LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

AND DISCOVERING HOW MUCH

WE ACTUALLY CAN LEARN

WHEN WE DO IT PROPERLY

Learning is both an ART and a SCIENCE.

An ART because the result of successful study is increasing “understanding” and accomplishment, and because understanding makes life beautiful and worthwhile.

A SCIENCE because there are both scientifically correct and technologically ineffective educational procedures, and whilst the former produce understanding and the ability to apply knowledge, poor teaching and haphazard study methods produce too many dangerous MIS-understandings, the proof of which is the ridiculous problems of the world we live in today.

However, humans are extraordinary beings, and their minds and their capacity to retain and use knowledge are truly fantastic.  The amount and variety of information that can be absorbed by one individual is incalculable and for all we know, unlimited.

In fact it is possible for one individual to not only be a medical doctor fluent in several languages, able to play piano plus other instruments, follow a strong interest in aero-modelling and active sport, hold down a highly responsible job and raise a family whilst, at the same time, nurturing a near professional interest in the history of steam locomotion, painting on canvas and sailing.

And whilst that might be a burden in terms of time and physical effort, it would not be an overwhelm mentally, because there is no limit to the mind's capacity.   It can never be “full up” to the point where it cannot hold any more data.

In the learning processes we are not concerned with the size of the “brain” and its lobes, with nerves, inner-cranial blood-flow, ventricles, organic processes and speculative physical investigations like neurology or psychiatry.  As human beings we are involved with the infinite mental and spiritual universe which subjectively exists for everyone, but which is rather obviously a variable from person to person.

As a result, we have to ask: “how and why are some people quite easily able to accumulate and make use of huge quantities and varieties of knowledge, whilst others find it difficult to recall their five times table or even their own family name ?”

And why others, in spite of years of academic study, are in many cases apparently unable to fully accomplish anything of vital survival value for themselves or for Mankind at large ?

WHY are there such astounding differences from person to person, and WHAT causes them ?

And when they are mature adults, if you carefully study those differences, you find that whilst we all start as tiny babies SOME HAVE FULLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED, AND SOME HAVE NOT.   AND THE FORMER CAN APPLY WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED, AND THE OTHERS ACTUALLY CANNOT.

When looking for “why”, we further find that the group with good “understanding” were studying with the full intention of APPLYING what they were learning, whilst the others were mainly concerned with earning diplomas and becoming professionally “qualified”, and thus socially acceptable and employable.

This doesn't mean that the latter group were born stupid.  It means that modern so-called education, governed by the traditions of academia, have created false goals for learning – a main one being visible certificated proof of having studied, rather than an ability to understand, retain and apply in life what one has learned.

They didn't always study medicine in order to heal – but instead to earn the title “Doctor”, because it's better paid and can be a respected position in the society.

They didn't always study law in order to understand justice and deliver it.  They did so because Dad and the Dean both said it was a good thing to do – again because it's better paid and has the potential to be seen as a respected position in the society.

But, what is it that the really successful and truly respected individuals have, and which the large numbers of mediocre professionals and academics lack ?

SIMPLY THE ABILITY TO LEARN AND TO UNDERSTAND AND TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE WITH CERTAINTY AND RESPONSIBILITY. 

 

And this ability is most simply defined and available as “STUDY TECHOLOGY” - the ART and SCIENCE of learning !

And whilst the first and second years of a baby's life together demonstrate that the newly born generally arrive with fantastic learning ability – learning to listen, observe, speak and understand a language (or even two) and learning to control and make use of a new vehicle called a body - the longer they live, tests over years show beyond doubt that their ability to learn slows down as they are increasingly “educated” in the home, in school, in college and in our universities.

STUDY TECHNOLOGY. That's what both our educational system and our society don't have.   As proof, think back.   Have you ever been offered a course in “Learning How To Learn” or a course in “The Basics of Study Technology ?

Instead, many are subjected to repetitious rote learning of words and sentences which, if they can be recited, lead to an examination pass – but do not often enough develop “understanding” and the ability to apply the knowledge that the system has tried to pump into them, with note-taking, homework, caning, detention, cramming and even A.D.H.D. devastating drug prescriptions from the pharmaceutical and psychiatric fraternity, who are taking advantage of poor educational methodology to invent new and profitable mental disorders, paid for by U.K. taxpayers.

In the Greater London area, over 60 percent of Dads and Mums consider their own reading ability not good enough to read to their own children, who therefore never get bedtime stories and have no high parental reading standard to live up to.

Employers know well that there is a huge hole in our educational system, which is especially obvious when they try to teach youngsters new skills and apprenticeships and discover that not only their basic skills in English and Arithmetic are not up to scratch, but that they just have no idea of how to study, leading to a lack of desire to learn – because they have never been taught HOW to learn in school.

In fact, across the nation, the number of Illiterate school-leavers exceeds those who are able to read, write, add up, multiply and divide, etc.  And whilst some of this is due to the failure of government psychiatrists to handle drink and drug problems amongst our youth, underlying even the addiction problems, is the total lack of Study Technology – not only in schools, but also in Teacher Training Colleges.

Even though the widespread problems in our educational system are obvious to employers and parents, academics continue to persuade politicians that they have ALL the answers and that nothing new or better is available.

As a result we have the ridiculous situation of seeing Study Technology (which was developed in the U.K, and is currently taught in only two British towns) now being widely used in Africa, the Middle and Far East and South America by national and regional educational systems, whose results are now out-stripping our traditional British school system.

Doctors, solicitors and other professionals are coming to Britain, bringing skills founded on the Study Technology developed here in Britain, because, instead of the UK's “know-it-all” attitude to learning technology, third world countries have been open-mindedly desperate for learning success, and have been ready to learn and so fully recognise that Study Technology is the essential foundation for all successful learning and data application – at low cost.

Study Technology is intended for daily usage and for application to the solution of life's every-day problems.  Study Technology closes the gap between “knowing” in order to be clever, applauded, “qualified” or well paid, and “knowing” for the purpose of being able to understand, use and apply to the improvement of life and living.

In fact, Study Technology makes the difference between succeeding and failing, and between achieving and not being able to actually do something.

How can we expect someone to make or do something, if they don't understand how to do it ?   How can we make something work, if from the start we don't ourselves understand how it works ?   Knowing plus understanding and plus ability to apply are the essential goals of learning and study, without which knowledge is of no more use to Man than the words on a page are of value to him if he attempts to study an unknown foreign language in a room without light !

Study Technology allows a great many people to understand the potential of the human mind who, without it, would never know or be able to use that potential.  “But”, you may ask, “what about those who have been able, without the advantage of Study Technology, to be brilliant enough to accomplish valuable deeds ?”   How much more might they have accomplished, and how much quicker would they have succeeded had they also had Study Technology available in their study tool-kit ?

Inversely, how frustrating is someone who “doesn't want to be shown”, and how do you help someone who claims he “knows it all”, when he so obviously does not ?

The economic and ethical worth of an individual is contributed in terms of what he or she creates or produces.  Actual objects and actual accomplishments which can be exchanged for money or other valuables to improve the survival and living quality of others as well as their own.

Sculptors, artists, actors, inventors, mechanics, writers, planners, policemen, pilots, bus drivers, bed makers, car makers, pianists, singers, bakers, grocers, farmers, chefs, journalists and even politicians, etc., etc., via the arts, science, industry, other activities and all walks of life, make their contributions in terms of what they can DO and what they can therefore produce of benefit to the society.

People who really can DO ! And the rewards for those who really can DO are so much greater than those received by those who CANNOT DO.

In countries where Study Technology is available, it is observably the difference between those who CAN and those who CANNOT !

Insofar as happiness is probably best defined as: “the overcoming of not unknown obstacles towards a known goal”, and because “overcoming” and “progress” towards any goal is the DOING of something, THEN: Study Technology – as the only activity which guarantees that an individual CAN KNOW, UNDERSTAND AND ACTUALY USE what he or she is learning, is really the main foundation for the building of HAPPINESS !

 

STUDY TECHNOLOGY was developed in West Sussex, England, by American author, researcher, educator, humanitarian and philosopher: L. Ron Hubbard®, and it allows a person to learn any subject successfully.   Study Technology consists of tools and techniques which study supervisors and teachers can use to improve the learning rates of students.

These same tools and techniques can be used by students themselves to improve their ability to understand and to utilise and apply the materials they read and study, and it remains vital for continued learning as one leaves school and faces the challenges of life.

For educators, Study Technology offers proven teaching strategies and resources that can help resolve classroom issues and improve student achievement.

Study Technology is the breakthrough that undercuts the reasons people are illiterate.  It is not just “another system”.  Study Technology is a workable and vital methodology that makes it possible for a person of any age or background to recognise and handle the barriers to successful study, and thus become effective in life.

(More at: www.appliedscholastics.org/study-tech.html)

 “Study-Tech” is taught at Greenfields Independent School, Priory Road, Forest Row, East Sussex, RH18 5JD, U.K., (where there is no entrance examination) and you may have your initial questions answered and obtain further information by phoning (01342) 811099 any day from 11.00am to 9.00pm.

S.A.F.E.

is the

SOCIETY for an ADDICTION FREE EXISTENCE

_____________________________________________

Good Schools & Good Teachers Are Obviously Better Than Poor Ones.

HOWEVER, FAR MORE IMPORTANT IS

THE LEARNING SPEED & ABILITY OF

THE INDIVIDUAL PUPIL.

SO WHY IS “LEARNING HOW TO  

LEARN” TAUGHT IN LESS THAN 

0.001% OF BRITISH SCHOOLS ?

Especially when starting with the subject of “LEARNING HOW TO LEARN” can make every student (including some of those with a physical or mental disorder) eligible for a fully merited “Grammar School Education”.

Everything Theresa May has recently said on this subject is fundamentally correct. Except for one thing. The same thing that a majority of educationalists get wrong.

They place too much emphasis on “the school” and on “the teacher” instead of on the barriers to study which can confront any and every child irrespective of their family background or wealth.

“Barriers to Study” which are developed in the very early weeks and months of their experience of life since birth.

Every family is intent on having the child learn to listen, to speak, to read, to write, to spell, to crawl, to stand, to walk and to learn to add up, subtract, multiply and divide, etc., etc., etc.

And the confusion which granddad, grandma, mum, dad, the brothers and sisters and the rest of the family can unwittingly generate in a child during his or her first and second year is enormous.

On examination one finds that the biggest barriers to learning are initially small unresolved misunderstandings leading to even further non-comprehension and confusion, and that this arises from being given or picking up false, erroneous, misleading or totally wrong and inaccurate data at an earlier point in time, and is very easily done – even perhaps in the womb – or (as many today would have us believe) in some past lifetime.

Be that as it may, when grandma offers a blue coloured plastic cup full of orange juice to her baby grand-daughter, the older lady can give her action “meaning” or “significance” in numerous ways. She can say: “drink” or “cup” or “blue” or “yours” or “orange juice” or “nice” or “this is lovely” or “you'll like this” or “get this down you baby” or “yum-yum” or any of a number of different accompanying words or phrases.

And so also can Dad and Mum, elder sister and brother or baby-sitter, etc., all with the same colour of cup or another colour or shape and with the same contents or another drink, hot or cold, sweet or savoury, etc.

Then they can also all so easily do similar confusing multiple actions and “word noises” with food in a bowl and a spoonful directed towards the baby's mouth.

But contentment lies in certainty.  Very little to do with whether baby likes the food or the drink.  Very much to do with their confidence and understanding.

Are they being told to “eat the cup from the drink”, or more correctly but still somewhat confusingly, to “drink” (verb) the “drink” (noun) from the cup ? etc.

In other words, quite apart from the child's own inherent learning ability, there is the question of how clearly, logically, accurately and coherently is the information being presented, because simple repetition of the same combined action plus the same speech factor provides a far faster learning gradient than a constantly changing choice of words attached to the same actions or items.

In fact from the above, we begin to recognise that, quite apart from the child's own immediate ability to learn, there exist numerous “barriers to study or learning” which derive from the new born child's environment and particularly the people in it.

The first of these barriers we have just looked at.

THE SPEED OR GRADIENT (sequence of ascending / progressive steps) WITH WHICH THE TEACHING AND / OR LEARNING PROCESS PROCEEDS.

Learning simple words before you learn the alphabet and its phonics, before you learn longer words, and learning words before you learn sentences, and sentences before paragraphs, chapters, and the full story, etc., can be one type of gradient.

But if you miss out the alphabet, or the phonics or an understanding of the different sorts of words, or get them out of sequence, etc., the whole gradient can soon collapse, and you finish up with no story. No punch-line. No comprehension and feeling foolish or bewildered.

As another example, gradient sequences are involved in safely and efficiently starting and driving a car.  You don't start the engine until you have depressed the clutch or checked that the gear lever is in neutral.   You don't move away from the kerb before you have checked your mirror, made sure the road is clear and signalled your intentions, etc.

And you certainly don't try to swim the English Channel without many months of gradual training, body-building and safety preparations.

The second important barrier is quite different.

It is fairly easy to observe that each piece of “knowledge”, each fact or truth is more comprehensible to the degree that it contains a balance of mass and significance (meaning), rather than either a complete absence of mass or no significance whatsoever.

(i.e. Is the object, idea or action actually with us and observable in the “here and now”, along with a matching significance explaining the existence / purpose of that object, idea or action ?)

FAILING TO HAVE THE MASS (of the object, thing or even a picture of it) PRESENT, AND FAILING TO SEEK A BALANCE BETWEEEN THE “MASS” AND THE “SIGNIFICANCE” OF THAT SUBJECT'S DATA, CREATES A BARRIER TO OBSERVING, LEARNING & COMPREHENSION.

For example, if, in the hope of recruiting workers for a jungle clearance project, you helicopter-drop a bright yellow JCB excavator into the centre of an Amazonian native village, with no explanation or other significance, the likelihood of their worshipping it as some new God from heaven is overwhelming.   No Significance.   All Mass.  And so generation of a false significance.

But if you send a knowledgeable and well trained engineering professor to do the recruiting, with all his technical books and explanations about JCBs, but no machine and not even a picture or drawing, the likelihood is that the professor will finish up in the cooking pot.   All Significance.  No Mass.  No common reality.

There are lots of minor barriers to learning, such as very bad handwriting or very different pronunciation.  Try putting a Glaswegian Scot together with an Essex Englishman and they each will tell you that the other cannot speak English.

Or try and speak with the ladies of certain religious sects, and you will not only be ignored but likely even attacked and thrown out by their menfolk.

HOWEVER, THE THIRD AND MOST POWERFUL AND WIDESPREAD MAJOR BARRIER TO LEARNING AND STUDY IS – “THE MIS-UNDERSTOOD WORD”, ESPECIALLY AS THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS IN WHICH A WORD CAN BE MISUNDERSTOOD.

It can be misspelt & / or mispronounced, it can have been assigned a totally wrong meaning, been assigned no meaning, have an incomplete definition, have numerous meanings all spelt and pronounced the same (e.g. catch, feel & see, etc.), be pronounced in two different ways with quite different meanings (e.g. project and project), be pronounced the same although spelt differently, (rein, rain & reign), etc.

And misunderstood words work both ways.  You can spread them around yourself, passing on your misunderstood words to others and, you can quite unknowingly pull them in from other people – even teachers, the radio, television and those professionals who like to blind their listeners with science, to prove their own education and your lack thereof.

The teacher, lecturer, trainer, commentator, presenter or professor who starts his discourse with: “Tonight our subject is “X, Y & Z”, and then fails to provide a definition and examples ensuring his title is understood, has not only given his audience a nice new misunderstood word, he has also just LOST his audience – as I might also have done at this point !    For the same reason.

Words are the building blocks of all languages and, whether written or spoken, it takes only one Mis-Understood word (M/U) in a sentence to interrupt the flow of understanding and to completely suppress comprehension of that whole sentence, as well as the paragraph and often the page – particularly if that lack of understanding is not immediately corrected.  And that's only the first problem M/Us create.

Where M/Us are undetected and uncorrected, we find the source of stupidity, failing exam results, damaging errors, derisory and harmful arguments, abandonment of study subjects and jobs, as well as friends and even family.

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN.  Knowing and handling the main barriers to study are the key to progress, proficiency, friendship and happiness – in many ways the key to life.

And once you've invested a relatively small amount of study-time into learning how to learn, you soon start to earn it back a thousand times over in every facet of not just your other studies, but also your whole life and well-being.

THIS IS WHAT IS KNOWN AS “AN INVESTMENT”, AND “LEARNING HOW TO LEARN” IS PROBABLY THE QUICKEST RETURN, LOWEST COST, LOWEST RISK INVESTMENT YOU WILL MAKE IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE.

Blessed is the child whose family members are wise enough NOT to confuse him or her with misunderstood words or either of the other two main barriers to study, which can lead to further non-comprehension and apparent lack of intelligence.   But even in the most coherent of families, some M/Us can still creep in.

Dyslexia is one of the more serious problems which can be handled by removing the barriers to study with the application of Study Technology.

And, have you noticed that a lot of English humour and jokes actually depend on deliberate misunderstanding of some word or phrase.

But it's no laughing matter when misunderstandings and non-comprehension are totally unrecognised by you.  Because they can keep you out of Grammar School - even if Dad drives a Rolls-Royce to work.  And equally “Learning FIRST How to Learn” can gain you a merited Grammar School place - even if Dad drives a wheelbarrow at work!

If you would like to be introduced to a trained and experienced “Study Technology” professional who will give you a free introduction to “HOW TO LEARN”, with no further obligation, phone 01342 810151 any weekday between 11.00am & 9.00pm.

S.A.F.E. Is A Not-For-Profit Community Support Group Formed in 1975.

___________________________________________________________________

Self-Help Addiction Recovery Training

 

LEARNING TO CURE

 

YOURSELF OF

 

DRINK & DRUG

 

ADDICTION.

BASED ON 50 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS.

As you may well have noticed, you can't live somebody else's life for them, and equally, nobody else can live your life for you.

So that, whether we like it or not, life is a do-it-for-yourself activity.

This means that becoming addicted to drink or drugs is also mainly a do-it-for-yourself activity AND ALSO that escaping from addiction is something you must do-for-yourself, provided you know how to go about it.

A self-help residential programme of addiction recovery training for lasting relaxed abstinence is vastly different from other addiction rehab systems because, instead of offering “treatment”, it “TRAINS” addicts in HOW TO CURE THEMSELVES.

And it is the many differences in a self-help training programme which make all the difference to the results which such programmes obtain first time through in from 55 to 69+% of cases.

The FIRST Difference: between a self-help training programme and other forms of rehabilitation is found in such programme's view of the individual addict who is regarded as an “addiction victim” and designated as a “STUDENT” rather than as a “patient”, a “client”, a “bum”, a “criminal”, a misuser, an abuser or a “service user”.

An “addicted patient” for psychiatrists and pharmaceutical producers is a client with an addictive demand who should be “treated” by doing something “TO” him or her in order to have that addict as a consumer of substitute addictive medication for as long as U.K., taxpayers via the NHS, will go on paying for prescribed supplies of drugs such as methadone and Subutex, etc.

The definition of a “criminal drug user” varies from country to country and from time to time, but the intention and effect of the “criminal” label is to punish what any particular jurisdiction currently regards as a crime – which in practice across the world can mean anything from being given a caution or being sentenced to a fine, imprisonment, a whip lashing or even execution !

And interestingly, the above “criminal” view of addiction is usually concerned only with smuggled, stolen, illegal and designer drugs, and so does not include the vast majority of addictive substances such as licensed ALCOHOL and prescribed MEDICAL drugs – each of which are vastly bigger problems than smuggled, stolen, illegal and designer drugs.

The defining of an addict as a “student” recognises four things:

a) That 70 to 75% of all drink and drug addicts who have been using for more than 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years or 30 years desperately want to quit, and although they have thus tried and failed on numerous occasions (often daily) to do so, they nevertheless have no lack of willingness to stop. Their problem is simply and actually “finding out HOW to stop”.

b) That – (because life is obviously and inescapably a “do-it-for-yourself” activity) – addiction is NOT just about a chemical substance but is a condition permitted by the individual's lack of a real understanding of life, mainly brought about by misinformation & lies from vested commercial interests in the massive alcohol and medical supply businesses, as well as from criminal sources.

 

c) That an addict is no longer in total charge of his or her life and so wishes to again take control, and,

d) That, to again take control of his or her life, an addict needs training in self-help addiction recovery techniques, with which they can concurrently procure lasting relaxed abstinence for themselves, and thus thereafter be able to easily apply what they have learned - for life.

 

So the first vital difference is that a self-help programme does not “treat” drug addicts, nor does it transfer addicts from one addictive substance to another as in so called Opioid Substitution Therapy where addicts are moved from illegal heroin to legally prescribed but more addictive methadone or Subutex, thus basically ensuring they remain as prescription drug addicts for life.

Self-help instead TRAINS THEM to cure themselves !

GIVE A MAN A FISH, AND YOU FEED HIM FOR A DAY.

BUT, TEACH HIM HOW TO FISH, AND YOU FEED HIM FOR LIFE.

This is the difference between treatment in most rehabs and training in self-help addiction recovery.

Give a heroin addict methadone and you satisfy his habit for that one day. But teach him HOW to take control of and get rid of his habit, and you give him the gift of recovery of the natural state of relaxed abstinence into which he was born, and which he can then maintain.

Which brings us to self-help's very different recognition of “WHY” addiction occurs.

SECOND Difference: Psychiatrists, psychologists, politicians, social workers and police, etc., assign a large variety of reasons as to why an individual becomes an addict. They ignore completely the fact that the UK's largest group of addicts (over 2 million) are NHS patients prescribed into involuntary addiction by the medical profession, and instead blame “peer pressure”, wanting a “thrill” or a “high”, irresponsibility, lawlessness, recklessness, criminal inclination, misuse and numerous other “possible” causes.

But for centuries medicine, alcohol and drugs have been used to solve problems, and that is still the reason for their usage today. For certain heart problems we take aspirin, for a headache or toothache we take paracetamol or some other pain killer, for the problem of travel sickness we take another tablet, for the problem of shock or family loss we are prescribed Valium or another “benzo” drug, and to solve shyness or anxiety many take spirit alcohol or another chemical stimulant, etc.

And it is the misinformation and even downright lies which are used to make the guy (who has what he “considers” a problem) use an addictive drug in order to solve it.

In fact, Mary Wakefield the deputy editor of the “Spectator” once commented that the pharmaceutical industry has grown into possibly the largest industry in the world by manufacturing “A Pill for Every Ill”.

“Drugs solve problems” - or so we are told from an early age, not only by psycho-pharms, but also by Grandma, Dad & Mum, our local doctor and even the local pub barman.

It is therefore not at all surprising to find self-help students finding and recognising for themselves that they decided or agreed to take an addictive substance IN ORDER TO SOLVE WHAT THEY THEMSELVES (and usually them alone) CONSIDERED A PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL IN THEIR DAILY LIFE OR ENVIRONMENT.

In other words: DRUGS ARE A SOLUTION – NOT A PROBLEM.

But strangely enough, most “treatment” forms of addiction rehabilitation, EXCEPT self-help, basically consider drugs as “a problem” which doctors believe can only be solved with some form of medication.

A solution is simply an action adopted by individuals to handle some problematic situation in their life.

Those readers with the benefit of self-help training will know that a solution comes under the heading of “a self-determined change”. i.e. It is not something forced on the individual.

So the second difference is that self-help training recognises that the initial cause of addiction is not a search for thrills, or highs, or misuse, or abuse, but that the cause is the desire of an individual to solve what he or she considers a worrying personal problem by employing a solution which he or she is wrongly advised or led to believe involves using an addictive substance.

So they are a VICTIM of both the addictive drug and the misleading information given them in order to persuade them to try a few doses.

In other words, they make a disastrous decision to use an addictive substance based on a lie or on some misunderstanding, and become addicted because it is addictive drugs themselves which are what impose and enforce addiction on the user.

This is obvious, because NO-ONE CAN EVER BECOME ADDICTED TO A DRUG WHICH ONE NEVER EVER USES !

THIRD Difference: From the above we see that the goals of self-help training are:

1) knowledge of recovery techniques,

2) resurrection of personal responsibility, and

3) the regaining of relaxed control of one's life - leading to self-determination

    of one's life.

But for other addiction rehabilitation systems the goal is often to be able to struggle through each difficult day - one day at a time - without taking the drug to which they are addicted, just by courageously fighting their craving.

Whilst this can eventually bravely lead some to increasingly relaxed abstinence, because other rehab systems make no attempt to remove the individual's store of drug toxins and metabolites lodged in the fatty tissues of the body, there is always the possibility of re-stimulation from the breakdown of such deposits, their release into the blood stream, a consequent re-triggering of desire for the drug, and a return to addiction. Release of such addictive deposits is triggered by increases in body temperature usually caused by physical work, exercise and / or weather hot enough to lead to sweating.

Which brings us to an examination of the technicalities and nomenclature involved in recovery from addiction.

FOURTH Difference: When self-help training says: “detoxification”, we mean flushing from the addict's body ALL drug residues, metabolites, hormones and other toxic deposits built up by addiction and life in general.

When a psychiatrist, doctor or pharmacists says: “detoxification”, they misleadingly mean the stopping of the regular taking of any further doses of a particular addictive substance. (What self-help regards as: “withdrawal”.)

 

So, when an addict is given medication to stop him taking heroin, that is the psycho-pharm idea of a “heroin detox”. The addict is no longer adding to the store of toxic heroin metabolites in his body, but nevertheless he still retains whatever damagingly poisonous store of them he has already built-up.

However, IF in order to stop the heroin intake he is prescribed methadone or Subutex, etc., (which is normally the case), IN ADDITION TO his existing store of heroin metabolites, he then starts to build up a further store of methadone metabolites or Subutex metabolites, etc., any or all of which (including the original heroin) – by engaging in hard physical work, energetic sport or just warmer than normal summer weather conditions – can by sweating be released from the body's fatty tissues, re-enter the bloodstream and lead to a return to a former state of addictive desire.

“Recovered” and “rehabilitated” are other words which for self-help trainees have different meanings from those which other addiction rehabilitation systems assign them.

For us: “recovered” means returning to the natural state of lasting relaxed abstinence into which 99% of the population is born. To fully understand why this is different – try ringing a local rehab and asking what THEY mean by “recovered” ! Or ring your local MP and ask what he or she (mis)understands by “recovered”.

Self-help training goals (and achievements) are seen by many as sky-high when compared to the goals of most other rehabs.

FURTHER Differences:

Because of the fundamentally basic differences between the self-help “TRAINING” approach and psycho-pharm “TREATMENT” approaches the reasons why self-help is totally different becomes apparent in every aspect of an addict's journey through his or her programme.

Self-help training “withdrawal” procedures are DRUG-FREE. Many other withdrawals are not. In LASTING RELAXED ABSTINENCE terms self-help programme results run at a 55 to 69+% success rate, normally reached in 11 to 13 weeks.

 

Methadone achieves only 3% abstinence after decades of prescribed usage. Twelve Steps does better at 20 to 30% achieved in 9 to 36 months or longer.

And even the cost of delivering self-help training residential recovery is different from other residential rehabilitation operations, because of our willingness and ability to offer the choice of “Payment by Results” as an alternative to the usual full up-front fee for attendance on course rather than for an agreed result.

Depending on local property and wages costs, which can vary from one part of the UK to another, the current self-help programme fee for the newest Centre in the expensive south of London counties is £29,000 on a Payment by Results basis. But other residential rehabs cost from £12,000 to £39,000 or more, for treatment periods far shorter than self-helps 12 weeks and with full payment due irrespective of the result.

And of course results of 20 to 30% abstinence are nowhere near as valuable as the self-help training results of 55 to 69+% of lasting relaxed abstinence and recovery – first time through the programme.

There is also another important difference.

Psycho-pharm treatment prescribing considers ALL addicts as nearly impossible to cure, as a result of which they say they should ALL be put on Subutex or methadone Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST).

On the other hand, self-help training centres know from 50 years experience of training addicts to cure themselves, that 70 to 75% of addicts who have been using for months or years WANT TO QUIT, have tried at numerous times (often daily) to do so and yet, having again failed, STILL WANT TO STOP.

THEIR PROBLEM IS THEREFORE NOT WILLINGNESS,

IT IS LACK OF RECOVERY KNOW-HOW.

The other 25 to 30% are resistive cases who for the three well known main reasons have no desire or intention whatsoever to quit. These are the horses you can lead to water, but who will not drink. So, with no willingness, how can they ever be trained ?

The other 70 to 75% of addicts need, want AND DESERVE Self-Help Training Technology. And the rest of the society also needs them to have it, because addicts are the 5% of the UK population which impinge most heavily on the lives of the other 95%.

It is therefore encouraging to observe that internationally more citizens and a majority of policy-makers are now recognising the direction in which addiction inevitably takes our families and society, and have seen that the most important first step is to REDUCE THE DEMAND which can arise from within a family from vested interest and criminal advice leading to poor parenting.

Westminster, Brussels, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff and other parliaments are now increasingly aware that amongst the problems which drug and alcohol addicts cause are the following:

* Addicts and drunks cause most accidents at work.

* Addicts mug and rob old people.

* Addicts and drunks cause most road accidents.

* Addicts sell drugs to children (and others).

* Addict increase the numbers of prostitutes and toy boys

    in our towns and cities.

* Addicts disrupt our schools, the education of our children

    and the life of our communities.

* Addicts bankrupt businesses and destroy jobs.

* Addicts break into and burgle people's homes.

* Addicts spread HIV, AIDS and hepatitis.

* Addicts and drunks commit the most crimes,

and,

ADDICTS ARE UNDOUBTEDLY THE REAL CURRENT THREAT TO

OUR LIVES AND TO EVERYBODY'S FUTURE.

AND THIS INCLUDES ADDICTS ON ILLEGAL, LICENSED

AND PRESCRIBED DRUGS.

This is because their addiction controls them, and

THIS AFFECTS EVERYBODY – EVERYONE'S FAMILY, EVERYONE'S

INCOME, EVERY JOB, EVERYONE'S HEALTH AND EVERY ONE'S

HOME – INCLUDING YOURS.

The above is about addicts in general and the increasing damage which they do to all walks of society and to our whole economy.

They are also the reasons why (although we might believe it is not our fault or our problem) WE MUST ALL DO OUR UTMOST TO POSITIVELY HELP ADDICTS reduce their numbers and their dependency on those of us who do not use drugs.

Because we have the truth staring us in the face, we can be sure it is no use relying on government alone to solve the substance addiction problems which are daily causing anxiety, crime, violence, terrorism, damage, accidents, injuries, disease and even death.

Every one of us is needed to solve this problem because, in the final analysis, it is OUR problem, even if our family and children have so far managed to avoid actual drug usage and the direct results of addictive behaviour.

SO, IT IS SINCERELY HOPED YOU AND YOURS WILL NEVER HAVE

TO DIRECTLY FACE ADDICTION, AND HOPED ALSO THAT YOU WILL RECOGNISE THAT SUCH AN ESCAPE WILL MAINLY COME ABOUT BECAUSE YOU HELPED STAMP OUT ADDICTIVE DRUGS

BY HELPING VICTIMS OF ADDICTION TO RECOVER !

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For further information, you may wish to contact:

Elisabeth M. Reichert, Field Staff Member

for Narconon United Kingdom,

e-mail elisabeth.3@btinternet.com, or phone 0775 263 0319.

who can arrange for you to inspect (without obligation),

and talk to the staff and students at,

the NARCONON UNITED KINGDOM Training Centre,

at HEATHFIELD, East Sussex, TN21 0DJ.