Misc. Ramblings of a personal experience
I got a call from my FSM, Richard Royce, in 1979 telling me to get my ass to Flag because Ron "has done it! We now have NOTs which handles everything! It is what everyone was looking for when they signed up for Scientology."
I got down there as an old OT VII and started getting my NOTs. The word was that the sessions were very short and you would blow out with a floating TA but that you could get 3 or 4 sessions a day.
It was asserted that just one 10 or 15 minute session handled as much case as a complete action such as a life repair or one of the grades. We were given vitually no theory but merely started receiving NOTs auditing.
For many years, I believed the pundits were correct. NOTs seemed wonderful. It seemed as if huge sections of case were erased in a matter of minutes. A movement was started in the late 80's or early 90's claiming that Mayo had left out parts of the theory so a big push was made to get everybody back in to receive what were called the New Steps" On these New Steps, we were put on a meter and we read the theory while the auditor watched the meter for reads.
For me and most others, this seemed to be very successful. Reading the theory seemed to cause a floating Tone Arm and big wins to occur. With the theory under one's belt, NOTs auditing seemed to run deeper. All the way through 1993, my last auditing with C of S, I thought that audited NOTs was a great level.
ONE POINT of SKEPTICISM As the years rolled by, I did not understand why NOTs had replaced the older OT levels, OT III Expand through OT VII. I did not see how OT VI, a course room activity could be an OT Level. Furthermore, what was run on NOTs did not look like anything which could possibly cause a person to increase their "OT abilities". I finally decided that the changes to the "Bridge" were done mainly for money purposes, not to make beings more OT. It was obvious that cutting the previous OT Levels and replacing them with audited NOTs and Solo Nots went against the policies of KSW.
THE FIRST SEEDS OF DOUBT AS TO THE VALIDITY OF "THE BRIDGE" WERE PLANTED IN ME AT THIS POINT IN 1993.
As to who was the primary author of NOTs, David Mayo or LRH, I have no inside information. I knew with certainty that Mayo was a "good hat" and never bought into the notion that he was a suppressive person or a squirrel. That certainty also contributed to my waking up to the misrepresentations being made by C of S.
These many years later, I have transformed completely as regards NOTs. I now feel that whatever gains that are available through Scientology tech, come from the lower level materials such as doing TRs, getting a life repair, doing objectives or doing one's Grades. To me, the upper level stuff was manly put there to endlessly generate income for C of S. I now believe that any gains made on NOTs are small, compared to what is available on the lower bridge and that running NOTs endlessly for year after year with no end in sight is harmful to the cases of spiritual beings.
Lakey