Fortunately, a few non-staff Scientologist carpenters, a decorator and an electrician volunteered their help. We had to build partitions, completely rewire, put in doors, sand and varnish floors, and decorate the whole place. It was a very large building. Although we were not paid, there was no duress. We did the work willingly. The whole project was undertaken at Scientology’s usual breakneck speed. A Sea Org member had been sent to supervise the whole project. He had worked extensively on the building of Saint Hill castle and described various short-cuts taken in its construction. I was horrified, but often had to yield to his use of similar shoddy methods to finish the job on time.
By September 1980, the price of Scientology services had risen far beyond my reach. Auditing, which had been £6 an hour only four years before, was now £100 an hour. The Dianetics Course I bought for £125 had been revised slightly and re-named the “New Era Dianetics” (or NED)
Course, and by this time it cost £1,634. Many Scientologists complained bitterly. In October 1980, a new list came out, and the prices had been slashed. The cost of auditing was down to £40 an hour, and the NED Course to £430. These prices still seemed excessive, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
I returned to East Grinstead in May 1982, having handed over about £2,000 for the levels up to OT 3. In March, “OT Eligibility” had been introduced. I had to do a “Confessional” before starting the OT levels, to make sure that I was “ethical.” Several “OTs” had apparently given the secret course materials to newspapers in the United States and Holland.
In a Confessional, a list of questions is checked on the E-meter. The questions are supposed to clear away any residual guilt about earlier discreditable activities. Details of a transgression which “reads” on the E-meter are given to the Auditor. If there is no “floating needle,” the Auditor asks for “earlier similar” transgressions. This procedure is supposed to bring relief to the Preclear and, especially in “OT Eligibility” Confessionals, to root out any infiltrators or people who might later attack the organization.
I had only three and a half hours of auditing left in my account for “OT Eligibility.” I was told I had to buy thirty-seven and a half more auditing hours at an extra cost of about £2,400. I protested and the estimate was reduced to 25 hours. I still refused, so, finally, my Confessionals were started. There were a few embarrassing episodes, as my Auditor was a friend’s wife. I had received Confessionals at Manchester a short time before and felt the procedure was largely unnecessary. I certainly did not gain anything by it, but I was glad that it took only the three-and-a-half hours I had on account.
At last I was allowed into the “Advanced Organization” (AO), the Holy of Holies, prohibited to all but OTs. The AO course room was rather scruffy, with peg-board partitions and decrepit furniture, but I did not mind. At last I was here, among the gods.
Most of the Operating Thetan levels are “Solo-audited,” which requires yet more training. On “Solo part 1” I had already learned how to hold the two tin cans (electrodes) “solo,” separated by a piece of plastic, in my left hand, while working the E-meter and keeping session notes with my right. At Saint Hill I did “Solo Part 2”: a series of simple auditing procedures which I “solo-audited.”
At last I was starting the OT levels! After nearly seven years in Scientology I was going to discover the hidden secrets of myself. I would be able to “exteriorize” from my body at will, read minds, change conditions purely through my intention and so much more. I would perceive the truth directly and at last be free of the need to speculate or to rely on belief. But most of all, I would be able to help others to free themselves.
In the 1970s, the Church of Scientology became cagey about the promised results of the OT levels. Nonetheless, references to the “End Phenomena” of the OT levels were not hard to come by. The purported “End Phenomenon” of OT 1 is: “Extroverts a being and brings about an awareness of himself as a thetan in relation to others and the physical universe.”1
Section 1 of the OT Course was presented to me in a pink cardboard folder. I was instructed not to read anything but the very next “process.” I went back to my lodgings in East Grinstead, carrying the folder in a locked bag, a compulsory precaution with all OT material). Shut away in my auditing room, I opened the folder.
