The violent left right ragged motion of the needle which sometimes occurs on a pc’s meter is called „A Rockslam” or „R/S.” The term was taken from a process in the 50s which sought to locate „A rock” on the pc’s early timetrack; the „slam” is a description of the needle violence, meaning it „slams” back and forth. For a time all left right motions of the needle were considered and called „Rockslams” until it was found that a smooth left right flow was a symptom of release or key out and this became the „Floating Needle.” There is yet another left right motion of the needle called the „Theta Bop.” This occurs when the person has or is trying to exteriorize. „Theta” is the symbol for the person as a spirit or goodness; „bop” is an electronic term for a slight hitch in the sweep of a needle. A „Theta Bop” hitches evenly at each end of the sweep left and right and is very even in the middle of the sweep.

Neither the „Floating Needle” nor the „Theta Bop” can be confused with a „Rockslam.” The difference of the Rockslam is uneven, ragged agitation left and right; even the distances traveled left and right are likely to be different in each swing from the last.

A „Rockslam” can be caused sometimes by leaving rings on the pc’s fingers or by a short circuit in the meter or by the cans (electrodes) touching something like a dress. These are the mechanical considerations and must be ruled out before the pc can be considered to have „Rockslammed.” If the pc is not wearing rings and if the meter needle is calm with the lead unplugged, if the lead is okay, and if the pc is not jiggling the ends of the cans against his clothes, then the pc’s Rockslam is caused by the pc’s bank.

One has to be very careful about the correctness of the pc actually having Rockslammed while on the meter that it was actually observed, that it was not mechanically caused as above. One puts the R/S down on the worksheet and also gives exactly what was asked. And also that the mechanical points were checked without distracting the pc.

ONE MUST ALWAYS REPORT A ROCKSLAM IN THE AUDITING REPORT, NOTE IT WITH SESSION DATE AND PAGE INSIDE THE LEFT COVER OF THE PC’S FOLDER AND REPORT IT TO ETHICS INCLUDING THE QUESTION OR SUBJECT WHICH ROCKSLAMMED, PHRASED EXACTLY.

Why? Because the Rockslam is the most important needle manifestation! It gives the clue to the pc’s case.

In 1970 I began a full-scale research project into the subject of insanity and its relationship to cases and case gains and suppression. It was only then that the full significance of the Rockslam was unearthed. This research developed into what is now called EXPANDED DIANETICS, a series of special processes and actions with their drills and training which permits the auditor to handle a specific case type. This was, by the way, Man’s first system of positive detection and handling of psychosis and the first full understanding of what psychosis is.

While this bulletin is not in any way a two minute course in or a substitute for full training in Expanded Dianetics, any auditor who audits, sec checks, or handles people on a meter has to know what a Rockslam is and how it behaves and what he should do about it.

The first thing is to be able to recognize one and to quickly with the scan of the eye and unplug of the meter cord (without any distraction of or notice by the pc) make the checks for a mechanical Rockslam as given above.

You can make a meter „Rockslam” with no pc or cord connected to it by (a) turning it on; (b) put the sensitivity at perhaps 2; (c) put the needle at „set”; (d) rapidly, very rapidly, move the TA back and forth maybe a quarter of an inch and do it unevenly. That, if you did it very fast and unevenly, would be something that resembled a Rockslam. But no matter how fast you made your fingers move, a real R/S is a trifle faster. If you do that you will see what an R/S looks like. The needle in this experiment is not made to hit the sides of the meter.

Now if you take the same setup and smoothly slowly move the tone arm back and forth about 2 times a second without any roughness and the same distance right and left, you will have a Floating Needle. Note it very well as this comes at a time of release and is the thing a good auditor hopes to see and gives him the end-off signal for a process. It has to be well known as you NEVER bypass one in a session and to do so makes an uncomfortable pc. (The pc will often cognite — and get a realization about himself or life at this point and one does not stop him from doing this.) This is the thing you indicate to the pc. You don’t ever indicate Rockslams or Theta Bops. When you see it and, without stopping or interrupting the pc’s cognition, you always say, „Your needle is floating.”

Now the Theta Bop can also be shown to yourself by you. Set up the meter as above. Only this time, you smoothly swing it to the right and give it a tiny twitch in the same direction. Then you smoothly, at once, swing it to the left and give it a tiny twitch in the same direction. Then do it to the right. And so on. This is a Theta Bop. It is different than a Floating Needle only in that it hitches at each end of the swing. So learn to recognize it.

There is a vicious smooth right direction slash that occurs when a pc hits a certain area of the bank that is called a „Rocket Read” and there is of course the small fall, long fall (which both go to the right and indicate a charged question or reaction) and there is the gradual rise to the left. But these do not repeat back and forth which is the characteristic of the Rockslam, Floating Needle and Theta Bop.

All right, so we know exactly what it looks like when we talk about a ROCKSLAM as a read of the meter. We know how it can be mechanically caused. And we know what we have to record and report when it is seen.

But exactly what does a Rockslam mean with regards to the pc?

If you don’t know this you can miss on the pc, on the case, on the org and humanity.

A ROCKSLAM MEANS A HIDDEN EVIL INTENTION ON THE SUBJECT OR QUESTION UNDER DISCUSSION OR AUDITING.

Two things underlie insanity, or to be more specific, there are two causes and conditions both of which have been lumped together by man and called insanity. He could not of course define it as he didn’t know what caused it.

The first of these two things does not concern us overly much here and is the subject of a separate checksheet training and is called PTS or Potential Trouble Source handling. A „PTS” is a person who has been or is connected with somebody who has evil intentions. A PTS can feel uncomfortable in life or be neurotic or go insane because of the actions upon him of a person with evil intentions. Most of the people in institutions are probable PTSes.

The second of these two things is insanity caused to the individual himself (let alone others) by hidden evil intentions.

The extent of these intentions and what the person will do (and hide) in order to carry them out is quite shocking. These people are covert or overt criminals and many of them are insane — meaning beyond all rationality in their acts. Because their evil intentions are hidden and because they are often very plausible such individuals are what make „behavior so mysterious” and „man looks so evil when you see what mankind does” and all sorts of fallacies.

It is this last type, the chronic, heavy Rockslammer, which Expanded Dianetics handles.

One Rockslam doesn’t make a psychotic. Or a total menace to everyone. But it does mean there could be more and it might in rare cases mean you have, seeing enough of these R/Ses, a very dangerous person on your hands and in your vicinity. And that person must be handled by Expanded Dianetics.

You won’t see a great many Rockslams in auditing people so you could be totally thrown off by surprise when you see one. And mess it all up because you are surprised. So know what it is and don’t get all quivery and make mistakes and blow your confront. Just carry on.

If you don’t note the EXACT question that was asked and the EXACTLY worded statement the pc made when the R/S was seen, you can muck it up for the Expanded Dianetics guys. They won’t be able to get it turned back on again easily and will lose a lot of time. So you have to be sure your auditing report is accurate, that the R/S is written BIG on the column and circled and, no matter what else you do in the session, you have to get it recorded in the left front cover of the folder giving the date and page of the session and you have to report it to Ethics. And also you don’t third party the pc and give him a bad time in the session because of it.

Now R/Ses most easily turn on during Sec Checks or Integrity Processing or when pulling withholds or trying to investigate something. So the people who see these most often are those engaged in that activity and not routine auditing (when they can also but more rarely turn on). Further the most likely person to collide with „needing to be sec checked” is an R/Ser, which again increases the numbers of R/Ses seen in these activities compared to routine auditing. But a very heavy R/Ser will also turn them on in routine auditing.

It is the exact point of the R/S in the session, the exact question that was asked and the exact subject or phrase where the R/S turned on that are important. And these are very important as then the person can be fully handled with a full Expanded Dianetics rundown by a qualified Expanded Dianetics Specialist. When, of course, the person gets to that point on his grade chart. (The grade chart points are after Dianetics (like Drug RDs etc.) but before Grades, after Grades but before Power, after Power but before Solo, and after OT III or after any single grade above OT III. These are the only points where Expanded Dianetics can be delivered and the R/S fully and completely handled.)

Now here is how you can turn off an R/S and mistakenly think it is handled:

1. The overt-motivator sequence has two sides. One is what the person has done (overt) and what is done to the person (motivator). You can ask, when the person R/Ses on something, if anyone has ever INVALIDATED him on that subject or action. He will find some and the R/S will turn off AND WON’T EVEN BE FAINTLY HANDLED BUT ONLY SUBMERGED. One can believe he had „handled” the R/S. Not true. He has just turned it off and maybe made it harder to find next time. One can ask what the person has done TO the subject mentioned and while this may unburden the case and make the person a bit better, the R/S is NOT handled, only turned off or submerged. It’s almost as if there are so many overts and motivators on this subject or in this area that the push-pull of it makes the needle go wild (R/S). And indeed, this may be the energy cause, in the bank, of the needle reaction.

But neither overt nor motivator handles an R/S finally because the CAUSE of the R/S is an INTENTION to harm and it isn’t all that likely the basic intention will be reached.

2. Another apparent way the R/S can get „handled” and isn’t is to take the R/Ser earlier-similar on the subject of the R/S. The R/S will probably cease, go „clean.” But in actual fact it is still there, hidden.

3. The third way an R/S can be falsely „handled” is to direct the person’s attention to something else. If, when this is done, the exact subject of the R/S is not noted by the auditor, it will be difficult to find it again when the person goes into Expanded Dianetic auditing.

4. Yet another, and probably the last way to falsely „handle” an R/S is to abuse the person about his conduct or behavior or the R/S, or to „educate” him to do better, or to „modify” his behavior with shocks or surgery or other tortures like the psychiatrists do. In other words one can seek to suppress the R/S in numerous ways. Maybe the R/S won’t occur (being too overburdened now) but it is still there, buried very deep and possibly beyond reach now.

So if you understand the above four points you will see that although you can ease off the R/S, you have not handled it. It has merely gone out of sight.

All right, what then DOES HANDLE an R/S?

I warned you that this isn’t a two minute course on Expanded Dianetics and it isn’t. An R/S is HANDLED by a fully qualified Expanded Dianetics auditor delivering full Expanded Dianetics to the person at that point on the grade chart where Expanded Dianetics is supposed to be delivered. If anyone thinks it can be done effectively any other way or if he C/Ses it to be done and the auditor is stupid enough to try to do that C/S, then it’s Committees of Evidence and Suspended Certificates all around.

With that warning, and only with that warning, I can briefly state what has to be done with the case. This is not what YOU do if you are not delivering full Expanded Dianetics at the right point on the grade chart. It is a brief statement so that you can understand what lies under that R/S.

The pc with an R/S on any given subject and who R/Ses while discussing that or related subjects HAS AN EVIL INTENTION TOWARD THE SUBJECT DISCUSSED OR SOME CLOSELY RELATED SUBJECT. The pc intends that subject or area of life nothing but calculating, covert, underhanded HARM which will be at all times carefully hidden from that subject.

Thus, the Expanded Dianetics Specialist, in handling that case (at the proper point on the grade chart) has to be able to locate each and every subject and question and R/S in that person’s folder as noted by Sec Checkers and previous auditors or cramming officers or why finders. He has to have the complete list of R/S subjects. If they are noted as to session date and page and if all sec checking papers and cramming papers are in that person’s folder, then the Expanded Dianetics Specialist can do a full and complete job. Otherwise he has to do a lot of other time wasting actions to get the R/Ses found and turned on again.

What the Expanded Dianetics Specialist actually does is locate EXACTLY the actual evil intention for every R/S on the case and handle each one to total conclusion. When he is finished, if he has done his job well, the person’s behavior will be magically improved and as to his social presence, menace and conduct, well that will be toward survival.

When you see an R/S, if you are not an Expanded Dianetic Specialist doing Expanded Dianetics at the correct point on the grade chart, you don’t say, „Hey, you’ve got an evil intention!” and you don’t ask „Say, what’s that evil intention?” or do corny things like that because you’ll get the pc self listing, you may get a wrong item, you won’t know what to do with it and you’re just likely to get the auditing room wrapped around your neck right there.

No, you quietly note it, make sure it isn’t a mechanical fault, write it big on the worksheet, write down everything the pc is saying swiftly, note what question you were asking and let the pc talk and ack him and go on with what you are doing with the pc at the time. And after session you note it in the left-hand cover of the folder and send a report to Ethics.

And some day, when he’s done his Drug Rundown or gotten to one of the points on the grade chart where a full XDn can be done, why then it will be handled. And a good C/S will program or tip the case for that to be done.

So that’s the know-how you have to know about R/Ses to really help the guy and the society and your group.

We’re not in the business of curing psychos. The governments at this writing pay the psychiatrists billions a year to torture and kill because of R/Ses they don’t know anything about. The crime in the society out there is caused by people who R/S. Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon and Caesar were probably the most loaded R/Sers of all time unless it was Jack the Ripper or your local friendly psychiatrist.

So know what you are seeing when you see it and know what to do about it. And don’t kid yourself. Or vilify or mow down people who R/S; we’re not in that business.

And the Expanded Dianetic Specialist and the pc someday will love you dearly for knowing your job and doing it right.