Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA)

This is the criticised "personality test" which for many is the first introduction to the "Church" of Scientology. Originally called "American Personality Analysis", but probably changed to "Oxford Capacity Analysis" (OCA) because "Oxford" carries more weight. The original test was created by psychologist Julia Lewis and was later adopted and edited by CoS. The alleged Scientology front company U-MAN use the same test when they do recruitment work for companies. The test is a hoax, and the people evaluating it often don't have proper training.

CoS usually pick people off the street, not telling who they represent. If you ask them who they are they will most likely define themselves as a philosophy or just portray themselves as some kind of self-help organisation. If you for example tell them you already belong to another religion, they will often tell you it's still possible to be a Scientologist. We know now that this are all lies, but the Scientologist is so eager to get a sale (they have stats to meet each week and they get between 5% ang 15% of the sales they make) and will tell any story if that makes you come with them. They've been doing this since the early fifties and have had plenty time to improved their sales tricks. Don't underestimate them, some Scientologists are extremely good at what they do. The result of the OCA test will be that they (whatever your result is) will advice you to take some Scientology courses to better your communication or whatever. The first courses are cheap, but when they know you're hooked, the price goes sky-high! People have had to sell all they got, steal and take up more loans than they can manage; just to buy more courses. After spending a fortune on coursing and passed several security checks, you will learn about Xenu and the space opera, BT's and all the other stuff. On this site you will learn all about this, but here we offer all the Scientology secret courses absolutely free.

It should be noted that the Oxford Capacity Analysis is not a personality test known in psychological circles; it is not distributed by reputable test agencies in this country; there is no research literature available about it, nor is it listed in the Mental Measurements Year Book which is internationally accepted as the authoritative source on psychometric devices. While any one of these points does not in itself indict a psychometric instrument, the failure of the Oxford Capacity Analysis to meet all of them does, in our opinion, constitute an extremely strong case for assuming it to be a device of no worth. The scientific value and useful nature of the profile apparently derived from completion of the Oxford Capacity Analysis must consequently be negligible. We are of the opinion that the Oxford Capacity Analysis and the profiles derived from its completion are constructed in such a manner as to give the appearance of being adequate psychometric devices, whereas, in fact, they totally fail to meet the normally accepted criteria.

Taking the procedure as a whole, one is forced to the conclusion that the Oxford Capacity Analysis is not a genuine personality test; certainly the results as presented bear no relation to any known methods of assessing personality or of scaling test scores. The booklet itself might produce genuine scores but these are not the scores presented on the profile. The legend 'produced and edited by the Staff of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International' which appears on the cover is totally inappropriate to a personality measure - such an instrument is not 'edited', it is developed through painstaking research. The validity of the OCA booklet itself is therefore in doubt.

No reputable psychologist would accept the procedure of pulling people off the street with a leaflet, giving them a 'personality test' and reporting back in terms that show the people to be 'inadequate', 'unacceptable' or in need of 'urgent' attention. In a clinical setting a therapist would only discuss a patient's inadequacies with him with the greatest of circumspection and support, and even then only after sufficient contact for the therapist-patient relationship to have been built up. To report back a man's inadequacies to him in an automatic, impersonal fashion is unthinkable in responsible professional practice. To do so is potentially harmful. It is especially likely to be harmful to the nervous introspective people who would be attracted by the leaflet in the first place. The prime aim of the procedure seems to be to convince these people of their need for the corrective courses run by the Scientology organisations."

[A] psychologist at University College Dublin, Dr Declan Fitzgerald, said he believed that what was called the Oxford Capacity Analysis, carried out by the church in its auditing process, impinged on people's self-esteem and was highly manipulative.

He said he was embarrassed that his profession had not got this message across to the public more clearly.

[F]or several months there was an outpost in Watertown's Arsenal Mall where a vendor's cart offered free stress tests on an an "Electropsychometer" or "E-Meter" - a kind of lie detector used for Scientology training.

Potential members are routed to the Beacon Street church where high-pressure "registrars" sell costly church programs.

In the church's vocabulary, the recruiter is a "body router," and potential converts are "wogs" or "raw meat."

An offer of a free personality test enticed Reem Rahim, 31, who said in a Herald interview that she was recruited to Scientology in 1991.

New to Boston, unhappy with her job as an immunology researcher at Children's Hospital, Rahim accepted when a man on the street offered the church's personality test.

Within six weeks she had paid the Boston church $ 82,000 for Scientology courses - money from an insurance settlement she got after nearly losing her legs in a 1987 car accident. Church salespeople promised Scientology would give Rahim happiness and advanced mental powers, including the ability to remove from her legs the scars caused by the auto accident, she said.