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There have been various definitions for the state of Clear.
Originally, the individual cleared by Dianetic processing was free of engramic influences. His I.Q. was markedly raised, psychosomatic illnesses cured, neuroses and psychoses removed, survival potential over a broad spectrum was high and he had total recall of the whole of his life with full perception.
Later, with the advent of Scientology, three states of Clear were envisaged.
"A MEST Clear ... would be a body-plus-Thetan relatively aberrated, probably above 4.0 on the Tone Scale; a THETA Clear is one who can leave his body at will, and he probably would be, although not necessarily so, much lower on the Tone Scale than a MEST Clear; and a Cleared Theta Clear would have all major incidents in his time track removed, as well as have complete freedom from his physical body."
Since about 1965, the definition has been stabilised at: "A being who is at knowing and willing cause over mental matter, energy, space and time, as regards the first dynamic (survival for self)."
In other words, the individual has gained, through processing, control of his own mind. It no longer affects him reactively, sub- or un-consciously. The Clear does not necessarily know all parts of his mind but those areas which previously could effect him have had this power removed.
The techniques to achieve the state of Clear are still to some degree a matter of re-evaluating past behaviour - in other words still conform to the assumptions of general psychotherapy - but mainly, to become a Clear is to raise one's ability beyond the need for mental substitution. The Thetan has so developed his own direct influence upon his mental environment as to dispense with reliance upon mechanisms - those parts of his mind which are substituted for true Thetan-decided action.
Any uncleared individual has made decisions upon earlier experiences which direct his present attitudes and actions. Not so a Clear. He is right bang in present time and decides his behaviour upon the merits of the actual situation. Provided the available data are sufficient and correct, he will invariably decide - Thetans being the worthy things they are - the course designed to produce the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics, irrespective of personal preference and gain.
Certainly a wondrous state. The Yogis and Zen-Buddhists have always aimed for something like this. If they achieve their Nirvana (presumably, in Scientology terms, a Thetan, uninfluenced by the Reactive Mind) in forty years of hard contemplation and mind-training and one thing and another, they count themselves very lucky. Scientology can clear someone in about six months of full-time work and for about £1,500. That's known as real progress!
Assuming the individual preclear starts out in Scientology and goes straight to Clear, the price of about £1,500 is made up as follows:
Various books (30p to £2.50 each) ................... £15.00
Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist Course
(Communication Course) .............................. £5.00
Hubbard Qualified Scientologist Course .............. £15.00
Hubbard Dianetic Auditor Course (HDA) ............... £156.00
E-Meter (Tone-Arm counter and Case are optional
and extra) .......................................... £50.00
Release Grades - Sub-zero (Dianetic) to Triple
Flow - total seven grades ........................... £210.00
Power Processing to Grade V Release ................. £360.00
Power Processing to Grade VA Release ................ £72.00
Solo-Audit Course to Grade VI Release ............... £275.00
Clearing Course ..................................... £275.00
Assuming that an average of five hours of Review Auditing is needed at £5 per hour and one S & D (Search and Discovery) at £36, the price of getting Clear is about £1,500
As an aside, I hope that not too many preclears on their route to Clear read this book because they will all have to have S & D's afterwards, and at £36 each ... !
These steps and items are known as the Preclear or Nonprofessional Route to Clear. The accent is on attention to the individual's case and other than the HAS, HQS, HDA and Solo-Audit Courses, there is only the barest attention to theory. On the Solo-Audit and Clearing Courses, the student audits himself and so he needs to know how to do this and why. He is not qualified to audit anyone else.
The Professional Route to Clear is much more thorough. In addition to the steps listed already, the student takes the Academy Courses to qualify him to audit on Classes 0-lV and the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course. These cost an additional £550 but the Solo-Audit Course is incorporated in the Special Briefing Course and as a graduate from the Special Briefing Course, the student gets the Power V and VA processing at half-price. The real cost is therefore approximately £1,700 for the Professional Route. It takes between twelve and eighteen months to complete.
These prices may seem exorbitant. Power Processing, for instance, at £432 may only take five hours of actual auditing That's £86.20 AN HOUR, which is good money by any standards. Scientologists justify these prices by saying that (a) the benefits are priceless; (b) a student passing through university costs the country about £2,000 a year; (c) a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow costs £8,000 to £12,000 and it's just a brainless machine on four wheels; (d) the organisational and research costs have been enormous over the last twenty years and people should pay for all this work.
Maybe so but £86.20 is still good money.
The Clears produced prior to and during 1950 by Hubbard appear to be ignored nowadays. Considering the priceless gift Hubbard had bestowed on them, their disappearance demonstrates a distinct ingratitude - but that's people for you. There also was a short period of about eight months during 1958 when a number of people were cleared on a process group known colloquially as "Help and Step six". A bracket on Help was tried on the preclear since it was assumed his main hang-up was on the ability to recognise, receive and give help. The term "bracket" is fairly common in Scientology auditing and is an adaptation of the military usage: the interval between the ranges of two rounds of artillery fire, one over and the other short of the target, used to find the correct range. The Help bracket was run as follows: "How could you help me?" " How could I help you?" "How could you help another?" "How could another help you?" "How could another help another?" These questions were asked one after another, cycling round and round, until the preclear had thoroughly inspected the entire subject of help and was free from any compulsions or inhibitions on it. This was followed by Step six: "Mock-up (imagine) a ... (mother, tax-collector, horse-chestnut; whatever the preclear had an E-meter reaction to), now make it more solid." The theory behind this process seemed to make sense. If the preclear could be brought to cause an effect upon his mental imagery, he could gain an ascendancy over it and therefore no longer be at the mercy of it. What in fact happened though was that the mock-ups were not imagined but were mental image pictures from the Reactive Mind and when these were made solid, it beefed up the entire power of the bank. There were some very unfortunate results from this form of clearing.
The first of the current crop of Clears was John McMaster, a South African, who was checked out Clear in February 1966 at Saint Hill Manor. A few more made Clear in the following months and by the fall of 1966, between five and ten were coming off the production line a week. Hubbard himself was not Clear for some months after John McMaster made it. In conversation with him at Saint Hill, he told me that he was not 100 per cent sure that the present Clears would not drop Scientology to attempt to achieve their previously frustrated goals. Before getting Clear himself, he wanted to be absolutely sure that it was indeed a stable state with no influences from the past. Since the frustration of goals is the major item that holds the thetan down, it was essential to establish that the removal of this frustration was not accompanied by a desire to achieve the goal. Hubbard was checked out as Clear number 54.
When an individual is checked out Clear, he is given a beautifully printed certificate that states he is Clear number -. He is permitted to wear a Sterling silver bracelet, on the disc of which is engraved, "John P. Smith - Clear No.: 22578" or whatever, and he is acknowledged.
As when a preclear achieves each level of Release, a Clear is given a very thorough acknowledgement. On Friday afternoons at Saint Hill (Clearing is now done at the Advanced Organisations at Edinburgh, Scotland, Los Angeles, California, and Sjaelland, Denmark, but the same form applies), most of the entire staff and students, sometimes 300 people, would assemble in the Chapel.
The week's Clears would each come on to the stage, be handed their Clear certificates, usually by the Technical Secretary, and then give a speech. Sometimes these speeches were profound, sometimes moving, sometimes hilarious but more often than not they were, to me, confused and therefore sadly ominous.
Usually the speeches were an exuberant eulogy to the wonders of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Never did I hear a Clear speak in concrete terms of real life advancement. They spoke of money and of devoting their life to Scientology and of how they were sure they would never revert to their old ways of self-doubt. Yet it always seemed that a set formula was coming out from the smiling face. The speeches seemed contrived. "Now I am a Clear, I must be enthusiastic, happy, grateful and, above all, a true blue Scientologist." Thus, I felt, the Clears had persuaded themselves before their speech. Very sad.
There was humility - to L. Ron Hubbard - but never true humility. A humble Scientologist does not exist. Humility is equated with weakness, mediocrity and humiliation. These were not humane people. These were programmed computers.
In order to become Clear, it is essential to be able to audit oneself. On the Solo-Audit Course or the Class VI section of the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, one learns the theory of the Goals Problems Mass, how to dismember this mass by extracting and examining the underlying goals and how to audit oneself. The G.P.M. is so trickily constructed that only by self-auditing can one get sufficient accuracy with speed to be able to take it apart.
Built into every mechanism of the mind is a self-preservative factor. Only by precise actions can this be bypassed, thus the precision of all auditing. When dealing with the goals that lie behind the mental aberration of the mind, it is not possible for an auditor to detect accurately or rapidly enough the minute changes that distinguish correct handling from incorrect handling. Only the individual in direct contact with his own mind can detect these and take the requisite actions fast enough. There must be no self-doubt or uncertainty. Hubbard has described the attitude of the preclear in successful clearing to an express train travelling at 90 m.p.h. It is unstoppable and not in any way reticent.
The Solo-Audit is completed with the first direct attack on the Goals Problems Mass. The End-Words of the set of goals that comprise the G.P.M. are taken out and examined. All G.P.M.'s and their composite of goals are the same for each individual. For instance, if "To catch a Catfish" were indeed a component of the G.P.M., it would be common to all people. Its End-Word would be "Catfish". In the first auditing the individual does on himself in order to take apart his G.P.M., he "calls" the End-Words such as "Catfish" to himself. He uses a pre-selected list of these End-Words.
To "call" the End-Word is done verbally, out loud. As he locates each End-Word, there is an immediate yet slight E-meter reaction. If he runs through the entire list with the correct reaction on each, he has started to weaken the solidity of the G.P.M. If he should find a block, a non-read, when he "calls" the End-Word, he should inspect his auditing just prior to the non-read. He will find that some self-invalidation, self-doubt or uncertainty has crept in to make his auditing imperfect. If he cannot locate where or how he went wrong, he should have a Review session with another auditor.
With the charge removed from the End-Words, it is then a matter of "calling" the entire wording of each of the goals in order to discharge the binding energy that holds the G.P.M. together. This is done in the Clearing Course. When completed, and if the student is running well, it need only take two or three hours, the G.P.M. has no further power to affect him. The foundations of the Reactive Mind are discharged, causing a collapse of the entire structure. The Thetan is then unrestricted by the influences of a Reactive Mind.
Habitual patterns of behaviour may well persist but they are not any longer supported by aberration. To reach the state of Clear does not replace the value of experience. A Clear is more able to learn French, but he does not immediately start to talk fluent French. As Hubbard puts it: "A refuse-collector who is cleared is a Clear refuse-collector, not a Beethoven." Which is probably just as well.
Owing to the restimulative nature of the materials comprising the Solo-Audit and Clearing Courses, there is a heavy security clamp on it. When a student enrols on these courses he signs a declaration not to divulge to any non-Clear any of the data which are given to him. Insanity, severe illness and possible death is foretold for anyone who is not yet ready for it, who happens to even glance at the Solo-Audit or Clearing Course worksheets.
Incredibly, only one severe breach of this ruling has occurred to date. Peter Goodwin, a Clear from Hampshire, England, felt that the Clearing Course did not contain such information as to be worth £250 and so offered it to anyone interested for £50. A plagiarised version was shown to inexperienced Scientologists, non-Scientologists and even children, all of whom, disappointingly, continued to live with rude good health and sanity. Perhaps his version did not contain the real essence of the Word of the Master.
For his trouble, Peter Goodwin was selected for one of the most viciously destructive "Ethics Orders" to ever have been issued. L. Ron Hubbard himself issued it, which is enough to turn any normal self-respecting and God-fearing Scientologist a sickly shade of purple. Dear old Ron, self-declared lover of humanity that he is, withdrew any future help from Goodwin and his associates, (presumably for eternity), and threatened the most dire retaliations. If there was any justice in this universe, Peter Goodwin should have died agonisingly and begging for mercy when he read this "Ethics Order", but he did not. In retrospect, it looks very much as though someone had successfully restimulated Hubbard by playing the same game. For the greatest living being in the whole universe to descend to such cheap histrionics is very worrying. What are we lesser mortals likely to do when shown to be fallible?
It is very difficult to establish precisely what the state of Clear is. Obviously, it is almost entirely a subjective experience. To test a subjective state, objectively, is very difficult and always open to personal interpretation. Scientology's image is so tarnished in the eyes of rival psychotherapies that an objective view would be very difficult to achieve for a non-Scientologist investigator. It is even extremely difficult to persuade someone from another school of thought to consider the subject, theories and results of Scientology. This is very interesting since it implies that these others who are most adamant in their condemnation of Hubbard for his closed-mind attitude are themselves trapped in the same state.
Something happens in Scientology auditing.
Something happens to a man's outlook when he becomes Clear.
Probably the things that happen are not the pseudo-scientific magic that Hubbard claims. Whatever it is that happens needs to be investigated. Not because it is likely to contain the Road to Total Freedom or any of the other Scientology gobbledy-gook, but because Scientology is a power in the world. Its end result, Clear, produces people who are confirmed Believers following the Flaming Sword to a greater destiny.
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