Introduction
The article below has been adapted from an article written about two years ago by someone studying materials now available at this website. The basic idea is to provide a kind of map to enable you to determine where you are in respect of your ability to practice freedom, and what steps you might want to take to increase your ability to practice freedom.

This article is about the "17 freedom steps" you can find in report '#TL05B: Freedom Steps.' It's interesting that the author below had been studying freedom for five years, but when he honestly evaluated his progress, he found that he had completed only one of the 17 steps.

THE ROAD TO BECOMING A 10% PERSON OR BETTER

by a Student of Freedom

After I first read the "17 freedom steps" [click here] and the [Build Freedom] Introductory Information Package [click here], I wrote to a Neo-Tech [click here] friend who lives in Florida: "The implications of this information is staggering.  This really looks like the best road to PRACTICAL FREEDOM we can enjoy as soon as we are ready.  The foundation has been laid for the evolution of much greater practical freedom."

When we see a map, most of us recognize it right away.  The 17 freedom steps are clearly a map.  Not just a map that shows you how to get from New York to California, but a map that can take you much, much further.  To implement each step, every item listed must be read more than once.  And then the required action must he taken.  I have read many of the Build Freedom Reports 4 or 5 times already.

As I started my second reading of the 17 steps, I gathered all the reference material for each step, i.e., Build Freedom reports and recommended books. There were many books that I did not have.

So, I listed those under each step by title and author as items needed to complete the step.  I also realized, a step can be completed without reading any of the listed reference material.  Other life experience could cause completion of that step.

Then, I checked the list of steps to see how many I had already completed.  (And this is where being honest with yourself comes in.)  Since I had been an advanced freedom technology reader for more than 5 years, I expected to be able to check off at least 6 steps.  But, to my surprise and disappointment, I could check off only one completed step.  "Only one step complete?" is what I kept saying to myself as I went over the list a second time.

But, don't worry.  One of the great things about this map is that although I wasn't as close to California as I thought, I am not lost.  I now know where I am and what it takes to get to where I want to go.

I have made some movement in many of the steps.  And with the list as it is laid out, I can not only tell how far along in a step I am, I can also select my next best step.  I can also see which step is the easiest and which is the most difficult for me.  I said, "for me," because the map is also very personal.

Although each person may have the same map, where he or she is on the map, their next best step, and how fast each person moves is always a personal choice.

The choices we make are directly related to thinking skills -- and improving thinking skills allows us to make progress in many steps at the same time.

The one step I have completed is step #1, discovering freedom for the first time, while reading Neo-Tech writings.  [Editor: see http://www.neo-tech.com -- in reading Neo-Tech, I recommend that all the "Zon" stuff be ignored.]

Step #2, saying "no" to the system.  I quit my job 3 years ago and now run my own home-based business.  I am just learning how to effectively say "no" to the system.

Step #3, thinking skills.  I've been using some of the advanced thinking skills I learned from Neo-Tech. Studying Software for the Brain by Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson has also helped a great deal.  This is a never-ending continuous study.  [See also Dr. Hewitt-Gleeson's 'Brain Freebie' course.]

Step #4, rejecting coercion.  Coming to the understanding that the use of initial force is not normal seemed only logical as soon as I started to improve my thinking skills.  (Learning how to think, not what to think.) [See Software for the Brain.]

Step #5, discovering we are free by nature.  Although I have made great progress in this area, the urge to try and change others, although fading, still persists. (Working on it.)

Step #6, personal power.  Continuing study to improve marketing skills.

Step #7, productivity.  Continuing study to determine what works best to produce more value which means more money to produce more value which in the end produces more freedom.

Step #8, profit and prosperity.  I am learning how to sell freedom for profit and how to duplicate that effort.  (Showing others by example.)

Step #9, protection from predators.  I am learning how to shift my activities and resources to the free-enterprise sector.

Step #10, recognize political and preacher pranks. When I learned to recognize some of the many false concepts.  (Country, Nation, President, State, Law, Government, etc.)  It was almost overwhelming.  This is a continuing study.

Step #11, position yourself to outcompete the enemies of freedom.  This will be one of the biggest steps for me.  It seems to include much progress in all the other steps before movement will be seen here. Continuous daily work is the key.

Step #12, reduce political power for peace and prosperity. I am withdrawing my support from the political system. I no longer vote.  And I have just received information on jury nullification.  [See http://www.lrt.org/.]

Step #13, alternative institutions.  Although I now run my own business, progress is very small and requires much work.  But I can and will do what is necessary.

Step #14, personal health.  I am on a no sugar, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol diet.  I exercise daily, Soloflex and Nordic Track.  But I need more information on super health.

Step #15, perpetuity -- how to overcome death. My age, just past 50, puts me on the edge of the time-frame when commercial biological immortality could become a reality. Therefore, my efforts, diet and exercise, are to increase the possibility of life extension.  I recently read Cryonics -- Reaching For Tomorrow, a book from Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Fascinating!

Step #16, confront compulsive knee-jerk negativity. I have been doing a mental exercise in self-observation for about three weeks with what seems to be very positive results. What I need now is for someone else to observe me to see if it is as good as I think it is.

Step #17, shift to higher plane -- focus on the objective. As I make progress in step #16 I seem to also make progress in this step.  This is a continuing learning and growth experience. Now, after reading the entire Build Freedom basic package, much of the advanced package, and particularly the 17 freedom steps, there is for me no doubt, that if enough people study and apply this information, they'll have the potential to catapult the world into a new civilization. A civilization where respect for the rights of the individual will be paramount.  The free market and business will generate the atmosphere for the rules by which we live.  The use of force to solve problems will be dismissed and forgotten. Street crime and unemployment will disappear.  Solar energy will be our primary power source.  Nanotechnology will integrate with medicine, science, and industry to bring about commercial biological immortality.  And that will be humankind, at its very best!

Editor:
The Build Freedom conception of freedom is far more advanced than those of all the other freedom philosophers, writers, and activists I know of.  All the editors and writers of freedom publications, all the leaders of freedom movements, all the great freedom philosophers have, to my knowledge, completed no more than three or four of the Freedom Steps I've identified.  That's a partial answer to the question I've asked many times: "If freedom is so good, and so many great minds have advocated it for so long, then why is freedom in such danger in "America, the freest country in the world?"

The Freedom Steps are described in Report '#TL05B: Freedom Steps.'

Another part of the answer is that in all the freedom literature, nobody has even come close to describing the real nature of "government."  All the definitions, all the descriptions, all the theories and explanations, all the history of "government," I know of -- and I have thousands of freedom books -- in all of this, nobody has come even close to identifying the real nature of "government."  Many authors have accurately identified some of the aspects of "government" -- but nobody, to my knowledge, has put the pieces together.

In general, all the freedom lovers I know of have made little progress in solving the problem of "government," because not one of them came even close to understanding the most basic nature of "government."

Now do yourself a favor.  Write down your definition of "government."  Then study '#TL07B: The Nature of Government.' See how close you came to what we put together.

I believe that practically everyone has the potential, having made sufficient progress on taking the freedom steps, of reaching a stage, where they can seize their freedom and effectively live free in an unfree world.

Seize Your Freedom

by J.E.T.

So you want to be free?  Then become free!  All the freedom is yours which you are able to seize!

How do you seize freedom?  By avoiding, evading, escaping, discouraging, overpowering, destroying, or otherwise frustrating anyone who initiates force or threat of force against you.

"Do you beg for freedom? -- "But the oppressors ignore my pleas for freedom," you complain.  Do you expect them to set you free?  (Graffiti in a Las Vegas shopping mall: SLAVES NEED MASTERS.)

...As long as you obey their rules, no matter how onerous, and pay their taxes, no matter how burdensome -- why should they set you free? -- why should they relinquish the easy life of a parasite?

"And the oppressors dupe my neighbors who are confused, unaware, and apathetic," you protest.  Do you expect them not to tame their flocks?  The herdsman can milk only tame cows: the shearer can shear only tame sheep: the tyrant can drive only obedient slaves...

"...We must educate -- teach increasing numbers our values and ideas," others shout.  And some day truth will prevail and evil will be banished from the earth.  But, ...this will take time -- much time.  So how shall you live the only life you will ever have?  And how many followers can you attract and hold if you offer only visions of a paradise for their great grandchildren?

"I do want freedom," you cry. "But there is no way to get it now -- no chance to elect, no means to revolt, and no place to go."  I reply: If you want freedom, seize it.

"But my oppressors are organized into a powerful government, an omnipotent state..." you object... I reply: However... They are individuals.  They cannot be everywhere.  They cannot see everything.  They cannot understand everything. They cannot do everything.  You do not have to obey them...

"Discover ways to avoid their extortions... "Convert your wealth into forms you can conceal... "Make yourself difficult to find.

"But that is too much trouble," you complain... "I would rather... do everything they demand -- and maybe, oh maybe, they will leave me alone just a little."  Then tag along with the sheep to the slaughter, you who expect freedom on a silver platter.  For how long can you appease the tyrant who will demand more and more, until he owns you completely?

"And what do we know of this libertarian utopia that some of you dream of?  In every land of which we hear, there are some who covet the lives and creations of others -- predators who rob and enslave the weak, the foolish and the cowardly.  And when have they failed to recruit millions to vote for them, finance them, and work for them as humble agents and police?

"Freepersons [sometimes] go about like tigers -- armed and ready for self defense... [and sometimes] go about like foxes -- inconspicuous and ready to hide.... "However, in almost every land, those with the courage to assert their freedom seldom need to fight or hide -- for the predators live off the easy prey...

...All the freedom is yours which you are able to seize."

"Those who would trade freedom for security, deserve neither." -- Benjamin Franklin

Transformation from Victim to Freedom Creator
If you survey published freedom literature, visit freedom websites, subscribe to freedom e-mail mailing lists, visit freedom newsgroups, attend libertarian meetings, etc., you may or may not notice the extent to which so many people seem to operate in a "victim mode" or "victim mentality."  You may or may not notice how much is being said about how bad "government," or "the system," or "the banking conspiracy," or "the controlled media monopoly," or certain politicians, bureaucrats, or police are.

You may or may not notice that practically all the talking and writing constitutes negative reaction.

Once you've transcended the pervasive "victim mode," you may be shocked by the almost overwhelming negativity of many freedom advocates.  However, if you yourself are still operating out of a "victim mode," you may not even notice the negativity, because that's what seems "normal" and "appropriate" to you.

There's a level beyond "seize your freedom" -- that of freedom creator. 

So, how do you become a creator of freedom, rather than being a victim of lack of freedom?  You transform your operating basis from the "reactive orientation" to the "creative orientation" -- see 'Tl12: How to Achieve Emotional Control.'

I have several thousand books in my personal library. One of the most valuable is The Path of Least Resistance. It tells you how to transform your way of living your life so as to adopt the "creative orientation."  Studying it and applying its information may be the greatest gift you could give yourself.

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