The Scientology Bridge is laid out in a series of steps, or grades, each with a purported result. On Grade Zero, for example, clients are meant to achieve the ability to "communicate freely with anyone on any subject". A Grade One "release" is supposedly without problems.
In 1959, Hubbard introduced "security checking", where Scientologists are interrogated, having to answer long, prepared lists of questions about their moral transgressions. The E-meter is used as a lie detector throughout these "sessions". A careful record is kept of all confessions, and this has proved to be a highly effective means of silencing dissidents.
This procedure, renamed "integrity processing", using exactly the same lists of questions as the earlier "security checks", finds a place on Grade ' Two, and is frequently repeated beyond it (at a cost ranging from £130 to £260, or $250 to $500, per hour). Scientology presumes that any of its members might become a security risk at any time. There is justification for this suspicion, as thousands have left the movement, including many leading lights.
There are two further release grades, before the "preclear' starts on the current form of Dianetic auditing. In New Era Dianetics, the preclear is asked to re-experience incidents from "past lives", which can lead to strange delusions on the part of Scientologists, compensating for the shortcomings of their real lives. Through Dianetics, preclears are supposed at last to become Clear, with the realization that they no longer need their "Reactive minds", where engrams are supposedly stored.
Once "Clear", they are ready for the Advanced Courses of Scientology, the "Operating Thetan" or "OT" levels.
In1952, Hubbard claimed that after Scientology auditing and indoctrination anyone would become "capable of dismissing illness and aberration from others at will". Scientologists have undertaken hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of hours chasing this illusion and Hubbard's often-repeated promises of supernatural abilities.
In the late 1960s, Hubbard released his Operating Thetan levels. An Operating Thetan is an individual supposedly capable of "operating" without need of a body, and Hubbard made many sugared claims for his extremely expensive OT levels.
The OT levels are kept secret by the Church of Scientology; however, the contents of most have long since been public knowledge.
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