As we have gone forward in Dianetics and Scientology, we have come into possession of more and more significant evaluations of the interrelated factors of life. One of the simplest and yet one of the most significant emergences has been the factor of communications as the most important single factor in the triangle of Affinity Reality-Communication.

This ARC triangle, when I formulated it in Elizabeth in the early summer of 1950, resolved a great many things for auditors, but for the following three years much discussion ensued on the nature of the triangle itself. Generally, though, acceptance of it was swift and glad, for with its use came an understanding of human behavior, and with that triangle the tone scale itself, as it appeared in Science of Survival, was born. The earliest tone scale is in Book One, and is the first chart in that book.

Communication did not certainly emerge as a more important factor than either Affinity or Reality until the inclusion in the science of new data concerning the physical universe. It then became apparent that communication was, in essence, the shift of a particle from one part of space to another part of space. In its crudest definition, this is communication. It does not matter whether the communication particle is a bullet, a word, a thought or a light particle. It is still communication if it travels from one part of space to another. Not even terminals are necessary in order to establish the existence of a communication, but in the accepted sense of the word, communication is something which emanates from one terminal and travels through space to arrive at another terminal.

To achieve a full understanding of how communication is important, one need only do a very simple exercise to discover that almost any process involving itself with communication is powerfully effective on the mind.

If one seats himself in one of two chairs which are set facing each other, and looks at the other empty chair, and then gets up and sits down in the other empty chair, then rises and sits in the first empty chair, then goes and sits in the second empty chair, he will realize that something can happen with this technique, even though no words are spoken and no thoughts thought.

In the most accepted sense of the word, communication expects a return. In other words, a particle going from Point A in space to Point B in space is expected, if Life has anything to do with it, to then of itself, or with an approximation of it, go from Point B back to A again. A complete communication cycle is from Point A in space to Point B, and Point B back to Point A. In order to demonstrate the degree to which this affects human behavior, one need only perform another simple technique.

One takes two chairs, sitting some few feet apart, facing each other. He sits down in one of the chairs and looks at the empty chair and says, “Why don’t you answer?” He says this aloud to the empty chair. He then gets up and sits down in the empty chair and faces the chair he just vacated and refuses to answer. He gets up again and returns to the first chair, sits down, and says, “You must answer me.” He then removes himself to the second chair, then actually looks at the first chair, then says, “All right. What do you want to know?” He then gets up out of the second chair and goes to the first chair and says, “Are you all right?” He then removes himself to the second chair and says, “Yes, I am all right.” He will experience full relief if he does this.

Almost any computation of this chair act can be worked out, but the one having to do with answering is the most effective. This explains to you why a communication lag on the part of another person can be transferred as an aberration.

We discover, then, that the most basic communication is one which does not have any reason connected with it. It is simply the interchange of a particle from one space to another space, and, preferably, the return of that particle, or a particle like it, to the first position in space.

Any communication is an anchor point. In order to understand the significance of an anchor point, one only has to realize the actual definition of space. For many centuries, in fact, during all of written history, man has not had an accurate, workable, definition of space. This omission is extremely peculiar, because he lives and exists continually in space. Of course, he really avoids space. He would much rather look at a person who is occupying a space, than the space surrounding the person. He is avoiding space to such a degree that he is always trying to work toward something, and is never trying to work toward the gain of nothing, except during some low-toned activity like war.

You can readily establish for yourself the correctness of this definition of space.

Space is the viewpoint of dimension.

In the earlier editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, one discovers under the heading of “Time and Space” a long article which says bluntly that time and space are matters of psychology, not matters of physics. They must be resolved in the field of the human mind before they can be resolved by the physicists. This proves to be true, for with the introduction of space as a viewpoint of dimension, not only human behavior, but many intricate and complex problems in physics fall apart. Like all things worth knowing, this definition is idiotically simple, but tremendously workable. It is workable to the degree that its direct application in processing can produce, with no other aid, a clear.

The first application of this definition in the theory of processing is to have the preclear sit in a chair and from “inside himself” reach out to the two upper corners of the room behind him and simply hold on to those corners, without thinking. If he does this for a long period of time, he will simply become better and better. He may have some bad periods while he does this, but nevertheless the technique inevitably results in a better condition. If just this technique and no other technique were used this person, at the end of perhaps fifty or eighty hours, would be in good physical and mental condition, if not a Theta clear.

In this technique we are putting theory directly into practice. More and more, we are beginning to use these two things as identities. Theory is practice, and that auditor or that instructor who is trying to separate theory from practice is missing a great deal in the science, and is not getting too good results in his practicing.

In essence, holding on to two comers of the room is making space, but again, this is maintaining a condition of communication. One has an anchor point of his own up in each of the two back corners of the room. One can just as well hold all eight corners of the room with an anchor point of his own and his eyes closed. However, this technique is often too vigorous for a preclear. He can also do a total spacation, which is to say, perform Step III of SOP-8.

When we understand that communication is a fundamental, and is a first action of space, as well as the first action which takes place in space, we can advance our processing markedly. In the first place, we have an immediate index as to how aberrated our preclear may be. Preclears are aberrated if they have a communication lag.

They have a communication lag as long as they have no space. In other words, communication lag is inverse to the amount of space a person has. This may sound very technical, but it is only as technical as you care to make it. There is nothing simpler than sitting down and making with eight points a cube of space, and then moving a particle, which you have created, from one point to another point inside the space you have created. In this way, it is possible to understand both space and communication.

Affinity and Reality have taken secondary roles because they are dealing with nothing more than the particle pattern or the number of viewpoints which agree upon the particle pattern. The pattern or velocity of the particle creates the degree of affinity, whether emotion or effort, and the reality depends upon the number of viewpoints which are in agreement upon the pattern of the particle. In both affinity and reality it can be traced that these are secondary to the condition of the existence of a particle and its change in space.

In working Standard Operating Procedure 8 (as given in Issue 16-G of the Journal) one does not have in the seven steps an immediate index of the sanity of the individual. These are steps relating to techniques used at various levels of difficulty with techniques. These are not necessarily an indication of the sanity of a person, even though Number VII is marked “Psychotic” and Number VI “Neurotic.” VII and VI are so marked only to direct the auditor’s attention to the fact that these two techniques are so good that they can be used on any level of case and that he should not use other techniques on psychotic or neurotic people. These definitions of the steps are not to be construed by a preclear, if they are used upon him, to mean that he is psychotic. In order to have a theory of evaluation of cases which matches with the seven steps of SOP-8, it is necessary to move the preclear out of the seven steps and into a step gradient we could call A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

This step gradient would be the gradient scale of the communication lag of the preclear. This is a direct index of sanity. A, which compares to Step I, would be an almost instantaneous response, and G, at the other end of the gradient scale, would be a lag so long that it did not return. In other words, this is a communication-return index.

In using SOP-8, if one exteriorizes an individual by using Step III, he often finds that the individual’s communication speeds up markedly or slows down. If he is to continue the practice on the preclear while the preclear is exteriorized, then it is necessary for him to re-evaluate the preclear. If the preclear remains at the same communication speed as before being exteriorized, the auditor simply goes on using the same step level which exteriorized the preclear. However, if the communication level of the preclear speeded up markedly, then the auditor shifts from the step which he used to exteriorize the preclear to a higher, faster motion step. If the preclear’s communication lag became greater when exteriorized, then the auditor moves over into the ABCDEFG scale, locates his communication lag, and moves back into SOP-8, using a lower level step such as VI or VII on the preclear, after the preclear has been exteriorized. As communication is the single most important factor today in processing itself, the auditor will do well to regard it as such.