((My comments in double parentheses - Homer))
 
                       AND WHAT OF STANDARD TECH?
 
                                CLR - 2
                            7 February 1994
 
                       Copyright (C) 1994 L. Kin
       Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.
 
     "During the Sea Org years, apart from the discovery of earthly and
not so earthly attacks and counterattacks, Hubbard had started to
formulate what he thought was going to be his legacy ((bequeathment))
concerning his tech.  In 1968, on the ship, he gave a series of
lectures, called the Class VIII Course (ie for auditors of this
classification), which were to be the final word on the subject of
auditing.  After OT III there were seemingly no secrets left.  From now
on the tech was considered "standard", meaning that there was a minutely
prescribed way to go about it which would not tolerate any deviations.
All cases seemed solvable in accordance with a set pattern.
 
     Why would Hubbard, himself the most unorthodox and 'unruly' of all
auditors, have constructed a corset like this?  Probably to somehow
transfer his mastership to his pupils.  In order to fully appreciate the
necessity for this new concept of "standard tech", one has to recognize
how numerous the auditing procedures of 1968 had become, compared to the
days of the Dianetics book (1950).  Eighteen years of "stream lining"
(Hubbard's term) had brought about a great number of individual auditing
processes.  In order to resolve the problems of his clients and answer
the questions of his auditors, Hubbard forever had to come up with new
solutions.  They were distributed worldwide in the form of HCOB's and
attained, as words of the master, the status of sacred untouchability.
 
     They were to be used as model solutions for each and every case
problem coming up in session.  In the end there were so many of them
that the resulting complexity made the tech incomprehensible.  Standard
Tech was Hubbard's answer to this state of affairs.
 
     The wild growth of processes from the past eighteen years was cut
down to the most relevant ones.  These were put in an order, brought
into a strict and unvarying sequence and from here on out formed the
steps of the Bridge.  It was supposed to take any person from green pc
to OT, like on an assembly line.
 
     Impressive as this technological structure may appear in theory, it
soon showed its drawbacks when it came to practical application.  The
flexibility, the raw man-to-man approach of Book One (Dianetics)
auditing gave way to an unwavering rigidity.  Auditing stopped being the
solution-finding dialogue between two people and was turned into a
ritualistic exercise, an application of rote procedures to all and
sundry.
 
     This ((negative)) future development of course was not expected to
happen, when standard tech was first proclaimed in 1968.  All cases were
thought to be solvable in a standard way and all pcs ((were)) to get the
same treatment wherever they went to get their auditing.
 
     These assumptions, as it turned out, were far from true.  The tech
had NOT been brought into its final form.  Hubbard had to keep on
correcting and correcting and issuing bulletin upon bulletin for the
next ten years, until 1978.  Pc's were NOT receiving standard tech
wherever they went; there were in fact vast quality differences between
orgs which infuriated Hubbard to no small degree.  Hubbard himself of
course could do it all and was famous for it, so apparently the tech was
good enough.  The weak links in its transmission were the course rooms.
Course supervisors, and therefore the auditors trained by them, were not
always able to grasp Hubbard's technical and philosophical concepts and
apply them sensibly.  Hubbard countered this with the development of
"Study Tech".  Its success was limited.  In the end it as well fell prey
to the all prevailing woodenness of application.  As a side product the
rather awkward "Scientologists Jargon" developed, much to the annoyance
of outsiders and new comers.
 
     Despite these unfavorable circumstances, the tech still worked on
people.  It led staff and public to the recognition of innermost
certainties and spiritual enhancement.  One just knew that the tech was
correct and that one would progress more by further use of it.
 
     BACK ON LAND
 
     The Sea Org years, ((1967-1977)) as we saw before, ended in 1977
when the Sea Org moved into the Fort Harrison.  Hubbard stayed in hiding
from his real and not so real enemies, he didn't appear in public any
more and lived in forever changing secret locations.  OT III was the hot
and whispered about magic level; the CofS aspired to become a world
embracing business set up, ready to fight anyone by telepathic, legal or
illegal means.
 
     ((Now listen closely folks.))
 
     The tech certainly worked; people had life-changing gains from it.
Its quality varied considerably, though, depending on the org and on the
auditor.  Yet the internal group cohesiveness and the promotional
machine of the CofS allowed no criticism: Scientology was great,
auditing a heavenly experience, and Flag was the best of all.
 
     The Church was always right, no matter how much an individual would
be wronged by it.  Staff who somehow didn't make it, "went by the
boards", ie were declared trouble sources or suppressive, and forgotten.
The pc's whose cases for some reason didn't straighten out easily, soon
filled the role of guinea pigs on which auditors could test their
abilities.  In case of failure they were handed over to the next higher
Org, there to have some more money drained out of them.  For such people
it was not unusual to accumulate a dozen or more session folders - a
stack reaching up to the ceiling.  Several hundreds of valuable auditing
hours were churned out on them with no result.  In the end, when there
was no further bright idea as to what to do next, the unfortunate
victims of such experimentation found the blame put on themselves: the
CofS quite haughtily found that the pc's weren't "up to it" yet - and
dismissed them as "potential trouble sources."
 
     ((Hey Electra, you listening sweetheart?  You weren't the only
one.))
 
    L. Kin, Scientology, More than a Cult?
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith           This file may be found at
homer@rahul.net              ftp.rahul.net/pub/homer/act/clr2.memo
Posted to usenet newsgroup:  alt.clearing.technology