Independent Scientology Advanced Organization of the Great Plains announces Online Academy

[TheOriginalBigBlue]

On one hand, keeping people in the word clearing loop is a very powerful indoctrination tool - but on the other, it takes a lot of time that can probably be better spent working or increasing gross income. And, they probably lose a lot of people who get frustrated doing this without yet being hard core.

From the written stuff they put out lately I sure don't get the impression they care much about literacy.

I think Study Tech and word clearing was more LRH's hobby horse and nowadays I'm guessing it's more of a hindrance to other priorities.

 

[JackStraw]

My recollection is that if you did M1 and the Student Hat, then you were a Fast Flow Student, which meant that you didn't have to do star-rate checkouts on materials that had a star next to them on the check-sheet - you could just sign them off.

If you did the Primary Rundown (look up all of the words on the Student Hat course, one by one, in alphabetical order, from a pre-prepared list) and then did the Student Hat, then you were 'super-literate'. I think that, technically, the Primary Rundown INCLUDED a study of the Student Hat after the word clearing. Also, the wordclearing wasn't done Method 1, it was (if I recall correctly) Method 8, which just means clearing words from a prepared list of words on a subject.

I don't think Method 1 was usually done on a particular SUBJECT. My recollection is that M1 was normally done as a general clean up of your past education, and so included looking for misunderstood words and symbols (MUs) on ANY subjects that you had studied in the past. So you couldn't do an M1 on a subject that you haven't yet studied, because you wouldn't yet have any MUs on that subject to clear.

Then the Primary Rundown just sort of disappeared - nobody ever mentioned it in the 90s. It didn't seem to have been cancelled. Just nobody did it. I know of a couple of people who did it maybe around the late 80s/very early 90s. It almost drove them nuts.

Then the Key to Life course came out in the early 90s, and one of the early parts of that course involved a lot of clearing of small words, followed by learning grammar, and some Clay Table Processing. I actually enjoyed that course - or I would have done if I hadn't been under such pressure from CMO Int to complete it.

I'm surprised they didn't keep the Primary Rundown going mainstream, to be done after the KTL and Life Orientation Course, and maybe after Super Power, so as to make you super-duper-duper literate. It's always handy to have another layer of super-duper to keep people busy on course. Logically, it SHOULD come after the KTL, after spending all that time wordclearing small words and learning grammar.

I think word clearing is useful. What is NOT useful is focusing on wordclearing as a thing in itself, for its own sake. Sitting there reading a dictionary isn't going to make anyone superliterate. I think it worked quite well on the KTL, but that only involved common small words.

But when I got to the LOC, that's where things got sticky. Being on staff, having to figure out your 'hat in life' on the LOC, and realising that it didn't involve being on staff, led me [notice I can spell the past tense of 'lead' properly - half of the English-speaking world doesn't seem to be able to, hehehe; I'm not attributing that to the KTL!] into quite a bit of mental gymnastics and fudging of the rest of the course.

I think that looking up words is valid and useful. But the panic about MUs that the Student Hat can instill can ruin a person's study habits also. I remember being scared to look at advertisements on the roadside, on the way to course for the KTL, for fear that I'd encounter an MU. I still don't really bother with fiction, and I think that's partially because of the emyouphobia that I had when I first left the church.

Per my recollection, your version is closest, but not quite right.
Student hat: required for nearly every upper course. Academy levels, PTS/SP, etc.
M1 W/Cing: "recovers" one's education.
Student hat + M1 = Fast Flow Student. One doesn't have to get star-rate checkouts (except on materials on how to give star-rate checkouts, e.g. Supervisor course or Pro Word Clearer course. Still had to have those checked out.)
Primary Rundown: Prerequisite: M1 W/C.
Student hat done by M8 W/Cing, meaning ALL the definitions of ALL the words, alphabetically of ALL the materials. You began with a word list of all the words from tape 1 (All defs. because you had no context for its use and so had to clear all defs including technical, specialized, archaic etc.!) Then study the tape (listen to it) and get (usually) M4 W/Cing and a star-rate checkout on it, then on to the next word list for tape 2.
The lists tended to get shorter as you went as words cleared on an earlier list were left off subsequent lists. (You had already cleared them.)
No additional benefit than Fast Flow ability except you are now "Super Literate" - yay!
I remember finding in, I think the C/S Series, a requirement that if not already done before OTIII, the PRD was a required next step.
I remember querying this as I noticed it was not being done. (This was in the late 70's- early 80's.

Jack

 

[pineapple]

My recollection is that if you did M1 and the Student Hat, then you were a Fast Flow Student, which meant that you didn't have to do star-rate checkouts on materials that had a star next to them on the check-sheet - you could just sign them off.

If you did the Primary Rundown (look up all of the words on the Student Hat course, one by one, in alphabetical order, from a pre-prepared list) and then did the Student Hat, then you were 'super-literate'. I think that, technically, the Primary Rundown INCLUDED a study of the Student Hat after the word clearing. Also, the wordclearing wasn't done Method 1, it was (if I recall correctly) Method 8, which just means clearing words from a prepared list of words on a subject.

I don't think Method 1 was usually done on a particular SUBJECT. My recollection is that M1 was normally done as a general clean up of your past education, and so included looking for misunderstood words and symbols (MUs) on ANY subjects that you had studied in the past. So you couldn't do an M1 on a subject that you haven't yet studied, because you wouldn't yet have any MUs on that subject to clear.

Then the Primary Rundown just sort of disappeared - nobody ever mentioned it in the 90s. It didn't seem to have been cancelled. Just nobody did it. I know of a couple of people who did it maybe around the late 80s/very early 90s. It almost drove them nuts.

-- snip --

I think that looking up words is valid and useful. But the panic about MUs that the Student Hat can instill can ruin a person's study habits also. I remember being scared to look at advertisements on the roadside, on the way to course for the KTL, for fear that I'd encounter an MU. I still don't really bother with fiction, and I think that's partially because of the emyouphobia that I had when I first left the church.

Student Hat was once required before HSDC, so I was told, but it wasn't when I did it. I just had to do the BSM (Basic Study Manual), a short course that cost $75 and took about a week. I think I did Student Hat before the Academy Levels (Levels 0-IV).

Later on I was going to do the NED C/S Course, and I needed M1 so I could do that. My recollection is the combo of Student Hat + M1 made me super-lit, and I think I got a cert saying I was. But this was about 40 years ago and even at the time I wasn't very jazzed about it -- just considered it something I had to go through to get to something else. A LOT of scn is like that: to get from A to B you have to go through X, Y, and Z first.

So maybe my recall is incorrect, OR we ALL actually misunderstood the correct meaning of "super-literate" and they gave me a super-lit cert when they really shouldn't have! I certainly believe this is possible.

In M1 W/C'ing you assess a list of subjects. This includes subjects you may not have studied this LT (lifetime), since according to scn you're an immortal being, and just because you haven't studied it this lifetime doesn't mean you NEVER studied it. This looks like the correct list here on Clearbird. See "Word-Clearing Intensive":
http://freezoneearth.org/Clearbird/Clearbird2004/FrameSearch.html

The pc is asked to add other subjects to the list from his own experience.

I do remember hearing of the PRD when I was in, but don't think I ever knew of anyone actually doing it. I left in 1981.

I suspect that some study phenomena were actually aggravated by the "study tech" rather than helped. I used to see people going into heavy dope-off on course and I suspect -- though I can't prove -- that they were turning this on because they'd been told to expect it. A sort of post-hypnotic suggestion.

One piece of study tech that's seldom mentioned and I thought too little practiced was "evaluation of importances." On the BSM there was an exercise where you made a list of things that were UNimportant about the course. I think a lot of students on scn courses thought EVERY WORD was of crashing importance, so it was very hard for them to make any progress.

But in retrospect that may not matter too much, since so much of it was complete BS anyway. I hope it didn't remain a problem when they got out.

 

[Dave B.]

My recollection is that if you did M1 and the Student Hat, then you were a Fast Flow Student, which meant that you didn't have to do star-rate checkouts on materials that had a star next to them on the check-sheet - you could just sign them off.

If you did the Primary Rundown (look up all of the words on the Student Hat course, one by one, in alphabetical order, from a pre-prepared list) and then did the Student Hat, then you were 'super-literate'. I think that, technically, the Primary Rundown INCLUDED a study of the Student Hat after the word clearing. Also, the wordclearing wasn't done Method 1, it was (if I recall correctly) Method 8, which just means clearing words from a prepared list of words on a subject.

I don't think Method 1 was usually done on a particular SUBJECT. My recollection is that M1 was normally done as a general clean up of your past education, and so included looking for misunderstood words and symbols (MUs) on ANY subjects that you had studied in the past. So you couldn't do an M1 on a subject that you haven't yet studied, because you wouldn't yet have any MUs on that subject to clear.

Then the Primary Rundown just sort of disappeared - nobody ever mentioned it in the 90s. It didn't seem to have been cancelled. Just nobody did it. I know of a couple of people who did it maybe around the late 80s/very early 90s. It almost drove them nuts.

Then the Key to Life course came out in the early 90s, and one of the early parts of that course involved a lot of clearing of small words, followed by learning grammar, and some Clay Table Processing. I actually enjoyed that course - or I would have done if I hadn't been under such pressure from CMO Int to complete it.

I'm surprised they didn't keep the Primary Rundown going mainstream, to be done after the KTL and Life Orientation Course, and maybe after Super Power, so as to make you super-duper-duper literate. It's always handy to have another layer of super-duper to keep people busy on course. Logically, it SHOULD come after the KTL, after spending all that time wordclearing small words and learning grammar.

I think word clearing is useful. What is NOT useful is focusing on wordclearing as a thing in itself, for its own sake. Sitting there reading a dictionary isn't going to make anyone superliterate. I think it worked quite well on the KTL, but that only involved common small words.

But when I got to the LOC, that's where things got sticky. Being on staff, having to figure out your 'hat in life' on the LOC, and realising that it didn't involve being on staff, led me [notice I can spell the past tense of 'lead' properly - half of the English-speaking world doesn't seem to be able to, hehehe; I'm not attributing that to the KTL!] into quite a bit of mental gymnastics and fudging of the rest of the course.

I think that looking up words is valid and useful. But the panic about MUs that the Student Hat can instill can ruin a person's study habits also. I remember being scared to look at advertisements on the roadside, on the way to course for the KTL, for fear that I'd encounter an MU. I still don't really bother with fiction, and I think that's partially because of the emyouphobia that I had when I first left the church.

I love encountering M/U's! I mentally take note of it and when I can, later usually, look it up. I have the two volume compact OED which is fantastic. I don't remember any cult dicta about dictionaries, i.e. which ones are better, except not to use dinky dictionaries. As far I'm concerned the OED is tops. Shows first use of the word, year, author, popular early usages of the word, etc. If I could afford it I'd buy the twenty-seven volume full set.

 

[programmer_guy]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

 

[Irayam]

My understanding was you word-cleared all the words on the Study Tapes (not M1) then studied the Stupid -- oops, I mean Student -- Hat.

I've wondered if this might be a good way to learn a foreign language -- do the Super Literate course in that language.

Helena

I improved my English considerably by studying Scientology...

Irayam

 

[JackStraw]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

I did the M1. It never happened to me.

I got a couple pcs through the M1, also. I never even heard of this "technique."
I was a pro W/Cer, too.

Jack.

 

[JackStraw]

I love encountering M/U's! I mentally take note of it and when I can, later usually, look it up. I have the two volume compact OED which is fantastic. I don't remember any cult dicta about dictionaries, i.e. which ones are better, except not to use dinky dictionaries. As far I'm concerned the OED is tops. Shows first use of the word, year, author, popular early usages of the word, etc. If I could afford it I'd buy the twenty-seven volume full set.

I have the same 2 vol. compact OED, as well as the 2 vol. Shorter Oxford, a first edition New Oxford American Dict. and a 1 vol Concise OED! (Plus a red college edition of the American Heritage Dict.) I even have a "big Liddlle"! (Greek-English Lexicon. The LARGE version. Quite chuffed with my little library of dictionaries.

While on mission staff I managed to talk the Qual Sec into letting me on the PRD. My dictionary of choice was the 2 vol. compact OED!!! Sadly, my contract ended and I left staff before I could finish it...

(No one could figure out why I had no interest in the KTL course.

Jack

 

[uncover]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

No, never.
.
.

 

[pineapple]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

No. I never heard of that one. Sounds a wee bit non-standard.

Some other handlings I've heard recommended that I don't think are written down anywhere:

• Have the pc rub feet on the rug to bring the TA down.
• If pc dopes off during R3R (dianetics), gently nudge pc's foot with yours -- play footsie with the pc.

 

[programmer_guy]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

It was a "havingness" process where you are directed by the auditor to point out things in the environment.
I don't remember the name of this process.

 

[pineapple]

It was a "havingness" process where you are directed by the auditor to point out things in the environment.
I don't remember the name of this process.

As a remedy for high TA? Doesn't sound right to me.

In theory (scn theory) I can see how it might make sense (scn sense). The pc as-ises mass, resulting in low havingness, so to compensate he pulls in more mass resulting in high TA. But I've never heard of running a havingness process to remedy high TA. "Low havingness" IS an item on the CS 53 (Hi/Lo TA correction list), but lots of other things are there too, like "ARC break," that aren't among the usual Hi/Lo TA suspects.

I assume your auditor didn't do a CS 53 first, before he ran this havingness process? Did he just say, "Hey, your TA is kinda high, let's go outside and run some havingness?"

(You can see the CS 53 and many other correction lists here, if you're interested:
http://freezoneearth.org/Clearbird/Clearbird2004/appendix_a/c_lists.htm
Note there's also a Word Clearing Correction List.)

 

[programmer_guy]

I don't remember doing a correction list during M1. Maybe we did.
Regardless of this, we did this havingness process.

Apparently, when we came back in my T/A must have been in normal range because we just continued.

I am looking for a wog science explanation (which is difficult for obvious reasons).

So, I'll start by ordering this book and see where it goes from there:

 

[pineapple]

I don't remember doing a correction list during M1. Maybe we did.
Regardless of this, we did this havingness process.

Apparently, when we came back in my T/A must have been in normal range because we just continued.

I am looking for a wog science explanation (which is difficult for obvious reasons).

So, I'll start by ordering this book and see where it goes from there:

I'll propose a "wog science" explanation. It was actually false high TA caused by some condition in the auditing room. Maybe the way you were sitting was cutting off your circulation. Taking a walk restored your circulation. Or maybe the room was cold (air conditioned?) and walking outside warmed you up.

The havingness process actually had nothing to do with it, just the change in environment and exercise. That's my best guess.

Out of curiousity, did the auditor actually tell you your TA was high? In mid-session? When did he do this havingness process? While you were in the middle of clearing a word? After you'd just F/N'ed a word? I wonder if the auditor noted this "havingness" on his worksheets? I can't imagine any C/S thinking that was standard.
Do you remember the auditor's name? Maybe he's still in scn. Let's write him up!

 

[pineapple]

I co-audited M1, and I remember almost nothing about it, except that it was very uneventful. Everything went smoothly. Never did a correction list or needed one, no problems at all. Neither I nor my co-auditor were very enthusiastic about it.

In fact I don't even remember who I co-audited with. I think that's because in W/C'ing you really aren't getting into "case," it's just clearing words. In most auditing you're telling the auditor about yourself (even if it's just imaginary whole track, it's your imagination), or you're learning something about somebody else. But in M1 you don't have that. It's just clearing words. So there isn't the same kind of bond between people.

Also, I've noticed that I remember my later times in scn (when I did M1) much less than the earlier ones. I think that's because in the beginning I was "winning" a lot more -- felt I was making some actual self-improvement -- and for the last two years or so I was just enduring. I was hanging in there but knew something wasn't right. The effect of cognitive dissonance, perhaps.

 

[RogerB]

Reading the above several posts regarding M/Us, misunderstood words and such.

Hubbard actually got it totally wrong with his glib superficiality!

You'll note he kept yapping on about M/Us . . . M/Us, M/Us and M/Us . . . .

In actuality, it's not the M/U that reads on the meter, but the NON-Understood; the words you went past that you did not/do not have a full comprehension and understanding of . . . that is where and why the charge built up that then reads on the meter when you address it.

Folks who actually have true mis-understood words actually don't know it and no charge has built up, though, when they act on the word believing they have a correct comprehension, they screw up . . .

But to Hubbard's warped intellect, they were all the same to him . . . M/U, Non-U??? Meh, all were spouted as being one and the same.

 

[George Layton]

Reading the above several posts regarding M/Us, misunderstood words and such.

Hubbard actually got it totally wrong with his glib superficiality!

You'll note he kept yapping on about M/Us . . . M/Us, M/Us and M/Us . . . .

In actuality, it's not the M/U that reads on the meter, but the NON-Understood; the words you went past that you did not/do not have a full comprehension and understanding of . . . that is where and why the charge built up that then reads on the meter when you address it.

Folks who actually have true mis-understood words actually don't know it and no charge has built up, though, when they act on the word believing they have a correct comprehension, they screw up . . .

But to Hubbard's warped intellect, they were all the same to him . . . M/U, Non-U??? Meh, all were spouted as being one and the same.

I was using a hammer with my left hand the other day. I'm right handed but it was a difficult place to get into. I kept hitting my right thumb. Finally I wised up and used the hammer in my right hand. I hit my left thumb. It was a difficult place to get into.

 

[JackStraw]

A question for those who did M1 word clearing (before continuing to fast-flow Student Hat for Super-Literate):

Did your T/A frequently get too high and then your auditor took you outside to take a walk?

As I mentioned earlier, I have never heard of this "remedy" in word clearing. (I was a pro word clearer for years.)

The "take a walk" thing became common with the advent of KTL/LOC. While I never did either one, my then wife did. I also saw many others doing these courses. Apparently when things got rough in the KTL course room, "dope off" etc. the remedy was to take your twin for a walk. I think this was because the process of the course, the subject and its methods precluded the "standard" remedies, but, again, I haven't personally done either course.

Jack

 

[F.Bullbait]

As I mentioned earlier, I have never heard of this "remedy" in word clearing. (I was a pro word clearer for years.)

The "take a walk" thing became common with the advent of KTL/LOC. While I never did either one, my then wife did. I also saw many others doing these courses. Apparently when things got rough in the KTL course room, "dope off" etc. the remedy was to take your twin for a walk. I think this was because the process of the course, the subject and its methods precluded the "standard" remedies, but, again, I haven't personally done either course.

Jack

I recall this as being a possible remedy for high TA in order to get a pc sessionable. Not particularly related to word clearing.

 

[pineapple]

I recall this as being a possible remedy for high TA in order to get a pc sessionable. Not particularly related to word clearing.

I assume this was before starting the session, not something you did if TA went high during the session?

I've asked @programmer_guy to clarify when his auditor did this. Before session I can see it, as part of getting the pc sessionable, etc. But based on what he said, it sounds like the auditor was doing this if his TA went high during the session, which would definitely not have been "standard."