Operating Thetan (OT)

The OT levels are solo-audited (self-metered; the soup-can electrodes of Hubbard's crude ohm-meter are held in one hand, and notes are jotted down with the other; saves money (for Scientology) over having an auditor do it) and expensive processes at the top of the Scientology "Bridge." The levels currently run from New OT I to New OT VIII. Note: most of the OT levels have been modified over time, sometimes extensively. These modifications are designated "New OT (level)". Also se the OT Levels & Confidential Material Summary List.

Copies of Hubbard's handwritten OT I and part of III are available below. In Holland you will also find a legal copy of the OT Levels thanks to Karin Spaink.

In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (also Xemu) is a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to cause problems today. These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The story of Xenu is part of a much wider range of Scientology beliefs in extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, famously warning that R6 was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it." The Xenu story was the start of the use of the volcano as a common symbol of Scientology and Dianetics from 1968 to the present day.

The pre-OT parts with a "minimum donation" of £3,400 or $7,200 to traverse the OT 3 "wall of fire". On OT 3, the recipient is assured that 75 million years ago the Earth was part of a Galactic Confederation ruled by an evil prince called Xenu. The Confederation suffered from massive overpopulation, so Xenu devised a scheme whereby the peoples of some 76 planets were shipped to earth and annihilated. The spirits or thetans of these victims were exploded, by putting H-bombs in volcanoes, and gathered on "electronic ribbons". Then they were "implanted" for 36 days with images of the future societies of Earth. According to Hubbard, all cultures and religions since derive from these hypnotic implants. He said, for example, that Christ is an illusion implanted at this time.

A challenge to superstition.. OT3 is presented and practised in a manner calculated to induce superstitious fear in their followers: menaces of catching pneumonia and dying: increased fees levied on those who discover its contents too soon: disbelief "proves" how the events were booby trapped to make them look unbelievable(!): induction of psychosis and "baby watching" ("baby watching" = imprisonment, isolation and supervision of those who get upset by Scientology): declaration that the "clear" is at risk if not up to OT3 [29]: the mystique of "safe space" needed for this course. Superstitious fear is neither religion, nor ethical business, nor science, and deserves to be challenged.

In Scientology, the state of Operating Thetan is a spiritual state above Clear. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, defined it as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time." [1]

Scientologists believe that one who has achieved the state of Operating Thetan is essentially a being able to operate free of the encumbrances of the material universe. This state is represented by a symbol consisting of the letters OT with the T inside the O and each of the points of the T ending at the O's circumference.

The Fishman Affidavit contains much text from the old versions of the Operating Thetan levels. After having removed one's own reactive mind, one then goes on to remove the reactive minds of one's Body Thetans through Dianetic auditing.

This page is dedicated to the analysis and criticism of what Scientologists must consider to be the most significant document in the history of the human race: L. Ron Hubbard's "OT III". (See legal notes below.) The first page of this historic work, jotted down in Hubbard's own hand, is presented herewith: ...

In early August, 1995, an electronic version of the document known as the Fishman Declaration became widely available on the Internet. Because this court record contained information jealously guarded by Scientology(tm) organizations, it became the immediate focus of a great deal of interest and controversy.

This information consisted of course materials written by L. Ron Hubbard for a program to transform an individual into a Being with super-human powers, known as an Operating Thetan, or OT. A multitude of people have obtained copies of this material, because of the controversy it has engendered, and the number of very important related issues that have been raised.

However, to a person who has not been trained in the communications technology of Scientology(tm), L. Ron Hubbard's style of writing may seem poorly structured, tedious, repetitive, and generally unpleasant to read. As a result, many persons who have obtained copies have found themselves unable to persevere through the entire material.

I have created this summary and analysis of the OT materials to aid precisely those persons who feel it is important to keep apprised of the issues in this controversy, but have found the OT materials themselves too burdensome. I have restructured much of the material for content, rather than process. I have eliminated a large amount of redundant and uninteresting material. And, finally, I have rewritten the material in a style which I hope is more conducive to casual reading.

In more recent years, Scientologists have become more "on policy". Hubbard has made it so clear that he is the only person around who knows what is going on that no one else ever tries to be original in any way. One of the larger and more cunning aberrations that people have is that they do not like to be told what to do. In order to overcome this obvious weakness, there are processes (the CCH's mentioned earlier, for instance), and organisational policies to ram the point home that the only use Hubbard has for a follower or staff member is as someone who can follow his word with slavish devotion. He wants to hear of people getting better with Scientology. If someone does not get better in the correct, party-approved manner, then that person is maliciously going out of his way to make a fool of Hubbard and Scientologists. He is rejected as being so stupid as not to realise that here is the Road to Total Freedom.

The goal of the training is to reach "OT"- the level of "operating thetan." At this level, Scientologists gain the power to control "thought, life, matter, energy, space and time," says Hubbard. But first they must free themselves of damaging spirits acquired when Earth was reduced to a nuclear wasteland 75 million years ago, he says.

Last week, a Pinellas Circuit Court judge committed a former Scientologist to a state mental hospital after he claimed that the thetans - or spirits-of other Scientologists had invaded his body. Francis Diamond, a former downtown Clearwater businessman, insisted thetans were real; he brought a Hubbard book to his hearing to prove it.

15. In 1952, Hubbard incorporated notions of the spirit (or "thetan") and reincarnation into his system. He asserted that we have all existed as spiritual beings for trillions of years (by the 1970s, he was talking of quadrillions). In the 1950s, Hubbard coined the phrase "Operating Thetan", meaning a spirit capable of "operating" separately from its human body ("exterior"). The goal of Scientologists is to be "exterior with full perception". Hubbard defined "Operating Thetan" as the "ability to be at cause knowingly and at will over thought, life, form, matter, energy, space and time, subjective and objective." [JCA-31]. Currently, eight "Operating Thetan" levels are available to Scientologists, most of which consist of a form of exorcism, sold to Scientologists for over 300 pounds per hour [JCA-32]. Scientologists come to believe that they are possessed by thousands of spirits which can of course lead to mental illness.

I was feeling bad, worse all the time. My heart had begun to give me problems, I was very stressed, and unable to fight all that stress with my own strength alone. Then a lot of my friends and acquaintances who did the OT levels had died relatively young. Giuliano Cocchetti had had a stroke just after having attested OT 8, then he committed suicide. Daniele Pozzebon, OT 8, had died of cancer in a few months, and his son, an OT 4, had committed suicide just after his father died. Enza Guzzo, OT8, had died of cancer. Paolo Meini, OT 8, had felt ill during a session, and had died. Luigi, a restaurant owner in Brescia and OT 8, had died of a heart attack. I felt, I had a perception, that the next one would be me, and I didn't want to die.