My main philosophical realization in life is that I am ultimately responsible for all my experiences.
It is one thing to realize this and another to live it. I got to live that realization after I completed the spiritual level called OT 8 in Scientology.
I will relate here how I came to that conclusion in life by first taking you through a quick overview of the levels of Scientology as taught by L. Ron Hubbard. Then I will give my own understanding of these spiritual levels and why they gave me great personal gains. My understanding of why they work is quite different from reasons given in Scientology.
The spiritual levels of Scientology are lined up one after the other on what is termed “The Bridge to Total Freedom”.
The lowest part of the Bridge comprises some fundamental introductory levels that starts with cleaning up the body through a vitamin and sauna regimen called the Purification Rundown. Then you start the mental and spiritual counseling through levels that seek to help you get more focused in present time, get rid of the mental after-effects of drugs, and improving your memory through exercises in recalling past moments.
Then you start the Grades; Grade 0 releases a person to become free on the subject of communication. Grade 1 releases a person on the subject of problems. Grade 2 cleans up bad conscience. Grade 3 tackles your past losses while Grade 4 rids you of fixed ideas that hampers your life.
When I had done the Grades, I felt really alive – light and unhindered in life.
After the grades, you get to tackle the Reactive Mind as delineated by Hubbard in the book that started it all – Dianetics. Past trauma are inspected to the point where such dramatic experiences no longer have power over you – leaving you at a state called “Clear”.
From the bottom of the Bridge up through Clear, you receive counseling (called “auditing” in Scientology) by a trained counselor (auditor). After the state of Clear, you embark upon a set of three levels where you do the auditing by yourself – solo auditing. You get prepared and trained to start on the first of the OT levels. OT stands for “Operating Thetan” – it is where the Thetan (the spirit, the individual, the core of self) learns how to operate as a spiritual being. The goal as laid out by LRH is a being that can operate freely, independent of a body and with full spiritual powers.
On OT 1 you learn that you are able to positively affect others at a distance by cleaning up issues others have with you.
On OT 2 you run out “mental charge” (issues, tension) that you have on a large set of dichotomies such as “I should create – I shouldn’t create” or “I do remember – I don’t remember”. You run out any charge on these until any such mental tension is flat or gone.
Then you start on the (in)famous OT 3. Each of the OT levels 1-3 have two parts – one theory part where you learn the background and procedures, and the other part where you do the procedures as solo auditing. The OT 3 theory is the most ridiculed part of the Scientology teachings. This is where LRH tells the story of 75 million years ago when the galactic overlord “Xenu” gathered billions of people from overpopulated planets, shipping them to earth and blowing them up with nuclear bombs in volcanoes. Then the spirits of these poor people were “implanted” (brainwashed) with images and dichotomies and mental issues. Most became so degraded that they could no longer operate a body and instead sticking to other beings that were capable of running bodies. These degraded beings, called “body thetans” by Hubbard thusly infest every person on earth today. That includes you – until you have completed OT 7 where you rid yourself of the last infesting body thetan. It is not a new concept that people are possessed by lesser spirits, and are in need of exorcism techniques in order to become clean.
Originally LRH thought that completing OT 3 would leave a person free of lesser entities (body thetans). Before the early 80’s those who had completed OT 3 would go on to the old OT levels 4-7 where they would start practicing spiritual abilities such as telepathy and exteriorization (the spirit going outside the body). But Hubbard got the realization that OT 3 was not the end-all of infesting entities. Many were so dormant and hard to contact that they needed other techniques in order to wake them up and make them free to fly off and take on a body of their own (if they so wish). The old OT levels simply vanished from the Bridge without any explanation.
On OT 4 you wake up and run out/off body thetans that are dormant and buried under old effects of drugs.
On OT 5 you get to learn a whole new technique where you contact the most dormant of beings, wake them up, ask “What are you?” until they give you the answer to “what” they are being (can be anything from “an arm” or “an idea” to “the Sun” or “a shy being”). Then you ask them “Who are you?” until they get the epiphany that they are themselves (answering “me” to the question).
OT 4 and 5 are not run solo. You are given these two levels in a session with an auditor running the processes on you and you run them on each being that you contact.
On OT 6 you learn how to do the OT 5 techniques solo so you can run out the remaining body thetans yourself in solo sessions. Hubbard teaches that a Clear can still get mental issues – but these issues are served him by body thetans that themselves are not Clear.
Most people spend a few years with 4-6 solo auditing sessions every day to exorcise the remaining spirits attached to them. When there are no more to be found, you are given a thorough check to verify that you are indeed complete, and you are allowed to attest as an OT 7 completion. Then you are off to the Caribbean to do OT 8 on board the Scientology ship Freewinds.
OT 8 is the highest spiritual level delivered in the Church of Scientology. There are rumored to be more OT levels above, but that remains speculation.
OT 8 is a short level, usually taking about a week to complete. In the theory part you learn that many of your memories of past lives that has come up in earlier auditing sessions are in fact not your memories. Most are memories served to you by body thetans having had those experiences. On OT 8 you do an auditing procedure that let you sift out which past life memories are yours and which are from other beings. The end result is that you learn who you have not been and that you are ready to learn who you have been (presumably on the next level or so).
There you have it – a quick introduction to the Scientology Bridge to Total Freedom as taught by L. Ron Hubbard.
My own view is this:
The lower Bridge up to Clear runs nicely and for the reasons Hubbard gives. When one is Clear, one stops creating, in present time, past trauma. By not continually creating such mental issues, you are no longer the adverse effect of those dramatic experiences.
OT 1 runs as taught and for the reasons given in the theory. OT 2 resolves a person’s hang-ups on dichotomies in life. I do not care if the theory behind it about past life implants are correct or not. What I know is that I became very relaxed about contending thoughts and ideas in life.
I do not believe the OT 3 theory to be correct, or that one is in fact running out separate beings (body thetans) on OT 3-7. I believe what you run out is your own past viewpoints that you no longer take responsibility for. I believe that everyone have old viewpoints or roles that one is in present time distancing oneself from. By continually creating those viewpoints and separating them from oneself, one becomes less whole as a being. The solution is to take full responsibility for all one’s viewpoints and roles and retain those which serves one well in present time. When one asks the question “Who are you?” to such a viewpoint on OT 5-7, one is seeking to realize that the viewpoint is in fact oneself – hence one answers “me” to the question. It is not a “me” from another person that answers the question, it is one’s own realization that the viewpoint is “me”. One’s old viewpoints comes under one’s own control and responsibility.
That one is not running out and blowing off thousands of separate beings solves the conundrum that there are no verified records of any body thetans having shown up later in a body and continuing his spiritual journey in Scientology.
What puzzled me for a while was how OT 8 could fit into the picture. Running OT 3-7 gave me huge personal gains. OT 8 gave me the biggest gains of all, so what was one actually doing on that level if there were no separate beings being run on the previous levels?
That mystery was solved with a bang one day when I sat in a restaurant with Anette discussing the death of her father. I suddenly realized what happened on OT 8; I was detaching myself from my past. I was no longer creating my past in present time. It wasn’t that most of my past was someone else’s – it was that none of my past memories are me here and now. I am no longer defined by my past. I am me and only me, taking full responsibility for my creations and my experiences. No blame, shame or regret.
In closing I would like to add that I believe all of this is placebo at a fundamental level, and that Alan Watts was right when he said that you should simply “get off it”. I believe any path that a person could trust to help him become fully responsible, is a valid one – be it Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, atheism, quantum physics, Christianity or worshiping your old cheese. I further believe that the best placebo is the one that most people would trust as effective – and I believe that to be a simple procedure that asks the person to inspect what he is creating here in present time – to spot it and to take full responsibility for that creation.
Warm and with lots of empathy. Tough as a nail. And the smartest woman I’ve met.
Anette Iren Johansen is remarkably issueless, rational and perceptive. She is able to view situations and people from funny, interesting and enlightening angles. Outside the box. Challenging the status quo. Creative and skillful. Fluent in many languages, plays several musical instruments, knows how to juggle, skate, dance, a master chef, mastering natural sciences… you name it. A nerd in disguise. Whatever tickles her fancy she becomes really good at.
If you have followed my latest blog posts, you may think I hold these views of Anette because I am in love. But no, I am in love because of these qualities she possesses.
Ever since I left the Church of Scientology (CoS) three years ago, my interest in that organization has been waning to the point where I couldn’t care a toss about that organization.
Having learned about the horrors that my girlfriend has experienced, it makes it easy to become passionate about removing the Church of Scientology from the face of the earth. OSA; duck for cover.
I got it from CoS circles that I am now labeled “the greatest threat to Scientology in the whole of Europe”. OSA should reserve that position for another with far more knowledge and proof of the crimes of the Church than myself. Intimidating the powergirl may not be thy wisest move.
The future is bright, bold and adventurous. People will be inspired and helped, You will learn to know Anette as the powergirl she is.
Despite the daze and haze of true love, I will be peeking through here to relate some thoughts that have popped into my mind of late.
I am happier now than anytime I can remember. It is interesting what effects true love and true happiness generate. I follow the flow and all things life seem to fall neatly into place.
After Anette and I broke the news of our relationship on Facebook, many of Anette’s Scientology friends showed an uninspiring lack of integrity. With the Scientology Inquisition looming, many decided they would rather lower themselves to the level of fear and yield to the Church’s disconnection policy than stand their ground as true friends.
“The Inquisition (Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis; Inquiry on Heretical Perversity), is a practice within the justice system of the Church of Scientology whose aim is to “fight against heretics”. It started in the 1960’s Central Organizations to persecute heresy, and was later expanded to all Scientology related organizations. Inquisition practices are used also on offences against the Command Intention of Dear Leader David Miscavige other than heresy against the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.”
Comments kept popping in via Facebook, e-mail or other channels. Lots of support, but also several instant reality rejections from “True Scientologists“. This puzzles me. With the Scientology Technology teaching tolerance of other’s views (the ARC triangle), it is rather surprising that I can see no improvement in the people having studied Scientology over those who have not. It seems a human trait to often instantly reject realities that opposes one’s own. But students of Scientology display no more tolerance of other’s views than the general population. It matters not whether the students are within the ranks of the Church or outside in the Independent field. I cannot frankly see any real difference in tolerance between scientologists and those who are not. How come?
To quote my good friend Ole Wiik: “Practice what you want to get good at.”
I used get worked up about losses in life. I didn’t handle them all that well. That started to change when I did the Scientology levels OT 7 & 8. But I didn’t really get to practice my ability to loose without being stressed out, until this year. I learned a lot from loosing my mother. A couple of weeks ago I got to practice loosing yet again when it was clear that my marriage was over. The next week I lost some USD 300K when the new owners of FreeCode had managed to drive the company into the ground.
After loosing my mother, my wife, 50% of the time with my kids and a future with my family, the loss of money was really nothing at all. When I sat there contemplating life’s recent events, I realized something profound; I needed to practice loosing in order to prepare myself for death. Now this may sound overly dramatic or even depressed. But it’s not. It was a really upbeat epiphany.
When you die, you loose almost everything – your body and identity, your family, friends, your stuff, social connections, HP-calculators, and the list goes on. I imagine most people are not fully prepared for that moment when their body finally yields. I certainly was not. But practice makes perfect, and I am determined to be good at all parts of living, including the final moment. So, I welcome these recent losses. It makes for great practice.
What OT 8 did for me was to unstuck me from my past. No more “shame, blame or regret“. No more grumbling on what I should have done or what could have been done. What’s done is gone. That prepared me for this year’s practice in being good even at loosing. But what do you know, it also improved my ability to win.
When I am fully able to loose, I am fully able to win. And vice versa.
I will add that I have the deepest respect for Katrine. She is a wonderful woman, highly able and truly amazing. I was hesitant to include her in the “Amazing person” blog post series as I didn’t want to reveal anything about our divorce before we decided it was OK. Katrine is a fantastic mother, a highly effective business woman, extremely productive and inspiring to all those who are lucky to meet her. But working together and working very hard during the last few years did take its toll. Love died and it is time to move on. We remain the best of friends.
During my 20 years of relationship with my wife, I apparently got quite good at sending “fuck off”-signals to other prospecting women. As the word got out that I was divorcing, several prospects got in contact. However, I was adamant at being single for a year or so.
I alluded to something a couple of blog posts ago: “I have written a series of “Amazing person” blog post. And it never occurred to me that something truly magical would happen in my life. But it did. And I am now pretty sure that there was a connection between me opening up my eyes for the amazingness in other people to what has recently happened. I will not yet relate what it is. All in due time.”
Time to reveal a bit more.
Scientology counseling helped me to really sharpen my focus and decision skills. To the point where decisions take no time and actions are completed without fuss. I got very A to B. So when a truly amazing person, whom I have known for some time contacted me in a very direct manner, I was taken off guard. Then I got struck by lightning. Then it was done.
To illustrate a contrast in my life, let me show you two poems. I wrote this first one two months ago:
In the comfort of HyperList and programming
philosophy and finding the way to truth
away from awkward social situations
but seeking the thrill of them but still
Comfy and cozy even with love as void
missing compassion and passion from a companion
but appreciating the appreciation from the many
friends are important, then. Brendan the most
Music and art fills a void
helping someone fills it even more
but not completely, as loneliness is often nice
calm in my own solitude though that cannot be all
Emotions and tears and a sigh of relief
sometimes nature does wonders, the stars always do
I can have the space, the energy, but time not so much
there is still time to find all the answers I seek.
The second one I wrote two days ago:
A bond beyond what I could have hoped for
This is true love to the core
#brilliant #honest #kickass #smart
Your courage and affection struck right to my heart
#breathless #whimsical #oncloud9
Taking life in anew, you make me shine
#warm #emotional #soulmate #near
I love when you shine, bright and clear
#commitment #loyalty #strength
I will support you - to any length
I see you. I feel you
I trust you and love you
Time is merely a consideration. The above is an example of what scientologists call “Tone 40”.
Funny how life turns and is turned. Interesting how practice makes perfect. And good to know that one can be at cause and then cause life to be filled with joy.
So far I have covered many people that I consider amazing. There are different aspects of each person that makes me think of these people as outstanding. All of them are empathetic, but they cover a wide range of other amazing characteristics. Lynne Fox marks the top of the fun scale 🙂
In 1996 I lived in Sydney, Australia for 5 months while I did the Scientology levels from Clear to OT 4. I stayed with a fun and loving family. The mother, Lynne Fox, is the most crazy-fun person I know. She is verifiable batshit off the rails fun to be with.
It wasn’t a day without surprises, laughs and fun.
She has visited us in Norway a few times, and it’s a real joy every time I see her. Lynne is beaming – with humor, warmth, fun and wit. She is a great friend. She is also a top producer. We both worked in U-MAN back when I first met Lynne, and I saw her abilities up close. I’d love to have her visit Norway again. And I will be back to visit Down Under.
While the Scientology “Communications Course” moved me from a raisin-like nerd to socially active, Mark Shreffler took me to the next level. He inspired and taught me how to stand in front of an audience and deliver a message – one that really lands, one that the audience really gets.
Mark Shreffler taught me how to be loose and unserious on the stage, to “wing it” while being highly professional at the same time. He can take any message and carry it across to any audience to real understanding.
Yes, I’ve covered Mark before, and so I’ll keep this short. He deserves his place in the “Amazing person” series. He is intelligent, funny, highly knowledgeable (he’s been around… a lot) and just a really, really nice guy. I’d love to play with him again in the near future.
Ivar Bruvoll is perhaps the toughest guy I’ve met. He can take any amount of adversity – in fact opposition really gets him fired up. If I were to pick one guy I believe could take the bridge from an enemy’s control in a war, it would be Ivar.
When I started to work in the recruitment company U-MAN in 1990, Ivar had already been the company’s salesman since a few months. The company was owned by a scientologist, used the OCA test as the primary tool in recruitment, and was regularly hounded by WISE for the weekly statistics. It paid 6% of its gross income to WISE for the use of the personality test – even though the test’s copyright was probably never owned by Hubbard, or after his death, L. Ron Hubbard Library. U-MAN was run by LRH Admin Tech and scientology was the backbone of the company. But Ivar was no scientologist. In fact he threatened to throw the office furniture out the window (without opening the window first) if he discovered a hard link between the company and the Church of Scientology. The link wasn’t hard enough and the office kept its tables and chairs.
Ivar has an unbreakable personal integrity. He never bowed for the personal pressures to make him into a scientologist. I suspect he is one of the very few people having attended a conference aboard the Freewinds (the CoS ship) without being a member of the International Association of Scientologists. The IAS officers kept hunting him down around the ship, but he wouldn’t yield and left the ship no more a scientologist than when he boarded a week earlier.
I was the CEO for U-MAN Norway from 1990 – 2000 and then left the position to Ivar. The company has since changed name to Performia with the advent of a Net-based testing system, and Ivar is still going strong as the man in charge of the daily operations.
When I left the CoS in 2009, I met with scientologist friends to explain to them why I was leaving. I also met Ivar. He was one of three people during my 25 meetings that really got it – why I left. Given the plummeting of the church in the last three years, it must be an interesting show for Ivar to watch standing in the middle of the storm without being a member. As the main stock holder of the company is an OT8 (a former very good friend of mine and a person I highly respect, Mårten Runow), Ivar gets to see the inside view while staying outside.
No matter how the CoS meltdown will pan out, Ivar will always stand the ground, will always do well. Ivar is a highly professional business man, knows people well, can assess the wide range of candidates for any job position – and he is a very straight shooter. He doesn’t mince words and he doesn’t compromise on getting the results he aims for.
I hope to one day in the future again be able to work together with Ivar.
I’ve only met Dan Koon for a few days total. But that’s more than enough to put him high on the list of amazing people I have met.
Dan is a legend in Scientology. He was the original character in a film about communication. Hubbard picked Dan to show the world what good communication is all about. And that is certainly also my experience with him – he is incredible aware and present and is a wonderful person to communicate with. He is pleasantly there, listening, understanding, warm and empathetic. He really gets you. Really.
And besides being the most wonderful communicator, he cracks me up. This guy has jokes and funny stories like I’ve never seen. When we shared a hotel room in Denver back in ’09, it was hard to get to sleep. Try sleeping and laughing at the same time.
Dan has been through so much. I was eager to tap him of knowledge and experiences – and Dan shares freely. He’s like an instant friend, and I can only imagine that many have felt it so.
Even though he lives in Sweden now, I’ve tried to pull him up here many times. Dan; If you read this, take this as a solid nudge to come and visit Norway.
Geir Isene - uncut 