Another provocative essay from long time commenter Brian Lambert
THE OT LEVELS
Meter Reads of Rope
“Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception” Lahiri Mahasaya
Once there was a man who was walking nonchalantly through a beautiful forest. Not a care in the world did he have. Absorbed in the beauty of nature he descended serenely down a winding pathway to an open glen of multicolored blossoms. Many birds of varying throated syntax graced the air with inspired innocent melody.
He came to a big rock and decided to sit and lean against it. Taking out his packed lunch he took his first bite.
Then he looked down to his right and there, a foot away from him, was a large venomous snake hidden in the underbrush. Terror seized him. His heart rate pounded as if it were exploding out of his chest. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and paralysis seized his muscles. He was in fear for his very existence as deadly poisonous snakes were known to inhabit this forest.
Sitting there in terror with eyes closed he sent out a prayer for protection. His inner intuitional voice said,” Don’t be afraid. Look directly at the snake.”
Heeding his own inner guidance he opened his eyes and forced himself to confront his doom. On close inspection he noticed the snake was motionless. “Was it asleep?”, he thought.
Following the guidance to look directly at the snake he moved his face closer. It still did not move. Then he took a stick and poked it. An incredible feeling of relief coursed through his body. His heart rate went back to normal. Such a sigh of relief.
What he found was a thick piece of 5 foot rope curled up that only appeared to be a snake.
Yet this man experienced all of the physical, emotional and mental states associated with real imminent death. But the reality was, there was no snake. The snake was in his imagination. An unreality was experienced as a reality. The body, mind and emotions could not differentiate. The unreal was experienced as real.
If that man was hooked up to a meter during the time he thought it was a real snake, the needle reactions would be all over the place verifying the reality of a snake.
This in essence is what is happening on the OT levels. Unrealities are experienced as real. And the “realness” is reading on the meter.
Let’s tell this story with a different ending
After seeing the snake, he just threw his lunch up in the air and ran away. Putting great distance between himself and potential death. His heart still pounding, emotions in a knot and mind dispersed, he felt relief but this time he was left with the false perception that it was a real snake, and that he “really” did escape danger. The relief was real, but what he was relieved from was a non existent imaginary snake.
Let’s say this guy then develops a fear of forests because of his experience and a Scientologist tells him auditing could help him. He pays his auditor and gets relief from his fear. Thinking all the time that the auditing session was freeing him from the terrors of a snake that was in reality non existent.
The entire experience of the snake was his own imagination. What he ran in session was an imaginary snake occasioned by all of the physical, emotional and mental indications of a “real” experience. His body mind and soul experienced the “reality” of a snake. If he was holding the emeter’s cans he would be getting all of the needle phenomena of a “real memory”.
That, in eastern thought is called Maya or delusion. Seeing the unreal as real. And a failure within the discriminating intelligence of telling the difference between that unreality and that reality.
It is the same in a dream at night. How many have awoken from a nightmare with heart pounding and breath heaving? In the dream, the nightmare is real. Upon awakening the nightmare dissolves with a giggle.
It’s also the same with those female manikins we see by the road side with moving arm holding a sign with huge perky breasts and long bare legs.
Every man knows it’s a manikin but we look anyway. Noticing her perky mams and cute face. That’s the imagination causing a real reaction, real feelings, real emotions felt towards a lump of carefully molded plastic.
BTs are that molded plastic.
ALL AN UNREALITY, YET CAUSING REACTIONS (READS) THAT RESPOND AS IF IT’S REAL.
You can google cutting edge neuro brain studies and discover that the physical brain and the subconscious mind does not differentiate between reality and imagination.
THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING WHEN YOU RUN OT SPACE OPERA!
The mind has already been conditioned to believe everything Ron says. If it’s not in writing it’s not true. Corollary: everything written by Ron is true. So when you mention to an OT 3 true believer, those who are running BTs everyday, they will scoff at science when you tell them Hawaii was not created 75 million years ago. Or they will simply go into denial when you ask,” If running out BTs is the road to freedom, why was Ron in a delusional mental state asking Sarge to go locate a BT on the ranch. And the king of all arguments that running BTs is not the road to freedom: the man who created these processes wished for suicide while running BTs.
So unreality becomes reality. That unreality, if doubted, is enforced by ethics behavior modification or handled as out lists or out rudes or out ethics or missing gradient or PTS or no case gain SP. All of these actions throwing a smoke screen over the snake. Barring it from being directly perceived as it is; rope. Denying the TRUTH.
The emeter cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination because the brain and subconscious mind cannot either. Maybe it can with real memories that can be consciously remembered as in last year or as a child or a clear past life memory. But millions of years ago cannot be independently inspected and verified. Ron’s imaginary magic weaves unreal memories that read as “real” and feel as “real.”
What people are freed from by running the OT levels is their own imagination.
The relief of being freed from imaginary experiences IS the OT success story.
Ron convinced you that his imagination is your imagination. And then your mind convinces you that it is real. Then you have all of the mental, spiritual and physical phenomena of going through an incident or finding BTs. The emeter reads just like the man before he discovered it was a rope. The suffocating terror was “real” the stomach knot was “real” the sweat was “real” the emeter reads are “real.”
But none of it is real!
We overwhelm ourself with imaginary beings and then we overcome our imagination; then we attest to an OT level. Freed from the non existent, the imaginary, the unreal.
Don’t underestimate the power of Ron’s absolute power of suggestibility over us. Especially after granting him infallibility; self hypnosis. His promoting the dangers of the non interference zone creates certainty of the non existent snake. Agreeing to this story makes it come alive in your imagination. Then the mind creates the images to run. Peopled with implanters, flashes of light, angels as implanted images on and on and on.
This powerful suggestibility enforces the “reality” of a snake about to kill you. Or in Scientology terms: save the universe from evil SPs and implants (imaginary snakes).
Scientologists who still have an emotional attachment to running the OT levels are creating imaginary memories that follow Ron’s imaginary constructs, that in reality, are nothing more than a mistaken identity, a story from L Ron Hubbard’s Sci Fi imagination, made into church dogma and unquestionably accepted in the mind as real by his students.
The snake, in reality, is a piece of rope. OT 3; the theory and practical, gets it’s “realness”, solidness and certainty, from your own powers of the mind.
In Truth,
Brian
Forgive my ignorance,but why is it assumed that the movement on the emeter is from someone’s thoughts? Why can’t it be something from inside the body? Also,I’ve been wondering,why is it always so depressing,insisting that something has to be wrong with you.are you not ever allowed to be happy &have a nice day?I couldn’t be a part of something always telling me there’s something wrong with me.put downs.can’t find something to put u down for in this lifetime,find something from a past life to bring you down.how negative.no thanks. (How does that make one happy?constant negativity)
If you want a real answer, watch Aftermath and keep reading. In simple terms, auditing is about answering the questions being asked of you by an auditor and they can be either “happy” or “sad” in your terms. In some auditing, you recount your happy/”pleasure” moments and it’s all positive and happy. In other auditing, you are intentionally addressing problem areas in the hopes of seeing them for what they and thus diminishing their effect over you, resulting in a happy feeling as the outcome. So no, it’s not about being depressed. As for the meter, a trained auditor can tell if the meter is reading on body motion or thoughts as drills are done for both to differentiate. A meter can be seen to read on a person who is being completely still while asked a “loaded” question.
Does the meter react to:
BTS
Helotrobus
Mars implant stations
Being thrown into Volcanos
Having doll bodies
Creating baby farms
Blowing up planets
R6 implant
Implanted crucifixions (Christ as Everyman)
The Coffee grinder implant
The heaven implant
The Weeper Implant
Druggie BTs
Clustered BTs
On lurkers, these weird delusional things listed above were found on the emeter by L Ron Hubbard.
Take that into consideration when people are promoting the accuracy of the emeter.
The emeter is a tool that collapses the boundaries between imagination and reality.
It can help from time to time but it also leads to mental and character distortions. True believing Scientologists believe all of these things listed above are real.
Scientology, the emeter, is the Game of Russian Roulette with your life.
I responded to Richard with this post. I am repeating it here because I want to give my view of why people have great gains auditing the OT levels. Not everyone had great wins. Some did. This “I had great wins” sometimes creates a conflict with the person, reasoning; “maybe OT3 is real” “maybe Ron was right”.
In dream therapy the therapist uses a patients dreams to unravel personal issues. The dreams are metaphors, similies, analogous stories, that free associate with realities in the patients life. The analogies help the patient contact things below the awareness level.
Being imprinted by stories of great suffering, implants and R6 etc, and tragedy, brings up our visualizing powers of the mind which gives rise up actual emotions and feelings and thoughts that can be contacted and inspected in auditing.
That is what is happening running Ron’s space opera. The people who are having gains are dealing with real mental energies. Those mental energies are defined and labeled with Ron’s emetered dreams and imagination. We are running Ron’s dreams.
The mental energy is real but the story explaining it is unreal.
That is my take on people having positive gains auditing BTs.
But the main difference between dream therapy and OT3 is in accurate perception of reality. The person doing dream therapy knows they are using dreams.
The Scientologist collapses reality and imagination and considers the OT 3 dream real. That’s where things go bad for the discriminating intelligence.
The dream therapist patient knows that the whole process comes from their own mind. He is cause.
The Scientologist is stuck with the delusion of OT 3 and Ron’s make believe. And that they are a victim of this.
The dream therapist patient knows he’s mocking it up; cause
The Scientologist thinks BTs are mocking it up; effect
Ironic, don’t you think?
Whenever we practice the art of self inquiry we are bound to have realizations about life. Ever expanding knowledge and direct perception of our incorporeal nature is what happens when we go within to look.
Scientology uses the mind to attempt to free ourself.
Meditation uses direct perception of the soul to liberate.
I’ve done both. Meditation has no end to the expansion of awareness. It brings us face to face with infinitude. That’s my experience.
Good explanation of Hubbardian hypnosis in auditing!
Our imagination is so fast, that we did not check that we took imaginative pictures as real. Our greed to become a hubbardian superman took every critizism away. Why not saying: ok, it was imagination, and i agreed with becoming implanted for the hope of a superhuman ghost?
I hope the most learned this lecture: never trust an narcisstic paranoid druggie.
Brian – great article and I have also enjoyed all the comments.
Sorry I didn’t see this until it was too late and couldn’t comment Brian. But, if you get this, it was a great article!
Dear Brian,
That was a very interesting post. And funny too.
I am on Solo Nots AS AN INDIE (Dror), and go through incredible things both in sessions and in life where I function quite well…and.. nobody ever tells me what to think, including Ron! Just working together with love and agreements. But reading your post…
It is so nice to learn from you what is real to me and what is not.
And what I perceive correctly and what I do not.
And which parts of my thoughts are fine and which are not.
And that I have been conditioned by Ron and believe everything he ever said. Fascinating how you know me with such certainty.
And generally how well you know my mind. Thank you for telling me what is true and what is not. For me, for you, for EVERYBODY.
Gee, I mean how else would I KNOW? I am not a valid observer, according to you, right? So, Much obliged Brian. For knowing it all cold and final.
Yes. I am being funny too, I confess. How else can I relate to such nonsense and “know it all” approach. You sound much like RON…yes.. 🙂 (When he was too cocky)
This is not a spiritual blog, and doesn’t pretend to be, and that’s fine. My full respect. I also do respect Mike, for being honest and fair. And even when he agrees with you (and I don’t) he is stating what HE feels and what is true to him and not telling others what to cognite and hold true or false. You do, and that is a pity.
To the point:
How do you know there are no BTs for sure? Or if there are? You don’t. You believe, think, speculate, and that’s fine.
How did you miss the most important point about the snake and the rope?
In auditing, and that is basic, nobody cares if the snake is real or not, only that your fear IS REAL to you and to release that fear. Snake or not snake.
How did you and so many others, who claim to KNOW, miss The following important instruction from NOTS:
“That’s actually what the RD (NOTS) is structured on (it’s not structured on “he’s got BTs, so blow off the BTs”) it’s structured on the disentanglement of confusions”
This kind of things are done regularly in Meditation, but with different (IMO less accurate) tools. That’s all. So, all that demonization we hear about, (aliens riding on your back…) is really ..funny but has nothing to do with NOTS. A total misunderstanding. Consider that Ron’s main claim was that this is a spiritual work.
Super powers, lifting trains in the air, were never the main issue stressed over and over. (Might have been tricks to push people to spirituality as all teachers use these tricks…)
But to do spiritual work, if at all interested, one should understand that it is about the spirit(s), and that is not a bad word. And spirits do exist. and spirituality does exist and is important in this universe. 2nd thing Brian, (And Terra Cognita too) please go read definition of SPIRIT!
Any spiritual practice definition: It is not material and not properly a thing! If anything it is more close to NOT A THING. Ron’s def for it is a great one. When you come close to “understanding” what it is, of course you can say that BTs are not real, or are real (up to them…) but that is missing the point entirely.
Spiritual work is easy to discard and mock. But done correctly and FREELY in any discipline (Not in CoS please) It is however the wonderful cherry on the cake of life. Or better, the Chef himself.. 🙂
And when done properly IT ALWAYS brings love, tolerance, compassion and passion for life. And every so often one might touch on the most amazing, imaginable thing: SELF.
Hemi ♥ ♥
Very fair and sensible critique ,Hemi. Thank you for posting.
Thanks Hemi for your reply. I’m happy for you that you enjoy your process in Scientology. I really am. All power to you.
But I have one question for you as you have engaged in dialog.
If a weight loss expert promised 100 percent standard weight loss on his program yet the expert was 400 lbs., would you sign up for the program?
You are welcome Brian. And thank you too.
I know that you care, and that is priceless. Opinions come and go, but caring is the real diamond. About the weight loss expert, honestly, I probably won’t sign. But lets give things a wider look and consider more options. It sometimes pays back. option one:
I ask the expert about his weight! He laughs and says: ” am a sumo fighter I need to be fat!! but the program is good! Option two: The fat expert is not present. His secretary is slim. I sign, do the program, lose weight beautifully as promised and more. A month later find out the expert is a fat slob! But his program is good. What now? I can give more options. What matter always is the program itself, and doing it right.
Now, Ron wasn’t a fat slob. A bit overweight…And if you read what sarge says, read also Ken Urquhart, fascinating and wise man who describes the many sides of Ron. I have had my own direct contact with the guy, and I have my theories on how and why he ended like he did. but this is getting too long. Some other time.
And by the way I don’t practice Scientology! That’s what they do at the CoS by definition of terms. Since at Dror,Israel, they (we) do enormously different even opposite practices, the name does not apply. Neither do the results and THE FUN!!!
Hemi ♥
Then may all Scientologists be like you guys at Dror. It’s the only way to change the PR. Make happy people and have fun. The rest is dangerous looney tunes.
Thanks for sharing and being positive. ?
Henri, you re so full of Ron dust it is hard to believe. That you claim Brian *knows you so well* then starts the smarmy bullshit.
“””””Consider that Ron’s main claim was that this is a spiritual work.
Really not spiritual? What was it then? Beside a steaming load of horse shit? (OK sorry a load of horse shit was my *soft body* Daddy’s favorite. Daddy really called a spade a spade. I am talking shovels here to PLEASE don’t go PC on me.)
Super powers, lifting trains in the air, were never the main issue stressed over and over. (Might have been tricks to push people to spirituality as all teachers use these tricks…)
But to do spiritual work, if at all interested, one should understand that it is about the spirit(s), and that is not a bad word. And spirits do exist. and spirituality does exist and is important in this universe. 2nd thing Brian, (And Terra Cognita too) please go read definition of SPIRIT!
Honey, when you can step up and lift trains in the air, or produce ANYONE who can, when Davy the mini can stand up in front of one of the many useless buildings that front the co$ and and answer honest and very specific questions, then I will consider the questions you have posited real.
Until then, I will find myself playing this new to me game. Did you catch the plant?
I was fascinated by the writer’s perspective and was reading along thinking “this guy’s really got something here”, then I came to this line…
“Maybe it can with real memories that can be consciously remembered as in last year or as a child or a clear past life memory.”
And thereupon I noticed the sh!t cookie that allows one to make the leap to belief in these BTs.
Real memories = remembered last year = remembered past lives = body thetans.
The “remembered past lives” or “clearly” remembered past lives is the link, the leap of faith and belief that allows one to go loyally down the crazy path to BTs.
It’s all a lie. We convinced ourselves it was real. We ate the sh!t cookie, knowing full well that parts of what we were taking in were bad for us. We made the leap that because there was some “good” then the rest, the unbelievable, must be believed. And that’s how we became molested children, raped teenagers, beaten adults, broke, ruined, and broken – lost families and homes and education and friends. Some lost their minds and then their lives.
It is disturbing to read the posts of so many who still haven’t come to terms with reality. Even the writer of this essay, in his eloquent dissertation, clings to the unreality with which he is still comfortable.
Wake up people. It is a lie. Scientology is a lie. Dianetics is bastardized psychology. If what is true is what’s true for you…March on over the cliff with the rest of the lemmings. It’s true for them too.
There are billions of people on earth who believe in reincarnation. Many great thinkers and philosophers of the ages. Reasonable and wise people.
Believing in or experiencing reincarnation does not automatically lead to believing in a Hubbard’s absurdities.
You can google the many stories about reincarnation. There is circumstantial evidence if you choose to look for it.
I would not consider Reader’s Digest to be a mindless cult. These are only a few of many stories out there that give things to think about.
https://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/chilling-reincarnation-stories/
When I was a child I found descriptions of other children who simply remembered things. There was no way they could have been prompted. They simply knew. There was no auditing, no prompting. I find the concept of reincarnation as easy to believe as a spiritual afterlife. And I do believe in a spiritual afterlife with everything I am.
Lord knows who wrote it, or all of those who wrote it, but believing there is only once around on this merry go round just ins’t falsifiable.
This certainly wasn’t anything I was taught, for me, it just is.
Jill, the problem is, those “descriptions” didn’t include accurate information about the ways in which the children were guided or prompted, and besides imagining things, might have been remember things from early in their childhood.
See my long post about supposed past life memories – including reference to the now infamous cases of the children who, under subtly suggestive questioning and encouragement, produced false memories of elaborate satanic ritual abuse at preschools.
I’ve looked at the cases of children, and there isn’t a single one that I’m aware of, that actually stands up to scrutiny.
Believe in reincarnation, or a twisted, palatable version of reincarnation? What Hubbard espouses is a derivation of Karmic transmigration. It is no surprise that the so-called “great philosopher” that Hubbard dove-tails on is none other than Edgar Cayce. The failed psychic.
“The theory of Karmic transmigration has been modified to suit the Western Christian mentality. Since a “Christian” would not accept rebirth into a bug or animal, the concept was redefined so that rebirth always took place in a human body.6 This westernized form of transmigration was first expounded by occult groups such as Theosophy, and later by many of the Indian Hindu gurus who came to the United States. It was eventually adopted by such psychics as Jeane Dixon and Edgar Cayce.
Cayce, sometimes called “the sleeping prophet” because he gave his medical readings and prophecies while in a sleeplike trance, has done much to popularize this Western view of reincarnation. Cayce claimed to be a “Christian” who believed in reincarnation; but occult practices blended hand-in-glove with his reincarnation beliefs. He also accepted the basic metaphysical beliefs which formed the philosophic basis of reincarnation. Thus he was “Christian” in name but Hindu in belief.
The Western version of transmigration is, therefore, a “hybrid” of distinctly opposite religious philosophies, borrowing just enough of Christian doctrine to make it palatable to western minds. Because transmigrational thought infiltrated our society so gradually, few have noted what an inconsistent mixture it really is.
This is an excerpt of Reincarnation and Christianity by Robert Morey”
So if we can audit a past life, why no past life memories as a cockroach or a pig? No, only reliable, palatable human to human “reincarnation”. If we can change reincarnation from a punishment to an adventure, how far a leap to BTs?
To simplify, Cayce fed the public his Toll House Sh!t cookie…Hubbard added nuts to his.
I agree, Hubbard actually invalidated the doctrine of reincarnation, and how souls evolve. The doctrine of evolution and reincarnation was shot out of the philosophical sky by Ron.
His version was the eternal individual thetan who plays games and got stuck by being victims of evil electrical machines and evil implanters.
The doctrine of evolving from lower life forms to higher, that Hindus, Buddhists and scientists promote, was considered an implant by Mr.Smarty Pants.
Also, why do past life memories almost always involve people being the same gender, race, and human species as they are? And almost never the uninteresting toiling workers and peasants who actually made up the vast majority of the population throughout most of human history?
If you didn’t catch it already, I covered some of that and more in a long post about supposed past life memories, including what interesting modern research shows.
I’ve thought that too Peace Maker. Especially in Scientology. On the path I am on now I do not give much mind to past lives. The doctrine is unnecessary for meditation.
It’s mostly used to explain conditions.
I’ve known a few Beethovens and Jesus Christs in Scientology, but never a diseased ridden dirty smelly peasant with rotten teeth. Probably a greater chance of being a smelly peasant than a Beethoven.
Reincarnation can be used by the ego to elevate stature. It was used that was a lot in Scientology from my experience.
Ron used it all the time.
How could you sell anyone on past lives if you tell them they were a slug? You were a rabid dog doesn’t fly as well as *You were an Indian Princess*.
The negative aspects were never explored. You were always a brave warrior. You were always a beautiful queen.
The more shine you gave them on a past life, the more you can charge them to remember it.
Sent your write up to my son who is with the indies, this was his reply:-
So here are some of my thoughts:-
What is reality? can it be definitively described? is the physical universe a reality or is our view point of it actually the reality and if so is each person’s view of it a unique and individual reality?
Is reality merely a conglomeration of pictures or just our imagination, upon which all is created? or merely just the perception of our postulates?
So in viewing a situation, who’s view of the situation is “real”. A situation can be scary or unconfrontable to some (a snake) and not at all scary to another (a rope) “the same situation” i.e. A person who has no fear of snakes would not have a negative reaction to seeing a snake, so what is the governing factor as to how things are perceived and whether or not an emotion reaction, however it is triggered, is real or not?
If the OT levels are perceived by the writer of the article to be ficticious and we agre that that is indeed a reality then is not then a reality?
However in so agreeing and by using the same logic is it not also true therefore that the OT levels are indeed a reality.
So who has a monopoly on what is reality?
If I “run out an incident of a “rope” and I feel better and life is more liveable who’s to say that that is not a reality for me?
So the writer of this article, in assuming and asserting that his reality is the correct reality, is doing exactly what he is is accusing LRH of doing. Which I find somewhat hypocritical, and a ” reductio ad absurdum” as to rightness.
So, would it be profitable to live in a world where we just invalidate the realities of others or would it be advantageous to live in a world where we acknowledge the realities of others?
Personally, I think the governing factor should be how well we survive across our dynamics based on the premise of our own personal reality, and have the grace to allow the others the same previlige.
That is my reality.
Please thank your son for his reply. This one sentence could be a distillation of his thoughts:
“So in viewing a situation, who’s view of the situation is “real?”
my response:
If ten people are looking at a tree and one of them claims the tree to be a cat; is it valid for the nine who directly see the tree to conclude that one of them is out of touch with reality?
In your sons argument, the person who sees the tree as a cat is just as in touch with reality as those who sees the tree. That argument gives equal credibility to delusion and truth. And that is the problem with Scientology. Make believe becomes objective truth.
When imagination becomes objective truth, that’s when the trouble begins.
Objective reality is science or electrical engineering etc. Ron claimed BTs and OT 3 as objective reality. Hawaii did not exist 75 million years ago. That is objective reality.
Hawaii did exist 75 million years ago is a false “reality.” These two disparate facts are not equally true. That is absurd.
There is a vast difference between the reality of opinion and reality of objective observation.
Everyone has a right to audit and believe whatever they want: subjective reality.
But people do not have the right to assume that their subjective reality is what is real for everyone.
Could you please ask your son what his opinion is regarding Ron wishing for suicide while running BTs.
If running BTs is the road to spiritual freedom, why did the creator of these processes wish for suicide by electroshock? It’s my reality that suicide is a mental and emotional disorder. Does your son have a different reality on the subject of suicide?
Please note Brian,
Mike’s son, an Indie. His words wise and balanced. He does not have to be right by making others wrong. But he hints gently… 🙂
Please Brian, there is no tree to start with. In your example it was FOR YOU a tree. And all else were judged by your reality. As in your article, it is all about what is real to YOU. It is ok, we all do the same, but…it is nice and rewarding, believe me, to lossen a bit about our solid certainties regarding what is true or false. I would give the same advice to Ron, by the way. It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate his work, because unlike and many others – even though I practice now parts of his tech – I don’t think he was the perfect being you assume he should have been. I just examin his work and what it can do.
If Ron died miseably you deduct that all his work is BS. Is that really logical?
So by that logic, Jesus died worse possible shameful death. So all he ever said and all his work is BS and will lead anyone to same fate? You happy with that? And if Nelson Mandela ended up rotting in prison as a terrorist (9 out of 10 people then agreed..), then all his work is BS too?
And if mike (God forbid!!) gets in trouble for some reason, then all this blog is BS just on that account?
Many a great men showed the way to others, and have been so busy at it, they never botherd to walk themselves. It is not the indicator. What counts is the work and the teaching. Good or bad you decide for youeself. And let otrhers do the same.
One last thing. I said it many times and I wish people will take notice. The tech, might be good or not, might suit some people and some not. Fine.
BUT doing it in a totally free environment without any forcing, abusing, duress of any kind, is a TOTALLY different experience than when done otherwise. This is only understood when done.
Hemi ♥
I’m happy you enjoy your path Hemi. Thanks for sharing your experience.
It’s good to hear different views.
I’m not seeking agreement. I’m seeking clarity. I’ve made my view clear and you’ve made yours.
And we’ve been civil. I’m completely satisfied with this outcome. ?
And your response Hemi is why I considered Dani a sane Scientologist on my last essay.
We are all free to believe and practice what is true for us.
May your road bring you liberation from all suffering. ❤️
Me too Brian. Completely satisfied. Rare and wonderful. 🙂 ♥
Mike M, your son is very wise. I went up through OTVII (the OLD one) and enjoyed the ride immensely, got some very good viewpoints and realized on OTIII that I was running Ron’s case. (Dial wide F/N with long persistence!) And if no one else believes me, I’m content to leave them with their point of view. Interesting too that all these many years later, it’s confirmed by the revelation of Ron’s last days.
Imagination? Sure, why not? We “make up” most of our lives anyway. So what? So does everyone else. Reality is individual. When a whole bunch of folks agree on the same reality, it becomes their truth. Fine with me, as long as they don’t try to enforce it on me. We all live our lives based on our individual point of view and, at any time, we’ll imagine/make up things which prove (confirm) that point of view. It may change later as we have new experiences/information which makes sense … to us. Just think of all the stories on this blog and Ortega’s blog of those who have quit scio and who now have different points of view.
Einstein has been quoted as saying, “”Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” And without imagination, we’d have no novels, no “stories”, no films, no music, no art. It would be a very dull world indeed.
Hi, I got stuck on OT II and have been very curious since then what the specific EP of OT II is. Thank you for writing to me.
Hubbard is a traitor, he told Sarge he failed and wasn’t coming back, provided of course one can come back.
I never felt betrayed by Hubbard because I never put my trust in him. I was a rebel on my life and I’ve never trusted anyone who promised me enlightenment and spiritual freedom for hard cash. I enjoyed going to courses mainly to meet truly cool people who many were true believers
and many were not, that I would’ve never met otherwise.
My ride lasted Seven years. I stepped off that roller coaster ride 25 years ago, no regrets, no surprises. it was fun.
BTs and Clusters
And service facsimiles
Auditing entities from here to eternity
Following Ron like a puppet on strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Lol! I sang all along!
Well written, interesting, makes good points. What the author doesn’t apparently understand is that auditing is a mock up of real life. We face dangers, past, present, future, and fears, whether real or unreal in the safety of the auditing chair where our ability to confront improves on a gradient, and our certainly of self able to handle situations improves. When the real thing hits–like I fell a few years ago and shattered my leg–my ability to confront was up. I did not have pain even an hour later when I went to the hospital. What could have been terribly traumatic in “real life” was a bit of a nuisance, but I can thank my hours of auditing that it wasn’t worse.
Don’t give up because you are auditing what’s real to you even if it isn’t real to others, or real in the physical universe. It is like a fire drill–you do it when there is no fire so you can handle and be more cause over the situation when there is a fire. Don’t negate the effectiveness of auditing. After all, we are only restoring self determanism (power of choice) and freedom to move or not move on the tone scale so that we can face our environment, face our lives, even change our lives as we choose.
And if you just happen to really face a ghost in real life you won’t quack and shake. You will know the best way to communicate to him for his benefit, and yours.
The problem is, auditing in Scientology isn’t represented (and sold) as “a mock up of real life,” but rather as something concrete and even scientific. Much of the problem at issue is the ways in which Hubbard’s work is falsely represented, though among the misrepresentations are its effectiveness, which has never been properly proven and is probably minimal to none.
Delayed onset of pain after trauma is not uncommon, based in part of the release of adrenaline (also probably partially responsible for the “high” after emotional auditing sessions). One of Hubbard’s tricks, was to get people to attribute to Dianetics and Scientology, things that would have happened in their lives anyway.
I had learned to control pain through self-hypnosis and other techniques before I encountered Scientology, and recognized the sort of things that were at work in processes like auditing immediately. Since Hubbard hid all the actual workings (and sources) of Dianetics and Scientology, I doubt that you learned pain control, though it’s possible. But people do figure out some of the mechanisms that they’re not supposed to, such as how to “beat” the e-meter.
Excellent. I beat the e-meter at 13 and then again at 14. At 14, it got me off the Apollo.
At age 16 In was hit by a car while riding a bike. It flipped me 180 degrees and I landed facing the opposite direction I was travelling. On the ground with handlebars in my ribs I had the clarity to process what was happening to me. The irony of not knowing how I should respond made me laugh. Bloody knees and hands, broken ribs…and laughing.
I was so composed that the radiologist misdiagnosed my ribs as – not broken – they were sure the artifact on the xray was wrong.
I am not Clear or OT, wasn’t then either. Your point is well taken. Scientology and Dianetics don’t explain or enable these phenomena.
I think Dodo makes good points. While I never got THE promised abilities listed, I did have some very important cognitions in auditing and training and some tremendous wins that are still positive in my life four decades later.
Of course this is a separate issue from the truthfulness of the OT3 story.
Who came up with the idea “Hubbard Promised”? Statements or claims maybe, but promises? Did someone actually think they were going to achieve every ability claimed in DMSMH or OT8? I was more than skeptical but had the attitude “Let’s see what happens.”
Well that’s fine if you crap money. But if you’re someone who has to scrimp, save and struggle to pay for your next intensive, those claims might actually mean something.
Promises? You haven’t seen the posters, heard celebs make claims, read the success stories?
Thanks Joe. That’s exactly right. I am not making a criticism against being a better communicator, understanding overts, arc and other benevolent realities of the grades.
I am focusing on what the grades are preparing Scientologists for; imaginary LRon Hubbard Sci Fi space opera.
There is a distinction Dodobird.
I had lots of benefits from auditing. This is 42 years later and I still feel that way.
When you did it, how did you know there were no more BTs?
What signal did the needle give?
You experience what you believe!
What?
Don’t tell me LRH was selling fake fear fixable by his copyrighted/trademarked “blue sky” “body-thetan” “Xenu take that” exorcism!?
He wouldn’t have dared!
He died like a man, with his “body-thetans” still on!
He’s out doing the OT running around the star program, his ultimate “running himself in circles” to fix himself!
Everyone on earth who is a failed case, too, ought remember Ron’s final Case Supervisor direction for himself, the OT running program, running in circles around a star, for a long while.
Excellent Brian,
I couldn’t have written it better if I had mocked it up myself.
Mike Rinder, A bit off thread, but I have to ask: You said earlier that this week’s episode of Aftermath would be about David Miscavige and how he rose to power. Yet in reading Tony O’s site today, it says that this week’s episode will be about the Bridge, the auditing, and interviewing Ronit and Yossi Charny. So why the change? Did Miscavige and his minions put pressure on A & E such that they canned the planned episode on Miscavige and instead plugged in this one about the auditing?
NO pressure. The Miscavige epsiode will be next week. A&E has a few “specials” that are being used throughout the season and they decided this was a good week for a “breather”. The promo at the end of the shows highlights the next “episode” but not the “specials” (not sure why).
It was simply a programming decision that I was not aware of til a few days ago.
Thanks for the info, Mike. And such kudos to you and Leah for doing this despite the heartache it must cause you at times. Keep on doing it as it is making a huge impact.
Really great article, Brian. I particularly loved your comment about LRH teaching is stealing the imagination and supplanting it with LRH imagination. From the beginning of my readings about the cult many years ago, I always felt there was a “cloning effect” since every time I spoke with a member, they felt robotic to me. Also,as I was reading this, I couldn’t help recall a research paper I did on False Memory in grad school. Very similar to what you articulate in your article.
The OT levels are totally a delusional hoax. That’s the real EP. Thanks Brian– for an excellent article.
Beautiful day in my neck of the woods! Perfect weather.
I’m checking back in before going out tonite.
(Deep Breath).
Brain, this is an interesting theory, that the OT Levels are all made up data. It may be true. Then again, it may not. be. Or, there may be some mix of truth or untruth. Also, any or all of the above on a caseby case basis.
Your argument, that e-meter needle reactions occur for delusions, is valid.
But then, the e-meter will also react to actual recall.
If there’s emotion connected, the needle will react whether its fact or fantasy.
BUT whether or not what’s being shared is fact, actual recall, or fantasy – who’s to say, for sure?
I personally do not know anyone who really knows what if anything happens after we die WHO CAN OBJECTIVELY PROVE IT.
I don’t think you do either.
As far as I’m concerned (which means that this is my opinion, to which I’m entitled) until someone somewhere objectively proves or disproves what happens or doesn’t happen after physcial death, then its anyone’s guess.
And if we’re guessing, if we don’t ‘KNOW, then we are opining. That’s all we’re doing. We’re offering opinions based on our own personal experience, viewpoint, education, accepted dogmas, whatever…wer’re opining. Religious dogma opine. They say they know. For our purposes they don’t know because they can’t objectively prove it.
So this subject remains a subjective, not an objective one.
Nobody’s right. Who knows what happens. My fervently Evangelical late Aunt believed she was going straight into the arms of Jesus Christ for all eternity. Well, maybe that’s where she is. I mean, it doesn’t indicate to me but then, who really knows for sure? Do you?
Happy Labor Day, everyone.
Brian, I called you “Brain” before and I was going to correct it here as a typo but on second thought I won’t, because you are a brain, and your posts always make me think. So, thanks, Brain. I like people who make me think 🙂
?
Aquamarine, I’d suggest looking at it like this.
The chances that material like the Scientology OT levels aren’t made up and are literally true, is about the same as that the theology or cosmology of any of the world’s other religions and spiritual traditions are literally true – and only one can be true. So the chances Scientology’s are true those of it compared to all the others, roughly 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 10,000 or something like that, depending on the count of other distinct beliefs – so small that it hardly matters.
If one wanted to be thorough and scientific about it, that would require studying all the world’s beliefs and weighing their evidence and plausibility, to somehow find the true one – almost certainly an impossible task, for one lifetime. More practically, one could start by studying the worlds largest and most widely-practiced traditions – which probably wouldn’t result in getting as far down the list as the study of Scientology, in one lifetime. Just properly understanding what Scientology is based on (or plagiarized from), from Crowley’s OTO to Theosophy and General Semantics, as well as several Buddhist traditions, would be an enormous task and possibly a lifetime endeavor in itself.
Very good
Peacemaker, I agree with what you’ve stated, i.e., that to isolate and determine what if any OBJECTIVE truth exists in the OT 3 story would be a daunting task. There are so many creation theories. Each religion or cult claims that belief in its dogma is the ONLY way, the only salvation, blah blah.
There’s so much I could say about this but let me keep it simple and based on what I was seeking when I got into Scientology,
At the time, I was not searching for something to believe in, religion wise. What I needed was a way to stop hurting.
I was in a lot of emotional pain, having lost a number of very important people thru death. It just kept happening. People I loved and needed kept dying, starting when I was 14. I had gotten to the point wherein I was paranoid about loving anyone because I knew if I did then they would die.
Scientology auditing and training helped me a good deal. I didn’t care about the space opera, plenty of which is available to read on the lower bridge. It wasn’t an issue for me.
If I had gotten up to OT 3 its possible that my mind would have been blown by the Xenu story and I would have flipped and thought it outrageous and off the wall. On the Basics I had to do Milestone One which had me rolling my eyes a lot at all the space opera.
I took it all in as a necessary evil so that I could stay connected to what had helped me, to what was helping me.
Now, would I have been able to do OT 3 with that attitude?
I don’t know. Very possibly not, but I don’t know.
All my life I’ve cherry picked on a philosophical level, starting with the Bible. I was brought up Christian but I never believed in the Virgin Birth. The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes seemed a bit of a stretch. On the other hand, ma number of wise and workable truths came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ if he existed (or SOMEBODY said them) . Same with the Old Testament; I cherry picked what made sense to me and what I could use as a better way to live and pretty much shrug at the rest. Ditto with Scientology. I shrugged at the space opera. But again, would I have been allowed to shrug at Xenu and his shenanigans on OT 3? I suppose I would have if I were getting some value out of it other wise. If not…well, that might have been my Scientological waterloo. Its anyone’s guess.
I’ll just add that the point I’m attempting to make is that Scientology auditing is a SUBjective experience. That’s how the cult got its OK from the IRS to be a religion. Don’t ask me how they get away with the concrete promises about “abilities gained” while still being a religion. Talk about pretzel logic! I don’t know how they get away with it.
Yes, quite so. It is an excellent trap. One puts one iron bar after another in the prison of belief, boasting to achieve more and more freedom. Remarkable!
Imagine that you knew nothing about $cn when you walked through the cherch’s doors and very appropriately asked what are the religion’s most fundamental beliefs and foundational doctrines which members must subscribe to and continue to practice in order to be a part of the faith.
No one who asks that very pertinent question at the outset of their cult careers is told the truth. Instead, they’re given some introductory cult material to read, such as DMSMH, and told to start there. No one is ever going to give you the real answer to that completely valid and pertinent question. Indeed, the cult actually prohibits discussion of its core beliefs an infraction, which is punishable by a hefty fine for each infraction..
Early on in the scam’s development, Elron had to find a way to NOT tell his marks what they were really signing up for because those who were not properly indoctrinated just wouldn’t believe the whole obviously made up, bad sci fi story and would run, not walk, out the nearest cult exit door.
But you have to provide at least some plausible reason to explain why such secrecy is necessary, so Elron came up with the lie that it needed to remain confidential because that kind of powerful knowledge could cause great harm to those whose “case level” wasn’t up to the point of being able to deal with it. Thus, this huge and glaring overt of omission became completely reframed in the minds of Scilons as both necessary and beneficial…in true doublespeak fashion, truth was reframed as being literally dangerous!
Never mind the fact that once this super secret and supposedly life-threatening advanced material escaped into the public domain, no one has died or even become mildly ill by being exposed to it. Given that obvious error, you’d expect that since it’s now been proven NOT to be dangerous, and that was the only ostensible reason justifying it being secret in the first place, that the cherch would now correct that rather fundamental error by telling potential new members the truth about the cherch’s most fundamental beliefs.
But that’s not what has happened; and it hasn’t occurred for the real reason that Elron made up the bullshit story about the dangers of exposing the unprepared to the space opera idiocy which awaits them on OT 3 in the first place: People who are not already sufficiently indoctrinated into lower level cult practices and belief would run screaming for the doors or just sit there and laugh at you if they were informed of what the cult’s central tenets of belief actually are.
Even more bizarrely, now that these previously secret advanced level materials are widely available for absolutely free on the internet, the cult is STILL trying to act as if they’re a secret. The long con of $cn begins with a purposeful act of deceptive omission concerning the cult’s most fundamental beliefs and tenets of faith, which was designed to be deceptive from the start, — not out of any real concern for parishioners, but solely based on the fact that the con wouldn’t work on newbies if they knew for sure what kind of supremely whacky woo awaited them, in their cult future once they’d already ponied up a cool half million or so in sunk costs.
People are entitled to believe whatever they like in the privacy of their very own heads, but when a supposedly religious faith won’t even disclose what its central beliefs are, even after they’ve been made public by others, then you know that deception, lies of omission and fraud are likely to be the only things which are truly foundational to this bogus belief system!
Excellent……..love the colorful way you write….I learn and giggle at that the same time. Lol!
A far more eloquent description of the sh!t cookie than I could ever conjure. You nailed it.
Members of any organization (religion included) might do well to review this entire site I reference here, but this page is the most pertinent: https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️ …..etc.
I haven’t looked, but is this Steve Hassan?
I well remember the epiphany I experienced upon realizing that delusion & certainty formed the “glue” of Scientology.
Very good insight indeed! Good exemple to give to scientologists friends who want to proof that with the reading of the E-Meter the tech works.
Wonderful article Brian. A reality show without the television. Your writing really did make it come alive. Thank you for making ot crystal clear.
Brian, excellent explanation. Now tie that into the fact that I did get actual positive changes that have lasted from running NOTS.
I am curious how you see it.
The mental energy you had BK was real, the existence of BTs being the cause of that mental energy is unreal.
It’s my opinion that having realizations/cognitions is just what happens when we turn our attention within. Going within is going to cause cognitions sometimes. It’s our nature to do this. It’s what souls do. It happens in auditing as well. It happens a lot also in meditation.
That to me is the real job of the x Scientologists: differentiating the unreal from the real.
Your mental energy was real, but Ron’s labels and stories are not. They’re his imagination agreed upon as real by you. That agreement causes the movie film to roll.
Brian,
Thanks for answering my question. That is pretty much the conclusion I came to. A lot of personal digging which did give me some stable wins.
Eventually I realized that there were no BTs and clusters. That was it for me.
Brian says “Going within is going to cause cognitions sometimes.”
I’ve wondered about that regarding the OT levels. Many people have said they had wins, cognitions, blew charge or whatever description you want to give it on OT levels. I’ve never seen anyone say they did or did not attribute whatever they were looking at to disembodied beings or just some inner reflection.
Even if it was cheap outside of the CoS I doubt if I would pursue digging inside my head for years and years if that’s what it takes. I’d rather spend some weekends on retreats with one of the nondualism teachers.
In dream therapy the therapist uses a patients dreams to unravel personal issues. The dreams are metaphors, similies, analogies stories, that free associate with realities in the patients life.
That is what is happening running Ron’s space opera. The people who are having gains are dealing with real mental energies. Those mental energies are defined and labeled with Ron’s emetered dreams and imagination.
That is my take on people having positive gains auditing BTs.
But the main difference is in accurate perception of reality. The person doing dream therapy knows they are using dreams.
The Scientologist collapses reality and imagination and considers the OT 3 dream real. That’s where things go bad for the discriminating intelligence.
The dream therapist patient knows that the whole process comes from their own mind. He is cause.
The Scientologist is stuck with the delusion of OT 3 and Ron’s make believe. And that they are a victim of this.
The dream therapist patient knows he’s mocking it up; cause
The Scientologist thinks BTs are mocking it up; effect
Ironic, don’t you think?
Sorry Brian I had a difficult time reading your article. Too many “reality analogies” to digest for me (I know and have experienced the bridge to 7 personally too) but I see where you are coming from. Off course I fundamentally agree with the obvious con Hubbard presented, especially with his space cootie tech. I tire of trying to be enthused by others searching endlessly for someone else’s example that explains why they feel the way they do.
Each to own and good luck with anyone that wants to do that, except abuse others in the process of course.
I fly fish Australian highland streams and running into venomous snakes for me is unfortunately part and parcel of the sport. Geezers… tigers, death adders, black & brown snakes are numerous around water in summer and hunt in the reeds for frogs etc . They lie in wait to ambush such things as mice, birds etc when they come to drink. Most are territorial and aggressive sob’s, I’ve been chased many times, oh, they swim exceptionally well too. Nothing like wading in waist deep water and seeing a snake swimming toward you… now that’s an adrenalin rush let me tell you! Gives you endless philosophical meanderings of the mind to ponder later.
Fear based response is a phenomenally huge & varied emotion that affects people in many and often horrible ways. Soldiering in the field imo is basically things, incredible boredom and short bursts of mind & body numbing fear. A near miss, or worse, being involved in an automobile mishap can do extraordinary things to a person’s perspective on life too.
There’s lots of bullshit out there, I think the trick is learning to live with it and getting on with your own life amongst it. Making the right choices in life could be considered an art form. Organised Scientology is one fucked up subject to get involved with and from my perspective is like a disease that needs curing. Scientology is not alone in the bullshit stakes in society but it is something that boggles the mind when you see it for what it really is and does but can’t get that though to others, especially the ones you love.
In other words, associating with the Church of Scientology in any way is like playing against a stacked deck, it’s impossible to win with it!
In waist deep water with a snake swimming toward you gave you an adrenalin rush – laughter – Snakes tend do do that even though most of them are harmless critters.
I was thinking about Hubbard participating in Thelema with Jack Parsons in 1945. Maybe after Dianetics flopped in 1952 he decided his own brand of occultism was better than Crowley’s and launched it.
Occultism is not necessarily evil, just a belief in supernatural agencies. Angels, demons, spirit guides, ascended masters and so on. Elron obviously went to extremes.
Richard, what I think is what as known as evil, is the dark path egoistic and utilitarian approach that Hubbard took from Crowley, and perhaps other sources – never fear to hurt another, the end justifies the means, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” return to the law of the jungle (dog eat dog), Simon Bolivar and the Responsibilities of Leaders, and so on. That selfish ruthlessness and amorality underlie all of Scientology – including its so-called “ethics,” which is an Orwellian redefinition of the term.
Yeah I hear you, most snakes are just doing there thing and will just slither by or at worst hiss at you. But when you’re alone, miles from anywhere because you had to hike it in there, plus that snake is in the top ten list of poisonous critters on the planet… well, I don’t care if it’s just out for a Sunday dip – you’re heart is in your mouth and a certain amount of caution invades your temperament – you pooh yourself in other words!
You are right – Occultism is not necessarily evil, just a belief in supernatural agencies but Hubbard went and messed up an awful lot of people and their lives/careers.
Hubbard made everyone else a “criminal”. He used shame, and threat of e,posture, public degradation. Fear does not equal higher spiritual attainment.
Imo.
I Yawn – Laughter – There are lots of possible “reactions” upon meeting a snake. I once dated a gal who had a pet snake. It was about three or four feet long and it enjoyed hanging out around my arm. At least I think it “enjoyed” it – maybe it’s a different and unique experience for a snake to hang out on a warm human arm, kind of like taking the dog for a walk. I prefer warm blooded pets.
A girl with a pet snake hey… now, the mind sort of boggles in few directions with that concept.
I did once sit down on a small grassed area beside a creek, ate my sandwich and had a rest, in was hot. A little later I looked to my side and a noticed a coiled up snake in longish dead grass. It was not a small snake but for all intensive purposes was asleep. It didn’t seem to notice me but it was an eastern brown, potentially fatal to be bitten by it. I had one of those moments that is impossible to describe, but my breathing stopped! I could have reached out and touched it. Needless to say I quietly but quickly made my departure. You’d think sneaking around creeks and streams hunting fish in a dry climate is something I would learn about and avoid but I’m sort of happy those creatures don’t really mind sharing. Yes, warm blood creatures are my choice for companions too.
This is indeed a thought-provoking article. I never reached anywhere near the OT levels and so whatever I shared in my auditing sessions were memories about things that had happened in this lifetime, after I was born.
Anyway, there will undoubtedly be differing opinions shared here with regard to auditing on the OT Levels and that’s fine, Mike gives us a safe space.
I came across this quote on the internet. I keep reading it because it makes me happy. I’d like to share it with you.
“I believe that the real expression of your religious beliefs is shown in the daily pattern of your life, in what you contribute to your surroundings and what you take away without infringing on the rights of other people.” – Judy Garland.
Beautiful, no? Simple, plain truth.
Beautify yes!
Excellent article, Brian.
Great article, Brian.
Years after, I wondered if the e-meter simply enabled a flight of imagination to become real for the individual who was emotionally and financially invested in believing it was real. A favorite trick of interrogators is to remain mum and let the guy spill the beans. An auditor just nods encouragingly when a PC is babbling. Is it any surprise that all of that positive reinforcement allows PCs to convince themselves that what they are imagining actually occurred?
It’s a slippery slope. Auditing starts out by genuinely helping a person talk about and perhaps resolve problems in their life—real problems that actually happened. Once they are convinced that it works, the auditing eventually goes into past lives and body thetans, and the PC is along for the ride.
I only ever “recalled” one single past life incident, and it was during a PTS handling. I’d fallen eight feet and busted my knee (badly, requiring surgery). On the cans, the auditor asked that pure Book One question, “Recall an earlier-similar incident.”
I was only sixteen and had never fallen from anything higher than my bike. But I was studying history in class, recently reading about the storm that submerged most of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Being a doomed sailor sounded sexy, and native speakers had complimented me on my excellent Spanish accent. So I went straight back to that stormy night, falling from the rigging, shattering my knee upon the deck, and sweeping over the railing to my watery death. How romantic!
“Your needle is floating.”
Thanks, Scientology! At the time I was convinced my shattered kneecap, repaired in surgery, would never trouble me again. Yeah, right.
In Scientology auditing, when a question is asked, it must be answered. That obnoxious auditor will just ask it over and over until the PC answers it. The auditor does not care how ridiculous the answer may be; if the needle is floating, then the answer is acceptable. Half the time, the PC is forced to invent something to answer the damn question. I know I invented the whole doomed-sailor bit, both to get the auditor to shut up, but also because I wanted to believe I had lived before. At the time, I couldn’t wait to go back even further.
Years after, my mother admitted to me that she had taken a bad fall when she was seven months pregnant with me. I thought about when I was asked to recall an earlier-similar incident with my busted knee: if Dianetics worked, why hadn’t I recalled that in-utero fall? I’d skipped it and gone straight back to the Spanish Armada. The inability of my auditor to help me recall that important in-utero event made me question if Dianetics really worked. And if Dianetics didn’t really work, then what about Scientology?
Every Scientologist, current and former, has invented a story in response to the “earlier similar” prompt in auditing. Do it enough times and you either buy-in and believe or reject and eventually leave because you realize that it’s all BS.
I didn’t do the OT levels (I quit in 1983 after Clear) but I’ve scanned a bit of them on the internet. I don’t know if it’s possible to do some of the introspective procedures beyond OT3 without giving credence to BTs and implants. Buddhists do plenty of introspection without getting ridiculed. I’m not referring to doing this within the CoS Inc. and I’m personally not interested in it but someone else might be interested.
I took another look and I think I previously had looked at a couple of OT1 and OT2 introspective procedures. It seems that from OT3 on one need to adopt a belief in body thetans to continue. Thanks for the topic, Brian. It helped me clear up a misunderstanding. (NOT a misunderstood word! -Lol)
SO true! I’m embarrassed at times because I fell for it hook line and sinker. The great thing is though, I’ve learned so much about who I really am and I will never be bambooseled again. ☺️
Great essay, thank you!
Joan, don’t be embarrassed, I think we all long for OT abilities, meaning, to be more than just a body that is born, lives and dies. I do believe that potentially we are much more than that but I would never be able to prove it to you or to anyone.
When I was a child I saw the play, “Peter Pan”. When Peter taught Wendy and her little brother – I forget his name – to fly, they “flew” all around the audience. Of course, we couldn’t see the wires, and the lights were dim, and it looked so real to me and to an audience full of small children. It was beautiful, and heartbreaking at the same time. What coursed thru me was this elation and sadness. I felt like I should be able to fly! Like once I had been able to! That was my feeling, when I was six, watching this! I can still recall it, that surge of happiness with the lump in my throat, that almost passionate sadness I felt then at no longer being able to fly! at the same time.
Look, I have NO clue where this comes from. Its just there. Maybe someday, somehow, I’ll find out its root cause. Or maybe I never will. No matter. Its real for me, on a completely subjective level and to this day can be triggered by that scene from “Peter Pan”.
PS: Just so you don’t think I’m completely nuts, I have no memories, whole track or otherwise, of having the ability to fly 🙂
By the way, is Xenu still in that wire cage with the eternal battery? (Eveready should find out about that, or Tesla!). Does someone feed Xenu? He’s been there for millions of years. A wire cage seems to me to be a bit flimsy, is Xenu a bird of some kind? So many questions.
OK, i get the gist, but I have to admit to getting cross eyed about half way through. The twists and turns of this still, while laid out clearly baffle me.
But what do I know. I was raised Mormon and deeply and honestly believed that the golden plates were fact. Now I tend to take things at face value and credit the philosophy and the positive results and take a good hard look at the moral violations and lack of ethics they accept and require of members.
The big difference in why I believe co$ to be a cult is in the hold they have over people. The complete disassociation they demand from the world in general, to *shield* members from the real truth and not the ravings of a man man. Toss in their crazy practices toward people who have *blown* the matter seems pretty cut and dried to me.
That obviously should be mad man….sorry about that.
Excellent Brian, well illustrated and probably correct. I say probably only because of my own questioning on the subject. Which is unresolved.
As a new indie i was excited to do ot levels. After some initial success i found the “bt s” could produce nice meter results but did nothing for me. I began to look at bts as nothing more than my own stuck thoughts, or those of others due to our interconnectedness. They “ran out” doing the ot commands simply because it was a construct I was trained in, not because they were actual entities.
The meter could continue to read on imaginary beings or thoughts in the endless pursuit of assigning cause of my condition to others. I then decided it was BS. Ultimately, I think the true failure of the ot levels is that it is a false construct of looking for spiritual gain from the viewpoint of a victim rather than from a cause or connected viewpoint. Hubbard’s dying wish of ridding himself of bts was a futile attempt to shift responsibility from himself to imaginary other causation.
I agree with you Ed. In Scientology Ron’s says he will teach you to be cause. Then you spend years and a fortune being victimized by drugged out BT condos.
If the whole “running BTs” will free us, why was Ron suicidal while running BTs?
What is/are BT?
Big Trouble
(joke – means body thetans, theoretical disembodied beings affecting ones thoughts and actions)
Body Thetans
Brian, I am glad that the e-meter is acknowledged as a workable tool. Like any tool, it is dependent on how and what it is used for.
It’s workable for helping the gullible and credulous to believe in things that Elron imagined, but certainly not as a scientific tool. It belongs in the same category as water dowsing rods and Reich’s Orgone Accumulator (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone ).
There are some truly sophisticated biophysical measurement instruments in existence these days which make the e-meter look like something that a neo-phrenologist (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology ) would use.
Even if you subscribe to the supremely whacked out space opera idiocy that Elron conned so many into believing, there’s absolutely no good reason to use equipment and methods that are from the Stone Age, is there?
Elron said not to alter the tech in any way or you’d put all of mankind at risk, but he didn’t have any problem at all in staying up to date on the latest and greatest camera technology, or in audio recording, so there’s really no good scientological reason to prevent folks in the cult from actually using what others have invented to do what the e-meter does, but infinitely better, is there?
Now, why do you think that some really bright $cilons who aren’t scared to death of scientific innovation and advances haven’t already done just that? (Big hint: It’s the same reason that Scilons have invented much of anything truly remarkable, or created much great art, or have written anything classic, or built any Mars landers, or done pretty much anything else that was truly innovative either.)
Edit: In the last paragraph, second sentence, change the first “have” in that sentence to “haven’t” and delete the second “have” in it entirely.
+10. Great post, Harpoona.
Hard to imagine Nikola Tesla or Elon Musk coming up with an invention and asking themselves, ‘What would Ron do’, isn’t it?
Harpoona, it sounds like you are trying to compare an axe to a chain saw. Sometimes, old tools are more appropriate than new ones.
The cans make great butt plugs. Otherwise, the e-meter is a useless piece of 19th Century steampunk tech.
LOL!
I might have said this before, but I’ll say it again: some of the articles Mike puts up here are brilliant, and worthy of publication. Today’s by Brian is rather profound. Ditto, the responsive and well written comments many of you make here. Well done, to all of you; you put things well and really make me think. Mega thanks.
Excellent, excellent article Brian! You nailed it perfectly and so succinctly written. That is what always got me when I was in session….did I make that up? It really bothered me and when I got onto OT 3 it didn’t seem real to me whatsoever. The thing is that especially when you are in session and running an “incident” and the auditor asks you to go earlier and earlier – this lifetime events were fine to come up with but then going earlier than that I was just making it up and am very confident in that. I do not have a good imagination in the first place so it was very hard for me to come with “far-fetched space opera” incidents and I would avoid that completely always in my auditing. Thank you for this great explanation.
superb article.
I now realise I am made of dust and shall return to dust.
My entire existence is just electrons and protons moving about.
Thank you for explaining that there is real point in trying to do anything about anything.
God bless you.
You must continue to destroy all hope for man.
Well done
Where is the destruction of man in the realization that we are made of star dust? Souls survive, no matter if you believe they go to heave or reborn.
leave. or reborn. For heavens sake I am cutting my nails….
Lol
“You must continue to destroy all hope for man.”
Is this sarcasm? (Please say yes…)
Or are you a true believer in Hubbard’s “tech” and think it can actually “save the planet”??
…and if it were remotely capable of saving mankind, why is there absolutely no evidence of it?
LOL
Well said, “confused.”
OMG, you’re back!
I’m sorry Marildi but did you get lost on your way to Martys blog?
Argh, “she’s baaaaaaack”. Think of that movie Poltergeist when the little girl says “they’re baaaaack” with horror on her face.
Too bad she left so quickly. I was so hoping for another stirring round of verbal assaults.
There is a certain enjoyment having a battle of wits with and unarmed person.
The lighter side of fair game.
If “all hope for man” is Scientology, then, yes, Brian must continue to destroy it. Destroy everything, including the ruins, as Jarry said.
By the way, your first three statements are true. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
If you define “all hope” for humanity (not even gonna go there with “man”) as believing in an afterlife, then Xenu truly is the only one who can help you, confused.
Up The Academy
Confused…..
This essay is on the nature of reality, not an argument for or against spirituality.
I can only surmise that you think I am dissing spiritual realities because I am deconstructing OT 3 and you believe it is essential for spiritual liberation.
Am I right or wrong Confused?
Brian, Confused didn’t read your excellent essay
“Destroy all hope for man” seems kinda grandiose, kinda emo. I see it more as a deconstruction of Dianetics and Scientology. Imo, not a bad thing if it helps stop abuses, inside the Chorch, or outside. Physical, mental, spiritual, financial. By outside, I mean financial… the exorbitant fees for auditing, even indie.
GAWLLEEE. Just mention auditing!
thank you for this.
I have a flood of things about this I would say if I could. I don’t have the safety to do so.
but I’ve a million things to say to you about this.
…..
I think what you think.
……
even when I think this, even though things are progressing, it’s not nearly done. Beneath this layer of what I think is a layer of utter fear, and below that, still – belief.
I feel a foundation of belief, and then fear because I no longer believe any of it.
….
I would like this interim period of awful crawling insanity to be over sometime… please.
Love you secret – you can hold my hand on your journey – and I yours on mine. We may have travelled differing paths and now we are on our way home.
Your doing fine secretfornow. Just breath and accept your next stage of evolution. I hope you get what you need. ❤️
It’s really difficult when your lifelong foundations are shaken and shattered. Recovery is tough, what do you really have to fall back on?
I can only say from personal experience that it does get better and sanity usually triumphs.
I find this utter fear of finding your voice, thinking for yourself, and freedom to BE yourself is one of the great wrongs of all times. While I know that thousands are still facing finding their own voice, the fact at anyone, even one, should have to go through the painful process of truly finding the value of self after years of being assimilated into anything to be the depravity that is simply mind boggling.
Have faith secret, but instead of finding someone else’s voice, find your own. The song will be sweeter than you can imagine.
Lovely, Jill.
It seems like the more we, each of us, is ok with being who we are, then the more we are ok with other people really being who they are, and vice versa.
Perfectly natural, secret. It’s all part of the process. Embrace it. Keep reading, keep learning, go see the world, explore somewhere new, get back to nature, go on an adventure, get drunk with people who are totally different, be silly, cry like a river, make mistakes, step out of your comfort zone, live life and have fun! The fear will dissipate and you’ll soon find your equilibrium. My beliefs are now fluid and ever changing. There are no limits. This really is freedom of mind.
SNF, I hope this doesn’t sound glib: nothing stays the same forever. Just as your Scientology belief didn’t last forever, neither will this period of time where you feel “this awful, crawling insanity.”
From ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, Viktor Frankl contends that the suffering in itself is meaningless but how we rise to the challenge of that suffering is what does matter. He actually says much, much more than this. His book is a very worthwhile read and may be helpful if you haven’t read it yet. It’s one of my favorites.
Thanks Brian – what a great observation!
Misperceptions and life: those still traumatized and reeling from the loss by the crooked gal may now open their eyes. LOL
Great article!
I must have been quite lucky when I started OT III. I was so excited to finally be able to read those secret and powerful LRH words but when I tried running it – NADA. It didn’t make sense to me and it didn’t work on me. I would make up these BTs but knew inside it was BS. I lasted about a week and turned in my materials never to touch it again.
The aspect of being lucky was that I was SO at INT at the time. No one cared that I quit auditing OT III. They never gave me a review session, never tried to convince me thru auditing that I was wrong and find out why I didn’t want to carry on. If I were paying public I would have been in for some major mind control.
I’m still in the middle of OT III for some odd 35 years. No pneumonia, not crazy and I find that those non-existent BTs often just piss off on their own, after a few beers.
Your AO C/S knew you to be a Loyal Officer, who hadn’t gotten any BTs nor the implants, obviously, since you were an Apollo Vet and already were “back” helping LRH, again, LOL.
But this above explanation by Brian is a good one. Ron’s selling everyone imaginary fears, and it “works” when people minus out those fake (but real if you believe them) fears.
LRH selling quack pseudo-therapy/exorcism to handle the fake fears/”body-thetans”.
For me, OT II was like that. I’m not finished. What was the OT II EP for you
You made me think this morning, Brian. Thanks!
I’m with you. The Wall of Fire, BTs, Xeno, Marcab, etc., are all imaginary. Good job. You said it all.
Wow, Brian you nailed it !
Though I didn’t get to the OT levels, I had attested to “clear” and was in the ” non-interference zone” when I made a quiet exit from Scn.
Subsequently whenever I had some kind of trouble in life ( normal stuff like relational issues or a car breaking down) , I attributed it to being in the ” non interference zone ” and thought I should get back into Scn at some point.
In the last few years I have been reading lots of books about spirituality, scientific prayer, quantum mechanics, eastern thought etc. I understand the power of imagination to create realities.
Very insightful and enlightening article.
The real non interference zone is the line you draw when approached by hungry registrars and recruiters.
Sadly, that line was crossed many times.
Works for me.
“This in essence is what is happening on the OT levels. Unrealities are experienced as real. And the “realness” is reading on the meter.”
And this is WHY one has to be told the STORY before one audits those levels. One has to be indoctrinated into what Hubbard wanted you to believe or the scam is a total bust. Since it is all make believe no one could discover it. Which is why Hubbard says not to ask him how HE discovered it. DERP!
Ron definitely had chutzpah. ?
Yes. It seems to have slipped by unnoticed that way back in 1951 particularly, that the subject of Scientology is based on a theory – the theta/mest theory as delineated particularly in Science of Survival. Theta is a THEORY!
That theory became more and more fact in people’s minds, more and more “real.” Whatever possibly worked in it to make people feel good was manipulated into a money making scheme. Hubbard really had a fucked up, “us verses them” mentality and a vivid imagination which he used for nefarious purposes; not a religious cause as he claimed but developed it all into a religious scam. His lies spawned endless corrections & research, he demanded compliance and cloaked his creation in a military styled discipline. Space cootie tech is the pinnacle of the deception – I guess he had no where else to go after that except into hiding. He should have taken the money and ran and done us all a big favour way back in the 60s at the latest.
What does a sane person do with a theory? Good question, but following one blindly… well… there’s Scientology for you! Reminds me of that children’s song, 3 blind mice.
Don’t forget Humpty Dumpty.
Very interesting take Brian. I’ve run stuff in auditing then later had a hard time discerning whether it was real or “mocked up”. Was I really a thetan running a wounded robot warrior body on a beach on some (unknown) planet with two suns and six moons 3 billion year ago? Who the fuck knows.
Of course you were. I was the mechanic that had to keep fixing your body up. I remember it like it was merely 10,000 years ago. Amazing how time flies.
Ha ha ha!
Ronn, there’s really good research that shows that supposed past life recall, is really just false memory syndrome invoked during suggestive and hypnotic processes – the same as the kids who “remembered” fantastic satanic abuse at daycare centers under persistent, subtly guiding questioning.
Among that problems with supposed past life recall that Hubbard knew about and glossed over, are that the lives can overlap in time, with one that would have been born before the other had died; and many people recalling being famous figures – and multiple people, the same famous figure (Cleopatra, Napoleon, etc.). Another obvious type of flaw encountered is that people rarely describe lives that are not the same sex, particularly not the same race, and especially not the same species (neither Neanderthals, or physically different space races), showing them as bounded by limits of personal imagination; and subjects can never recall a foreign language that they didn’t know (the Bridey Murphy case was proven to be based on forgotten childhood exposure).
Also, interestingly, researchers found that after false past life memories were induced, when subjects were hypnotized and ask about the source of the memory, they would often report something like a movie or book, that had not been in their conscious awareness.
I don’t entirely rule out the possibility of past lives, and recalling them, having had a rather extraordinary experience myself; but in Scientology, it’s almost certain that they are all or almost entirely all falsely induced. Also, and an old belief that Hubbard would likely have been aware of, is if we can recall the past, it may more likely be through some mechanism such as collective memory, and I think it’s telling that Hubbard chose the more egoistic theory and drew it out in elaborate self-gratifying ways.
Wow…just wow! Wonderful post.
Wow…very well written.
Bravo !
Very nicely stated Brian. But one wonders as to why we misinterpret in the first place and
how did we get saddled with such sad reasoning.
What a fantastic article!! I think this can be applied in all life as well. Well done!
I second that! Outstanding post! Scientologists are trapped by their own minds.
Thanks Brian, you just saved me $500,000.
LOL
Moxie your comment is perfection! Hilarious! Great article, Brian. I am not nor have I ever been a Scientologist. I’ve asked many different ex-members this question and I’ll ask it again here: When you are forced by the auditor to look at a memory from a past life, do you know that you are making it up or do you feel it is a legitimate memory? Does the auditor fill in some gaps or help you get started on a memory if you aren’t remembering what you should from trillions of years ago?
Thank you for any replies! I believe you are all badass for stepping away and stepping forward to help educate others and to protect future victims of Scientology!
I felt like I was making it up. The auditor does not fill in the blanks. Ron said somewhere, if you feel like you’re making it up, you’re probably not. That made me feel like less of an idiot.
I guess that would be like me seeing a rope and LRH saying that if I saw a snake and felt like it was really a rope, it was probably a snake. I don’t feel like less of an idiot.
You were roped in. ?
People who were taken in for *questioning* by the police and after hours and hours of questioning all the suddenly *confess*? It’s the same thing. If repeated often enough it become your *truth*. Even if it’s a dirty rotten lie.
Mary Beth, from my experience I was never quite sure if the memories that weren’t from this lifetime were real or not.
My first auditing was Dianetics. I had benefits from going over this lifetime memories that I remembered as actually happening.
I had read the book so I understood the things that were going to be looked for. In the book Hubbard wrote about abortion chains. So one time in session I went to a prenatal abortion. Now I knew my mom would have never had an abortion. She was Catholic and got married in her late 30’s and started a family immediately. I was the firstborn of 4 children. Anyway being asked for an earlier-similar, I made it up, in other words I imagined how it would be. I knew I was making it up but I still felt relief when I was done.
Carl, that’s a great account of “making it up” – and being aware of it at the time, plus having it provide some real sense of “relief” even thought it was imaginary.
See my comment to Ronn, for my perspective on research indicating that supposed past life memories in auditing, are probably always false – particularly when they come out of an environment that, as you describe, sets up various subtle expectations, pressures and suggestions to produce something.
Indeed, save your money and save yourself the humiliation of becoming a punching bag from all those higher up on the Scientology food chain.
And now, I give you the beloved founder and mankind’s greatest friend (wink, wink). Take it away Ron!
Trouble spots occur only where there are “no results.” Attacks from governments or monopolies occur only where there are “no results” or “bad results.”
Mary Beth – Let’s say, for example, a person’s “item” as it was called was “feeling Incompetent”. The auditor says “Locate an incident of feeling incompetent.” The person looks, finds an incident and relates it to the auditor. The auditor then asks “Is there an earlier incident of feeling incompetent?” It goes where it goes.
Moxie, since you saved $500,000, can you spot $20?
Ya bum, ya!
Perhaps Newcomer and I could both loan you $10. I’m part Scot too!
Hell, it’s been years since one of those whinin snivelin regges has been seen in these parts so fair to say I’m awash in tens and twenties…… you can have one and the interest is of course zero. I don’t want to compete with the fed reserve!
Yo Dave,
Where are you keepin your pile these days? It’s tough to find any risk free investments ………. or are you just stashin cash in yer vaults and using those reprocessed semi colon free titanium plates to hold it all down?
Hope those fires near yer house aren’t makin yer asthma flare up too bad good buddy. Have a nice time watching Your Laborers labor for free this fine Labor Day Dave.
Okay, since you’re willing to fork over $10 interest free, I suppose I can do the same.
As far as SO staff slaving away today, Dave solved any HE&R about it by a combination of word clearing, false data stripping and sec checking until all concerned had the cognition that labor day means just that – you work!
?
*laughing*