7 Superpowers Available to Scientologists
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard identified 57 areas that people who reached the higher levels of Scientology would be able to control. Here are some of the things he and the current organization’s leadership claim will make you unlike any people ever to come before.
1. Immunity from Physical Ailment
In his first book, Dianetics, Hubbard claimed that any physical ailments we suffer from are the result of bad things that happened in our past lives, or in our current lives, or even things that happened to our mothers while pregnant. Through “auditing” — a process in which you discuss life events with a counselor while holding a machine called an e-meter — Scientology promises individuals can figure out what caused their diseases and other mental or physical ailments, then fix themselves. People claim to have done this even when medical science was completely at a loss.
An official Scientology website includes some of these stories, including a woman who says that during an auditing session she felt the bones in her face breaking, and then rearranging themselves, thus curing her chronic vascular disease, which doctors had told her there was no cure for. Another woman reportedly discovered through auditing that her epilepsy was due to electric shocks her mother had gone through while pregnant. Fortunately, just a few rounds on the e-meter apparently cured her condition.
2 & 3. Psychic Abilities and Super Intelligence
Once you become an "Operating Thetan" (meaning you’ve worked through all those horrible past experiences) you are supposed to get a lot smarter. On page 16 of Dianetics, Hubbard stated, “Tests of [an OT's] intelligence indicate it to be high above the current norm.” But don’t just take his word for it. Another official Scientologist success story was one person who said, “Probably the most amazing thing which has happened to me was the fact of a 20% increase in my IQ.” You can also communicate with other OT’s through telepathy. About halfway through another of his Scientology tomes, The History of Man, Hubbard claims, “Thetans communicate by telepathy.” The book What is Scientology? states, "Can OTs read minds? ...to answer the question bluntly - yes, with varying degrees of ability.”
Hubbard also warned against being obvious with your new talents until enough people had the powers, though, because people would be jealous and try to destroy all of them. Thanks to these superhuman powers, one OT claimed she "always know[s] who's calling on the phone before it rings, and [is] able to check the progress of [a] cooking hamburger without walking into the kitchen.”
4. Super Senses
Hubbard promised maximum ability, unlike anything humans have ever known before, for pretty much every sense you can think of. Not only that, but you will be able to control how much of each of those senses you want at a given moment. Say, for example, you are at a concert. Your new abilities mean you would have hearing inestimably better than any of the non-Scientologists around you. Thankfully, you can control your amazing hearing and would tone it down so the concert’s music wouldn't be too loud and uncomfortable.
In Chapter 2 of Dianetics, Hubbard also promises that if a clear (an early level) just pays attention to improving their eyesight, they can go from almost blind to extraordinary. As evidence, the official Scientology website offers the story of one individual who took off their glasses halfway through their first auditing session and never needed them again. Another Scientologist claims they can now see clearly what it used to take a magnifying glass to see.
5. Telekenesis, Mind-Control, and a Universal Stopwatch
Once you get to a high enough level in Scientology, you should be able to control absolutely everything in the physical world. One person claimed that when their coffeemaker went on the fritz, they “corrected the molecular structure” with their mind and it started working again. In A History of Man, Hubbard says OT’s “emit a considerable electrical flow.” While you might be able to think of some nice ways to use such a power, Hubbard’s proposed examples include giving “somebody a very bad shock,” “putting out his eyes” or “cutting him in half.”
Other official Scientology literature includes the claim of one woman who decided the turbulence on a flight was bothering her so she stopped it, twice, and as she deplaned thought, “How lucky it was for these people to have me on board.”
Hubbard was very clear about keeping this all hidden: “Let's not go upsetting governments and putting on a show to ‘prove’ anything to homo sapiens for a while; it's a horrible temptation to knock off hats at fifty yards and read books a couple of countries away.”
6. Controlling the People Around You
If you have slightly more megalomaniacal goals than just controlling coffeemakers, once you reach OT level 7, Scientology promises that you can control what people think and how they act. Hubbard said in A History of Man that, once at that level, a Scientologist could project a feeling onto another person and make them feel sad or happy as desired. In fact, according to people with access to official Scientology course requirements, a large part of level 7 is to practice projecting thoughts and feelings onto other people. Before you work your way up to controlling the thoughts of other humans, it is recommended that you communicate first with plants and then animals.
7. Become Like a God and Create Your Own World
Once you can control everything, there is really just one more thing to do, and that is become a god-like being that can create its own reality. In both Dianetics and A History of Man, Hubbard refers to the “godlike” being you will become if you follow his program. Another Hubbard book called Scientology 8-8008 discusses how to "postulate universes into existence," and promises that “a Thetan who is completely rehabilitated can… create his own universe; a person who is able to create his own universe… is able to create illusions perceivable by others.” Tom Cruise is reportedly at this level.
So once you spend the necessary money and complete the extensive training, you should be able to make your own world where you control absolutely everything. But once again Hubbard warns against taking it too far: “Don't go off on wild chases after fourth and fifth dimensions, time warps and other time-space universes.” Sound advice.