Electra: Central Condition

CENTRAL CONDITION

EXM - 48
13 March 1992

The justification sandwich consists of a CENTRAL CONDITION surrounded by two different JUSTIFICATIONS, the BEFORE JUSTIFICATION, and the AFTER JUSTIFICATION.

The central condition is being used to justify something that went before, but once the pc has this condition he then has to justify why he has it. He can't say, well I have these eye glasses because I am trying to justify having killed a child. He is trying to HIDE that justification, pretend that it doesn't exit. In its place he is offering to the world at large, and to himself, the AFTER justification which explains why it is ok to have glasses and how they have nothing to do with anything except the poor unfortunate fact that bad eyes run in his family.

Therefore, for every chronic unwanted condition, your pc will have one private hidden justification which is what the condition is being used for, and another public generally accepted justification for why he has the condition in the first place.

The hidden justification is the BEFORE justification, the public explanation for the condition is the AFTER justification.

There is not a single person alive who does not have one of these justification sandwiches in full swing, including and most especially your parents and yourself.

Taking this all apart is a long and time consuming process, mainly because your pc will be below awareness of just what his central condition is. It saved his life when he was a child, it kept him from killing himself and everyone around him, so he is a bit chary about going near the thing and revealing it in one fell swoop.

If he is still walking around in the same conception of the cosmic all that he had as a kid, he will feel that he would just go back to killing everyone if he remembered once again what it was that upset him so. Thus it helps to get your pc into a saner state of mind by educating him and bringing him up to a strong certainty on a broader view of the universe, divinity, immortality and total responsibility. He will usually be found to be quite bitter on these subjects, but also very far short of an accurate view.

He is almost as nuts as his view of reality was nuts, although he will take great exception to this evaluation if you just drop it on him. Mainly because he can't imagine a view of reality that is not nuts.

However, if you can get him to see a more mature view of existence, one that includes Immortality, Responsibility, Humor, Beauty and Peace, he will be much more willing to revisit his old loss and see if it matters as much to him any more. He can reevaluate the aesthetics to and the seriousness of being a lonely and unwilling slave in a slave camp.

Basically life for your pc has not been worth living, and it is to his great credit that he decided to live anyhow for the sake of those he loved, people he has often yet to meet, even though it was at the expense of being aware of how upset he really was.

Your cool, calm and collected stoic type is a seething cesspool of trouble underneath, and his 'central condition' is what he has used to remain sociable for the sake of those he loved.

Therefore, you are not going to take this apart on the basis of 'he is flawed, or insane or just trying to make trouble'. He IS nuts, but it is cemented in nobility. You will have to show him that he can continue to take care of his loved ones and still face reality in the same breath. He will be able to do this once he sees that the reality which actually exists is not the reality he THOUGHT existed as a child, although the potential for such ERRORS are part of the reality which DOES exist. He will nurse some wounds over that one for a while. But then he will let go of his nut case and have a good laugh at it.

He will also become an OT with all the attendant freedoms and self chosen dangers that go with it.

So be aware that when you try to take the lid off this thing, you are taking the lid off a volcano that has threatened to erupt many times but didn't due to the efforts and safe solutions of your pc.

These safe solutions center around a CENTRAL CONDITION.

A central condition is an OVERWHELM.

A condition is any unwanted disability, illness, injury, or chronic unwanted condition that your pc complains of, but considers to be part of his lot in the eternal scheme of things.

Often it will not even occur to him to list it on a list, because he can't conceive of getting rid of it, because if he did he would be getting rid of HIM!

It's a loss to him to have it, but it defines HIM, he just wouldn't be him any more if he didn't have it, and he will feel real unstable about not having it anymore, he just wouldn't know what to become without it or what things would be like in life.

Thus in your listing of central conditions, you will need to run many late-on-the-chain conditions that are ON the chain of the central condition, but are not basic. Ever so slowly, the basic condition will come to the surface and present itself for auditing. Your pc will eventually realize that that condition is not a part of HIM and he will let it go.

How you find these conditions is up to you. You can be as inventive as you want, but what you want is a CONDITION not an overt or a reason why. Those you get afterwards.

     'What is the central condition on your case?'
     'What disabilities or chronic unwanted conditions do you have?'
     'What is it with you?'

You want a condition that is stated simply, maybe even only one word or a concise sentence. When your pc realizes what it is he will laugh and smile and have very good indicators (VGI's). The E-meter will blow down from a high TA and possibly float.

He will get the qualms, actually he will get the qualms long before he gets the condition because he is getting near it.

This is the mountain that he has to climb in life, and he KNOWS this, but no one else has ever admitted it to him and he wasn't about to climb it alone. Everyone else was perfectly happy with him being a loser and all. No one was rooting him on.

Now you are leading him right to the path that goes up to the top and he will readily go just so far and then suddenly turn around and tell you he is not so sure that 'all this getting better stuff' is such a good idea.

It might not be a WISE idea to get rid of this overwhelm, don't you see? Who knows what might happen, it wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be safe to be better, etc.

These are the Qualms.

Parents get them when their children go in for auditing.

     'What is the downside of getting better?'

Anyhow what you are trying to find is the Central Condition, which is THE condition that it wouldn't be so wise to get over.

Finding this condition can be a long process. Run it until you have found an obvious condition the pc considers to be as central as he can get for the moment. Probably you will come back to this process after dealing with the condition as laid out below.

As the pc lists conditions, the TA will go up and blow down, go up and blow down. If this stops you have either gone by a condition that should be run, or the pc has developed ARC Breaks or PTP's or O/W's from you. Get them cleaned up by 2 way comm and get the process running again.

If you are doing this right, your pc will originate conditions smoothly and willingly for a long time. They will be interested in their own case, be willing to dig for answers, and be appreciative of your willingness to listen and write them down.

An example list from a pc might look as follows.

'So, what is it with Susan?'

     'Unaware'
     'Blank'
     'Lost'
     'Forsaken'
     'Undesirable'
     'Confused'
     'Dismembered' (Not a member of society)
     'Plagued'
     'Pariah'
     'Leper'
     'Vile'
     'Blinded'
     'Wrapped up in something'
     'Clueless'
     'Pointless'
     'Witless'
     'No Keen Vision'
     'No Spark'
     'No Intelligence' (laughter)

Because your pc had some GI's on this item, you might want to ask the pc if they want to run it, if they think it is central to their case. If they say yes, you proceed. If not then just continue the list.

When you got it, you will know, boy will they be INTERESTED!

Once you find a condition that your pc is willing to go with, and is interested in running, you can then begin to take apart the justification sandwich that is keeping the condition in place.

Each condition is preceded by a BEFORE JUSTIFICATION that uses the condition to make OK something in the past. It is also postceded by an AFTER JUSTIFICATION which makes having that condition OK to the world at large and one's self.

The before justification is private and hidden and constitutes a withhold of magnitude usually missed and drowned in misery. The after justification is public and generally accepted by everyone involved. In any case the pc accepts it.

You take apart the justification sandwich by alternately asking two questions about the condition. Alternate the two until the E-meter and the pc gets bored with it or has a big win.

      I.  What does this condition justify?  (BEFORE QUESTION)
     II.  What justifies this condition?     (AFTER QUESTION)

For example if the condition was 'having no intelligence' then

      I. What does having no intelligence justify?  (BEFORE)
     II. What justifies having no intelligence?     (AFTER)

The first thing you should do is go over with your pc the first and second question very thoroughly until they understand it without comm lag. You may have to reword it so that it makes sense to your pc.

If your pc can't stand any of the forms you present these questions in, then run the following.

     'What is the before question?'
     'What is the after question?'

     'What is the number 1 question?'
     'What is the number 2 question?'

This will allow your pc to gain a thorough understanding of what the questions mean, and also to see deeper into any possible answers that might present themselves. Once your pc is flat on what the before and after questions mean, and how they should be presented, you can then use any agreed upon form to run and get answers from your pc.

You will find that the word JUSTIFY may or may not make sense to your pc. The pc should come to understand that the chronic condition was brought into play for a reason, but the pc's own version of that reason may not be best said with the word JUSTIFY. Thus you can and should run questions 1 and 2 with other wording.

Question 1.

     'What does this condition justify?'
     'What does this condition make OK?'
     'What does this condition lessen the seriousness of?'
     'What are you using this condition for?
     'What is the purpose of this condition?
     'What does this condition explain?'
     'What does this condition explain away?'
     'What are you using this condition to handle?'
     'What are you using this condition to deal with?'
     'What problem does this condition solve?'
     'How could this condition be a solution?'
     'How does this condition help you survive?'
     'How does this condition make others succumb?'
     'How does this condition make you right and others wrong?'
     'How does this condition make you wrong and others right?
     'How does this condition help you escape domination?'
     'How does this condition help you to dominate others?'
     'How does this condition make you not guilty?'
     'How does this condition make others guilty?'
     'What should I use for question 1?'

Question 2 often can be made from a simple turn around of question 1.

For example,

     1.) What does this condition explain?   (Question 1)
     2.) What explains this condition?       (Question 2)
 
     1.) What does this condition make OK?
     2.) What makes this condition OK?
 
     1.) What does this condition solve?
     2.) What solves this condition?
     etc.

Last example,

     'What is your central condition?' or
     'What is overwhelming you?'
 
     1.) What have you used it to solve?'
     2.) What have you used to solve it?'

You may find that the form needed for question 1 is very different from the form needed for question 2.

Electra