Claire Headley and Bruce Hines are taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. Claire spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Bruce was in Scientology for 31 years and spent about half that time as a senior case supervisor. Go here to see the first part in this series.
We sure have come a long way since Claire first started us out in this series with Scientology’s “Personality Test” a full year ago tomorrow! And now, we’re all the way up to Original OT 7, and Bruce Hines is here to help us as we near the top of the “Bridge to Total Freedom.”
Bruce, we’ve gone through the materials for Original OT 7, which begin with the statement, “The purpose of OT VII is the rehabilitation of ability to project intention.”
Original OT 7 consists of 49 processes, each of which has one to several individual activities. We’ll pull out a few of L. Ron Hubbard’s specific instructions in the name of fair use. (And remember, we’re being asked to answer these questions while paying several hundred dollars an hour, and by this time this catechism should be unlocking the secrets of the universe and helping us unleash superhuman abilities.)
(From process OT 7-1) “What are you willing to be the effect of?”
(2) “Decide something.”
(6) “Recall an intention.”
(8) “Tell me a thought/intention you’d be willing to receive from yourself.”
(10) “What intention of yours could another confront?”
(13) “Give me an unknown datum.”
(22) “Decide something.”
(28) “Spot an acceptable energy source.”
(45) “Find and run a havingness process on yourself.”
(47) “Go to a place with lots of people.”
(48) “Find some plants, trees, etc., and communicate to them individually until you know they received your communication.”
(48) “Go to a zoo or place with many types of life and communicate with each of them until you know the communciation is received and, if possible, returned.”
(49) “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.”
Hey, that’s fun stuff.
BRUCE: I did Old OT 7 while on the OT levels before joining the Sea Org, and then later I audited the first part of it on other people. You see, there were two parts to Old OT 7 — the first part is audited by another person on the pre-OT, and the second part is done solo. I don’t think any of the steps you have listed are from the first part. Even though I audited it a few times on other people, more than 30 years ago, I don’t remember much about those steps. I do remember that the first part was short, and it was thought that it would be completed in less than five hours of auditing. The solo part also did not take long to complete, probably two or three sessions.
The general idea was to bring the pre-OT to see that there is no liability in intending something, and to practice placing an intention in a being or object separate from oneself. At the time it was a bit odd to me that this is the same idea behind the Training Routines 8 (the one with the ashtray, called Tone 40 on an Object) and 9 (Tone 40 on a Person). In any event, all these OT powers that Scientologists were striving for were supposedly all based on the person’s ability to intend things. And to do this effectively, one must have no counter-intention. Then the things that a thetan can intend into existence just about anything. According to the theory. It can sound enticing once one has walked quite a ways down the garden path. So, supposedly, one should be able to simply intend (or “postulate”) that there will be a parking place, or that one will bring in a bunch of money, or will develop a successful business, or will start and stop rain in LA, or whatever. One sees a lot of OT-wannabes looking for get-rich-quick schemes in order to be able to pay for their Bridge, or their next trip to Flag, or I guess nowadays to donate to the “church’s” various fundraising activities. If one is “in ethics” (which really means that one is following the dictates of the “church”) one should not be counter-intending themselves very much. And then with good intention that money should be flowing in quickly. After all, time is just a consideration.
The solo steps, or some of them, were done outside while walking around, like Old OT 1. I can particularly remember doing that last step, “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.” I tried and tried to get people in my vicinity to do what I was intending them to do. Like intending them to touch their nose or turn their head or something. I never had success at that. At the same time, the instruction does not explicitly say that the person has to comply with your intention. So I settled on convincing myself that I was easily and successfully placing the intention. Like in TR 8, one is supposed to place an intention inside the ashtray, but there was no expectation that the ashtray actually levitate. Still, the whole experience was unsatisfying to me. No one ever asked me if the people were obeying my intentions. I pretended however that I was very happy about it. Then I could attest and move on to the next OT level. Maybe the next one would finally bring me some semblance of superhuman abilities. The other solo steps on Old OT 7 were unremarkable; I have no recollection of any result from having done them, much less something mind-blowing.
The other strange thing about Old OT 7 was the point at which one did it. It was not done after Old OT 6. It was done after OT 3. Go figure. Well there was some logic to it. The sequence went OT 3, Old OT 7, OT 3 Expanded, Old OT 4, Old OT 5, Old OT 6. The terminology was that if one had done Old OT 7, but not the higher OT levels, one was “OT 7 EP.” EP is the abbreviation for End Phenomena. If one then progressed up the levels and completed Old OT 6, one was deemed to be “Full OT 7.” It was at that point that many people had dead-ended before the release of NOTs. Hubbard’s idea was that after OT 3, the pre-OT would then be in shape to do Old OT 7, and then, with improved ability to project intention, on OT 3 Expanded (simply redoing the steps of OT 3) more body thetans could be located and blown. This was the first time the pre-OT had to go find more BTs after having attested to the fact that there were no more BTs. By the way, an attest in Scientology is a big deal. A “false attest” results in the automatic assignment of the ethics condition of Doubt (see Jeff Hawkins’ excellent account of these conditions).
THE BUNKER: Bruce, that observation you made — that there was nothing in the instructions about these telepathic abilities actually showing any results — is one of our favorite revelations on the OT levels. Beautiful.
We’ll do New OT 7 next week, and update our costs at that point. For now, we’re still at $329,005.50.
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Have you seen this man?
Yesterday, Marty Rathbun posted this photo at his blog yesterday, saying that he’s asking for information about the man depicted in it…
The individual in the photograph below was hired by Scientology Inc. to stalk my wife not too long ago. I would appreciate it if folks would distribute this around interested forums asking that anyone who recognizes him to please provide me with the name and contact information for this individual, at rathbunmark57@gmail.com. Thank you.
Hey, we’d like to know who he is too! Take a good look…
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 4, 2014 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
