Security Checking has an important part to play in modern auditing. We have the datum that as a pc comes up in responsibility so does his recognition of overts. This factor can seriously hamper a pc’s progress. Security Checking is a case cleaning activity and it should be thoroughly and competently applied. It is not something to be done just for form’s sake. It is done to speed up the advance of the case. A pc who has overts ready to be pulled just cannot make the rapid progress which modern clearing techniques make possible. So don’t underestimate the value of Sec Checking. Learn to do it. Learn to do it well and when you do it, go in and do an expert and thorough job.
Security Checking is a specialized type of auditing, and it takes a lot of skill and at times some courage to do it well. Auditors must not be kind nor yet unkind. This does not mean that you steer a luke warm middle course between kindness and unkindness. Neither of these two impostors have anything to do with it. You just go in and audit, you go in to find — and that means dig for overts. If you go in with pc’s needle clean and your questioning can get that needle to react, then you are winning.
The success of an auditor can be measured by the extent to which he can get reactions on the needle and then cleaning those reactions getting more reactions and cleaning those and so on. It’s a probing operation like probing for sore places on a body, locating them and then healing them. The skilled auditor, however, gets to the root of the trouble and clears up a whole batch of overts at once.
Security Checking is done in Model Session. The beginning rudiments are put in and by the time you start the body of the session, in this case the security check, the pc should have a nice clean needle. The next thing is to tell the pc that you are going to help him to clean up, and really clean up, the questions on the Form that you are using. Remember it is the question you are going to clean — not the needle. You’ve already got a clean needle and you could probably keep it clean by bad TR 1, failure to dig, or just sheer bad auditing. No, it’s the question you are cleaning, and in the process you are going to get a dirty or reacting needle. So really get it over to your pc that you are going to clean the question.
The next action is to announce the first question that you are going to clean. The important thing at this stage is to groove in the question. There are a variety of ways to do this, e.g. , ask what the question means. What period or time the question covers. What activities would be included. Where the pc has been that might be something to do with the question. If any other people are likely to be involved. In other words you are steering the pc’s attention to various parts of his bank and getting him to have a preliminary look. When this has been done, using very good TR 1, you give him the question — off the meter. You can forget your anti Q and A drill. You take your pc’s answer and bird dog him about it. If he gives you a general answer you ask him for a specific time (or a specific example) don’t accept motivators. If he gives you a motivator you say “OK, but what did you do there?” and you want something before the motivator. Example: — Pc: “I got mad at him because he kicked my foot.” Aud: “What had you done before he kicked your foot?” In this case the pc is giving an overt “I got mad at him” but in fact he is cunningly selling the motivator “He kicked me in the foot”. So the rule here is “go earlier than the motivator”. Similarly you don’t accept criticisms, unkind thoughts, explanations. You want what the pc has done and you want the Time Place Form and Event.
When you have succeeded in this you don’t leave it there. You ask for an earlier time he had done something like it and you keep going earlier. What you are after is the earliest time he stole, hit somebody, got angry with a pc or whatever is his “crime”. Get the earliest one and you will find that the others will blow off like thistledown.
Keep a sly eye on your meter and you can tell when you are in a hot area. Use it to help you to know where to dig, but don’t use it to steer the pc at this stage. This encourages laziness on the part of the pc. You want him in there foraging about and digging up his bank in the process.
Only when your pc is thoroughly and healthily exhausted do you check the question on the meter. If you have done an excellent job the question will be clean.
However if you get a read you steer your pc by saying “There”, “There” whenever you see a repetition of the original read. When he finds it you repeat the procedure outline above. You don’t go back to the meter until you have really got all there is to be got. When you have got a clean needle you put in your mid ruds on the session, and if these are clean and only if they are clean you go on to the next question. If the ruds do bring out something then you go back to the question and start over again. And so you go on cleaning question after question. The success of a Sec Check Session is not judged by the number of questions cleaned but by the amount of looking you succeeded in making your pc do.
If you do this properly, that is the whole outline, you will have a well satisfied pc. If he ARC breaks then you have missed something, so pull your missed withholds. A rising TA is a clue to something missed. If a pc isn’t happy — very happy — at the end of a question then you have missed something. Pc’s will tell you a hundred and one things that are wrong with your auditing, the D of P’s instruction, the form of the question, etc., but they all add up to the same thing — something has been missed.
Finally do End Ruds and these should run quickly and smoothly. Run a bit of havingness if necessary. Sharpen your pencil for the goals and gains and you’ll leave the session happy and satisfied because that’s how your pc feels.
One word of warning. If you leave a question unflat, mark it on your auditor’s report and tell your pc it isn’t flat.
Good digging.