The NOTs Scholars Home Page (Scientology)

Scope and Purpose

1. Scientology's view of the structure of the mind as expressed in NOTs and its supporting materials, such as OT III and the Philadelphia Doctorate Course. Are there similarities between the body thetan interactions described in NOTs and the Society of Mind theory proposed by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky of MIT?
2. The spiritual phenomena and processes described in NOTs, and their equivalents in other religions. How does belief in body thetans compare with belief in demonic possession? In what ways does auditing out BTs resemble exorcism?
3. Origins and history of the NOTs issues: who wrote them, who revised them, and what earlier source materials were drawn upon in their preparation? Although supposedly written by Hubbard himself, David Mayo is said to be the real author of some NOTs issues. What was the extent of Mayo's contribution?
4. The role of NOTs in the contemporary practice of the Scientology religion. How are these documents understood and used by Hubbard's followers today? Is NOTs being promoted as a cure for physical ailments? This is currently being debated in Religious Technology Center v H. Keith Henson.

Call for Contributions

Anonymous contributions are welcome. However, materials that clearly violate US copyright law will not be accepted. Of course, quotations are often allowable under the "fair use" provision of the copyright code. Potential contributors should note that since I am not a lawyer, I cannot advise them on what they should or should not say here.

Given that the NOTs documents have been published on the Internet, both by posting to Usenet (including multiple news servers here in Pennsylvania) and by archiving on web sites at Alta Vista and Deja News, it is my understanding that public discussion of these materials is not a violation of Pennsylvania trade secret law. Readers in other jurisdictions may wish to consult local laws before downloading material from this site.

Church of Scientology Recognizes NOTs Scholars Page

• This letter was sent to Dave Touretzky by Roger M. Milgrim, noted intellectual property attorney at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.
• GIFs of Mr. Milgrim's letter: page 1, page 2, page 3
• My analysis of Mr. Milgrim's letter suggests that CoS has no case, and they know it.
• My reply to Mr. Milgrim points out that he did not allege any specific illegalities on the web page, and cites the decision of Judge Brinkema in RTC v. The Washington Post with respect to fair use quotation and trade secret issues.

Prerequisites for Beginning NOTs Scholars

• David Carter's essay on the basics of the Scientology belief system.
• Summary of OT III by Karin Spaink. Covers Xenu, the volcanos, the origin of body thetans, and the first level of confidential auditing procedures used to remove them.
• OT III Scholarship Page: see the Xenu story in Hubbard's own handwriting.
• Secrets of the E-Meter explains how an E-meter works and how it is used in auditing.
• Perry Scott gives a humorous overview of how NOTs auditing differs from OT III.

The Origin of NOTs

• Excerpt from Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller. David Mayo is called in to audit a sick L. Ron Hubbard.
• Excerpt from Messiah or Madman by Bent Corydon. Hubbard introduces the concept of "body thetans" in 1978.
• Excerpts from A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack. Mayo looks for "misconceptions" in Hubbard's auditing folders. Hubbard later shifts the emphasis to body thetans.
• Excerpt from a 1996 letter from David Mayo describing the origin of NOTs.
• Page 3 of NOTs 34, masked, as filed with the copyright office. Notice at the bottom of the page, the initials after "LRH" are blacked out. This was done for all 55 NOTs issues. In the Vorlon pack this line reads "LRH:dm:kjm". The "dm" stands for David Mayo.

Provenance and Structure of the Vorlon NOTs Pack

• Where did the Vorlon NOTs pack come from? An anonymous writer claims that several versions of NOTs were floating around outside of Scientology's control; that what appeared on the Internet as the Vorlon pack was originally the "Larry West" pack; and that for strategic reasons, RTC chose to ignore its circulation.
• The theft in Denmark by Robin Scott et al., described by Jon Atack in A Piece of Blue Sky.
• Decision in Religious Technology Center et al. v Scott et al. discusses the role of Mayo in developing NOTs, and contains some quotes that appear to authenticate the Vorlon pack. More info in Scientology and the Courts.
• Table of contents for the Vorlon NOTs pack.
• Notes on the structure of the Vorlon NOTs pack.
• NOTs on the Internet. Modemac has put together a concise history of NOTs on the Net.
• "Vorlon Jr." debuts at XS4ALL. On August 18, 1996, announces that NOTs will reposted. On August 19, posts ned1, ned2, ned3, ned4, ned5, ned6, ned7, and two versions of the NOTs index. Then confirms the reposting, promising a key later. Posts some bogus keys, including Babylon5 and Morden. But Karin Spaink guesses the true key: Xenu. Finally, cancels his own postings (a futile gesture) when it becomes clear his anonymity is not going to last long.
• Zenon Pannousis posted NOTs twice from Sweden. His ongoing battle with the the Church is chronicled at this site in Sweden.

The NOTs Dictionary

Demonic Possession in Scientology

• Major section: Reverend Dennis L. Erlich answers your questions about demonic possession. Additional questions are welcome. Post them to alt.religion.scientology with "Demonic Possession in Scientology" in the header, and cc them to Dennis at inForm@primenet.com.
• A 1924 discussion of exorcism reveals some antecedents of Hubbard's ideas about auditing out body thetans. Jack Parsons notes: exorcists always ask "What is your name?" In Scientology, it's "Who are you?".
• Chapter 7 of The Hubbard is Bare, by Jeff Jacobsen, discusses the gnostic roots of Scientology, with particular reference to infestation by "demons": the body thetans audited out on OT III and NOTs. (Readers may wish to skip the first section, on Aleister Crowley.)
• Hubbard and the Occult, an essay by Jon Atack.
• Catholic beliefs about exorcism compared to Scientology beliefs about auditing out body thetans. By John Mark Ockerbloom.
• Possession by animal minds, not body thetans, is the real cause of human aberration according to ex-Scientologist (OT7) Michael Mourer. He agrees with Parsons that the key to eliminating them is to ask them their names.

• Tory Christman (Bezazian) on OT7: what it's really like to do NOTs. And here is Tory on A Day in the Life of One OT. Also see her YouTube video of a sample OT7 auditing session.
• Solo NOTs Certainty Course, statistics on completions as for February 1998.
• Clay demo by Heidrun Beer (of the Freezone) explaining the concepts of NOTs auditing. A body thetan was attacked by a bear...
• The environment in which NOTs auditing is delivered, discussed by Joe Harrington.
• Margery Wakefield's experience auditing OT III and New OT V (the first released level of NOTs, which actually came out before New OT IV).
• Gullibility Revisited, an essay by an anonymous ex-Scientologist, covers some of the basics of Scientology auditing, and the doubts he came to have about the "the tech".
• A Hierarchy of Higher Statuses considers the special status of Clears and OTs. This is an excerpt from one section of Scientology: To Be Perfectly Clear, an article by William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark.
• If Christians were to use Scientologist Methods, an essay by "Entheta".
• ``Generic NOTs'' from the FreeZone. The same ``advanced spiritual technology'' used by the Church of Scientology, but this is a freeware version. Also available in Word 6 format.

Medical Claims in NOTs

"Medicine has long acknowledged that in order to scientifically test the efficacy of a new medicine, for instance, it must be compared to the effects of a placebo administered with equal solemnity, ritual and belief. This is because the solemnity and ritual and belief can themselves heal."

-- from an analysis of Dr. Drown's Homo-Vibra Ray, another quack technology

• Medical Claims Within Scientology's Secret Teachings, by Jeff Jacobsen
• How Scientology claims to cure physical illness, a note by Mike O'Connor, who examines several of the NOTs documents.
• See also The Henson Case: Keith Henson convicted of copyright infringement for publishing NOTs 34.
• Analysis of NOTS 34 by Tilman Hausherr
• The Healing Claims of Scientology, chapter 19 of the Anderson Report (1965, Australia.)
• Here is a summary of medical claims in What Is Scientology?
• Scientologists must get permission before seeing a doctor.

Has NOTs Harmed Anyone?

b) Ted Cormier, a personal friend of mine. He had Parkinson's disease. He was ordered to leave Gilman Hotsprings and go directly to Flag for NOTS 34, auditing to cure his cancer. When this failed, Ray Mithoff sent him orders in his Pre-Clear folder for him to "end cycle." He died.

Summaries / Thumbnail Sketches of NOTs

... if it was defendants' intention to make the technology public, they could do so without infringing plaintiffs' copyright by creating and publishing a noninfringing description of the procedure.
-- United States District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer, in Religious Technology Center et al. v Robin Scott et al., 1987.

• Thumbnail sketch of NOTs 1-55, by Peik J Stromsholm (pjs@uwasa.fi).

Fake NOTs

Commentary on Individual NOTs Documents

When Scientology attacked the Internet, it smacked a hornets' nest. Now it gets to negotiate with each hornet individually.
-- A peeved netizen on alt.religion.scientology

Attention NOTs scholars: multiple commentaries on the same document are welcome. There are many ways to analyze these writings.

• NOTs 1: NED for OTs RD, Theory Of
  Bulletin date: 15 September 1978.
  • summary by Taneli Huuskonen
  • commentary by Jeff Jacobsen
  • commentary by The New Squirrel
  • commentary by Keith Cochran

• NOTs 2: Why You Can't Run Engrams After Clear
  Bulletin date: 15 September 1978.
  • commentary by Dean Benjamin and Ralph Hilton
  • message from Martin Ottman about changes to OT III

• NOTs 4: Word Clearing and Information for Pre-OTs on NED for OTs
  Bulletin date: 26 September 1978.
  • commentary by Dave Touretzky

• NOTs 20: How You Operate A Meter
  Bulletin date: 28 September 1978.
  • summary and comments by Dave Touretzky

• NOTs 22: Anaten
  Bulletin date: 26 September 1978. Issue IV.
  • commentary on medical claims by Dave Touretzky
  • commentary on medical claims by Mike O'Connor

• NOTs 23: Remnant Ridges
  Bulletin date: 27 September 1978.
  • reconstruction of NOTs 23 by Keith Henson, described by Dave Touretzky.
  • announcement of reconstruction by Keith Henson

• NOTs 30: Program Departures
  Bulletin date: 26 September 1978.
  
  • commentary by Mike O'Connor

• NOTs 34: The Sequence for Handling a Physical Condition
  Bulletin date: 14 November 1978.
  • Day 4 of the Henson trial, in which Keith explains NOTs 34, "The Sequence for Handling a Physical Condition", is available at this overseas web site, despite Scientology's efforts to have this portion of the transcript sealed. Also available here.
  • Analysis by Tilman Hausherr (contains full text of NOTs 34)
  • Detailed analysis of NOTs34, with extensive quotation, by an anonymous NOTs scholar.
  • Analysis and commentary by Mike O'Connor
  • Keith Henson's letter to Judge Whyte concerning medical claims appearing in NOTs 34.
  • parody "BOTS 34" by "conner"
  • commentary by David C. Smith
  • commentary by "Lurker"

• NOTs 36: Rockslams
  Bulletin date:: 22 September 1978.
  • commentary by Jeff Jacobsen

• NOTs 38: Basic Fear
  Bulletin date: 7 November 1978.
  • summary and comments by Dave Touretzky

• NOTs 45: Partially Blown BTs
  Bulletin date: 10 February 1979.
  • commentary by Keith Spurgeon

• OT III and OT III Attest
  Bulletin date: 18 November 1981.
  • Is OT III obsolete? Commentary by anonymous.

Read the Actual NOTs Documents Yourself

• As of April 2008, WikiLeaks has all the OT materials available in a 612 page PDF file. You can find out about this compilation at this page.

• As of January 2008 some NOTs documents were accessible here.

• As of December 2005, a collection of "upper level files", including NOTs, were avilable at the web site mentioned in this posting from alt.religion.scientology.

• Sweden keeps the NOTs public. News story from June, 1998 about a Swedish supreme court decision. Unfortunately, the Swedish government later caved in to political pressure from the US (spearheaded by Sonny Bono, who was Scientology's pet congressman), and you can no longer order the NOTs from the Swedish parliament. However, the documents may still be available from other government agencies in Sweden.

• Operation Clambake, maintained by Andreas Heldal-Lund in Norway, contains a wealth of information about Scientology. Andreas suggests this page [search.freewinds.cx] for advice on how to obtain the NOTs by email.

Beyond NOTs