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Flag rode the wave of Book One enthusiasm as long as they could. In time, the enthusiasm started to wane and a lull in activity ensued. The Book One auditors trained by Flag ran into problems, they weren't getting good results with their pcs and as a result started giving up on auditing. These problems were occurring because the auditors weren't competent. Flag's solution for these difficulties was to create an advanced Book One seminar. However, their new seminar still didn't make the auditors competent. The only thing the advanced seminar produced was more money and stats for Flag. This crash was fairly predictable. In my initial evaluation, I discovered that one of the main reasons why Book One auditors in the early 1950s had quit so easily was that they weren't capable. This is why I had stressed the importance of making competent Book One auditors. In response to the deteriorating interest and activity with Book One, I wrote a second briefing to field Scientologists. In this briefing, I discussed the pertinent findings of my initial evaluation and compared these to what was currently happening with Book One in the field. The person in charge of mission management in the western United States read this second briefing as well as other articles about Book One that I had written. Concerned with the crash of activity in missions, he contacted me for assistance. After we spoke, he published both my briefings in an information letter that was sent to missions in the western US. Soon I was getting calls for assistance from missions, as well as orgs, throughout the US and Canada, bypassing Flag altogether. In response to the calls for help, I set up events in these missions and orgs. Over the next several months, John and I delivered weekend events throughout the US and Canada. We modeled these events after the successful evening events at Survival Services in Denver. The org or mission would pay for our airfares and set up accommodations for our stay in their city. They would set up a place for the event to be delivered and get their staff and public to attend. Additionally, the org or mission would line up volunteers to be audited by John, on stage, in front of the audience. After I was introduced, I would get up and give a short talk and then turn the floor over to John. John would talk for a while and then bring up volunteers to audit in front of the crowd. After the event, we would have a separate meeting with the org or mission's staff and the Book One auditors who had been trained by Flag. In most cases, watching John's sessions had highly impressed the Book One auditors. They would ask questions about what John had been doing with the volunteers to get such spectacular results. When John informed them that everything he had done was in the Dianetics book, people would question this by saying that they hadn't learned that in Flag's seminar or advanced seminar. John would then refer them to page and paragraph in Dianetics where the answer to their question could be found. Realizing that they had achieved questionable results with Flag's seminars, many Book One auditors were incensed and wanted to know how they could learn to audit like John. The upshot of our event and meeting was that we started many people on our correspondence course. We also received great support from the missions and orgs where we performed our events. Some mission holders even paid for their entire staff to do our course. Things were progressing well again with my Book One movement. I even got Diana to come and speak at events in LA and Seattle. When people at the Clearwater mission wanted us to do an event there, Flag agreed to have the event at the Fort Harrison. We performed our event in the lounge at Flag with some of the service org staff and top Flag auditors attending. I remember two interesting incidents that occurred in the meeting that took place after the event. The first incident occurred with the Flag auditors. They had never seen anyone audit with such ease and competence as John and wanted to know where he had learned these techniques. The second incident occurred with the administrative staff from the Flag service org. From discussions going on in the meeting, they discovered that John had had many successful auditing practices over the years. Since successful auditing practices were something they had rarely witnessed, they wanted John to tell them what his successful promotion actions were. John's answer seemed to mystify them. He said, "I don't know anything about promotion. In every practice, I started by finding people I could audit, whether I charged them or not. I delivered the best service I could. Soon those clients brought me others who I could charge. And soon after that, I had more than I could handle." Later, the CO (Commanding Officer) at Flag invited me to come back to Clearwater for a special meeting. He told me that Flag wanted my input on getting Book One going internationally and that I was crucial to this effort. I thought that this was maybe a turning point in my relationship with Flag management. Most of the attendees at the meeting were Sea Org members. The only people besides me who were not Sea Org were a couple who had left the Sea Org years before. Once the meeting began, I quickly discovered that Flag was not interested in Book One application. They were only interested in Dianetics book sales in the 1970s. I had run a successful campaign selling Dianetics books while running the CoS of Colorado and the couple was in charge of Pubs US at the time. As the meeting progressed, it became apparent that Flag was not even interested in discovering successful actions to sell Dianetics books. Their only interest was a public relations coup to get Dianetics at the top of the Best Sellers List. Feeling that this trip was a waste of my time, I went to the CO's office after the meeting to speak with him. He and I use to be friends. I knew him from when I was in the Sea Org working in LA and on the ship. I told him that I didn't think getting Dianetics on the Best Sellers List was as important as selling the book, and that selling the book was not as important as getting the book applied. I went over my Book One program and explained the progress that had been made. After listening to what I had to say, he told me that his only interest was in following the orders and programs of upper management. He also informed me that if I really wanted to do something, I could give my correspondence course to the CoS. At that, I thanked him for his hospitality and went home to Denver. I finally was reconciled to the idea that involving myself with Flag or Flag management was a losing proposition. I decided to put all my attention on working with the field, the missions, the orgs, and some FOLO WUS staff who were supportive of my program. End of Part 9 of 25 |
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