Another interesting post from the Church of Scientology Missouri blog, posted by Lyndsay, hat shows the practical nature of the Scientology religion and its use in matters great and small.
My daughter has finally decided that she wants to learn to ride a bike. Her preference to this point in her life has been to rely on daddy’s willingness to pedal like a maniac while she sits comfortably on a tag-a-long. However, something has changed and she now is pushing to learn to ride – although not without fear. In fact, she has insisted that she be fully outfitted with every protective covering known to man.
This is not her first effort at learning to ride. Last summer, she was interested in learning for a short time, but she didn’t pick it up quickly enough to keep at it. A couple of quick falls and near-misses with the ground, and the bike went back to its upside-down roost in the back of the garage.
When she announced her intention to learn to ride this year, I resolved to help her get it this time – and decided to see if I couldn’t help her by using some Scientology. After watching her dump the bike repeatedly, I knew that her problem was not a lack of balance or strength. She is loves to run and dance, is good at sports, and can drive a golf ball further than a few of my buddies. However, I could tell that her difficulty was that she was scared of the bike. She would start to get going, the bike would sway, and she’d jump off before damage could occur. I understand that fear. My own learning experience was fraught with bloody knees and bent handle bars.
Scientology is good at nothing if not at helping people allay their fears of the environment. I knew of a simple drill from Problems of Work that I use successfully all the time with my staff and myself that I knew could help her become less fearful and more in control of her bike.
As L. Ron Hubbard says in Problems of Work,
“An individual could regain his ability over his immediate tools simply by touching them andletting them go. This might seem rather pointless and he is apt to reach the level of boredom and become bored with the process. Just above this level is the pay of becoming enthusiastic.
“It sounds very strange that if one simply touched his automobile and let go, and touched it and let go, and touched it and let go, possibly for some hours, he would regain not only his enthusiasm for the automobile, but a tremendous ability to control the automobile which he had never suspected in himself at all.”
I’ve had quite a bit of success with this little drill in the past with a variety of subjects. After my friends have gotten into fender benders, I make it a policy to do this with them until they are cheerful about driving again. I’ve used it successfully to help someone with writer’s block and another time to get a girl over her fear of flying.
In this case, I used it with my daughter to enable her to learn to ride her bike without deathly fear. We rescued the bike from behind the accumulated debris of two summers, pumped up the tires, then we stood beside it for a while.
“Touch that seat.”
(eye roll) “ok”
“Great! Let go of that seat.”
“yup”
We did that for about five minutes, touching and letting go of the bike and its parts, until my daughter giggled and smiled broadly, anxious to get started.
With her fear of the bicycle now handled, she had a much easier time of it. We got her up to about eight full pedals before she ran it directly into the garage door, but she got right back up and kept going. We ended after a bit, while she was still enthusiastic and anxious to do it again the next day.
Give this a shot. Go ahead and give this a try the next time you are helping someone learn something new. Start by having them just touch and let go of the component parts of their tools. Use it after an accident to relieve the stress of the accident. I’d be interested in learning from you how it goes. I wish you success.
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