Understanding Scientology, by Margery Wakefield - Next - Previous

Chapter 7

OT -- Through the Wall of Fire and Beyond

Take our own bodies. I believe they are composed of myriads and myriads of infinitesimally small individuals, each in itself a unit of life, and that these units work in squads or swarms, as I prefer to call them -- and these infinitesimally small units live forever. When we die these swarms of units, like a swarm of bees, so to speak, betake themselves elsewhere, and go on functioning in some other form or environment.
-- Thomas Edison (1)

Hitler was involved in the same black magic and the same occult practices that my father was. The identical ones. Brainwashing is nothing compared to it. The proper term would be "soul cracking." It's like cracking open the soul, which then opens various doors to the power that exists, the satanic and demonic powers.

(You take drugs) in order to reach that state where you can, quite literally, like a psychic hammer, break their soul, and pull the power through. He (Hubbard) designed his Scientology Operating Thetan techniques to do the same thing.

It takes a couple of hundred hours of auditing and megathousands of dollars for the privilege of having your head turned into a glass Humpty Dumpty -- shattered into a million pieces. It may sound like incredible gibberish, but it made my father a fortune.

-- L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., in Penthouse Magazine


An advertisement for the OT levels in a Scientology magazine shows a dove flying high above a NASA-like view of the earth. The ad reads:

As you progress in Scientology, you start moving up and out of the traps of this planet and this universe.

For the first time in man's long and black history, a being can find freedom and knowledge within one lifetime.

The key is to keep moving on The Bridge.

At the upper levels of Scientology, you'll learn the secrets of this sector of the universe, and the factors that have trapped beings for countless eons. Learn the technology that will make it impossible for you ever to be trapped again. (2)

The concept of "OT" is an important part of the cosmology of Scientology, as it is the promises made for the OT levels that motivate many of the members of Scientology to remain in the organization and work their way up "The Bridge."

The concept of "OT" is similar in many ways to that of the "Ubermensch," the term used by Hitler to signify the superior Aryan man, the superman. In Scientology cosmology, eons ago, at the beginning of this universe, we existed as thetans, but possessing the superior psychic powers which were native to us as thetans. Over the centuries, as we became involved in the physical universe (called the MEST universe by Scientologists, after the acronym for matter, energy, space and time -- the elements, according to Hubbard, of the physical universe), we gradually lost our superhuman abilities as we became involved with physical bodies, and were subjected to the crippling electronic incidents known in Scientology as "implants."

In the beginning, according to Scientology, thetans together created the physical universe, but as time went on they became trapped within their own creation. Over the ages, as they took on various physical forms, they gradually lost awareness of their identity as thetans. The superhuman gods of ages past deteriorated into the degraded mortals of the present.

Enter Scientology. For the first time in recorded history, Hubbard promised his followers, a way had been found to restore to human beings both the awareness of their true identity as thetans and the once-possessed superhuman abilities, known in Scientology as "OT abilities," OT being a Scientology acronym for "operating thetan."

It is, however, only after the reactive mind has been erased in the "Clear" that it is possible to rehabilitate the thetan, and to restore these ancient powers. This auditing takes place on the "OT levels," the mysterious and secret upper levels of Scientology.

The OT levels, and the "OTs" who are on them, are highly regarded by Scientologists still on the lower grades. The awe inspired by "OTs" in Scientology is somewhat like the respect given to PhDs in a university setting, but with an added aura of religious reverence.

On the OT levels, Hubbard promises, one learns the long lost secrets "of this sector of the universe," secrets of our past now available for the first time in millions of years. By understanding these secrets, and by doing the auditing on these upper levels, one can at last achieve freedom from the physical universe in which we have been trapped for so long.

The materials on these levels are a matter of extreme secrecy within Scientology. Over the years, the material from most of these levels has been made public, with the exception of the highest level to be released so far -- OT VIII. At present, this level is administered in a floating classroom aboard a Scientology ship sailing the Caribbean. Because of elaborate security measures taken on board this ship, the contents of this level remain a secret to those outside Scientology.

Below is a chart of the OT levels, the promises made for each level, and the price for each, quoted from a recent Scientology magazine.

THE OT LEVELS

OT VIII Ability to be at cause knowingly and at will over thought, life, form, matter, energy, space and time, subjective and objective $8000
OT VII Rehabilitation of intention; ability to project intention $5,100
OT VI Ability to operate freely as a thetan exterior and to act pan-determinedly; extends the influence of the thetan to the universe of others $9,600
OTV Re-familiarizes a thetan exterior with the physical universe; freedom from fixated introversion into matter, energy, space, time $9,300
per 12.5 hrs
OT IV Certainty of self as a being $8,100
per 12.5 hrs
OT III Return of full self determinism; freedom from overwhelm $8,910
OT II Ability to confront Whole Track $5,225
OT I Extroverts a being and brings about an awareness of himself as a thetan in relation to others and the physical universe $2,750
Prices taken from Source Magazine (a Scientology magazine), Issue 77, November 1991

The cost of enlightenment is not cheap in Scientology. The constant need for large sums of money in Scientology motivates many members to start their own businesses in an attempt to raise the funds needed to "go OT." Others may join the organization, committing themselves for the next billion years to the service of Scientology, in order to receive the free auditing given to staff members.

The route to immortality begins with OT I, a short level done soon after the person is Clear. This level consists of just one command. The Scientologist is instructed to go to a place where there are a lot of people, such as a park or a mall, and there to "Spot a person" repeatedly until a "cognition" occurs. At one time this level was offered for three hundred dollars; now the price has jumped by a factor of nine.

Once the person has the requisite cognition, which is usually some kind of awareness of himself "as a thetan" as separate from all other thetans, he is ready to progress to OT Level II.

On Level II, an idea is introduced that existed as early as the Dianetics book in 1950, but which now becomes central, and this is the idea of "entities." In Dianetics, Hubbard referred to the idea of "circuits," or "demon circuits," the existence of disparate entities attached to a person. This belief comes into its own on the OT levels. Although on the Clearing Course, the person has (theoretically) audited out his own reactive mind, on OT II he now has to deal with the reactive minds of those beings, or demons, attached to him. It is done in much the same way it was done on the Solo and Clearing courses.

On OT II, Hubbard gives a series of tables of "GPMs," or implants, which must now be audited. The first list is:

The student is given an explanation for each of these "incidents." The instructions for auditing them is the same as on the Clearing Course. Each of these items is read aloud to oneself, and the E-meter reads marked down until the item no longer reads.

The explanation for the "Electrical GPM" states that "it has an electrical shock ... to convince a thetan he should think of himself as an electrical being." The date of this implant is given by Hubbard as "210,000,866th." Various commands are given to audit, including:

  1. Create (shock)
  2. Create no (shock)
  3. Destroy (shock)
  4. Destroy no (shock)
  5. Love (shock)
  6. Love no (shock), etc. (4)

The "Laughter-Calm" GPM, or implant, is described as having taken place 19,670 trillion years ago.

This takes place in a cave. It is 7-1/8ths of a second in duration. It has screams of laughter, very wild, and calm....

It is a pole with a split in it. Laughter comes from the rear half and calm from the front half simultaneously. Then they reverse. It gives one a sensation of total disagreement. The trick is to conceive of both at the same time. This tends to knock one out.... (5)

The "Dance Mob" GPM is given as occurring 18,992 trillion years ago.

The duration is 7/8ths of a second. There is a pole that pulls one in. One is caught on the pole. The actual incident is in connecting with this thing and trying to get off it.

The dancing comes after the actual incident, and consists of a mob dancing around one, chanting various things. In running this, get the phrases that are chanted.... (6)

The third OT level, OT III, known in Scientology as the "Wall of Fire," is the level to which Scientologists look forward most eagerly, for it is on this level that Hubbard promises they will at last learn the great secret of this sector of the universe. A great deal of mythology surrounds this level. According to Hubbard, it is this long lost secret that accounts for the current degraded condition of man. Once you know "the secret of OT III," Hubbard promises, you will then understand the world today and why it is the way it is.

Security is strictly enforced on this level. The OT III materials are kept in a locked room in the Advanced Organizations. When carried outside the organization they must always be kept in a locked briefcase, and the contents never revealed to anyone outside the organization, or even to anyone inside the organization not yet on this level.

However, the highly guarded secret materials on this level have been made public by several sources. We now know that "the great secret of this sector of the universe" as revealed to Scientology students is as follows:

The head of the Galactic Confederation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet -- 178 billion on average) by mass implanting.

He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanos (incident 2) and then the Pacific ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged."

His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits, etc., was placed in the implants.

When through with his crime, Loyal Officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confed.) has since been a desert.

The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.

One can free wheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "free wheel" (auto running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep, etc., and one dies....

In December '67 I knew somebody had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now but only that given here is needful....

Good luck. (7)

In the subsequent OT III bulletins, Hubbard explains further. Millions of years ago, an evil dictator of the "Galactic Federation" decided to solve the overpopulation problem in his galaxy by rounding up people, freezing them, and shipping them to earth on space ships. They were deposited on two volcanos, one at Las Palmas and one in Hawaii. Then nuclear explosions were set off, blowing these frozen souls into the stratosphere where they were collected by "electronic ribbons" (force fields) and brought back to earth where they were packaged into "clusters."

After packaging they were subjected to implants, in which they were shown many different scenes on huge screens. Then they were released.

And so, according to Hubbard, the great secret of this sector of the universe is that each person on earth is not just a single person, but a collection (cluster) of hundreds of different entities.

This places all earlier auditing in Scientology into a different perspective. The real goal of auditing up to Clear has been to isolate the dominant entity (the "I") from the pack, and clear him first.

The entities attached to the person are called "body thetans" in Scientology. On OT III, the Scientologist learns how -- while connected to the E-meter -- to locate and contact these in visible entities, and to audit them through the nuclear explosion and implant that occurred 75,000,000 years ago. As a result, according to Hubbard, the entity becomes free to fly off and to live a life of its own.

To do this, the Scientologist, alone in a locked room and hooked up to the E-meter, telepathically locates an "entity" attached to some part of his body. He asks the entity (telepathically) which volcano he was taken to (Las Palmas or Hawaii?), while at the same time watching for "reads" on the E-meter.

He must telepathically audit the entity through "Incident Two," which includes the following sequence:

H-BOMB DROPPED ON VOLCANO
EXPLOSION
TERRIFIC WINDS
THETAN CARRIED OVER PEAK
ELECTRONIC RIBBON CAME UP
HE STUCK TO IT
IT WAS THEN PULLED DOWN AND HE WAS IMPLANTED WITH R6 (8)

If the entity does not "leave" after auditing him on Incident Two, then it is necessary to audit this entity on an earlier implant which occurred 4 quadrillion years ago, called "Incident One," and which consists of:

LOUD SNAP
WAVES OF LIGHT
CHARIOT COMES OUT, TURNS RIGHT AND LEFT
CHERUB COMES OUT
BLOWS HORN, COMES CLOSE
SHATTERING SERIES OF SNAPS
CHERUB FADES BACK (RETREATS)
BLACKNESS DUMPED ON THETAN (9)

Because Hubbard says that each person on earth has hundreds of body thetans, Scientologists can spend a hundred hours or more auditing on OT III. The result, in theory, of being freed from all one's body thetans is that one should be able to "exteriorize," or go out of one's body at will. Although many Scientologists claim this ability, there is in Scientology no objective test to determine if this ability has ever been achieved.

The purpose of the remaining OT levels is to reorient the "newly exteriorized thetan" with the physical universe, and through a series of drills, to help him regain his long lost powers.

On OT IV, the Scientologist practices "mocking up" (mentally recreating) implants and GPMs until he or she is "proofed against any possibility of being reimplanted" now that he/she has finished running implants on OT III. (10)

On OT V, the "thetan exterior" is "refamiliarized with the physical universe in order to increase his ability to communicate with the environment.... He learns to use his new abilities as a thetan with wisdom and judgment." OT V, subtitled "Cause Over MEST," consists of a series of drills, done while the person is lying down with eyes closed:

  1. "Spot a spot in the room."
    "Spot a spot in your body."
    (These are done alternately, until a "cognition" is reached.)

  2. "Spot a spot outside."
    "Spot a spot on the sun."

In other drills on this level:

The pre-OT is to pick out an object ahead of him and wrap an energy beam around it and himself and pull himself toward the object with shortening of the beam.

Notice what happens.

Locate an object, draw energy from it into you. Repeat at least ten times.

Notice a cloud and notice the space between you and it.

Notice the motion of the earth and your relationship to it.

Notice something about ten people. (11)

OT VI consists of more drills to "rehabilitate the thetan," including:

"Be three feet in back of your head. Whatever you are looking at, copy it a dozen times, put it into you. Find the two back comers of the room and hold onto them without thinking for two minutes."

"Find two corners of the planet Earth, hold onto them for two minutes."

"Find a place where you are not."

"Spot three spots in your body."

"Spot three spots in the room."

"Be in the following places: The room, the sky, the moon, the sun."

"Locate an animal. Postulate him moving from one spot to another. Observe him doing this."

"Find a man walking. Postulate his walking faster. Do this with 20 people."

"Find a person in a distant land. Notice the time of day. Notice the terrain. Notice the general environment. Smell the air. Locate a thought that is his. Locate a thought that is yours."

"Postulate anger, boredom, grief, cheerfulness and serenity in that order. This is continued until you are sure that you can create any emotion."

"Exteriorized, visit a friend who lives in another state. Greet him and flow affinity to him. Ask him to communicate to you by letter." (12)

OT VII has to do with "rehabilitating the intention of the thetan." On this level, the person practices psychically placing his "intention" into another person or object:

"Find some plants, trees, etc., and communicate to them individually until you know they received your communication."

"Go to a zoo or a place with many types of life and communicate with each of them until you know the communication is received and, if possible, returned."

"Go out to a park, train station or other busy area. Practice placing an intention into individuals until you can successfully and easily place an intention into or on a being and/or a body." (13)

Since no one outside of Scientology has seen the contents of OT VIII, one can only wonder at the contents of this secret level, the end result of which is to become completely "at cause" over the physical universe.

The OT levels have changed somewhat over time; however, there is more that is unchanged than changed.

Other than the time and money expended in pursuit of the ambiguous goals promised for each of these levels, is there any danger in these drills?

Yes, say several researchers.

In a study of the psychological effects of several different cults, psychologists Conway and Siegelman found that, "... hour for hour, Scientology's techniques may be more than twice as dangerous as those of any other major cult.... On the average, former Scientologists surveyed reported more than twice the combined negative effects of all other cult groups." Some of the negative effects observed among former Scientologists were: sexual dysfunction, violent outbursts, hallucinations and delusions, and suicidal or self-destructive tendencies. (14)

Dr. John Clark of Harvard University agrees, stating that, as with all cults, many former Scientologists have experienced severe mental breakdowns:

Even if members do leave the group, it may take months or even years for them to regain lost intellectual powers and their sense of well-being.... To me the latest casualties of these extended manipulations are nearly unbearable to contemplate. More tortured rejects are beginning to straggle home because they are useless to (Scientology) now. Some are simply chronically psychotic, while others ... cannot control the content of their minds enough to work out their life problems.... (15)

In the Lewis Carroll-like world of Scientology, and especially on the OT levels, a person might well wonder if he has gone "through the looking glass," so bizarre are these levels.

Why do people in Scientology go along with these levels?

"It's kind of like The Emperor's New Clothes," one former Scientologist explains.

Nobody wants to be the one who says the emperor has no clothes on.

But it's other things, too. You believe that Hubbard is right, that he is like God. You believe that if he says it's true, then it's true. And, too, because everything is so expensive, you just assume that it has value. After spending a few thousand dollars on Scientology, no one wants to admit that he's been had.... (16)

It is interesting that the goals of both Hitler and Hubbard were the same: to create a new race of supermen (and women) -- Hitler through genetic breeding, and Hubbard through auditing.

Two men, born of the same occult crucible, who have wrought untold destruction in the lives of those whose paths they happened to cross.

It is reported that Scientology has allocated a half million dollars in a special trust to ensure that the name of L. Ron Hubbard will live on forever.

Whether he will live on in fame, or in infamy, remains to be seen.


Notes

  1. Corydon, p. 356
  2. Scientology magazine: "It's Time to Improve Your Life; Your Guide to Scientology Services"
  3. Hubbard, "OT Course Section Two", p. 2
  4. Ibid, p. 3
  5. Hubbard, "OT Course -- Part One", p. 23
  6. Ibid, p. 23
  7. Hubbard, "Operating Thetan Section Three", p. 1
  8. Ibid, p. 24
  9. Ibid, p. 24
  10. Hubbard, "OT IV Solo"
  11. Hubbard, "OT V -- Cause Over MEST"
  12. Hubbard, "OT VI"
  13. Hubbard, "OT VII Rundown"
  14. Conway, Flo and Siegelman, Jim Information Disease: Have Cults Created a New Mental Illness?
  15. Rudin, Marcia, The Cult Phenomenon: Fad or Fact?
  16. Affidavit of an unnamed (by choice) ex member of Scientology


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