“Mostly Lurker” posted the following as a comment on Jeff’s Leaving Scientology blog, in response to Jeff’s post OT Abillities (referring to the “Operating Thetan powers a Scientologist is supposed to gain from doing the expensive upper levels). Mostly Lurker has generously given me permission to re-print it here. Enjoy. ML, Caliwog.
This is the exact reason why I consider Scientology to be a fraud. It promised “OT powers”, “Total Freedom”, “100% workability”, yet delivered very little. There are some subjective results, for some people results are life changing and spectacular, for others are less than that, down to many others who would have been better off without Scientology and its abusive practices. But the point is: it didn’t deliver what promised. No OT abilities, no 100% workability. David Mayo told us that [Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard] was still working on his goal to go exterior* when he was auditing him. (When was that, 1978?). If LRH was ever exterior, visiting the Van Allen Belt or Venus as he was claiming in the ‘50s, in 1978(?) he was not. Alan Walter wrote on ESMB about an instance where on the Apollo LRH has been caught pretending to see what was happening on his back. An OT8 I know told me he actually went exterior once, but as a kid, long before joining Scientology.
[* “go exterior”: Have an out-of-body experience at will, one of the claimed “OT abilities”. — CW]
Occasionally, I can foresee events. Often with friends we have the same thoughts at the same time. All these things are phenomena, not abilities, and can be found amongst wogs too no less frequently. With my wife often words aren’t necessary, she predict my needs so many times that she amazes me and she never was Scientologist but she knows me. Scientology offers a lot of knowingness about these phenomena, but how much of it is pretended knowingness?
When I was a kid I knew I was not my body, I was drawing spaceships but I don’t remember wanting to go “exterior” nor wanting to gain OT powers. Then I meet Scientology, it acknowledged many things I knew but implanted in me that desire to gain OT Powers. It was not my own. It was LRH’s goal. It was LRH that, with his fictional/theoretical/subjective fake descriptions of the State of Clear and State of OT, created in me a need to reach what he was promoting and promising. My two decades spent in Scientology to “save the Planet” (another implanted goal, not my own) passed with great sacrifices, disconnection from family, no education, and I got almost nothing of what was promised. I am certain that my life would have been much better without Scientology.
Much of the knowledge I acquired in Scientology is turning out to be pretended knowledge or even blatant lies. How do I know? Because there are no consistent results. Look at the Church, it’s a cult that enslaves people. It is evident to anybody that Miscavige is a criminal, but OTs, Clears and preclears in the church are blind and as puppets they will throw family and their own lives under the bus for him, looking forward to the day he will give them the key to the “Total Freedom” that LRH promised. Except, there is no key.
Back to the OT abilities. Auditing helps people change their ideas and points of view and that’s all it does – it never delivered any ability. To gain abilities you need training and practice. With auditing you may get the idea that you can do something, where before you had the idea that you can’t. This is mind manipulation, most of the time desired by both the auditor and the preclear*. The value is that by turning those “I can’t” into “I can” you may accomplish things that maybe you wouldn’t have even tried doing. Therefore is not impossible to recover abilities with auditing as it is not impossible with self hypnosis and with other self help systems. But it opens the door to delusion too.
[* Preclear: Beginning Scientologist who has not yet reached the state of “Clear”. — CW]
Unfortunately Scientology is not just desired mind-manipulation done in session but hidden mind manipulation as well, designed to control, to get people discard own purposes and interests and to assume LRH/Miscaviges purposes and interests. Facing Life, the perfect Ron-droid would not ask himself “How I would do that?” but “How would Ron do that?” I used to think that way for 20+ years living someone else’s life. But that’s another topic, another can of worms. — Mostly Lurker, March 15, 2011
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