good, I'm really, I'm really doing, you know, my best to be my best, right, right, greatest good for the greatest number dynamics, for the greatest period of time. And as an ot, from an ot perspective, you become at cause, right, you become at cause over life, matter, energy, space, time and thought. You become at cause, and so that becomes you don't become the effect of as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lrh says you know, a person should be be known by their good works, and and then we're not just talking about how many great paintings you've put out, or, uh, you know, your, your, your products, because, whether it's your products, the things that you do that you produce for the exchange of money, goods, services, and all that stuff, that's, that's all good and fine, but it is how you behave and how you treat others. Which then brings us back to the two rules to happy living. You're unassailable because you can't be criticized, because your good works, your behavior, your communication cycle, your etiquette, your etiquette the way you treat responsibility, the way you give exchange and abundance, and you as a person, quentin Stroud, are one of those people thank you, yes and when you put your mind to something, you give it your all and you're there effusively, just force of nature kind of being, and that's how you become unassailable across your dynamics.
Speaker 1:And I like to use the term flowy, you know there's just flowing in and flowing out and contributing to the flow of others, in that you know you bend like a reed in the wind and that type of thing, and that's a very OT way to operate. And so you don't receive criticism, you only receive truth, and you see truth for what it is or you see untruth for what it is. And that's where LRH says that the definition of OT is power, is the ability to hold a position in space. Yes, so you have this. What do you call it? Composite of criticism and truth, to where there is no criticism, only truth. Right, isn't that wonderful.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because I was just on a podcast for Living Abroad and we were talking about how people interact Do you feel safe living abroad? Do you feel safe living in other parts of the world, stuff like that and I said, absolutely, I feel very safe. And I talked about how, when I go downstairs, I live in a high-rise condo. When I go downstairs and walking amongst the locals, people just speak to me oh hey, hello boss, hey boss, hey boss, hey brother. You know, because I live in Malaysia, so they call each other brother, hey brother, how are you doing, brother? And they're talking to me. I don't know these people from Adam. I have no idea who these people are, but they just feel willing to speak. Right, and I love that. Well then, one day I was at a restaurant and I go up to, I overhear this gentleman speaking over his phone, over FaceTime, and I heard him speaking English and I said, oh okay, this is another English speaking person. So after he got off the phone, I kind of walked past his table and I said, hey, where are you from? You know, just like that, hey, where are you from? And he didn't respond. And so I said hey, because I thought maybe he had his earbuds in, or whatever. I said, hey, where are you from? And he goes why are you talking to me? You know like that, why are you talking to me? And I said, oh right, and I guess he thought that that was going to throw me off the set. I don't know, right. And so I said, oh well, I overheard you speaking English and so I wanted to kind of know where you were from. And he said it doesn't matter. And I said, oh OK, well, it was really good to meet you, wherever you're from. I'm from the US. It was really good to meet you. You're from, I'm from the US. It was really good to meet you.
Speaker 2:And I knew he was from the US. He was a guy from the US, I knew it was um. And I said, well, it's really good to meet you and I and he was like just leave me alone. He said just leave me alone. And so I walked away and I sat down, and so the people I was with was like, oh, I can't believe he did that. I can't believe he said that. Why was he talking like that? And I said he must have just been having a bad day. I don't know what that conversation was. He just got off FaceTime with somebody. His girlfriend might have broken up with him. Now he's single. I don't know what's going on, but it didn't jar me, it didn't phase me. It was just like he really wanted to attack. It was loud and it was obnoxious and it was uncalled for. But yeah, it didn't hit me like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it didn't faze you, and that is a prime example of you didn't have any missed withhold to get ARC broken about. I mean, you can quantify it for whatever it is, but to say I mean almost to say that it was, it would almost be critical to say that it was rude. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, he, he. You could say, well, he was really rude, but in your case you were just, you didn't even go huh, right, you were. You were just like, okay, that's where he's at.
Speaker 2:and you go on about your day and that's it. And the other thing, right? And the other thing is is I originated the communication? So I so, so I am the cause of all this. If I had never spoken to him, he would have never said anything to me and been rude to me or whatever it is to me, right? So I also accepted responsibility for originating that communication that led to that rude outburst of whatever that was that he was going through, right? So again, I say, when you're, when, when you.
Speaker 2:One thing I love about auditing is that it it allows you to take a look at yourself. You know, scientology is one of the true mystery religions in that it allows you to take a look at your mystery, or my story, my story, my journey, my journey, my life, who I am and the unfoldment of that. And so, by being in the chair, I can stop and like, oh shoot, I did do that. Oh shoot, that did come up, oh, I do feel this, I do feel that. And you can then use this out in the real world this is not just stuff that when you own the cans and when you sit in front of your auditor that that's when it's on you can use the auditor's code in the real world. You can use the stuff that you experience in session out in the real world and you can see things from a causative viewpoint. I originated that communication, I was the cause of that interaction, and so how can I be mad at him for being mad at me, like what Isn't?
Speaker 1:that crazy and I've got a funny story and this is a I don't know. It's almost like a piece that should be in a museum for me. You know, you walk through it, you go, and this happened and it was a friend of mine, mike, and we were out selling uh, uh, three-piece furniture sets on the street corner. I used to be a roadside vendor for for two and a half decades and it was a hot day in rochester, minnesota, hot muggy. You know, aug it was yeah, I think it was in august, like it is now, and and this is this is how this is what auditing does for a person is you see somebody? Mike gets into it's hot out and he's talking to these people in their car about these furniture sets and he goes it's hot out here. Do you mind if I get in your car? He gets in their car windows, they roll their windows up and he sits there and he has a conversation with these people selling them a $650 three-piece set of furniture off of this semi -truck that we have these furniture sets on and he sits in there for like 20 minutes and he had the sale in the first two minutes and then had an 18 minute conversation with them about all these other things and got out of the car smiling, didn't say anything about selling it, just had the money in his hand and knew what sets of furniture that they wanted, sold two sets and we pulled them out of the truck and everything. And they organized later on to come and pick it up and everything.
Speaker 1:And it was one of those things where you're like I could never do that. Right, are you out of your mind? You got in their car in their personal space. You're sitting there slapping them on the shoulder. They're looking at you in the rear view mirror. How awkward is that. You don't know these people and you're talking to them like you've known them for 20 years, I mean, and you just just go. You're a god, you know. I mean I can sell anything to anybody, but I mean to me. That's just odd. Another level, that's a whole nother level and and he just looks at me and and it was the funniest thing, because he's this big, tall guy, bigger than me and I'm a big guy and he just looks at it, at me, and says one word auditing. Wow, oh, yeah. And I'm like, oh man, and he's a trained class for auditor as well, and I and I and it, you know, and so was I, but I just looked at that and that was like I could never do that Like I could never do that.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:There you go and I just was like this guy's got this OT ability where he just includes people in his, because he used to sell the Ginsu knives at the home shows and stuff like that, these convention halls, and he dealt with so many people, he knew the communication formula. And he dealt with so many people, he knew the communication formula, he understood that he could talk to anybody anywhere, anytime, anyhow, with anything. That's grade zero, that's right, I mean, that's right, holy cow. So I mean you know these types of things where you just, like you know you're the, the, the client whisperer type of a thing and that and he just look, I just, they'll never forget it, he's just, he just, and it wasn't smugly or anything, he just blithely said it and said auditing, auditing, that's it. So you can have these.
Speaker 2:You can hear these too you know, yeah, and that's so real for me.
Speaker 2:That's so real for me that the stuff that we do in session when I come out of session and I'm so keyed out and I'm just so beaming exterior, having a really, really great day, and I go outside and I connect with people, and they feel it and they see it and they know it to be true. And if they don't, they are operating at a whole different frequency. So either A I don't experience them at all, or B when I do experience them, I'm able to quickly leave it behind because it has nothing to do with me at all. Right, that's truth. That's truth. That's truth, man.
Speaker 2:And so I totally see how anybody who is using this stuff, who is using this tech, who is getting in session, who is doing the work to better themselves, is also bettering themselves across all their dynamics. Everywhere you go, every sphere of influence that you occupy, everything that you're touching, everything I touch, turns to gold. You've got to believe that, you've got to know that. But you've got to get there and you've got to feel that way and know that to be your truth as a being, and that's how this whole thing works and I absolutely love it, right.
Speaker 1:And just as a little tagline, the fine print of that is you can have or you cannot have. You don't have to, must have. You know, the guy could have risen to your level and said, oh, I'm from Connecticut or whatever, but he didn't. He was at refused on the CDEI scale and you're totally fine with it. And he was taking, taking it as some sort of wonky evaluation, probably right in his universe, and you just spotted it as truth, as, okay, this guy can't, can't have this thing and isn't willing to experience anything. Okay, fine, you go, you go sit down and and people are like he's so rude and you just, yeah, what it's, it's fine, it's fine, you know and it's a right that, yeah, that's the different difference between criticism and truth no, not no, refused and no is that is, and that what part one person receives is criticism.
Speaker 1:The other person is completely coming from a point of truth and recognizing it and being responsible for what it is. That you say what, what effect it has looking at yourself and monitoring yourself and going did I take that personally? Okay, I probably got a miswithhold, which means I was ARC broken, which means I've got something I need to handle in session or write up as an overt and withhold, and then all of a sudden, you find yourself looking at things from a completely different perspective. So both one is auditing and one is training.
Speaker 2:There you go, and I always say rejection is always protection. So if you don't want to talk to me, if you don't like me, if you think I'm ugly, you know, whatever, rejection is always protection. So I feel so good, blocking is a blessing, blocking is a blessing, okay. And so if I need to block you or you need to block me, I'm blessed. Either way, okay. So I feel good about it and I think that this is. This is exactly how I want each of you listeners, I want you to know that there's there's times when these things are going to show up in our experience. This is just life, right. There's times when when you may feel criticized, there's times when you may feel attacked, or there's times when people may come for you or whatever. Be at a place where okay, that's the answer.
Speaker 1:Not have just okay. Okay, but it is what it is serenity of beingness right, and that is that is the ultimate as isness right there is being able to recognize something for what it is and its source, and you just go on with your life and you don't take it personal and cause only those effects that others can easily have and be willing to experience anything, which is exactly exactly what you did in that moment. Yep, there you go, rock, have a conceptual understanding of this concept. At first blush it is not something that looks like it's as deep as we've gotten into it, but, given these concepts, you can use these concepts and get something from it through training on the collegeofindependentscientologycom on our online course room, or you can get auditing and get the benefits of auditing on both sides of these flows, so that you can have anything, no matter what it is, whether it's criticism or truth, and you will recognize truth and be a lot better off for it.
Speaker 1:So for Quentin and myself, arthur wasn't able to get in. We're still working on this with his new phone and Wi-Fi and everything. We'll get it straightened out for our next podcast next week and have Arthur on the show as well, have a great week or weekend, depending on when you're listening to this podcast, and please get in touch with us at ao-gporg for our specials this month. We'll fill you in on those as we're running out of time, namaste, and we love you. Bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Peace.