Dex:

While there certainly was value in that life passage for me, I would say neither term captures the full scope of my works, function and purpose. According to L. Ron Hubbard, a “Scientologist” is, a person who wholly subscribes to the entire output of L Ron Hubbard regarding Scientology, including his descriptions of what the identity, character and behavior of a “Scientologist” is. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Hubbard coined the term, and thus one who takes on the term would seem to then be taking on that identity, that character, that behavior. A Scientologist, striving to live up to that, could tell you that this means something like he or she is dedicated to using the given techniques and principles of Scientology as the way to better their own life and that of others.

This includes adhering absolutely to Hubbard’s published instructions as to how to apply each technique exactly as given. It is not permitted to add, change, or subtract anything, in any process. To fit that definition, a “Scientologist” uses all of the proscribed techniques in the proscribed sequences, omitting none of those techniques, and adding no techniques or methods of application other than those explicitly dictated by Hubbard.

This formal per-the-organization definition also includes total investment in every bit 0f Scientology, finding nothing wanting about it, using Scientology as the solution, or the way to find the solution for everything one could encounter. It does not permit anyone to say anything critical about Scientology as defined by Hubbard, or about any “Scientologists in good standing with the Church of Scientology.”

By that standard, Hubbard’s standard, I am not a Scientologist; I consider it a disservice to my clients to limit my actions and principles to the dictates of another and I find it wise to examine and consider any idea on its own merits, and so I don’t qualify. I neither wholly accept nor reject what I come across merely on the basis of who its “source” is, or appears to be.

In 1965, Hubbard wrote and issued “Keeping Scientology Working,” his list of the “Scientology 10 Commandments.” He ordered it to be included in every training course of any kind in Scientology, and to be the very first item studied in every course. In “Keeping Scientology Working” (Scientologists commonly refer to it as KSW) Hubbard emphatically asserts that he alone divined and developed every meaningful bit of the techniques of Scientology, and stridently drives home his assertion that since he “did it all by myself” that “proves” that no being other than Hubbard could ever contribute a meaningful idea and “get it right,” that anyone else’s “new ideas” would be the ruination of the subject for everybody. The “10 points of Keeping Scientology Working” are all aspects of saying that everyone should learn to do precisely as Hubbard instructs, and zealously guard against any possibility creeping in of even the slightest alteration “for the good of everyone.”

Truth be told, many brilliant people, attracted and led by Hubbard, should be properly credited for being the ones who actually contributed, in my observation, more than Hubbard to the development of the principles and techniques that came to be grouped together under the banner of “Scientology.”

Over the past several years, the term “Independent Scientologist” has been evolving from applying only to those who separated from the organization, while still abiding strictly to Hubbard’s dictated standards, to cover the growing number of people who become comfortable enough with “thinking outside the box”. While there are still, and will likely always be, some strict fundamentalists, for the most part, it does appear that over time, as each person “decompresses” from all the enforced thinking ingrained from their Church of Scientology experience, one gradually regains their comfort with independent thinking.

There are a number of elements attributed to or found in Scientology, and elsewhere, that I do find some  positive value in, which I approach from my own perspective, with the independent freedom to weed out any assertions, ideas or practices that I find unhelpful. Along with everything else I discover to draw from. I continuously work in the direction of assimilating, modifying, adapting and  incorporating all that there is to learn from in this world into my work. Everything is a work in progress, and, at least in my view, nothing is “too perfect to be tampered with”. There has never been, and I believe, never will be a field of endeavor which dead-ends in perfection. And there are many elements and practices in Scientology that I find to be unsupportable, and wholly disagree with.

So, while there are things that can be found in Scientology that do at least bear some relation to what I do, I cannot say that, in this direction I have evolved to and toward, I have long since left behind my investment in the uniform “standard technology” of Scientology, and in any effort or desire to fit into or claim for myself that, or any other proscribed identification; I’m not a “Scientologist”, I’m simply me, and among other endeavors, interests and activities I enjoy and participate in, I’m a self-styled practitioner of therapeutic spiritual counseling, something that is and always will be, at least for me, an evolving, living and growing endeavor.

I freely draw from any and all sources, research, experience, observation, intuition and personal recognition, and from anybody and everybody, and my purpose is to facilitate the accomplishment of whatever the goals of the participant in front of me may be, as they themselves define these.

With love and respect for anyone and everyone working in their own way to do something for others,

Dex