PLEASE SEE THE UPDATE BELOW…

Brian Culkin sent over an interesting message this morning. Culkin, a yoga master and business consultant, was featured last year in the landmark Tampa Bay Times investigative series about Scientology’s cash-hungry methods, “The Money Machine.”

Although Culkin was only in Scientology for about a year, he provided some stunning testimony about [...]]]>

 
PLEASE SEE THE UPDATE BELOW…

Brian Culkin sent over an interesting message this morning. Culkin, a yoga master and business consultant, was featured last year in the landmark Tampa Bay Times investigative series about Scientology’s cash-hungry methods, “The Money Machine.”

Although Culkin was only in Scientology for about a year, he provided some stunning testimony about how often he was hit up for cash once the church realized that he had a bit of money. In just a year with the church, he estimated that he turned over about $330,000.

But he’s been out since February 2010, and now he’s asking a cheeky question. If Scientology’s members who have reached Operating Thetan Level Eight really have “cause over matter,” shouldn’t they be able to replicate the yoga routine you see in this video?

“In the corporate church, OT 8 makes an incredibly bold claim: cause over matter, energy, space, and time. I would love to see a display of those abilities. I never saw it in the church,” he said to us this morning after sending over the video, which was shot recently by another ex-Scientologist, Los Angeles resident Tiziano Lugli.

“If people are really OT, then shouldn’t full body control be part of the package?” he asks.

When L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics in 1950, he promoted the idea that human beings were being held back from their full potential, and they could unleash that potential through his discoveries and become “Clear.”

The state of Clear was supposed to come with wondrous superhuman abilities. But over the years, as more and more Scientologists supposedly attained the state of clear and found that they were still more or less ordinary human beings, Hubbard began adding on higher states for them to achieve — the Operating Thetan levels. By the late 1960s, Hubbard had developed OT levels up to OT 8, the current highest state of being in the church. As ex-Scientologists will tell you, as you reach each new level, those elusive superhuman traits always seem to be just around the corner, which is what compels church members to fork over such huge sums. (Attaining OT 8 can cost several years of dedication and a total of about $300,000 to $400,000.)

At the top level, OT 8, a Scientologist is supposed to have “cause over matter” — they can literally affect the MEST universe (matter, energy, space, and time) with their minds.

New church members hold OT 8s in awe. Those who have reached that level, however, tend to speak of it in vague terms (rather than, say, turning a car into a fish as a demonstration). Even in Scientology publications, OTs who report their “phenomena” tend to write about using their powers to avoid automobile accidents or for leaving their bodies and viewing things across town — stories that would be hard to verify.

Could it be that after all that time and money, OT 8s realize that they’ve been had?

 
UPDATE: WOW — read this comment just left by Bruce Hines. Thank you, Bruce, for helping us understand…

I first started auditing “OTs” in 1979. I did this full-time (i.e averaging over 40 hours per week “in the chair”) until 1987. I continued doing this after that until 2001, though not as much per week. This means that I audited literally hundreds “OTs” (or the Co$ calls them “preOTs”), ranging from OT III through OT VIII. When you audit someone, you have to study their auditing files, which contain many details about their life. In session you hear a lot about their current life, both good and bad. In all that experience, I never heard about one single OT phenomenon. By this I mean something that could be independently verified as not just thoughts (delusions?) in the person’s mind. And actually, very rarely did any of them claim any experiences similar to those that Tony has posted from Advance magazine. Most of them didn’t even pretend to have special powers. What I found was that these “OTs” had pretty much the same illnesses, money troubles, domestic strife, workplace difficulties, etc., as all people. And in the same frequency.

Now, I’m sure that Co$ people reading this would say that, of course, because I was a bad auditor with “out TRs”, the people I was auditing wouldn’t have experienced gains, or been willing to share with me. But from what I read in people’s auditing folders, other auditors got the same results. In fact, from 1987 to about 1994 or 1995, it was my job to review auditing folders from all over the world, in detail, and critique videos of auditing sessions done by other auditors.

It took me a while after I left the cult to arrive at this conclusion: there are no “OT abilities”.

People who consider themselves to be “on the Bridge” have all sorts of mental mechanisms (thought-stopping cliches, etc.) to explain this lack of results.

Personally, I have encountered people outside the “church” who are MUCH more capable in various fields than most “OTs”, and much more pleasant to be around.

Lewis is a gung-ho Hubbard enthusiast, and helps run a Valley [...]]]>

We can only hope that Michael Lewis — Operating Thetan Level Eight and Homo Novis Übermensch — will see fit to cancel his appearance at a scheduled “Admin Scale Workshop” that is scheduled for Scientologists at the Advanced Org Los Angeles tonight at 6 pm.

Lewis is a gung-ho Hubbard enthusiast, and helps run a Valley mission. But we’re feeling very sympathetic for what he’s gone through this week after his son, Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis, apparently ran amok, killed his landlady, and ripped apart her cat. The 28-year-old then leapt or fell off his landlady’s roof and the impact killed him.

As we pointed out yesterday, Johnny was born into Scientology, and his parents are both OT 8’s — which means they each spent about $300,000 to $400,000 over many years in order to reach Scientology’s highest level of spiritual attainment, and reportedly gained such abilities as clairvoyance, imperviousness to disease, and the skill to leave their bodies and affect simple matter.

Unfortunately, they were unable to prevent their son’s slide into drug abuse and/or madness. But they wouldn’t be the only parents who were helpless to stop a child’s deterioration.

We feel for the Lewis family. (Honest, we really do.) And we can only hope that Scientology will let him off the hook for his scheduled event tonight. Will our LA tipsters let us know whether Michael gets the night off?

Seriously, someone give the guy the night off. He’s been through enough.

Links

— Dana Kennedy examines the relationship between Tom Cruise and Scientology leader David Miscavige in a great new piece for The Hollywood Reporter. We only wish she’d included what John Brousseau — someone who watched the two men up close — told us about their lopsided dynamic: “Tom Cruise worships David Miscavige like a god,” he said.

— McAlester News-Capital reporter Jeanne LeFlore stays on the Narconon Arrowhead story with news of two more lawsuits which are expected to be filed by the families of patients who were found dead at Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center.

(Our thanks to our great tipsters, who continue to send us Scientology’s mailers and come-ons. Tomorrow, we’ll have plenty more as Sunday Funnies makes its return!)

UPDATE: Thank you, Simi, for calling and learning that Michael has the night off. That is as it should be.