From dst+@cs.cmu.edu Fri Jun 14 18:07:41 EDT 1996 Article: 202786 of alt.religion.scientology Path: casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu!dst From: dst+@cs.cmu.edu (Dave Touretzky) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,sci.skeptic Subject: NOTs 4: Word Clearing and Information for Pre-OTs on NED for OTs Date: 14 Jun 1996 05:42:32 GMT Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Lines: 167 Message-ID: <4pqu48$f72@casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: dst.boltz.cs.cmu.edu [ Note for readers of sci.skeptic: this post concerns Scientology's claim that people can leave their bodies and perceive the world from other viewing locations. It contains excerpts from the copyrighted and formerly trade secret scriptures known as "NOTs", recently posted to the Internet. So I guess their not trade "secrets" any more. All quotes are made under the "Fair Use" exception in the US Coyright Act. ] I've been poking around in one of the public NOTs packs again and came across another curious bit that could benefit from discussion on ARS. This bit is from NOTs 4: Word Clearing and Information for Pre-OTs on NED for OTs. But first, a discussion of the structure of NOTs 4. The text of NOTs 4 is only a page; the real meat is in the two attachments. Attachment #1, "Definitions", is a mini-dictionary of NOTs terminology such as "cluster", "dormant BT", and "misconception. Fewer than three dozen definitions in all. This is the first thing the pre-OT reads on NOTs 4. Following that, he or she is instructed to read and demo the concepts contained in NOTs 1-2 and 5-7. Then on to Attachment #2, "Information for pre-OTs on NED for OTs", which is what I want to talk about here. This attachment is a collection of "useful" bits of advice for people who are going to engage in NOTs auditing. One of these, called "ODDITY", concerns the pre-OT seeing pictures made by his BTs: >> A Pre-OT on NED for OTs may feel invalidated by the fact that he >> still sees pictures even though he is not making pictures. The reason for >> this is because all BTs are picturemakers. A being can go below making >> pictures and when it comes alive it starts making pictures again... Hence, >> the phenomenon of the Pre-OT still seeing pictures even though he isn't >> making pictures. So people are in telepathic communication with their BTs, and their pictures become our pictures. Presumably the BT could have all kinds of wild pictures, since it is a murdered space alien from 75 million years ago. I'll bet they had some really weird religious beliefs back then. What kinds of pictures does the BT transmit? Here's some info on that: >> During this RD [rundown], or even while running OT III, a Pre-OT will >> sometimes get what is apparently "exterior perception". As a BT is >> blowing, and while the Pre-OT has an attention unit on the BT, there >> can be a feedback of the BT's perception to the Pre-OT. You may get >> the BT's visio of the room or environment as the BT is leaving. Ah hah! The BT who is about to blow is awake enough to be aware of the surroundings and perceive the auditing room. So the pre-OT who is still telepathically connected to the BT gets a BT's-eye view of the room. Two comments to make here: 1. Since BTs don't have bodies, they don't have eyes, though Hubbard says elsewhere that thetans have golden disks for eyes. Why would they perceive the room usin the same visible light spectrum as human bodies? Why not use ultraviolet, like bees, or be sensitive to the polarization of light, as are some birds? In fact, why would a BT have a "point of view" at all? Does light have a "point of view"? Does a subatomic particle which is also a wave have a "point of view"? This conception of BTs makes them sound like homunculi, or the little devils who sit on people's shoulders in old Warner Brothers cartoons. I guess if you've got an attention beam on a BT, it would be a little devil trailing a phone line back to you. "BT, phone home." 2. Wouldn't it be terrifically useful if we could send our BTs out to perceive things for us from a different point of view? It would make me a much more successful poker player. It would help my mechanic figure out what's wrong with my engine if he could just send his BTs into the cylinders to have a look. And adventurous couples wouldn't need to put mirrors over their beds anymore. (Hmmm, I think Fishman wrote something about that.) So how useful is this mode of perception? Let's see... >> This BT perception folds up quickly and ceases when the BT has blown. It is >> usually very brief and is quite different from OT perceptions (actual >> exterior perception). Seems it's not as useful as one would like. Perhaps "OT perceptions" are what is really needed. Let's see what Scientology claims is possible with OT perceptions: >> ... objects tend to look rather thin and flimsy to an OT when exterior, as >> the body acts as a sort of collector and magnifier of perceptions and >> sensations. Well that's okay. As long as I can still distinguish an Ace from a 2, or tell whether a spark plug is firing properly, flimsiness wouldn't be a problem. Maybe I should take some Scientology courses? >> Some Pre-OTs tend to invalidate their own exterior perception >> because of this. But OT perception improves further up the line. It is >> necessary to handle all BTs and clusters first though. Ah, I see. I should take a LOT of Scientology courses to get rid of those BTs and clusters. Then I'll have true OT perception and be able to successfully cheat at cards, diagnose engine problems from inside the cylinder, and stare at my own bald spot. This sounds like a good deal to me. What's a mere $300,000 in exchange for the ability to look in places "where no man has gone before"? Just one thing bothers me though: no one in the history of the world has ever demonstrated exterior perception, or "remote viewing" as it's sometimes called. Even a hardcore Scientologist I once corresponded with admitted that, while going exterior is certainly achievable, perceiving any useful information while you're "out of your head" is not so easily done. Let's revise that to "never been done, at any time, by anyone" and we'll have a true picture of the state of the art in exteriorization. Going exterior is the EP (End Phenomenon: the "goal") of the old OT IV. But the old OT levels IV - VII have been replaced by NOTs. I don't know where in NOTs you're supposed to be able to exteriorize at will, but if you can't see anything useful while you're in this dissociative state (to use a Psych term), what's the point? So what do I make of this portion of NOTs 4? The bit about the pre-OT tuning in on his departing BT's view of the room sounds like it could be explained more simply as follows: when people engage in certain unusual mental practices, they sometimes experience a dissociative reaction where they feel they are not in their body, but are somewhere outside it. (Happened to Margerie Wakefield when she did TR 0, as described in her book _The Road to Xenu_.) This is a delusion that normally goes away in a short while. Rather than accepting the fact that humans are subject to delusions under some conditions, Scn teaches the pre-OT that the delusion is real: that he really did leave his body, or that one of his BTs left and is telepathically relaying the experience. So we have two competing theories of the exteriorization experience: 1) Thetans can leave their own bodies, and the BTs that infest their bodies can "blow" and send back telepathic trip reports. or 2) People can hallucinate that they are outside their body when they really aren't. Scn teaches #1. Psychology, physics, and late 20th century common sense prefer #2. Either theory could in principle be correct. The way to distinguish between them is to do controlled experiments, something Scn avoids like the plague. "Just leave your body, travel down the hall, and tell me what color the carpeting is in my den. Thank you." Even an elementary demonstration of exterior perception, if it could be repeated reliably under controlled conditions, would be compelling proof that theory #2 was inadeqate and perhaps Scn was right. It's not surprising that such demonstrations have never been accomplished. What Scientology is doing in this NOTs 4 excerpt, and in many other places throughout its literature, is using a common delusion (exteriorization) as bait in a con game. The fleeting delusion of exteriorization experienced by the pre-OT is interpreted for him as evidence that truly useful Super Powerz exist further up The Bridge, and can be obtained with just a little more auditing. Just a little more. You've already come so far. Just a little more and it will all make sense. The urge to leave Scientology is evidence of witheld crimes against the Church, you know. Just a little more auditing is all you need. Only criminals blow the Church. What crimes have you committed against Scientology? Just a little more auditing. >> As you progress through the RD [rundown] your own abilities will >> increase. And the less BTs and clusters there are attached to your body >> the better off and more OT you will become. Yeah, right. Just a little more auditing. -- Dave Touretzky, KoX (SP4+++): interpreting NOTs for the public good.