The following text is an adaptation of the cassette recording Dennis Stephens sent to his friend Judith. If you want to hear it from Dennis himself with on-screen study help, we have just the video for you! While all of our previous video recommendations throughout this online edition of TROM 2023 are meant to be watched in addition to reading the text, you can watch this video instead of reading this section and we recommend you stop reading right here and just watch, even if you decide later to read the text as well.
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HOW TO RUN LEVEL FIVE
As promised, this is the step-by-step procedure for running level five of TROM, extracted from a taped correspondence to Dennis Stephens’ friend Judith in answer to her inquiry.
I have limited the content of the recording to what is relevant. I have eliminated all the ‘errs’ and “ahs”, repeated words and other awkward aspects. I have proofread the errors the original transcriber made. I cut out data repeated from the book and made other such revisions so you can get a nice smooth read from the following and know exactly what to do next. Annotations and word definitions are also included.
I will go through the chart as if I’m the subject and I’m running level 5. I’m starting in at level 1A and the goals package I’m using is the basic “to know” goals package. Before I start, as given in the manual I would timebreak out all the day’s activities.
At level 1A the first thing you would do is put up the other’s postulate. The postulate is “must be known” and that is in the class of “not-self.”
Now, it doesn't matter where you put the postulate. Most people prefer to put the postulate into a mass. But you can put it into empty space if you want but most people find it easier to put the postulate into a mass. Either a created mass of your own choice or into a wall, a part of the physical universe or a fence or a passing car. It does not matter where you put it but the important thing is that it’s a “must be known” postulate and it’s in the class of “not-self”.
You must be certain that it’s in the class of “others”, which I will refer for more precision as the class of “not self.” Then you create the postulate “must know.” Now that postulate is in the class of “self”, that’s you, right where you are. It’s you holding the postulate “must know”.
You’ve got “must be known” over that way, origin. Receipt, where you are, you with the postulate “must know.” The level here is “Forced to know,” and it’s you being forced to know. Doesn’t matter what it is, you don’t have to specify, you’re just working with the postulates.
Don’t see yourself ‘over that way’ doing this. You get yourself right where you are with a “must know” postulate. There’s a little danger there that you can say, “Well, I’ll get me over that way”. That’s wrong. You get you right where you are with a “must know” postulate.
It’s you right where you are creating a “must know” postulate then you simply timebreak out anything that shows up. Any sensations that show up, you hold the situation as a cameo*, as a scenario, as a scene and you timebreak out anything that happens, anything that shows up you timebreak it.
*Cameo: a short description that neatly encapsulates someone or something: "cameos of street life"
Timebreak it out until it’s gone away and you put the postulates back up again. You put the postulates back up and if more scenes show up from the past you timebreak those back out. Have a good look at them, timebreak them back out of existence.
Then put the postulates back up again.
And you keep on doing this until you can put those postulates at level 1A with no more change occurring. You can quite happily put up the postulate “must be known” in the class of “not- self” over that way while you are sitting there with “must know” and you got the idea that you are being forced to know and that it’s quite OK, nothing happening, and it’s all quietened down. You are now ready to move on. You’ve started to get bored at that level. You’ve done all you can with that level. It’s time to move on.
So, we now move now from level 1A to level 1B. Now that is signified by you changing your postulate from “must know” to “mustn’t know.” You’re still at receipt point but changing your postulate from “must know” to “mustn’t know”.
The postulate “must be known” is still out there in the class of “not-self” but now it’s a game. Games condition. An opposition situation. We have “must be known” in the class of “not-self” and “mustn’t know” in the class of self and they are opposing postulates.
Just hold that situation and timebreak out anything that shows up. You continue with it until there’s no more change, you’ve timebroken out everything and you quite happily have that situation there where you have “must be known” over there in the class of “not-self” and “mustn’t know” in the class of self and you can hold that situation and there’s nothing else, it’s all quietened down, there’s nothing else happening and you’re getting bored with it. And say, “Right, it’s time to move on.”
So, you now move on from 1B to 2A. You’re going from origin now to receipt. There’s a bigger change there (that’s) going to happen now between 1B and 2A.
When you go from 1B to 2A you start off by instead of feeling yourself at receipt point you start to say to yourself, ‘I’m in “mustn’t know” but now I am starting to originate.’ You start to originate in “mustn’t know” and drive your postulate “mustn’t know” across to the other person, to the “must be known”, instead of him being the originator and you being at the receipt. At level 2A it’s you the originator of “mustn’t know” and he’s… you drive him into the receipt of “must be known.” You’re beginning to get at him, you begin to get at the opponent. So, it’s you at “mustn’t know” and him still holding his postulate of “must be known” but now instead of him being at the origin point he’s at the receipt point. But it’s still a game.
Then again you would do all the necessary timebreaking, the handling of anything that shows up. Clean everything up till you are quite bored with that level and can hold level 2A.
Then you would go to level 2B where now you’re going to actually overwhelm the opponent. You still stay in your “mustn’t know” postulate. You’re originating your “mustn’t know” postulate at level 2B and now you drive him, force him, by sheer power of postulate; you drive him from “must be known” into “mustn’t be known”.
You make him comply with your postulates. So, he is driven from the “must be known” he held at level 2A, and he now goes to “mustn’t be known” at level 2B. And level 2B has you with “mustn’t know” as the origin and the opponent is at “mustn’t be known” at the receipt point, there.
You’re not dealing with effects here on the chart. You’re dealing with postulates, that’s all you’re putting up is postulates. You’re not putting up effects. You’re not putting up sensations or creating people, you’re not mocking up* people, you’re not mocking up walls or floors or situations. You’re simply mocking up postulates and that bugs many people right at the start. They’re not used to working with just postulates. Well, that is the whole level of level 5. It’s postulates.
*A ‘mock-up’ is something the being creates instead of something in the physical universe, so to ‘mock it up’ is to create it yourself.
At first it seems very strange and so forth, and very odd and peculiar to be just working with postulates but after a while you get used to it and when you get into level 5 you get to a point eventually that you wouldn’t dream of working with anything else but postulates because you get the fastest result working with postulates. And you always work with just postulates and you simply timebreak out anything else that shows up, any incidents that show up, any sensations or any emotions or what have you that show up you simply timebreak them out.
So, at level 5 you are working purely with postulates. Once you grasp that you’ve got it.
As I said in the write-up, you can’t overrun these levels at level 5. If you stay on a level longer than you need to run, all that’s going to happen is you’re going to get bored. Boredom is the sign it’s time to move on.
Nothing terrible is going to happen if you overrun a level at level 5 but nasty things can start happening if you leave a level before you should have left it. As I mentioned in the write-up, if you leave a level before you should have left it you can get into a lot of difficulty, but I’ve given you the repair for level 5. It’s in the text.
Stay with a level until you’re so bored with it that you say, “Oh my God, it’s time I moved on. I’m absolutely bored with this. This is getting too easy.”
Now what happens if you can’t get the opponent to move his postulate? Supposing he’s got his postulates stuck there at “must be known” and you can’t drive him in to “mustn’t be known”. He’s a “mustn’t be known” and he refuses to budge. OK, just simply mock up lots and lots and lots of him with that postulate. Just keep creating the opponent with that postulate, just keep going. Might take 5 minutes, might take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour, just keep creating more and more and more of him and more and more an abundance of him with that postulate. Eventually you’ll be able to change the postulate.
So don’t quit there. Never feel that there’s a scarcity of postulates here. If a postulate fades out put it back. If it fades out on the opponent create it back in the opponent. But make sure the opponent is in the class of “not-self” and you’re in the class of self. You are always in the class of self and the opponent is always in the class of “not-self.”
Eventually, you’ll always be able to move on. There’s no such thing as getting stuck on the chart. If you get stuck you just simply create your way out of the stuck situation. You get the idea? Your own creativity will always get you out. You just simply have to create the stuck point. Keep creating lots and lots and lots of copies of what is happening… the point what’s sticking, get it. Get the idea? Then you move on.
Level 5 will not, repeat not; run in the absence of RI. that when it all starts to grind and get difficult and get hard and your field starts to go black (it starts to go black around you -Editor) and so forth, the most likely explanation is that you’ve neglected to run RI.
If you don’t run your RI on level 5 and run it copiously, if you don’t do that the whole thing is going to grind to a shuddering halt, and you won’t know what’s happened. You’ll think, “Oh my god, I’m… I’m going mad. It’s all falling apart.” And all you need to do is just run RI for 5 minutes and it will all come back right again.
So always bear that in mind. It’s a good thing to run RI before you start your session on level 5, and it’s a good thing to run RI between levels on the chart, and it’s a good thing to run RI when the going gets rough, and it’s a good thing to run RI at the end of the session, before you leave the session and end the session. In other words, you can run it at any time. And don’t be sparing on the running of RI.
As you get further and further in to level 5 this need to run RI lessens, it lessens, and towards the end you can almost do without it but you’re never completely free of the necessity of running RI.
It’s very important that early on when you’re working with goals packages* that you put the pan determined postulates in place, otherwise you won’t know why the postulates change on the chart. The whole thing doesn’t make much sense except in terms of the self-determined and pan determined postulates so if you try and take the pan determined postulates out of the equation the whole thing starts to become rather puzzling. So, we have to put them in, particularly early on in therapy.
*Remember, a ‘goals package’ is the sum of a goal expressed in its four legs. To know, to not know, to be known and to not be known are the 'legs' of the 'to know' goals package.
Later on in therapy they’ll become so automatic that you know they’re there, that you don’t really have to bother about them, they’re obviously there. You know? But early on you’ve got to consciously put them there so that you can thoroughly grasp the reasons why the postulates change when they change, and this whole subject of overwhelm then starts to make sense.
At level 1A the only postulates on the board are the opponent’s postulates. There’s his self-determined postulate of “must be known” and there’s you at your end of the comm line complying with that. Actually, they are both his postulates and they are his self-determined postulate “must be known” and at your end of the line you are sitting there holding “must know” which really is his pan-determined postulate, but you’re calling it your self-determined postulate. You see? You’ve bought it. You’ve bought the lie.
As soon as we go to level 1B which is a games level, you now stop buying the lie, your self-determined postulate of “mustn’t know” reasserts itself at the receipt point and with it your pan determined postulate of “mustn’t be known” reappears round the opponent at his end of the comm line.
At the same time, you’ve now clawed your way out of his pan determined postulate, so his pan determined postulate is still at your end of the comm. line and his pan determined postulate of course is “must know” but it’s not… it’s… you’re not in it. You’re not dramatizing* it anymore but it’s still at your end of the comm line. So, at level 1B there’s four postulates. There’s the two self-determined postulates and the two pan determined postulates and there in the positions I’ve given.
* “Dramatizing” something could also be expressed as ‘acting it out’.
Level 2A is also a games level so still there’s the four postulates, they haven’t changed, the only difference as I said is at 2B you’ve moved now from receipt to origin, but there’s still the four postulates in play. There’s still the two self-determined postulates and the two pan determined postulates in the positions I’ve just given.
At level 2B we have an overwhelm level. Now what happened here is that you’ve now overwhelmed the opponent. He’s lost self-determined postulate; he’s now bought your pan determined postulate. So, there’s your self-determined postulate of “mustn’t know” and he’s now bought your pan determined postulate of “mustn’t be known”. So, there’s only two postulates on the board and their both yours. There’s your self-determined postulate of “mustn’t know” and there’s your pan determined postulate which the opponent has bought and he’s now in “mustn’t be known”. So, they’re the only two postulates on the board. The opponent’s postulates have gone. He’s been overwhelmed.
So, at the overwhelm levels there are only two postulates there, but at the games levels on the chart there’s always the four postulates, the two self-determined postulates and the two pan determined postulates.
It’s very difficult to explain this in words but it’s much, much simpler once you start to put it out there in your mind and do it. You’ll see it immediately. But as I said unless you see the need for these self-determined and pan determined postulates, unless you see why we have to get the pan determined postulates, you never understand why the postulates change on the chart and the whole chart becomes rather meaningless to you. But put the pan determined postulates in, then it starts to make an awful lot of sense. And suddenly it will go click, and you say, “My god yes, I’ve got it, I get it, I get the whole thing. I see what Dennis is talking about.” After that it’s easy.
It gets so easy after a while that the pan determined postulates are so obviously there, you put them there so naturally that you don’t have to think about them anymore, you know? It’s like going out shopping in the morning and its daylight and so obviously the sun is above the horizon, you know, it’s that sort of obvious. You know? Well, later on in level 5. Still, you’re always putting the pan determined postulates there when they ought to be there. You get it?
You cease to do it, but it becomes second nature to you after a while. It’s just that early on in therapy you must do it. Be very consciously aware of doing it otherwise the chart won’t make any sense to you.
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