Scientology’s OT Powers! A Hubbard Holiday Miracle

by Tony Ortega

February 20, 2012

Scientology watchers, we have a special treat for you this holiday Monday.

Recently, one of our readers who is a longtime former Scientologist mailed us a treasure trove: Copies of early Advance! magazines, a complete run from issue 11 in 1971 to issue 56 in 1979. (That’s L. Ron Hubbard’s photo of his daughter Diana gracing the cover of issue 12.)

This stuff is pure gold. Advance! is the publication of Scientology’s “advanced orgs” where experienced church members pay for pricey “upper-level” teachings. As we’ve written before, one of the ways Scientology gets its members to fork over huge prices for auditing is to dangle the prospect of amazing superpowers. And one of our favorite things about Advance! (when we can get our hands on a copy) is the testimonials of high-level church members enticing new suckers — er, aspiring OTs — with tales of their abilities to affect the physical world with their minds!

A quick primer: Scientologists believe that we are actually ancient spirits called thetans. But society has been brainwashed (heh) through mental implants to believe in a lot of malarkey about Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or what have you. Only through Dianetics, Hubbard’s 1950 breakthrough book and its counseling techniques, called auditing, can a person get in touch with his thetan in a big way and see the true picture of his existence. (OK, I’m paraphrasing quickly here. For a real primer, check out our “What is Scientology?“) Anyway, once you’ve thrown off the shackles holding you back and have gone “clear,” you move on to even higher realms, the Operating Thetan levels. In OT I to OT VIII, Scientologists pay big bucks to hold onto the sensors of an e-meter and get asked a lot of repetitive questions. (At least some of it you can do at home on your own. Hey, why not pay tens of thousands of dollars to ask yourself questions, over and over. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?)

Anyway, what keeps Scientologists coming back for more is the idea that at the next level, or maybe the level after that, they’ll finally start achieving amazing powers to leave their bodies and affect the world with their minds, powers that are called “OT Phenomena.”

For years, Advance! has teased church members with the stories of OTs enjoying their superpowers, and we wanted to share some of those with you here.

(For some reason, a lot of these have to do with cars and driving, and we’ve never really understood that.)

Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff. We’re going to start you off with a lengthy and really remarkable account of OT powers in use, and we hope you’ll be surprised when you see the byline at the end of it. After that, we’re giving you a sample of OT Phenomena from several issues. If you enjoy them, perhaps we’ll bring you additional installments in the future.

And finally, we’ll end with a couple of testimonials from a very recent copy of Advance!, just to show you that Scientologists are still sharing their stories of superpower success today!

Advance! Issue 15

Handling Disembodied Spirits

Dave Foster and I just had one hell of an experience and I wanted to share it with you. What a success story!

We were walking home when all of a sudden, we became aware of another being. We located “him” in a thicket. We stood there and confronted him and he just about freaked out. Then he flashed a picture of being burned at the stake. “He” was a “she”, about 6 – 7 feet tall which was why the townspeople thought she was a witch. Her dress was ray and falling around her shoulders because she was struggling so hard. We dated it, or rather got her to tell us the date, around 1640. She had been burned right there on that exact spot and had been there ever since!

Well, we helped her through the incident and she flew, dress, stake, fire and all. It was incredible. Dave and I were seeing the exact same things, no one but an OT could believe it, but there it was, right in front of us.

We were still marveling at the experience and how “clean” the space was now when all of a sudden another thetan flashed down into the thicket.

This guy was pretty powerful and had been making a game of frightening passers-by, a ghost, if you will. But, he was in for a surprise when he picked on us. We did not react, just confronted. He turned on the power and flowed incredible fear at us trying to make us afraid. He even threw up a picture o a ferocious looking animal (his last life). Applying the Tone Scale, David lunged at him and yelled and that poor guy got the shock of his life.

He’ll remember that incident as the turning point of his spiral because at that moment he recognized us as OTs who were going to help him. He “stood” in awe as we as-ised his “bonds”. He then sent out a thought of deepest gratitude (he knew no apology was necessary — shows how aware he had become) and immediately picked up a little girl’s body.

And then still another thetan appeared, he came for help. David said goodbye and explained that we had a lot to do and must leave. They were actually standing in line.

As we continued walking home, we were followed by literally thousands of thetans. We were being deified.

I had a really good look at clearing the planet. I mean actually getting it done, and then the Universe and how easy it really is. A piece of cake. — Pat Broeker

…

The other day I was driving in the rain and the car in front of me stopped suddenly. I needed about 3 inches more to stop in, so I pushed his car forward about 3 inches with pure intention.

This startled him considerably. But then, it prevented any damage from occurring.

Also, I noticed that I can talk to my cats and have them do what I want them to, which is almost more astounding!

I would say that OT VII is power with no effort at all. — Mike Ball

Advance! Issue 16

A few years back I walked through a graveyard in London with the specific intention of freeing up the “sleeping thetans”. And I actually was able to do this.

The intention to wait for the Judgement Day was so strong in them and yet with all six I contacted they were beginning to doubt the wisdom of waiting.

All I had done was tell them to go to the nearest hospital and pick up another body.

I went back to the graveyard a few months later and where I had walked was free of waiting thetans. — Lyn Collins

Advance! Issue 17

All this life others have been telling me that I sing out of tune. To see if they were right, the other night I exteriorized and listened to my body sing.

Dammit, they were right! — Lyman Spurlock, OT

…

I was in a busy restaurant having dinner and just had a few minutes time left. We couldn’t get the waitress’s attention for coffee as she was on the other side of the restaurant bending over the counter working.

I sent an intention across for coffee. She jumped up and snapped her head back and spun around and looked on me with a TR 0 that you wouldn’t believe.

Then her indicators came in and she started laughing and ran right over with the coffee, smiling very big.

The ability to project intention delighted me but also — how much the waitress seemed to enjoy a pure theta communication! — Leo Grosso, OT

Advance! Issue 18

This has to do with postulates and intention. I was driving down Alvarado Blvd. toward a bookstore that I wanted to stop in to for information. But I new that the parking around the place was usually very difficult and I didn’t want to spend the time walking from a distant parking place.

So I just started intending that there would be a space available for me in front of the store. Just a light little postulate and with no counter-intention there. A half a block away I could see that there were no parking places available. But when I was within 100 yards of the store a man came out and got in his car which was parked all but in front of the store. I just pulled up behind him so that he had plenty of room to pull out and in a twinkle I was into the spot. — Jonathan Fox, OT

…

I’m on OT III and I’m getting all sorts of “side-effects”. I was in a fish and chips shop and I ordered plaice and chips. Then I thought to myself “A double plaice would be very nice.” And it arrived! I never ordered it, it just arrived! — Trudy Chamberlain, OT

Advance! Issue 19

One afternoon I was bending over the kitchen sink rinsing a cup when all of a sudden I felt afraid. I felt there was someone behind me with bad intentions. The hair on my neck was standing up and I felt cold.

So I slowly turned around and there he was standing with his arms crossed. His dress was Egyptian, his head was that of a bull with long horns and red flaring nostrils.

I looked, blinked and then pointed my finger at him and said “You cannot intrude into my universe. Stop terrifying beings. Go and pick up a body and get your dramatization audited out.” He left in anger.

I then went to my room to start a solo session. As I sat down and started auditing, I felt I was not alone. Then, zap! there he was again, sitting on my table in front of me, laughing.

I said “Why didn’t you go away and do what I told you to do?” He laughed so loud I thought the room would cave in. He said, “I’m here for auditing. Audit me.” I said “Fine. First we start with TR 0,” and gave him a reality factor on it.

We did TR 0 for five minutes and he then suddenly left. I shall meet him in the near future as a Scientologist — Catherine Steiner, OT

…

Phoenix for many years has been hot, dry desert country with mountains that are fascinating to me and my family.

One night we decided to take a trip up to the mountains. We climbed, using flashlights, and finally reached a peak where we could see all the lights of Phoenix spread in a wide vista before us.

Then we sat down on the rocks to look at the beautiful scene and get in communication with the beings in the area.

By getting in communication with the beings we discovered some weather controlling machines that were installed in each mountain peak around the valley that is Phoenix. They were installed there eons ago to assure fair weather for the space port which was in operation there at the time.

By auditing the beings running them, we knocked out all those machines. And Phoenix has been having rain or floods ever since. The whole desert is turning into lush greenery.

Thanks to Ron for the tech to be OT. One can only be OT by making the data his own and using it to the fullest. — Rod Martin, OT

And now, let’s skip to a more recent issue to see if things have changed…

Advance! Issue 195 (2010, UK version)

Driving on the Freeway

“I was driving on the freeway on a sunny day and there was only one car behind me. I was in the slow lane. Suddenly I knew that I had to get into the fast lane immediately. I quickly moved over. The car behind me took my spot in the slow lane. Out of nowhere this black car races onto the freeway from the entrance ramp and sideswipes the car that took my place. I cognited on my ability to know in advance someone’s intention. This came from the PDC Course. It saved my life. Now I know what a diver’s intention is when there’s ‘no way of predicting it’ logically.” U.N.K.

Missing Tool

“The other day my husband and some friends were looking at our car. The carburetor needed to come out. We didn’t have the proper tool. We were going to have to drive thirty miles to get the tool we needed. I didn’t want to do that, so I decided that we were just going to get the tool. The moment I thought that, this petrol and electric truck drove up, stopped in front of us and parked. I asked the driver if he had the tool we needed. He said yes and gave it to us. My postulates are much stronger. I postulate something and it happens, just like that. There is no effort in causing things.” C.P.

Well, there you have it. Apparently, 40 years after Advance! first started publishing OT Phenomena, Scientologists are still paying enormous prices — now in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — to have spooky experiences with their automobiles. Good times!

Tony Ortega is the editor-in-chief of The Village Voice. Since 1995, he’s been writing about Scientology at several publications.

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