Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian fine artist and photographer whose disturbing images provoke a new view of life.

Craig Mullins is a brilliant artist, whose works are displayed online at http://www.goodbrush.com/.

His site includes a gallery of many magnificent paintings. 

He works in various media, but I’ve copied two of his watercolors (my favorite media and he uses it so very well). 

Maxfield Parrish was an enormously talented, visionary artist, whose beautiful paintings continue to inspire us today.

He suffered from emotional and spiritual problems called, at that time, a "nervous breakdown." 

Freud, who rose to prominence in Parrish’s lifetime, aware of the fact that artists tended to have such problems, and unable to discover why, went so far as to theorize that to create beautiful art one had to be a bit crazy.  (After all, look at Vincent Van Gogh), but this was just because he stopped short of really researching and understanding the mind.

Unfortunately, psychiatrists then "moved in" on artists and there have been many tragedies from that unholy alliance (see CCHR web site for many examples).

It wasn’t until I read the book Science of Survival  by L. Ron Hubbard that I learned the truth about this.  Creativity is inherent in the being.  It is not assisted whatsoever by neurosis or psychosis.  It is not necessary to suffer oneself to understand and have compassion for those who do, or to tell the take in line, color, verse or film.

Several years ago David Miscavige gave a speech at the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles where he explained the special love L. Ron Hubbard had for the artist.  L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "A culture  is as rich and as capable of suviving as it has imaginative artists, skilled men of science, a high ethic level, workable government, land and natural resources, in about that order of importance." 

I salute Maxwell Parish and his passion and purity of expression and artists everwhere who inject their magic into our lives.

I had the opportunity to meet Rev. Charles Kennedy about a month ago at the Celebrity Center Anniversary Gala in Hollywood. Rev. Kennedy was one of speakers, and what an inspirational man he is!

So I was delighted to find a story about what he’s doing made it into Associated Press. 

"The Rev. Charles Kennedy travels the country preaching the brilliance of L. Ron Hubbard’s words. Children in his after-school program learn with the Scientology founder’s methods; church members study one of his books. The minister calls Scientologists the kindest people he’s met and their programs the best he’s found.

"One thing sets Kennedy apart: He and his congregants are not Scientologists. They are Christians.

"The Glorious Church of God in Christ here is among a number of houses of worship across the U.S. — how many is not clear — that have begun to embrace some of the Church of Scientology’s programs."

Of course it wouldn’t be "media" without controversy. But it’s ironic.  The question I have is why are some people so dedicated to preventing people from getting real help–help that doesn’t require a life-long prescription for some med that later turns out to cause violence, suicide or fatal heart of liver complications, gross weight problems and ad infenitum (but which flows a constant stream of cash into Big Pharma coffers).

Scientology is actually very simple.  It is a study of truth, a study of knowledge, and a practical approach to the spiritual, affirming one’s spirituality and giving one the tools to operate in the physical universe while maintaining and improving one’s own integrity, freedom and responsibility.   

I leave it to you to wonder why some people would oppose something like that. 

When I first read Dianetics it was to learn about me.

And I really did.  

I always thought psychology was a crock.  My mother used to spout psychological platitudes and just loved telling me what my motives were for doing things,forgetting things, not doing things, and anything else she could come up with.

Don’t get me wrong.  I loved my mother dearly, and miss her a great deal now that she’s gone.  But I could never do anything with her evaluation of my behavior.

When I was in graduate school I got into a really destructive relationship. The guy was no good for me at all, and I knew it, but I was totally obsessive about him.  To be honest, I didn’t even like him, but I was miserable without him.

That’s when a friend gave me a copy of Dianetics.

I started reading it and I was amazed.  It was so clear.  It was so true.  It made so much sense.  It answered tons about me.  And it had no banal, trite, lazy explanations.  I decided right then that I was going to learn this and use it to help people.

That was quite a while ago.  But I did learn it and I do use it and it does help people.  Enormously.

Now I have just finished reading the book again.  This time, an edition just released last month by David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center.  

A tremendous amount of work went into really upgrading the book, making the presentation far more easy to read and providing such an extensive glossary that practically every word I wanted to look up was provided right there.

This time reading it I wasn’t nearly as interested in what was going on inside my head.  I was much more interested in reading it from the perspective of what it said about others, and using it to learn about them.  And boy did I learn a lot.

 I’m sharing this because I don’t know many people who couldn’t benefit from learning more about themselves, or learning more about others.

And I’m telling you, the stuff in this book is amazing.  L. Ron Hubbard was such a genius. 

Here’s wehre you can order a copy of this new edition of Dianetics .