I have recently published a few examples of “success stories” from scientology’s supreme accomplishment, “New” OT VIII, the ultimate level of the “bridge to total freedom.” Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of your life and you too can share in these same sort of “wins”…
One would expect some pretty mind-blowing stuff from these highly enlightened thetans that have traveled the yellow brick road of promised spiritual freedom and ultimate cause over Matter, Energy, Space and Time. There are a LOT of promises made for the “OT levels” about your ability to operate at total cause, be free from the constraints of your body and earthly presence and attain eternal life.
What amazes me is the forced (as in everyone is required to present one before being allowed to leave the Freewinds) “successes” they are willing to promote. I wonder if they really believe that these published “successes” will entice everyone to scramble, beg, borrow and steal to achieve the holy grail of scientology or if they are simply sending them out because they are “supposed to” and this is all they’ve got.
My wins were incredible.
I enjoyed every session and my skills as an auditor increased???
That is the entirety of what she claims she attained….
I became more and more me…
Until now I was reserved around others. What happened to Grade 0 — able to communicate with anyone freely on any subject? And everything in between?
Even after OT VII I had to consult another in order to decide to act… now I can act by myself. Geeze, that is faint praise.
How come all these people feel the need to describe their journey TO OT VIII — and then when they get to the “Temple of OT VIII” they have so little to say about it?
“I couldn’t stop crying”?
It’s so “simple” — like that is a big plus? It’s simple? All that came before wasn’t? Not sure what the point is?
“I got very big ARC for myself” – wow that is something.
These things are SO underwhelming it has to make even the most dedicated sheeple wonder what they have to look forward to.
Apart from the status “I am an OT VIII Humanitarian Gluteus Maximus” there doesn’t appear to be much else on offer.
It would be cool to see a computer generated animation of what the inside of the OT-8 areas on the ship look like.
Or there’s thd real thing…
https://youtu.be/tfzHofMkdMk
My interpretation of these.
1. I have had things I don’t like about myself. (Duh)
2. The people who ran the program were really smooth at building me up. (A con man specialty)
3. When I finished my confidence level was the highest I can ever remember it being and I feel like I can do anything, including talking to anyone about anything.
Unfortunately for the self-deluded the euphoria of having this supreme confidence will immediately begin to suffer when it comes into contact with the real world (other people and their own everyday self).
For the ones just trying to “make it end” they know what they’re supposed to say.
“I couldn’t stop crying”
Maybe it’s just because I’m lower middle-class, but that would be my reaction if I realised I’d wasted ONE thousand dollars. I can’t imagine wasting hundreds of thousands.
Wow! So kewl! And to think I can read all original 612 pages of the OT materials penned by Captain Rubber Lips right here on the Internet by simply clicking on this link:
https://file.wikileaks.org/file/scientology-ot-levels.pdf
Thetans mocking up, blowing BT clusters … whooo hoooo it’s all right here! For free! and easily readable within a couple of hours. Why spend decades of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars when you can have it all for the low low price of zero cents!
I admit that when I first started following Scientology in the early 2000s (clambake and sites like that), I did it to gawk at people I thought were crazy or idiots. But I’ve now seen the human side of it all and I feel just a deep deep sadness that people are so deceived that they can have their fortunes, their lives, and their families taken away and they will smile and tell everyone how great it is. I confess that I am so sorry I laughed at first, when I should have cried.
You are totally right Mark, it’s very sad indeed.
I also feel like crying when I discover that an old ‘friend’ of mine from the SO days is still in there slaving away. Or when I discover that an ex-SO from back in the day now left the SO but is still ‘on-purpose’ and doing the ‘greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics’ by going up the Bridge…
The last guy is probably and ESL. Stilted language.
How could he “keep an eye” on OT VIII in 1978? This version wouldn’t have been available then, surely?
I went on a cruise with my parents when I was 11. It was pretty meaningful. I was never alone on the deck (being 11), but I remember feeling that sense of wonder when I sat out there with my mother at night.
I also remember realizing I was me when I was 4 years old. Scientology apparently degrades people to the point that this is an amazing revelation to them. A bunch of 3-year olds in suits.
Isn’t it utterly fucking ironic that, in order to be ” self-determined” and “truly causative and free” in scientology, you have to put yourself on a conveyor belt of silly and arbitrary standardized questions, meaningless robotic rituals, repetitive drills, relentless investigations, interrogations, and verification procedures, and the endless,
chest-pounding spouting of loaded language while financially and morally bankrupting yourself?
As a “Clear”, you’re supposed to have eidetic memory, no need for glasses, freedom from colds and illnesses, flawless communication skills, and a higher IQ score…and then, as an oatmeal being, you ars supposed to become a super soul pilot, operating knowingly and willingly OUTSIDE OF YOUR BODY while creating, destroying, and changing matter, energy, space, time, and life itself, ” subjectively and objectively “, as easily as a mere degraded ” homo sap ” takes a dump or enjoys a wank…
But, golly gee, it seems NONE OF THAT SHIT manifests…
Huh. But, hey, my rudiments and considerations and postulates and mock-ups
and ethics conditions and admin scales and dynamics are perfectly aligned with
Hubbard’s anus on Target Two, and…and…well…um…
😎
Mark I always enjoy reading what you write. You should have your own blog to comment not just on Scientology but world events at large. I’d love to hear your commentary on the shit show we’re currently living in!
Mark, Sandy is not the only one. I also enjoy your writings and I have developed a great respect for what you have to say.
I agree with Sandy!
In one of the OT VIII Success stories above, he/she says, “…And thanks to COB and RTC for keeping the tech pure, exactly as LRH intended.” This right here is the crux of the lie David Miscavige has fed to the entire flock of parishoners and corps of SO members: that the tech was somehow flawed and that he, the savior to beat all saviors, had swooped down and corrected the out tech and “made it pure again” and made it sound like LRH would thank him for doing this if he were here. That is how DM was able to change, alter, squirrel the entire Bridge and do away with tech volumes in the course rooms, banish the Briefing Course, and all the other things he has done. He may be a malicious SP, but he is a cunning and smart one. I will give him that.
The “tech” was flawed. It was always bs. Miscavige has replaced some of it with new bs, but there’s no important difference. How do you want to be lied to?
That belief that Miscavige is keeping the tech “pure” is quite galling.
YEs it is quite galling. And that is how DM gets OT VIII’s to go back down the Bridge to re-do their Purifs and the Survival Rundown and other things. It’s all about the money. If they’ve done the bridge and having nothing new to do, just create new things lower on the bridge to re-do and thus reg the money into the coffers.
Geeze, if they are not sure who they are or if it’s the real them all they need to do is look at their drivers license and see if the picture matches the person in the mirror. Just think of all the time and money it would have saved them.
Laughter!
Yep, that sums it up. To fall for such nonsense and *keep* falling for it is both absurd and tragic.
All that money and all that time, plus destroyed families and all the other horrid things which happen to the majority of $cientologists. What a waste of a life.
Yes KatherineINCali, there’s also a relatively inexpensive DNA test. There are a couple of companies out there who will let you know where you came from and possible relative matches. I think it’s only around $100, spit in a cup, send it off and in a few weeks you will have the results. $100 vs hundreds of thousands seems like the smarter path. But, that’s just me.
Oops — I meant to reply to another comment. I think it may have been yours.
Anyway, yes… $100 versus a sh*t ton of money is no comparison.
With the possible exception of the Grades, Scientology has always had a problem with product differentiation. The problem is that every auditing action is claimed to create every possible beneficial result. Again with the possible exception of the Grades, the Success stories for each of the supposedly separate, different and indistinguishable auditing action are in fact largely indistinguishable. That should not be the case.
Even with respect to the Grades the problem arises when the PC does the OT levels. As Mike notes above, how can someone who has completed OT 8 write a success story about how it remedied their problem of being “reserved around others” without asking (or at least wondering) why that wasn’t handled by Grade 0.
Thanks for this insightful comment ! I would just add that the Scientology trick is that all wins are « relative », which is the easy defence against anyone critical. Like you can’t understand how deep these wins are because the words look similar, but their wins are on a whole different level than those of the grades. There is always a way to « rationalise » what you see and thus maintain the self deception process…
This reminded me of my first auditor who was fascinated by OT VIII’s. He even told me that I no longer have to worry about nuclear war because there were too many OT VIII’s out there. He said that they would never do so, but if they wanted to they could make a person sick or physically debilitated just by postulating it to be so.
He also told me he had the privilege of meeting an OT 8 and that when you’re around one of these people you just sense that there’s something wonderful and different about them. I later met the same woman and I didn’t pick up on that at all. I later met another OT 8 lady in Clearwater, she seemed like a nice enough person but she was at least 200 pounds overweight.
She was at least 200 pounds overweight?
Too many Body Thetans perhaps maybe?
Maybe the original Rat finally has returned to this poor planet to witness all the Hell he had created and is living in her body? Maybe that is why she appears to be overweight? But it is likely just an illusion manifested by LRH given that he is so all-powerful and so all-wise and such a fucking asshole!
Yes she was heavy. But that was almost 30 years ago hopefully she’s doing better now
By the time you get to the ship for OT VIII, you have already been through the ‘success story’ drill hundreds, if not thousands, of times – for every single step of the long, dreary bridge. You must go to the ‘examiner’ and hope to hell your needle ‘floats’, and they you are asked to write a success story.
Even after a few hours on course, you are expected to give your ‘wins’ at the end of the study period. And when you aren’t giving your own ‘wins’, you are hearing or reading all about the ‘wins’ of others.
…You never hear about the losses.
Newly minted OT VIIIs find themselves in a real bind when it’s time to write a success story. Every win they report is an indictment of the entire Bridge that precedes it. The fact that going up the Bridge is a debilitating experience, leaving a person completely confused about what would constitute a win, is really evident here. OT VIIIs seem pleased to find themselves in present time not obsessing over their case, a “win” reported by almost every home sapiens that has taken an uneventful trip on a cruise ship, ever.
“I became more & more me,’
Please don’t try to become more than you are now. The universe can’t take it.
Their comments may have to be intentionally vague in terms of OTVIII details. Don’t want to give away the information that all that came before was a complete & utter waste of time.
Amazing how LRH turned specious cult blather & nothing into $omething.
There are hints of the EP: “I am me”, etc.
Come on people, if GRADE 1 delivered its stated EP almost everyone would be a scientologist by now. But, the pulled out of Hubtard’s anus subjects called dianetics and scientology have NEVER delivered on ANY of its significant, objective claims.
This blog entry reminds me of a clip in the film, “Going Clear”.
For some reason, I must begin by saying that I am very confused when I try to recall Tom De Vocht versus Jason Beghe. I cannot tell the difference between these two. I believe they both appeared in the film. But the clip I remember features one of them explaining that people who participate in this Scam are all big liars because they are forced to tell the world how wonderful the gains are they have made when the truth is the only reason they keep telling the world about this is because of the penalties they will be made to suffer if they don’t.
I’m fairly certain most all the readers of this blog are aware of the kinds of punishments this scam inflicts on its members – especially the members of the Sea Org. These penalties include being forced to endure expensive “Sec Checks” or being sent to the RPF for a lengthy period of time which is very much like being sent to prison and being forced to work at hard labor.
I will always remember that clip in the film where one of these men says words to the effect, “All Scamologists are such big liars.” They lie to everyone all about the big gains they have made after making it up another round on the bridge. But the truth is that they feel compelled to like like this because of the penalties they will be forced to endure if they do not tell the world how they have achieved such fabulous “wins” as a result of going up another level on the bridge.
Can anyone help me distinguish between these two men? I believe they both are actors who have appeared on fairly high profile TV shows. They seem to both appear fairly clean cut. They may not look very much like each other. I wonder why I seem to mix up these two so easily. Can anyone suggest a reason?
There is a clip in the film, “Going Clear” that featured Tom De Vocht (or maybe Jason Beghe?)
Iirc it was Jason Beghe. He went on to talk about how Scientologists will be grinning from ear to ear, talking about how something they did in Scientology was great, and meanwhile they have the biggest migraine ever and feel terrible.
My guess as to why you mix up the two is that they have very similar voices — both very rough baritones.
Thank you Lliira. I just watched the fim again and you are right.
I appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Thanks again.
Both men were in Going Clear. I agree that the part you’re thinking of is Jason Beghe. He’s the actor (Chicago Fire, is it?). Tom DeVocht was in the SO for many years, got to be DM’s “buddy” for awhile (which he talks about in Going Clear) and his ex is Jenny Linson of “inchwives” and “screaming at M Rathbun at airport” fame. Hopefully that helps, but I can see how you could mix them up. I’ve always gotten Kurt Russell and Patrick Swazye mixed up, go figure.
Peer pressure gets you to dream up all kinds of past lives you supposedly had lived. Usually very famous or infamous ones.
Never a potato farmer in Ireland or a housewife in 18th century Baltimore.
More like Jack the Ripper and Cleopatra.
So the sanitized new version of new OT VIII
Really simple:
Was I Jack the Ripper?
Yes?0 No? reaction.Well ok so much for Jack.
Let’s try again:
Was I Cleopatra?
Yes?:0.No?: meter reaction. Oh well, I still like pyramids.
On and on about of any past anyone you can think of.
End result: I was full of s..t when I pontificated about me being Cleopatra.
You can now attest!
What would you write in your success story after paying hundreds of thousands to pay for the state of not having a clue who you were before?
It turned out that I was a Saint Hiller who was with my father at Saint Hill in the 60s. We were friends then and when I was looking for a new body, he had a son on the way, so I hopped into the baby. He was so pleased when I told him that I had realised this while doing the Clear Certainty Rundown.
Boy, was that a load of rubbish!
What I have observed over the years. The VIIIs came back and they one for one became more themselves. That means more neurosis, allergy’s, flying of the handle, delusions, health problems, intolerance and hubris. These people at the top of the bridge were hardly shining examples of super beings.
To give people what they want creates no upsets. To not give what people want create upsets. Scientologists going for more power gets sued, trricked, lied to and utterly destroyed.
It is so obvious that the OT levels are now nothing more than subjective imagination. These success stories ring of weak people who are trapped. Most of the “wins” should have happened on the lower levels. OT VIII is nothing more than a simple delusion.
When I was on OT V-OTVII, the same thoughts were present. Hubbard asks you to blow out these stuck beings which he puts in front of you. Well, obviously if you believe that they are present and that his “tech” blows them away, you feel a sense of relief. My girlfriend at the time in the early 1980’s had the same idea. She told me that when she was on OT VII, she imagined that she disposed of these dead beings in black plastic bags. It made her feel better.
But Scientology is now dead.
Can we bury Scientology now?
Order the shovels!
I’ll place the order. And it will be a pleasure from me!
I think burning at the stake is more appropriate. Merely burring might enable it to rise from the grave like a Steven King character.
It could be because they have to invent something to write as a success as otherwise they won’t be allowed to leave the ship, or worse, will have tp stay over a month receiving an invalidative sec check for not expressing with good words their successes and, never to be absent, their thanks to COB.
I know of various OT VIIIs that had to fake it so they could leave the ship and be free.
I want to hear a success story, like:
“During one of my sessions, I sensed impending danger, that the ship was about to run aground. So I decided to change the course of the ship, The next thing I knew, we were sailing toward the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, at 50 knots!!. As the ship was about to fall apart, the Captain knocked on my door and asked if I was the one responsible. I said yes and he asked me to return control back over to the bridge. I did and went on with my session. After we were back in the Caribbean, and I was out of session, I got sent to ethics, and had to pay for a new org to make up the damage.”
But no, the wins are more like “I sleep better now”, or “I looked in the mirror today and saw me, for the first time.”
That’s exactly how these “success” stories read, Sylvia. And I’m struck by how similar they are to each other. It’s almost like they read other success stories so they can generate something that sounds like OT wins just so they can get off the boat. What an interesting way to guarantee hundreds of “satisfied customers.”
One HAS to write an “acceptable” success story before he/she can attest to OT VIII.
and be sure to thank david miscavige, LRH, and whatever else is deemed thanks worthy.
Mary, when they wanted a ‘Success Story’, I said: ‘It was OK, but, nothing to write home about.’ The howling was intense!
I had a friend who came home from OT VIII and I asked her how it was, ie tell me your wins type of thing. She was distracted and her guard was down so her BI’s came through. She said in a lack luster way that it was OK. I saw the BI’s. But then she realized her faux pax and pasted a huge smile on her face and started over the top gushing about how great it was and what a treat I was in for when I did it in the future. I saw the truth before she pasted on fake good indicators.
And don’t expect that you emptied your bank account while on board to warrant one either!