Workshop - El Paso, TX-1979 - Part 1

Verbatim Transcript: El Paso  9-30-1979
“Who’s in Charge of My Inner State?”
4 CDs (1-A, 1-B, 2 and 3)“

The following is as close a verbatim transcript as is possible.
Dr. Bob’s laid-back “Kentucky-ese” is retained –
we have neither corrected his grammar, dialect, pronunciation
nor taken it upon ourselves to change his words.

Audience (laughter) is noted; he was a master at keeping the mood up!
Audience participation is (parenthesized) and separated from his words.
Emphasized words by the speaker are in italics.
If the words were unintelligible, there’s a blank: “_________.”
[Anything that offers clarity to the reader is italicized inside brackets.]

Audio Link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8q3dk0v10spku0x/AAAYLpeldktpJMuSt9qqMbeva?dl=0
This workshop was edited and made into a book: Who is in Charge of My Inner State of Being?
Link to Book: https://www.marshasummers.com/innerman/images/WhosInChargeuse.pdf

CD 1-A of 4 CDs : El Paso, TX  09/9/79

I suppose it would be rather interesting if everybody asked themselves for a moment what they’re doing here – besides spending your nickels. You know, I worked with a lot of people for the past few months. Occasion has arisen where I’m runnin’ a full-time counseling practice. It wasn’t by intention; it happened that way. And consequently I’m acquainted somewhat with the present group of problems that people have… and most everbody seems to have a problem.

Now that problem may be anything from boredom to “I’m just not happy” to great feelings of depression – that’s very “in” these days, is depression. And then, of course, the one great big item that we have to work with is the “rejection syndrome.” That’s when somebody has rejected me or I felt they did in one way or another and, of course, that leads to a whole series of problems – depression, anxieties, etc., etc.
So I don’t know what your particular problem is, but we will attempt to cover all problems because there is only really one problem and a lot of signs of that problem: there really is only one problem. Now that problem can be probably stated very simply, so it will be the theme of what we talk about all day today is that “Who is in charge of me?”

Who’s in charge of my inner state of being? You know that’s down to your deep feelings of – do you feel rejected – do you feel bored – do you feel discontented – do you feel dissatisfied – are you anxious – are you worried – are you depressed, or what-have-you? There really is only one thing that the question is: “Who is in charge of my inner state?”

Now in the material that we talk about there’s two basic subjects. One is self-Knowing, knowing the self, what makes up this personality, this being that we are. And the other one is Self-Remembering is to remember what I am and so forth.

So we will start of course with the self-Knowing part of it so we know what we have to work with. Now a person who is in charge can do about anything they so choose to do. They can feel about any way they choose to feel. Now that seems to come as a surprise to certain people that you can feel any way you want to feel.

Now your inner state of being is basically – what everybody’s interested in – is your inner feeling ‘cause that’s what you experience all day. 
Now you sense a jillion things that comes along. We sense the weather. We sense other people. We sense all kinds of happenings, but our true experiencing is experiencing our inner state of being all day long.

Now, if our inner state of being should be serene then you would experience serenity all day. Now, you may sense an auto accident. You may sense a kid crying. You may sense a cake burnin’ or you may sense about anything; but none of that really has any great effect on you if you are in charge of your own inner state of being.

Now there is many inner states of being available to us – all the way from anxiety, depression, frustrations, and all these many things that we can have. Or you can have serenity, which is a fairly good work-a-day world thing. You could also have an intense feeling of gratitude – of course you won’t get much work done that day. Or you might even go into have a sense of inner of Ecstasy or ecstatic all day – then you won’t do any work cause who bothers with it, you know, if you’re feeling that way?

So inasmuch as I usually work, about the highest degree of inner feeling I would want to have is the feeling of serenity and then you can handle most anything that comes along. You could handle any sensation that may arise that day. That’s so immaterial. So let’s first see what you have to work with. Now when we say “I” or “me” or “you,” it is well to see what we are referring to, if it all possible, so that we could take charge because if you don’t know, there will be innumerable obstructions to you takin’ charge. So we will try to look at what we have to work with, then we’ll see what the obstructions are to takin’ charge. And if we can eliminate those obstructions, why, we might function along pretty well and find it fairly easy.

Now I’m not gonna try to hypnotize anybody or get you in a hypnotic state and give you a certain inner state – which can be done but it’s very temporary and is not you at all. So we’re not gonna indulge in those sort of things. We’re gonna leave it up for each one of us to do because we are responsible for our own inner state and I’m not gonna try to take any of your responsibility away – I have all I can do to look after my own.

So, to see what we have to work with, number one we’ll see that everybody has a physical body. That you might say is a Motor Function in which you can work with to anybody or anything; you can do whatever you choose to do if you really choose it with the physical body. Now you can abuse it or use it or you can totally neglect it, which is probably a form of abuse, but it’s there.

Now there is an Awareness Function in every person. You’re always aware of something. So there’s an Awareness Function and we’ll say this physical body is basically a Motor Function. It does what information it receives and doesn’t usually holler about it at all. 

Now, what generally refers to itself as I is the Awareness. So we’ll stick I there. [drawing the Picture of Man on he board] I am aware of something. I can be aware of what I want. I can be aware of what’s goin’ on to some extent – especially whatever I pay attention to and if you’ll notice, your attention is something I can direct. I don’t have to let anybody and everybody have charge of it.  

And there is something in the physical being called X which we will call “X” here. You can call it the “biological aspect of man.” It is whatever Life is. Now I’ve read a lot and have studied many different things and I haven’t found a definition for Life, have you? I haven’t and if you find it, I’d like to hear about it. But anyway, we can tell when it is present and when it’s not, whether it’s in a plant, a blade of grass, a human being, a dog, a cat, a rat, or about anything else; we can see it’s alive or it’s dead.

So whatever that is that we say, “He’s alive or the cat is alive or the plant is alive,” or we say, ”The plant has died,” we know something very vital is missing from it. Now whatever that is, we will refer to as X. We don’t know what it is so we use the algebraic symbol of X – we know it’s there but we don’t know what it is yet – maybe we never will, but anyway we can get along with it.

And, of course, we’re always doing something, so there’s always some function of the Awareness Function or the Motor Function or both. There’re always some function goin’ on.

Now each of us lives in an environment. There is no other way we can exist except in an environment. And from that environment which includes everybody outside me, everything else outside me – the weather, the buildings, the traffic, the individuals, the clothing I might have on etc. – is all the environment. And from the environment we receive Impressions. Now we’re told that all Impressions are in the form of waves of energy, which come into us and we interpret by whatever means the brain devises to interpret those waves that come to us.

Now, if they come in and are comin’ to a nice smooth place they’re just aware of it we, if you will notice, always form some sort of a Feeling about those Impressions. We form an opinion. I like it. I don’t like it. It’s pretty. It’s ugly. It’s annoying. It’s pleasing. We form some sort of a feeling about almost every Impression we’re paying attention to. Now we receive gobs of impressions and at the moment we’re not paying attention to. Right now we’re all having an Impression of our body being sitting in a chair, but we’re not paying attention to it so you’re forming no conclusions about that. But if I keep you sittin’ in that chair a long time, you begin to be aware of those Impressions and you might say things like, “These chairs are uncomfortable. Why don’t he shut up?” or good number of other things because now you’re beginning to pay attention to the gluteus maximum area of the human body and you’re forming a feeling about it.

Now all these feelings go to this Life Principle in the body. Now the Life Principle seems to have as its major purpose is to maintain its Awareness Function and its Motor Function in workable order. That’s the first thing it seems to be interested in. And it also seems to be interested in perpetuating its Motor Function and Awareness Function into being. So if this feeling says, ”This is bad,” it immediately begins to do something to escape it, change it, fight it, do whatever it does – fight, run, chew, kick, do whatever. If it is something that is pleasing it does everything it can to keep it going that way.

So for everything, it sends a neuroendocrine, – not just nerves but neuroendocrine – uses the glandular system to send an impulse to the Physical Body, which is the Motor Function, to carry out the appropriate action that this feeling implied to have. Now the feeling comes from this Awareness Function says I – it interprets about everything. It re-evaluates everything.

Now what is values and judgments? Of course, whatever It sends it in as an evaluation. So you might say that the Awareness Function is… one of its prime things is to place value and judgment on things. its purpose may be at the moment. So basically its purpose is to do whatever it has determined is its purpose of being. Now very few people have determined what their purpose is. They know what they want to have but they basically don’t know what they want to do. Is that about right, Tom?

(Right.)

Huh? You know what you wanna have, but you don’t know what you want to do. In fact, about everything that comes up to do, you find some little flaw in it. Is that correct, huh? It’s got a flaw in it. Some man comes in to me and says, “I wanna make a lot of money,” and before he shuts up, he says, “But,” which cancelled out that part of it and says, “I don’t wanna be tied down to a job or a business.”

You know, I’ve tried to make a few dollars in my time and every time I did, I found I was tied down. Is that right, Amy?

(Sure is.)

You gotta stay there on the job, is that right?

(You gotta be there.)

But how often do you say – and to yourself or others – that I don’t wanna be tied down, but you do wanna make a lot of money, is that right? Now a lot of people tell me, “I wanna have a sense of security. I just feel insecure all the time and I want a sense of security.” So now if you have a sense of security, there’s certain things goes with it. Again the person says, “But I want to feel free all the time.” 

Now if you have a sense of security, you don’t have freedom. That just don’t go together. If you want the perfect security, why, you go commit a federal offence of some sort (laughter) and get you committed to the federal prison. Now don’t bother the state ones, they’re pretty lousy places; but the federal ones are pretty close to country clubs unless you’re real violent. So that’s security. Now you will have free food, free clothing, free medical care, a guaranteed occupation of some sort or other – very easy. And you will have always heat, you won’t have any utility bills to argue with, you won’t have to fight with the utility companies – you won’t have to fret about the new increases in prices. Price of gasoline will have absolutely no effect on you. You got security BUT you don’t have any freedom. But a person wants both. So there’s frequently what you want is mutually exclusive, is that right, brother Tom?

Huh?

(Yeah.)

I want companionship, but I don’t want to have to support this lady. (laughter) You know, I’d like for her to be around, keep herself up, and be sure she pays all the bills and everything, but don’t bug me with it, you know, but be sure you’re here. You know that, of course, is one of the big things that people are unhappy over – as I said a while ago – is the rejection syndrome that people have, which is a lot of terrible disorders and I’m sure most everybody here has had some evidence of it at one time or another.

A man came into me the other day and told me that his live-in girlfriend of four years had suddenly departed on a Thursday afternoon; when he came in from work she had left. And she left a note on the kitchen table that said, “Goodbye, I’m not gonna see you no more, don’t try to find me,” all these good things. And he said, “You know that really upset me and I didn’t sleep all Thursday night and I was really bothered. I could hardly work on Friday.” But he said, “Long about 2 o’clock Friday afternoon I decided that was rough, but I wasn’t gonna let it wreck my whole weekend.” (laughter) So you see very few people get over it that easy. They usually carry it on for months and really have a terrible condition with this rejection syndrome. But he decided not to let it wreck his whole weekend – just, you know, Thursday night and Friday mornin’ had been enough. He’d enough of that stuff, so he was gonna take it in another direction. But at least he indicated he was somewhat in charge of his inner state, didn’t he?

Now as long as everyone would be put together somewhat like this, which would have to be some evidence of self-Knowing and Self-Remembering, we could be in charge of our inner state. We could decide how I will see things – how I will see rejection. How I will see losin’ my job. How I will see about being tied down and makin’ a lot of money. How I will see about havin’ a business that sometimes don’t make all the cash we anticipated when we dreamed of it, you know, and all these various and sundry things.

But unfortunately, most people have a decided obstruction to self-Knowing and they’ve never heard of Self-Remembering ‘cause they don’t know anything to remember. I remember my name. I remember where I was born – sometimes I remember how old I am and a few things like that. But you know, that’s not the self, that’s only a history about a given set of events.

So let’s take a little look at what the obstructions to bein’ in charge are. Now we said if you were in charge of your own inner state, you probably wouldn’t be here today because you’d be feelin’ so good you wouldn’t have time to be bothered comin’ over here. (laughter)

So let’s see if we can see what the obstructions are. Now frequently when I go different places to put on talks – and I only go when I’m requested to, I don’t promote it –somebody always comes up, “Are you gonna talk about something new?” “No, I’m not gonna talk about somethin’ new – I’m gonna talk about the obstructions to well-being that everybody here has.”

Now you may have heard it before, but you haven’t lived it – or as I said, you probably wouldn’t be here, you know, it’s that simple. 
So let’s look and see what the obstructions to your well-being is. So we’ll draw the same little diagram and we will put the Physical Body down here and we’ll put X up here. We’ll put the Awareness or I – so we’ll just put I there. 

Now there’s an obstruction to being in charge then. First off, you don’t get to choose what your purpose is – that’s already been set out a long time ago. The purpose is to be non-disturbed, isn’t it? Isn’t that what everybody works at whether you’re aware of it or not? You are upset by disturbances of various kinds. Is that right, Tom? 

(Right.)

That’s right. And you work very hard – for you– to find ways to be non-disturbed, is that right?

(That’s very true.)

I’m not pickin’ on Tom. I have to have a kind of an assistant always (laughter) and so he’s standin’ there and I’ll just use him instead of somebody else. We have two or three people around the country I’ve used. In Salt Lake City, I used to use Darrol Jeffers – he moved on me (laughter), so I wound up usin’ a man named Joe Bankhead; and Joe requested the last time I was there that I please not use him, he couldn’t stand it. (laughter) So I had to leave him off and pick up a substitute – he wasn’t very good. Joe was perfect. And Darrol has moved to California, so when I give a talk in California, I’ve got Darrol again and thank goodness for him. And when I’m here, I’ll just use Tom. So Tom will serve as the straight man in all the rest of it.  

So the first thing that Tom wants – and every day when he wakes up in the morning,’ which is a chore – is to be non-disturbed. 

So the first decision that everybody made – the first basic fundamental purpose we started out with as an infant – was to be non-disturbed. Now most of us have been around infants and you will notice they are very intent upon not being disturbed. That’s about right, Marie? Huh? They all worked at that, is that right? 

(It is.)

Ann, is that correct? They want to be non-disturbed at all times.  

So the process of being born probably was the source of that basic conclusion as we arrived at a purpose with the way we judge things.

Being born is a rather unpleasant situation – I recall it so I can verify that at the best it’s pretty unpleasant. You feel like you’re suffocating, choking, pushed, pounded, and then insulted beyond all things. Somebody squirts stuff in your eyeballs that burns, sticks their finger down your throat, feels around, wops you on the bottom, wraps you up with things, and all sorts of insults. And then everybody comes and looks at you and says you look like something – Aunt Susie, Uncle Joe, or some jerk, you know that you know damn well you don’t look like anybody. At that stage of the game you’re lucky to just be.  

So the little guy, boy or girl, comes up with a conclusion that the purpose of living – the whole purpose of it – is to regain the non-disturbed state.

Now before that birth process started, you were pretty well non-disturbed. You never got hungry. You never got cold. You never got hot. There was nobody hollerin’, “Don’t!” There was nobody hollerin’, “Will you please do so and so,” with a voice that says, “If you’da known better and had any brains at all, you’d already be doin’ it,” and so on. And “Why did you do that?” You were pretty well non-disturbed. You were floatin’ around, you didn’t even have to bother to breathe. Everything’s comin’ through a nice little tube.

It’s kind of like havin’ a space suit on and floatin around in outer space. It’s absolutely nothing you need to do. It’s just all taken care of for you – and all of a sudden you find yourself in a position where you gotta breathe or smother. You’ve gotta eat through some funny thing stuck in your mouth – and you haven’t learned the value of that yet – (laughter) so you fiddle around with it. And you have to have clothes on which are restricting in movement and I can easily see the validity of the person of that age makin’ a decision that the whole purpose of living is to regain the non-disturbed state, wouldn’t you? I’ll see that very easily as to how that would be one’s prime purpose because it’s the only frame of reference they had. Then I didn’t have to bother, now everything’s a bother.

Now there’s a peculiar thing that the human being is that once a decision is made, it’s the rule of attitude/action from that moment on until that decision is recognized and re-evaluated.

Now we said “recognized” and we said “re-evaluated” – not just, “Yeah, I heard about it, I heard somebody say it,” or “I read it in a book or something. It’s a fact.” It is like one of Jim Wilson’s computers that if a program is put in it, that’s what that computer’s gonna do until that program is known, pulled out, and dissolved. Is that right, Jim? That’s what that computer’s gonna do. Jim says, “Computers are dumb,” but he’s describin’ the human brain because the computer’s a little copy of it. That once a decision is made or once a program is installed, it is what, Jim? It’s the rule of attitude/action of that computer about that subject from henceforth and hereafter, is that right – until you change it?

(Right. Or blow it up…)

Well, blow it up or whatever – course we blow up every once in a while, too. They call it “flapping our gears.”

So this basic decision… Now let’s recognize that everthing we do all day long is trying to regain a non-disturbed state. Now the only reason we go to work and earn money is so we’ll be non-disturbed. We wouldn’t go fiddlin’ around and earn a bunch of dollars just for the fun of lookin’ at em if we didn’t feel that we could buy some non-disturbance with it. Is that correct? I can buy some warmth and I can buy some cool. I can buy some food or I can buy somethin’ else that will, to me, give me non-disturbance. 

Now we’re workin’ in a bar today and there’s a lot of people walk in during workin’ hours and buy non-disturbance with their money that they work for, is that right? Because if you drink enough of it, you’ll be non-disturbed for a while – for a while – wears off after a while and then you got some more severe disturbances so then you can buy some more. But that’s the whole purpose.

Now everything that we do is to try to be non-disturbed. Is that right, Tom?

(That’s me.)

That’s you. You go out and buy somethin’, you bought it because unknowingly – just the computer said so up here – that you would be less disturbed with that than you would without it, is that correct?

(That’s right.)

Okay. So the purpose is to be non-disturbed. Now we said this is self-Knowing. Now let’s be aware of it – not just while we’re talkin’ about it here, but let’s pay attention to it for the next… oh, three or four days, you know. We’re real brilliant, we could all learn it in that length of time for sure and certain – that this is everything I’m doing all day long is to avoid some disturbance or to regain some sort of non-disturbed state.

Now that’s what I said a little while ago – if you took charge of your inner feeling and you felt ecstatic, that’s a non-disturbed state and you won’t do nothin’. You will sit because why should you get up and move? You know you got an inner feeling that’s just like you want. 

Now the only time you’d probably move it is when you had strong enough sensation of hunger, you might decide to drop the ecstatic feeling and get down to some other level – go get somethin’ to eat. But you wouldn’t do any work because why would you work? At that moment you truly are non-disturbed and it’s probably the way all of us felt before we were born. At least we were serene and so we’re always trying to look for that.

Now let’s pay attention for a few days – just a few off and on because you won’t do it very often anyway; but now and then see that everything I’m doing is some attempt to gain a non-disturbance either now or later. 

Now I go to school and get me all kinds of degrees; but what am I doin’ it for? I think when I get em all I’ll be non-disturbed. And then, of course, when I find that that wasn’t the way it works, I feel horrible and maybe I better go get another degree. 

I have a very dear friend who got him a degree as a bachelor of music – that didn’t do anything much for him. So he got a master of music – that didn’t seem to relieve the situation; he was still disturbed at times so he got an MD degree. That didn’t relieve it. Then he got a law degree – that didn’t do anything. The other day he got a degree in real estate. That hadn’t done anything either. And a girl rejected him and he had a full blown rejection syndrome [snaps his fingers] just like everybody else, you know. So none of these things did a thing.

Now we begin to find methods to achieve this non-disturbed state. Now this basically makes up our daily behavior – inner and outer because we now are only interested as our purpose as in sensations. We have determined the basic human error that sensations and circumstances determine my inner state.

Now that is a full-fledged, grown-up problem because that is the source of all the rest of the things that goes on to us, is that we have determined by this basic decision that the whole thing that makes me happy or unhappy is the sensations I experience and the circumstances around me. Because we have made it that circumstances will determine my inner state and that’s not quite true by any chance; but nevertheless that’s the basic error that circumstances and sensations – which, sensations are a part of circumstances – determine my inner state and that is not true. But nevertheless that’s the one we all live by. 

So then, of course, we want to be non-disturbed and have the inner state of serenity, to say the least, so something comes along that I am not non-disturbed, which never will be in this world very long at a time that we’re not disturbed now and then – thank goodness, because then we got somethin’ to do.

And the first method that the infant decided on and every one of us are still using it, if we haven’t done some VERY difficult work along the way and really paid attention, is that we complain. Now the baby cries – its way of complaining ‘cause it hasn’t learned any words yet. Now how do you complain? Brother Tom, how do you complain?

(Get up late and go to work.)

Well, that’s just one little way. But I’ve heard you come in and moan because of this person and that person and the other person wasn’t doin’ it or you weren’t feelin’ well or the world had a very peculiar economy situation goin’ on and all these things, right?

Now who, in here, could hold up their hand and say they haven’t complained any in the last 24 hours? Anybody here? 

END OF CD 1-A

El Paso, TX 9/30 1979 – CD 1-B (2nd CD)

So in other words you haven’t. I was just sittin’ listenin’ to you a few minutes ago. I was just sittin’ listenin’ to you complain quite a bit just a few minutes ago, my friend. So you also lie a lot. (laughter)

So “Complain” [Decision #1]… Now we all go about complainin’. Now the only possible reason you would complain is so things would straighten up and fly right, isn’t it? Is that the only possible reason that we could complain is that it’s supposed to work, that everybody will say, “Oh, I’m very sorry,” circumstances in general will say, “I’m sorry,” and get with it and please us, is that right? Is that what all complaining is about?

Now I listen to complaining morning, noon, and night. Somebody complains about the weather. They complain about the economy. They complain about their wives. They complain about the kids. They complain about their husbands. They complain about the amount of money they have. They complain because the house needs to be cleaned up. They complain because the house is fallin’ down and needs to be painted, repaired etc. They complain because the wind blew across and got the golf ball off course. They complain because their partner in the tennis game was a dope and a dodo and they complain because they got a hangover this mornin’ – somebody give em some lousy stuff. (laughter)

A man came to me the other day and was tellin’ me about his wife. He was complain’ about her. He said she passes out every time he takes her out here. He says, “You know, we have four or five martinis, maybe a little grass and a little coke and then she takes a couple of Darvon. And he says, “Almost invariably I can’t get her in the car – she passes out.” (laughter) I said, “Well, I’m the only surprise to me is that she ever comes to.” (laughter) You know, you gotta complain – somethin’s goin’ on. 

Now let’s observe our complainin’ – let’s don’t waste your time being here today – that you observe it and see after a while that you’re very busy at it. Many times a day, complain about this, complain about that, complain about the weeds, complain about the bugs, complain about atomic energy… uh, what’s these things? generating plants… people get together in great thousands and complain. They march up and down the street with little signs complainin’ over their shoulders. Can’t get enough done.

Now it doesn’t change anything. How many people since you were two years old really pay much attention to your complaining except start complain’ back at you? (laughter) Now up until you were two it worked fantastic. You know, a baby complains, everbody tries to get with him and stop it – right quick – do everything possible, right, Joann?

(Yeah.)

But after you’re two years old who pays any attention to your complain’? Really. Unless they just start complainin’ because you complain so much. Isn’t that pretty close to it? They complain because you complain so much.

Now we’ve got a little older, we found us another method of trying to be non-disturbed, and that was to stick up for our rights. [writes on the board] “Stick up for Rights” [Decision #2]. 
 
Now this is done on a worldwide scale, you know. We go over and get big war machines and everything to stick up for our rights. And we do it individually. “After all I have a right to complain if you don’t do what I want I want you to.” Is that right, Bill? Huh?

(Yes.) 
                                                  
Huh? I have a right to it and I gotta stick up for my rights because if I don’t, nobody else is going to – that’s a pretty good justification for it, isn’t it? 

Now of course if we look to see what our rights are... Did you born broke, nekked [naked], helpless, and more than likely an accident? (laughter) More than likely an accident that nobody was really plannin’ on you or anything of the sort? They found out you were comin – what the hell could they do about it? Now we got remedies legally, but most of us wouldn’t be here if we’d a been conceived in the last two years, you know. (laughter) We wouldn’t have been here – no way. But in those days it was illegal to get rid of us and so we got here all right and begin to stick up for our rights very quickly.

Now you arrived broke, helpless, no funds, no clothes, totally unequipped to survive in this world and you found a couple of slaves to look after you and everything all prepared: they clothed you, fed you, housed you, educated you in all the ways to be miserable and how to earn a livin’ and all this good stuff and kicked us out on the street eventually. And maybe some of us still go back and holler, “Mama, won’t you produce a little things here? I’m hard up this week.” We complain loud enough and some mamas still do it when we’re 30, 40 years old, but mine, thank goodness, didn’t. But it wasn’t because I didn’t wish they would.

Now, we also begin to be programmed or conditioned – or whatever word you wanna use it– to please people because we will be… have discomfort if we don’t. So we finally get to the point the way to be non-disturbed is to “Please Them.” [Decision #3] You know if I don’t please mama and daddy they’ll fuss at me or the teacher will fuss at me or what-have-you.

Now that sets up a conflict. This is the Pleaser. Now there’s a big conflict between the Complainer and the Pleaser, isn’t there? You ever feel it within yourself that you want to complain, but then the Pleaser makes you feel a little guilty when you did? Who in here ever felt guilty? (laughter) Do you ever feel guilty? Wasn’t it because there was a conflict between complainin’ or sticking up for your rights and pleasin’ somebody, is that right? 

So that brings a split in the personality and we begin to be at war within. There is a fight: I wanna do this, BUT I don’t want to do it. I want to please everybody and all these good things, but I don’t want to do it because it makes me feel like I’m in bondage and I’m insecure and I gotta please them. 
Some lady told me the other day, “I always feel like I’m walkin’ on eggs when I talk to my husband because he might get upset at what I say.” So she wanted to please him so he wouldn’t holler at her, but she also wanted to express herself, so there is big conflict. Now what’s the inner feeling like in that state? Tom, what’s it like when you wanna please people to keep peace but you’d really like to have your way right now?

(It’s a struggle.)

That’s quite a struggle and a conflict goin’ on. And again I say it’s something to be aware of, not hear about, be able to repeat it and talk about it and tell everybody about it and turn around one minute later and start being in that conflict. That’s not being in charge.

Now if you went to a store or you came to this business place during hours and you found somebody out on the door and you said, “I want to talk to the person in charge.” Now if they started pointing out five or six different people and said that one’s in charge, that one’s in charge, that one’s in charge, who would you call on, Tom? You’re a salesman. You wanna talk to the man in charge, don’t you?

(Yeah.)

Huh? Which one would you talk with? You’d think this is a weird outfit; they pointed out five or six different people to me and said, “That’s the one in charge.” How would you feel? Who would you talk to?  

Now if we walked up to the average individual at any given moment and said who’s in charge of the inner state here, (laughter) which one is it? Sometimes it’s the Complainer. Sometimes it’s the Sticker Up For Rights. Sometimes it’s the Pleaser. You know you don’t know who it is. You talk to em one day and the Complainer’s up, and he’s runnin’ the show. And you see him 30 minutes later and the Pleaser’s in there just moanin’ and apologizin’ and makin’ all kinds of weird sounds and tellin’ how miserable they feel and how bad they’ve been and they don’t know what gets into em that they do these things. You ever hear all that? Out of your own mouth I’m talkin’ about.  (laughter)

The fourth one, it says, ”Believe and do as you’re told by your authority.” [Decision #4] Believe and do. You see that’s the way they taught us to be good [writes on the board] by the authorities. Now the authorities were, of course, our parents, our school teachers, the Sunday school teacher, the sheriff, the policeman on the corner. Everybody told us how we had to do so-and-so or we would be “gotten” by all those people. Some of us was even told there was a boogey man that was under the bed and he would get us or there was a devil just waitin’ for me to burn me forever if I didn’t do all these nice little things that they told me to do. That right, Tom? Did you hear that? Huh?

(I heard that.)

He’d get you, huh? Just waitin’ for  you. 

So, who’s in charge? Who is in charge when I walk up and say to a person, “Who is in charge,” huh? Which one would I probably get?

(You’d get the right answer.)

Huh?

(I am.)

I am. You’d say, “I am,” but I don’t know which “I am” it is. [pointing to Not-I’s] Is this the “I am” or is this the “I am” or this the “I am” or this one here? Then there’s still another one that goes on when we feel all torn up here. 

We decide to do a self-improvement bit – that’s the Self-Improver [Decision #5] – just tells me if I’d improve myself. So I tie myself down to the bookstore and I start buying all the good self-improvement books and I go to self-improvement classes far and wide – spend my money trying to improve myself. Now when you get all through, you still got one head, two arms, two legs, and a bod stuck in the middle and you still got seven of these guys runnin’ around here tellin’ you what should be better because one of em reads the book and says, “I just haven’t complained adequately.” (laughter)

There’s a whole series of books out on self-assertion – “assert yourself, and then they’ll listen.” So there’s a bunch of people who read that one week and the next week they read a book on “how to be of great love inside and all this and to be nothing but a walking example of love,” and they try that for a week and then they go back and find that they really didn’t find the right authority. They had to get a guru now and the guru would straighten em all out.
 
And, of course, then finally everybody finally discovers what it is. It’s really the Blamer [Decision #6] gets up and says, “Now I’ve got in charge.” The blamer is frequently in charge. And he says, “If he, she, they, it, you, this, and that were all different, I’d just be lovely.” You know that? That’s all it needs. So now comes the great effort – to control circumstances.

Now if I could just control circumstances, wouldn’t I be all right? I’d really have it made, wouldn’t it? Because then circumstances determines my inner state and obviously I must be able to control all circumstances in order to take charge of my inner state. Now that’s really very simple, isn’t it? (laughter) Because everybody’s got a finger in circumstances and besides that nature with the weather and jillions of people clear over on the far side of the world’s got somethin’ to do with the circumstances we run into today, you know.

A bunch of guys with long white robes on and snoods on their heads can come out and says, “Well, let’s charge those cookies a little more for the oil,” so it changes our circumstances – nothin’ we can do about that. But… and another guy says, “Well, let’s pass a law that you gotta stand in line to get on an airplane, you gotta do this in line, you gotta be searched, you gotta do this…” 

Well, really, all we can do to circumstance is make a small contribution to it – we cannot control it. Now I can make a little contribution to it – I can be pleasant, have fun while people look at you like you must be nuts, but you know you can make a little contribution to circumstances, but you cannot control them. But we’re gonna try it and so we wind up with frustration after frustration.

We try complainin’. We try stickin’ up for our rights. We try blaming. We finally get it all down as to who it’s all apart. There’s gobs of little magazines runnin’ around the country tell you who is the cause of all your difficulties. They got all the blamers goin’.

And then there is another one comes along and says, “If you just please everybody and be a good kid, everything would be fine,” you know, “You just work wonderful,” but it don’t. You can be nice to people and they’ll still kick you. Some of em will, not all of em, but some of em will every now and then, cause – you know – they think if your bein’ nice to em, you must be a friggin’ weaklin’ or something or you’re trying to lay one on em or you’re puttin’ a scam on em or somethin’. They can’t stand it.   

So you cannot control circumstances. But here’s all these little guys in here that says “I am.” So I walk up to Tom and say, “Who’s in charge of your inner state?” He says, “Hell, I am.” But then while he’s still talkin’, he will tell me that some customer did him wrong, or some company did him in, or that the economy got out of line, inflation is tearin’ him up. Then you can go on and on and on and on with it, you know – it really makes no difference.

Somebody was tellin’ me the other day that prices were just drivin’ him up the wall. They were in such a miserable state because inflation had just really… the price of everything was goin’ up. So I took a little piece of paper and showed them that the price of everything was no more than it was in 1935 in the midst of the Depression and in most cases, a little less. Really – they really are. We’ve just printed some money that it don’t mean the same thing; but if you go back to one ounce of gold in 1935, I could buy an ounce of gold with $28 paper dollars or I could buy $28 paper dollars with an ounce of gold, suit yourself. I could with those $28 paper dollars, go buy me a Hart Schaffner Marx suit down at the store – the latest one out. I don’t say it, just regular price, $27.50 – got a little change left over, had half a buck which I could buy lunch with.  

Now then, I can take that same ounce of gold and buy $400, 395 to $400 paper dollars with it, and I can buy me a Hart Schaffner Marx suit for $285 and so I’m a whole lot better off today than I was then. Now the only thing that costs more today than it did in 1935 is government and I can jolly well do without any of that. (laughter) That cost a lot more because then government cost me like ten bucks a year and now it cost me several thousands of dollars a year. But everything else is cheaper. 

I bought a new Chevrolet in 1935 and it cost $714 with everything you could buy on em at that time which is so many ounces of gold or so many paper dollars. So they’re approximately 15 to one and 15 times 700 I can go down and buy the Chevrolet, the top-of-the-line best equipped today. Rent, clothing, housing, everything you buy – even gasoline which everybody’s screamin’ about which cost me 11 cents a gallon in 1935 cost me a dollar ten to a dollar and 14 today where my truck is sittin’ right now and a little less here, so that’s less than 10 to 1 – 10 to 1 and the money is like 14 to 1. So the gasoline’s even cheaper now in spite of the Arabs than it was then.

But we cannot control circumstances. So this is what everybody is workin’ at is to control circumstances. If I could just have my household like I wanted it and my companion like I wanted it, I could have the family like I wanted it, the income like I wanted it and all the vacations like I wanted it and everything just like I wanted it, wouldn’t I be so happy? Now then I go to work to try to manipulate all those things into being like I want them and I won’t succeed. That right, Brother Bill? You can’t quite make it cause there’s too many other people pokin’ at it at the same time. And it obviously won’t come out just exactly like I want it. 

So nobody’s in charge or there’s a whole bunch of these [pointing to not-I’s] – this one’s in charge for a few minutes, then this one’s in charge, and then this one’s in charge, and then this one’s in charge. Now the only way you will know that is to observe what’s goin’ on. Now if you start out to get the self-improver get in there – start with and he’s gonna do all of it – see, he says, “See there, you goofed up and complained then and there you went off blaming.”  And the self-improver begins to be a big noise.

So the only one that can take over is this I that’s back here sound asleep somewheres. But he can get off his duff and say, “I’m going to be the Observer and just watch this. I have no way of condemning what’s going on and I have no way of justifying it. I’m just going to watch it.”
 
So I see that Robert’s going through that the complainer’s in charge of Robert and he’s complaining up a storm – I’m aware of it but don’t condemn it – and don’t justify it by sayin’ “Well, under this circumstance, he certainly had a right to.” So just do. But now ordinarily, he can’t do that very well because one of these cats will jump up and they will be in charge of the observing so there is a constant either justifying or condemning… and nothing is done.

You get tired of that game in a little while and quit; and then say, “Well, I’ve been studying that stuff for five years and [mumbles] it hasn’t changed me.” It won’t. I’ll assure you, it won’t change you one iota. It’s only material which you can use to see what’s going on. And when you see what’s going on then you might say, “Well, I’m gonna take charge after a while,” – not immediately, let’s wait till we see all these bein’ in charge. 

Now, if you had a business or a home or any other thing that required somebody to be in charge and you went to the store and come back and found that first one person, then another had been in charge – one said, “Change the living room into the bedroom and the bedroom into the living room.” (laughter) One of em said, “Use the washing machine to wash the kid in and use the bathtub for doin’ laundry” – you would get a little disturbed and I think you would take charge pretty quickly. Is that right, Tom?  

If you found you went off and left your car and then you came back, first one person and then another had takin’ charge. One had painted green stripes down the side of it with a spray can. Another one had thought it looked better with all the wheels off of it and laid those off to the side; and somebody else had said it’d do better if it didn’t have all these bumpers on it and took those off. Would you come in, in no uncertain terms – determination, take charge and get your car back together, huh?

(Yes.) 

I believe you would. I believe when anybody sees that there is all kinds of beings that don’t have any of your interest at heart – just programmed items, they act like entities but they’re not, they’re just programs – that they’re takin’ charge and runnin’ your state of affairs and you really saw that, I think your determination… you wouldn’t get mad, you wouldn’t get upset, you would be determined to take charge. Joann, would that be right, if you found a bunch of kids to come in and tore your house all apart and took your truck apart – would you come in and in no uncertain terms take charge?

(For sure.)

I believe anybody here would. But you see we have just been goin’ along, as we say, “asleep” and this one’s been in charge a while, this one in charge a while, this one in charge a while, this one in charge a while, this one in charge a while and all together we’re workin’ to control circumstances and the blamer has convinced everybody that there’s really not much you can do about it because it’s all circumstances so I’m gonna have to wait until circumstances changes before I can feel good, huh? That’s right, isn’t it?

Now, of course then it prolongs me ever takin’ charge. So as long as I’m convinced that it’ll all be all right in the sweet by and by when circumstances get right, then obviously I wouldn’t take charge. I may say, “Well, now your house will straighten out eventually when circumstances all straighten out. This is just a passing phase that goes by. You come in and find your household overrun ever so often. It’s just a phase,” hmm? You wouldn’t hold still for that, would you? You’d take charge.

(That’s right.)

Now when we can see that I’m in charge – not the complainer, not the self-improver, not this one that sticks up for rights, not the blamer, not the complainer, or not the quoter of authority that oughta be right, but I’m in charge – then I would be determined to say, “I’m going to feel a certain way today. I’m determining to do it.”|

Now determination is kinda like “I’ll show you,” you know, “you kooks.” (laughter) Did you ever have someone tell you, you couldn’t do somethin’, Tom? And did you ever once in a blue moon decide, “I’ll show ya!” Hmm? That’s when you had a little determination and you did, didn’t you? So I would show these things that I’m gonna be in charge of this house, not them. Period. Okay? I’m in charge. And I’ll show you I’m in charge and you can holler all you please. The little complainer come up and say, “Look at the way… [he imitates mumbling]”  Forget it. Who cares? He’s just a non-entity out there. I’m not gonna let him take charge. This blamer can come up and say, “If this would just straighten out and that would just straighten out.”

Look, I’m in charge; it’s not these things that’s in charge, it’s not circumstance in charge of my inner state. I’ve allowed it to be that way. We’ve allowed our inner state to be like an empty beer can that kids kick on the way to school. One kicks it down that way and another one kicks it back the other way and after awhile somebody kicks it out in the street and a truck runs over it. And it’s all flattened out – that’s our usual state of being. (laughter).

So we don’t take charge. But once we see what is takin’ charge, and surely with a very clear road map, we can see what’s takin’ charge and see that it’s been in charge all these years. And I’ll decide, “I’m gonna take charge right now– I’m takin’ charge.” And when we do that, we can take charge and we can determine what our inner state’s gonna be without all these cats runnin’ around talkin’ about it.

Okay, I’ve rattled a bit, now would somebody like to ask some questions, bring up a comment, tell me how wrong I am, how impossible it is to do it, and how you’ve always been in charge, would you please? I am listening. Yes, sir.

(What happens when in a circumstance you feel like you’re better off not being in charge of authority?)

That you’d better not be in charge of what?

(For instance, where I felt like I didn’t have the particular knowledge and certain information so you involve somebody else in…)

Well, that’s always a good way to avoid responsibility. And I could go out to other people and ask them what their self-improving ideas or what their pleasing ideas are or how they would stick up for their rights or what they would blame. Isn’t that about what you get from the other – when you turn it over to them?

(Yes.)

There’s people makes good living tellin’ everybody what’s to blame.

(Yeah.)

Right? I’ll be glad to come up and tell you what’s to blame for five bills a day, okay? (laughter) I’ll agree with you all day long and tell you, “Yes. Yes, this is what’s to blame.” We’re called “business consultants”, you know, and there’s a guy pays me five bills a day twice a month to come up tell him what he wants to hear, so I do it. Why not? (laughter) I told him what was the problem one time and he didn’t wanna hear that so he didn’t hire me for several days and so when he decided to hire me again, I tell him what he wants to hear. That good enough?

So any of us can avoid responsibility. You see, all these runnin’ around here after awhile and the blamer and the complainer says, “Well, it’s beyond me, let’s ask Charlie.”  And Charlie will for a fee tell me what I want to hear. So it still goes back to the same thing – we’re still lookin’ to a not-I – some little entity that really don’t exist – to give me information as to how I can be non-disturbed. Might be just as easy to look for it yourself.  
 
Now I don’t knock the consulting business because I’m in it (laughter) and I’m happy to take fees. Anybody wants to hire me, I’m available and I will pretty well tell you what you wanna hear when I find out that’s what you want. I will ask enough questions to find out what it is you wanna hear and then I will give it back to you. Right down the line – straight – it’s a good, clean business. (laughter)

That’s what you do when you hire? If you tell them what they don’t want to hear, they won’t hire you, is that right? Yeah, they say, “Well, we don’t need him.”
That’s the way that goes.  

Okay, any other question or comment? Okay, we’ve run over a little bit, but let’s take about a five-minute break for everybody to stand up, go to the washroom, etc. And when we’re ready to start again, I’ll hammer on this table up here and we’ll start again in a few minutes, okay?

[after the break]

Okay, let’s start off again. We will still continue talking about who is in charge.

Many years ago when I first started to give little talks to people because I was asked to by someone, they told me to talk about suggestion and how suggestion did control people and how they could get so they were not controlled by suggestion and therefore take charge of their own existence.

So through the years we have talked about that under many different guises – we will merely talk it plain this time. Suggestion is something that is said by another, which we act upon. Now not everything that’s said to us is a suggestion. It is only a suggestion when it promises me pleasure or comfort or that it threatens me with pain or discomfort of some sort or other. 

In other words, if I said good morning to you, that’s not a suggestion. If I walked up to you and said, “You look terrible this morning, what’s wrong with you?” I’m suggesting that you are in a bad state of affairs and probably will be suffering or should already be suffering intense pain. And very quickly you probably would.

Now it is the nature of the human being to accept suggestions that threatens pain or loss much easier than it is to accept ones that offer something worthwhile to you. Now that’s merely one of the little perversities due to these little guys we were talkin’ about a while ago – the not-I’s. Because everything they talk to you about is that something is going to be lousy or worse. (laughter) It’s something to complain about. It’s something to stick up for your rights about. It’s something to blame. It’s something to please somebody that you don’t want to or it’s something you have to do because somebody said you must or it is because you ought to be different. And then certainly the world ought to be different.

So everything about them to use the common, trite phrase which I don’t like is “negative.” 

[End of CD 1-B]

El Paso 9/30 1979 – CD 2

So we will accept negative suggestions real easily. You watch a television program tonight and you will see there’s many things to sell and practically all of em offer you some kind of pain or discomfort or misery. You’re gonna probably have cancer. Three out of four people have cancer; I believe that’s about right… or it’s the other way around. (laughter)

Yeah, you see somethin’ like that. Basically you’re gonna come down with somethin’. You’re going to have all kinds of trouble, inflation is running away with you, the Russians are gonna attack tomorrow night. In other words, we’re like Chicken Little – the sky’s fallin’ in and you don’t have an umbrella. So somebody will sell you an umbrella for a very healthy price to protect you when the sky falls in.

Now suggestion basically is what all these things that take charge of our inner state of being work on. 

Somebody come by and doesn’t treat you just like they did the last time you saw them and they [meant you] say, “They’re mad at me.” Well, that’s a little not-I sayin’, “See they’re ignoring you, they don’t like you anymore, they’re…” Well, maybe if the truth was known about it the person has a headache or is in some kind of a conflict or they got some kind of a thing that they’re dealin’ with and they just didn’t see you. Or they ignored you for one reason or other because they were preoccupied. Have you ever been so preoccupied you didn’t see what was goin’ on around you?

I was drivin’ down the street the other mornin’ and the lady behind me was so preoccupied, she run into my truck. And it’s a great big one and she banged into it. And she said, “I didn’t see you there.” (laughter) So? You know, so what. Now, there was no use screamin’ and yellin’ at her, “What’s wrong with you?” or anything of the sort. She simply was occupied with something besides trucks in front of her. So she banged into it, merely goin’ on about her business and suddenly after she hit it, a truck appeared in front of her. (laughter) Her attention got changed – slightly there. But obviously her attention was on something else and she actually did not see the truck or anything in sight.

Now, suggestion is the basis of all advertising. It is the basis of about anything you wanna come along, but it is certainly the action of these. [pointing to the not-I’s on the board] Now what does a not-I suggest to you? First, that you should not be disturbed. “Not be disturbed.” [writes it on the board] That is your right to get through this world without being disturbed in any shape, manner, form, or fashion. That is the basic suggestion of the not-I’s.

Now we refer to something called “Second Force” that says there’s a resistance to about everything you initiate. Now, the Four Forces that’s involved in any completed thing is: Initiative – you initiate something; there is going to be a Resistance, either active or passive, but it’s gonna be there; then you would get a Form; and then the Form has a Use [Result].

Now let’s take a very simple thing like makin’ a ceramic flowerpot, we’ll say. So you initiate the idea you’re gonna have a flowerpot. You get you some ceramic mix and you mix up your batter and you gotta have a mold to pour it in. You can’t just stand up here in midair and pour it around and hope it makes a flowerpot. It won’t do that; it will just fall on the floor and splatter and then you have a gooey mess. But you have a resistance to what you pour this stuff – that’s the mold. Now after you’ve made the mold and got the thing – you now have a form, you would have a pot and it has a use. You can put your little planty in it. And it’ll sit there and grow or die or whatever they do, (laughter) but at any rate you have something that’s useable.

Now in the human world everything that we start has to have some resistance. You may call it gravity. You may call it friction. You may call it whatever you want to, but when you start to build this building, you have to overcome certain resistances to get the building up. But when you take charge of those resistances and you make proper braces and what-have-you, now you have a form and the form then has a purpose – you can run a business in it.
So there is no way that we are going to get along without havin’ resistances to the things we do. Now the not-I’s suggest that all these resistances are bad. They’re somethin’ terrible. They are bad luck. They’re misfortune and the whole world is against you in person because you have these resistances happen to you. 

Now I don’t know of anything that you can do without havin’ a resistance. You plant a potato in the ground and it will grow up against the resistance of the soil and make a potato plant and you’ll probably harvest a whole bunch of potatoes under that plant – in a good year. But at any rate, there will be some increase to it.

Now if you lay a potato out in the open and give it a little moisture and give it a little light, it will grow a sprout. In fact, they’ll sprout in the pantry, won’t they, Howard? In the sack, hangin’ on the wall. They will sprout and the sprout tries to go towards light and sometimes if the light’s many feet away, the sprout will go wanderin’ out there, but it will never make a potato plant, right? It’ll just be a sprout and it all falls apart because there was no resistance there.
So everything that we start is going to have a resistance. If you’re goin’ on a trip somewheres, you have the resistance of distance among other things. 
You go to sell somebody somethin’ and he has some resistances – the price, the way you wanna pay for it, when you’re gonna deliver it etc., etc. There’s gonna be a resistance. There’s a resistance to me standin’ up. That’s why I feel heavy, you know? There is a little gravity down there. But wouldn’t we be in a mess if there was no gravity? We’d all be floatin’ around and couldn’t get anywheres. You wanna get there, you couldn’t get there because there was no resistance.

So there is a resistance to us havin’ charge of our own inner state. The resistance is a bunch of not-I’s tellin’ me that I can’t, and they are constantly suggestin’ that this is not right so I should complain. Now they will offer that. 

Now we talked a little while ago about not allowing anybody else or anything else to be in charge of my inner state. Now if there wasn’t something out here called the environment, what kind of state we’d be? Unborn again. Only unborn people don’t have much of an environment. They got one, but they don’t pay much attention to it; it’s idealistic.

So there will be a suggestion that I should complain. Now you will hear that many times a day. They will be suggestin’ that you should stick up for your rights. They suggest to you that your partners, your mates, your employers, your employees, your associates, your government agents, and everbody is personally against you. They will do that. 

They will suggest to you that your family is against you, that they are a terrible burden on you, that they are more than you’d really need to put up with. They will suggest that your job is not near good enough for you; and certainly it don’t pay enough – everybody knows that. 

Now these are suggestions that arise within. Now once I am under the control of a suggestion, you would say I’m “asleep.” Now it’s much the same thing as hypnosis. In fact, suggestion is what leads to hypnosis and in hypnosis the person is asleep. 

So in our field of endeavor, we say that most everybody is asleep and that all they can do is to wake up. Now the only way we can awaken is to first get out of the control of suggestion. That’s the only way we can wake up. And the first step in waking up is to see that you’re asleep – that you are under control.

Now nobody can put you so deep in hypnosis that there isn’t a little spot in us that is capable of observing what’s goin’ on. 

We could say that is the real I – not these not-I’s that goes on. The real I has the capability at any time of seeing what’s goin’ on if it shakes itself a little bit, tries to stand up, and first see what’s goin’ on without any condemning or justifying. You see if there’s condemnation or justification, the suggestion is already in there workin’. It says, “This is wrong, this is…” All we wanna know is, “Yeah, I’m lettin’ suggestion run me. This person over here said so-and-so to me or this little not-I thought rose up inside and said this,” and I don’t have to accept it as being true.

Now the first thing out, probably, that one would do as the real I, would say, “I don’t know whether this is true or not, I’m gonna check it out.” That’s the first thing out – I’m gonna check it out. I’m gonna see if really he’s tryin’ to cheat me. I know the little not-I said he is, but I’m gonna check it out. Now I can check him out fairly easy if I’m observin’ to see if he’s cheatin’ me or is he just tryin’ to do business.  

But you see this comes along in a thousand ways. Now suppose that you met somebody who was about to remind you of a third-grade schoolteacher you didn’t like. Have you ever noticed that somebody you just meet, you feel like “I don’t like him”? You ever done that, Tom?

(Sure have.)

And did you ever wonder have you got psychic ability (laughter) that you can read this person through and through? You know that’s the way we usually tell it. Or we intuitively knew he was a crook, what-have-you. But because he merely reminds you of somebody you’ve met somewhere, back down the road, you didn’t like. Now one of the steps out to get out of suggestion is to say, “What does this remind me of? What does this remind me of? What does this person remind me of? What’s this situation here remind me of?” 

Once we see what it is reminded of, we see that “now is not then.” Suggestion always works as though now were then. Somebody scolded me when I was two-years-old and if somebody sounds noisy now, I’m sure he’s scoldin’ me. You know just the tone of voices is frequently the suggestive thing. There’s nobody’s tryin’ to suggest to me anything, but it goes on constantly because all these little guys in here that we looked at a while ago are runnin’ around sayin’, “See he don’t like you,” “See, he’s a crook.”

One time I was workin’ down in the deep south and a guy told me – that came in for a private appointment – that he was… knew I was a crook. And I said, “Well, I’ve known that for years, how come it took you so long to catch on?”  (laughter)

And that kind of shook him up. He didn’t know how to handle that. So you know usually when you attack somebody they’re supposed to go on the defensive, aren’t they? You know they start defendin’ themselves right now. I agree with em. “Sure, I’m a crook.” But the point finally came out that the reason he was that anybody who wore a beard was a carpetbagger.

Now this goes back to the Civil War – right after that – that the carpetbaggers from up north came down and all the old ladies told their children and their children told their children and their children told their children that anybody had a beard was a carpetbagger and all carpetbaggers were crooks. So I was a crook cause I wore whiskers. I said it’s cause I’m too lazy to shave. So you know, he had this all figured out though. He felt terrible.

Now a little not-I, which went back to mama – that one that said believe and do as you’re told by your authority – told him as a kid that people who had beards were carpetbaggers and carpetbaggers were all crooks. So I was a crook. That’s easy, everybody can understand that, you know, and of course John Creeks is a bigger crook than I am ‘cause he wears more whiskers. (laughter) So that takes care of that in a hurry, you know. The more whiskers you got, the bigger crook you are, obviously. (laughter) And obviously people who don’t have whiskers must be all good. That really figures out then, doesn’t it? That’s a gentleman. Anybody figure that, Kaye Lynn? Is that all right?

(Sure.)

If they don’t have em, they’re bound to be good, huh?

(How to deal with people with beards…)

Right. My old Granddad told me, “You don’t ever deal with a man who smoked a pipe or was an Arab.” He said, “Stay away from em. They’re all crooks.”

Now that was one of those good reasonable ones, you know, straight out. 

Then I met a psychiatrist one time who told me that if I was gonna practice workin’ with people, I’d have to smoke a pipe because he said they lay somethin’ on you and the pipe’s always out and it takes a minute or two to light it and by that time you can think of what to say. (laughter) So that’s why most psychiatrists always are pictured as havin’ a pipe in their mouth. See, they gotta light the thing; that gives you time to think about what you’re going to say.

Now let’s take some good solid suggestions that most everybody listens to. One says, “You never know when you’re gonna… when illness is going to strike.” Have you heard that one a few times in your life? You never know when illness is going to strike. 

So now then, illness then is by this little bit of suggestion, suggested that some little entity is up here floatin’ around – I suppose near the ceiling – and they’re looking down on us like buzzards look on dead cows, and they see somebody and they say, “Well there’s Robbie, I’m gonna bite her.” Now that was one, called “arthritis,” we’ll say. There’s those up there, then there’s another one over there called “measles” and there’s another one over there called somethin’ else and they look down at us and say, “Well, I’m gonna bite him.” Now that leaves you with what kind of a feeling? Tell me about that.

What kind of a good feeling do you have when you don’t know when illness is gonna strike you down? Howard, what kind of a feeling would you have?

(A certain anxiety.)

A certain anxiety about health. I think that most everybody has listened to that suggestion that there is a certain anxiety about health. As you all know “cancer is rampant.” (laughter) In 1947 I was practicing in Illinois in a little town called New Carmel. And I got a notice, monthly thing from the state medical society. You get a little monthly magazine. In this particular month – I don’t remember exactly which month, but I know the year, 1947 – it said if we would contribute $10, the society would use it to promote us having more examinations for cancer than we were now having, which we had none.
You know, there was nobody came in and said, “I think I got cancer. I found a lumpy here,” or whatever; they just didn’t bother you about that. So they said they would do that and that would bring us a minimum of 10 extra examinations that year which is $10 each. You remember when the examinations were $10? 1947. That’s another thing, you know. Course money was cheaper at the same time, you know. So this was done. And the second year you could give em the $100 that you made extrie [extra] and from then on they said the public would pay for it.

And so they started promoting cancer in 1947 when an average of one out of a hundred people had cancer. Now that is an exact statistic. You can go back and look it up. Don’t take my word for it, find it out. Average of one person per hundred had cancer in any form in 1946, 1947. But beginnin’ to get advertising going – not as printed advertising, but propaganda, suggestion poured at people – it increased the number of people who became concerned about it by ten times the first year, at least. And that money was turned into the Society; and they took all of that and since then the physician has only profited and never had to turn in because now then statistics says three out of four people will have cancer sometime during their lifetime. And that’s usually the last thing they have, you know. Is one out of ever four – which is what? 25% – from one out of a hundred, which is 1%. Seems like a rather successful suggestion trip, doesn’t it? 

Now of course, you know that “cancer will strike most anybody anywheres” and also you know it’s caused by eating bacon, breathin’ air, and now then all beer except Coors. (laughter) Now Coors will not produce cancer, but all other brands of beer will now produce cancer if you drink it; it’s a carcinogenic, has one in it. About anything and everything you touch is now carcinogenic in some way or other, is that right? So what kind of thing does this do? It produces anxiety. Now it has been demonstrated beyond most any reasonable doubt that anxiety will make you sick, period. If it don’t make cancer, it’ll still make somethin’ else, so the duty’s well done anyway – it works a 100% that if you are anxious.

Now, is most of the anxiety that we experience, a great amount of it – I wouldn’t say most, but a great amount is – due to suggestion? Now it’s very easy to find that if we took the healthiest person in here, we’ll say Teako, and everybody met him today and said, “Teako, you look bad. You got a fever, you feel bad?” (laughter) Have you had an examination lately? You look terrible. I haven’t seen you look this bad in all your life.” And if we kept that up on him and he wasn’t aware of it, he’d be sick before long because you suggest him into being that way.  

Now suggestion as we said promises you either a great reward or threatens you with loss. Now the ones that offer you great reward, you have a tendency to pass off. Is that about right, Jim?

(That’s right.)

They offer you some real big somethin’, you have a tendency not to buy that one, is that right?

(Yeah, mainly because you start to suggest to yourself that it’s not going to work.)

That it’s not gonna work. And that there’s all kinds of obstructions… and obstructions and all these things to that, so there’s a lot of people who go around givin’ positive suggestion. They usually don’t get very far, but the people who deal in negative suggestion do a great job.

Now what this all comes about is that we have what’s called “faith.” Now we have tremendous faith in catastrophe. (laughter.) We have tremendous faith in catastrophe. Check yourself out and see. You have very little faith in good fortune. Check that out. Is that right, Miss Marie? 

(Uh-huh.)

Now anybody could come in and suggest to you that your kids were all gonna get sick and go to the dogs this year and you’d get worried about it, hmm?

(Mm-hmm.)

But if somebody came along and told you all your kids would be declared geniuses and given great sums of money and grants to study their education, you wouldn’t believe it. Is that right?

(Yes.)

So we all have tremendous faith. Now Faith is the ability to make up your mind singly. The whole idea of suggestion is that you make up your mind in one direction or the other. So in this little picture [refers to the Picture of Man] we had, when you make up your mind that you have a reason to complain is made up singly, that complainer laid it on you. And you believe singly, wholly, and completely that you are unfortunate and have a reason to complain. Is that right, Miss Bonnie?

(Yep.)

There is no doubt about it. When you feel you have a reason to stick up for your rights, there is no doubt the mind is singly made up. When you see something as being to blame, you have your mind singly made up that it is doing it. Is that right, Joann, hmm?

(Mm-hmm)  

Great faith. Now when we come down that we gotta please somebody, we have great faith that we either have to do it or there’s gonna be hell to pay and we usually manage it that way, huh? (laughter.)

And we feel that when some authority has told us something that that’s the way it is – period – without any need for me to investigate, check up on it, and certainly don’t doubt it. You know, just don’t doubt it. People tell me all the time, “My doctor won’t let me do that.” And I say, “What’s he got to do with you? Is he in charge? Have you turned yourself over to him?”  “Well, he just won’t let me do it. I can’t do that. I can’t eat that. I can’t do that at all. I can’t leave town; the doctor told me.” 

Hell, if they had the judge put a $10,000 bond on em and they wanted to go, they’d go, but not when the doctor says don’t go. (laughter) Can’t do that. And also, whenever we feel that we have to quote some authority, we have absolutely faith, single-minded, that somebody told us something that we have been told is an authority – we buy it 100%. We don’t check it out, we don’t doubt it; we just do it or believe it and feel guilty if we don’t do it. Now most of us don’t do it, but we feel guilty if we don’t. Now anybody here ever feel guilty? I think somebody admitted they did, was that you?

(Every day.)

Every day. The only reason you could feel guilty is somebody told you that so-and-so was wrong or something else was right and you couldn’t quite do the right and you did do some of the wrong, is that right? Hmm? So then you know you should feel guilty.

(That’s right.)

Right. So you go ahead and do it. Now all of that is simply suggestion, isn’t it?

Somebody up in Salt Lake City I was in a couple of weeks ago…. and in Salt Lake they generally quote you something, preferably the Bible. So some guy pulled one on me back there somewheres about quotin’ the Scripture that I was sayin’ something wasn’t quite in keeping. I said, “Did you ever read the Ten Commandments?” He said, “Yes.”

I said did one of em say, “Thou shalt not kill”?

“Absolutely, that’s right!“

And I said, “Who was supposed to be the author of that statement?” and he said, “God, Himself, quoted and wrote it on a tablet of stone.” I said, “Wonderful.” Now these same people that got these Ten Commandments, went on their way wanderin’ through the Sinai Desert for a number of years and they got to the edge of the Promised Land and they received another commandment about what to do to all the natives over there. Did you hear that one, Howard? What were they to do to em?

(Kill em.)

Every blessed one of em, including the babies, is that right?

(That’s right.)

Have a holocaust, kill em all. Now I said, “Now which one of em you gonna believe?” Is this the same guy that said, “Don’t kill nobody?” And you gonna believe he turned around in a little while and said, “Aw, forget that, that was for them. (laughter) Kill all these jokers, knock em down to the ground, even the bambinos, don’t let a one of em get outta here!” Is that what it said? And they screwed up because they let one hustler out. (laughter.) Cause she did em a little favor, so they let her go. They were supposed to do her in. So they had trouble ever since cause they let that one hooker get out. Huh?

(laughter.)

(Yeah.)

Now which one are you gonna follow? If you’re gonna quote the Bible to me, which part of it are you gonna have me live with, huh? Kill em, or let em alone? Which one are you gonna have me do? Same book.

(Being between a rock and hard place.)

It’s the same speaker supposedly handed out both orders, is that right?

(Yes.)

I like to check up things fore I buy it all that solid, wouldn’t you? Seems to me, you know, maybe somebody got carried away and some other buyer stuck in a little bit he wanted in it. (laughter.)

I don’t know if it’s the same author or not. See today, people do different things. Somebody likes your writing, say, will put it under their terminology or maybe use the same words and put their name on it. That’s called plagiarism. In the old days they didn’t do it that way. They wrote their stuff and put some great guy’s name on it – God, Moses, or somebody like that, you know. (laughter) That made it believable, you know. So, you know, people get turned around every once in a while. Now all of this is suggestion. Now people accept that a certain book was written by God, is that right?

(Mm-hmm.)

What grounds do you have to accept that? Huh? Do you have anything to accept that on?  

(We don’t.)

Why don’t you check it up once in a while? But you see, you’ve been suggested ever since you was a little kid, is that right? And of course, there is no inconsistencies in the word of God, huh? Read it once in a while. (laughter) Huh? But you don’t know where it came from, do you? Truthfully?

(No.)

Now I find there’s an awful lot of worthwhile material in there, but I don’t mean I gotta say that it came from any certain place, does it? I can use the materials. If it fits out, I check it out and use it. Now you don’t have any contention, do you, or do we?

(No.)

See, I can check it out. I’ve checked out a lot of it. An awful lot of it works; and sometimes there’s something in there that don’t work, well, just leave it where you found it. What’s the difference? I’m not tied down with that.

It’s like somebody said to me one day, “Do you believe Christ is born of a virgin?” I said, “I don’t know, he may have been born of a hooker.” What I’m interested in is what he was taught. Can I use that? All your worry, was born of a virgin or not, is absolutely nothing I can see to do about it. It certainly does lay down to me whether I can use what he taught or whether it fits everyday livin’ or something worthwhile, doesn’t it? But I find all kinds of people don’t know anything about what he taught. But oh, man, they know what his ancestors were like, huh? (laughter) Do you know what all your ancestors were like, Jim?

(No.)

How can you, you know? One of em… I don’t even know about them, what was really going on in their head. So possibly a little healthy skepticism, it says, “Well, I’m gonna check it out before I buy from anybody or any book or anything else,” might be the most useful thing we ever come up with.

Now the real estate man tells me I can do nothin’ but make money on this piece of property. Another promoter comes along and says, “I can’t go wrong on this stock,” Mm-hmm. “I tried it. (laughter) Somethin’ went wrong.” And so on… 

So is a little healthy skepticism – it says I will check it out before I buy whatever it may be – seem like a little worthwhile thing to keep you out of suggestion all the time? In other words, I can delay my response to your suggestion until I have time to check it out a little bit, huh? It’s okay just maybe a second or two, but at least I want to un-gear from lettin’ this little cat sayin’, “Well, he’s an authority, he knows what he’s talkin’ about. It’s in a book so it must be true! It’s printed in that paper, it must be true or they’d put him in jail!” You remember the old guy tellin’ us that one time, Tom?

(It had to be true.)

It had to be true cause it’s printed.

(In black and white.)

Good Lord, I’ve seen more things printed that didn’t have nothin’ to do with it. In fact, it’s printed one week and they printed a different one next week. So is it possible that for our wellbeing that we can delay our responses just a minute anyway, before I buy what internal or external suggestion’s from not-I’s? And they do come in the same place whether you lay it on me or whether I heard it in my head – it comes from the same place. Can I delay the response?
Now if I’m in charge I can delay the response a little bit anyway. Now maybe I wanna go along with it after I consider it a second or two or three; but at least I wanna have a minute or a second or two to look at it for myself without accepting. 

So if I’m going to be in charge of my own inner state I’m going to listen to you with due respect, but I’m going to delay my response a split second or an hour or whatever it takes, so I can have time to check up on it, huh? You know, I saw a sign the other day that said, “if you can’t trust a used car salesman, who can you trust?” (laughter.)

Really, who can you trust, you know? After all, they always tell you that this car is in perfect shape, that a nice little lady from Pasadena only drove it to the grocery store once every other week. You know, that’s all it’s ever been run. But nevertheless, it’s probably a little better to check it out, wouldn’t you think?

Even the new ones.

Okay, let’s have a few questions and comments on your part for a few minutes.

(I have one. If you’re not accepting suggestion from the outside but you’re suggesting suggestions from yourself, is that –)

Same difference, honey. Delay the response a minute because they come from the inside the same as they come from the outside. The same bunch of folks, you know – the complainer, the sticker up for rights, the blamer. How can somebody say to you when you were complainin’, “I don’t blame you.” Did you ever hear that when you were complain’ real good, yak yak yak yak? It said, “I don’t blame you.” You know, same one, same bunch of little folks in there runnin’ around. Nobody’s home in either place, (laughter) nobody’s in charge. Just one little kid runnin’ up and grabbin’ the door and another one holds the door. Okay? Other question, comment?

(How do you analyze…  how you’re reacting to the outside and forget your not-I’s are actually reacting? How do you know if they’re reacting or if they’re….?)
Well, you stop and look at it from a standpoint of “I know that I’m not gonna be non-disturbed either way,” okay? Now then you can look at it a little plainer because you see what they’re offering is that one way you’ll be non-disturbed and the other way you’ve had it, is that right? You really missed out on the whole show, correct? So, when you know you’re not gonna be non-disturbed you can look at anything a little plainer anyway… when you know that it’s gonna be a little rough ever once in a while every now and then anyway, okay? No matter what, when, how, it’s certain there’s gonna be some challenges along the way, that all right? In other words, you’re gonna have a challenge anyway. Okay. Yes, Laura.

(I was just wondering you said you check it out ...)

No dear, I’m not the authority on that. You check it out.

(You find out for self?)

Right. You find out. One way is to try it each way and see what happened to you, okay? Go around scared to death that everything you’re gonna eat is gonna give you cancer for 12 years and see if you get it. And then go along the next 12 without being scared of anything and see if you get all right, okay?

(laughter) That’s kind of an aggressive way of checkin’ but that’s one way to do it, hon? Huh?

(Yeah, it is.)

I just check out first place said, “Look I’m not gonna get out of this world alive anyway so…

[after lunch break]

Purpose and Will

What I would like to do for the afternoon is, number one, establish some reason for having a purpose. 
This morning we talked about self-Knowing so that we would be somewhat acquainted with what it is we have to work with, what it is that we do in order to remove obstructions to me doing what I want to do, okay? For this afternoon we’ll talk about Self-Remembering, which is the two subjects that everyone has to have in order to be able to be in charge of one’s own inner state.

Now the thing that comes up first, of course, is that a person would have to have a Purpose and a Will in order to be in charge. Now we saw this mornin’ that basically all purpose is handled by not-I’s or conditioning that says “the purpose of living is to be non-disturbed” which is an impossible one, which results in nothing but frustration of various and sundry kind.

So we will talk first about something that gives us a possibility of seeing what a purpose could be. And then after that we will talk about Purpose and Will. So that if a person could leave here this afternoon, they could take charge by making a Purpose for themselves and then have the Will to carry it out. And when you can do that you can pretty well be in charge of your own inner state.

Two Stories

So the first thing we’ll talk about that might bring about a little Self-Remembering is a story. Now there is two stories that have been handed to me over the years that bring about the point. 

So the first one that I will use this afternoon will be an ancient story about mankind and then I may fill you in with one that’s a little more recent. They say the same thing essentially, but they do sound a little bit different. 

Now the ancient story is that mankind is not an original inhabitant of this planet. Now it says that he came from somewheres else and that there is plenty of evidence to verify this point, all right? I don’t know the evidence, I’ve checked on it a bit and the evidence does indicate that mankind is not an original inhabitant of this planet. He is the only creature on this planet that has to have his food processed in order to live on it fairly well. Everything else just goes out, catches it, and eats it right then and there and that’s the end of it. If he does anything to it, he buries it for future reference. (laughter) But he doesn’t do any cooking on it, he doesn’t skin it, he doesn’t peel it, and he doesn’t mash it up or any of these things.

But mankind apparently cannot totally live on all the food as he just catches it. A big part of it has to be processed and that’s what this building here – business is processing food so you can eat it. Most of us have our little place in our habitation called a kitchen. And the kitchen is where we process food to make it fit for human consumption. Now I don’t think there’s very many people here that could, even if you sliced it up to a T-bone size and pitched it out, you’d eat it just like that, is that correct? You want it processed a little bit. Is that right, Bill? 

(Most things.)

Would you eat a T-bone just like it come off of the critter?

(Ah, not quite.)

Not quite, okay? So all the natural habitants do. Now we’re also the only creatures that must have shelter at all times. Most everything else just when it gets ready to lay down and rest, it does so. If it happens to find a hole in the ground, it may crawl in there, but we’re the only thing that goes around building shelters to live in, is that about right? A beaver builds one for his kittens but that’s about it. He don’t live in it very much, is that correct, Howard?
So we go around buildin’ things. We’re also the only thing that feels entitled to have transportation (laughter) – that seems to relate way back. The rest of the things can be born, hatch out, and live in a given area and stay there. If they do migrate, they pick em up, lay em down, and go – flap their little wings and go. But mankind must have transportation.  

So there is many, many reasons to indicate that man is not a natural habitat of this planet. He is also the only thing that I know of that wears clothes, besides what grows on him, is that also correct? Hmm?

(That’s correct.)

That’s the only thing. Now the rest of em you see got hair where we don’t have hair and they don’t have hair where we do have. (laughter) So we’re kind of put together a little different than the natural inhabitants of the planet for some reason or another.

Now the story is that long ages ago people lived on a planet, which was compatible with their make-up. They didn’t need to wear clothes, they didn’t need to build shelters, they didn’t need to process the food. So it got so that they lived so, perfectly.

In other words, they practically had that non-disturbed state. That the wiser ones amongst of em decided that this people with this tremendous capability – a brain which was extremely well developed – would never evolve to use their anywheres near their capabilities as long as they stayed where nothing needed to be bothered with. In other words, you didn’t need shelter. You didn’t need clothes, the climate was right. The food was the kind that you could eat in its natural state. You didn’t need to have a kitchen. You didn’t need to cook. You didn’t need to build shelter. You didn’t need to make clothes.

And so the wise ones amongst this group of beings said, “Look, they will never actualize their tremendous capability without some stress.” So they sent out a scouting party and found this mud ball here that could support life. Not of the kind that humans were, but similar. They breathe oxygen, they eat food, they could use protein, carbohydrates, fats, etc. And so they decided to establish a colony with volunteers that would set up on this alien planet and be freely subjected to Second Force, if you please, to Resistance so that there would be an incentive to actualize their tremendous capabilities, which they had absolutely no reason to do where they were.

So several volunteers agreed; and how they transported em I know not. They didn’t tell me that, but they got em transported and got em set up on planet Earth. Now obviously the First Thing to do was to make as many arrangements with the environment as possible so they could survive and that took a good many generations, I suppose we’d say. 

Number Two, they had to get rid of anything that was remotely similar to themselves on the planet because there would be the danger of inner breeding and making some kinda hybrids. You know half hairy ones and half unhairy and so forth, so they don’t want that to happen. So it was to eliminate those kinds of beings around, which is why that you can find all sorts of things, which would be relics out – almost humanoid.

And so the assumption, of course, is gradually arisen that we are evolved from some subhuman type of creature and that we will continue to do that automatically just through the process of time. Which, of course, has been somewhat of a hindrance to the original purpose to have these human beings evolve to a higher state of being because they had the capability and were subjected to what we would call today Second Force.

Now various and sundry times, they have seen what the purpose was and a little effort was put forth to bring it about. It seems that they’re told that the original purpose was to develop a community of conscious beings in rather adverse circumstances so that they could have a community of beings of a higher order than would be possible otherwise. In other words, the major interest is always in possibly the group ones as well as the individual, see “What can I do?” for the whole show here.

So these things went on and gradually over the eons of time, the original purpose of this colony has been totally forgotten. And ever so often somebody comes along and tries to remind them to get em started on the way in which they were originally intended for the purpose of the colony.

Now when they first arrived on this planet there had to be the Law of the Jungle. So that was the FIRST WAY, which was just pure survival, the Law of the Jungle. That you could say that was the first way that man tried to survive on the planet which meant he killed anything that got in front of him that was about to interfere. It was the survival of the fittest and this went on for many eons, which was an attempt to subdue the wildness of the planet and make it fit for these human-type creatures to live. 

After many thousands of years came along a man and said wait a minute, there can be another method and we’ll call this “Justice: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” So that would be the SECOND WAY. In other words, commit no more violence than is necessary. If somebody kicks your toe, kick his toe.

He hits you in the face, hit him in the face, but then quit.

Now this went on for quite a length of time and of course, only a certain number of people subscribed to this new way, as usual, and most of em went on with the Law of the Jungle. And now we can see remnants of this still around. I guess we would call it our system of justice, whatever that may mean, that we have in the courts and all sorts of things and you know, stick up for my rights. Some very basic decisions are there.

So then after several thousand years of this, come along another person who kinda saw somethin’ about it and said, “Well, man can evolve a little further.” Some of em can at any rate, and he started the THIRD WAY. Now each of these ways is to be about what the colony was originally formed for according to this story. The Third Way was that there would be a Way of Understanding of the other, which is frequently referred to as “Love.” That the other guy is doing the only thing he can do: that you understand he’s doin’ what he feels is right, proper, justifiable with whatever light that person has. So this is called the Third Way.

Now more people are still involved with this [Way of the Justice] than they are with the Love one and still more are still involved with the Jungle Way, but there is a few that have taken this to look at.

In very recent times come along another set of Teaching material that came from the same place and said now then, you’ve gone far enough at this.

There’s a few that can understand this – THE FOURTH WAY.

The Fourth Way says that you would be aware of what the Purpose was and that you could Will to do it. Now if you understand what you are, where you are, what’s going on here, and what you can do, you would be relatively conscious – that, number one, you would be aware of all the struggle constantly to keep one involved in these various ways back here. There would be something that’s always workin’ on you to do those. And they’d say, “Uh-uh, that’s not quite it.”

Now what I am is a human being, which is a very special type of creature on this particular planet. I’m an alien here and I have a purpose to be about. And if I’m about that purpose then I would know what I am. [writes on the board] I would know where I am and what I am is an alien… on a mission. 

Where am I? I‘m on the planet Earth, which is a little bit of an alien place for me to live so I’ll have to spend a certain amount of my time each day making a little effort on the environment to make it fit for me to survive in and my neighbors and my loved ones and my friends, and etc. I’ll have to work on that a little bit, so that’s where I am.

What’s goin’ on here? We’ll say there’s a great experiment in consciousness. There’s an effort to make a human being have a reason for evolving, which if he’d a stayed in his natural habitat, he didn’t have any. But here he’s got enough Second Force. He’s gotta work to make shelter so he can live in this alien environment. He’s gotta have clothes, so he can live in it. He’s gotta process food and maybe the food never is exactly right for us. Maybe that’s why we all take so many vitamins and all that good stuff. Maybe it isn’t exactly right anyway, but we get along with it.

And that this experiment is on its way and really nobody seems to be workin’ at it very much and really being conscious. So we’ll put that up.

And then the last one is: What can I do? What can be my purpose, intelligently? I said that obviously people have forgotten all this and so they would have to be reminded. So we would remind em.

Now I’ve told this story in a little bit different form a good many times, so I will repeat it slightly. The story is that:

What am I? I’m a privileged, invited guest here. Now, none of us did anything really to get here. That’s for sure and certain, is that right? You just found yourself here one morning. And so Life invited us because only Life can put us together. So we’re privileged, invited guests.

Where? At this lovely estate called Earth, which may not be up to snuff where our ancestors originated but it’s certainly well enough for us to get along on. It is pretty with a little modification here, there, and elsewhere and we do seem to be very busy modifying it. We’ve changed the rivers and we tear down the mountains and we fill holes up and we put water where there was no water and we cultivate land. Did you ever see any animals out cultivatin’ the natural habitats here? (laughter) They don’t do that. They don’t irrigate and all this kind of stuff. 

So what’s going on is that mankind is playin’ a lot of games. He plays the traffic game. He plays the marriage game. He plays the family game. He plays the business game. He plays the political game. He plays war games. He does all sorts of games that he plays. And that then it would appear that everybody is a guest here and that you can finally get down to answering the question of What am I? I’m a privileged invited guest. Where? This lovely estate, called Earth. What’s going on here? There’s a big party.

So in the other story, the ancient story says it’s a big picnic, you got sent out on a little trip and they forgot to take you back, so they left you on a permanent picnic, you know, and you’re kinda havin’ to fix the picnic grounds up, so I think it’s about the same story anyway.

And then comes, What can I do? Well, let’s take the one of my story of being a privileged, invited guest here at a beautiful estate called Earth where there’s a big party going on. Jillions of guests and really, you know I don’t have to play with any of the guests I don’t want to. I don’t even have to associate – I can walk away, that right? I don’t have to play with anybody I don’t want to. I don’t have to play any game I don’t want to. If I don’t’ wanna play the traffic game, I just quit getting’ out there. And if I don’t wanna play the family game, I sure don’t have to play that. If I don’t wanna play the business game, I don’t have to play that. I can go on welfare. They handle that all very nicely. I know lots of people who don’t choose to play any game hardly, but they’re well taken care of, right?

So I can play any game that I so choose. Or I cannot play any game if I don’t want to. Now if I should see that I’m a privileged, invited guest at your house, Jim. You invite me into your house and I come in. Now that doesn’t make me the boss of the house. Is that correct?

(Correct.)

I’m a guest there. Now how would I behave as a guest? What would be the thing I could do? I first could recognize I’m a guest, is that right? And maybe you have several other guests there. And maybe they play games or talk or whatever they do at parties and so I could choose which of those groups I would wanna sit and talk with. Or I can go sit in the corner and look at the wall if I want to; I don’t have to play with any of em. I can go to the bathroom. But whatever be the case, it’s up to me to choose what I will do while I’m there.

Now it would seem to me to be appropriate that the only thing I can do when I’m a privileged, invited guest is to behave as what to me is a good guest. That reasonable enough? I think we all know how to behave as a guest, don’t you? When we recognize that’s what we are.

So if we recognize we’re guests, then I would be considerate of the Host. I wouldn’t get him all upset by behavin’ lousily. He might get upset I’ve noticed about a lot of things that goes on here. And I wouldn’t mistreat any of the other guests. I may ignore em or walk away, but I’m not gonna bug em, is that right? They’re none of my business. The Host must have found them interesting or he wouldn’t have invited em. I don’t care whether I can see why he invited em or not. You had some reason, you found they were interestin’ to you one way or another.

So I’d be considerate of the Host, of the other guests, the estate. [writes on the board]  So I’d be considerate. I would try to be harmless to the estate and to the other guests, that’s simple enough, maybe? And I would try to make some little contribution to the party. Not to you; you invited me so I don’t have to make any contribution to you. You must have had a reason for invitin’ me. But I would wanna make a contribution to the party – the least I could do is contribute to a pleasant, harmonious mood. 

Now to say “I contribute to a pleasant, harmonious mood” is far different than sayin’ “I make it.” Because if I’m in a room with six people and they’re all intent on complainin’, I can’t stop their complainin’, but I can be pleasant myself so that made a little contribution to a pleasant mood, is that right? I can’t make it, now; I’m not responsible for other people’s mood. Of course I can probably be a comedian enough I might get em all laughin’, but who knows?
But the point is that it is my only thing and I do it for myself, not because I feel I should or because I ought to or have to or because I’m obligated to, but simply as being a lady or gentleman, I want to say “thank you for being invited.” So I would be considerate. [writes on the board] I would try to be harmless to the best of my ability and I only know two ways to harm people. One is to commit physical violence on em and the other one is to agree with em that they’re a victim. Of course, there’s a lot of people want you to agree with em they’re victims and they sometimes get upset if you don’t agree, but nevertheless that’s one thing I’d feel I’d be harmful to do. Did you ever try to get anybody to agree with you that you’re a victim, Bob?  

(Sometimes.)

And did they mostly go along with it? 

(Yes.)

So they further influenced the idea that you were a victim, is that right? 

(That’s right.)

I won’t ever agree with you you’re a victim. I’d say you can take charge of your own inner state. So I may not be popular, but at least I won’t be harmful, I hope. And I’m not gonna hit you on the head with a hammer.

And the other one is that I could make some little contribution to the party, okay? Now those three would pretty well cover anything that I could do anywhere.  

Now if the other story that we just told you, the ancient story that was passed on to me is correct, then “What can I do?” The same thing. I can be considerate of this alien planet, of the aliens, of the natives, which are all the animals and everything. I don’t have to run them off just cause I’m here. And I can be considerate of the other colonists that are here, hundreds of generations down the line – don’t make a difference – there’s still the same purpose. I can be considerate of them. And I can make some little contribution to building that society where mankind is evolving and using his tremendous potentials of which he’s probably usin’ a tenth of, or a 50th of at the moment. 

So I’d still be doin’ the same thing, whichever story may or may not be true. But they’re interesting to investigate and both of em have many evidences of being correct. So whether it’s a big party or whether it’s a picnic and we got left at the picnic, I don’t know which, but one way or the another I think it’s both pretty close to correct. So then we could see what we can do. 

Now in this case, a person could begin to have a purpose. Without really being aware of what I am, where I am, what’s going on here, and what I can do, the purpose is usually to get something or to have something, not to do something. Is that right, Brother Tom? Been tryin’ to get it all these years, is that right?

(Mm-hmm.)

You wanna get something. We want to get wealth and we wanna get prestige and we wanna get position. We wanna get the perfect kind of environment.

We want to get whatever we don’t have and when we have it, we’re usually wantin’ to get rid of it. (chuckles and laughter)

A lady told me the other day that she had worked for years to feel fulfilled and she finally got it and she’d give anything to feel empty again. So what’s the difference, you know, it comes out about the same way. So fulfillment is in the goal of all people who feel they’re not fulfilled. And they get fulfilled and they’d like to feel empty so they’d have somethin’ again.

So now we’re not talkin’ about “what do I want to have?” I can answer that very simply: I want everything, period. I just don’t want it all at once. (laughter) I want some of it nowly and some of it thenly so I can enjoy it. But I want it all. Isn’t that about right? I haven’t seen anything I didn’t want, have you, Tina? 

(I haven’t.)

I don’t care what it is, huh?

(That’s what I want.)

I want it all, so that we can settle simply about what we want to have. Now we can end that. Now comes the question of “what we want to do.” I want to do whatever is to me being a good guest or whatever it is to be about the purpose of the colony. That seems to be one way or the other – comes out the same, far as I’m concerned. I wanna be on that job.

Now let’s take whatever comes up here and say that we would like to work on... down towards the The Fourth Way here and let’s talk about Purpose and Will for a little bit. Now we’ll draw a little thing here and we’ll call that Purpose. And we’ll draw another one off over here and call it Will.

Now if those were put together – Purpose and Will was joined together – Purpose and Will, there would be a real I because there’d be no conflict, no struggle, no resistance. You’re doin’ what you wanna do when you wanna do it, because you wanna do it. That is Purpose and Will. Then there is no obstruction to function whatsoever.

Now that, of course, is a case that doesn’t happen, so we’ll just erase it right quick. (laughter.) And we’ll put that your purpose, the first thing when you were born and even though your purpose was to be non-disturbed, it was the best one possible for you, but everybody went to work on you right quick to tell you that your purpose was for the birds and that you should do this, [writes on the board] should do whatever. You ought to do so and so. You must do so and so. You must do this. You have to do it. You just simply have to, that’s all. (laughter)

Now that set up the ground to originate not-I’s. Now frequently I’m asked where did they come from. It came the day your purpose was totally pushed over in the corner and told it was bad, evil, wrong, degenerate, or whatever. No matter what it was, it was your purpose. So your purpose was taken over by this mess. And that originated not-I’s because not-I’s are the source of conflict.

Now they’ll all tell you what you should do…                                 

End of CD 2

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