In Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, in 1950, Hubbard described Clear:
A clear, for instance, has complete recall of everything which has ever happened to him or anything he has ever studied. He does mental computations, such as those of chess, for example, which a normal would do in a half an hour, in ten or fifteen seconds. He does not think “vocally” but spontaneously. There are no demon circuits in his mind except those which it might amuse him to set up -- and break down again -- to care for various approaches to living. He is entirely self-determined. And his creative imagination is high. He can do a swift study of anything within his intellectual capacity, which is inherent, and the study would be the equivalent to him of a year or two of training when he was “normal.” His vigor, persistence and tenacity to life are very much higher than anyone has thought possible.
L. Ron Hubbard
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
- They would be "cause over matter, energy, space, time, life, form and thought".
- An OT could leave the body at will and go anywhere in the whole universe in an instant.
- An OT could view any portion of the time track clearly and precisely.
- An OT could easily create and destroy MEST (matter, energy, space and time).
So, I did Scientology, and I became Clear. And I was quite disappointed that I never gained any of the abilities and powers that I expected. But I forgot that these had been promised to me by Hubbard.
I continued, and I did OT levels. Again, I was disappointed. Where were the powers and abilities that Hubbard had promised?
Weren't all those wonderful things promised to all of us?
Well, no, they aren't. Not any more.
In Scientology today, those things are not promised any more. Oh, sure, Scientology wants you to read Dianetics and think that you are getting that kind of Clear -- but that isn't what they promise. They love for you to listen to Hubbard's lectures about OT from 1952 and think that's what you'll be getting -- but they don't promise anything.
Today, this is what Scientology "promises":
Clear: a highly desirable state for the individual, achieved through auditing, which was never attainable before Dianetics. A Clear is a person who no longer has his own reactive mind and therefore suffers none of the ill effects that the reactive mind can cause. The Clear has no engrams which, when restimulated, throw out the correctness of his computations by entering hidden and false data.That is very, very different from what Hubbard promised. It used to be an amazing state full of abilities and powers far beyond the normal person. Now it is a vague state, described as "highly desirable" but without any specific reasons why anyone should consider it desirable at all.
Today, a Clear, is just someone who "no longer has his own reactive mind", but that no longer means any specific improvements or abilities. Nothing is promised and nothing is delivered.
Today, the determination of whether you are Clear or not has nothing to do with abilities or powers, the determination is, if you had the "Clear cognition", you are Clear -- until David Miscavige decides you aren't.
So, between Hubbard's fantastic descriptions and promises of 1950 down to the vapid and meaningless description and promises of today, the State of Clear has become powerless and meaningless.
For OT, it's even more drastic. Today, the Church of Scientology's description of OT is:
By “operating” is meant “able to act and handle things.” And by “thetan” is meant the spiritual being that is the basic self. “Theta” is Greek for thought or life or the spirit.Very little is said and nothing is actually promised.
An Operating Thetan then is one who can handle things without having to use a body or physical means.
Basically one is oneself, can handle things and exist without physical support and assistance. This state is Operating Thetan, or OT. It doesn't mean one becomes God. It means one becomes wholly oneself.
The statement "handle things without having to use a body" sounds pretty good, but, well, what "things", and what does "handle" mean? Is anything specific actually being promised here? The statement could mean anything and so, ultimately, it means nothing.
And the statement: "One becomes wholly oneself" is devoid of any actual meaning. With that description, anyone could be "OT" as long as they considered that they were "wholly themselves".
Whatever happened to "cause over matter, energy, space, time, life, form and thought"? Whatever happened to "going exterior at will"? Whatever happened to "creating and destroying MEST"? Whatever happened to OT?
In today's Scientology, there are no promises or expectation of any special abilities or powers from becoming OT. You finish OT VIII and, "Congratulations, you are OT".
Again, from the fantastic promises and descriptions by Hubbard in the 1950s down to the vapid and meaningless description of today, OT has become nothing much.
While Scientologists may have been lured in by the description of Clear from 1950 and the descriptions of OT from the early days, they have no reason to complain when those states never occur -- because the actual descriptions used today by Scientology for their "advanced states" are empty of all meaning and significance. Today, nothing is promised and nothing is delivered.
This is why David Miscavige can declare thousands of Clears and OTs "not Clear" and "not OT" and send them all back to redo everything -- there are no criteria to determine or validate these states. It's completely arbitrary, no one can say otherwise.
This is why there are constant arguments inside and outside of the church about who is and isn't Clear -- there is no way to test it, no way to prove it or disprove it. You are "Clear" only if some "authority" says you are.
Neither Clear nor OT actually exist as exceptional states, they are just arbitrary labels assigned by some "authority" to indicate you finished some level -- nothing more.
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Great post as always. When I was in Scientology, there were two things that I just could not figure.
ReplyDelete1. If the tech was so good at handling problems in life and that it could literally handle any difficulty, then why was the founder in hiding?
2. If the state of OT was really all that and more, then why do the highest organizations operate in anger and secret.
These unanswered questions lead to my leaving Scientology.
Great promises.... no results.
...in other words, the 'new and improved' translates into the 'watered down and useless'. Simple question: Why would the majority of old guard scilons stay in the CO$ seeing that all that was promised in the past is now defunct?
ReplyDeleteRe: Scilons staying
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, they never noticed the switch, and still believe the original descriptions are being delivered "somewhere, sometime".
That's why I wrote this, to highlight the bait-and-switch that happened.
Dear Bill:
ReplyDeleteNew definitions:
Clear: Someone who raked a lot of money into nothingness!
OT: Somebody willing to make others rake their fortunes into a nightmare!!
@LesJ39
ReplyDeleteVery good points. Why did Hubbard go into hiding? Why did he die in pain, hiding from the law, betrayed by those he trusted? Why didn't Hubbard have any OT powers?
And why can't the Church of Scientology be "OT"? Why do they only react -- and then botch everything. Why aren't the executives showing "more intelligence", "quicker thinking" or "more at cause"? Why would an organization with "all the answers" be so incredibly inept?
All good questions -- that every church member should be asking themselves.
"An OT could easily create and destroy MEST (matter, energy, space and time)." Astonishing that anyone with at least an eight-grade education could ever believe that. Has no Scientologist ever learned about the law of conservation of energy (energy/matter can neither be created nor destroyed)? Or do the laws of physics simply not apply to Scientologists?
ReplyDeleteRe: Conservation of energy
ReplyDeleteLOL! No, actually, the laws of physics do not apply to OTs since they, according to Hubbard, originally created the laws of physics.
New Clear definition:
ReplyDeleteA highly desirable state where the individual does not have any considerations about losing money.
The person now has the ability to change from wealthy to miserable in no time and feels great about that.
To earn the Clear certificate the person has to furnish the greatest donation ever to IAS together with a letter of commendation from CoB
LRH clear vs DM clear = fun for all.
ReplyDeleteNeither Kool-aid camp can recall much of anything other than LRH quotes that prove each other wrong. (Not to say all Indie's are Kool-aid)
Re: LRH clear vs DM clear
ReplyDeleteActually, the changing descriptions and promises for Clear and OT are not specifically from Miscavige. If you look at what LRH said over the years about Clear and OT, you will find these changes occurring before DM took over.
It is obvious, and certainly would be even more obvious from management's point of view, that Clears and OTs, per those original definitions, were simply not being produced. Never have been. (Not to argue whether such states could be produced, they just haven't been.) Anyone paying attention would have noticed.
I contend they did notice -- including LRH. And that caused the definitions to change and change, until they became the vapid, meaningless pablum of today. I would bet that, if you found descriptions from 1980, before Hubbard's death, you would find the same watered down "promises" as today.
I think the writing was on the wall about Clear when Hubbard's first "clear", the lady with the pseudonym "Sonya Bianca", failed to do the stupid Dianetic tricks on-stage in 1950. If you could do the things Hubbard originally promised Clears and OTs could do, you could no longer be considered a human; you would be superhuman. There was no way that any of that could ever happen, so Clear was watered down to being little more than a person with no hang ups, and an OT was just a slightly better Clear. The real problem is that Hubbard aimed too high and Miscavage is too much of a cheat, so the uselessness of Scientology is amplifed because the sizzle is far greater than the steak.
ReplyDeleteBill I too had the same definition of what an OT should have been able to do. To be cause over matter, energy, space and time.This was the dream I accepted from LRH along with a "World without insanity where the able could prosper".
ReplyDeleteI strongly believed we are spiritual beings and it was not too much of a stretch that we could maybe have those kind of abilities buried within us. But wishing and hoping did not make it so.
Sadly it took over 20 years before I came to the conclusion it was not going to happen. I did not like who I had become during those years.It shocked me that it took so long for me to wake up. Reading blogs about those who have got out and what they had experenced has helped a lot.Also Steve Hassan book on "Combatting Cult Mind Control." has really helped me unravel the trap.
It seemed odd to me that in 1988 Heber Jentzsch was arrested in Spain.How could a high ranking Chruch Offical have been caught off guard and thrown in a spanish jail for about three weeks.I remember thinking that the church should have been using their OT's to be looking at the future so they could prevent this kind thing.
Also when the Senior Case Supervisor David Mayo was declared a SP.This just did not make sense to me at all. Mr. Mayo had worked closely with LRH for years and even helped to audit LRH back to health.Now all of a sudden he is a suppressive and thrown out on his ear. It seem that LRH have been able to predict that this was going to happen
I would think after 50+ years of making OT's there would be at least ONE who would be able to as is some matter or to levitate something or the Chruch could use their OT's in the Sea Org to create money so they would not have to badger it out of us.
I think there is a new DM definition of Clear:
ReplyDeleteA being who no longer has his own viewpoint. As such he is fully cleared of the need to look at his own life and surroundings and make his own decisions about it. He has been freed from the tyranny of having to draw his own conclusions and being responsible for his own life. Such a being has become fully in tune with the new Spiritual Leader of Scientology and simply acts to please Him 24/7/365. Amen.
You know it's very strange to me... I recall seeing a documentary talking about an Industry of Death and how if there is no test to determine the physical cause of your chemical inbalance or whatever is causing your psychological problems... then it clearly must be a fraud. In fact the Youtube comments on "CCHR LABELS" has the author stating this view point.
ReplyDeleteIt is amusing to me that your synopsis of the article, "This is why there are constant arguments inside and outside of the church about who is and isn't Clear -- there is no way to test it, no way to prove it or disprove it. You are "Clear" only if some "authority" says you are."
States exactly the same thing. There is no test to prove a Clear has better recall, and is given to you by an "authority" read as "psychiatrist". I should propose this conundrum to the CCHR.
Re: CCHR
ReplyDeleteI hadn't actually seen that connection. Thanks.
Yes, the parallels between CCHR's accusations about psychiatry "No tests for physical causes!" and Scientology's lack of tests for any spiritual changes to prove their superior "states of being" is very ironic.
And hypocritical, as usual.
Yeah, so much for Hubbard’s false promises. If these powers and abilities existed, all the CoS would have to do is have an OT go on “The Tonight Show” and levitate an ashtray. Just a simple demonstration like this would generate incredible publicity. People would flood into the orgs and the Church would make billions. The planet would be cleared in no time and we would be well on our way to saving this sector of the galaxy.
ReplyDeleteAs this is not happening, it’s only logical to assume that these vaunted powers and abilities are imaginary, a fiction. The so called states of Clear and OT are just made-up labels assigned by an "authority" to indicate that you have completed a course–nothing more. Who would pay half a million dollars for a bunch of labels?
TMers: The Disappearing States of Cosmic Consciousness.
ReplyDeleteAs Scientologists are supposed to have Clear and OT powers, Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioners are also supposed to have yogic powers or Siddhis. Recently TM and Scientology have both been backpedalling on the supposed magic powers they give their practitioners. We have heard about the disappearing states of Clear and OT. Well apparently TMers yogic powers are also disappearing.
In the 1970s TM claimed that meditating twice a day for 20 minutes would produce the vaulted state of Cosmic Consciousness in 5 years. Now it doesn’t.
Until recently TM claimed that advanced practitioners could fly or hover. As this claim was eventually disproven TMers now say that “some day in the future” they will be able to levitate and gain other super powers like the many holy ones before them.
Then there was the Maharishi Effect. Maharishi claimed that any city in which one percent or more of the inhabitants practiced TM would have significantly reduced crime, violence, auto accidents, unemployment, and illness. This was an apparently established fact that had been “scientifically demonstrated.” Fairfield, Iowa, home of Maharishi International University, is unique in that some 13 percent of the populace are heavy TMers! The crime rate was so low, we were told, that the chief of police had to put several officers on part-time duty. Unemployment was nonexistent and crops were growing beyond the most optimistic hopes. The automobile accident rate in Iowa was apparently the lowest in the United States! And TM was given total credit for all this until James Randi checked with the Fairfield Police Dept, the Iowa Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Motor Vehicles and found that the claims were not true. The chief of police told Randi that he was hiring more officers. Needless to say The Maharishi Effect is no longer mentioned in cult literature. Sound familiar?
The similarities among cults are quite shocking. Birds of a feather seem to flock together. I guess it has always been caveat emptor.
-- Dave
I was interested in Scientology in the early 80s after taking the est training. Werner Erhard, the founder and creator of est, did Scientology for a while along with many other things. I got interested in Scn because of that. I studied up on it and thought it interesting. I read Dianetics and thought it was a tough read. I discovered what Clear meant at that time (the old definition). I did the personality profile and was deficient in a couple of areas. I lived in Santa Barbara at the time, and the Scn office there sent me to a "mission" - someone's home. By this time, I knew enough to see that Scn was a money getting machine, but that didn't stop me as I had plenty of money then. So I show up at this mission place and had a conversation with the two leaders there, both of which were OT something but I didn't know what OT was then. All was going well and I was ready to take a communications course. I wanted the clarity of "Clear" and that was the first step. In the conversation, I told them I had taken the est training. WOW, did things change rapidly. They turned into stone before my very eyes. They were more hostile and asked me if I was spying for est. They asked if I was a trainer for est. I they said they were all Clear, yet there, in the room, was ALL THE EVIDENCE of a reactive mind at work. The mood shifted. The conversation turned to questioning my motives. I told them I was there because Werner did it, and I wanted to do it. Then, because of their reactions, I decided there was no such thing as Clear and it was all made up stuff. Crap. I left. I am glad I saved myself some cash.
ReplyDeleteWhen you got the Clear Cognition that you mocked up you're own reactive mind, did you not realize that you never had a bank. You were putting it there in present time. There never where any engrams. It was all a hoax. Auditing makes you build up emotions in the present, then when you look at what you created, it is destroyed and you shoot up the Tone Scale. Hubbard tells you that you erased an engram. It's all a hoax, a mental illusion. It's black magic. The Clear Cognition is the key piece of information that would unravel the hoax, that's why it is Confidential and a high crime to reveal it to a preclear. It discredits every datum in Dianetics. The mind does not work the way Dianetics claims it does. It's just a mechanism that Hubbard is using to deceive you. Did you ever wonder why Dianetics was written in 1950, yet the first real clear wasn't produced in 1966, John Mccmasters? How did Hubbard know there was a state of Clear if he hadn't made one yet? Hubbard was a confidence man. It's a hoax. Hubbard actual educational background was in Black Magic and Hypnosis. He lied to his followers about his background and that has been proven. As you got the got the clear cog, you should have realized it was a hoax. The clear Cog happens because the PC has built up so much emotion from all the dangerous Dianetic Auditing that he starts to bat shit crazy then looks into his own mind and realized that there is nothing there and he was putting it there, then is evaporates. Hubbard calls this As-ising. Then hubbard uses used this realizing as the new state of clear, that you mocked it up yourself. It's all a scam.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is all a scam. The icing on the cake is when you finally, after 100s of thousand of dollars, many, many years and much sacrifice, you complete OT VIII and are told, "It's all fake. None of it was really true. Don't you feel great, knowing that?"
DeleteIf DM is so dangerous and suppressive, why didn't someone he physically attacked stand up for themselves and kick his ass?
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't someone just snipe his ass?!! That would get rid of DM and he'd be replaced with the fully functioning board and watch dog committee which is the way it's supposed to be anyway?
The SP is surrounded by cowed or ill associates! That's perhaps why his right hand man, that pussy whatshisname kick DMs ass when he was attacked? He's supposed to be a real tough guy anyway What a coward ass pussy! He could have saved Scientology from a lunatic which was his duty to do in the first place!
The price of freedom = Constant diligence, constant willingness to fight!
Honor and Integrity. What happened to those principles? COWARDS!
You need to study more. You do not seem to understand how cults and cult thought control works.
DeleteIt is easy to criticize those who you do not understand. And you definitely do not understand those who have been deeply under the control of the cult.
I have had the same questions. Why didn't one (or all) of these victims just fight back? The answer is in cult thought control. Read up if you are interested, it is scary.
As for David Miscavige, he is an evil, twisted nobody. But the way Scientology is set up, if he were removed, someone just as evil and twisted would soon take over. David Miscavige is exactly what the structure and indoctrination of Scientology is designed to protect and obey. I guarantee if he were removed, he would NOT be replaced with "the fully functioning board and watch dog committee". Wouldn't happen.