From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 4 - December 1991
 
Classic Comment
By Terry E. Scott, England

Let's Be Generous

Heaven knows how many people were drawn into the philosophy and the 
tech by a freebie. (A gift. Has a special twist with regard to 
organiser of a press function, where the organiser gives something 
free which you would normally expect to pay for, commonly heard in 
businness circles in the last five years. Ed).

In the 1950s, above all, there was this thing called free group 
auditing. It had a faithful following of people who came from far and 
wide, and in the case of my local organization, that meant from London 
and its outskirts. These were not simply people who couldn't afford 
high fees for auditing (yes, even in those days!) but also those who 
wanted the companionship of others of like mind and wished for some 
kind of regular auditing.

Most important, from the point of view of ourselves today, free group 
auditing brought in new public hand over fist. People who were 
unfamiliar with the name of L. Ron Hubbard or the tech were ushered 
gently into the biggest room at the local organization and would be 
given locational and mockup processing for a couple of hours. What a 
mix! But many people got notable gains from this, and the only 
liability might have been in their overrunning now and again - 
something we can handle on an individual basis nowadays.

In the 1990s, free auditing, free training (that, too, in those old 
days) and free co-auditing seem to have vanished. This is bad 
economics, for generosity is not only commendable in itself but also - 
in the case of auditing - acts to show the flag, to sell the product, 
without the person feeling he might lose financially. And remember 
that the raw public does not know the benefits of our tech in advance, 
and lives in a society where the rip-off can be an everyday occurence.

Training? There was something called a Personnel Efficiency cource, 
and the first week of five evenings was free of charge. Elementary 
basics were taught here and, to an extent, drilled. Independents, 
please copy. After this, individuals could join a paid-for course that 
went further.

Co-audits originally meant that two beings who were capable of running 
simple processes would do just this to one another, turn and turn 
about. If that sounds horrifying, for there were no meters and 
training had been minimal, do realize that many people got worthwhile 
results. Again, today, anything that someone ran into with a wallop 
could be picked up by review auditor.

How about it? We all have to make a living, whether as practitioners 
of tech or in another profession, but we owe it to ourselves and the 
population around us to extend a generous helping hand at the doorway 
to our philosophy.