My initial experiences with Dianetics and Scientology

In March 1984 something happened that completely changed my life. I joined Scientology. I was approached on the street and recognized the Dianetic symbol straight away. I had seen a postcard with the word Dianetics and the volcano and instinctively knew that this was something for me. I bought two copies of Dianetics the Modern Science of Mental Health and got an OCA personality test. When I came back to have the test evaluated I got the first serious eye-opener..

Jan Hansen, the person evaluating the test, was really spot-on. He saw all my personal problems and indicated them to me. It was too precise and I chose to refuse everything he said, but I knew it was true. When I left the organization that night I felt more happy than I had felt for a very long time. I was convinced that my life could be improved, that my problems could be solved. I hardly felt the ground under my feet as I walked home. It was a beautiful spring sunset in Copenhagen and Robert Dam had been rehab'ed as a thetan (thetan = spiritual being).

After reading a few chapters in my new book I joined staff at DK Day Organization. The first period I was in Division 6 which was a real challenge and I learned a lot about communication. But I was carrying a half way criminal background which was fortunately discovered just before I blew staff. The Qual Sec, Jesper Christensen, the HAS, Henrik Larsen and the Treasury Sec, Peter Jensen, took full responsibility and made me do an O/W write up which was then submitted to the police. There was a court case and everything was sorted out. It was hard to confront, but I was very happy that I had now come clean with society. This was my first huge win on applying LRH's ethics conditions. I also did a Repair of past Ethics Conditions and that was great too.

Later I received various Auditing actions (Auditing = spiritual counseling) which was great and lifted quite some weight off my back.

Then I came to HCO (the personell division) as the HCO Area Secretary. It was part of a project to establish a strong HCO. It was going pretty okay and we had all HCO director posts filled with fully hatted personnel. The org grew to 53 staff before I left. I know I was the most successful HAS since the early eighties, because several years after I left, I was called up by a new HAS. She said that she was doing her birthday game management program and that one target was to get hold of the most successful HAS (per statistics) and get a full hat turnover. I went to the org and gave her the hat turnover. She apparently didn't make it because I was again called up for the same reason a few years later, by a new HAS.

The reason I left staff was that I had gotten into a disagreement with my senior, Søren Kiersgaard, whom I otherwise quite liked. My first 2½ years staff contract had just expired and I re-entered into a new contract on the agreement that I had a Leave of Absence for 3-5 month first. I needed to pay back some debts. I had it planned so that I could spend the first week of my Leave of Absence full time on study to finish my current course, but that, for some reason, upset my sernior so much that he cancelled my Leave of Absence entirely and ordered me back on post. I then cancelled my staff contract and left. This ended up with a com-ev which was held and I did all the recommendations and was reinstated in Good Standing, see the issue here

I would say that being on staff completely changed my life. I got a brand new view upon work and responsibility. A person is responsible for his/her own life and work. On staff in Church of Scientology you cannot blame anybody for the lack of own performance. You and only you are responsible for the area of your work. This is a fantastic point of view as it leaves the person entirely in charge and responsible. I have had this viewpoint even since and I would say that it has helped me tremendously in achieving greater success in my life ever after.

After leaving staff in early 1987 I put my full attention on going up the Bridge. In 1988 I attested to OT III. As a staff I had FPRD, some of the Grades and plenty of sec-check and my ethics situation had changed. OT III gave me tremendous case gains and completely changed my viewpoint upon the theta universe, the mest universe and what case is. In 1991 I did OT IV which was also great. In 1994 I started on OT V, NOTs.

NOTs was quite unique in it's simplicity and I had some fantastic wins from it. But I also had sometimes the feeling that the material run wasn't really real. Like a strange uncertainty about what had been run. Yet, I had some great case gains on it as well.

The OT levels I have done in the Church has been life changing. I have achieved a higher state of spiritual awareness. I have not become OT (Operating Thetan = A person who can exteriorize from his body and operate freely as a spirit with no physical boundaries) but I have definitely reached a new and higher understanding of mankind, why we do as we do, and that gives me certainty and stability every day of my life. In addition my IQ has increased and last time I was tested my score was 145 out of 150.

As a Scientologist I have often been confronted with entheta (negative talk) about the Church. Stories from the press that somebody had been locked up in a small room for days, that the Church lost a big court case and so on. You all know what I am talking about. People challenge you because they know you are a Scientologist. That's alright, challenge is a good thing. But because of all the wins I received from my Scientology Auditing and Training, I have always been more interested in trying to explain these stories as lies and Black Propaganda from our enemies, than in actually finding out the truth for myself. It gets almost into a sport to find ways to justify rather than confronting the out point and start searching for the underlying situation. No doubt the entheta stories are often lies, or minor situations blown totally out of proportion, but there is no way they all categorize as such. There is simply too much material, and too many people from around the world testifying to similar experiences. Until 1996 I was still utterly rejecting all the terrible stories one hear, but then something happened which dramatically opened my eyes...

Read the chapter My first hand experiences with Church Top Management