I M Dex
Well-known member
From my work in progress, "Dissecting Scientology". I don't think I've posted this chapter before, but at my age, I'm doing well if I find my way home 
Scientology “Word Clearing”: Resistance is Futile
In Scientology, there’s an endless stream of courses. Courses to train to conduct Scientology sessions (“auditor training”), courses to work in Scientology (“admin training”), courses indoctrinating you in the supposed psychology of the dreadful enemies of Scientology and Scientologists (“PTS-SP”), courses spreading the gospel of L Ron Hubbard’s explanations and stories about supernatural powers (“OT abilities”) ad nauseam. And then there’s the prerequisite course to be done before all the other “major service” courses, to indoctrinate you in “how to study”, in Scientology parlance, “study tech”, the main element of which is called “word clearing”, essentially a formalized procedure for using a dictionary, ostensibly to fully understand what is being read, but as used in Scientology, a self-serving tool for influencing the individual to accept and agree with any and all Scientology indoctrination. In Scientology, “word clearing” is only considered done when you can agree with what you are reading.
While L. Ron Hubbard (aka “LRH”, “source”, “the commodore”, “command intention”) credits himself with being the sole author of all things Scientology, there is more than sufficient documentation to illustrate that while he may possibly have himself originated some things, most Scientology procedures were contributed by people working with Hubbard, or sourced elsewhere, including early 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley, and eastern meditation techniques, and Scientology “study tech” was no exception.
In 1964, the central headquarters for Scientology operation was a large building in England known as Saint Hill Manor. The main public activity was the “Saint Hill Special Briefing Course”, consisting of lengthy daily Lectures by Hubbard. There were a good number of workers engaged in the activities of developing Scientology techniques and procedures, many of whom, chafing under Hubbard’s autocratic thumb, would eventually drop away to freely develop and practice their own brands and versions of enlightenment therapies, taking with them some adherents. Among those participating in the work were a couple of educators, Charles and Ava Berner.
The Berners requested an audience with Hubbard, in which they presented their work, a system for study comprehension and retention. They explained their study system as Hubbard sat impassively behind his desk, on which they presented a stack of papers outlining the system, focused on 3 aspects of learning: defining all terms used, studying at the appropriate level for the subject, e.g., learning addition and subtraction before taking on algebra, and having the appropriate materials of the subject being studied, for instance, hammers and saws when learning carpentry, and not just words on a page. Hubbard disinterestedly thanked and excused the couple.
At this point in time, the subject of Hubbard’s “Briefing course” lectures was what he called “GPM’s”, with ongoing experimental processing techniques being practiced in pairs by the attendees. It wasn’t going well, in fact very roughly on people, on and on, yet to culminate in reliably yielding satisfactory results. Some bits and pieces of information about things affecting people emerged, but Hubbard’s working theories about it all were not proving out well.
Simply put, for all the technical jargon and wild experimentation, it wasn’t panning out on the supposed promise of this “research line”.
Hubbard needed a way out of this miasma, and while Hubbard didn’t show his hand to the Berners, their contribution was just the thing.
It was relayed to me first-hand how shocked the body of briefing course participants were when Hubbard began that day announcing “his” newest development, “study tech”, and went on lecturing about this new subject, with no further mention of the whole GPM debacle, abruptly shifting to this new topic, after all those months of hyperbole about the “breakthrough GPM research”.
On the face of it, the Berners’ learning principles were (and are) perfectly valid, but when filtered through L Ron Hubbard’s willful reinterpretation, became a typical example of how he took potentially helpful and useful concepts originated by others and changed and/or embellished to further his personal ambitions and interests.
In all Scientology training, any time someone has a disagreement with anything in Hubbard’s writings they are worked over with looking up the words in a dictionary, and studying every definition of each word looked up (“word clearing”) until they find a way to capitulate and agree with Hubbard’s words. It is virtually the only way one may be permitted to continue on the course they have paid for. This is the Scientology form of mind control, pressuring the individual ultimately suppress their own views and understandings in favor of the system.
Hubbard lectured on the importance of studying with a clear and strong purpose, which would be to absorb the information being studied (and thereby be a dedicated, committed adherent of Hubbard’s Scientology). And yet, in Scientology study, one must take long detours every time a new word is encountered, to study and learn every single definition of the word, rather than simply and directly getting the definition that applies, and moving straight onward through the course of study. While this can prove interesting, and is a form of education, it amounts to spending significant time going off-topic with irrelevant information. If you are reading a book, whether for pleasure or for learning, and you encounter a word you are unfamiliar with and it doesn’t lend itself to understanding from the context, you need to look up the definition that applies, but beyond that, you’d be going off the trail of what you’re reading.
In Scientology counseling sessions (“auditing”), which cost hundreds of dollars per hour, for each technique to be started in the session, substantial amounts of time, and therefore money, are expended having the participant (“the preclear”) learn ALL the definitions of all the words scripted for the technique, before it can be begun.
And so, Charles and Eva Berner’s learning techniques are misappropriated and reinvented as a tool for money and manipulation, as “Scientology study tech”, which is promoted and indoctrinated as the ultimate, superior way to learn. In the hyperbole of Scientology, every facet of the system is “the ultimate, superior way, that only L. Ron Hubbard is capable of developing”.
Scientology “Word Clearing”: Resistance is Futile
In Scientology, there’s an endless stream of courses. Courses to train to conduct Scientology sessions (“auditor training”), courses to work in Scientology (“admin training”), courses indoctrinating you in the supposed psychology of the dreadful enemies of Scientology and Scientologists (“PTS-SP”), courses spreading the gospel of L Ron Hubbard’s explanations and stories about supernatural powers (“OT abilities”) ad nauseam. And then there’s the prerequisite course to be done before all the other “major service” courses, to indoctrinate you in “how to study”, in Scientology parlance, “study tech”, the main element of which is called “word clearing”, essentially a formalized procedure for using a dictionary, ostensibly to fully understand what is being read, but as used in Scientology, a self-serving tool for influencing the individual to accept and agree with any and all Scientology indoctrination. In Scientology, “word clearing” is only considered done when you can agree with what you are reading.
While L. Ron Hubbard (aka “LRH”, “source”, “the commodore”, “command intention”) credits himself with being the sole author of all things Scientology, there is more than sufficient documentation to illustrate that while he may possibly have himself originated some things, most Scientology procedures were contributed by people working with Hubbard, or sourced elsewhere, including early 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley, and eastern meditation techniques, and Scientology “study tech” was no exception.
In 1964, the central headquarters for Scientology operation was a large building in England known as Saint Hill Manor. The main public activity was the “Saint Hill Special Briefing Course”, consisting of lengthy daily Lectures by Hubbard. There were a good number of workers engaged in the activities of developing Scientology techniques and procedures, many of whom, chafing under Hubbard’s autocratic thumb, would eventually drop away to freely develop and practice their own brands and versions of enlightenment therapies, taking with them some adherents. Among those participating in the work were a couple of educators, Charles and Ava Berner.
The Berners requested an audience with Hubbard, in which they presented their work, a system for study comprehension and retention. They explained their study system as Hubbard sat impassively behind his desk, on which they presented a stack of papers outlining the system, focused on 3 aspects of learning: defining all terms used, studying at the appropriate level for the subject, e.g., learning addition and subtraction before taking on algebra, and having the appropriate materials of the subject being studied, for instance, hammers and saws when learning carpentry, and not just words on a page. Hubbard disinterestedly thanked and excused the couple.
At this point in time, the subject of Hubbard’s “Briefing course” lectures was what he called “GPM’s”, with ongoing experimental processing techniques being practiced in pairs by the attendees. It wasn’t going well, in fact very roughly on people, on and on, yet to culminate in reliably yielding satisfactory results. Some bits and pieces of information about things affecting people emerged, but Hubbard’s working theories about it all were not proving out well.
Simply put, for all the technical jargon and wild experimentation, it wasn’t panning out on the supposed promise of this “research line”.
Hubbard needed a way out of this miasma, and while Hubbard didn’t show his hand to the Berners, their contribution was just the thing.
It was relayed to me first-hand how shocked the body of briefing course participants were when Hubbard began that day announcing “his” newest development, “study tech”, and went on lecturing about this new subject, with no further mention of the whole GPM debacle, abruptly shifting to this new topic, after all those months of hyperbole about the “breakthrough GPM research”.
On the face of it, the Berners’ learning principles were (and are) perfectly valid, but when filtered through L Ron Hubbard’s willful reinterpretation, became a typical example of how he took potentially helpful and useful concepts originated by others and changed and/or embellished to further his personal ambitions and interests.
In all Scientology training, any time someone has a disagreement with anything in Hubbard’s writings they are worked over with looking up the words in a dictionary, and studying every definition of each word looked up (“word clearing”) until they find a way to capitulate and agree with Hubbard’s words. It is virtually the only way one may be permitted to continue on the course they have paid for. This is the Scientology form of mind control, pressuring the individual ultimately suppress their own views and understandings in favor of the system.
Hubbard lectured on the importance of studying with a clear and strong purpose, which would be to absorb the information being studied (and thereby be a dedicated, committed adherent of Hubbard’s Scientology). And yet, in Scientology study, one must take long detours every time a new word is encountered, to study and learn every single definition of the word, rather than simply and directly getting the definition that applies, and moving straight onward through the course of study. While this can prove interesting, and is a form of education, it amounts to spending significant time going off-topic with irrelevant information. If you are reading a book, whether for pleasure or for learning, and you encounter a word you are unfamiliar with and it doesn’t lend itself to understanding from the context, you need to look up the definition that applies, but beyond that, you’d be going off the trail of what you’re reading.
In Scientology counseling sessions (“auditing”), which cost hundreds of dollars per hour, for each technique to be started in the session, substantial amounts of time, and therefore money, are expended having the participant (“the preclear”) learn ALL the definitions of all the words scripted for the technique, before it can be begun.
And so, Charles and Eva Berner’s learning techniques are misappropriated and reinvented as a tool for money and manipulation, as “Scientology study tech”, which is promoted and indoctrinated as the ultimate, superior way to learn. In the hyperbole of Scientology, every facet of the system is “the ultimate, superior way, that only L. Ron Hubbard is capable of developing”.
Last edited:
