Chapter 3
Body/Mind and Trauma

The latest research shows that: 'the body has a mind of its own', and that even the cells of the body can "think," and remember painful incidents. As I was re-reading Book 2, Chapter III of "Dianetics, The Modern Science" I came upon a statement made by L. Ron Hubbard, (page 70) which reads as follows:

"The cell is one of the basic building blocks of the body. Cells, the better to survive, seem to have some colonies which, in turn, had as their primary interest, survival. And the colonies developed or recruited into aggregations which in turn were organisms, also with the sole purpose of survival. And the organisms developed minds to coordinate the muscles and resolve the problems of survival. Again, this is still theory, and even if it was the track of reasoning which led to-wards Dianetics, it can be completely wrong."

Over the past few years, I have done a lot of research into the intelligence of the body/mind and I would like to share some amazing findings with you. I came across the phrase "body/mind" in a won-derful book by Deepak Chopra, MD. : "Quantum Healing - Exploring the Frontiers of Mind / Body Medicine." He, in turn, borrowed it from Dr. Candace Pert, director of the brain biochemistry division at the National Institute for Mental Health. Deepak Chopra goes on to say that:

"A body that can 'think' is far different from the one medicine now treats. For one thing it knows what is happening to it, not just through the brain, but everywhere there is a receptor for messenger molecules, which means on every cell!" (Emphasis mine!)

Dr. Chopra gives us interesting examples of how the body and the mind influence each other, and should be treated 'holistically', rather than as separate parts of us. Of course, the same premise is promulgated in Chinese healing methods. Recently, I have also noticed this idea breaking ground in the field of more conventional medicine. (Many doctors now recommend alternative healing remedies!) Dr. Pert claims that: "Emotions are the key to health." In fact she and her colleague Michael Ruff discovered that Peptide T (one of the messenger molecules in the body that converts emotions into biological happenings), can alleviate AIDS symptoms, halt the spread of the HIV virus and, in certain cases, even neutralize its toxicity.

In her article Dr. Pert also states that "the same chemicals that control moods, also control tissue integrity of the body." Apparently, these messenger molecules which govern emotion are strategically located throughout the body. She theorizes that this would prove that we have brain chemicals all over the body! It appears that one of these molecules, CCK, forms a lining from the esophagus to the intestines and Pert feels that "this may explain why some people talk about gut feelings."

According to Murdo Macdonald-Bayne, in his book: "Spiritual and Mental Healing" the cell life of our body has an Intelligence, an instinctive principle that has behind it billions upon billions of years of experience. This experience has been built up over millions and millions of years through the cell life, until now the human body is the highest expression of that cell life. According to Hubbard, Murdo gave a lecture to that effect in 1945.

Mr. Hubbard, himself, appears to have been aware of this fact, way back in 1950, judging by the last paragraph of D.M.S.M.H. On page 70 he states:

"In Dianetics, on the level of laboratory observation, we discover much to our aston-ishment that cells are evidently sentient in some currently inexplicable way."

Then, on page 71 he goes on to introduce the concept of how the cells 'remember' painful events: "The cells as thought units evidently have an influence, as cells, upon the body as a thought unit and an organism. The cells evidently retain engrams of painful events. After all, they are the things that get injured."

In the Glossary of DMSMH, L. Ron Hubbard defines the engram as: "Any moment of greater or lesser 'unconsciousness' on the part of the analytical mind which permits the reactive mind (subconscious) to record; the total content of that moment with all perceptics."

In the Concise English Dictionary the word is defined as: "a memory trace, supposed permanent change in brain accounting for existence of memory." In Talbot's Holographic Universe, (Ch.1), the definition of an engram is also 'a memory trace'.

In simple words, the engram is the supposedly permanent imprint on a cell. It is the cell's way of remembering the painful experience of injuries and pain. And, when something triggers that memory, the whole engram 'kicks in', together with the physical and emotional reactions that were encapsulated in that memory. However, in Hubbard's view, we only speak of an engram when physical pain and a greater or lesser degree of unconsciousness is present. I have found that: "any traumatic incident, as well as traumatic events that happen during a prolonged stressful period, can have the same consequences for a person's well being as an engram. (Of course, one should always allow for a proper engram to be present earlier in the person's case!)

I am convinced that to the body, stress feels like pain; it certainly exerts pressure on the organ-ism. I suppose that this is so, because during extreme stress, the analyzer also shuts off - fully or partially - which would make a person more susceptible to being indoctrinated with limiting beliefs.

Of course, as always: 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'! In my experience with the Clearing techniques I have found that, although the client does not feel they were to any (normal) degree unconscious, they still suffered from the same manifestations as described in Hubbard's book.

For example: I had a pre-Clear, whom I shall call Robert, who, in his childhood, was never physically abused. However, his environment was such that he could not bear to be around his obnoxious grandmother who would 'flagellate' him with words. She would constantly bombard him with instructions on what was and was not ac-ceptable. Over and over, she would badger him with her limiting beliefs about life and the fate of the Jewish people. It got so bad, that Robert ensconced himself in his room, only emerging for meals. While shut off from society (he didn't have any friends), he rummaged around in his mind to try and sort it all out, but instead got more and more confused.

To make a long, sad, story short, the amount of stress this caused in his teenage years became a huge hindrance to his ability to relate to others, especially women, in his later years. You would be amazed at the number of limiting beliefs, especially regarding his appearance and Jewish background, we uncovered during his sessions, using the Clearing techniques as if we were dealing with a proper engram. I am happy to say it turned his life around. The last time I saw him was at a wed-ding, where he was one of the most gregarious people around! Now, of course, time will tell whether or not we actually got to the basic on the chain! However, he was so happy, all he wanted to do was to go out and enjoy life!

But, we are digressing from the subject of this Chapter, i.e.: the body/mind intelligence. Further research will undoubtedly throw more light on this intricate connection between mind and body.

For the purpose of this book, however, I feel it is not really necessary to understand structure. I agree with Mr. Hubbard that: "function precedes structure" (DMSMH, Book 2, Chapter 3). For our purposes all we need to know right now is that the engram is the villain in the piece! This villain can come like a 'thief in the night' and rob you of your sanity.

Here are some of the things it can do, or bring about:

• It will control a person's behavior when some facet from the original traumatic incident stirs it up.
• It can dictate beliefs and behavior patterns.
• It can trigger all kinds of psychosomatics and diseases.
• It can cause a person to fly into a rage, or flee in terror.
• It can make a person insecure, and kill some one in a fit of jealousy.
• It is always irrational; so irrational, that the conscious mind has to bend over backwards to justify this irrational thinking or behavior.

In fact, it can kick in so hard, that the person begins to feel uneasy about who he is and will take on the mannerisms and behavior of a role model. Hubbard calls this "a valence." (An example of this is given in the article, called Some Samples of Actual Clearing Sessions, earlier in this Manual.) While in that other person's identity, they will dramatize, i.e. act like the father in every way. However, we'll look at this later. First, let us examine the "psycho-somatic." In the next Chapter we will discuss this phenomena in more detail. In the book, "Emanuel" (Illness and Healing - p. 159), this is what Emanuel has to say about illness in relation to the body and where it originates:

Origins of Psycho-Somatics

The word psychosomatic has been around for a very long time, at least since the Greek philosophers. Yet, although it is now known that about 90% of all illnesses are psychosomatic, it is still not exactly a household word.

On page 91 of DMSMH, L. Ron Hubbard claims that: "All illnesses, apart from those caused by germs, are psychosomatic." He extrapolates on that premise by stating that "even germs would be included if one considers that you have to be predisposed to catch them in the first place." It is now known that we carry a lot of germs around in our bodies at all times. It's the immune system's job to keep them under control. So why is it that some people catch a cold at the drop of a hat, while others appear to never get colds?

Hubbard divides the subject of pathology into the following three categories:

1) Predisposition
2) Precipitation
3) Perpetuation.

The first one is not too difficult to grasp. A 'New Age' person may call it 'Karma', and a medical doctor would say it's genetic. Hubbard claims that: "The body is predisposed to the conduct and conditions contained in the engram, when that engram is first received" (p. 93).

I really don't know enough about pathology to give you an expert opinion. However, I do know that actual experience shows that the first possibility, i.e.: Karma can be adequately explained with Hubbard's theory. Why is that?

In the first place I truly believe that Karma exists; we tend to create those circumstances in this lifetime to learn those lessons we failed to learn in previous ones. (In a later chapter on Past Lives I will extrapolate on this idea!) While writing the book on Dianetics, Hubbard already knew about the existence of Past Lives. However, that idea was so sacrilegious at the time, that his associates talked him out of mentioning it.

Here is what he has to say in a technical bulletin, called: PTS Rundown (9 Dec. 1971):

"This is similar to the past life theory in 1950. Some people thinking this was "unpopular" frowned on it. Some others were only famous people so flagrantly that past lives was easily invalidated. But people, who don't go past track in Dianetics, don't recover. Even running them as imaginary incident (i.e., what could have happened to explain one's current problem), suddenly breaks through the stalled Dianetics case."

Within the frame work of Dianetics, many "inherited disabilities" are considered to stem from en-grams still left over from a previous life and get triggered in this life time, when certain things happen that have something in common with the past life incident that caused it.

The second stage in an illness, Precipitation, is defined by Hubbard as: "the factors, which cause the illness to manifest itself." The only definition I could find, that comes close to this definition, is 'to hasten the occurrence of'. (Oxford Concise Dictionary.)

Whatever the causes may be for a person to be predisposed to an illness, thousands of Clearing sessions have shown that: "An illness will not manifest, until the factor that caused it, i.e. the engram, gets 'keyed in', i.e., when it triggers the memory of a traumatic incident!"

Of course one should keep in mind that this only happens when the per-son is already in a lowered emotional state, or when his defenses are down (lack of sleep, exhaustion, being stressed, or having a chemical imbalance).

To find out more about this mechanism I want to refer you to the article later in this Chapter, that is called: "Setting off the Emotional Trigger." In brief, the more engrams a person has accumulated, the higher the chances that he will be predisposed to all kinds of illnesses, the quicker he or she will catch something, and the longer he will take to recover.

The last stage: 'Perpetuation' (according to Mr. Hubbard in the above mentioned Chapter of Dianetics, The Modern Science), is defined as: The factors that cause an illness to continue." Have you ever asked your-self why it is that some people recover very quickly from, say the flu, while others take weeks to recover? Obviously, this has something to do with the immune system!

But, now the question arises of why the immune system fails to do its job properly? I would not be as presumptuous to suggest that one should stop taking antibiotics - or any other medicine that will speed recovery. However, it has been proven over and over again, that a Dianetic session will always help speed up the healing process. The only times when - at first - even Dianetics won't work, would be when a person has a vested interest in staying sick. (If you want to learn more about this subject, I recommend you to read a very good book by Carolyn Myss, called: "Why People don’t Heal and How they Can".) Once you discover what that is - and eradicate it - the illness doesn't stand a chance of lasting any longer than necessary for it to run its course.

It is not my intention to write a treatise on psychosomatic illnesses. I am not a medical doctor, so I don't feel qualified to judge. I highly recommend the book: "Quantum Healing," by Deepak Chopra and the one written by Louis Hay: "You can Heal your Body." I only wanted to convey to you an idea of what we are dealing with from the Dianetic point of view.

In Chapter 6, we shall take a look at how our emotional state can predispose us to illness and lower our resistance to disease. The following pearl of wisdom, which can be found in Emanuel's Book, expresses quite eloquently what trauma can do to our bodies:

Traumatic Concepts at Conception?

In the early fifties when the book, Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health was first published, many people considered Hubbard’s idea that "Even in the embryonic stage of its development a baby would be susceptible to receiving engrams," quite preposterous. According to Hubbard, this theory was first developed after some hit and misses with narco-synthesis, otherwise known as hypnotism, with the use of a drug called sodium pentothal, (DMSMH, Book 2, Chapter 7.)

Apparently this method got through to the basic personality of the person and it appeared that this cluster of attention units had full recall of everything perceived or thought in a lifetime, minute by minute. Once the patient had been assisted to 'return' to the earliest memories, and had established a vague contact with an incident, the client would then be given the drug when back in present time, after which the incident could be contacted quite easily.

It also appeared that an early period of 'unconsciousness' would easily lift to show the underlying traumatic incident. As a result Ron Hubbard created the following Dianetic axiom: The earlier the period of 'unconsciousness' the more likely it is to lift." (DMSMH, p. 125) You may have noticed that every time Hubbard uses the word ‘unconsciousness', it is paraphrased. This is because of the datum that the subconscious mind never sleeps. In fact this portion of the mind is the only part that is fully conscious and re-cording everything that's being said, sensed or felt. According to Hubbard (DMSMH, p. 128) research discovered these prenatal engrams to be most easily reached when they contained a great deal of pain.

On page 128, he further states that: "Cells, not the individual, are evidenced to record pain. And the reactive mind is composed only of cells." Mr. Hubbard states that "the engram is not a memory; it is a cellular trace of recordings impinged deeply into the very structure of the body itself." My research shows that this must be so, because my clients invariable remember what happened to them - not only while a growing baby in the womb, but as early as conception. However, over the past few years, more and more evidence points to the fact that 'not the cells themselves, but the consciousness within the cells, does the recording!'

However, here again we are getting into a question of structure; suffice it to say that Hubbard's theory works when put into practice. Hubbard sums it up by stating: "At first it was shown that the cells of the fetus record. No sooner did the researchers recover from that shock, than they found that even the cells in the embryo record. This discovery was followed by the realization that memory went back as far as the zygote - which means to conception!"

In other words, memories of incidents begin to accumulate as early as conception! ! !

Of course, one has to realize that these recordings are only registered in some sort of concept, encapsulated in a 'sound wave', rather than in words. It is not until the brain is fully developed (around 8 years of age) that they are fully available for Dianetic regression. In my 20-year practice with this technique the fact that these early memories are recorded has been proven conclusively.

I have even had a client who while in her mother's womb, remembered her mother singing the following nursery rhyme to her older sister:

This in itself was quite a feat, but what was even more amazing was that the traumatic incident that preceded this song had, in fact, happened to her sister, when she was a baby. Her mother took her sister on her lap and soothed her pain by singing this song. Later, in life, when my client became anxious, she would always sing this song, to calm herself down - and so would her sister! I managed to verify this incident by asking the mother about it, and it happened just as she had told me.

So what is it that incidents like this tend to prove? It appears that, even as early as being in its mother's womb, the child can record what is happening in its surroundings! As L. Ron Hubbard pointed out on 1950: "It appears that the cells record what is happening outside the womb, in some currently inexplicable way."

Even more recent research has proven this to be quite factual. For instance, it is a well-known fact that during hypnotic regression (a method of having a person regress to their childhood), clients will give the hypnotist an almost verbatim report of what was being said. Well, the same information can be extracted from the prenatal period, as far back as when the sperm is swimming up the channel, to connect up with the fertile egg. Clearing Practitioners have discovered that many of their clients have had memories of this phase in their body's development. The opening scenes in the movie: "Look, Who's Talking" give a pretty realistic rendition of what happens in real life.

To summarize: It appears that the intelligence (consciousness) in the cells has a way of recording everything that happens, even if these events take place outside the womb. This, of course, applies to pleasure moments as well as traumatic experiences. It is only the latter that will cause trouble, later in life. It is, indeed, remarkable that these memories can be retrieved with the Clearing Techniques.

If we stop to think of the implications of this, I am sure that we would tend to be more careful of what we say or do around a pregnant woman. And, because it is hard to tell in the early stages of a pregnancy that a woman has indeed conceived, we would do well to mark our words and actions around any woman of childbearing age. So, you would do well to remember that: "the baby may be listening!"

What Is Aberration? - Is it contagious?

In this Chapter, we are going to take a look at the question of contagion; in other words if it would it be possible to "catch" a certain aberrative behavior from an-other. In Book 2, Chapter VIII, of his Dianetics book, L. Ron Hubbard claims that there is only a small percentage of insanity that can be inherited from the parents, and then it would have to involve a situation where actual parts of the brain were missing. The manifestations of such would be a mental dullness or inability to co- ordinate. Also, a traumatic incident happening to a parent would not be considered contagious in the ordinary sense of the word. The usual definition of aberration is’ a departure from the normal or typical'.

Hubbard's definition states: 'A departure from rational thought or behavior' (Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health, p. 421). Both my research and extensive experience have shown that: "It is rather what happens during such times that could become aberrative!"

For example, say a child is sick and asleep. His parents get into a fight in which they scream and yell at each other; the dramatization of this incident would then act as an engram on the child! In that same Chapter, Hubbard talks about "Prenatal traumatic incidents," and asserts that: "aberrated parents are bound to infect their children with engrams at times, but only if the child happens to be 'unconscious', or when their awareness is lessened in some way, such as when sick, asleep, or when running a fever."

It has to be made clear, however, that this would only occur whenever one or both of the parents are dramatizing an engram of their own! Imagine the case where they are having a party, and get rather loud and rambunctious; although the voices are loud, everyone is just having fun. In such instances we would not talk about a dramatization of an engram.

Now, if we take birth as an example, we would get an entirely different scenario! If it is a traumatic birth and the mother has been given drugs, anything the doctor or nurses would say during, and even shortly after the birth, will be recorded in both the mother's and baby's subconscious! If during this time someone would drop a heavy object that would register as a shock wave; the noise would be implanted into both of the mind of both mother and child. Then, at a later date, when either of them are in a lowered emotional state and some-thing happens that approximates this sound, both mother and child will have the birth engram triggered and will react out of proportion to the actual sound. Should a doctor become angry, whatever he says, will be literally stored in the memory of both mother and child. (Dianetics, Book 2, Chapter VIII)

A good example of this happened, when I was giving birth to my son, Jonathan. Unbeknownst to me and the attending nurse, the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, making it pointless for me to follow the instruction "to push." I tried as hard as I could, but apparently it wasn't good enough and the nurse yelled: "Push harder! That baby is going to die of lack of oxygen, unless you do!" Luckily, this incident happened after I was already Clear, so it wasn't too difficult to contact, and clear up a few weeks later. I was happy to get rid of that engram because I had been having repeated nightmares that my baby was suffocating.

The above example shows how important it is, to take the mother in session as soon as possible after a painful delivery. The baby will have to wait until it is at least 8 years of age before this engram can be properly cleared. Here's what happened to my son, Jonathan, as he was growing up. Whenever we would take him out in the car and strap him in the seat belt, he would go berserk! After a while I realized this would only occur when the belt would push against his throat. As soon as I put two and two together and told him about the umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck during his birth, it never bothered him again!

L.Ron Hubbard was one of the first that warned against 'conversations' and noises during birth, or surgery. This concept later became more popular and now it is pretty well accepted in society in general, and in the medical establishment in particular.

Of course, as you can tell from the above example mother and child will dramatize an engram, each in their unique way. It follows that Clearing one member of the family is not always sufficient to solve the problems of the family as a whole. However, there will be one person less in the 'drama of contagion of aberration'! Furthermore, we have to realize that many of these engrams have phrases in them that will be picked up by the child. Say, a father is giving his son a sound spanking while yelling: "I am only doing this for your own good. Spare the rod and spoil the child!" the son, once he be-comes a father, will dramatize the very same thing, when his child has been naughty, ........"because it is good for him"?

I am sure, I don't have to belabor this point; you only have to look at the news and see the violence of wife battering and child abuse and see the evidence. It is also a well known fact that children of alcoholics will themselves seek solace in the bottle, as soon as they run into circumstances that will bring them down the emotional scale (see Chapter 6), or even because they think that is the thing to do. I recently ran into a 40 year old man, who had his first sips of beer when only five years old and sitting on his (alcoholic) father's lap. I had to tell him that he needed to go into Rehab first, before I could do anything with him. (One of the requirements for the Clearing work is that the client doesn't drink any alcoholic beverage during 24 hours prior to the session. For drugs the waiting period would be even longer!)

Clearing is most successful if all, or most, members of a family get their traumas handled. With a reasonably sane person it would only take about 25 hours (when properly administered by a professional Clearing Practitioner).

Just think what this could do for society as a whole; we would create a saner world. Utopia? Perhaps! An impossible dream? Well, you never know! If only one percent of the world's population would be cleared, it would have quite an impact on one's environment! Possibly, this could result in a contagion of de-aberr-tion! If enough people would receive the benefits of Clearing, a grass roots movement could once more be born (as it did in the fifties) where one would clear the other, in ever widening circles.

Together we could "Clear the Planet", as we would call it in Scientology. Whatever one would call the cleansing of that part of the mind on a global scale, it would create a saner society and could even hasten the phenomena of the "hundredth monkey effect." According to future predictions, imparted to Dannian Brinkley during one of his N.D.E.'s. we need to reach that point by 1996 or face the consequences. (I strongly recommend his book: Saved by the Light, just released!) I also recommend the reading of: "Mass Dreams of the Future" by Chet B. Snow, which on its front cover has the following subtitle: "Do we face an apocalypse or a global awakening? The choice is ours."

Suffice it to say that finding some way of handling our fears and easing the stress in our lives, is no longer "a cute thing to do." It is fast becoming a dire necessity. This Study Manual will teach you one way in which it could be done. One way in which we could, indeed, clear the Planet. It was this idea that captured my imagination when I first decided to become a Clearing Practitioner. As a result most of my family and friends have received Clearing, which has made a tremendous difference, not only in my life but also in their own lives and that of their children.

This may be difficult to believe for some of you that are constantly exposed to that crazy world out there, but - most of the time, I am even not aware that aberration is still rampant, until I pick up a paper or listen to the evening news. It saddens me that the Clearing Techniques are not more widely known and accepted, while they are capable of removing those impulses that drive people to commit the most heinous crimes.

I often asked myself what could happen if this science of the mind would become available to ordinary people as well as mental health professionals and doctors. It would be conceivable that it could be taught in such a way that it could be used by anyone who can read and write. If Clearing would catch on - and become the thing to do - I can guarantee you that the crime rate would drop proportionately (as has also been proven by actual scientific experiments with TM.)

Even if, only one child would be spared from being hurt or killed by handling the stress and traumatic experiences in the past that set of the trigger of the emotional impulses of the abuser, I feel that the job of compiling this Manual has been worthwhile!

Children can receive Clearing as soon as they are about eight years old. If you know of a child that has had some traumatic incident happening to him or her, which is causing problems, please tell its parents about Clearing, or give them a copy of this book. It probably would be the best gift you could give them. It generally would only take a couple of hours to remove the pain caused by the traumatic incident, and return them to the innocence of their childhood. How do I know this? I have seen it happen many times, under my very eyes!

In the next Chapter we will examine what sets of the hidden explosive charge; what causes a reasonably sane person to suddenly snap and go berserk; what are the underlying causes for irrational behavior and insanity!

Setting Off the "Emotional Trigger"

Chapter VI of "Dianetics" (p. 141) talks at length about 'Keying in the Engram'. Now, what does Hubbard mean by this exactly? He means we are sitting on a time bomb, and explains how an engram can lie dormant for years without getting re stimulated, (stirred up) and at the slightest provocation blows up in your face! What happens is that: "As soon as something happens to remind a person of the contents of the traumatic incident, the trigger is pulled, and the charge - which could be as small as a temper tantrum and as forceful as an erupting volcano - kicks in!"

This is what Hubbard calls 'a lock', i.e.: "The moment the secondary* and engram* get locked together", we talk about a lock which is called a "key in." In the days when I would still be using the old terminology, my pre-Clears - who had never been ex-posed to the technical jargon - would have difficulties in getting the concept. So I devised the following demonstration: I would point to the door of my office and tell them: "Let's say this is the engram!" Next I would indicate the door stile and say: "Now let us pretend that this is a secondary." Then I would put the 'key' in the 'lock', and demonstrate that when I did that, the two would be locked together, in other words a lock would be added, making it hard (or even impossible), for one to leave the room without first unlocking the door, by taking the 'key out'!

Once I had done so, I would show, that it was now possible to go in and out the door, without either the secondary or engram preventing one from doing so; the two were disconnected which would result in a state of 'release'. However, I showed that a new 'key-in' would lock the two together again, which would end the state of release. Only by removing the door (engram) permanently, could we prevent this from ever happening again, because there was nothing to lock onto. This is called an "erasure," the painful memories, contained in the incident, have been erased!

This is what happens in Clearing: "Once all of the available engrams from the reactive memory bank are removed (erased), one would have a "Clear," because all erroneous data (in the form of limiting beliefs installed), as well as the painful emotional charge will have been 'cleared'!

Of course, the above definition also implies that:

1) A Clear can always experience an engram that did not surface during the Clearing work, once it gets triggered, and:

2) If traumatized, can receive a new engram.

However, this can be contacted and handled in no time at all!

If one would compare the mind with a computer it would be self evident that an error in the pro-gram would create problems. As soon as the original error (false datum) is corrected, it stands to reason that the problem would cease to exist.

Another analogy that explains the difference between 'releasing' and 'erasing' is made clear by comparing the following: Say you wanted to get rid off the weeds in your yard! You could mow them down with a lawnmower and the weeds would no longer be visible (release). But, only if we went in there with a weed eater, would we get to the root of the problem and wipe them out for good; they have been 'erased'!

So, what type of incidents can trigger these traumas? The triggers are "those moments when something happens that reminds us (subconsciously) of the traumatic incident." From my experience alone, they could fill several pages, and then I would probably overlook many others. Anything, words, sights, a certain touch, taste or sound (similar to the content of an engram), could activate the trigger mechanism.

Examples of this phenomena are: the 'seat belt' triggering the incident during my son's birth, and the man at the party meeting the red-head, triggering what the surgeon said during his operation, i.e.: "Never to trust a redhead."

I have worked with quite a few clients who could not understand why the same issues (they thought they had dealt with long ago), kept cropping up. Especially, if they had been working on themselves for years, via psychotherapy and/or daily meditation. There are several explanations for this:

1)The engram is so well hidden that without a thorough regression technique, such as Dianetic therapy, it is quite difficult to find,

2)The engram may be located in either the prenatal area, or even in a past life;

3) Unless one locates it, and exhausts its aberrative contents, it will trigger again, all-be-it less forcefully.

So, how do we go about finding these ‘locks’? We trace them back to 'basic! This means we regress the pre-Clears, until they reach the earliest incident of its kind on the chain. We do this, by asking them repeatedly for a specific 'earlier similar incident. The amazing thing is that "once we reach the basic incident (the root on the chain of incidents we are addressing will be discharged), find out what happened - and get the limiting belief that was made at that time - the whole chain of incidents of its aberrative contents! As a result, the pre-Clear will be forever free from that particular affliction.

What else do we need to know about these triggers in order to have a working knowledge of the subject? Perhaps the most important datum is to realize that known incidents (such as locks) are never the cause of the problem! They only serve as a trigger for the incidents that lie (hidden deep within the subconscious) before them.

So, the stable datum is that "If the person remembers the incident fully, it couldn't be the source of the problem!" One has to dig deeper (go earlier) to find the traumatic incident, containing pain and a degree of unconsciousness, to get to its source.

N.B.: This could very well explain the many cases that are dealing with child abuse or incest; the client "believes" her father raped her, because the therapist is looking for an incident of child abuse in order to find an explanation for her current problems with sex. The woman gets a flash of an incident where this seemed to have been the case.

However, this could have been just a memory floating to the surface of the actual rape, i.e. of her parents having intercourse while she was in the womb, being hurt and knocked out by the force of this happening. Alternatively, a man who have raped her in a past life, who looked like her father!

I can just imagine the heartache of the father who finds himself accused of the horrendous crime of sexually abusing his own daughter! I am pleased to see that he was cleared in the courts and that the therapist was held responsible.

I am happy to say, that this sort of thing would never happen in Clearing, thanks to the Clearing Practitioner's Code, which states specifically "never to evaluate" for the pre-Clear"! (Evaluate is used here as "telling a person what to think".)

The important thing to remember in Clearing, however, is" Does the incident contain physical pain and (a greater or lesser degree of) unconsciousness"? If so, we are dealing with an engram.

Ron Hubbard calls a secondary a 'secondary' because it is only 'secondary' to the engram; i.e., incidents that derive their force from the underlying engram. These are moments of a severe or shocking loss, (or a threat of loss) which contain emotions, such as anger, fear, grief, etc. There may be a degree of unconsciousness, but no real, i.e., physical pain. (Definition taken from the Technical Dictionary.)

A 'lock' then, (which reminds the reactive mind of the traumatic experience), only serves to 'lock' these traumatic experiences together which will unleash the full force of the engram. To give you a vivid picture, here’s what happens:

The trigger mechanism has been engaged; the pin of the grenade has been pulled! The charge is re-stimulated and the person does things he would never dream of doing in his normal state of mind! He or she is under the total control of the phrases contained in the engram that has just been stirred up. The next thing we know is that: the man beats his wife, the child throws a tantrum, the little old lady gets a migraine, and the reckless driver runs a red light and kills an innocent child, the sex offender, etc., etc.

I am sure I don't have to go into the gruesome details; all you have to do is to read the newspaper, or watch the evening news! I only touched upon the above examples, to give you an idea what happens in the subconscious mind; how the various kinds of incidents are put together and how they are triggered.

I hope it is now also clear what is the difference between 'releasing' and 'erasing'!

To repeat: releasing means coming out of whatever was bothering you for a certain period of time; erasing is getting rid of that problem for good!

I know of many therapies that will give the client temporary relief from the

consequences of traumatic incidents, or unwanted emotions, i.e., they experience a release! I know of none, apart from the Clearing techniques, that will erase all of the charge that is connected with them! Of course, this doesn't mean that they couldn't exist! (If anyone knows of another method that will achieve the above, i.e.: erasure," I would appreciate hearing from them.)

The only problem with releasing stuff is that there is no way of telling when those same traumatic incidents will get triggered again! The reactive mind can come like a thief in the night!

Conclusion: The most important difference between Dianetic therapy and other methods of Clearing is that in Clearing we are aiming for permanent 'erasure" (removal) of the painful emotions and other consequences of traumatic experiences that have happened to us in our past!

Wouldn't it be nice to rid yourself of all the pain and anguish that is contained in those traumatic experiences once and for all? I can assure you that with the use of the Clearing techniques this is no longer wishful thinking; it can become reality! Don’t take away the gun; remove the bullets!

If, instead of locking people up, we would Clear them, guns would only be used for sports, never to kill people, because: 'a Cleared mind is a peaceful mind', the trigger mechanism has no explosive charge left! The last thing a Clear would want to do is kill another person, except in self-defense. The best rehabilitation of the criminal would be to search for and eradicate the traumatic experiences that cause him to pull the trigger, not to lock him up forever, or condemn him to death!

If juvenile delinquents were given some Clearing sessions, they would again be-come useful members in society, instead of turning back to crime the minute they leave the detention center. So, "don't condemn the man, condemn his reactive mind!" It won't stand a chance of survival once it has been thoroughly examined and cleared of its aberrative content.

Of course, one wouldn't have to be a criminal to receive the advantages of Clearing! Even the best of us can benefit from the Clearing process, because for many of us, self-discovery must surely be the ultimate challenge, if not a dire necessity.

Finally, I too, believe what Socrates figured out a long time ago:

"An unexamined life is not worth living!"