Supernatural abilities in Scientology doctrine
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In Church of Scientology doctrine, supernatural or superhuman abilities are a recurring subject, appearing throughout Scientology and Dianetics materials, from the most basic introductory texts to the highest-level Operating Thetan information. Virtually all of these concepts were authored by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and have not been subjected to testing outside the Church.
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[edit] Spiritual freedom
- Main article: MEST
MEST is an acronym Hubbard coined which stands for matter, energy, space and time, the component parts of the physical universe.[1] It is claimed that by completing Scientology courses, it is possible to eventually attain "cause over MEST" — the ability to control matter, energy and spacetime in the physical universe, free of the encumbrance of the body.[2]
According to the Church:
In Scientology, a state of complete spiritual freedom is attainable. It has been achieved not on a temporary basis but on a stable plane of full awareness and ability, unqualified by accident or deterioration. And it is not limited to a few.
It is called, in Scientology, “Operating Thetan.” The definition of the state of Operating Thetan is “knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time.”[3]
[edit] Mental abilities
Hubbard first introduced Dianetics to the general public in April 1950, in an article published in the Astounding Science Fiction pulp magazine,[1] and followed quickly with the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health that same summer.
Dianetics postulates that there is a part of our psyche called the Reactive mind, and that most of our mental and physical problems are psychosomatic, thus they can be solved by eliminating this portion of our minds. This mental state of self-mastery is called Clear.
In the 1992 Hardcover edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard writes: "A Clear, for instance, has complete recall of everything which ever happened to him, or anything he ever studied. He does mental computations, such as those in chess, for example, which a normal would do in half an hour, in ten or fifteen seconds." (pg. 214).
[edit] Creation of energy
Speaking on the subject of "Exteriorization - communication in Theta and MEST", Hubbard said that an individual thetan (person) has the ability to generate electricity by putting a "beam" inside a vacuum tube, or a bell jar that has had the air evacuated:
"The truth of the matter is an individual can activate a vacuum tube. By the way, he can activate a vacuum tube because he isn't trying to go through the terrific insulative quality of air. I've forgotten what an inch of air insulates, but it is something fabulous. An inch of air represents maybe a hundred thousand volts or something on that order. He would have to be almost as big as a lightning storm to get across any space of air. But he can do it in a vacuum tube, and he could do it in a bell jar from which the air could be exhausted, while he himself was outside the bell jar. He simply puts a beam inside the bell jar connecting two electrodes and you would get a registry on a meter inside the bell jar." (3rd ACC Lecture 35)
[edit] Spiritual immortality
The Church of Scientology describes achieving the state of Operating Thetan as "complete spiritual freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death"[4] and literally promises immortality:
"Some of the miracles of life have been exposed to full view for the first time ever on the OT levels. Not the least of these miracles is knowing immortality and freedom from the cycle of birth and death."[3]
The "immortality" referred to is not immortality of the body, but of the thetan, and Scientology does not claim that it causes the thetan's immortality, but makes a Scientologist aware of that immortality and alleviates the distress that might otherwise be felt at the prospect of death:
"The subject of death is never a very serious one to a Scientologist beyond the fact that he feels kind of sorry for himself sometimes. ... [The deceased person] was thoughtless enough to dispose of his body and go out of communication. A person sometimes feels pretty unhappy about it and thinks it's a thoughtless thing for a friend to do."[5]
[edit] Enhanced health and lifespan
On pg.121 of the 1992 Hardcover edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard writes:
"Clears do not get colds."
It is also hinted that achieving the state of Clear prolongs lifespan: "What the lifespan of a Clear is cannot be answered now; ask in a hundred years." (pg.384)
[edit] Creation of matter
Hubbard has stated on numerous occasions that it is possible for Scientologists to use mind over matter to increase one's body weight, although why someone would specifically want to do this is not explained. In his book Understanding the E-meter, Hubbard wrote that this assertion can be tested by "mocking up" mental pictures in one's imagination. "This test has actually been made and an increase of as much as thirty pounds, actually measured on scales, has been added to and subtracted from a body by creating 'mental energy.'" (pg.52)
In December 1954, Hubbard declared before a crowd at a lecture:
"Just mock up something, pull it in, mock it up and pull it in, mock it up and pull it in. Mock up heavy planets, mock up dense things and pull them in. You shoot a person's weight up - if he's working pretty well, and you do this very insistently, and you insist on density and mass - you can put a person on a set of very accurate Toledo scales, have him do this process for a few hours, put him back on the scales and find out his weight has gone up about thirty pounds." (Introduction to 9TH ACC - Havingness)
In 1957, Hubbard said that he was contacted by physicists from a scientific congress in Boston: "They wanted to know if I had any proof I could offer that thought created matter". Hubbard said he gave them all his data about using Scientology's mental "mock-ups" to increase body weight, and reported "I got back a highly enthusiastic wire saying that my data, as sent to them, had been of great assistance". (Ability Congress, 2nd lecture, December 1957)
[edit] Spiritual healing
Scientologists (especially Volunteer Ministers) are taught to administer the "Touch Assist", a procedure designed by Hubbard to help heal illnesses or injuries. The Scientologist touches the person's body in a set manner, avoiding sexual areas, and asks the recipient of the process, who is lying or sitting still, to "Feel my finger". This is continued until the recipient states that he feels better about what was bothering him and looks more cheerful overall. The process is claimed to help restore the spiritual being's (thetan in Scientology terminology) ability to communicate with the affected area and thereby to speed healing and reduce mental trauma.[6]
The touch assist is not to be used to treat headaches, however:
"Do not do a Touch Assist on a person who has a headache. Research has shown that headaches are often the result of mental phenomena that a Touch Assist would be the incorrect handling for." (The Scientology Handbook, 1994 edition, pg.218)
It is probably the most well-known of all Scientology Assists, which also include the "Nerve Assist" and the "Unconscious Person Assist".
[edit] Undisclosed "powers"
The Church describes the Super Power Rundown as "A super fantastic, but confidential series of rundowns that can be done on anybody whether Dn Clear [Dianetics Clear] or not that puts the person into fantastic shape unleashing Super Power of a thetan. This means that puts Scientologists into a new realm of ability enabling them to create a new world." (Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, 1982 hardcover edition) The exact nature of these "Super Powers" have not yet been enumerated, at least to the public.
Scientology researcher Martin Hunt says that the Super Power Rundown is "expected to make planetary clearing and the expanding of all service organizations to the size of old Saint Hill a reality". This refers to a directive issued by the Church that their primary goal must be to expand the size of all Scientology service organizations to the size that Saint Hill was in the 1960s - in other words, more than 200 staff members in each organization. [2]
The Super Power Building is currently under construction in Clearwater, Florida for the purpose of administering this rundown. However, it has been plagued with construction setbacks since its initial groundbreaking in 1998.
[edit] Telepathy and remote viewing
Two Scientologists, Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann, researched remote viewing at Stanford Research Institute for the CIA in the 1970s.[3][4] Most of the SRI team, including project director Puthoff, and the CIA's star "psychic spies", Price and Swann, were Scientologists, a fact that skeptic Martin Gardner noted disparagingly. Puthoff and Swann were Operating Thetan (OT) level seven, and credited Scientology with their success in the CIA remote viewing program.[5][6]
From the book What is Scientology?: "Can OTs read minds? ...to answer the question bluntly - yes, with varying degrees of ability". (First printing, 1978, pg.215)
[edit] Psychokinesis
Psychokinesis, also known as telekinesis, is the power to remotely move physical objects by power of one's mind alone. It has long been the position of Scientology that if a thetan were to recover his full "native" powers, he would be "at cause over matter, energy, space, time, form and life."[7]
[edit] Time travel
In the personal successes section of the official Church of Scientology magazine Advance! (#130, pgs.22-23), there is an anecdote about an Operating Thetan who claims to have walked directly into the path of an oncoming truck but saved his own life by traveling in time to before he left his home. "I made the decision instantly to turn back time", says the anonymous Scientologist, who then found himself "standing by the door I'd left not 10 seconds before - completely unscathed". The author reports being "very pleased" with his OT abilities.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.lrh-books.com/mailings/congress/glossary.php#mest
- ^ Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man, chapter 5
- ^ a b http://www.auditing.org/13-ot.htm
- ^ http://www.whatisscientology.org/Html/part03/chp15/pg0274.html
- ^ Hubbard, L. Ron [1950] (October 1977). Have You Lived Before This Life?, 1977 edition, Los Angeles, California: Church of Scientology of California Publications Organization. ISBN 0-88484-055-0.
- ^ http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/SH6_4.HTM accessed 2006-10-22
- ^ http://www.scientology.org/gloss.htm#o Definition of Operating Thetan accessed 2006-11-06
[edit] Lectures by Hubbard
- 3rd ACC. Lecture 35
- 9th ACC - Havingness
- Ability Congress, 2nd lecture, Washington, D.C., December 1957
[edit] Books
- Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man, 1952 edition, New York: Church of Scientology. ISBN 0-686-30784-4.
- Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, 1992 hardcover edition.
- Hubbard, Understanding the E-meter.
- Hubbard, Narconon Communication & Perception Course 4a, 2004 edition. (pg. 447-482)
[edit] External links
- Scientology.org: What individuals say they have achieved from Scientology
- Scientology.org: Successes from Specific Services
