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.
Wow, we’re really getting near the top of the bridge. This week, Bruce Hines gives us some amazing insights about New OT 7. But first, let’s take a look at the materials we have on it, which are quite brief.
What we have from L. Ron Hubbard all fits on just one page. (And yet, we hear this is the level so many people get stuck on for the longest — for several years in many cases.)
In the instructions we have, the “Pre-OT” is told to do solo auditing in order to remove body thetans or clusters “one area at a time.”
“You may in some instances have to have the Pre-OT handle BTs Dianetically, running them back through a chain of incidents. This can be complex, with three or four BTs and chains crossed.”
The instructions tell us that running the engrams of body thetans can be “dicey,” because multiple BTs can share engrams originating from different chains, or something. It sounds complex.
“When the Pre-OT has a transparent body and a clear area around it to some distance…and when he realized he is alive and very much himself,” then the “end phenomena” of ‘New Era Dianetics for OTs’ has succeeded.
At that point, the person will have achieved “Cause over life.” Woo-hoo!
So it sounds to our unsophisticated ears like this is just some mop-up of leftover BTs. So why does it take so long? And how did it come to have the name “on the level.”
And why does it require sec checks every six months? (Which isn’t mentioned in the materials we have.)
BRUCE: The instructions you have are probably from 1979. In April 1983 things changed when two new technical bulletins were issued from L. Ron Hubbard himself. Then they changed more in 1991 when almost everything was revised.
On New OT 5, where one is audited by another person, one just scratches the surface in terms of blowing off BTs and clusters. Then one does New OT 6, where one learns to audit NOTs on oneself. Then one goes onto New OT 7, on which the solo auditor is supposed give him- or herself multiple sessions every single day, seven days a week, for some years, with no breaks except when they go back to Flag for their “six-month check.” Hubbard thought that there were a lot of stuck BTs in or on oneself or one’s body in layer upon layer upon layer.
I don’t recall all the details of the two bulletins issued in 1983. But one of them gave a new method for locating BTs, which was to be used for most of New OT 7. Silently, telepathically, and conceptually, the Pre-OT is supposed to say, “Where is the next being? Say ‘Here’ when I ask the question Where are you? Where are you?”
The six-month checks started in 1984. Every six months the Pre-OT is supposed to return to Flag for a (usually) short security check. They generally also receive some auditing from an auditor to make sure that any charge from events in life or from solo auditing errors gets cleaned up, as they say. From time to time there would be fads, and some type of auditing would be given to the Pre-OT while they were at Flag (like the False Purpose Rundown, which is supposed to get rid of evil purposes). Of course, the Pre-OT has to pay for the auditing and pay for the sec check at the same rate. These checks were supposed to detect if the Pre-OT was getting disaffected or going sour in some way. People had been auditing solo NOTs at home since about 1980. In 1982 this became New OT 7. In 1982 and 1983 there was a schism, and many members resigned to go join one of the many “squirrel groups” that had started up after David Mayo had fallen from grace (brought down by Miscavige, as many perceived rivals were) and left the organization. Mayo and some other former church members started the Advanced Ability Centers, which were in a way in competition with the orgs. Plus some other independent groups formed as a part of this whole exodus. Some significant percentage of members left at that time, though I don’t know the numbers. Among those who left were a lot of people who had been at home auditing on solo NOTs. With little control from Flag, and no established reason for them to return to Flag, upon learning of abuses that were occurring, their discontent would grow. The six-month checks made it possible to keep these people on New OT 7 under control. The Pre-OTs had to agree, in writing, to return to Flag every six months before they would be allowed to go home with their materials to audit solo. This resulted in a lot of business for Flag.
THE BUNKER: So what you’re saying is that to this day, people on OT 7 are spending thousands of dollars every six months for deeply personal interrogations as a direct result of a schism in Scientology that happened more than 30 years ago? Yeah, that sounds about right.
BRUCE: Also in 1984 the first “completions” of solo NOTs, the first New OT 7s, were allowed to attest. Along with the instructions on how to do the six-month checks came the procedure for determining if the person had actually completed the level. I well recall the flap that occurred when one of the first completions, the fourth one if I remember correctly, got cancer and passed away not long afterwards. I wonder how many of those early completions are still active.
Another interesting point about New OT 7, at least to me, is the purported “sociological” benefit from having a whole bunch of people auditing on solo NOTs. The idea is that a BT, after having been handled on NOTs, becomes a freed, awake, and possibly Clear being that will go out into the environment and proceed to do good somehow. Many of them will “pick up” a body, so it was expected that there would be a tremendous number of young people growing up who would be unaberrated and generally more able than most people. The NOTs materials stated that there would be “torrents” of these beings being released into the society. This is the idea behind the long-standing goal in the “church” to have 10,000 people through New OT 7. This would supposedly release enough “theta” into the environment to cause society to de-aberrate. Or something like that. After 30 years they are still a long ways away from having 10,000 completions, not to mention that a lot of the ones that did complete are no longer in, or are not active as Scientologists, or have nothing more to do with Scientology, or have passed away. If one does some math and considers various ramifications, the unreality of this sociological benefit is obvious. There are things about it that Hubbard never explained. For example, wouldn’t a new body that gets born and picked up by some thetan have a whole new set of BTs and clusters to deal with? When someone dies, do all the BTs that were on the thetan or attached to the body go along with the now disembodied soul? Or do some stay with the dead body or go attach themselves to some other body? Would there be enough bodies being born to accommodate this “torrent” of freed beings?
THE BUNKER: Whoa, Bruce. Mind blown.
BRUCE: In 1985 there was a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that could possibly move to Clearwater. Somehow word got out that the solo NOTs auditors should audit as much as possible, which would somehow avert this catastrophe. When the path of the hurricane took it to the Florida panhandle and Georgia, of course all believed that it was because of all this solo auditing that had gone on. No one dared ask how that could possibly affect the path of a hurricane. Maybe the freed BTs all got together and pushed that mean ol’ hurricane away. Might make a fun shoop.
I myself, as I explained in an earlier post, started on New OT 7 in 1983 because Flag needed me to audit customers who had already started solo NOTs. I was quite happy to go along with all that nonsense. It is somewhat embarrassing to admit that I enjoyed the status that went with it. I was still on it in 1995 when I was sent to the RPF for six years, where no one would be allowed to audit on New OT 7.
THE BUNKER: Six years! It’s always amazing to hear how long some Sea Org members spend in the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), the SO’s prison detail.
BRUCE: With all the things that go on in the life of a Sea Org member (going on missions, all-nighters, general lack of sleep, “flaps”, no “personal enhancement time” to name a few) it is difficult to solo audit very frequently. I know of very few people who completed New OT 7 while in the Sea Org. There are some that completed it before joining the SO.
Anyway, all of the levels before New OT 7 are supposed to prepare people for the long and very important level of solo NOTs. OT III pales in comparison. It is important for various reasons, the main one being the amount of money that Scientology makes from it.
THE BUNKER: It is a lucrative level. On the telephone, you explained to me how paying for New OT 7 works. People can spend years on OT 7, but they’re solo auditing at home, and not paying as they go. There’s an initial $2,800 that you pay, and that seems low. But then, every six months, as long as you’re solo auditing (or “on the level,” as Scientologists say without a hint of irony), you are required to go to Flag (in Clearwater, Florida) for case supervision and sec checking (interrogation). The case supervision runs $1,700, and the sec check typically costs the same as an intensive with a Class IX auditor — $7,800. But as Jason Beghe and others have pointed out to us, a trip to Flag can cost you weeks as you’re put through the “False Purpose Rundown” and other things while you’re waiting to get sec checked.
BRUCE: And when you’re there — that’s when the reges really pounce on you.
THE BUNKER: Right. So a trip to Flag can really cost a lot more than what you went there for. But let’s be conservative and keep to the price list, and say that a person is on the level for three years (many people spend far longer). That’s six sessions at Flag, for a grand total of $59,800.
BRUCE: It’s a big, big moneymaker.
COST THIS WEEK: $59,800
COST SO FAR: $388,805.50
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Jonny Jacobsen takes a bow
This weekend, our man in Paris, Jonny Jacobsen, let us know that he’s putting his excellent website, Infinite Complacency, on a less active status. We have heaped praise on his website numerous times. Jonny is a thorough and dogged investigative journalist, and he’s never received the credit he deserves. He’s been a huge help here at the Bunker, and we’re happy to know that he plans on continuing to be our go-to source in Europe. We asked him to say a few words about the look-back he put on his site this week.
As this week marks five years covering Scientology at Infinite Complacency, I’ve indulged myself with a look back at some of the highlights.
I’ve mentioned the Paris trial coverage because it turned out to be worth the effort, with landmark fraud convictions against two Scientology organisations that could have repercussions beyond France. I pay tribute to Senator Nick Xenophon’s great work in Australia, putting vital testimony into the public record and asking hard questions about the movement’s tax-exempt status there.
And I have revisited a few other stories I think are important: how disconnection split apart the Henderson family in California; how Scientology’s spurious claim to be able to treat led to the death of Heribert Pfaff in Florida; and a look at the great work by Belgian artist Renaud de Heyn that appeared in France’s Revue 21 last year. Come and join the party.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 19, 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, 43
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
