Probably my greatest success with Scientology which has had the most impact on my life was when I realized that I was, without a doubt and with no exceptions, responsible for the condition of every aspect of my life. Previously I'd had the habit of seeing other people or events or circumstances outside of myself as the cause of whatever I didn't like about my life. I hadn't noticed that to think this way made me powerless to change things for the better. I was enslaved by an attitude - an attitutde of my own creation and perpetuation. I had been exposed to other religions and philosophies, but most of them had not seemed to have much practical application in my everyday life. I was in my twenties when I became aware of the inescapable truth that whatever you put out in life - you are going to get something similar back. But it wasn't until I undertook the study of Scientology that I began to approach life with an attitude of uncompromising responsibility for every aspect of living. That was when I finally realized that I alone was responsible for the existing situations in every area of my life, and that by learning to use the tools of Scientology I could cause any area of my life to improve and be the way I wanted it to be. What a liberating realization that was! I'll give an example of how I used just a small part of what I've learned and successfully raised children who are truly a source of pride and joy to me. Before I had kids, I never dreamed that one day I would be saying that my greatest achievement had been raising, nurturing, and educating my children. At that time, I would have considered those things to be less meaningful than I do now. I always knew that one day I would have a family, but it seemed like that would be a less important part of my life compared to other things I might do. I had graduated from high school at an Air Force base in Germany and then went to college for a year at Michigan State University. I left college and worked for a while, got married, and later went back to school at the City College of New York in Manhattan where I was living at the time. I liked children, but I wasn't in a big hurry to have kids. I finished the remainder of college there and worked for a while in a medical research lab. It was at that time that my husband and I decided to start a family. Both of us having grown up in locations that were closer to nature, we didn't really want to raise children in New York City. Thus it was that when I was expecting our first child, we moved to Columbus, Ohio. My plan was that once the baby was born I would stay home to care for it for a short time, and then I would go back to school at Ohio State University where I planned to begin working on my Ph.D. But this was never to be! Sara made her entrance on a Friday afternoon in November, and no one was more surprised than I to discover that I was possessed by a fierce maternal instinct! I felt so responsible for her well-being, her comfort, her happiness, her learning all the skills of life - everything. The love and responsibility that I felt for my child absolutely overshadowed everything else. Nothing else seemed as important. I willingly put aside my professional aspirations and embraced the duties and joys of motherhood. I studied nutrition so that Sara would be healthy. I talked to her and named everything she saw so that she would acquire a large vocabulary. I began reading picture books to her when she was around one month old. By the time she was a year old, she had her own low shelf in the kitchen cupboard, equipped with her own pots, bowls, wooden spoons, and egg beater - real ones, not toys - which she played with on the floor while I cooked dinner. I did everything I could think of to enhance her life. This was the most creative work I had ever done, and I loved it! Three years later Sara's sister, Melissa, was born. I undertook to teach my children everything I could. I wanted to make life interesting and fun for them. They were both bright and curious, so this was easy to do. At first I thought of my task in simple, well-defined terms. I would expose them to culture through literature and the arts. We went to dramatic, musical, and dance performances. Both my husband and I read to them constantly. I was determined to teach them the skills of keeping a household, cleaning, cooking, entertaining, etiquette, and the incoporation of aesthetics into everyday life. So I let them help me do things even when they were small. We had great fun together, and I especially enjoyed watching them learn things, discover the world around them, and develop skills as they grew. Melissa was 18 months old and Sara was four years, when I discovered Scientology. I was immediately interested in how I could better myself as an individual and also how I could apply what I was learning to be a better mother. I began to use the principles of communication and other knowledge I gained from my Scientology training in my conversations and dealings with my daughters. I could see that these methods worked well and had a good effect. Sara, in particular flourished and demonstrated an intelligence and maturity beyond her years. Melissa, however, had always been an uncomfortable baby - she'd experienced colic, sleep difficulties, and emotional storms that caused her to cry so hard that she would lose her breath and go unconscious. She finally slept through the night for the first time when she was two years old, but the emotional upsets continued as she grew. I empathized with her discomforts, but I was determined to get a handle on the problem without resorting to the use of drugs and medications that are often prescribed for children who manifest such behavior. In one of my Scientology courses I learned some procedures that will help a person become more comfortable in his surroundings, help him to exert more control over himself and his environment, and increase his ability to communicate. This seemed to be just what Melissa needed. By this time, she was 3 1/2 years old, and I thought I could attempt to use just the simplest of the procedures with her, spending only a few minutes at a time. The results were amazing. She became a much calmer child, more in control, less easily upset. Furthermore, never again did she cry to the point of going unconscious! Our entire family - grandparents, aunts, and uncles included - was happy for Melissa because she was now a happier little person. The next big turning point for our family came 3 years later - the year that Sara was in third grade and Melissa was in kindertgarten. That was the year that I became utterly disillusioned with the educational system. But it is necessary to understand how involved I had been in educating my children even before they went to school. I introduced them to the fundamentals of phonics and reading and basic arithmetic operations including addition and subtraction. In fact, Sara read both the newspaper and books before she went to school - she read "Little Women" by Louisa Alcott when she was six! In the early grades Sara had been an outstanding student. By third grade,still outstanding, she was being held back in her progress by the school itself. I recall teaching her how to do long division in an hour one afternoon because she was bored with having to do the same things in arithmentic that she had already known how to do in second grade! Melissa was encountering similar frustrations in her kindergarten class, and with her emotional temperament, she found school to be upsetting and her teachers found her to be difficult to handle. In addition, I had recently learned the entire technology of study methods which Mr. Hubbard had researched in the sixties. since I had been volunteering as a classroom tutor in Sara's class for two years and in Melissa's for one year, I was familiar with the methods in current use in our school system. And it was easy to see that my children were going to be handicapped by the very educational system that was supposed to be responsible for teaching them. Something had to be done. It was unacceptable to me that their education be lacking in any way. So I decided to take them out of school and teach them at home. The school authorities first tried to oppose this action, but eventually gave in. (That is another story and an amazing success in itself!) I proceeded to home-school both of my daughters through high school - nine years for Sara and 12 years for Melissa. Yes, they learned algebra, plane geometry, and trigonometry, they dissected specimens in biology, learned English grammar inside and out, became adept at cleaning and cooking and using a hammer, and learned Latin and French. They studied dance, theater, and art. They participated in the swim team at a local community center. They read Twain, Dickens, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, etc. and wrote term papers, just like everyone else does (but the grading standards were probably tougher than most.) And - the question people most frequently ask - they had no problem "learning to socialize" with other children. (Children learn this at home, not at school, anyway.) More importantly, they learned how to study the right way so that they are now able to learn any subject they choose to study. They also were able to pursue their own special interests and goals to a degree that would have been impossible in school. Probably most important of all, they were given the opportunity to study Mr. Hubbard's work in the area of ethics and logic. This had a great deal to do with their upright aproach to life and to the integrity and rationality that govern their decisions and behavior to this day. Did I ever have to worry that my kids might be tempted to experiment with drugs? Not for a minute! I knew that they were fully aware of the ill effects that resulted from drug usage. And I knew that they were sensible in their opinions on such matters. This was because they had been informed about the effect of drugs from the time that they were small. Since they had never been given so much as an aspirin, they enjoyed a clarity of perception and a mental alertness that they did not wish to diminish. So, were we the perfect family? Not at all; we had our share of problems and difficulties. But we had respect for one another and love. And we shared a set of principles from our study of Scientology against which we measured our actions. One of these principles was the idea of continuing to communicate even in the face of disagreements and emotional upsets. By maintaining communication over the years, I've enjoyed continued relationships with my daughters. Sara, entertaining and humorous from the time she learned to speak, delights me now with her wit when we discuss matters at work. Melissa tells me at least once every week how much she values the way she was raised and how she sees over and over the difference between herself and other people she meets - with respect to her skills, her confidence, and her ability to accomplish what she sets out to do. I had a wonderful time raising my kids, and when everyone says that I was exceptionally successful in that area I have to agree. Sara is a business executive with incredible perception, organizational and planning skills and is also an accomplished hostess. Melissa is an immensely talented artist with a highly developed awareness of the feelings and reactions of other people. Although they are both still quite young, they command respect and admiration due to their maturity and accomplishments. I am ever thankful that I found Scientology when my children were very young because it provided a foundation of common sense princples that made child-rearing easy and fun and successful. It is so much easier to do something well when you don't doubt yourself or your decisions. The degree of success that I achieved in raising my children is in proportion to the certainty that the principles of Scientology gave me. I can't imagine life any other way. It is my sincere hope that other parents will experience the same success that I did by applying the principles of Scientology to raising their families.