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happened?” Each new memory led further and further back in time. The goal was to
uncover and neutralize the emotional memories that were plaguing Paul’s behavior.
Often, the process led participants to recall past lives. Although that never happened
to Haggis, he envied others who professed to have vivid recollections of ancient times or
distant civilizations. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had many lifetimes before? he thought.
Wouldn’t it be easier to face death?
Scientology is not just a matter of belief, the recruits were constantly told; it is a stepby-step
scientic process that will help you overcome your limitations and realize your
full potential for greatness. Only Scientology can awaken individuals to the joyful truth
of their immortal state. Only Scientology can rescue humanity from its inevitable doom.
The recruits were infused with a sense of mystery, purpose, and intrigue. Life inside
Scientology was just so much more compelling than life outside.
Preclears sometimes experience mystical states characterized by feelings of bliss or a
sense of blending into the universe. They come to expect such phenomena, and they
yearn for them if they don’t occur. “Exteriorization”—the sense that one has actually left
his physical being behind—is a commonly reported occurrence for Scientologists. If one’s
consciousness can actually uproot itself from the physical body and move about at will
—what does that say about mortality? We must be something more than, something
other than, a mere physical incarnation; we actually are thetans, to use Hubbard’s term,
immortal spiritual beings that are incarnated in innumerable lifetimes. Hubbard said
that exteriorization could be accomplished in about half the preclears by having the
auditor simply command, “Be three feet back of your head.” Free of the limitations of
his body, the thetan can roam the universe, circling stars, strolling on Mars, or even
creating entirely new universes. Reality expands far beyond what the individual had
originally perceived it to be. The ultimate goal of auditing is not just to liberate a
person from destructive mental phenomena; it is to emancipate him from the laws of
matter, energy, space, and time—or MEST, as Hubbard termed them. These are just
artifacts of the thetan’s imagination, in any case. Bored thetans had created MEST
universes where they could frolic and play games; eventually, they became so absorbed
in their distractions they forgot their true immortal natures. They identied with the
bodies that they were temporarily inhabiting, in a universe they had invented for their
own amusement. The goal of Scientology is to recall to the thetan his immortality and
help him relinquish his self-imposed limitations.
Once, Haggis had what he thought was an out-of-body experience. He was lying on a
couch, and then he found himself across the room, observing himself lying there. The
experience of being out of his body wasn’t that grand, and later he wondered if he had
simply been visualizing the scene. He didn’t have the certainty his colleagues reported
when they talked about seeing objects behind them or in distant places and times.
In 1976, at the Manor Hotel, Haggis went “Clear.” It is the base camp for those who
hope to ascend to the upper peaks of Scientology. The concept comes from Dianetics. A
person who becomes Clear is “adaptable to and able to change his environment,”
Hubbard writes. “His ethical and moral standards are high, his ability to seek and
experience pleasure is great. His personality is heightened and he is creative and