X-NEWS: eagle alt.magick: 8149 Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.1 30/1/93 VAX/VMS V5.5; site news.wesleyan.edu Path: news.wesleyan.edu!yale.edu!yale!zip.eecs.umich.edu!panix!news.intercon.com! howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!hp81.prod.aol.net!search01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.magick Subject: Re: Kings' Secret Rituals of the OTO Message-ID: <2mi5fl$rq4@search01.news.aol.com> From: bheidrick@aol.com (B Heidrick) Date: 20 Mar 1994 13:43:01 -0500 Sender: news@search01.news.aol.com Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) NNTP-Posting-Host: search01.news.aol.com Lines: 127 93 Andrew Haigh asks about disclosure of the ritual as well as the oath prior to the ceremony for OTO candidates requesting such information. Only the oaths are made available in this fashion, and that practice is considered controversial by many upper degree O.T.O. members. We have been doing it since the early 1980s, but only on request. If the candidate doesn't think to ask, the option is not volunteered by the Order. Andrew expressed doubts as to the merit of keeping back the ritual text from a candidate just "...to assure the correct levels of fear and terror..." Specific instances of deliberate fear and terror are avoided in O.T.O. ritual. Fear and terror are crude and rarely of any value in initiation; hazing yes, initiation no. If a candidate evidences too great emotional distress at or during an initiation, the initiator is supposed to use common sense and explain that no physical harm is intended. If this occurs during an initiation, the initiation should be stopped; and if the candidate recovers and wants to go on either then or later, the initiation may be resumed. The language of such ritual includes dire threats and other psycho drama which can induce fear and terror. To avoid this undesirable result, it is common to select at least one officer with an infectious giggle ;-) --- seriously, we do inspect to the extent we can. O.T.O. has expelled initiation offices permanently from membership in the rare instances in which officers at initiations have been found to actually try to convince candidates for initiation that penalties for violation of oath and other potential terrorizing elements of initiation are more than symbolic. Two instances of deliberate induction of fear related to OTO initiation come to mind: In one, the candidate is required to do a harmless action in public before taking the next initiation --- posting a notice with home address and name. The other example is similar, harmless except for cosmetic considerations, and permanent --- required in order to enjoy the rights and privileges of the degree already initiated. In both these instances, the action is done by the candidate at the candidate's own time and choice with minimal symbolic or nearly symbolic performance accepted as satisfactory. If the candidate does not do these things, no further advancement is permitted, but no sanction or loss of already held privileges occurs. The candidate's word is accepted, with minimal checking to satisfy these conditions. Excessive emotional reaction destroys the ability of a candidate to remember key elements of the initiation ceremony --- even to hear or observe them at all. This sort of thing defeats the purpose of initiation in the sense that O.T.O. initiates. If simple group membership was the only goal, hazing would accomplish this. O.T.O. bans hazing. Our initiation rituals are more subtle, intended to manipulate the mental and perceptive state of the candidate just enough to activate certain chakras and to impress key information on the mind of the candidate. To this end, sudden sounds, sudden light, brief sensory deprivation, brief falling sensations, legal drugs (in one instance alcoholic bitters are used to replace laudanum to aid in chakra activation --- the script specified laudanum when it was legal, but we had to change when the law changed), mental puzzles and other harmless experiences are used to accomplish these necessary effects. If physical stress which would be harmless to a healthy individual is involved, the instructions for the initiator include health questions and the taking of the pulse of the candidate to insure that the candidate does not have an undisclosed medical condition that would make the procedure dangerous --- if such a hazard is detected, either the procedure is diminished to a safe level or the initiation is put off until the candidate is in better health. Pregnant women near term are asked to wait until delivery and recovery before certain initiations are undertaken. Safety before by-the-book accuracy is required. We even withdrew one initiator's charter because he was caught "oogling" fully clothed female candidates! Humor does occur at times before initiation. It is not unusual to hear some members tease a candidate with remarks about "the Minerval sacrifice" and other such fal-de-role. If the candidate appears to take such kidding seriously, the initiation does not proceed until the candidate is let in on the joke. One other area of potential fear. I mentioned the penalties for violation of oaths. Two IXth degree members did in fact die of medical conditions before 1965 e.v. which remarkably approximate an initiation penalty -- following actions which approximate violation of some of the oaths of initiation. Speculation sometimes verging on superstition has persisted over the years about these cases, and that speculation can be alarming to some O.T.O. members. There has never been any question that physical intervention by human action was involved in these strange instances, but people will talk. In fact, given the life styles of the individuals in question, such a medical condition at advanced age is not unusual. I will not discuss the matter further, out of respect for the memory of our brethren. Note by the way that some of what I have written above highlights why O.T.O. initiations are believed to be ineffectual if not actually and physically performed. Since chakra activation is involved, some physical and sensory stimuli are necessary. The mind is induced to contain a specific pattern of thought and a specific sensory stimulus is provided at that exact time. This is as much physiological as psychological. You can't cure hick-ups by reading "boo" 99% of the time. I have shaved rather closely to my oaths in this posting. Some O.T.O. members will be on my case about it. All that I have said above has been said before, either in public or in the unprotected portion of public documents obtained by deposition in one or more of our libel suits. I feel ok about this, but would caution other O.T.O. members to be careful in going this far. If thirty years from now you hear about a third instance of a IXth degree dying under circumstances too like those of a "penalty of obligation", remember that you read it here first. The distant eerie snickering on the astral that will accompany that "revelation" will be yours-truly manifesting amusement. Until then I must content myself with having induced serious discussion of "why does a chicken cross the road" in alt.magick. ROTFL! 93 93/93 Bill Heidrick.