The true Scientologist believes that we are all trapped in this
universe; that we used to be "free" and powerful but we have gone down
a "dwindling spiral" of degradation, life after life, eventually,
after trillions of years, becoming powerless and mired in suffering;
that L. Ron Hubbard developed the only road out of this trap back to
"real freedom" and power; that the Church of Scientology is the only
valid source of this technology; and that we will only get this one
chance to make it out.
This is such an important belief that it, essentially, defines what
makes a Scientologist. It is important to understand this concept
because it explains how the Church of Scientology and David Miscavige
can have such power over all Scientologists.
--quotation from alt.religion.scientology, 15 December 2008
to have pullThis is pretty much a PowerPoint-like talk about what the Bridge is, from a practical standpoint. Most Scientologists will claim that Anons such as we are can't, don't, or won't understand their philosophy, and that only someone who's gone through the process can really criticize it. (Which of course is forbidden.) In the last few bits I'll share some of my own ideas as what El Ron was really trying to achieve (apart from world domination and the rest of it).
Essentially, the Bridge consists of:
I
Becoming easily hypnotized as preparation for auditing (notice IRS-like nomenclature)
Staring into someone's eyes for two hours
Staring into someone's eyes while the other is trying to make them laugh, flinch, or get hostile
This means that,effectively, all emotion is suppressed, and whatever the interviewer -- ah, "auditor" says will be taken as fact.
Auditing, which consists of recounting past experiences, especially painful ones, to an auditor while in this hypnotized state.
Using the E-meter, which is a crude lie detector, each and every experience is gone over, over and over until the meter registers that there is no emotion attached to the memory whatsoever.
These memories are written down and dated, and gradually go backwards
Present time (PT) to birth
Neonatal experiences
Past lives, evolutionary time, back to the creation of the Universe (Basic Basic), which is stated to be some quadrillions of years ago.
Anyone who knows current memory theory can tell you that A is absolutely faked from birth to about eighteen months, unreliable in many places, but able to uncover enough that could be used for blackmail later on.B and C are whatever can be fabricated, which tends to be really, really crappy science fiction. Since a mild hypnotic state is enough to produce false memories, it's generally unclear exactly how accurate these memories are, leading to the third stage.
Reprogramming, using Hubbard's data
What the OT levels are supposed to do is to implant vivid memories of various conflicting and enigmatic data (including the
Xenu story, and the not-unsurprising revelation that Lafayette Ronald Hubbard is God) that is supposed to have happened trillions of years ago. Speaking as a sometime devotee of
Aleister Crowley and free-range Woman of God, I find various parts of OT II, especially, to be both interesting as meditational exercises, and utterly incomprehensible, the scribblings of an advanced schizophrenic. However one bit stands out as the metaphysical "smoking gun" --
"That's what you get for making this Universe."
"Get Out-"
which corresponds to Skidoo in Crowley's
Book of Lies, "Thou art God" in Heinlein's "
Stranger in a Strange Land", the beautiful hymn that begins the Gospel of John in the Bible, and the marvelous
koan "Who is wiser than all the saints and sages?" in the strange Christian-influenced Buddhist philosophy that is Zen.
(Pardon me while I stifle a tear. It's been too long since I've been back There. It was so startling a revelation-- he knew! I just had to look it up in his own handwriting....there, there, he did have a Teacher a LOT better than he was...)
What's interesting is that this utterly on-target passage occurs right before the weird space opera of Xenu, the so-called "Wall of Fire". It's as if you'd told me that the real problem in climbing Everest wasn't the trip up 29000 feet, but a tiny jag on the top you might stumble over....and not understanding the message of humility this conveys.
After that, I don't find much more interesting in the rest of the OT's, and NOT's ...most of them are simple exercises in controlling other peoples' minds, which I guess means that you can get a great many new converts that way. The only last bit I find interesting is that Miscavage seems ed out the old OT VIII which contains the wonderful "Pedophile Jesus" quote, which I tender here--
"For those of you whose Christian toes I may have stepped on, let me take the opportunity to disabuse you of some lovely myths. For instance, the historic Jesus was not nearly the sainted figure has been made out to be. In addition to being a lover of young boys and men, he was given to uncontrollable bursts of temper and hatred that belied the general message of love, understanding and other typical Marcab PR."
Good Sir Lafayette, as a God speaking to a God, if to believe that is to be on the side of the Angels, then I will gladly go to
SP Hell.