It's interesting that being able to perform the various assigned rituals of a particular level of the Grade Chart, with expected meter responses, overrides in importance the actual advertised attainment. Clear was described in 1950, and sixty years later that described state of Clear has not been attained. OT was described around 1952, and almost sixty years later, that described state of OT has not been attained.
People who do these levels are amazingly like people who never heard of them, except that they can perform certain rituals which include having their e-meters respond in a certain manner. That, by itself, is a source of great satisfaction and renewed certainty, with the original envisioned abilities of Clear and OT only a distant dream, but somehow it doesn't matter anymore, as one is now a Scientologist. As icing on the cake, one can call oneself a "Clear" and an "OT," even though, as originally described, one is no such thing, yet it doesn't matter. One has successfully performed the assigned rituals and that's enough.
There is truth in this above Veda, but also some omissions.
The OT levels do not produce the OT states promised in Hubbard's PR . . . that is a fact. The OT levels do produce some change in the individuals doing them, however. Though this change is not always nor necessarily beneficial.
What is omitted in your's above is the fact that various "OT abilities" did and have turned on in individuals doing the "old stuff" of Scn. It did for me in the late 1950's early '60's.
The thing though is that Hubbard's tech is so incomplete and incompetently written up and put together, these fleeting appearances or "turn-ons" of "OT abilities" were never properly addressed or handled such that the ability/power was put under the person's stable knowing control.
Hubbard was irresponsible and deceitful in the way he made his PR promises of "states that will be attained" . . . . he'd have been more honest and competent to have simply stated the observation of fleeting turn-on of powers/abilities and the need of more research to develop procedures to stabilize them.
That he did not do this but instead falsely PR'ed what he was selling, we now know was based on his hidden agenda.
Gottabrain, you wrote in part:
After completion, I secretly realized that Scn was not for me at all and I felt fully myself again and should leave the SO ASAP, that it was not what I wanted. I had never wanted it, actually. And the fact I had mocked up the whole thing - Sea Org, etc. - made more sense to me than I could begin to explain. The constant shifting of attention, the constant emergencies, the other-determinism of everybody else's needs but my own had some sort of parallels with OT3 and at the end of it, the cult was blown away. I would never be the same again.
Nice! Your whole write-up of what you got from the action is nice.
The key to "cults and cultures" is the mutually created matrix or holographic image of the game of it. And it is a matrix that determines not only what we should be and not be, but have/not have, do/not do, believe/not believe, etc.
The trap in the cult/cultures phenomena is that one has unwittingly placed oneself at effect of and subject to the agreements involved.
You nicely undid that
Mimsey,
There is a thread that deals at length with spiritual team-mates-cum-spiritual connections and how one can restore a harmonious and beneficial relationship between self and them as Challenge describes.
It was up on ESMB before you registered to post, so you may have missed it. Challenge and I exchanged notes on the subject then . . .
Here's the thread. It's actually a discussion that began on New OT 7 . . . Challenge and I got at it starting on page 3:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?16109-How-Dangerous-is-New-OTVII-(Solo-NOTs)
Rog