OT III, a synopsis

OT III, a synopsis ==================

Scientologists believe that they have reincarnated from before the beginning of time. They believe that many interplanetary civilizations have existed. Hubbard restyled the spirit the "thetan". Before the beginning of time, thetans existed, separate from one another (thetans were not created, they have existed for all time and indeed precede the creation of time). With the creation of energy and matter, thetans have gradually become trapped. The principal method of entrapment is through "implanting", where the thetan is hypnotised and given positive suggestions which limit its powers. This process, according to Hubbard has been going on in this universe for four quadrillion years (4,000,000,000,000,000, rather than the 14,700,000,000 held by astrophysicists). However, this is just one universe in a series of several.

Scientology seeks to return the thetans power by stripping away implants and using drills to heighten extrasensory perception and ability. The goal of these procedures is an "operating thetan" - a being who can act independently of his physical body, and can cause physical events to occur through sheer force of will. The "operating thetan" would be capable of dismissing illness and aberration in others at will.

The Scientologist generally undertakes hundreds of hours of preparation prior to taking the first section of the Operating Thetan level courses - OT I. OT II consists of over a hundred pages of hand- written lists of opposites, such as "create - create not". These are supposedly the basic positive suggestions from implants administered 75 million years ago. These implants were part of the so-called OT III incident.

According to Hubbard, 75 million years ago, there was a confederation of 76 planets, including Earth. The "Galactic Confederation" (the title comes from the science fiction of E.E. Doc Smith), was ruled by Xenu (also called "Xemu" by Hubbard). Overpopulation had become a serious problem, which Xenu resolved by murdering many of the inhabitants of the Confederation. Hubbard estimated that the 76 planets averaged 178 billion people each. The people were killed and the thetans gathered, frozen in a mixture of glycol and alcohol, and brought to Earth where they were placed by volcanoes which were exploded with hydrogen bombs. The thetans were gathered on "electronic ribbons", packaged together as clusters and given 36 days of implanting, to render them servile and incapable of decision. A cluster is a collection of body thetans containing a leader and an alternate [sic] leader. The cluster conceives itself to be an individual. Everyone on Earth is in fact a collection of such clusters (Hubbard says that each individual will find "hundreds" of body thetans).

On OT 3, the individual finds "body thetans" by locating any sensation of pressure or mass in his body. This is addressed "telepathically" as a cluster, and taken through the cluster-making incident of 75 million years ago. Once this is done, the individual body thetans should be available to be taken through either the same incident or the incident of entry into this universe. This is called "incident one", and supposedly occurred four quadrillion years ago. This incident is described on pp.24-25: "Loud snap - waves of light - chariot comes out, turns left and right - cherub comes out - blows horn, comes close - shattering series of snaps - cherub fades back (retreats) - blackness dumped on thetan."

The Scientologist spends days or years dealing with "body thetans" (I have known two people who "audited" this procedure almost every day for eleven years). Scientology materials of different dates assert that at the end of OT III the individual will be "stably exterior" (from his body), free from "overwhelm" (i.e., nothing will ever overwhelm him again), and have total recall of his entire round of incarnations from four quadrillion years ago to the present.

Anyone who encounters this material without having undertaken Scientology courses up to OT II will supposedly die from pneumonia.

OT III is in disagreement with conventional geology. Geologists hold that all of the volcanoes listed by Hubbard and both Hawaii and Los Palmas came into being far more recently than 75 million years ago.