Between 1965 and 1983 the late Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) published a number of courses intended to rehabilitate extraordinary mental abilities and powers. He claimed that all human Beings basically have these abilities. 
The courses, put together, were the upper Levels of the so-called Bridge to Total Freedom™. Mr. Hubbard called the courses the Advanced Levels or Operating Thetan™ Levels (OT Levels).

In Ron Hubbard's own lifetime  there were a total of eight Levels of such OT courses in existence (we prefer to call them Pre-OT Levels due to trademark issues). Mr. Hubbard spoke of many more such Levels, but only eight Levels were actually published. 

In this report we seek to sort out the content and controversy that surround some of these Advanced Levels. The present report is limited to the Advanced Level Three.

The controversies are related to both scientific, ethical and legal aspects.

Even this limited subject is at first glance rather confusing. Ron Hubbard apparently released several very different versions of the Pre-OT Levels. They were reorganized, rewritten and ordered to be redone by clients several times.

When it comes to Pre-OT III Mr. Hubbard only published one version, and with a few minor additions and developments it still stands, but other researchers and authors released competing courses with their own exact procedures.

Ron Hubbard's Advanced Levels have been printed, according to court documents, in at least 25,000 copies and distributed. Yet, it was sought to be held confidential by the copyright holder, L. Ron Hubbard's Library, as "unpublished works".

The Hubbard Library was trying to take a rather odd legal position. They were on the one hand publishing and distributing the materials on a large scale but were at the same time trying to claim these materials were unpublished works or trade secrets. This led to a string of law suits in the USA and also notoriously to a court case in Hague, Netherlands, home of the court for international affairs.

The outcome of all this was the ruling of the Court in Hague. In its sentence of June 9, 1999 it was clearly determined that the materials did not have trade secret status nor the status of unpublished works, but had normal protection for published works under Dutch and international copyright laws (see Hague ruling and details in appendix, especially paragraph 13 of the ruling).

In other words, in this present report we have to observe the normal academic rules concerning copyrights. We cannot bring the course materials in full. But we can bring fair use quotes and refer in detail to what the course materials state.

We are under copyright law allowed to bring exact procedures and processes as these explicitly cannot be protected under this law but have to be passed on as new knowledge to society. 

Note: Processes and procedures can only be protected under patent laws and only for a limited number of years. This is to make it financially attractive to do research and develop new technology. Under patent law protection it is possible to get a reasonable return on inventions. Inventions, processes and procedures cannot, even under the stricter patent laws, be held proprietary forever. When the patent runs out they are fair game. But no such patents have ever been sought or existed for the present materials.

 

The Present Report
Since the original set of instructions specifically for Pre-OT III were very sparse and apparently incomplete we found that stopping there would not be fair to readers and students anyhow. So we decided to do the logical thing and compile a new and more complete account of how to do Pre-OT III and include all serious attempts to increase the knowledge about the historical facts underlying this Advanced Level. This manual gives an exact description of Ron Hubbard's techniques and directions as far as they can be understood from his published notes. They were supplemented with firsthand experience in using and teaching these techniques. Mainly when it comes to the historical facts we find L. Kin, the Pilot and Jeff Filbert have offered us a lot of additional insight. Even Ron Hubbard himself offered an "off the record" account of the historical facts. This was in a film manuscript that was circulated widely in the late 1970s in Hollywood. Also, some lectures given to Class Eight students in the Autumn of 1968 contain additional information about The Pre-OT III Level and phenomena and is Ron Hubbard's most complete account of the OT III incident and data. We bring a full set of notes on a lecture given October 3, 1968.

We have been able to obtain the works of three researchers, besides Mr. Hubbard, that cover the same subject of Pre-OT III.

They are: Jeff Filbert. Publication: 'Excalibur Revisited' (1982).

L. Kin. Publication: 'From the Bottom to the Top - The Way Out' (1992).

The Pilot (Ken Ogger). Publication: 'Super Scio' (1997-99).

These three researchers have made their materials available on the Internet and in books and do not contest fair use quotes of extensive nature. They add valuable information to Ron Hubbard's findings.

Most or all of Ron Hubbard's published papers on the OT Levels were at some point in the public domain. This was as a result of the court case "Fishman/Geertz vs. Church of Scientology™ International". Steven Fishman introduced his own purchased copies of these materials as evidence as part of the so-called Fishman Affidavit. This was in 1993 in USA. This very extensive affidavit was later sealed by the courts, meaning it was no longer made available to the public but could only be used inside the court room. It did however result in that the original data for a number of years were circulated widely - and legally so. It started a debate at the time among experts in the subject that made it possible to check circulating non-copyrighted versions against the original data and put together a full report on the content and correct use of the original Advanced Levels. The present Prometheus Reports acknowledges the use of such verified materials.

 The Editors.

Trademark note: OT, Operating Thetan, Scientology, Dianetics, New Era Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard, The Bridge to Total  Freedom, Purification RD, E-meter, Sunshine RD (and possibly more) are trademarks owned by 'Church of Spiritual Technology' located in California, USA. Any trademarks are in these reports only used for descriptive purposes.

The Prometheus Reports are copyrighted by Prometheus International, 2004. These reports can be reproduced, quoted and used for humanitarian and therapeutical purposes only. The reports should only be distributed to people who have obtained the state of Clear  or higher and have had these states verified by a qualified practitioner.  Prometheus Int is not affiliated with Church of Scientology™. It is headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands.