As the old adage has it, "No two things are exactly alike." This is true of any two blades of grass, and it is just as true of any two preclears and their cases. Therefore, each time an auditor begins a new case he will find different sorts of problems, and these may be sorted out into three general categories: those who have sonic recall, which means those who can hear the words and sounds present in an engramic incident; those who have non-sonic recall, that is, those who recall the words and sounds without actually hearing them; and imaginary recall, which the auditors call dub-in, when the preclear will recount all sorts of fantasy in the name of fact or describe things about which he has only heard as though he had seen them with his own eyes. This is the product of what has come to be called a lie factory. We have already seen an example of dub-in in the case quoted earlier of the woman whose husband had committed suicide and who relived the horrifying experi-
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ence of having seen her husband lying in a pool of blood, although she had not seen this at all.
But this much must be said: although each case may be different, the auditor uses the same techniques in resolving it as in any other. This does not mean that he tries to force all preclears into the same mold; it does mean that his goals and methods remain the same in all cases.
In order to achieve a better comprehension of Dianetic therapy, let us work an imaginary case, imaginary only in the sense that the session has never taken place, although everything in it has occurred hundreds of times over in different cases.
We begin, then, with the case entrance. We have already seen how the auditor begins the session, asking the preclear to go into reverie and installing the canceler. eturning him to a recent pleasurable experience, the auditor runs him through it, returns him to an early pleasurable experience and runs him through that. If he does not return well, he should be brought up to the previous day, to a portion of the day (such as a shopping trip), and run through, while he recalls what he has seen and heard. When he can do this, he is sent back to his childhood again.
Then he is run through an incident of minor pain, a bumped head, a skinned knee, or a cut finger. This will not be an engram, because there was not sufficient pain and virtually no anaten connected with it. The purpose is to see if he has somatic recall - that is, if he can actually feel the pain or if there is a pain shut-off somewhere along the track. This does not present a
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particularly difficult problem, since to remove the shut-off the preclear can be sent back to a point a little before the shut-off engram was installed and brought back up the track to it. But it is important to know about it, because it will be something that has to be dealt with before going much further with the case.
The next thing to determine is whether the patient is running as himself or as an entity outside of himself, witnessing his processing. If it is the latter, his is a case containing a good deal of encapsulated emotion, and this emotional charge is going to have to be discharged. There is such a high content of painful emotion inside him that he cannot stand to face it, and he unconsciously stays outside of the troubled area. Since the preclear is not going to erase any engrams in the role of an observer, the first problem will be to find the emotion and break it out into the open. The best method for accomplishing this is for the auditor to return him to present time, having him keep his eyes closed, and to ask him about the members of his family and those who have been closely associated with him. The auditor finds out which of these have died or have been lost to him in other ways and returns him to the moment just fore he learned of the death or other loss. The preclear is run through this just as he would be through any engram, which it probably is, complete with all percepts. If, after this has been run through several times, there is no discharge, the auditor sends him to an earlier incident of this same type. Finally, he will hit upon one that is holding up all the rest, and the process of reducing grief will be under way. Once the charge is
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off, the preclear's interior will not be so forbidding a place to him, and he will be able to run as himself.
If the painful emotions are so well locked in that they still will not appear, the auditor will fall back on the repeater technique, taking his cue from any expression the preclear may have used more often than would seem usual. If there is none in this category, he may have the preclear repeat phrases that usually appear during moments of grief, such as "Poor little-----," the blank being filled in with his own first name. As he begins repeating whatever phrase has been suggested, the auditor will send the somatic strip - another construct, like the file clerk, the recording of all incidents of pain without the inclusion of any other percepts - down the track in search of painful emotions. If the auditor continues with this technique, he will, sooner or later (and probably sooner), contact the engram and be able to discharge the painful emotion. Whenever a case is stuck and all else fails, the repeater technique will usually free it. If it does not work during the first session, it probably will in the next.
After discharging the painful emotion, the auditor sends the preclear into the prenatal area, only he does not call it that, because many (if not most) preclears do not believe in prenatal engrams. Few people do, until they have experienced it for themselves. The auditor merely sends him to the earliest incident of pain and anaten that is available. The file clerk is asked to hand up the content, and the reduction of the engram gets under way. This may not be the basic engram on the chain, but it must be reduced anyway, since to open it
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up and then to leave it without reduction would restimulate it, and this might well serve to block further movement on the track, needing perhaps many hours to straighten out again. If this engram is reduced, and there is still sufficient time remaining in the session in which to go after the basic, well and good. One might even get lucky and find basic-basic. But the file clerk is most wise, and will not hand up anything that should not be run at the time. If there is much to be processed before basic-basic is tackled, the data of the later engrams will appear first. The auditor must never be impatient because basic-basic is not contacted on the first try, but must continue to go as early as possible until the file clerk is ready to give it to him.
A good device for discovering just where the preclear is on his time track is that of the flash answer. When the auditor asks for a flash answer, the preclear gives him the first word or words that pop into his head. "What is your age?" asks the auditor, or "Give me an age flash." The preclear says, "Three." "Months or years?" "Months." "Prenatal - yes or no?" "Yes." The flash answer is used in eliciting other information: "Give me a flash answer to this: what would happen if your headache went away?" "No one would love me." The auditor can now determine that some ally probably said something to this effect: "You sure are a headache, but I love you." The auditor will pursue this line, his next question being: "What would happen if no one loved you?" "My head would fall off." "What would happen if..." and he will continue with this questioning until there are no more mad upside-down answers, after which he will use repeater technique on one
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of the words that has cropped up with undue frequency during the questioning.
Let us now proceed with our make-believe therapy session.
AUDITOR: You will be aware of everything that occurs during this session. You will be in full control of yourself. If you do not like something that is taking place you will be able to pull yourself out of it at once. I will count from one to seven and your eyes will close. One two, three, four, five, six, seven, one, two, three, four. (The preclear's eyes have closed. He is in reverie.) At the end of the session, when I say the word "Canceled," all that I have said to you will be canceled and will not act as suggestions to you. Do you understand?
PRECLEAR: Yes.
AUDITOR: You will return along the time track to a recent incident that was pleasurable for you. (Pause.) If you have contacted this incident, will you please recount it to me?
PRECLEAR: This happened about two weeks ago. I went to the beach with my wife. It was a beautiful day [The preclear is remembering; he has not returned to the incident.]
AUDITOR: Please contact the incident more closely. You have returned to this scene at the beach, and you are now there.
PRECLEAR: All right. (Pause.) It is a beautiful day. The waves are not too high and...(The rest of the outing is recounted in the present tense.)
AUDITOR: Now you will please return along the time
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track to a time in your childhood when you are having a very enjoyable time.
PRECLEAR: Well, let's see. There was a birthday party when I was six. That was a lot of fun. (He begins to recount what he remembers of this party.)
AUDITOR (breaking in as soon as he can do so without disturbing the preclear): Now you will come up the track to a very recent time. Come all the way back up to yesterday. Tell me something you are doing that is pleasant. [The preclear had gone back to remembering, so the auditor has brought him up to "yesterday" in order to induce better return and recall.]
PRECLEAR: I am driving home from work. It is just at dusk, the part of the day I like the best. The store windows are lighted, and...(He relates the incident in the present tense.)
AUDITOR: You will now return along the time track to an early incident in which you are enjoying yourself. Please contact it closely and tell me about it.
PRECLEAR: I am having this birthday party. I am six years old today. There are about ten kids there, all my age...(He relates the rest of the incident.)
AUDITOR: You will now return to an earlier time when you are slightly hurt. Please contact it closely and recount the incident.
PRECLEAR: I am roller-skating on the sidewalk in front of our house. I fall and skin my knee. Mother ran out to pick me up, and she was awfully worried. She thought I had been hurt badly. [He is now observing the incident and he knows as much about how Mother felt as he does about his own hurt knee. He has a pain shut-off,
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made apparent by the manner in which he has changed from reliving the incident into the non-suffering role of the witness.]
AUDITOR: Please return up the time track to present time. Come all the way up to present time, but keep your eyes closed. Are you now in present time?
PRECLEAR: Yes. [This is standard procedure for overcoming the pain shut-off. There is painful emotion on the track and it must be reduced before the somatics will key in. What follows, up to and including the running of the grief engram, is all part of this process.]
AUDITOR: Give me a flash answer: what year is this)
PRECLEAR: Nineteen sixty-nine.
AUDITOR: Please tell me what members of your family are, and what friends you were close to as a child.
PRECLEAR: There was my mother, father, grandmother, an uncle, and my brother; there was also my friend Charlie.
AUDITOR: Were there any pets?
PRECLEAR: Yes, we had a dog. He was part Airedale and part a lot of other things as well.
AUDITOR: Are all of the people you mentioned still alive?
PRECLEAR: No, my uncle died, and so did the dog.
AUDITOR: How old were you when they died?
PRECLEAR: I was about nine when my uncle died, and about eleven when the dog died.
AUDITOR: Now you will travel back along the time track to a time when you are eleven. Your dog has just died. Please tell me about it, contacting it closely.
PRECLEAR: We are playing on the front lawn. He runs
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out into the street. There is this car.... Say, it's a funny thing about Tiger, the way he was always chasing cars. I used to scold him for it, but he used to look so funny when I scolded him, that I couldn't stay angry with him. [He is "ducking" the incident. Although his attitude is quite cool concerning the dog, this is a sign that he was grief-stricken at the time of the dog's death. The fact that he cannot bear to run the incident is also a Lion that there is earlier grief on his painful emotion it.
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning of the incident and run it, contacting it closely.
PRECLEAR: Oh, well, we are playing together, and he runs out into the street. This car comes along, going pretty fast and...I wish he had minded me better.
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning and recount the incident.
PRECLEAR: This car is coming along and poor Tiger ...I remember a time when we were out in the woods and...[It is obvious by now that this is a pretty painful emotion and that the preclear cannot run it yet. The earlier painful emotion has to be reduced first.]
AUDITOR: Please return to the age of nine, and go to a few moments before you learn that your uncle has passed away. Where are you? [When a preclear is trying to avoid painful emotion engrams, it is better to return to a time just prior to the beginning of the incident, rather than to the moment it began. By recounting the words and actions leading up to the painful moment, the preclear finds himself in the middle of it with his defenses down.]
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PRECLEAR: I am in my room, doing my homework. I can hear the phone ring. I go to the door, but Mother has already answered it. She says, "Oh, no. Oh, poor Jimmy. I'm so sorry for you, Alice. I'm coming right over," and hangs up. She is crying. She says to me, "That was your Aunt Alice. Uncle Jimmy is dead. I've got to get over there right away." I say, "I want to go, too," but she says, "No. You stay here." She runs out of the door, and I just sit there. That's all.
AUDITOR: How do you feel about it'
PRECLEAR: (Very casually) Oh, I'm sorry, of course. Uncle Jimmy was a pretty good guy. But he was getting old, and we all have to go sometime.
AUDITOR: Is that all?
PRECLEAR: Yes.
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning and recount the incident.
PRECLEAR: (Repeats the incident coolly, without any sign of grief. Then he goes through it a third time in the same fashion.) [He is obviously blocking out the grief.]
AUDITOR (selecting the only phrase that shows any sign of affection): Please repeat, "He was a pretty good guy." [To overcome the block, the auditor has turned to repeater technique.]
PRECLEAR: He was a pretty good guy. He was a pretty good guy. He was a pretty good...He was the best friend I ever had. He was wonderful to me. I loved him. Oh...(The tears begin to fall. He sobs, calls "Uncle Jimmy," and goes through the deepest grief for several minutes. Gradually, the crying stops, and in a little while, calm returns. He is at peace.) Uncle Jimmy was
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wonderful to me. I guess I missed him more than I realized. I don't suppose I'll ever forget him. Good Lord, that was really rough, but I guess I feel a little better now.
AUDITOR: Please go earlier on the time track. Return to the first incident of pain that is available. Please tell me what you hear.
PRECLEAR: Someone is saying, "I can't get it." [With some of the charge lifted from the painful emotion engram, the preclear is able to travel better on his time track.]
AUDITOR: What else do you hear?
PRECLEAR: That's all. Just I can't get it.
AUDITOR: Please repeat, "I can't get it."
PRECLEAR: "I can't get it. I can't get it. I can't get...I can't get to it. I can't get to it; it's too high to reach. I can't get to it; it's too high for me to reach." Ow, my face. What's pushing my face in? [Once he has the words right, the somatic will key in, and in repeater technique, they do not key in until the words are right.]
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning and roll it again.
PRECLEAR: I can't get to it; it's too high for me to reach." There goes my face again. What is she doing?
AUDITOR: Is there any more in the incident?
PRECLEAR: She says, "You'll have to get it down for me." And my father says, "Don't hurt yourself. Let me do it." And my mother says, "Thanks, honey." He says, "Did it hurt you?" And she says, "No." He says, "Are you sure?" And she says, "Of course, I'm sure." (Pause.) That's all. [Once the somatic has keyed in, he begins to relive the incident.]
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AUDITOR: Please roll the engram from the beginning.
PRECLEAR: I can't get to it; it's too high to reach. My face is hurting again. Oh, there's the sound of something frying in the frying pan, and there goes a church bell. [The rest of the percepts are being keyed in. Thin shows that the preclear is really reliving the incident, and not merely replaying the words from his first recounting, which would not help in the reduction of the engram.]
PRECLEAR (continuing): "You'll have to get it down for me." (And so on to the end of the engram. The auditor sends him through it several more times until there is no more somatic in the face. The preclear becomes bored with it, gives a little chuckle.) What brought all that on? You'd think I was inside her. Hey, you don't mean I really was inside her, that I was a fetus or something?
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning and recount it. [The auditor never - repeat, never - "helps" the preclear by evaluating the data.]
PRECLEAR: (He repeats the engram, but this time many of the words are lost, and he is pretty bored with the whole thing. The auditor sends him through it once more.) "I can't...it's too high...I'm sure..." [Since the content of this engram is now being erased from the reactive mind bank, to be refiled in the standard memory banks, and since the incident, as a standard memory, has little significance for the preclear, the words are being filed under the heading of "Very Unimportant Data," and so, to all intents and purposes, they are forgotten.]
AUDITOR: Please go earlier on the time track, to the first Ancient on this chain, and recount it.
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PRECLEAR: (Pause.) Are you sure?
AUDITOR: What else do you hear?
PRECLEAR: Just, Are you sure?
AUDITOR: Please repeat, "Are you sure?"
PRECLEAR: "Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure, Doctor? Are you sure, Doctor?"
AUDITOR: Are these the first words of the incident?
PRECLEAR: No. A man's voice says, "Let me see."
AUDITOR: Repeat, "Let me see."
PRECLEAR: "Let me see. Let me see. Let me..." No, it's "Let's see what we have here." Ouch, that's my face again. What's that old fool poking me like that for? Doesn't he know that hurts? Now he's saying, "Yes, Mary, you are pregnant. Your period isn't late. You aren't going to have any periods for a while." And Mother says, "Are you sure, Doctor?" And he says, "Of course, I'm sure. It's my business to be sure." (Pause.) That's all.
AUDITOR: Please return to the beginning and recount the incident.
PRECLEAR: "Let's see what we have here." I wish he'd stop poking me. That's no way to treat a little kid. Oh, there's a sort of metallic clank. (He runs the engram through several times, and again, the words begin to disappear, as does the pain. The auditor has him run it until all of the percepts are gone and the engram, being the basic one on the chain, is erased. The chain was based on the words: "Of course, I'm sure," and our imaginary preclear was always too sure of himself, having a tendency toward recklessness in business and investments. )
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AUDITOR: You will now come up the time track toward present time. Come all the way up. Are you in present time?
PRECLEAR: Yes.
AUDITOR: Give me a flash answer: how old are you?
PRECLEAR: Thirty-two. [This is to make sure that the preclear really is in present time. If he had said, "Ten," it would have indicated a holder, and this would have had to be contacted and reduced before he could have returned up the track. It is never good to leave a preclear back on the track, although many of them have spent most of their lives somewhere in former time.]
AUDITOR: Canceled. When I count from five to one and snap my fingers, you will be fully aware of everything around you. Five, four, three, two, one (snap). [It is a usual practice, at the end of a session, but before bringing the preclear up to present time, to take him through a recent pleasant experience, as was explained earlier. We have not done so here, because little is to be learned from recounting such an experience.]
This, then, is a sample Dianetic therapy session. It is perhaps a little more easily run than most first sessions, because the preclear has sonic recall, along with very little distortion of the time track. However, there have been even smoother first sessions, including a few in which basic-basic was contacted and erased, so this one s by no means atypical.
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