Myths and Facts about Captain Bill Robertson and the “Ron’s Org Bridge”
It is now more than 25 years since Captain Bill, along with some others, started the Free Zone movement and soon after that he founded the Ron’s Orgs Network in 1984. Ever since then he and his activities have been Black PR’ed. First and foremost of course by the Church of Scientology and its willing helpers, but also by other terminals and delivery lines in the Free Zone. The Church of Scientology, after many years of hushing up the matter, has changed strategy and is virtually brainwashing members and staffs about how bad a person Captain Bill was (as they have with David Mayo since that time also) and how squirrelly consequently Ron’s Org must be. They sure do a good job of it, or let’s say many of those subjected to it seem to have taken it in without question!
The result is that now many who leave the Church and turn up on FZ lines are publicizing their opinions, and think very badly about Ron’s Org and Captain Bill or are at least reluctant to look. Amazingly, many do not really question what they have been told, but maybe it is too much to be asked to discard all that you have heard in your “spiritual home” – because for most people this is what the CofS was to them – wholesale. One needs to sort out what can still be kept as stable data and what to exchange for new data.
We very much would like to help in this process and so we shall take up a few rumours and 3rd party data that have been going around regarding Captain Bill and, more interestingly, his OT levels.
Let’s start with the person:
1. Captain William Branton Robertson
Like another person much denigrated by the CoS, David Mayo (who was Senior C/S Int and LRH’s personal auditor), Captain Bill Robertson (or “Captain Bill” as he was mostly known, or CBR for short) was quite close to LRH. You can read the story of his life at http://www.ronsorg.com/english/billrobertsonenglish.htm.
So let us here point out some important points about him:
- CBR had an intense technical training. He did the Class VII course and internship in Saint Hill around 1966 and was appointed Director of Review by LRH. Later on the Apollo he did his Class VIII course.
- CBR did many missions to various orgs and AOs. He also held at various times temporary CO posts, e.g. at the Flag Bureaux in Clearwater around 1980. He was assigned several “Power” conditions for his accomplishments. A commendation for one mission is mentioned in FO 2376 of March 1970.
- CBR was awarded the rank of “Right Arm” (RA), granted the title of Captain and he was 2nd Deputy Commodore (1st deputy was Mary Sue Hubbard). He also as one of very few people was awarded the Sea Org Officer’s Dirk. Finally, with the Flag Conditions Order 381-1 of April 30, 1975, he gained another special award by LRH: "Captain W. B. Robertson, Right Arm rank, is hereby awarded the status of Kha Khan for excellent duty as Captain of Flag ship Apollo and a long career of success and high statistics in the Sea Organization." Originally in the times of the Mongols “Kha Khan” meant that a person who was Kha Khan will be forgiven the death penalty ten times – in the Sea Org it changed to mean that a Kha Khan could get away with nearly everything and still had Ethics protection. Of course this did not mean an invitation to behave like a criminal, but was a symbol of the high trust LRH had regarding this person.
So we can clearly see that LRH put his trust in Captain Bill to a degree that exceeded most other of his staff. And also that Captain Bill was a very highly trained terminal, both technically and administratively. How probable is it that LRH was so wrong in his estimations regarding CBR and David Mayo that they in true fact were not his best staff members but SPs?
Figure it out for yourself. (The Church explanation that LRH was such a special being that in his vicinity even the case of SPs was “blown away” temporarily. That is not very convincing – given that often CBR or David Mayo worked far away from LRH, and given that there were however quite a few SP declares in those times of people who were really anti-social and worked close to LRH whose cases were obviously not “blown away”. Wouldn’t we rather expect that LRH was such a special being and knew so much about people that he would soon discover an SP amongst his staff? And we wonder, would he let himself be audited by an SP? So let’s count the Cofs explanation as “an extremely poor attempt to explain away outpoints in their own story.”)
2. The legitimacy of founding the Free Zone
We do not know exactly when and to what degree LRH became aware of the fact that the CoS was infiltrated and might be taken over by people who had other aims than the best interests of Scientology and Scientologists. There have been incidents that must have given rise to believe in such scenarios, e.g. in 1972 a CIA member that had come aboard as a Scientologist was uncovered. There is ample reason to believe that relatively early LRH must had at least the concern that the whole set-up might go down the drain because of this, and of course he took precautions.
CBR himself told about two episodes that point to this. One was that one day on the ship LRH talked to him about the problem of stepping out of the game without giving Scientologists too much of a loss of the “symbol” of himself as a person in flesh and blood. You can watch the lecutre "Famous people I have known" here
But more interesting is the following story, which was delivered to us by Allen Wright, who himself was on the ship and later was trained by CBR to deliver the RO OT levels. CBR once told him this:
At that time, around 1980, CBR was working at Flag. One day he was ordered to immediately come to the Old Man who was living in seclusion – no one but a few insiders knew where – in California. Bill traveled to L.A., was brought to the place blindfolded (this is similar to David Mayo's travel details to see LRH) and after having been told that the Old Man was ill, was let into his bedroom. After ordering out the other people, LRH sat up in his bed, explained to Bill that he was not really very ill but had used this as an excuse and spoke with him in confidence. He told him that it might be that he will lose the control of his command and communication lines. Should that happen, CBR was to go out of the CoS and start the game anew outside. As a proof that LRH was still in control, he would send CBR a personal comm, something that CBR would know that it really was from LRH himself, once every 6 months.
Some time later, probably 1981, CBR was in AOLA for some reason. He went out of a room and saw LRH at the other end of the corridor, accompanied by two SO guards. When LRH saw CBR, he turned his back toward him, and CBR immediately knew that this meant “this is not a comm I am originating to you – it does not count for our agreement.” That was the last time CBR saw him, soon afterwards he left the CofS and the rest of the story you can read in his Debrief in the Sector 9 book, http://www.freezone.de/english/cbr/e_cbr_db.htm.
Recently we got another confirmation that LRH indeed intended an alternative in case of a take-over:
From a lecture Valerie Stansfield (from the Californian Association of Dianetic Auditors) gave on the Free Zone Conference in Pasadena 2009:
“The story of the name Free Zone – I spoke to Ernie Martin about it, and he said that in 1973 Ron had called him aside and told him that things were getting tough, and if they were ever gonna have any problem they should start a Free Zone of Scientology, and apparently then Bill Robertson was told the same thing. And they took that on a mission, and that’s why Captain Bill used the term ‘Free Zone’ when he was first... he was the first one to really use the term the way you are using it here.”
(Question from the audience:) “So, the ‘Free Zone’ was actually originated by LRH?”
“Yes, it was originated by LRH.”
3. Developing the OT levels further
One could still say, all of that is good and right, but why could one not just take the bridge as it was in 1980, maybe reinstating the “old” OT levels 4-7 and leave it at that? Let us divide this question into two subjects; one is NOTs and Excalibur and the other one is the OT levels used in Ron’s Org above OT 8.
First of all, it should be made clear that what today is passed off in the CoS as OT levels is not “pure, unadulterated tech” (quote from D.Miscavige) but has been tampered with heavily. OT 1 was completely replaced by another, New OT 1. On OT 2 and 3 the Pre-OTs are getting very little information about what they are really doing. There are bragging stories (communicated by the CoS in their magazines!) about how somebody can go from solo to completion of OT 3 in two months or so, which is not only a gross violation of the HCO PL “Technical Degrades” but also a clear indication that those levels are heavily quickied as a common occurrence. Also NOTs has been developed further in the CofS since its first issue in 1978.
a) NOTs and Excalibur
So, what about NOTs? New Era Dianetics for OTs came into being when in 1978 LRH became severely ill and was rescued by David Mayo with review auditing. During this they found a couple of case phenomena which they then researched further. This became NOTs. The original NOTs series was mostly written by David Mayo and we can assume probably at least partly under the direct guidance and orders of LRH.
Now this was clearly a matter of a research in progress. You can see it when you read those texts, they are full of formulations that point to this and give the impression of ongoing work. The level was released however and people started to audit on it, but there were difficulties. The first completion that was presented to the joyful public died of cancer soon afterwards. There are many other instances of this – or reversely, of people who audited endlessly on the level – being reported. So when Captain Bill left the Church, he knew that while that was an important part of the case to be handled and while NOTs obviously held important tools for it, it was somehow not yet completed, that there must be more to it. And as he had a lot of reasons to believe that LRH was out of the game, he took on the task himself to find out, because David Mayo had also been taken out of the equation.
CBR and his co-auditor went through the Class VIII materials and the NOTs materials very, very thoroughly and co-audited on NOTs. Doing this, they found a few clues, hidden in the NOTs materials more or less as side remarks, which turned out to be key to handling the NOTs case completely. Thus Excalibur was born. In actual fact it is NOTs with a few additions and a few highlights on data of which the true importance had not been realised before. The level proved out to be very workable. Many, many Pre-OTs have gone through it (first audited, then solo, a matter of 150-400 hours in average) safely and satisfied. Especially people who had run NOTs in the CoS before and then came on Ron’s Org lines and learned about Excalibur very commonly commented that that was exactly what they were missing, exactly what they needed to come through the level.
However, if you are not at that level, we definitely do NOT recommend that you look around the internet for data on Excalibur and read it “to get an idea about it”. First of all, the material you find might not be accurate. Secondly, either your reality is such that the issues addressed in the case by Excalibur are “close to the surface”, then you might be badly restimulated. Or if the material is “not close to the surface”, then you'll probably lack reality on it and find it boring or unreal and turn your back on it (as would be true for any other LRH OT level!) and close the door for yourself. Even if you are at the proper point of the bridge, e.g. because you have done some NOTs in the CoS, we’d rather have you at our place (a Ron's Org), study the materials in a proper course room and have somebody available to handle your burning questions! Otherwise our recommendation is to come up the bridge until OT 3 and then study Excalibur and decide whether you find it logical and worth trying or not. It is the only way to have proper judgment yourself.
b) The OT levels 9-48
One might say, even if Excalibur was a good thing and clearly based very much on LRH’s work, the same might not be true for the further OT levels CBR worked out. Let us first talk about the rumour that CBR “got the OT levels telepathically from LRH”. This is not true and he did never claim it. So how come he developed them?
It is known that NOTs (or the Church's New OT 8 which is not an LRH level at all) couldn’t be the end of the bridge, and the CoS acknowledges this by claiming that there are further, unreleased OT levels purportedly by LRH. During 1968 in the Class VIII lectures LRH mentioned there were further OT levels above those that were already released. He called them “7” and “8” and gave a few hints on their contents (actually traces of this can already be found in the SHSBC lecture “Level VII” of 23 Feb 65) but said he would release them as completed work at some later point of time. This never happened, maybe because he was tied up in other work, or maybe because he saw the take-over coming.
Anyhow, with nothing more than some hints from LRH but equipped with all the knowledge about his basics, what was the way to discover the rest of the bridge? Captain Bill used the same method as LRH always had used. He explains it in Tech Briefing 1:
“In the years that I worked with Ron, he explained to me a few times what his main job in the research was. It was basically, he said, like going into a dark room, opening a door into a dark room, and trying to find a door at the other end. Without a light or a guidebook. He said the only thing he would go in with would be an E-Meter. As he would bump into things, or run into difficulties in the “room” (or level) that he was researching, he would then have to find out, how he could get back to the door and start again with the E-Meter. And finally after exploring the various ways to get through this area, he would finally find the door at the other side, and could go into the next level.”
And that is exactly how Captain Bill himself continued after the Excalibur level was complete. He said you bumped right in the next level after you had completed one. And of course then he had to analyze it and apply all the basics to work out what processes and what approach was necessary to solve that part of the case. When it didn’t quite work, he had to go back, look at it again until he got the full picture and came out with an FTA VGIs at the other end. Then those Pre-OTs who were already through Excalibur were taken through the new level next, C/Sed by CBR himself or very soon by C/Ses trained by him, and in this way it was tested thoroughly as to whether or not the new level was workable on them, too.
Using this approach the OT levels 9-16 (of which 9 to 11 – Phoenix – and 14 to 16 – Grail – are actually one level) were worked out. What sort of case do they handle? All the lower levels, up to Clear and through OT 1 to 8, deal with other-determined case, i.e. things that were done to the thetan. The Grades however touch on the self-determined part of the matter, too, but the focus, especially on the OT levels up to 8, is the other-determined part. You can read more about it in “Admin Briefing 1” by CBR, http://www.freezone.de/english/cbr/e_abr_01.htm
This leaves a lot of the self-determined case. CBR says about the OT levels that are done by a person from 9 on up:
“From that point, on up he goes OT on various Dynamics, and he handles the self-determined case or the self-determined charge, what things he got into and so on. It's not case that was put on him by another, or by an implanter or something, it's stuff he did and got messed up in and he has to now get himself out of it.”
This is the purpose of the OT levels 9-16. So at OT 16 there is a point where the other-determined aspect of the case of a person is handled, as well as the self-determined aspect. He or she shouldn’t have any incomplete cycles from long ago any more, so why is there any need for a further bridge?
Captain Bill explains that after that point you naturally would move into “pan-determinism”. Which means taking full responsibility on all dynamics and handling situations on those who are keeping people trapped in the games. You help to finally end the game for all your friends and all the players that are in it. Consequently, these levels are called “Games Master”, because they are about Games and how to become a master in them. In Admin Briefing 1 CBR says about the EP of somebody who has done these levels:
“And he can choose to either play the game again, leave the games totally or make new games. That's why we have at the top here OT 34 to 40. There are six or seven little levels here that handle the tendency, the interesting fact of a tendency for a thetan to come into a game and contract. Now why does a thetan necessarily have to contract when he comes into a game? You see? This handles that – the Games Master Data handles that.”
And the Games Series Course, which is done after the Games Master Course, is also intended to establish your own personal ideal scene.
After the Games’ levels there are the Source Operation Levels, and CBR says about them in Admin Briefing 2 that they give the final handlings to any mysteries why we are here at this particular point in the game:
“It has to do with your own application of Pre-Logics Q 2 and Q 1. That's Pre-logics 1 and 2. If you don't know them, you will have to look them up, because they are already there and have been there since the early 1950's. And, at this level – Source Operations Level – it has to do with your own application of that as a self-determined Source. And how you may have deliberately chosen to limit your OT Abilities!”
And the finishing touch are VAST and VAST Plus which cover the “Viable Application of Source Training”.
So even when one has not done those levels one can see the logic of how they are built. Basically the underlying theme is getting the person out of any old games in which they are stuck due to other-determined and self-determined aspects, and then getting them to the full ability of creating and playing new games – or not, according to their own choice.
The good thing about it is that one does not have to “believe in the bridge” or “believe in the OT levels, or that the OT levels work” or some such like that. The only thing you have to do when you are on these solo levels is to do the level you are on very thoroughly, because when you are through with it – and actually only then – you will be truly able to see whether the next level is really making sense to you and seems to apply to you and your case. Captain Bill says that you can’t help but hit them – well, I think it does not make a lot of sense to argue with someone on a theoretical level whether this level or that is standard or not, or whether it will get a thetan on a higher spiritual plane. So the recommendation is, just get up to the point where you are ready for the level and then see and decide for yourself!
Finally, you should know that these OT levels are not a bunch of “new tech”. Virtually all processes and techniques applied stem from LRH. They are just applied to other areas of case with new approaches. For all of the levels if you study them at Ron’s Org there is an extensive course that, besides the actual confidential materials of the level, contains a lot of additional LRH materials that apply to the level and the subject handled in it.
4. The Bridge at Ron’s Org
Let us now take a look at “the LRH Bridge” as compared to “Ron’s Org Bridge”. If you are trained as an auditor or C/S, you will know that the Bridge in Scientology often has changed since the first Grade Chart in 1965. OT levels changed, Grades changed (not so much), sometimes even sequences of actions changed. So if you are speaking about “the LRH Bridge”, you have to establish which version you mean by it. This is in itself is a subject for a lot of discussion. Ron’s Orgs usually take the tech up to 1978 to be pretty positively from LRH, 1978 to 1981 it becomes more and more doubtful as to who is really the author, and after that one can be pretty sure it was not LRH. So the LRH Bridge up to OT 3 (or 7 if you include the “old OT levels” pre-NOTs – which are by the way available and in use in the Ron’s Orgs) we talk about would be the one in use 1978.
This Bridge is exactly what is used in Ron’s Org up to OT 3. We dare to say that there are not too many places where you can get your auditing and training up to that point as standardly as in Ron’s Orgs. (Of course there are some, but certainly not the Church of Scientology!) So we do not need to discuss that. Up to OT 3 you do not have to be afraid that some “Captain Bill Bridge” will be offered to you when you come to Ron’s Orgs. It is just another place to get the technology as it used to be and as it should be as per KSW.
From that point up there is a choice. You could use the Church’s way and audit NOTs, and when you feel you are done with it, but the bridge is not complete for you (which would be according to what LRH said himself), experiment around with various bits and pieces of LRH tech like GPM running, rundowns, etc. In this effort you could find several FZ delivery units who have made some parts of that their specialty. Or you could of course change to another practice in the search of further spiritual improvement. Finally you could give it a try and take a look at Excalibur, which we of course recommend as being extensively and successfully tested. (Up to now there must be at least 500 Excalibur completions, maybe more.) In other words: As there is no “LRH bridge” to continue after NOTs, you can either research yourself how to put it together, or you find some place where someone has already done that work in a way that is convincing enough for you. Sure the results of Ron’s Org delivery in the last 25 years are an indicator that CBR’s work could be a good stable datum for you!
Let us finally look at the philosophical aspect of it all: Do the “Bridges” as presented in the CofS and in the Ron’s Orgs differ as to their goals? It is called “Bridge to Total Freedom”, but what is meant by that? If you scrutinize the PR that is given out in the CofS, you will find that the idea mostly is “to get rid of it all”, “to get out of this universe”, “to become Static” etc., in other words, leave the game for good. You could compare it to the Buddhist goal of Nirvana if you wish. Actually there is a difference here in the Ron’s Org Bridge: Notwithstanding it claims to give the freedom to leave games, it is more focused on what you do afterwards – the Ron’s Org Bridge, especially the higher OT levels, have a lot to do with the ability and freedom of choice to play new or better games of your own. The overall idea is “into the game” or “into new and better games” as opposed to “out of the game”. This parallels the fact that the Church OT levels 1-8 are mostly concerned with negative case gain, getting rid of things, while the Ron’s Org levels above 8 concern themselves with games and their remnants – the games you played and have not completed, the games you always wanted to play but didn’t know about etc.
I hope this has given you some stable data or maybe has shaken some wrong fixed ideas that have been propagated for far too long, and inspired you to take a new, unprejudiced look at the Ron’s Orgs and the Bridge they use.
Some useful links additional to the ones given in the text:
Here you can find a lot more data about and mostly from CBR: http://www.freezone.de/english/cbr/e_cbrpg.htm
Robert Dam, Church New OT V, on Ron’s Orgs and CBR:
http://www.robertdam-cos.dk/CBR%20and%20Rons%20Org.html
Article by Dr. Otfried Krumpholz from the “Floating Needle” (Russian FZ magazine) about how CBR developed the OT levels.