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Finally out. Still fighting.

tesseract

Patron with Horrors
I read somewhere that more recently, the OTVIIs at Flag were saying stuff like "Exteriorise from the body? Why would you want to do that?" So I'm wondering, what is the current line that is being taken on OT abilities in the Church? Are they watering it down? Sidestepping the whole issue? What are the abilities that are being discussed around the OT levels now? Is it all just about "I'm so much more able to make money to donate for my next IAS Status"? Are people even bothered about their OT levels now? Or has it just become an IAS status club?

On a side note - a thing that comes to my mind everytime I think of OTs making excuses for having no superpowers. "Playing games" is pretty high on the tone scale actually and I always wonder whether despite of all the double-think and other lame excuses some witty apprentices to OT, or finished OTs (= people having done the CoS courses, not superhumans) take this as a reason why it actually should work and why it would not be a bad thing to try out the superpowers.
You know, a Christian in that situation is going to say "Hey, it's right there in the rules that you shall not test your God", but Scientology does not have any such rule and is in fact a very egomanic ideology. And an OT "playing games", that sounds, well, acceptable to a Scientologist, isn't it? Either that or they say "I have more important things to do than games". Just a thought ... and a possible way to persuade them to think about it. ;)
:carryon:
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
On a side note - a thing that comes to my mind everytime I think of OTs making excuses for having no superpowers. "Playing games" is pretty high on the tone scale actually and I always wonder whether despite of all the double-think and other lame excuses some witty apprentices to OT, or finished OTs (= people having done the CoS courses, not superhumans) take this as a reason why it actually should work and why it would not be a bad thing to try out the superpowers.
You know, a Christian in that situation is going to say "Hey, it's right there in the rules that you shall not test your God", but Scientology does not have any such rule and is in fact a very egomanic ideology. And an OT "playing games", that sounds, well, acceptable to a Scientologist, isn't it? Either that or they say "I have more important things to do than games". Just a thought ... and a possible way to persuade them to think about it. ;)
:carryon:
I'm thinking that an effective way for Scientology OTs to side-step the OT powers issue is to tell themselves (and others) that it's about being EFFECTIVE. Getting things done. And in the Scientology money environment, that would translate into increasing their income. If you make it about increasing your income, improving conditions in your life, etc, then there's no need to even mention exteriorisation from the body, etc. So I'm wondering if that is what they are doing now, instead of focusing on magic powers.

Although it's pretty clear in the early books at least that the implicit promise is for magical abilities (exteriorisation and past-life recalls are strewn throughout books like Creation of Human Ability, History of Man, etc., and Hubbard frequently claimed that with '100 hours of processing on (INSERT PROCESS OF THE DAY) you should arrive at (theta clear, or whatever concept of clear is being promoted in the day), that could easily be side-stepped by focusing on 'getting things done'.

I remember at the start of my Scientology career reading some of these basic books, and then telling people in the org I wanted to co-audit my way to theta clear using COHA or something similar. The org terminals would usually try to discourage me. The basic line (though CSW forbade them from saying it explicitly) was 'that process is old, there are better processes for going up the Bridge now'. I never really understood how they could maintain that line, without realising that it's double-think. Either those early processes worked or they didn't. If they did, then theta clear would be a good start, and would cost nothing more than an investment of time with a twin. If they didn't work, then on what basis should one suppose that the later processes worked either? Either Hubbard was telling the truth, or he wasn't.

It's interesting how one gets sucked into the double-think. One instinctively came to know that the earlier processes were not to be used (unless they were part of the grades, and you were paying by the hour for them).

There's actually a very easy, and inexpensive test of whether Scientology delivers fantastic abilities. And that is to buy a copy of COHA, read it, and audit the whole thing with a twin. It would cost no more than the cost of the book. Of course, org terminals would say stuff like "ah, well, there's stuff like out-int that can come up, which is only handled with more advanced, modern processes". But that can be countered with "he promises in the book that these abilities are attainable with this process, so at least a PERCENTAGE of the people auditing it should get the result stated, otherwise Hubbard wouldn't have gotten the results stated on HIS pcs". It's fascinating how one can be persuaded to double-think one's way around this kind of thing.
 

Isy

Patron
On a side note - a thing that comes to my mind everytime I think of OTs making excuses for having no superpowers. "Playing games" is pretty high on the tone scale actually and I always wonder whether despite of all the double-think and other lame excuses some witty apprentices to OT, or finished OTs (= people having done the CoS courses, not superhumans) take this as a reason why it actually should work and why it would not be a bad thing to try out the superpowers.
You know, a Christian in that situation is going to say "Hey, it's right there in the rules that you shall not test your God", but Scientology does not have any such rule and is in fact a very egomanic ideology. And an OT "playing games", that sounds, well, acceptable to a Scientologist, isn't it? Either that or they say "I have more important things to do than games". Just a thought ... and a possible way to persuade them to think about it. ;)
:carryon:
Talking about Superpower.... There's a rundown for that now ... It's called Superpower. Available only in Flag . That's some weird shit
 

Isy

Patron
It's beginning to sound like the old version of the HQS course, which had SOS as the first book to read, included lots of TRs (perhaps including the upper indoc TRs), and also included objectives co-audit. This was a long, tough course to study. It was replaced with a "based-on-the-works-of" type new HQS course, which had a more modern-looking course pack, but basically had nothing in it. Presumably the rationale was that the old HQS was too difficult for someone who hadn't yet done the Student Hat. But it sounds like the Survival RD is basically a re-release of that, under a different name. SP transcriptionist errors, and back again, on a 25-year cycle. I wonder when they are going to re-release Dianetics Today.

Has the TRs and Objectives co-audit course been replaced by the SRD then?
Yes . It's still a co audit but the objectives do not exist anymore . Only the SRD
 

Isy

Patron
Hubbard's "tech" output diminished drastically around the time that, for medical reasons, he (largely) curtailed his use of various psychoactive substance. This was in the early 1970s.

Drugs and alcohol were how he "rose above the bank."

After the early I970s, most "new" material was the result of tech aides, or Senior Case Supervisor International at the time, David Mayo.

The current "New OT 8" was assembled from old material by Ray Mitthoff.



That was disturbing for me. When I was on the HDA -Hubbard Dianetics Auditor- there was a reference about the schedule and pills called Benzedrin. I did drugs before Scientology and felt like these ''pills '' were not really vitamins ... I checked that online and found out it was Speed . I confronted my course supervisor with that . They told me the Internet is full of lies .. WTF
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
Talking about Superpower.... There's a rundown for that now ... It's called Superpower. Available only in Flag . That's some weird shit
Yah. I trained to deliver what used to be one of the main pre-requisites for Superpower (the Key to Life course - not sure whether it is still a prerequisite). When that was released, it was claimed that you had to do KTL, Life Orientation Course, and be OTIII to do Superpower. I think I read somewhere recently that you no longer need to do KTL and LOC in order to do Superpower.
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
Are the KTL and LOC courses still an important thing in the church? When they released them, they were a really big deal. They never seem to be mentioned now. I remember when we fired back to our local orgs to deliver them, the KTL team was kept separate from the main org, and was managed directly from New World Corp, because it was thought that only people who had done the KTL line-up could be trusted to manage it. One or two of the terminals in my local org were very suspicious of this at the time.
 

Isy

Patron
Here in Europe the only place to get the KTL was in Kopenhagen. I don't know if it still exists. They really kept me busy with ethics. Haha
 

Isy

Patron
Are the KTL and LOC courses still an important thing in the church? When they released them, they were a really big deal. They never seem to be mentioned now. I remember when we fired back to our local orgs to deliver them, the KTL team was kept separate from the main org, and was managed directly from New World Corp, because it was thought that only people who had done the KTL line-up could be trusted to manage it. One or two of the terminals in my local org were very suspicious of this at the time.

It is a big deal. It was like five years ago. But Miscavige made a whole revolution with GAT II. I've never seen the event.
Actually no one is talking about KTL anymore. I guess in two years, after the most guys spent a fortune for the new, faster bridge they gonna accidentally find a hidden note from Ron that all have to start over because the real KTL course was found... Lol
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
Here in Europe the only place to get the KTL was in Kopenhagen. I don't know if it still exists. They really kept me busy with ethics. Haha
Oh, that's interesting. When they were first released, KTL and LOC were delivered by every Class V Org, including in the UK, where my org was based. In the first delivery teams in the UK that were sent back from ITO, a large percentage of the delivery people blew within a matter of months (including me - most of the delivery team in my org blew almost immediately after returning from ITO). There was a big thing about trying to recover delivery personnel, telling us that our training needed to be corrected, etc.
 

Isy

Patron
Oh, that's interesting. When they were first released, KTL and LOC were delivered by every Class V Org, including in the UK, where my org was based. In the first delivery teams in the UK that were sent back from ITO, a large percentage of the delivery people blew within a matter of months (including me - most of the delivery team in my org blew almost immediately after returning from ITO). There was a big thing about trying to recover delivery personnel, telling us that our training needed to be corrected, etc.

I get the feeling they are often wrong for being the elite ... The whole organization is really PTS for always getting in trouble with all the SPs changing the material ... But there it is OK. Right. Because the Organisation itself is so good that it only can be attacked by bad people who don't want scientologists to be free....
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
I'm guessing that most Class V Orgs simply don't have the trained personnel to deliver the KTL now. It's a long line-up to be able to deliver that. The Review Auditor and Case Supervisor need to be Class IV auditors and KTL/LOC completions, and then need to go to ITO (or wherever they go now) for the delivery courses. From a planning perspective, they should have realised that it would be difficult to maintain that level of trained personnel in a Class V org. It's difficult enough to find Grad V auditors in some Class V Orgs, let alone a Class IV, KTL/LOC-trained C/S or Review Auditor. It only takes one KTL delivery person to blow, and then it would take months to train up someone else to replace them (or maybe years if the org can't spare a Class IV auditor to go for training).
 

pineapple

Silver Meritorious Patron
On a side note - a thing that comes to my mind everytime I think of OTs making excuses for having no superpowers. "Playing games" is pretty high on the tone scale actually and I always wonder whether despite of all the double-think and other lame excuses some witty apprentices to OT, or finished OTs (= people having done the CoS courses, not superhumans) take this as a reason why it actually should work and why it would not be a bad thing to try out the superpowers.
You know, a Christian in that situation is going to say "Hey, it's right there in the rules that you shall not test your God", but Scientology does not have any such rule and is in fact a very egomanic ideology. And an OT "playing games", that sounds, well, acceptable to a Scientologist, isn't it? Either that or they say "I have more important things to do than games". Just a thought ... and a possible way to persuade them to think about it. ;)
:carryon:
It occurred to me only recently that maybe some of the OT's I knew -- who were quite intelligent people -- had actually glimpsed the possibility that scn was a lie, but justified their continued participation as "playing the game." In other words, they knew scn was a con, but preferred being pawns in LRH's game to being pawns in some other game.

When I was in (1970's), the OT's had mostly gone up the bridge during the "quickie" period, when you could go from "raw meat" to Grade IV for $500, sometimes in one afternoon. They might have spent a few thousand dollars to get to "OT," not hundreds of thousands like today. If you spent say $5000 to get to the top of the bridge, you might be more willing to accept the idea that you'd been conned and this was "Ron's little joke" than if you spent 20 times that.

One time I was unburdening myself to another staff member, expressing my dissatisfaction with being on staff and reservations about scn, and she replied, "Well, it's still better than fighting wars and eating soup and having babies, isn't it?" In other words, scn sucks, but it's better than the alternative -- "wog" society.

On another occasion, I heard someone tell an OT that the stuff he was running in session didn't seem real. He replied, "Maybe it isn't. Maybe what we're doing is just running out the lies. Maybe the last thing we'll need to run out is being in scn," implying that scn itself was also a lie.
 
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Veda

Sponsor
Yah. I trained to deliver what used to be one of the main pre-requisites for Superpower (the Key to Life course - not sure whether it is still a prerequisite). When that was released, it was claimed that you had to do KTL, Life Orientation Course, and be OTIII to do Superpower. I think I read somewhere recently that you no longer need to do KTL and LOC in order to do Superpower.

The information I have is that the (non mind f__k/mostly benign) part of The Key to Life course was plagiarized from a course developed by a non Scientologist; and that the KTL came into being, initially, as a result of Hubbard being annoyed that his minions were not following his orders properly because their reading and writing skills were so poor.

It was then polished and packaged, with some Scientology (manipulative) head games added, and released with much fanfare (as usual) to the appreciative and awed Scientologists.


11p-2.jpg


I wonder if the idea of having the texts resemble books for preschoolers was inspired by 1950s Red Chinese Communist thought-reform re-education, where a person - even if he was a university professor - was regarded as an an ignorant child "in the Revolution," in need of being re-educated "from the ground up" with similar (but much cruder) "kiddie books."

I saw the prototype 'KTL' materials years ago (simple black and white cartoon drawings on 'foolscap'-sized paper), and the 'KTL' Supervisor's Course. (Hubbard had a very low opinion of those in need doing the course, which seemed to include everyone - except himself.)

My first impression (as I remember it) was that I had already studied grammar, and also such things as the meanings of "little words," and that I wasn't interested in being told that I was functionally illiterate ("sub literate"?) and chronically out-of-valence, in need of being de-"PTS"-ed to Scientology by doing clay demos.

No doubt, looking up words, etc. helped some people, and - for some Sea Org - it might have been regarded as a pleasant time out from the drudgery, but I wasn't interested.

The follow up course seemed even less appealing to me, and was probably "over-kill."

There was just too much "help a little/control a lot" mind-manipulation occurring in Scientology. It had gone beyond saturation levels, and some people were jumping ship.

For Hubbard's mind-manipulation cult to succeed, the proper ratio of "solvent" (abreaction/catharsis, cognitions, "wins," :happydance:) to "glue" (indoctrination/"brainwashing") had to be maintained.

This was probably achieved in the early/mid 1970s when Hubbard had his mental-healing-coated (and infused) totalist-model personality-cult up and running at full clip.


________​


Sometime later, I learned that this course was confidential and placing great emphasis on these kiddie books being studied in their proper sequence. I still find it hard to believe that it was "confidential." Was it?, or did I hear wrong?

"Confidentiality" - proclaimed in publicly displayed, official looking, notices and signs - is yet another gimmick used to make others more malleable and suggestible.

And they're still doing it:

GATIISign.jpg

I don't find it unbelievable that someone might improve his word comprehension skills through this course as, at one time I found doing the Student Hat to be useful for the same reason, particularly when looking up the definitions of little words, such as "of," etc. It was useful, but not "life changing," and I didn't consider that I was "capable of comprehension (of words) for the first time," etc., or that I had become someone other than whom I had been as a result, nor did I ever - just to mention it - want to become a "different person."

Yet, the "Success Stories" from this course, which I read in the promo sent out by Scientology, presented a stream of accounts of those who "can now comprehend for the first time," and account after account of people becoming 'a completely different person," etc.

I also noticed that many of the folks writing these "success stories" were already Clear, or OT 3, or OT 7, sometimes Class V, or Class VI, or even Class VIII. All had done the Student Hat, some had done Method I Word Clearing, etc. A fair number were college graduates, or beyond, including a couple of PhDs.

And to top it off, at the end of the two course program, they read Hubbard's 'The Factors'.(Hubbard's re-write of Crowley's 'Naples Arrangement' - itself a restatement of an earlier Kabbalistic/mystical statement). 'The Factors' ends with the words, "humbly tendered as a gift to Man," to seal the deal, and show them how profound has been their voyage from Non-Scientology-non-enlightened confused preschooler to genuine IN-Scientology-grown-up person.

My impression, then - and I was then no longer in $cientology - is that this was the usual Scientology mix of something that (at least appears to) (may) be of benefit to a person (and God help you if, while, IN Scientology, you suggest that it isn't, or that it's not very important.)

The KTL almost seemed like a "soft" RPF (or serving a similar function, "break 'em down, build 'em back up") , but for everyone, not just Sea Org members. (Am not invalidating anyone's gains here, just looking at the glue side of the solvent/glue formula.)

Of course, this was only my impression of the KTL/LOC from a distance. :)
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
The information I have is that the (non mind f__k/mostly benign) part of The Key to Life course was plagiarized from a course developed by a non Scientologist; and that the KTL came into being, initially, as a result of Hubbard being annoyed that his minions were not following his orders properly because their reading and writing skills were so poor.

It was then polished and packaged, with some Scientology (manipulative) head games added, and released with much fanfare (as usual) to the appreciative and awed Scientologists.


11p-2.jpg


I wonder if the idea of having the texts resemble books for preschoolers was inspired by 1950s Red Chinese Communist thought-reform re-education, where a person - even if he was a university professor - was regarded as an an ignorant child "in the Revolution," in need of being re-educated "from the ground up" with similar (but much cruder) "kiddie books."

I saw the prototype 'KTL' materials years ago (simple black and white cartoon drawings on 'foolscap'-sized paper), and the 'KTL' Supervisor's Course. (Hubbard had a very low opinion of those in need doing the course, which seemed to include everyone - except himself.)

My first impression (as I remember it) was that I had already studied grammar, and also such things as the meanings of "little words," and that I wasn't interested in being told that I was functionally illiterate ("sub literate"?) and chronically out-of-valence, in need of being de-"PTS"-ed to Scientology by doing clay demos.

No doubt, looking up words, etc. helped some people, and - for some Sea Org - it might have been regarded as a pleasant time out from the drudgery, but I wasn't interested.

The follow up course seemed even less appealing to me, and was probably "over-kill."

There was just too much "help a little/control a lot" mind-manipulation occurring in Scientology. It had gone beyond saturation levels, and some people were jumping ship.

For Hubbard's mind-manipulation cult to succeed, the proper ratio of "solvent" (abreaction/catharsis, cognitions, "wins," :happydance:) to "glue" (indoctrination/"brainwashing") had to be maintained.

This was probably achieved in the early/mid 1970s when Hubbard had his mental-healing-coated (and infused) totalist-model personality-cult up and running at full clip.


________​


Sometime later, I learned that this course was confidential and placing great emphasis on these kiddie books being studied in their proper sequence. I still find it hard to believe that it was "confidential." Was it?, or did I hear wrong?

"Confidentiality" - proclaimed in publicly displayed, official looking, notices and signs - is yet another gimmick used to make others more malleable and suggestible.

And they're still doing it:

GATIISign.jpg

I don't find it unbelievable that someone might improve his word comprehension skills through this course as, at one time I found doing the Student Hat to be useful for the same reason, particularly when looking up the definitions of little words, such as "of," etc. It was useful, but not "life changing," and I didn't consider that I was "capable of comprehension (of words) for the first time," etc., or that I had become someone other than whom I had been as a result, nor did I ever - just to mention it - want to become a "different person."

Yet, the "Success Stories" from this course, which I read in the promo sent out by Scientology, presented a stream of accounts of those who "can now comprehend for the first time," and account after account of people becoming 'a completely different person," etc.

I also noticed that many of the folks writing these "success stories" were already Clear, or OT 3, or OT 7, sometimes Class V, or Class VI, or even Class VIII. All had done the Student Hat, some had done Method I Word Clearing, etc. A fair number were college graduates, or beyond, including a couple of PhDs.

And to top it off, at the end of the two course program, they read Hubbard's 'The Factors'.(Hubbard's re-write of Crowley's 'Naples Arrangement' - itself a restatement of an earlier Kabbalistic/mystical statement). 'The Factors' ends with the words, "humbly tendered as a gift to Man," to seal the deal, and show them how profound has been their voyage from Non-Scientology-non-enlightened confused preschooler to genuine IN-Scientology-grown-up person.

My impression, then - and I was then no longer in $cientology - is that this was the usual Scientology mix of something that (at least appears to) (may) be of benefit to a person (and God help you if, while, IN Scientology, you suggest that it isn't, or that it's not very important.)

The KTL almost seemed like a "soft" RPF (or serving a similar function, "break 'em down, build 'em back up") , but for everyone, not just Sea Org members. (Am not invalidating anyone's gains here, just looking at the glue side of the solvent/glue formula.)

Of course, this was only my impression of the KTL/LOC from a distance. :)
Thanks Veda. That's really interesting. Yes, the KTL/LOC WERE confidential when I did them. Having said that, I think public were allowed to take their pack of (very heavy) books home with them, though they weren't supposed to open them until they were on the course.
 

Enthetan

Master of Disaster
That was disturbing for me. When I was on the HDA -Hubbard Dianetics Auditor- there was a reference about the schedule and pills called Benzedrin. I did drugs before Scientology and felt like these ''pills '' were not really vitamins ... I checked that online and found out it was Speed . I confronted my course supervisor with that . They told me the Internet is full of lies .. WTF
WTF is right. Benzedrine (amphetamine) is a highly restricted drug in the US, legally available only under doctor's prescription. What are they doing with this in Scn now?
 
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