Instructors at the Hubbard College may not interpret or evaluate Hubbard Bulletins or Policy Letters.
When a student asks a question it is permissible only to refer him or her to whatever document contains the correct data.
Any other action will land the Instructor a Condition of Liability and Ethics punishment.
If a student receives any answer to a question other than the citing of a Bulletin, he must report the Instructor to the Ethics Officer.
Failure to do so makes him subject to Ethics punishment also.
Instructors must know the day, month and year of each Bulletin and Policy Letter so that they can properly reply to students' questions.
The bulletin packs were kept in a locked drawer. Students logged them out and carried them around in locked briefcases. Several of the packs were not considered confidential, and dangerous. Those dealt with auditing in terms I was already familiar with -- with one crucial difference: When eventually I audited myself on the Solo Process I would be my own preclear and accountable for carrying out the detailed instructions ... on myself.
Dozens of bulletins gave the rules of correct auditing, and their infractions. All auditing is based on the Comm Cycle: ask a question, get an answer, and ack (acknowledge) the preclear. Comm Cycle additives -- an auditor's extraneous words, inflections or gestures -- are infractions. Also chopping the preclear's comm -- acking (acknowledging) before the preclear has completed his response. Chopped comm might not offend wogs (non-Scientologists) -- who are thoroughly used to it -- but in auditing it disturbs the ritualistically measured flow of the Comm Cycle. Auditors should never Q and A with preclears while in session, that is, engage in a series of questions back and forth without acking. Q and A is auditing Out Tech, reminiscent of much of the conversation in the wog world.
"Hi, Charlie. How are you?"
"Fine, Bill. How's your wife?"
"Swell. Hey, I went fishing Sunday."
"Yeah? I saw the game on TV. Say, I like your tie. Do you think it looks like rain?"
Warnings about chopped comm and Q and A would not apply to self-auditing, I surmised. However, other bulletins, describing Auditor's Goofs and Difficult Preclears, made the self-auditor in his dual role doubly culpable.
Overwhelmed by the tremendous inflow of material, I cross-referenced terms and instructions as a study aid, and made up two hundred questions to test my memory.
On a Saturday night a dozen of us from the manor sat at a table at a roadhouse near East Grinstead. Juanita Wilkins was in the local annual beauty contest. I thought her a shoo-in for first. Juanita was not only blessed with the dark beauty of an Arabian Nights princess and a bubbly personality, but she was also a Communications Release.
During the floorshow, which featured a comedian perhaps hired from London, Juanita giggled nonstop and seemed as relaxed as she was around the manor. But when it came her turn at the mike she was shy and awkward.
"And where d'ya work, me lovely?" asked the MC.
"Ahh ... umm ... oh yes," she gulped, "in East Grinstead -- uh, at a stationer's."
She came in only fifth out of a field of eight. "I cawn't understand it. She must've been a trifle nervous," said a deflated Ralph Wilkins. "Anyway, we all know she was far and away the best."
The sun shone the next morning, and I took my bulletin packs and list of questions out on the terrace in back of the manor. David, one of my roommates, sat on the flagging, studying his Special Briefing Course material. I sat down a few feet away from him. After taking notes for a while, I made a trip inside to the toilet. When I returned, Richie Blackburn was pacing up and down the terrace. He approached me, glowering.
"D'ya know watcha just did, mate? Ya left your confidential materials laying around out here. Ya should know better'n that!" He thumped a truncheon-like fist against his thigh. "If I were you I'd go straightaway to Ethics and report it."
I gaped at him. "But Richie, Dave's right here and I was only gone a moment."
"Ya 'eard me. Davy's on Special Briefin'. 'Ow d'ya know 'e's reached your stage yet? What if 'e saw that stuff? I could do something about it, but it's your responsibility. Ya's better go clean it up at Ethics tomorrow. It'll all come out on your next sec (security) check anyway, that's for dead cert."
As Richie turned and strode back into the house, I felt an ominous gnawing in the pit of my stomach.
"Don't worry," said David. "'E gets a little gung-'o at times."
"But did I do anything wrong?"
"That's up to you, Bob. It's all the way you feel about it. If you think it was okay for you to leave your stuff around and go take a leak, then it's okay. You 'ave to 'ave your own certainty on the matter.