Magazine article: The Way to Happiness: Operation Planetary Calm (2010)

THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

OPERATION PLANETARY CALM

It is the most embracive IAS-sponsored Planetary Salvage Campaign of all and provides people with the principles for living through the 21 precepts of The Way to Happiness.

Everyone pays a price for criminality in the society. A majority of companies report that they are victims of corporate crime – most of it is committed by their own employees. Violence, to say nothing of cheating on exams, is a problem in many schools. And parents often despair of raising children with high moral standards and having a happy home. The answers to these societal problems and more is The Way to Happiness. IAS grants are making it widely available through Operation Planetary Calm. Grants fund Public Service Announcements on national TV networks, mailings of information kits to schools and community leaders, and Education Packages for teachers and other educators. These contain The Way to Happiness booklets and film, PSAs, classroom posters of the precepts and Educator’s Guides. They are free, thanks to IAS funding. And just as LRH predicted, The Way to Happiness is changing conditions wherever it goes. Here are some of the people who are using the materials.

‘The response is awesome. I HAVE SEEN STUDENTS BEHAVING AND WELL-MANNERED after just three lessons from the kit.”

CAPTAIN “The project, based on the book The Way to Happiness, A Common Sense Guide to Better Living has positively impacted several areas of my division. In these key areas, I have seen it contribute to a decrease in crime, as well as result in positive improvement among members of the community. In one particular area, there was a decrease in crime by over 30 percent in a six-month period.”

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL “We have decreased violence in the school by 80% over the school year. We have decreased disrespectful attitudes toward teachers, decreased vulgar language and gestures… kids are now more apt to sit down, calm down, think about what to do and set a good example. It’s a 100% improvement.”

TEACHER “I have been implementing the lessons since the beginning of the year with great success. It is an amazing tool to have and put to use. It absolutely affects both parents and children. The students go home and tell their parents. The parents notice big differences in their child’s viewpoint and awareness.”

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR -The Way to Happiness booklet is what we need to raise and unite our souls for the sake of all humans. If one seeks to provide guidance and perfection, one must use The Way to Happiness morals as a weapon for better living.”

STUDENT “You have saved my life. Watching this film has opened my eyes. It’s about time I became a better person. I want to say thank you for the wonderful message in the film. This is my wake-up call.”

PARENT “I have two sons, aged 7 and 5.1 recently attended a workshop on The Way to Happiness. When I read the sentence, ‘Let them help – if you don’t they become overwhelmed with a sense of obligation they then must repress’, I recalled many examples of times my children had wanted to help and I hadn’t let them. I understood the magnitude of my mistake and I decided to change it. Two days later my children wanted to help and I let them. Together they set the dinner table, folded towels, took dishes out of the dishwasher and even swept the floor. It all happened because I was more aware. Since then, everyone has been happy! If this made such an essential change, I believe that if I persist there will be big changes!”

“Like gentle oil spread upon the raging sea, the calm will flow outward and outward.” – LRH

A village in Slovakia was experiencing a wave of robberies and criminality, when Lifetime Members Karol Mueller and Svetlana Muellerova told a primary school librarian about The Way to Happiness program. The librarian requested the program for the school.

When the School Director saw the results from the first 70 students, he was so pleased that he arranged to have the program delivered to the whole school. He next showed the Chief of Police the success he was having with the program. The Chief decided he wanted his officers to have this valuable new tool to use and asked the Muellers to give them a seminar. He also asked the Muellers to present it at the regional police meeting the following weekend.

News of The Way to Happiness program has spread throughout the region. Children and teachers distributed the booklets to two thirds of the citizens in the village. The Chief of Police was happy to report that in the weeks that followed, the number of robberies in the village dropped to zero.¹

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