As a tribute to my years spent in Scientology, I thought I’d publish some “OT Phenomena” Success Stories. See what you think of these:
“I went from a single mom at home trying to work part time as self -employed without much success, to having a part time job, and within a few short weeks I had gained a second part time job. I was over the moon. I then decided one day in a session…that I really wanted a full time job. To my surprise the very next day my manager at the dental surgery I worked in offered me a full time job…This stuff really does work. I live each and every day positively happy.”
“I am a lady truck driver and I deal with bad motorists 10 to 15 hours every day. Anyway, I have this ability to tell if another driver is going to pull out in front of me or make some other kind of wild manoeuvre. Many times I have started braking and my husband (who is my team partner on the truck) has asked me why I was slowing down–only to stop mid-sentence because a car suddenly swerved in front of us.”
“When I retired as a schoolteacher and moved to Florida, I decided I didn’t want to sit at home all day and watch TV, so I hired myself out as a part time nanny and babysitter…As I walked up the steps of a house to introduce myself to a new family, I could feel my sensations becoming more acute.… As I approached the front door, I had the strangest feeling I knew this house. Yet, I was new to the area… As [the wife] gave me a tour of the house, I started telling her in advance what each room looked like. We were both amazed when I described not only the layout of the master bedroom, but the individual pieces of furniture as well as the various things she had strewn around the room. Then I realized…I was simply picking up bits of information from her mind.”
Impressive, aren’t they? The only problem? They’re not from Scientology. These, and other success stories like them, are from many different sources – The Secret website, an “Academy of Remote Viewing” site, a “Soul Success Coach” blog, a “female intuition” website, a “psychic consultant” website, and an astrology website.
Anecdotes, “success stories,” testimonials, can be fun to read. They can be entertaining. They can sell things. But using them to prove something can lead to logical absurdities:
“I know a Scientologist who is a millionaire. Therefore Scientology creates millionaires.”
“I know an OT who mysteriously recovered from cancer. Therefore, OTs can cure cancer. ”
“I heard of an OT in the 1970s who could leave his body at will. Therefore OTs can leave their bodies at will.”
“OT VIII was released as the same time as the Berlin Wall came down, therefore Scientology is responsible for ending the Cold War.”
I could give more examples, but I think you get the idea. Does it mean that just because someone stresses something all the time, what they are saying is therefore true? Well no, of course it doesn’t.
L. Ron Hubbard constantly stresses the idea that Scientology is the only group that has solutions and workable methods to solve the most important problems confronting Mankind. All Scientologists read and accept these ideasearly on. These ideas become part of their belief system.
We have all had our own successes with Scientology, so we know that we have had gains from the things we have done. We know this because we have experienced it, not because Ron said so.
Ok, so what’s my point? Am I just “hating” here? Am I simply being “entheta”? No, my point is to get you to think outside of your usual paradigms, to “think outside the box,” so that we can actually, for real, find the causes for the failures experienced in Scientology, and fix them.
Most people who have left “Corporate Scientology,” the Ex’s, the Freezoners, and the Independents, tend to blame all the faults on “management”, or on “David Miscaviage,” and dare not look at the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there could be an inherent flaw in the system itself; a flaw which, when corrected, would solve a lot of the difficulties we run into in Scientology today.
One of the things I think is prudent to keep in mind is the origins and research lines of Dianetics and Scientology. Ron was a trained hypnotist, and had mentioned in Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health as well as Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science, how he had used this knowledge in his development of Dianetics.
Ok, why is this of importance? Well, let’s take a look at the earliest definition of hypnotism, as was given by James Braid, who coined the term:
“The real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition is the induction of a mental concentration in which the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought.”
—James Braid, Hypnotic Therapeutics, 1853
Now, take a look guys: Ron was superb at concentrating our attention on him and his tech alone:
Don’t read newspapers, don’t do other practices, don’t listen to psychologists, disconnect from your friends and family who disagree with scientology, don’t be a dilettante, spend all your free time at the org, be a dedicated Sea Org member, scientology is the only solution etc.
This concentration of attention is, purely by definition, a method of hypnosis.
Examples of this include the following:
“I have been researching upper OT levels, and I can tell you this very plainly: If Scn doesn’t make it worldwide you’ve had it – yes, I mean you. One is not working for just this life. He is working for any future life at all”.
(HCO PL 14 March 1982 Financial Irregularities)
Ok, he said this, so how do you know it is true? Well you don’t. You have to take his word for it. This means that in order to really “know” this for yourself, you have to continue up the “Bridge” and all of its secret levels.
Ron further enticed one into going up his bridge by defining “OT” in a watered down and vague generality as “at cause over matter, energy, space, time, form and life”. This definition can mean many different things to many different people. Anyone is at least somewhat causative over life. So anyone can find an interpretation of this definition of “OT” that he can relate to and set up as a goal to achieve.
By now your mind may be shutting you down to listening to what I have to say here. That is because Ron, the Master Marketer, cleverly positioned himself as “Mankind’s best friend,” and carefully covered his tracks by indoctrinating Scientologists with the idea/broad generality that anyone who is critical of Scientology is anti-spiritual freedom. Wow, how’s that for effective thought-stopping?
Here follows another classic example of how Scientology training can gradually get one’s attention focused on Scientology and little else:
“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.
The whole agonized future of the planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.
This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.
Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past.”
–L. Ron Hubbard HCO PL 7 February 1965 Keeping Scientology Working Series 1
Not only does this policy narrow one’s attention so that Scientology becomes the most important thing in one’s life, it also creates a sense of urgency, and a heightened sense of potential loss.
It is important to note that we often overreact to potential losses, focusing more on the short-term consequences rather than the longer-term effects. And the more meaningful a potential loss is, the more likely we are to make irrational decisions.
If it is not the policy itself which is at fault, then the fault is surely the frame of mind which is cultured by some policies; the overriding mood, the pervasive sense of urgency, of emergency, of superiority, of us-versus-them.
Herewith follows an example of how the us-versus-them attitude starts to enter the scene:
“When somebody enrols, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe – never permit an open-minded approach. If they’re going to quit let them quit fast. If they enrolled, they’re aboard; they’re here on the same terms as the rest of us – win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half-minded about being Scientologists.
We’d rather have you dead than incapable.”
(HCO PL Keeping Scientology Working 1)
So now we have not only an “induction of a mental concentration in which the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought,” but we also have a sense of us-versus-them starting to creep in.
Here is another example that shows how some Scientologists have developed an elitist, and hence separatist, mind-frame:
“A handful of us are working our guts out to beat Deadline Earth. On us alone depends whether your kid will ever see sixteen or your people will ever make it at all. A few of us see the world has got a chance if we don’t dawdle along the way. Our chance is a thin chance at best. We are working as hard as we can in Scientology. And, the only slim chance this planet has rests on a few slim shoulders, overworked, underpaid and fought – the Scientologist. Later on, if we make it, what will be your answer to this question? Did you help?”
(“Five Years”, 1967, Auditor Mag #9)
Note once again the overriding sense of urgency, as well as the narrowing of attention (“only slim chance”) in the quote above.
Other “cultural” factors in Scientology further separate Scientologists from others (which, incidentally, is a sign of overt-acts) by calling people such things as “Degraded beings,” “SPs,” “wogs”and “raw meat.”
Such indroctrination all forms a part of the hypnosis process.
According to Hubbard, hypnosis is a relatively simple mechanism:
“By deep trance or drugs we take a patient into amnesia trance, a state of being wherein the ‘I’ is not in control but the operator is the ‘I’ (and that’s all there is, really, to the function of hypnosis).”
–L. Ron hubbard, Dianetics Modern Science of Mental Health
Of course, Hubbard created great rapport with his audience by regaling him with his exaggerated stories, and his charming and charismatic personality. This made it easy for his audience to accept all that he was saying without question. In fact, a common mantra which Hubbard himself promoted was “What would Ron do?”, as a means of handling situations in orgs. Ron also wrote the policy of KSW1, which mandated that Scientologists do what he dictated. This, in effect, put the “I” out of control, and made L. Ron Hubbard the “I.”
When people get into Scientology, one of the first things that is done is that the person’s “ruin” is found, and they are shown how Scientology can salvage them from that. Thereafter they read many policies that spell out how, without scientology, they are doomed. This combination leads to a person who stays in the mind frame of “ruin” throughout their Scientology career.
An example of such a policy is:
“In all the broad Universe there is no other hope for Man than ourselves.”
– L. Ron Hubbard, “Ron’s Journal” 1967
How about this one:
“We didn’t, a long time ago, get in Ethics. We goofed! And the whole race went into the soup where it remains to this day. And, if we are to live in this universe at all we are going to have to get in Ethics and clean it up. Whether that’s easy to confront or not is beside the point. The horrid truth is that our fate is FAR more unconfrontable”.
(HCO PL 20 Oct 67 Conditions, How To Assign)
and this one:
“A post in a Scientology organization isn’t a job. It’s a trust and a crusade. We’re free men and women – probably the last free men and women on Earth. Remember, we’ll have to come back to earth no matter what “happens” to us. If we don’t do a good job now, we may never get another chance.
Yes, I’m sure that’s the way it is.
So, we have an organization, we have a field we must support, we have a chance.
That’s more than we had the last time night’s curtain began to fall on freedom.”
(HCO PL 2 November 1970 Issue II THE THEORY OF SCIENTOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS)
He makes it sound so glorious, exciting and adventurous to work for near zero pay, doesn’t he?
And then there is this:
The threat to us if we don’t make it is eternity.
One could ask a staff member that refuses to get hatted how he would like to spend all of the coming eternity blind, in the dark and in pain. He would probably say he wouldn’t like that. But if we don’t make it, that’s what we’ve got and that’s what he’s condemning this planet to.
He doesn’t realize that he himself, next life, is for it if we don’t make it.
If staff in our orgs don’t get hatted, they’re condemning themselves and the planet to death a thousand times over.
So understand that no matter how mild the environment might appear to you, we are actually fighting a full-scale war against ignorance and enslavement. But we do have the tech to win.”
(HCO PL 2 July 1984 HATTING AND THE ENVIRONMENT)
Gee, those are fairly hectic policies. And it’s a strange sort of freedom that they promote, a freedom where one is in constant fear, and is constantly fighting a perceived “enemy.”
I find it rather odd that Scientologists avoid their current life in the hope of having a better “future life.” Why would they live their future lives any differently if their modus operandi has been set by the habits they take on in this life?
I know I’m harping on about it, but look, once again these policies are drawing one’s attention deep into Scientology, shutting off one’s observation of the outside world. Yes, this is most certainly a form of hypnotism at work.
What difference does it make, you might ask, whether or not LRH was a hypnotist, so long as the technology works? To me this is of utmost importance, because how do we know which parts of what he said are true, and which parts are false? For example:
*Is it true that missed withholds lie at the bottom of all ARC breaks? Or is this just another way of saying that the fault lies with YOU, and not with the org?
*Is Scientology really the only hope for mankind, as Hubbard said?
*Are the OT levels actually vital to one’s spiritual existence?
*Are things quite as “deadly serious” as he says they are?
As an example, take this, which LRH wrote to two of his most trusted staff members: “A person does not blow due Overts or Withholds. He blows only due to ARC Breaks.”
“However, If any of this information ever became public, I would lose all control of the orgs and eventually Scientology as a whole.”
Hmm, gives one pause for thought, doesn’t it?
Oh, but some of you will say that the bad things we see in Scientology are due to “misinterpretation of policy.” Well, perhaps I need to be word cleared until I accept the viewpoint of the wordclearer on a particular policy…
But more to the point, If the Scientology policy is misinterpreted and cannot be applied, even by the “upper tenth of the upper tenth of intelligent human beings” (as L. Ron Hubbard says Scientologists are), then to me it is unworkable policy, and nothing more than a nice theory.
Here, try misinterpret this:
“The world has an optimistic five years left, a pessimistic two.
After that, Bang or just a whimper.
On us alone depends whether your kids will ever see sixteen or your people will ever make it at all.
Our chance is a thin chance at best.
We are working as hard as we can in Scientology.”
–L. Ron Hubbard Auditor Magazine 9, 1967
Well look, the world didn’t blow up in 1967, and it still hasn’t blown up. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for Dec 21, 2012? Or perhaps all this doomsday nonsense is, well, nonsense.
By all means, do Scientology if you so will. But please, try then to reform it, so that is becomes a “clean,” honest subject. And recognize the true “Source” of its troubles.
Personaly, I found NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and the works of John Kehoe and Eckhart Tolle to be far more effective, and simpler, than Scientology, with none of the “make-wrong.”
And perhaps I’ll be OK, even if I never did NLP, CBT or my OT levels, and just started living LIFE…
Scientology 101 