In Scientology, Operating Thetan (OT) is a notional spiritual status above Clear. It is defined as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time (MEST)." According to religious scholar J. Gordon Melton, "It’s basically a variation of the Gnostic myth about souls falling into matter and the encumbrances that come with that" with the exception in that instead of Divine intervention, there is Alien intervention. The Church teaches Operating Thetan doctrine in eight separate stages, or Levels; however, the Church claims there are actually fifteen Levels, and critics argue the Church uses the missing Levels to incentivize believers into giving more money to the Church in order to be able to experience them once they are finally released. Sometimes the Church requires believers to retake, and therefore pay again for, previous courses in the meantime as they await the missing Levels. Each course costs a considerable amount of money, often thousands of US dollars. On March 24, 2008, WikiLeaks obtained and placed the complete set of Operating Thetan Levels the church currently uses on their site. The Church of Scientology tacitly verified the authenticity of these documents when they threatened legal action for copyright infringement if the documents were not removed, but WikiLeaks refused and the courts ruled that it was legal to download, use, read, and practice these teachings outside the Church thus making all 612 pages of the OT materials available for free. Description OT Levels are part of "The Bridge", which is the set of ranks within Scientology. After having removed one's own "reactive mind" and thus attaining the state of "Clear", Scientologists may then go on to the OT levels. Scientology doctrine defines OT as the "highest state there is". Operating Thetan is described within Scientology as a state of godliness, and Scientologists are taught they will have godlike control over "matter, energy, space and time" (known in Scientology jargon as MEST). Hubbard claimed that thetans were tricked into following religions, which prevented them from using their own power to create and destroy universes. The Church claims that the OT is not dependent on the universe and Scientologists who are at the Operating Thetan level claim that they have control over their lives and can "go exterior" from their bodies. While there are fifteen levels listed in Scientology teaching, the Church only offers eight. According to former Scientologist and critic of the