I'm interested in this. As I said when I introduced myself, I tend to assume that at least some things in Scientology probably do work as far as they go. It would be interesting if we could actually pin down which these are, if there are any. Are these courses possibly 'the ones that work'? Just what do they deliver?
Have you read "Mate's" opening couple of posts or his current thread? That seems to be about the finest and most complete essay on the board having to do with what works and what does not work in Scientology Tech. I am very much in agreement with what he says. I'll give you a few personal twists below.
Of course the alternative hypothesis is simply that people who get into Scientology young naturally happen to go through the big maturing stages of the early twenties while they're doing Scientology. They attribute these steps of personal growth to Scientology, when in fact they would have happened in college, or the Marine Corps, or the first job, or the first relationship, or whatever.
This alternative hypotheses which you state has very little to no merit as far as I am concerned. I got in at age 30 and had already been through university and had a Bachelor's degree, I know of many other people in that same boat, one of whom is Heber Jentzsch. The steps of personal growth usually occur when reading a book or a code of Scientology and then putting one of the principles into practice. Also steps of growth occur when receiving certain auditing actions or receiving a good ethics handling or things of that nature. In most cases, the type of book learning done in the university does not lead one for one to steps in maturing the way doing The Scientology Bridge does. There are gains to be had in doing parts of the Scientology Bridge and equal or even bigger gains to be had in undoing parts of the Scientology Bridge and reconnecting with the various Codes of Scientology which enticed you in to joining in the first place but which were not allowed to actually be practiced while one was a member of the C of S.
My personal favorite actions on the Bridge:
Life Repair, analyzing the 8 dynamics and the various flows between them.
Grade 1 - Problems Release
Grade 4 - Spotting your Service Facsimile and blowing it. (Your make right mechanism).
Grade 5 and 5a, Power and Power Plus. It seemed like a test drive of being OT. You were always blown out and euphoric and were in a games type of condition and felt you were OT but it was only a key out and not permanent.
Dianetics - The first encounters when you believe you have run a past life.
Expanded Dianetics - Tailor made and hand crafted programs tailored to handle things you wanted handled using Dianetic R3R commands.
Old OT 5,6 and 7. Exercises in increasing intention and postulating.
Audited NOTs - New OT5 - it seemed to contain some theory which helped better explain what OT3 was all about. The sessions were very short but you could feel changes occuring in your space and the way you were viewing things. Sometimes when leaving the sessiion, one's whole space would seem different, also quieter. For those of you who have had Chiropractic, if you get one of those once a year type adjustments where the Chiro pulls sharply on your head and there is a lot of pleasant cracking sounds and it feels as if he lengthened your neck and or spinal column an inch or two and then when you stand up your viewpoint is different, that is how I felt after a good NOTs session.
Also, Studying the Org Board - I like the awareness characteristics associated with each Department plus the thetan, mind, body, product arrangement of the entire board as concatenations from the top down. I also like how particles flowed vertically or horizontally on the board.
That was a thumbnail of the stuff I found helpful. I could probably write something just as long or longer for the stuff which I didn't like.
Lakey
