Anne has been a Scientologist for over 20 years. As an actress she has attained a level of recognition for her work that few actors ever achieve. She was honored with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her role as Beth Gallagher, opposite Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction and she was presented with a Golden Globe for her performance in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts.
She has starred in a host of motion pictures opposite some of Hollywood’s most dynamic and glamorous leading men. One of her roles most beloved by audiences around the world is that of Dr. Cathy Ryan, which she originated in Patriot Games. She reprised that role opposite Harrison Ford in Clear and Present Danger, based on another of Tom Clancy’s best-selling novels.
This summer you will see her starring in two new feature films; “The Art of War” with Wesley Snipes and “Rules of Engagement,” a William Friedkin production with Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel Jackson and Ben Kingsley.
This month, Anne talks to CELEBRITY about how Scientology training is helping her as an actress and in life.
Celebrity: What were your first experiences with Scientology training?
Anne: The first course I ever took 20 years ago was the Personal Integrity Course and I absolutely loved it. It dealt with the Code of Honor, and my own tone level came up just from doing that first basic course. There used to be things I was only doing because I thought I was supposed to, and it wasn’t until I understood that I was really compromising my own reality that I was able to change. For instance, I used to let other people sway me, even though I somehow knew that this was not necessarily right. After becoming familiar with such basic concepts as “Never compromise with your own reality” and “Never permit your affinity to be alloyed,” I realized that my way of handling others wasn’t a question of being nice and being cooperative, but that I was actually compromising my own personal integrity, and this was not a good thing for me. Spotting that was a great cognition that allowed me to change in many ways.
The Code of Honor also says “Your integrity to yourself is more important than your body.” I started thinking about life and circumstances and what my level of confront would have to be to stand up to that code. At first I thought “Oh, I would never be able to do that, I’d be too afraid.” But I lived with that thought from the Code of Honor over the next year and as time went on, my understanding and ability to confront something because it was the right thing to do became very real to me. It also brought my tone level up and of course the higher toned you are, the higher confront you have. Needless to say, that course was a very big deal for me.
Celebrity: What course are you currently on?
Anne: I am on the Golden Age of Tech PTS/SP Course. I felt that it was really vital for me to know the Tone Scale perfectly and be able to handle people, as well as PTSness and suppression. Being an entertainer in the film industry, it is information that I use on a daily basis. I mean, I have to have it and I have to know it cold.
So on this course, you drill the Tone Scale using the Golden Age of Tech drills until you know it verbatim, from top to bottom. There are some 60 tone levels and there is a lot to know about them. It took me a while to get them all down and I immediately saw the advantage of it when I went out and did the course practical. I had to talk to people and spot their tone level. I knew the Tone Scale so well by that point, I could easily spot them. I realized that unless you know all of the tone levels, you don’t think of those that are slightly above or below the major tones we usually talk about. So if the person expresses some of those not commonly talked about emotions, it is hard to spot them unless you know the Tone Scale cold.
I am also having a lot of case gain doing the PTS/SP Course. And now, looking back at my earlier courses in Scientology, I can see this was also true on the Personal Integrity Course (I just didn’t know it was case gain at the time). It’s become very apparent to me that my tone level goes up when I am on course. I feel more at cause, I feel stronger, I can confront life. There is also doingness on a course, as opposed to auditing where you are looking, looking, looking and cogniting. In auditing you are definitely getting better without question. But there is a point where the thetan has to have certainty over what he now knows to be able to apply the tech to his life and thus be cause over life. And that is exactly what training does.
Celebrity: What specific experiences have you had on your training with the Golden Age of Tech?
Anne: While I was on OT II before the Golden Age of Tech, I had done the theory part, the preparation to be able to do OT II, and then had to go away on a filming project. I knew the theory at that time but didn’t feel like I owned it and was nervous about being able to audit it well. When I came back to do OT II, the Golden Age of Tech had just come out. So there were now drills to do specifically for OT II. I did those drills and then, when I went to audit the level, I found it was just a piece of cake. I wasn’t the least bit nervous about auditing myself. I absolutely had my tools and I knew them cold. I didn’t even have to think about them, I simply knew them. And it was the same thing on OT III. You have to know your tools. The Golden Age of Tech drills have really changed the auditing experience for everyone.
Celebrity: What changes in your acting career have you had as a result of Scientology?
Anne: The training I have done has made me more at cause over the creative environment that I live in. I am able to handle people better and to handle PTSness in other people better. I can spot suppressiveness almost before I get in the room. I knew for the first time that I wasn’t crazy.
I remember the first time I did the PTS/SP Course, I had such a sense of relief. There were just other things going on that I needed to handle. I needed to recognize PTSness in other people, and I needed to recognize suppression and handle it as a Scientologist. I simply needed to apply the PTS/SP Tech.
And that knowledge alone gave me a great sense of peace, because I knew that it wasn’t that I was having trouble. I wasn’t insecure, I wasn’t “not good at this” and “not good at that,” but I was actually coming under some suppression and that was causing the problem. So it gave me a lot of strength and I have never lost that. I have never gone PTS to people since.
Celebrity: What LRH data has been most helpful in your acting and as an actress?
Anne: Well, amusingly enough, the LRH quote “Speed of particle flow alone determines power.” This could apply to anything, but it has meant a lot to me as an actress. Because when you are on a roll and things are going well, it is not the time to sit back and say “I have made it.” When you want to move your career along, you need to have a lot of discipline, a lot of dedication and work very hard at it to really make it happen. The speed of particle flow will move you into power. If you are lazy about it, it is very hard to do.
Some of these things we quote often have actually meant the most to me. Like “Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.” It would appear that for actors and artists who wait to be chosen, a good percentage of the time there is rejection involved, the work you don’t get, etc. If you find yourself looking back at what you didn’t get or what didn’t happen, it will just pull your case in on you and keep you from moving forward. You have to understand that every day life is in you. Every day is a new day and you are cause. You can make your tomorrow. I think it is a good thing for artists to remind themselves of that all the time, and not look back and regret what did or didn’t happen.
Another one is “Be able to experience anything” and “Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily.” In dealing with people on a set or in an audition or meeting, I am willing to have them be the way they are, and then in my own way of handling them, I try to cause only those things which they can have easily. That is what bigness of character is all about. The bigger you are as a being, the more power you have and the more you can hold your position in whatever your field is. I try to be as big a being as I can. With the amount of bank that is often thrown in our laps in the entertainment business, you have to be a very big being in order to handle it. Sometimes you deal with very talented people who are very aberrated, and if you can see their beingness, in other words, you can really love them, experience them and cause only those things which they can have easily, you in turn can have a very powerful influence on them. You can really bring them up the Tone Scale and help their lives.
Celebrity: What has Scientology training done for you as a wife and a mother?
Anne: Understanding the Second Dynamic and applying the tech on the Second Dynamic is essential to the survival of any marriage, any family, and to assuring any happiness. This is essential because the Second Dynamic is probably the most aberrated of all of the dynamics, and you don’t have great role models out there.
But it is an easy thing to make work if you understand what makes up the Second Dynamic and if you use Scientology Tech, such as good communication skills, not committing overts and keeping the ARC very high. Our marriage works on a daily basis, and always will. Terry and I have kept our slate very clean with each other. We keep the ARC up very high. We are also at the same place on The Bridge and so our realities are similar. Our affinity for each other is very high and we communicate about absolutely everything. We have also done that with both of our sons Tom and Jeffrey. So it is actually very easy. If you just use the tech, it gets to be a no-brainer.
Probably the easiest thing I do in my life is take care of my Second Dynamic. Because if you just apply that basic tech to it, it does very well. We have no problems. The dynamic that is the most troublesome to the rest of the planet happens to be the least troublesome to most Scientologists.
Celebrity: Why would you personally recommend that someone get trained?
Anne: Auditing is fantastic and it is 100% necessary to clean up and clear the planet. We need it to handle the reactive mind and to do all the things that we know auditing does. All the miracles and wonderful gains from auditing are not to be made less of in any way.
But I do have to say that the stability and certainty that you gain from training is without question of equal importance. In a way for me it is even more important, because what I need is certainty and applicability. Training actually enables you to stay uptone easily and comfortably and to be more cause over your life.
Auditing gets rid of case, training puts you at cause. And what I have learned over the years is, with all the auditing I have had, if I didn’t get trained, I was still vulnerable to being affected by things.
Celebrity: Is there anything else you want to say?
Anne: There was one thing: I think I had a back-off on training earlier on because it felt like work, you know, it probably reminded me of school. You have to sit in a course room and you have to do this hard work and all that. But what I actually learned is that it is just the opposite. Every time I am on course, my whole day is more uptone. I am a happier person to be around. And the experience of being on course is like an auditing experience for me, I get very keyed-out. I am much more joyful. I also notice my IQ increases from being on course. I remember things better, I am much sharper and quicker because I am using the study tech and am clearing words.
And on a daily basis if you are not building up MUs, you brighten up. Your mind, your personality lightens, everything is brighter, and so what seemed like work actually turned out to be like going on vacation!
It gets to be tremendously freeing. So when I am on course I feel like I am getting to do something that is really fun.1
Notes
- Celebrity Interview – Anne Archer, (2000). Celebrity 325, 14-20. ↩