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Oxford Capacity Analysis™ (OCA) also known as  the "free Scientology personality test"

«The administration of tests now moves out of the psychological area into the prediction of the future. [...] We will fully exploit the superstitious belief of people in prophesy.» — L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL October 28, 1960, "New Testing Promotion Section"
«Re-phrase your statement until it is real to him. Stop as soon as you get through. As soon as you get an impingement, look subject in the face and say, with intention, "Scientology can help you with that" or "That can be changed with Scientology", or some similar positive statement. NEVER say it half heartedly, or apologetically!» — L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL February 15 1961, "EVALUATION SCRIPT"
«There's no place on a PE or PrR staff for people who have an abiding faith in the self-determinism of the public. The public has long since lost its power of choice. It's a question of What self-determinism? The public has to be told where to go and what to do.»  — L. Ron Hubbard, HCO of 18 February 1961, "MAGAZINES, TESTING, PE"

Operation Clambake presents:  Oxford Capacity Analysis
This is the criticised "personality test" which for many is the first introduction to the "Church" of Scientology. Originally called "American Personality Analysis", but probably changed to "Oxford Capacity Analysis" (OCA) because "Oxford" carries more weight. The original test was created by psychologist Julia Lewis and was later adopted and edited by CoS. The alleged Scientology front company U-MAN use the same test when they do recruitment work for companies. The test is a hoax, and the people evaluating it often don't have proper training.

Patty Pieniadz (April 20, 2008): Follow-up comment on "From The Marketing Geniuses At The Church Of Scientology"

Both Narconon and Scientology use the OCA (Oxford Capacity Analysis), also know as “The Personality Test” to recruit people in to the cult.

I was trained on administering and evaluating the OCA’s when I was staff at Narconon Connecticut. My first job at Narconon CT was to administer and evaluate the personality attempt as part of the “reg cycle” or the “attempted recruitment” or the “sales job”. [...]

As a test evaluator I was instructed “cave the person in” meaning I was to introvert him and make him feel really bad about himself. [...]

Chris Owen: "The Personality Test"

Telling a person that they are completely useless is not likely to encourage them to buy anything from you. Equally, telling them that they are enormously capable and talented will make the purchase of Scientology courses seem pointless, as there would be little to improve. Instead, the OCA appears designed to produce results which give a certain amount of comfort while still making clear the "need" for Scientology courses. A person has a good chance of passing two of the ten traits, a moderate chance with another two and a low chance with the other six. It is certainly not an accident that those six happen to be things which Scientology claims to excel at improving: happiness, composure, responsibility, logical reasoning, accord with others and communicativeness.

Jon Atack: "The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics And L. Ron Hubbard"

In I991, a letter to Scientology recruiters offered a course teaching "how to tell people the results of their OCA so that they will reach for Scientology". Another internal document says that the Test Evaluator "is to point out to the person by means of a personality test evaluation what is ruining his life, and to show him how Scientology can save him from that ruin ... when you point out a low score ... say `Scientology can handle that'." The test is designed to ensure that very few people have an acceptable personality profile.

The Foster Report - Chapter 5: The Practices of Scientology / Recruitment

No reputable psychologist would accept the procedure of pulling people off the street with a leaflet, giving them a 'personality test' and reporting back in terms that show the people to be 'inadequate', 'unacceptable' or in need of 'urgent' attention. In a clinical setting a therapist would only discuss a patient's inadequacies with him with the greatest of circumspection and support, and even then only after sufficient contact for the therapist-patient relationship to have been built up. To report back a man's inadequacies to him in an automatic, impersonal fashion is unthinkable in responsible professional practice. To do so is potentially harmful. It is especially likely to be harmful to the nervous introspective people who would be attracted by the leaflet in the first place. The prime aim of the procedure seems to be to convince these people of their need for the corrective courses run by the Scientology organisations.

The Current Online (Oct. 2005): "Scientology test says I’m on the brink of self destruction" by Kate Drolet

Though I’m generally an optimistic person, I took the quiz hoping to find out more of the fundamentals of this strange new faith. Two hundred seemingly random questions later, my personality stared back at me from the screen, neatly graphed out.

Apparently I’m a very troubled individual who urgently requires attention. According to the display, I’m almost 100 percent nervous and 80 percent irresponsible. The good news – I’m half aggressive and borderline stable. Whatever that means.

Tom Voltz (1995): "Scientology With(out) an End / The Test - Orientation or Manipulation"

With neither muss nor fuss the man on the street discovers deficiencies in his personality in only a few minutes, and the diagnosis and the treatment is immediately handed to him. Linked to an actual suggestion for recovery! According to this script, this is nothing more than putting a person into a condition of psychic liability, then telling him that his only salvation lies in buying a Scientology course. It is not, by any means, a serious discussion of test results.

Winnipeg Free Press (1969): "The Secret of Scientology - An Examination Of The Controversial Religious-Psychological-Pseudoscientific cult" by Mike Cowley

After I had answered the 200 questions — similar to ones found in any standard psychology test — the results were translated into a graph. According to a slightly built youth, adorned with a Zapata moustache moustache and psychedelic tie, my answers showed I lacked the ability to communicate. In detail it revealed I was impulsive, depressed, nervous, subjective, critical (I'll go along with that one), lacking in accord and withdrawn. In fact, it was suggested I wasn't in very good shape.

Cherokee County Herald (1990): "'Management Seminar' Harrowing Experience" by Terry Dean

"I FOUND OUT they had done personality tests on us and were lecturing him on our marriage." said Mrs. Rowe. "They said we're in serious trouble and that if we didn't take these courses, we would be divorced in a year and I would become a child abuser."

Valley News (1977): "A reporter takes the Scientology test" by Brian Alexander

The Church of Scientology's free personality test is like a warm handshake, but the grip is too tight.

The counselor who evaluates a potential parishioner's answers to a 200-item questionnaire deftly turns an insightful psychological dialogue into a high pressure sales pitch.

Some critics of Scientology say the church's counseling techniques are over-rated and over-priced. Some say it's hard to say no to the minister's hard sell, that once you're drawn into the web of courses and counseling offered by the church, the exit is well hidden. In an effort to find out, a reporter posed as a college student and took the test.

Kristi Wachter (1998): "Scientology's Personality Test - One Woman's Results"

To my surprise, she actually DID send it to me. She told me in her letter:

"This is the script that the recruiter at the Scientology office was reading from when evaluating our personality profile. He didn't want me to see it. He said 'This is for our files.' But, I insisted on a copy because it was my 'Personality Profile.' This is an unbelievable document. It MUST be put on the internet on all of the big Scientology sites!"

Fair (1981): "Scientology in England"

London Student (12 Nov. 81) expresses concern regarding Scientology's 'Free personality tests'. We reported in our October newsletter on these questionnaires being handed out in Tonbridge.

The paper quotes this statement by a Professor of Psychology: 'Any inferences based on the Scientology questionnaire are open to grave doubts. The use of such tests is positively dangerous in the wrong hands.'

London Student sent ten volunteers for a free personality test. All were told that their personalities needed 'urgent attention' and were urged to allow the 'church' to direct their treatment. Failing this, they were advised to buy one of the many books by Ron Hubbard.

    The Mac Weekly (Feb. 2007): "Learning to Evolve: Becoming a Scientologist" by Matthew Seidholz
The most useless questions, though, either had nothing to do with personality, or didn’t even make grammatical sense. Like, “Is your voice monotonous?” (No!), or “Do you find yourself awakened in the night by ‘noises off’?” (uh. . . “Whatever!”).

Regardless, I soldiered through and finished the thing, and Edgar ran it through a computer. After a few minutes, my results came out. From those 200 questions, the Oxford Capacity Analysis determined that I am Depressed, Unstable, Nervous, Overly Critical, Irresponsible, and “Accordless.” (I still have no idea what that last one means, but I don’t think that it’ll help me become H. scientologicus.)

Radar (Nov. 2006): "Scamalot: Could the Church of Scientology be the best show on Broadway?" by Scott Jacobson

The results aren't good. Terry shows me a graph with a few peaks and valleys, but mostly valleys. It indicates that I am deeply depressed. I'm also unstable, nervous, uncertain, irresponsible enough to leave an infant on the roof of my car, and so withdrawn that leaving an infant on the roof of my car is probably the closest I will ever come to connecting with another human being. On the plus side, I seem to be a go-getter, but as Terry points out, test results in that category were inconclusive.

Brian fares even worse. Terry interprets his results this way: "You'll find yourself at age 50 with no teeth left in your mouth because you've gotten in so many fights, and no friends left except people who hate themselves as much as you hate yourself."

Fucking Christ. Thankfully, in both our cases, Scientology can help.

Robert Vaughn Young (1997) : "Scientology's Rigged OCA/Personality Test"

One day, out of curiousity, I used the grid to compose a "perfect" test. I gave the highest score for each question and scaled it out, just as if someone had taken the score. I then graphed it out and ... low and behold! There was no way to reach the top of the scale! The scale goes up to "100" but there wasn't a single column that was capable of reaching 100! None of the columns could total 100, even with perfect scores! (The highest possible score on one column was 98.) Not only that, but "responsibility" dipped noticably low! With a perfect score!

Declaration of Jonathan Caven-Atack (9 April 1995)

26. The most used method of recruitment in Scientology is the Oxford Capacity Analysis Personality Test or "OCA" [JCA-62]. This derives from Scientology's "American Personality Analysis" of the early 1950s, which in turn was constructed from existing tests devised by psychologists. The OCA has no connection with Oxford, let alone Oxford University. The original test has long been outdated and was rewritten by individuals with no background in psychology or personality testing. Further, it is made clear in internal literature that far from being a "free" test, its function is solely to recruit people into Scientology [JCA-63] .

The Buffalo News (Feb. 2005): "Scientology Tests' Purpose and Validity Are Questioned"

"The tests are basically manipulated so there is something wrong," Dunning said. "You're telling (the test-taker) everything that's wrong with them. Most of the time, it's what's wrong with everybody."

The test - as well as ones for stress and IQ - is a sales device to rope people into buying the church's expensive courses and materials, she said.

Neither Reger nor a church Web site could provide information that substantiated the use of its test.

Letkeman's OCA Test Results

A typical case of how the Oxford Capacity Analysis test (or more commonly the Scientology Free Personality Test) is used to lure people into becoming scientologist, spending a great deal of money on useless courses.

How to beat the Scientology Personality Test

The first characteristic of a cult is it has a leader who claims to have special knowledge. In this case it's L. Ron Hubbard. The second characteristic is their claim that this special knowledge will improve your life. In order to claim this Scientologists must first convince you that your life can be improved upon, and that is where their "Free Personality Test" comes into play. They boast "A test of this kind would normally cost you $500.00 and up" in an obvious attempt to endow their test with authority. The test is also sometimes called the "Oxford Capacity Test," again an attempt to endow their test with authority. Actually the test has nothing to do with the University of Oxford.

Wikipedia (as of February 2008): "Oxford Capacity Analysis"

The Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), also known as the American Personality Analysis, is a personality test that is given for free by the Church of Scientology. The OCA test is offered by the Church of Scientology online, at its local churches, and sometimes at local fairs, carnivals, and in other public settings. It has no relation to the University of Oxford.

The test is an important part of Scientology recruitment and is used worldwide by the Church of Scientology to attract new members. However, it has attracted criticism from psychologists, who consider it to be "not a genuine personality test"[1] and criticize the Church of Scientology for using it in what they regard as a "highly manipulative"[2] and "manifestly unethical" fashion.[3]

The Express (1997): "How I was reduced to black despair by 'caring' church's personality test" by Julia Llewellyn Smith

My interviewer also told me that I was so timid I was failing in every area of my life. On several occasions, I felt close to tears. Having arrived feeling fine about myself, I left wanting to curl up in a ball and never go out again.

Irish Times (2002): "Scientology case woman tells of abortion confession"

She referred to a Standard Oxford Capacity Analysis test, comprising 200 questions. She thought it had something to do with Oxford University.

After the test, Mr John Keane sat opposite her and went through it with her.

Mr Keane basically told her she was in pretty poor shape, and the inference was that she was irresponsible. He said she needed to get some professional Dianetic auditing and told her there would have to be a price.

Akron Beacon Journal (Jan. 1990): "A tale of capture and brainwashing" by Richard Weizel

The Gearys say their involvement with Scientology began when Bob Geary attended a three-hour Sterling seminar in May 1988 at the Cleveland Marriott hotel. After the seminar, Geary said, he was given a personality profile and told he needed further seminars to improve his practice.

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