Exteriorisation – Altered Importance I

In Scientology the phenomenon of exteriorisation, where the being is not in his or her head, has been given rather heavy importance, in my opinion, unwarranted. I would be interested to hear of any other subject (philosophy, practice, etc.) where exteriorisation has any marked importance.

I believe the subject of exteriorisation has been given undue importance, and also, because of its history in Scientology, has been misunderstood, and as a result caused unnecessary stress, and 

waste of time and money.

However, when showed the first draft of this article, a friend wrote the following:

"Personally, I use and enjoy going exterior regularly, even though without much perception. "I don't feel I have an obligation to consider I can perceive the physical universe (axiom 2). "Often I can also let completely go of the body (one may perceive the body even if located outside it), and that gives a great feeling of freedom.
"I don't personally think there was too much focus on ext. in the church, whereas I suffered very obnoxious consequences of the focus on pulling withholds. It very well may have been what messed up my grade 0.
"Not a religions practice, but interesting: When I studied psychology in 1999, a teacher - who definitely did not believe in spirits - suggested that anybody apparently has the ability to get an out of body experience when in great pain. I 1967, also studying psychology under teachers who did not believe in spirits, we were asked in a drill: Where in the body do you experience that you are? I experienced I was in the head, but having extension, I was also partly outside of it, and I could move my location somewhat. That was before I met $cientology, of course.  

So perhaps my experience is unusual. However here is my experience and opinions.

Early in Scientology's history, I guess very shortly after Dianetics, and when it was discovered that man was a spiritual being, not a body, it was proposed that the reactive mind, that awful thing that caused individuals much trouble, resided in the person's body, and thus, by the simple act of being outside of one's body, one was free of the suppression of ones reactive mind. In the very early 50's a number of techniques were devised for getting a person out of his body (it was assumed that the majority of people were in their body's head, though some were not). At that time, apparently, the idea of being exterior was foreign, and startling

I can recall getting a 25 hour intensive from Ray Kemp, in 1956. and the first thing he did was to try some of these exteriorisation techniques on me. Unfortunately I can not remember the first two or three, which did not work, and which he dropped after a few minutes. The one that did work simply involved my shutting my eyes and saying aloud to my body "hello X" repeatedly. I did this and after a short while to my surprise I heard my voice, apparently coming from a point some what in front of my chest. I told Ray, and at that point he stopped that process. What we went on to is something I cannot remember.

I would draw attention to the importance of gradient scales, something that can be neglected in looking at Scientology phenomena, and life generally. I had "come out of my body" on a gradient. With my eyes shut I could not see a thing. I am pretty sure nothing in front of my chest was saying "Hello X". My bodies vocal organs were saying it, but I was hearing it from above and behind my body. I was exterior on a gradient. I have not noticed the gradient increase over the intervening nearly 60 years, but the ability has remained, and it often occurs that when I "key out" and talk, my voice seems to come from in front of my chest.

Despite what Hubbard has said once or twice, he was not that keen in admitting that he had made a mistake. Exteriorising the being resulted in the being taking his/her aberrations with him/her, not leaving them behind in the body. But attention had gone onto exteriorization and its supposed importance, and has remained there since. In extremity "Exteriorisation with full perception", without thinking of what that meant – did it mean perception of ultraviolet and radio emanations, to mention a few the human body does not perceive? (Many dogs perceive sounds humans cannot hear)

When I was training in 1954, we used to some degree the data in Creation of Human Ability, including the idea that the moment a person exteriorised you would stop doing the process you were doing and went over to Route One, which was a number of processes run when one was exterior. This happened to a preclear when I was on course student auditing. I switched over to Route One (feeling very uncertain) and after a while the preclear must have caught my uncertainty for he became uncertain himself, and went back into his body.

In the Auditor's Code he says "13. Always continue a process as long as it produces change and no longer". However it seems that some preclears that were in Hubbard's view (possibly on long distance vias, preclears in another country) got headaches and possibly other phenomena when they exteriorised. Instead of continueing the procedure which turned on the change, they were put onto a special Rundown, called either "Exteriorisation Rundown" or "Interiorisation Rundown". I was not on tech delivery lines at that time so I am a little dim as what actually happened, except that it produced more attention on exteriorisation. This would include setting exteriorisation as a goal. That I am suspicious about as a goal, and on the whole Scientology has tended to "give" people goals, in terms of what you might call buzz words, fashionable states (like clear and OT) rather than things in life the preclear wanted to achieve, and possibly abilities which could be improved to achieve them.

Exteriorisation did occupy attention, unnecessarily, I can remember one time (end of 1968) when I was getting audited on OT IV (old naming) and I told my auditor I had exteriorised (this was hearing my voice in front of my body). The auditor stopped the process, and I was told I could not get more auditing because I was exterior. So that was one way it was handled !

Briefly my opinion is that less attention should be paid to exteriorisation, and if it happened one should just act normally. When faced with the unusual, do the usual, which would be either continue the process, perhaps take it as a win ("blow out") and let the preclear enjoy the win or continue with the process which produced that change.

It has been suggested that when one aproaches, eventually possibly interiorising, (into a body or an area) one can do so because one has difficulty in controlling that area, be it a child, a model radio controlled car, a pet, etc.. When one fails to get something to do what one wanted it to do, one has a natural tendency to go nearer. Indeed the favourite processes for exteriorising a person are objective processes concerned with control of the body (8c, Opening Procedure by Duplication, SCS on the body). But why run those processes (for other reasons than that they are good for stabilising someone who has to much randomity in present time, or they are the next step on the gradation chart)? If some one comes with the request to be exteriorised, perhaps it would be wise to ask why, and when the reason is found, run a process aimed directly at the condition they want eradicated or improved - there are many processes for that.

Footnote:

The following is part of something Ron wrote on the subject:

"For a long while we have known that if you audit a person after he or she has exteriorized, you often get a high Tone Arm, somatics and an upset case.

"The answer has been to cease to audit a person after exteriorization has occurred.

"This is so much a fact that five out of five "in trouble" cases I recently examined had every one of them been audited for some time after they exteriorized. The TA had or had not gone high but the cases were bogged. They revived at once when the fact of exteriorization was located. F/N, VGIs and when rehabbed (by counting number of times) somatics ceased.

"The rule has been - don't audit after a pc has exteriorized.

"This is one of those very fundamental things that seems to defy research and yet if not solved will keep things messed up. Persons who exteriorize on lower grades need their upper grades and yet if audited further may mess up. This places a limit on auditing and yet the person may still have aberrations and somatics. But the fact of having exteriorized bars the road.

"So I got to work and made a breakthrough on it. Hurrah!"

From HCO BULLETIN OF 22 MARCH 1970 (revised in HCO B 4 Jan 71)

Although this is not a blog, you are welcome to comment (contact Ant, to the left of this, further up), preferably give me permission to publish here with or without your real name.

Antony Phillips, April 2013.

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Leo Swart wrote on Wed, 1 May 2013 05:08:48 +1200:

A good write-up and an interesting article to read.  I particularly liked this paragraph: 

"I was not on tech delivery lines at that time so I am a little dim as what actually happened, except that it produced more attention on exteriorisation. This would include setting exteriorisation as a goal. That I am suspicious about as a goal, and on the whole Scientology has tended to "give" people goals, in terms of what you might call buzz words, fashionable states (like clear and OT) rather than things in life the preclear wanted to achieve, and possibly abilities which could be improved to achieve them."

I did go ext and visually saw my body sitting in the chair fairly early in my auditing. It was fascinating to experience and confirmed for me the reality of theta, but there were no particular abilities that came along with it to any degree.  For me it is now just of historical significance.

Mostly though in Scio I regarded "being exterior" as important in the sense of being ext to any problems or situations in life one was involved with.  Rather than "being in" the situation one should take up a larger viewpoint on it and see the "big picture".  That is where "being ext" is valuable. 

I do it today still - if the body is sick instead of being stuck in the sickness I get out and view that it the body that is a little unwell, let it get better and move on.  Works for me.

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A friend wrote on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:31:54 +0100:

I don't have a lot to say just at the moment, being a bit busy (for a change)
but agree that the subject has been misrepresented and was not fully
understood. I believe the concept of Exterior was based on some Scn
dogma that are not necessarily true -- or, rather, about which I have my
reservations. I don't KNOW that I am an individual, separated-out unit of
'theta' capable of moving here and there and ultimately capable of
controlling MEST without having to use a body to do it.

I have had 'exterior perception' many times in and out of auditing, and
generally feel that I am 'exterior.' But exterior to what? Occasionally, I
have had visio of the present environment outside the house I was in
at the time. I am not sure what what was happening at those times.
It seems more likely that I was able to KNOW what was there, outside
the house (and it was from a viewpoint my body would not have been
able to occupy -- from above the roof) and it definitely was not
imagination. It was extremely certain. Well, of course, one can easily
imagine extreme certainty.

There is beyond any shadow of doubt a huge amount of mental mass
that I have shed through auditing and training, into which I was regularly
'interiorized' when young. I'm not saying there isn't more of that stuff
but it doesn't worry me any more -- no desire to get in there to find
something to audit. I feel as though I've scraped the inside of my skull
as clean as it can stand. If there is further work to do, it's of a different
nature.

As far as I'm concerned, we have within us a spiritual element that is
closely connected into the body and which we can't separate from the
body. That spiritual element, being spiritual, has itself an element that is
above and beyond the body and has connection with the Infinite. When
I feel 'exterior' I am more aware of the connection with the Infinite than
I am of the body, although not necessarily unaware of the body. I can
feel, or bring myself to think I feel, a connection with the Infinite that
extends beyond the PU, and I get this connection habitually when in
meditation.

I think the truth of the matter is different from the Scn traditions and
that the Scn viewpoint is vastly muddled and muddied by stupid
Registrars who went on a kick of selling Ext to gullible people, and
all of that nonsense was one of the answers thought up to reduce the
staff stress of the stat pushes.

I really like the following approach, taken from the Isha Upanishad,
translated by Sri Eknath Easwaran:

In dark night live they for whom the Lord
Is transcendent only. In night darker still,
They for whom he is immanent only.
But they for whom he is transcendent
And immanent, go across the sea of death
With the immanent, and enter into
Immortality with the transcendent.

So have we heard from the wise.

Just some off-the-cuff thoughts, Ant, and thanks
for asking.

Yours,

Anon

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update 1st may 2013  -   continued in the next article,