Unfortunately, self directed experimental approaches have not always been the fashion. Many of the experimental approaches given in this guide have been passed down from closed cult systems consisting of powerful charismatic leaders and spell-bound followers. Charismatic leaders can encourage you to examine your inner space, and then they can take the credit. Anything that provides gain can be misused, and Enlightenment Intensives are no exception. For our survival, we need to understand the politics of self-help groups and to possibly make some improvements.

Now for a little digression and speculation. I have given a lot of credit to Charles Berner and I do it with some mixed emotions. During the later half of the 1960s I was fortunate to be a member of "The Institute of Ability," led by Charles Berner. This was a group of some 100 to 250 people who operated self-help workshops in Southern California. One-third of the people were ex- Scientologists who followed Charles when he was a leader in Scientology. One-third were hippies like me, and one-third were not classifiable. When other groups were into drugs and music as a way of "blowing the mind", Charles stressed individual responsibility, and got us to focus on our relationships with others. Unfortunately, the Institute of Ability was not a long-term sustainable process. Charles set himself up as the greatest knower of knowledge and the final judge of all truth, and in short a cult dictator. The language was correct in stressing individual responsibility, but the leadership was not allowed to be democratic.

The Institute of Ability followed a form of government that was at least 5,000 years old, and that is the Charismatic Leader with Dictatorial Powers. This system is simple, one person makes all the decisions, and it is based on a family system of the strong father as leader. While this paradigm has yielded much of the transmission of truth and knowledge in the Eastern countries, it stifles creativity and initiative. The Western countries use a more distributed system of money, coupled with one person one vote. Money has a bad reputation, but it has provided the West with a system that can bring about change faster than those in the Eastern countries. The real question is distributed control verses centralized control.

Note, The Charismatic Leader with Dictatorial Powers is a system that tends to destroy its leaders. I think you might get the point better if you think about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, a system that Charles was involved with for many years. Charles in 1966 knew that Scientology was both good and bad. Scientology has much good, as Charles was always willing to own up to, but Scientology also had something stinking at the core. Scientology used secrets and a hidden control structure to kept Hubbard holding all the power. Charles knew there was a better way, but he took the path of calling their knowledge wrong, and neglected their system of government.

There are some very basic and yet very complex issues here, since we are all concerned with our own "inner space", and we accomplish much of our progress through our own intention. There is a hidden positive feedback path in this process. In other words, we use "Certainty" to boot strap ourselves into new states of being. This explains the contradiction in how Charles was always "certain," yet always found to be changing. Anyone who puts themselves out on the edge of knowledge will find themselves with the same condition. You will be "absolutely sure" and yet two years later find yourself in contradiction and yet be "absolutely sure." This is just the nature of the beast we are all struggling with. Our perception is not a passive activity, we see it one-way today and later another, yet we know it has not changed. This certainty, that directly comes out of the territory that we all work in, just makes it difficult for us to compromise, or reach any larger perspective than the one we already have.

Unfortunately, there is another complication, and, yes, stay with me now, this is an important concept that needs to be addressed to resolve the improvement of any self-help group dynamic. This complication is that since "Certainty," as mentioned in the last paragraph is so important for our state of being and our perception of Truth, we have a tendency to "climb on the backs of others" and use their knowledge to get us into higher states of being. We "borrow" their certainty and add it to our own intention and lift ourselves up into higher states of being. On the down side, this makes us all followers, limits our understanding to superficial surface effects, and puts tremendous consequences on our inflexibility. When we step away from our false high, we tend to fall a greater distance. These effects are all a direct result of our form of government, a Charismatic Leader with Dictatorial Powers. It was not good for L. Ron Hubbard, or Charles Berner, or you and me. We need a new way, that is more like science.

I am not suggesting that we can eliminate charisma. Science has many great leaders with charisma, but the process of science does not rest on who said what. Science rests on measurement, it rests on "Publish or Perish," and it rests of the judgment of others. We need to do some "Reality Checks" and we need to publish and make as much of this information available to the outside world as we can. This does not mean that we must all become writers, we can produce videos, or hold seminars, or just talk to friends.

The Institute of Ability has long ago fallen, but the "Master’s Training Course" is still being taught with the same handout created by Charles Berner 20 years ago. So let’s return to this idea of our government, which is now a Charismatic Leader with Dictatorial Powers. How do we fix that model? I think there are six useful approaches.

I enjoy going to Enlightenment Intensives where there are 50 or more people all working together to help each other. I have never been to a bad Intensive. That may in part be due to my personality, and it may be due to the fact that I personally know so many of the old-timers who are leading Intensives as "Masters". Still, I am concerned about the quality of the Enlightenment Intensive process. I am also tired of seeing the same old faces, and I want the Enlightenment Process to grow. I would like to see President Clinton at an Intensive, and I think it could happen. To bring more people into this process, we need to de-mystify it, and we also need some "Reality Checks". In short, we need an open system of government, using distributed individual control, modeled after democracy. (See attachment nine for my approach to a better form of government for the Intensives, the workshops and the training of new coaches.) We need some way to ensure that "Masters" do not become power hungry dictators. My way is to start the de-mystification process by using the more descriptive word "Coach" for the autocratic word "Master."

If you are going to your first enlightenment Intensive or Workshop, I would suggest you have a sit-down conversation with the Coach offering the enlightenment process. You do not need to like this person, but you must trust him. Be sure that you will emerge from his process the same person who went in. There is an element of brain-washing involved with enlightenment work. This cannot be avoided, since you are re-programming your own inner space. You need to be aware of the dangers and take appropriate care in selecting your Coach, especially if they need to be called the "Master."

There are two dangers in going to an enlightenment process. First you may learn the truth - something that you may now be avoiding. Second you may be brain washed at the hands of an incompetent "Master". Still, you should not be afraid to start. Right now, you are already programmed, you are just not aware of it! Fire is also dangerous, but we hide it in steel, and it makes our car cruise down the freeway. The power of fire is confined by steel in such a way as to turn the wheels. In an enlightenment Intensive, or an enlightenment Workshop, the power of interpersonal relationships is confined to the direction you want. To have that happen, you need a clear intention, and you need honest help from others.

Let’s clarify our understanding by a review of what we said about "help" in the footnotes - - Help - - There is a lot of confusion about what help is. The problem is when "Help" is given to avoid communication. In other words, I give you help, as I define it, rather than as you define it. I can be selfishly motivated to avoid listening, by giving you false help, so that you are more like me and less like you. People thus get into trouble giving help, since oftentimes the person does not ask for it, and does not want it, and after receiving it, is worse off. Real help occurs when both parties understand one another, and then engage in some action that benefits the person asking for help. You don't have to consciously ask for help, you can ask for help unconsciously, but the desire for help must be there. You cannot get help unless you want it.

Now let’s try one more time to review what you have been offered in this guide book. We defined a Survivor as a person who stands well against the winds of time. As the years go by, they become more contented in the knowledge of who they are. They cope with change well, making living adjustments as necessary, without bitterness, or regret. The first part of this guide was an attempt to grow your tendency to become a unique individual, and to support and stabilize that effort with a series of tools, and Lemmas. This was the "self-help" section, and you can never get enough of this because it helps you to become responsible to yourself. The second part of this guide described communication and the limits to "self-help." You were introduced to the idea of the "mind" and the process of becoming "mind-clear." The third part of this guide describes the first two parts as referential knowledge, and rationalized concepts, and how to move beyond this type of knowledge through the process of the "Enlightenment Intensive." We now need to integrate all this knowledge into some kind of working plan to deal with our future.

In this guide, under the section of "The Uses and Limits of Self-construction" we talked in very general terms, in the sub-section titled "A sense of direction," about planning. We could not at that time approach a full plan, since the mind would likely get in the way, or we would not be able use the information, because we lacked enough enlightenment to create our own existence. We are now ready to discuss your future.

By now you should have a sense of those skills needed to keep you flexible, and aware of what is going on around you, without much effort on your part. This is because you know something about the mind, and you have probably have done some work to clear up your mind. Clearing the mind helps you to stay in touch with the world around you, since it lowers the effort it takes for you to hear what other people are really saying to you. A good view of reality is essential to creating a plan that will work in your future living.

Of course, by now you know that I, as the author of this guide, cannot tell you what you should do in your future, and I will not try to do that. What I can do is to help you think through the options available to you, and help you to be aware of some of the difficulties and pitfalls that might be in front of you.

The first and most important concept about the future, your future, is just how should it be framed? Do we think in terms of time? Or is there a more productive way to view the future?

From the experiences of many people at Enlightenment Intensives - Life happens between people. It doesn’t happen between you and yourself, or objects and other objects. Life is not the passing of time, it is relationships. In those relationships each person has choice. Choice to be in contact or in freedom and free of contact. Each person is unique and independent in their ability to choose and operate. You may try and control others, but you will fail. At best you can influence others, with their cooperation. This is a direct experience of the meaning of life. You cannot afford to be a dilettante about your own life. Wake up and give yourself a chance to live in real relationships. Think about people, not about time. Be willing to allow change to take place in your relationships with others.

All that you have read in this guide up to now has been primarily concerned with protecting you from the abuses of others. It was hoped that you would discover who you were in a unique way. It was also hoped that you would develop enough coping skills that you could keep your unique identity as you cleared up your mind. Through the process of Enlightenment Intensives you might have gained some Direct-experiences of who you are, who others are, and what the purpose of life is. In any event, from now on, you are expected to protect yourself.

Each of us knows on some deep level that we are unique. For one thing, each of us knows that we think our own thoughts, or at least we choose the moment where we think the thoughts of others. Our inside life surrounds us. Our outside life can appear to be quite different. It can seem that our outside life does not even include us. This separation of inner life and outer life is the result of abuse. It is often not the case that someone has tried to abuse you, it is just that they don’t know any better. Other people may not be as enlightened as you, they may see themselves as having very limited ability to effect reality. Since they don’t know who they are, they have limited ability to know who you are. They may never in their whole life have experienced a direct experience, and they may in fact be walking around on automatic. Everything they think is "caused", and there is not even a crack in the rationalized world. They are so far involved with the mind that they cannot tell the difference, they are mind. Since they have no real sense of inner space, all language to them is global, everything to them is personal. They have no boundary and as a result they spend most of their time talking to themselves as if you did not exist. They maintain their own context, without a clue that others may have a different context. All is one, you are them, and they are you. As Bob Dylan says "Ain’t no use talking to me, same as taking to you." They have no sense of using a local language that may be a waste of time.

It is not a constructive practice to treat everyone the same, such as being nice all the time. If you are nice all the time, you are again not responding to the real relationship. This is not to say that you should try to punish bad behavior, that would set you up to fail as a controller. Your honest response depends on the exact situation you have with each individual, and it should respect their god given right to be in a state of freedom. If you treat them with respect it will not force them to be in contact with you, but it will keep the channel open till some time in the future when they do desire contact.

To be a survivor you must stay awake and really be aware of what is going on around you. It is not in your best interest to automatically be a nice guy or nice girl. Robots are nice, peach trees are nice. If you want the respect of others you need to be more flexible. Be aware of the full range of the possible in your relationships with others. Before you understood the mind you were triggered by charged words to act inappropriately in the present. Once you got over that, the world became tremendously complex with many shades of gray. You were exposed to the real world, rather than the easy stereotypes provided by the mind. This experience can often be daunting, and one solution - easy to a person who is free of the mind - is to become nice. Treat all people the same, with a smile. This proves to others that you are not reacting to charged words. You are simply showing off your new skill, but at the same time you are often ignoring them while pretending to relate. You don’t want to be Peter Pan and live outside of reality. If you stay aware of your real relationships with others, you will be better able to deal with the future and survive in a way that keeps life fun and deeply satisfying.

We want to avoid being in some automatic mode. This automatically can take many forms, such as being jaded, angry, nice, superior, detached, conservative or otherwise always predictable. Usually people fall into patterns which I call attached mood cycles. They may go from anger gradually to detachment then to superiority and later to conservative and then return back to anger. Each mood is attached to the previous mood. People come and go but the mood marches through it’s cycle. Cycle after cycle - each one exactly like the last. This is a life organized around mood swings. Here is a person who is blocked from real love and understanding. One way to avoid this trap of inflexible thinking is to organize with respect to other people. Create lists of specific people, and identify what is needed for each. Keep processing this list throughout your day, to separate it from your emotions. See how each person is unique and needs to be treated differently. Try not to project one relationship upon another. It is natural for each of us to be different - that is the nature of freedom.

{ Reader::: The current writing direction - rework next several pages to stress people rather than schedules. Next modify this whole section to include personal outreach activities. Expand on the idea of centering your life on people and show examples of how to connect and avoid isolation. Explore the role of state and local government as a relationship factor. Write on how we might expand to fill the void of down sizing government. - - Now without a transition we continue somewhat disjointed...}

If you know who you are, you can avoid the abuse of others. You really only need a clear direct experience of who you really are to avoid the desire to be like someone else. You are the only one who can be you, so don’t waste your time trying to be someone else. You don’t have to disrespect others to be yourself, and you don't have to force yourself to change. You do have to stay awake and you do have to care about your own life. As this becomes known to you, you will spend less time trying to avoid the abuse of others. This will free up more energy that you can pour back into your own life’s direction. You still must care about survival and not do and say those things which will cause those people who are still on automatic to destroy you. But you will find it takes less and less of your time. You don’t really have to be afraid of other people. With that declaration, we will now connect you to organizations and institutions that are not known for their enlightenment or their flexibility.

Next, I want to turn away from all this self-discovery and look at the world on the whole with the use of some statistics. One of the ways that personal truth is hidden, is with the use of statistics. You should know that statistics may not apply to you or your situation, because of some hidden factor not yet accounted for in the collection or presentation of data. If I present you with information on the Gross National Product (GNP), you should recognize that you might have personal data that runs counter to the trend. Statistical data is data about tendencies averaged over many individuals, not specifics about one individual.

On the other hand, statistics are good for many types of problems. Take the problem of fitting yourself into a satisfying career choice. Suppose you are not certain about how you feel about your interests, so you answer a long questionnaire. Also suppose that 10,000 other people have taken the same questionnaire and have been tracked for 10 years through high school, college, and their career choices. They are also periodically asked if they are satisfied with the careers they have chosen. We would then have some statistical information that might help you find a satisfying job. Of course, this has been done, and we will give it to you shortly. But first a word of warning. Mark Twain had the claim that "there were lies, damn lies, and statistics." Watch out and keep some healthy doubt when you read this stuff.

This guide will approach your future in three ways:

1) General planning and tips to help you be successful.

2) Vocational personalities, work environments, and finding a good job.

3) Using existing institutions to get your future needs met.

You must exercise care not to allow your plan to become another filter that prevents you from seeing opportunities or situations that may help you to become successful. Having a good plan does not mean that you think about it constantly, and thereby ignore reality. A plan that is constantly being considered is like another mind; it will filter everything you do or say. Only do your planning a certain amount per day, say 20 minutes. Some people consider planning to be the same thing as meditation, with the object of the meditation being your future. I do it either as I go to sleep, or just after I wake up. If there is something unusual that I must remember to do, I create something to remind me not to forget. This can be a note placed where I am sure to see it just before its needed. Then I put away my planning, and live with intensity, without another thought.

This is not always so easy to do, because it is often not possible to get any objective measurement. It is difficult to use your own feelings in this matter. Even using a school grade is not a good indication, since Albert Einstein failed his early Algebra. (* Need reference here.)

Your greatest strength can often be found by just being in the moment you are now living and paying attention to what is going on around you. That places you in a state of being able to discover yourself and your strengths first hand.

(* Work still in progress. There will be more here, maybe an example planning form)

What is it you do when you are by yourself? When you are with other people, their likes and dislikes can often rub off on you, so you have to be careful to keep your feeling clear. At the same time, you must also consider the context as being other people’s interests, and look for relative differences. It does not help you to say, "I want to stay in bed and sleep all day" if that is exactly what others want to do also. You might say, "I like football, and tough physical workouts," and recognize that not many other people have your same interests. This may lead you to conclude that becoming a ditch digger would be a good summer job, since you would enjoy the workout, and the pay should be high, since no one else will do it.

All through high school I was an introvert. I used to carry my log to log slide rule strapped to my belt, my big black glasses had tape holding the corners together, and my pockets had three pencils and a screwdriver, in a plastic shirt protector. After my junior year, I put away the slide rule, and started reading Bertrand Russell. I was still an introvert, only my outward look had changed, not my basic way of dealing with others.

Psychology has been working on the process of career counseling, and there have been many books written on the subject. Unfortunately, many of these books suggest that a persons personality traits remain fixed throughout life. Counselors are then left to test and pigeon hole people into jobs that suit their personalities as they have been classified by testing. The major attributes of trait as attributed by xxxx and xxxx*, can be plotted on a scale measuring introvert vs. extrovert. I can only conclude that the psychologists did not know me and my experiences.

I was able to change my personality from being a compulsive introvert, to being able to choose to either be extroverted or introverted depending on what the circumstances called for. I accomplished this personality trait flexibility by running the "Personality Trait Exercise" outlined at the end of Attachment three.

If you recognize that personality-trait testing may be flawed, it can be of great benefit to you to have a career counselor help you find your interest areas, and suggest professions known to appeal to people with those interests. This does not have to cost much money, since junior colleges often have programs that provide you with that service.

We will take a closer look at interests when we view John Holland’s research on vocational personalities.

Recognize that situations can always change. A job that looked like a sure thing, can become a dead end. The future is uncertain, so it is important that you put in the extra work needed to allow you to backtrack into an old job, or a known situation that you never thought would be re-visited. Besides the benefit of being able to return, you leave with a sense of having successfully completed a stage in you life. You have more confidence.

Usually, you keep your options open if you don't get angry and fly off the handle. If that language does not mean anything to you, it can be translated to loosely mean, "stay calm, and don't dump your anger on others." This is not to say that I am recommending that you eat your anger, you can express yourself fully, but you should not make the other person responsible for your feelings. In order to do that, you will at least need to be honest with yourself, and be able to see yourself as having choice. That is not always easy to do, and you may seek out a friend whom you can talk to, to work through your feelings.