Expert: Laurie Hamilton - 6/30/2009

Question
Hi Laurie. I'd like to ask you a question about overts.

I have some overts that I don't want to share with anyone. In fact, the thought of sharing them with someone at the church turns my stomach.

Is there another way to disclose overts without involving others? Someone told me once that you can just write them on a sheet of paper using the time/place/incident format and that that's just as good. Is this true? Or do overts HAVE to involve another person in the church?

Also, if you disclose some really screwed up overts to someone at the church and they don't feel that they are justifiable, can they declare you a criminal or insane?

Answer
The only way to get rid of the effects of overts is to completely unburden one's self.  If this cannot be done informally, it can be done in session - where no one but the auditor and the C/S will ever know.  Much of this is handled on Grade 2.  But as long as one is withholding, the same effort that is used to withhold the overt is also holding the overt and its effects to you.

If you don't communicate it to SOMEONE, then it is not communicated - and if it is not communicated it is withheld.

There is no such thing as a justifiable overt.  If it was justified, (just, proper, the right thing to do) it was not an overt.  Murdering someone is an overt.  If it was an overt, it was not justifiable.  Shooting someone who is trying to murder you is not murder, and may not be an overt - it may have been the most survival thing you could have done under the circumstances.

If one has a pattern of continually committing "really screwed up" overts, then one IS criminal or insane.  It's not a matter of opinion or reaction.  Keep in mind an overt is something which harms survival.  It is not something which people disapprove of.

Not knowing the substance of any "really screwed up" overts you may have, it is impossible for me to predict how another church member might react to them.  But do keep in mind - we exist to help people, and not to judge them.  People on the whole are in pain and/or in trouble, and often do things they should not have done or that they regret.  Being human is a state of "screwed-upness."  Some of the things people are protecting most fiercely from being revealed are, in the greater scheme of things, important only to them - and of little consequence to anyone else.