Changes in the Guidelines of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities Adopted by the 1997 World Conference
(The text that appears below in normal typeface is the language of the previously existing Guidelines. The text in bold typeface was formally adopted by the World Conference as changes to the previous Guidelines. Language that was deleted by the World Conference from the previous Guidelines has a bold line drawn through it.)
26. PROPOSAL:
WORKSHOPS
That workshops be organized on International, Regional, Area and Class levels. That teachers encourage students to attend workshops at the level for which they are ready.
That our goal in workshops is to bring together as great a variety of people of different backgrounds as possible (unless the topic of the workshop is itself self-limiting), as a practical step toward the unity of all humankind, rather than bringing together only people who are easily comfortable and familiar with each other.
That there be one free place for young people for every twenty fee-paying adults.
That workshops be led by one leader and organized by one organizer, except by special permission of the International Reference Person. That leadership fees be paid only to one leader and organizer's fees be paid only to one organizer. If the leader uses assistants or the organizer uses assistants, they are either volunteers and unpaid, or paid by the individual leader or organizer out of his or her fee at his or her choice. (A current exception to this is family workshops, which shall be led by no more than two leaders who may each be paid a leadership fee.)
That meeting places for workshops be accessible and comfortable for people with various disabilities (for example, that they be wheelchair accessible for people with mobility disabilities, that they have microphone loop systems or sign language interpreters for people with hearing difficulties, that there be support persons assigned for people with vision difficulties, etc., etc.).
That such accessibility become a requirement for our workshops, and where such locations are not available, that the Communities take the initiative in making them so accessible, conferring with the people in charge of the location and making contributions of money and physical labor necessary to achieve such results.
That this be our goal and our standard rather than settling for any limited accessibility.
REASON
The workshop format has proven very effective for the growth of both individuals and Communities.
Our workshops benefit from having all varieties of people. They need to offer a broad vista for human living.
Having one leader and one organizer is consistent with our fundamental principle that leadership is individual so that accountability is clear and that every activity or organization must have one person designated as the leader.
35. PROPOSAL:
REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHERS
That persons applying to teach Re-evaluation Counseling shall, whenever possible, have participated in extended classwork themselves, have Co-Counseled effectively with a num-ber of Co-Counselors, discharge consistently and well in their sessions and have continuing good relations with the Co-Coun--seling Community in their own Area. Teachers should un-derstand the purpose of the Community policy on socializing and have a rational relationship to it in their own counseling and their own lives.
That in approving teachers the Reference Persons take into account competence, maturity, responsibility, relationships with others and the person's own mastery of the environment. The goal is to have each teacher be free of any pattern that interferes with being an excellent model in the Community. THAT, IN PARTICULAR, TEACHERS BE REQUIRED TO MOVE AGAINST ALL CLASSIST, RACIST, ANTI-SEMITIC, SEXIST and OTHER OPPRESSIVE PATTERNS, INCLUDING GREED, WHICH EXIST IN OUR CULTURES AND BE CARE-FUL THAT THESE NOT EXIST UNCHALLENGED IN RE-EVAL-UATION COUNSELING ACTIV-I-TIES OR IN THEIR OWN LIVES. That, further, teachers and potential teachers rec-ognize that while all compulsive behavior and compulsive "thinking" in their lives will and must yield to discharge, no teacher shall use or defend the use of the following addictive agents: tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, tranquilizers, or other drugs, including psychiatric drugs. (These particular addictive agents have been selected as a beginning because they represent a few of the more obvious and harmful substances our society conditions us to accept.) That teachers' attention also be directed toward ra-tion-al use of food, and drink, and money.
That eagerness to teach not be regarded as the only criterion of a teacher nor even a necessary one. That Reference Persons not feel obligated to unthinkingly approve or recommend as teachers those individuals whose patterns seek approval through being a teacher. Reference Persons should be on the look-out for Co-Counselors who are reluctant to teach and must be counseled and persuaded to do so.
That teachers of Re-evaluation Counseling be able at all times to refrain from engaging in behaviors that endanger themselves or others.
REASON
These requirements are necessary to ensure effective teaching. Each teacher should be an outstanding example of the basic theory of Re-evaluation Counseling. The mind of the human being functions at its best when it is released from the effects of undischarged distress and is free from the effects of harmful substances.
It is necessary for teachers to move against oppressive patterns:
1. For their own successful re-emergence
2. In order to be models for other people
3. In order to have successful classes and successful Communities, we need to eliminate these oppressive pa-tterns and a good place to start is with the leadership.
4. How our leaders, classes and Communities function is a model for the wide world. In order to be leaders in the wide world, moving against these oppressive patterns has to be part of our active and essential progress.
While people are not to be blamed for acting out harmful behaviors, a certain level of rational behavior is expected of Co-Counseling teachers, no matter how they were hurt. With some harmful behaviors, a Reference Person may certify a Co-Counselor to teach so long as he or she has made a commitment to discharge on and end the behavior (smoking tobacco is an example). However, there are levels of dramatization that are so harmful as to be completely unacceptable in a teacher of Re-evaluation Counseling and for which a commitment to end the behavior is insufficient. Engaging in violent behaviors or behaviors that entail a high risk of physical harm to oneself or others is an example of a dramatization that is inconsistent with representing the RC Community as a teacher.
41. PROPOSAL:
FINANCES
That teachers of Re-evaluation Counseling classes include in their calculation of the fees charged for the class, as a part of the basic expense of the class, a payment to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. of 25% of the gross revenue. For the purpose of this proposal, support groups (Area and Regional) and Area-based gather-ins should be treated as "classes," and if any fees are collected for them, the fees should be allocated in the same manner as class fees are allocated, as detailed in this proposal. The person submitting the fees for any Regional event should designate which Area(s) should receive the funds. This 25% shall be sent promptly to Personal Counselors Inc. at 719 Second Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA, (checks should be made out to "Personal Coun-se-lors Inc."), as a fee for the use of the terms "Re-evaluation Coun-seling," "Re-evaluation Education," "Co-Counseling," or "Re-evaluation," which are service marks owned by Personal Counselors Inc. and whose use is not in the public domain. Three-tenths of these amounts (the twenty-five percent of gross revenue) shall be used by Per-sonal Counselors Inc. in its work of servicing the activities of the Re-evaluation Coun-seling Communities through correspondence, telephoning, record-keeping, copying, computing, organizing of conferences, and for International Outreach. Seven-tenths of these amounts (the twenty-five percent of gross income) may be withdrawn for local outreach purposes on signed, approved applications by the Area Reference Person (or designated teacher in an unorganized area) to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. This has the force of a requirement.
REASON
This is a convenient, unrestimulative collection point for the Community's necessary outreach funds.
42. PROPOSAL:
FINANCES
That the organizer of any workshop on the Area, Regional, or International level include in his or her calculation of the fees charged for the workshop, as a part of the basic expense of the workshop, a payment to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. of 10% of the gross revenue. Fees collected at Regional gather-ins should be allocated in the same way as fees for Regional workshops, as detailed in this proposal. This 10% shall be sent promptly to Personal Counselors Inc. at 719 Second Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA (c hecks should be made out to "Personal Counselors Inc.") as a fee for the use of the terms "Re-evaluation Counseling," "Re-evaluation Education," "Co-Counseling," or "Re-evaluation," which are service marks owned by Personal Counselors Inc. and whose use is not in the public domain. These funds shall be used by Personal Counselors Inc. in its work of servicing the activities of the Re-evaluation Counseling Com-munities through correspondence, telephoning, record-keeping, copying, computing, organizing of conferences, and for International Outreach. This proposal has the force of a requirement.
The basic pay for a workshop leader may be negotiated to be lower, especially with consideration for local economies, but shall not exceed these standard fees: International Reference Person and Alternate International Reference Person, $750/day; Regional Reference Person or International Liberation Reference Person, $350/day; Area Reference Person, $250/day; RC Teacher, $150/day. A Friday evening to Sunday afternoon workshop counts as two days. The leader's travel expenses to the workshop shall be paid.
REASON
This The Community Service Fund is a convenient, unrestimulative collection point for the Community's necessary outreach funds.
43. PROPOSAL:
FINANCES: COLLECTION OF OUT-REACH FUNDS -- WORKSHOPS
That workshops organized on an Area or class level shall divide income over expenses (the term "expenses" to include the basic fees agreed on for the leader and for the organizer of the workshop) between the leader and the Community Ser-vice Fund of Personal Counselors Inc.: one-quarter to the lead-er and three-quarters to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. Three-tenths of this three-quarters shall be used for servicing the Community and for International Outreach. Seven-tenths of these amounts (the three-quarters of net income) may be withdrawn for local outreach purposes on signed, approved applications by the Area Reference Person (or designated teacher in an unorganized Area) to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. (Checks should be made out to "Personal Counselors Inc.) This proposal has the force of a requirement.
In the case of Regional and International level workshops, the income over expenses shall be divided between the leader, the organizer, the Community Service Fund of Personal Coun-selors Inc. and the Rational Island Publishers Publications Fund -- one-twelfth to the organizer, three-twelfths to the leader, and one-third each to the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. and the Publications Fund of Rational Island Pub-lishers. Income over expenses from Regional gather-ins should be allocated in the same way as income over expenses for Regional workshops, as detailed in this proposal.
REASON
This is a convenient, unrestimulative collection point for the Community's necessary outreach funds. It will allow fair adjustment of compensation to the leader and organizer for handling larger workshops and give support to Outreach and publications.
45. PROPOSAL:
FINANCES: OUTREACH FUNDS OF THE RE-EVALUATION COUNSELING COMMUNITY
That the Community raise and disburse funds for the primary pur-pose of outreach to new populations not yet involved in Re-eval-uation Counseling. These funds may also be used for the purpose of equalizing to some extent the opportunities available to people whose inherent situations make it necessary to have assistance for full participation in Re-evaluation Counseling activities. In either case, Outreach Funds are intended to be used to train leaders and assist new people to begin to participate in Re-evaluation Counseling rather than to sustain ongoing participation of these individuals over time. That we keep these outreach funds both in the Re-evaluation Foundation, where their collection and disbursement meets the charitable and educational purposes of the Foundation's articles of incorporation, and in the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc., where matters of organizational support and expense are involved.
That we encourage voluntary donations to the Re-evaluation Foundation by all Co-Counselors and their contacts. That we ask International and Area Reference Persons to make recommendations to the Re-evaluation Foundation for opportunities for them to make grants within the charitable and educational purposes of the Foundation.
That the Community Service Fund of Personal Counselors Inc. agrees to hold 70% of the contributions from the class and workshop net incomes from a particular Area for organizational outreach purposes of that particular Area.
Since Personal Counselors Inc. must legally handle the Outreach funds both of the individual Area Communities or incipient Communities and of the International Community as if they are income to, and expenses of, Personal Counselors Inc. itself and therefore legally must and does pay federal income tax on any such receipts as exceed the expenditures for any year, Personal Counselors Inc. is authorized to deduct from the individual Area (or incipient Area) Outreach funds kept in the Community Service Fund whatever income tax will be levied by the U.S. government on the amount of increase in these local funds for a given year.
46. PROPOSAL:
OUTREACH: VOLUNTEER AS-SIST-ANCE TO THE RE-EVALUATION FOUNDATION FOR OUTREACH EFFORTS
Area Reference Persons, in the case of projects and outreach efforts on a local basis, and the International Reference Person, in the case of projects and outreach efforts on a wider level, shall assist the Re-evaluation Foundation in identifying potential grantees and prioritizing grant applications. Area Reference Persons and the International Reference Person shall familiarize themselves with the Foundation's tax-exempt purposes and functions, as set forth in the Foundation's Articles of Incorporation and bylaws, in order to assist the Foundation in efficiently and effectively identifying appropriate grantees. Completed grant applications shall be submitted to the Foundation.
That individual Co-Counselors be encouraged to become volunteer workers for the Re-evaluation Foundation in soliciting voluntary contributions to the Re-evaluation Foundation from people and institutions outside the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities.
That fundraising for Re-evaluation Counseling be done primarily on a one-to-one basis with individuals with whom people have existing relationships and that the basic information about Re-evaluation Counseling be shared with potential donors. That no individual member of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community be targeted for direct solicitation of funds for Re-evaluation Counseling Community projects. That any local money-raising activities be planned in cooperation and consultation with the Regional Reference Person.
REASON
Area Reference Persons and the International Reference Pers-on should promote the outreach efforts of the Re-evalua-tion Foundation by volunteering their time and energy assisting in the process of identifying appropriate grantees for the Foun-dation. These individuals are most in touch with the needs and resources of the local or International Community and can efficiently and effectively assist the Foundation in iden-tifying grantees and projects worthy of Foundation -funding.
Members of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community are welcome to make donations to the Community directly and/or through the Re-evaluation Foundation. Our efforts at fundrais-ing, however, need to focus on bringing funds into the Re-evaluation Counseling Community from those individuals who are not yet themselves involved in the activities of Re-evaluation Counseling.
As with the activity of communicating about Re-evaluation Counseling, people receive the most accurate impression of Re-evaluation Counseling, and the reasons to provide financial support for our activities, through one-to-one communication. The basis of that communication needs to be caring for the person and accurate information about Re-evaluation Counseling. It is only on this basis that thoughtful solicitation of funds can occur. Any individual who is solicited for funds should also be viewed as a potential member of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community.
Requesting donations from other Co-Counselors can serve to disrupt the safe environment that we strive to obtain for all people in the Re-evaluation Counseling Community. We do not want any undischarged patterns about needs and money to interfere with the full development of the safety and trust necessary to make Co-Counseling relationships effective. In addition, we do not want to encourage dependency within the Re-evaluation Counseling Community. Co-Counselors need to use the discharge process and Community policy as resources for taking action in the world.
All Co-Counselors are encouraged to participate in raising funds for the Re-evaluation Counseling Community. This is a re-emergent activity. Fundraising has at its base the reclaiming of power. Effective fundraising requires flexible intelligence -- decision, discharge, and thinking.
47. PROPOSAL:
FINANCES: OUTREACH TO ALL OPPRESSED GROUPS
Each Area shall commit itself to spreading Re-evaluation Coun-seling to all oppressed groups. The Area Reference Person and International Reference Person shall, where appro-priate and consistent with the Foundation's tax-exempt purposes and functions, apply to the Re-evaluation Foundation for grants for scholarships and to subsidize initial classes among oppressed groups.
Scholarships to workshops, for workshop fees or transportation expenses, may be furnished only from the official Outreach Funds (Area or International) of the Community and not from the workshop income itself or from any Area Maintenance Funds.
REASON
We have a commitment to reach all humankind.
The official Outreach Funds (Area or International) of the Community have proved to be a conveniently central and fixed location and a viable mechanism for providing scholarships for classes and workshops. This also avoids depleting workshop funds or misusing Area Maintenance Funds.
The practice of providing scholarships in exchange for work at a workshop violates the basic principle that helping to make things go well is a natural, enjoyable, and human trait and that harnessing it to any greed or gain motive is not rational.
52. PROPOSAL:
RELATIONSHIPS
That the Co-Counseling relationship be recognized as a unique opportunity to move toward total re-emergence of the human.
That members of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities socialize with people outside the Re-evaluation Counseling Community (unless they were social companions before they became interested in Re-evaluation Counseling) as a gen-eral rule. That any get-togethers that do take place between members of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community be organized with a re-emergent purpose, so that the peo-ple are together primarily for discharge, for re-evaluation and for group counseling activity, with any food or entertainment being only supportive of this main purpose.
That people who have learned to Co-Counsel and ask to become members of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community be told that to be members of the Community requires that they agree to the "No-Socializing" Principle as outlined above and agree to respect it. That any Co-Counselor or leader who does not respect the no-socializing agreement and persists in violating it be clearly told that they are thereby disqualifying themselves from being current, and possibly future, leaders and teachers by this. That Co-Counselors not be recommended for leadership or certified as teachers unless they have made plain their acceptance of the no-socializing agreement. That whether or not an individual Co-Counselor who persists in violation of this policy may continue to participate in any Co-Counseling events may be decided by the Regional Reference Person, in consultation with local leadership.
That Co-Counselors in or leading wide-world organizations not recruit other Co-Counselors into their organizations or hire other Co-Counselors to work in their organizations. Co-Counselors who ask to join their wide-world organizations should instead be urged to start their own wide-world organizations and recruit contacts from the wide world.
REASON
This proposal supports and protects the one-point program of Re-evaluation Counseling.
We want to create and maintain a safe environment for all people (particularly youth, women and other members of op-pressed groups). Further, we do not want any undischarged patterns about human relationships to interfere with the full development and maintenance of the safety and trust necessary to make the Co-Counseling relationship an effective one.
The basic Re-evaluation Counseling principle concerning multiple relationships between the same persons is that each such relationship must be awarely and responsibly maintained by each of the parties separate from each of the other relationships. Since it will take a long time for all of us in Re-evaluation Counseling to discharge our feelings of loneliness and fear of other people, the more "comfortable" socializing with Co-Counselors will be a continuing patterned attraction. The experience in the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities has been that establishing social relationships with Co-Counselors can be deleterious to the counseling relationship and a drain on the resources of the Re-evaluation Counseling Community. The human need of all of us to have aware, sup-port-ive social relationships can be fulfilled by bringing people who are already our friends and acquaintances into the counseling relationship.
If we do our socializing with "non-Co-Counseling" people, we will tend to take responsibility for the relationship. In addition, our heightened abilities to set up and enjoy good relationships with persons who are not already in Re-evaluation Counseling will enable us to share our information and skills more widely.
If we get together instead with people who are already Co-Coun-seling, there will be a tendency, whether noticed or not, to "lean" on the other people instead of being responsible ourselves. If get-togethers do have a planned Co-Counseling con-tent, then an incidental meal or song fest or "creative show-and-tell" will only assist in discharge and in the effective-ness of a get-together which is basically for Co-Coun-seling.
Because of the mistreatment people endure in their lives before they become Co-Counselors, many people enter counseling with great "frozen needs" for companionship, for love, for cooperation, for commitment from others. (We use the term "frozen need" to describe needs that are part of distress patterns which were installed in the past but which feel as if they are real present needs to their victims when they are restimulated.)
These "needs" cannot be filled but only discharged. Co-Counselors in the process of acting like supportive counselors to each other will often tend to seem to be the "answer" to all the needs of the past because of the thoughtfulness which we learn to extend to each other. This attraction will often take the form of romantic feelings, sexual feelings, or the desire to "spend time with each other," but the person can often also appear as the perfect business partner, "the mother or father I never had," etc. It is not that Co-Counselors should not or must not love each other. Basically all people inherently love all other people, and almost everyone comes to love their Co-Counselors very naturally and properly. That is no problem.
If a "socializing relationship" is entered into however, even if the patterns of both parties are equally enthusiastic, it will eventually spoil the Co-Counseling relationship, which relationship is by far the most important support that they can give each other.
If a Co-Counselor persists in pursuing a social or any other non-Co-Counselor relationship with someone that he or she first met through the Co-Counseling connection, even after every reasonable effort has been made to assist the person in reaching a rational position, the Community is no longer obligated to provide its resources to that individual.
Co-Counselors cannot become or remain leaders or teachers in the Community unless they can model this amount of responsibility for others.
Co-Counselors should train people from the wide world, teaching them RC and bringing them into RC classes, rather than huddling with people who have already been organized.
NEW GUIDELINE: 55. PROPOSAL:
PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
That all Co-Counselors strongly oppose, in words and actions, the use of psychiatric drugs. People using them should not be blamed. Instead, the oppressive society should be seen as the source of the difficulty. The decision to stop using psychiatric drugs must be made by the person using them. All Co-Counselors are asked to discharge any distress that interferes with them taking a firm stand agsint the use of psychiatric drugs and the concept of "mental illness."
REASON
Relying on psychiatric drugs fundamentally denies the intactness of our minds and of our ability to discharge, re-evaluate, and come up with an elegant solution for each new situation. Psychiatric drugs are very dangerous. They can cause permanent physical damage to the central nervous system or death. They inhibit discharge and re-evaluation. Many of the drugs affect the ability to learn. They may allow a person to "fit in" better and stop "anti-social" behavior by scaring and sedating him or her, but this just adds another layer of hurt.
Workers in the current "mental health" system often fall back on these drugs to control "symptoms" of "mental illness" because these workers are discouraged and over-worked in situations that are under-staffed, and they do not have access to effective counseling techniques. In many cases these workers are threatened with losing their jobs or being sued if they don't use psychiatric drugs. Though the situation may vary from country to country, forced drugging of "mental patients" is usual in the U.S. and elsewhere.
"Mental illness" does not exist. This term is used to describe a wide range of behaviors that the society finds restimulative and difficult to handle, including heavy prolonged discharge.
In the USA, Canada, and elsewhere, an increasingly disproportionate number of young people, poor people, people of color, elders, and disabled people are being put on these drugs without their consent in order to mask the hurts that are being inflicted on humans by a collapsing society. This will probably spread to the rest of the world unless we organize to stop it. Young people are particularly vulnerable to life-long dependence and addiction when adults push drugs on them at an early age as the solution to emotional, learning, and behavioral problems. Real solutions require fundamental societal changes and thoughtful human attention to these casualties of our class system.
The psycho-pharmaceutical industry is expanding rapidly and is making huge profits by exploiting the casualties of the social/economic system. These companies widely promote the misinformation that drugs are the best and only solution to "biological/genetic mental illness."
(Present Time No. 110, January 1998)