7 Sep 2000

eee@netcom.com (Mark Thorson)

I was curious about how one man could cause so much enturbulation, so I exteriorized to Gold Base to check it out. I'd been to Gold Base once before, and it was much like a typical college or university. Lots of thetans (some in their meat body, some not) were passing in and out of the buildings.

But this time was totally different. At first, the place seemed totally deserted. The only thetan I could find was the security guard at the guardhouse, but he was firmly in his MEST body. Even passing my hands through his face several times, I couldn't get him to blink. He was definitely not an OT.

Then I noticed a line of thetans leading into the big house on the hill. I followed the line into the house, and I saw something totally astounding. In the new version of the OT8 materials, it's referred to as a "thetan phalanx". I had read about this defense, but I was amazed to actually see it.

Imagine corn-on-the-cob, but instead of kernels of corn, each position is occupied by the head and shoulders of a thetan, all packed tightly together. The phalanx is maintained by a steady stream of thetans being added at one end, while another stream was formed by the thetans peeling off at the other end.

I tried to pass between a couple thetans to see what was being protected, but I was rather intimidated by all those heads snapping at me. I really don't think they could have harmed me even if I had been bitten, but I was too timid to force my way in.

While I was there I timed one thetan moving down the phalanx, and I estimated that a shift in the phalanx is about 18 hours. No wonder the whole church is so enturbulated! This explains why the folks at local orgs throughout the world look so tired and sleepy when Keith is picketing at Gold. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and I estimated that 20 thetans were added every minute, so the church is using about 28,800 thetans to support this project. More, if the same thetans aren't being used 7 days a week (though we all know _that_ isn't likely :-).

Every now and then, I saw a baseball or some other object come through the wall and bounced off the phalanx. Once it was an arrow, which stuck. What's that about, I wondered.

On my way out, I saw Keith picketing. From my view, I could see he was mocking up various things and projecting them at the big house. I didn't think Keith had ever been in Scn, but then I remembered he's read all the upper level OT materials. He had mocked up a bat and some baseballs, was knocking home runs right into the big house. He sensed my presence (though I doubt he knew who it was), so he then mocked up a giant anvil and dropped it on the house. Been watching a few too many roadrunner cartoons, eh, Keith?