With this issue of the Professional Auditor’s Bulletin begins a new series by Ron Hubbard entitled A BASIC COURSE IN SCIENTOLOGY. The bulletins in this series are planned to cover the period of at least one year. This Basic Course consists of numerous articles by Ron on the theory and techniques of present day Scientology. The experienced professional auditor will find this an excellent source of review; the newcomer will have available a wealth of new data in easily used and highly understandable form.

Because many people write to me requesting information on how to run a particular technique, and because the greater portion of such inquiries are on how to get a case running, this process is here outlined for your use as the first part of the Basic Course. Having once run this Opening Procedure, SOP-8-C on a so-called “tough case,” you will not require any further reassurance or sales talk about it. And having it run thoroughly on yourself by an auditor skilled in its use will adequately demonstrate its workability.

IMPORTANT: IN PROCESSING PSYCHOTICS AND NEUROTICS OF WHATEVER DEGREE OR THOSE HAVING PSYCHOSOMATIC AILMENTS OF ANY TYPE, USE ONLY OPENING PROCEDURE, 8-C, EACH PART, UNTIL THE PERSON IS SURE WHO IS DOING IT. USE ONLY OPENING PROCEDURE, SOP-8-C UNTIL THE CASE IS FULLY SANE. USE NO OTHER PROCESS OF ANY KIND.

The entire modus operandi of Opening Procedure 8-C consists in having the preclear move his body around the room under the auditor’s direction until

(a) he finds he is in actual communication with many spots on the surface of things in the room,

(b) until he can select spots in the room and know that he is selecting them and can communicate with them, and

(c) select spots and move to them, decide when to touch them and when to let go.

Each one of these steps is done until the auditor is well assured that the preclear has no communication lag.

The auditing commands for part (a) are as follows: “Do you see that chair?” “Go over to it and put your hand on it.” “Now look at that lamp.” “Now walk over to it and put your hand on it.” This is done with various objects, without specifically designating spots of a more precise nature than an object, until the preclear is very certain that he is in good communication with these objects and walls and other parts of the room.

The above is run until the following manifestations of communication lag (and any others you may encounter) are well erased: the preclear just brushing the object he is told to touch, looking away from it very quickly, not looking at it at all, looking at the auditor instead of the object he was told to touch, carrying out the command before it is given such as going over to touch the lamp when all the auditor has said is “Do you see that lamp?”, complaining about the process in any way, objecting to being ordered to do the actions, unwillingness to touch the items designated, putting all his attention on creating an effect on the auditor, and apathy, grief, anger, fear and boredom turned on by this process.

When the above has been accomplished the auditor can say anything he pleases, or seemingly introduce any significance he wishes to so long as he hews very closely to the actual thing in this method which makes it work — which is to say perceiving the physical universe and making contact with it. At this time the auditor can become very specific about the selection of spots for the preclear to touch. “Do you see that black mark on the left arm of that chair?” “Go over and touch it with your right index finger.” “Now take your finger off it.” “Do you see the lower bolt on the light switch plate?” “Now go over to it and touch it with your left ring finger.” “Now take your finger off it,” and so forth until the preclear has a uniform perception of any and all objects in the room including the walls, the floor and the ceiling. This step can be kept up for a long time. It has an infinity of variations. But it is not the variations which work, it is the making and breaking of communication with the actual designated spots. You can do the following at this point: make certain the preclear is doing the process by asking questions such as, “Are you touching the door knob?” “Where is the door knob?” “What is its shape?” “What is its color?” “What sort of texture does it have?” “Are you sure you are touching it?” “Can you feel it?” “Look at it.” “Who is touching it?” “Whose hand is on that door knob?” “Who is holding your hand there?” “Where is that door knob?” “When is it there?” You can badger the preclear in the above fashion until his actions show that he is in communication with the object and until he is not angered by your questioning and direction.

IF AT ANY TIME THERE IS ANY DOUBT ABOUT THE PRECLEAR’S CASE DO THIS STEP [PART (a)] UNTIL SATISFIED THAT COMMUNICATION IS GOOD. A CASE WHICH WILL NOT OBEY 8-C (a) ORDERS WILL ALWAYS PERVERT OR ALTER COMMANDS TO BE PERFORMED WITH LESS SUPERVISION THAN PERCEPTION OF HIS BODY.

Part (b) has these auditing commands: “Find a spot in this room.” No further designation is necessary for this spot. Spotting procedure gives the preclear determinism of selection. When the preclear has done this the auditor says, “Go over to it and put your finger on it.” When the preclear has done this the auditor says, “Now let go of it.” It must be emphasized that the preclear is not to act upon a command until the command is given and must not let go until told to let go. The preclear is permitted to select spots until such time as all communication lag is flat and until he is freely selecting spots on the walls, objects, chairs, etc., with no specialization whatsoever— which means that his perception of the room has become uniform. Many things turn up in running this procedure such as the fact that the preclear cannot look at walls, etc.

Part (c) of this procedure is run with these auditing commands: “Find a spot in the room.” “Make up your mind when you are going to touch it and then touch it.” “Make up your mind when you are going to let go of it, and let go.” A variation of this process is to have the preclear make up his mind about a spot and then have him change his mind and select another spot.

The trouble with most cases, and the trouble with any case which is hung up and is not progressing, is that an insufficient quantity of Opening Procedure 8-C has been used by the auditor. This has been found to be an invariable rule. Preclears will pretend to run commands of a subjective nature but not run them at all. In other words, the auditor is saying do one thing and the preclear is doing quite another. Thus the process is not actually being used on the preclear. The difficulty in this case is a specific difficulty in communication where the preclear cannot duplicate. But more important than that, any preclear whose case is hanging up is out of touch with reality and the environment to such an extent that he has begun to do processes on mock-ups rather than on the actual physical universe. It will be discovered that doing processes on mock-ups such as finding spots in them, finding distances to them, and so forth is productive of no gain, and even negative gain. Only processes which directly address the physical universe are found to raise the tone of the preclear. He has to come to full tolerance of it before he can get out of it. Thus any case bogging down somewhere in more intricate procedures can be relieved and brought into present time by Opening Procedure 8-C. The only caution on the part of the auditor is that he must be very precise about giving his orders and must insist on the preclear being very certain that he is actually seeing spots and touching them and inhibiting the preclear from executing the commands before they are given.