Report after report from various auditors comes to me stating that they now realize why their auditing of many of their preclears failed. And they uniformly declare that the reason for former failure on preclears was not the case level of the preclear, nor yet the complicated state of processes, but ( I ) failure on the part of the auditor to get the preclear into two-way communication before proceeding with other processes, and a continuing failure to keep two-way communication established, and (2) not doing enough Opening Procedure of 8-C on the preclear.

An evaluation of a technique does not depend upon the intricacy or brilliance of its theory, but upon its ease of communication to auditors during training, and the ease of their application of it upon preclears. In 8-C we have a process which answers these various conditions. It is very easy to train an auditor to do 8-C. It is very easy for a preclear to do Opening Procedure of 8-C in one form or another.

The entirety of a technique known as Standard Operating Procedure 8-C was intended for exteriorized preclears. Its opening procedure was originally designed to be done by an exteriorized preclear, but it was found to be far less workable for the exteriorized preclear than when done (so far as the opening part of the procedure was concerned) with the preclear moving his body around and making it touch spots.

There are three parts to Opening Procedure of 8-C, and it is necessary for the comm lag as dramatized physically by the preclear to be completely flattened by the auditor on each part before the next is undertaken. Eventually these parts are the gradient scale of decision. In the first part we have the auditor picking out the spots, telling the preclear to walk over to them, telling the preclear to touch them. In the next step, part (b) of Opening Procedure of 8-C, we have the preclear picking out the spots on the auditor’s order, and then, on the auditor’s order, walking over to them and touching them. And in the third part, part (c), we have the preclear picking out the spots on the auditor’s order, walking over to them, and deciding on his own decision, but under the auditor’s command, when to touch and let go.

This is not one of those processes one gets “novel” about as an auditor. The process has been found to be workable exactly as it is put forth. Variation, or the introduction of extraneous material beyond that necessary to continue a two-way communication with the preclear is found to be destructive of the process. This process is as workable as it is simple. It is also as workable as the auditor is able to do a process as given.

The first thing that Opening Procedure of 8-C does is to get the preclear used to the idea of following somebody else’s directions, and leading him to discover that by following somebody else’s directions he does not collapse or become ill or die. In other words, the preclear discovers that he can follow orders without becoming entirely ruined. This is an interesting discovery, since the physical universe is continually ordering him around, and if he is resisting orders he is resisting the physical universe. Resistance is the one step necessary to entrapment.

There is another point in the Opening Procedure of 8-C which cannot be too thoroughly stressed. Nearly every failure in the past where the preclear has been audited and audited, and audited, the auditor was unaware of the fact that the preclear was not following the directions given him. A survey was taken of preclears who had had a great deal of trouble in being processed in Scientology, and each one of them, either by means of a meter or by their own statement, was discovered to have uniformly avoided running any of the auditing commands given them, even though they were giving the auditor every assurance and appearance of running the auditing commands. Now it could only be possible for a preclear to avoid auditing commands if the auditor was unable to observe directly the workings going on in the preclear. In the Opening Procedure of 8-C it is impossible for the preclear to avoid the auditing command. The auditor can stand or sit and watch the preclear go through the exact orders and observe directly whether or not the preclear is doing what he is told to do. This is a major benefit.

The basic theory of Opening Procedure of 8-C is to make and break communication with the physical universe. Once an individual discovers that he can make and break communication with walls and objects, it will be discovered that he can let go of various pieces of his engram bank. Actually, all the time he is doing 8-C he is letting go of enormous quantities of useless material with which he has cluttered his thinking and life. It is a very direct process and gets the preclear to stretch a very straight line between Cause and Effect.

An auditor while running this should occasionally ask the preclear, “Who is doing this?” Preclears who are psychotic will tell the auditor that their finger is doing it, or that the wall is doing it, and then advance on up to where the hand is doing it, the arm is doing it, and finally that the body is doing it, and at last that the preclear himself is doing it. This is the acceptance of responsibility for an action.

A very good description of the Opening Procedure of 8-C exists in the printed edition or the mimeo edition of Intensive Procedure as R2—16, which is the proper technical number of this process. A thorough description of the process is given in PAB No. 34 at the beginning of this series. The process is being repeated here in order to give it proper stress. It has, and do not doubt it for a moment, tremendous value.

I have yet to see a preclear who is having physical difficulty of a major sort or mental difficulty, fail to improve under a long and careful and meticulous administration of the Opening Procedure of 8-C.

There are two errors which can be made in the running of the Opening Procedure of 8-C. The first is not to know and do the process, and the second is not to run it long enough. How long is long enough? In many cases, twenty-five hours is not long enough.

In the Opening Procedure of 8-C (R2—16) the auditor has a very powerful tool and is invited to use it thoroughly.