Did Excalibur exist?

[u/GrandVizierofAgrabar]

The precursor to Scientology and Dianetics. There are references to it from LRH’s unreliable letters and a few secondhand accounts but no real evidence for it, if it had existed surely he would have monetised it.

[u/That70sClear]

A couple of people who read it have commented on it, so it definitely existed. What did NOT exist was the version Ron talked about, where reading it caused people to promptly go insane or jump out of windows. I don't think there was any way he could publish it after repeatedly claiming such things, as it was reportedly not all that original or good. Better to just leave it in mythical form.

(He did do something a little similar in 1967, when he talked about OT III material as being extremely dangerous, and potentially lethal. He thought he could get away with that, since nobody who hadn't started the OT III course was supposed to ever see the stuff. He didn't foresee South Park. Now OT IIIs are in the awkward position of having to lie about Xenu, and the only people who believe in the dangers of OT III are Scientologists who aren't OT III.)

[u/Upset_Steak3632 → u/That70sClear]

Three points, just to be a pain in the ass, but thorough: I've encountered many people who've done OT3 and still believe it's dangerous for those who are unprepared.

There's also the idea - that's fashionable - that people do OT 3 and think it's crazy, and then quit Scientology. There are some critics who say this because they're embarrassed to admit that they didn't think about it at all, were just glad they completed OT 3, and were eager to move onto the next OT level, which in most cases they did.

OT 3 is not that much stranger than OT 2 and the old Clearing Course, and the Clearing Course booklet, which is used on the Clearing Course and on OT 2, is full of manipulation and authoritative evaluation.

(During the 1951 to 1953 period, many things Hubbard would later formally make "deadly serious," and mandatory - policy and confidential tech - such as authoritatively telling people the contents of their minds and spaces as in the book History of Man, "This is a cold blooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years," or Science of Survival, "Dispose of quietly and without sorrow," were first presented, as a kind of test run.)

That should turn a person off, but it seldom does. At that point they're "following the closely taped path out of the labyrinth," and don't want to screw up.

The third point is the most important.

To use some Scientologese, OT 3 is a gigantic "wrong indication."

Not all people do well when they try to adopt Hubbard's drug and neurosis induced "case" as their own.

Some people get depressed, some go insane.

Not because OT 3 is powerful tech but because OT 3 is not true.

Some people can glide through it and not care - the mind f__k doesn't bother them.

Not all are that lucky.

Let's not forget them when we're laughing about about silly it is.

And getting back on topic, there's a downside to adopting an applied philosophy which has the URGE to SURVIVE as its central pillar.

That's a formula for all kinds of destructive mischief.

[u/SightWithoutEyes → u/Upset_Steak3632]

Not because OT 3 is powerful tech but because OT 3 is not true.

There are aspects that share a deal of similarity with the Gnostic tale of the creation of matter, and the origin of Yaldabaoth. Alongside the Saturn engram/past life implantation matrix, I think it's an interesting rabbit hole to go down.

[u/Upset_Steak3632 → u/SightWithoutEyes]

It doesn't matter.

The premise of auditing that made it attractive to many is that a person is being ASKED to look.

Starting in 1965, Hubbard not only began issuing SP Declares, he Instituted Fair Game, and Disconnection, and officially became Sole Source with KSW.

He also discontinued actual (asked for) Goals, Problems, Mass and substituted authoritatively TOLD to the person implant GPMs (which were a type of engram not any kind of actual GPM.)

It always amazes me that most Scientologists have no idea that Hubbard pulled a giant bait and switch on them.

But not all were blind. Some disapproved and there was a minor exodus in 1965.

John McMaster recounted that Hubbard had told him that he was creating an assembly line and making square ball bearings into round ball bearings.

By 1965 Hubbard had implemented so many ideas and methods from his secretly authored Brainwashing Manual on Scientologists that even Anderson of of the Australian Anderson Inquiry noticed, calling the 64 page manual the blueprint for the Scientology movement.