The most appalling ignorance has existed on the use of magnetic recording tapes.

It is therefore of the greatest possible importance that the subject of tape use be grasped and gotten rapidly into effect.

Probably half the technology of admin and tech exists only on tape.

Tapes, incorrectly used, can be the source of endless misunderstoods. Because tapes have been almost uniformly misused in the past, these misunderstoods have added up to a general misunderstood on the subject of tapes themselves.

Students have been known to copy down the whole tape so they could study it. This is a complete waste of time and misuse of student study hours.

Some orgs even played advanced study tapes to the public.

European orgs have even played translation quality tapes (usually not auditorium quality) of OEC Volumes as raw public lectures! (And lost their audience through lack of quality and inaudible and strange words.)

Casual staff briefing tapes, not okay for release, of very bad quality, have been played to staffs of other orgs and the public.

There is no end to the abuses.

Therefore, for the benefit of understanding words alone, it is VITAL that tapes be properly used and not abused.

There are four classes of tapes. These are:

1. Course study tapes.

2. Public lecture tapes.

3. Briefing tapes.

4. Model performance tapes.

Tapes made for courses are of two varieties:

(a) English, usually by LRH.

(b) Translations, done by translators.

They are for course use. This is what the org sells — training on Tech or Admin.

These tapes appear on checksheets and are done at the points of checksheets where they are called for, and are done by Method 2 for tapes or Method 3 for tapes as required.

The foreign language tape courses are done from a special tape checksheet and are done exactly as laid down by Method 2 or Method 3.

None of these tapes are all written out by the student and then studied. This is a waste of time.

Further, such tapes are NOT played straight through with the student making notes of any misunderstood words “to look up later”. This will blank out the tape content on the student’s mind and knock out the student.

So to play a course tape straight through to any student is to risk a stupidity and a blow. It is not done. It does not matter whether the student takes notes of misunderstoods or not. A course tape is not played straight through. Only the earphone, footpedal start-stop control procedures are used.

A course tape is never played to a group of students. When played to more than one student, some student is going to get a misunderstood and there goes a blank student.

Two students don’t even listen to a tape even on Method 2 Tape Word Clearing! One has the meter and footpedal and the other the earphones. The word clearer stops at each read. He does not otherwise listen.

Course tape quality must be good. All the words must be hearable and not inaudible. They must not be slurred or hard to make out.

The earphones and tape player used must be high fidelity just any old earphones won’t do.

The tape player “playing head” across which the tape passes must be clean — done by a cotton swab on a toothpick and cleaning fluid. The tape coating comes off on the playing head and after a time the sound is badly blurred.

Using a course tape any other way is now forbidden. Tests have shown that violations of this are the reason for student failures and blows and out-Ethics.

It goes without saying that the general handling of tape players and tapes must be well learned and practiced by Course Supervisors and students.

The probable reason stats fall after tape congresses is the misunderstood word.

Congresses seldom use really high fidelity equipment. Further, tape copying is often done by outside firms and the tape copies themselves may be of poor quality. The combination is deadly.

We looked for the reason for stat drops after tape congresses and this is the only explanation which has come forth.

Doingness congresses that are mainly seminars have been very successful. (By doingness is meant TRs — training drills — and other actions.) The relay of data to a public whose vocabulary is usually inadequate is not likely to win, as it hits their faulty vocabulary for one thing and uses new words for another. You can show somebody how to do things far better than you can tell him.

This then extends into Div 6 Introductory Actions as well. The relay of data comes after the demonstration in action terms.

The possibility of possible bad playing speakers, possible low tape copy quality, the barriers of languages not learned in the first place and the introduction of new mental concepts combine into a hurdle that makes tape or film public presentation adventurous.

Listening to public type tapes, by using footpedal start-stop tape players, is being put in a special public course category.

Raw public tape and film presentations are however a must to keep the flavor and meaning of Dianetics and Scientology. So ensure excellent quality tapes and equipment are used with correct tapes for that public and you will have success.

These are not to be confused with Special Briefing Course Tapes.

A briefing tape is done to brief or debrief missionaires or to record a conference or to record special instructions to a person or group. It can then be used for reference or to settle any dispute. It can also be used to inform a staff or several staffs.

A briefing tape is then a tape designed for a special and informed audience.

If the tape quality is good and the audience is already a familiar or trained audience, a briefing tape can be played only to the audience for which it was intended.

To do otherwise is to risk misunderstood words and non-comprehension of what it is all about in general.

“Ron’s Journals” were staff briefing tapes. They began to be used for public. While they were not without success, one could no longer brief staffs on this line and the line was therefore cut. One could not make them with a security that they would be played to staffs.

An isolated briefing to a single executive on “these are our future hopes” has been thereafter used as a staff briefing of many orgs as “these are your orders”.

Any tape is designed for a specific public.

Briefing tapes are especially subject to abuse by being played to wrong publics.

Any briefing tape which contains specific orders and plans which could be misunderstood should be played only to the individuals concerned with a stop-start footpedal and Method 3 Word Clearing, not going past any misunderstood.

After a person has been briefed verbally, it is very revelatory to then Word Clear 2 the tape made at the same time. It will often be found that misunderstood words lead to potential alter-is in the actions required.

Tape in this instance is an enormous help in assisting and clarifying briefings.

A group can be briefed if thereafter each is Word Cleared Method 3 or 2 on the tape afterwards, using standard tape word clearing.

Needless to say such tapes must be of good quality.

Tapes exist which give a standard of performance.

In Dianetic and Scientology Auditing student auditors have never been known to achieve a high standard of session presence and Communication (and accordingly high results) without the careful study of tapes made of similar sessions by high level auditors.

A student musician is unlikely to achieve professional performance level unless he has heard a professional play.

It would take a film or live demonstration to communicate a high standard of performance in a purely action subject. For instance for centuries no one believed that Robin Hood could split his first target arrow with a second until a new generation worked on it and a few painfully recovered the lost art of archery and then demonstrated how it was done for others to see.

Tapes and films serve a vital purpose in maintaining a performance standard.

As these tapes and films show how it is done and the atmosphere and rhythm of action they are not subject to word clearing.

Tape and film training is vital, valuable and has its role.

But like showing a child how to open a book and read, there is exact technology in using tapes and films.

The first thing one must realize is that the use of tape and film is itself a technical subject that must be studied and learned. One does not naturally know it.

The failures of universities to make educated and civilized men is because their own professors know nothing of misunderstood words and so lectured happily on and on to a snoring student body. One professor of physics used to open the classroom windows wide in freezing winter “to keep his students from going to sleep in HIS class”. And then stood on the platform and defined nothing as he rambled on. All it did for his class was give them coughs between snores!

The handling and use of tape and film in training and administration IS a subject.

By failing to know it and use that information, one can block the road for himself and all others to being learned and being free.