Supernatural abilities in Scientology doctrine


In the Church of Scientology doctrine, supernatural or superhuman abilities are a recurring subject, appearing throughout Scientology and Dianetics materials, from the most basic introductory texts to the highest-level Operating Thetan information. Virtually all of these concepts were authored by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and have not been subjected to testing outside the Church. The Church of Scientology have never offered any externally accepted, empirical, peer-reviewed evidence that Scientologists possess any of these abilities.

Conquering MEST

MEST is an acronym Hubbard coined which stands for matter, energy, space and time, the component parts of the physical universe. It is claimed that by completing Scientology courses, it is possible to eventually attain "cause over MEST" — the ability to control matter, energy and spacetime in the physical universe, free of the encumbrance of the body.
According to the Church of Scientology:

Dianetics and Clearing

Hubbard first introduced Dianetics to the general public in April 1950, in an article published in the Astounding Science Fiction pulp magazine, and followed quickly with the book ' that same summer.
Dianetics postulates that there is a part of our psyche called the reactive mind, and that most of our mental and physical problems are psychosomatic, thus they can be solved by eliminating this portion of our minds. This mental state of self-mastery is called Clear.
In the 1992 Hardcover edition of ', Hubbard writes: "A Clear, for instance, has complete recall of everything which ever happened to him, or anything he ever studied. He does mental computations, such as those in chess, for example, which a normal would do in half an hour, in ten or fifteen seconds.".

Exteriorization of energy

Speaking on the subject of "Exteriorization - communication in Theta and MEST", Hubbard said that an individual thetan has the ability to generate electricity by putting a "beam" inside a vacuum tube, or a bell jar that has had the air evacuated:

Spiritual immortality

The "immortality" referred to is not immortality of the body, but of the thetan, and Scientology does not claim that it causes the thetan's immortality, but makes a Scientologist aware of that immortality and alleviates the distress that might otherwise be felt at the prospect of death:

Enhanced health and lifespan

On page 121 of the 1992 Hardcover edition of , Hubbard writes: "Clears do not get colds."
It is also hinted that achieving the state of Clear prolongs lifespan: "What the lifespan of a Clear is cannot be answered now; ask in a hundred years."

Increasing body weight

Hubbard has claimed on numerous occasions that it is possible for Scientologists to use mind over matter to increase one's body weight, although why someone would specifically want to do this is not explained. In his book Understanding the E-meter, Hubbard wrote that this assertion can be tested by "mocking up" mental pictures in one's imagination. "This test has actually been made and an increase of as much as thirty pounds, actually measured on scales, has been added to and subtracted from a body by creating 'mental energy.'"
In December 1954, Hubbard declared before a crowd at a lecture:
In 1957, Hubbard claimed that he was contacted by physicists from a scientific congress in Boston: "They wanted to know if I had any proof I could offer that thought created matter". Hubbard said he gave them all his data about using Scientology's mental "mock-ups" to increase body weight, and reported "I got back a highly enthusiastic wire saying that my data, as sent to them, had been of great assistance."

Touch assists

Scientologists are taught to administer the "Touch Assist", a procedure designed by Hubbard to help heal illnesses or injuries. The Scientologist touches the person's body in a set manner, avoiding sexual areas, and asks the recipient of the process, who is lying or sitting still, to "Feel my finger". This is continued until the recipient states that he feels better about what was bothering him and looks more cheerful overall. The process is claimed to help restore the spiritual being's ability to communicate with the affected area and thereby to speed healing and reduce mental trauma.
The touch assist is not to be used to treat headaches, however: "Do not do a Touch Assist on a person who has a headache. Research has shown that headaches are often the result of mental phenomena that a Touch Assist would be the incorrect handling for."
It is probably the most well-known of all Scientology Assists, which also include the "Nerve Assist" and the "Unconscious Person Assist".

Theta perceptics

Scientology promises the ability to hone one's "theta perceptics" and promises "Communication with the theta universe" with enhanced 'perceptics' such as "hunches, predictions, ESP at greater and lesser distances, communication with the dead, perception of the Supreme Being, etc."
Hubbard claims that humans have precisely 57 of these 'perceptics'. The Super Power Rundown is intended to amplify these latent abilities of the thetan by way of becoming hyper-aware of the physical "meat body". These 'perceptics' are:
Time, Sight; Taste, Color, Depth; Solidity ; Relative sizes ; Sound; Pitch; Tone; Volume; Rhythm; Smell; Touch ; Personal emotion; Endocrine states; Awareness of awareness; Personal size; Organic sensation ; Heartbeat; Blood circulation; Cellular and bacterial position; Gravitic ; Motion of self; Motion ; Body position; Joint position; Internal temperature; External temperature; Balance; Muscular tension; Saline content of self ; Fields/magnetic; Time track motion; Physical energy ; Self-determinism; Moisture ; Sound direction; Emotional state of other organs; Personal position on the tone scale; Affinity ; Communication ; Reality ; Emotional state of groups; Compass direction; Level of consciousness; Pain; Perception of conclusions ; Perception of computation ; Perception of imagination ; Perception of having perceived ; Awareness of not knowing; Awareness of importance, unimportance; Awareness of others; Awareness of location and placement ; Perception of appetite; Kinesthesia.

The Church describes the Super Power Rundown as "A super fantastic, but confidential series of rundowns that can be done on anybody whether Dn Clear or not that puts the person into fantastic shape unleashing Super Power of a thetan. This means that puts Scientologists into a new realm of ability enabling them to create a new world." The exact nature of these "Super Powers" have not yet been enumerated, at least to the public.
Scientology researcher Martin Hunt says that the Super Power Rundown is "expected to make planetary clearing and the expanding of all service organizations to the size of old Saint Hill a reality". This refers to a directive issued by the Church that their primary goal must be to expand the size of all Scientology service organizations to the size that Saint Hill was in the 1960s - in other words, more than 200 staff members in each organization.
The Super Power Building is currently under construction in Clearwater, Florida for the purpose of administering this rundown. However, it has been plagued with construction setbacks since its initial groundbreaking in 1998.

Telepathy and remote viewing

Two Scientologists, Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann, researched remote viewing at Stanford Research Institute for the CIA Project Stargate in the 1970s. Most of the SRI team, including project director Puthoff, and the CIA's star "psychic spies", Price and Swann, were Scientologists, a fact that skeptic Martin Gardner noted disparagingly. Puthoff and Swann were of the "original" Operating Thetan VII level, and credited Scientology with their success in the CIA remote viewing program.
From the book What is Scientology?: "Can OTs read minds?...to answer the question bluntly - yes, with varying degrees of ability".

Independent creation of perception

In Scientology 8-8008, Hubbard states that Scientology training can make one aware of one's ability to turn illusions into MEST reality, and that even a preclear is "capable of producing illusions sufficiently strong to be observable by others". Hubbard speaks of "rehabilitating" the preclear so that he "begins to recognize that his viewpoint is expanding and that he is becoming all-pervasive", and then goes on to say:

Cleared Theta Clear

Beyond even the powerful Operating Thetan levels comes "Cleared Theta Clear," a state which Hubbard describes this way:

Lectures by Hubbard