I think that scn deals with wholetrack better than any other practice, 'cept maybe hypnosis. I am not aware of any other practice that focuses on wholetrack.

On the thread entitled "Free Zone?" you wrote:

That thread seems to have died, but would you please comment further?
Whenever I’ve raised the question of hypnosis, it has elicited agitation from FZers here - or they’ve refused to discuss, just repeating over & over that auditing is not hypnotic. This is baffling to me, since I've experienced both Scn auditing and hypnotherapy and see many parallels. I would like to know your thoughts on hypnosis, especially vis-à-vis auditing.

I think that scn deals with wholetrack better than any other practice, 'cept maybe hypnosis.

My own experience has been that I have caused many many people to 'go exterior', especially while doing TR0, by simply intending them to do it. I have caused engrams in others to erase by my intending them to erase. I cam move mental mass off a person by intending it to move off. I have helped lots of PCs blow BTs by simply intending the BT to blow. Dozens of times I have created a floating TA on others by simply expecting the TA to float. I had a bit of a reputation for that at ASHO.

When one person imposes his will on another person, and thus causes the other to act or believe in a certain way, I think that fits the definition of hypnosis. All the training that an auditor does is geared toward his being able and willing to direct others. Control them, if needed or wanted, and that seems to fit into the hypnosis category.

On the thread entitled "Free Zone?" you wrote:

That thread seems to have died, but would you please comment further?
Whenever I’ve raised the question of hypnosis, it has elicited agitation from FZers here - or they’ve refused to discuss, just repeating over & over that auditing is not hypnotic. This is baffling to me, since I've experienced both Scn auditing and hypnotherapy and see many parallels. I would like to know your thoughts on hypnosis, especially vis-à-vis auditing.

Thaks, Ladayla, for your reply.
I would describe hypnotherapy (of which there are many different types) as more of a cooperative process than a control one. Certainly, the hypnotherapist is directing the session, but there isn't the level of control that one finds in Scientology auditing. For example, a hypnotherapist would not physically prevent the subject from leaving the room during session (nor indeed restrain the subject physically in any way), whereas a Scn auditor will.


While there are drills in which the auditor is taught to prevent a PC from leaving a session, I have never known this to happen in real auditing. Not to say that it has never happened, but it would be very very rare.
The PC has co-operated. He has agreed that there is no reason not to have a session. He has agreed that it is OK for this auditor to audit him. The pre-session patter is rote, and could easily act as an hypnotic, since the same patter is used prior to every session. Also the repetitive commands could act as an hypnotic. I say " could". Not "Do".

Another distinction that comes to mind: Whereas, in Scn auditing the reactive mind is viewed as a sort of enemy ("it's you and your auditor against the bank") in hypnotherapy, the subconscious is viewed as an ally in the quest for self understanding and self improvement.


That is a big difference, all right.

My theory on why LRH took such pains to make hypnosis taboo for Scientologists is that he didn't want them to try hypnotherapy and discover the many parallels to auditing - didn't want them to know that they could achieve "gains" through other means, without the high cost and totalitarian control of CoS.

Will you please comment further about the parallels that you have observed between hypnosis and auditing?

BB: For me it (hypnosis) means not being in control. I have always been in control in all my auditing. This usually manifested as agreeing to follow the auditing commands on a self determined basis.

SB: As I experienced it, hypnosis was not a gold watch swinging back & forth slowly as I was powerless, controlled, and conditioned to do someone else's bidding. It was as you describe auditing: an agreement with the commands (suggestions) on a self-determined basis.

I truly wish that you could bring yourself to try some hypnosis ~ I believe that the comparison would both deepen your understanding of auditing and raise some interesting questions for you.

BB: Next you'll be telling me my solo sessions are self Hypnotism.

SB: No dice. It's not up to me to "evaluate" your solo auditing experiences. However, I will suggest that you examine the possibility.

I have seen people handle their life ruin in one hypnotherapy session. They may have never handled it in scientology or if they did it would have cost a fortune and they would have given up their freedom to get it.

Hypnotism is a relaxed state where you are in control but your mind (analytical) is relaxed so it doesn't get in the way. The amazing thing about it is how targeted it is. You ask a person to follow a particular emotion, feeling or pain and go to the earliest time and bingo they are there. The basic is handled and their life gets better. It is so much faster and more effective than Hubbard’s bridge. You've got a problem, the problem gets addressed and handled usually in one session and eureka you didn't need the comm course or 14 other things to get the problem handled. Now that is simple! That's what Hubbard said of scientology but you and I know that that is big quantities of bull shit. Truth is simple. The farther you get from simple, the farther you get from truth.

BB: Why is this called "hypnotherapy"?
It doesn't apparently involve hypnosis. What is the name of the therapy, if different to Hypnotherapy? Possibly you are describing "dianetic reverie". I didn't do book one but did NED. The PC in heavy incidents could seem to go to sleep in "boil off".

SB: Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes. The main ingredients of this approach include: (1) deep relaxation, (2) intense concentration, and (3) high suggestibility on the part of the subject. During hypnosis, the hypnotist uses techniques that foster a very relaxed state in which resistance is lowered. Then, suggestions are given that are related to the purpose of the procedure, or the subject's mind or imagination is explored in order to gain insight or access to memories. Contrary to popular myth, a person will not engage in any behavior that is against his or her will, either during the procedure or afterwards. That is, the person is not controlled by the hypnotherapist.

There was no time during hypnosis (nor during Scn auditing) when I was asleep, though the term "reverie" would fit for some of my experiences in both Scn auditing and hypnosis. In both, what I was most aware of was a heightened concentration.

What happens in an auditing session is that the auditor asks the preclear, or pc, to locate a moment of trauma in his or her life. The pc is indoctrinated to believe that similar traumatic or painful experiences (such as all the times when you hurt your knee, or all the times when you missed your mother) are linked in the mind. If the pc tells the auditor about a certain moment of trauma and there is nothing earlier holding it in place, then once the pc has revisited that moment, the upset connected with that moment will vanish. But if there are earlier similar moments of trauma, it will be necessary for the pc to revisit those earlier moments before the trauma connected with that particular "chain" will vanish. The auditor decides whether or not there are earlier similar experiences by the behavior of the needle on the E-meter. If it is free-floating, the chain is finished. If not, there is something earlier.

Now let's see how this plays out in an auditing session.

Your auditor asks you to recall a time when you lost a friend. You tell him in as much detail as possible about a time when your best friend moved to another state. The auditor thanks you, and then asks you for an earlier similar time when you lost a friend. From this you know that the auditor did not see a free-floating needle and therefore knows you still have earlier traumas connected with this question. Believing that this is the way the mind works, you dutifully search your memory for an earlier time when you lost a friend. You remember a time when you were six and you and your neighbor had to start school at different schools. You remember crying and begging your mother to let you go to the same school as Sally. You hadn't remembered that in a long time. You hadn't realized you still had so much trauma connected with Sally.

You think you're finished with that chain of traumas. But your auditor asks you again for an earlier similar incident. You can't remember anything earlier than that and you tell your auditor so. Your auditor is very understanding and tells you to let him know whatever comes into your mind. You want to do what your auditor says because you trust him, so you try to remember another similar experience. You close your eyes and let your mind float a little bit.

You see a picture in your mind of someone lying on the ground. Your auditor says, "What's that?" Then you know that there is some validity to the picture you just saw, because the auditor saw a response on the E-meter. Now you look more closely at this picture. You start to add details to the picture you saw. The auditor asks you when this experience happened. The year 1864 comes into your mind. You say this to your auditor. He acknowledges you and helps you fill in more details of what is happening.

Soon you can describe a full-blown scenario to your auditor. You are on a battlefield with lots of other soldiers. You are looking down at a young man in a blue uniform with blood all over his chest. You kneel down and cradle his head while he dies. "I'll miss you," he says, and you start to cry as he dies in your arms.

Oh! You tell your auditor tearfully, now you understand why losing friends has always been such a terrible thing for you. Your auditor smiles at you approvingly and tells you that your needle is floating.

In Scientology they call this "going whole track." The Whole Track is a reference to the entire history of the universe that goes back millions and millions of years.

In auditing, the preclear is utterly dependent upon the auditor to confirm that these incidents are real. It all depends on what the E-meter is doing. If the meter says the incident is real, then it is. Gradually it becomes easier and easier for the preclear to believe that these past life incidents really happened. The preclear's boundaries gradually fall away completely, until there is no limit at all on what might have happened. It doesn't matter, after all. No matter what the preclear says, the auditor always smiles and says his needle is floating.

Now you have had hundreds of hours of Dianetics and Grade auditing. Your idea of what is real has completely changed. You know you are different from other people, because now you know that you have lived for millions of years. You know it is true because you've relived so many experiences in your auditing. You feel set apart from other people who have not yet discovered the truth. You want your family to experience the truth too, but you can't tell them. They wouldn't believe you. They have to experience it for themselves. You're spending your time with other Scientologists now, because it's uncomfortable to be around non-Scientologists. They don't understand. Scientologists are the only ones who know what reality really is.

Now when your auditor asks you for an earlier similar incident, you don't have to be coaxed into finding a picture. You know what to do. Now, as soon as the auditor asks the question, a picture appears. There is no longer any difference in your mind between something that happened yesterday, and something that happened 300 years ago, or 25,000 years ago, or a million years
ago.

All Scientologists believe that these incidents they find in their auditing really happened to them. They believe that they have memories going back thousands of years, millions of years, even billions of years. This is encouraged by the auditing process, in which the preclear is repeatedly told, "What is true for you is true for you." In practice, this means that the auditor validates as real anything the preclear comes up with in session, no matter how far-fetched it may be.

Moreover, the preclear is not allowed to discuss all of this with anyone but his auditor. Husbands and wives are not permitted to talk about what happens in their auditing sessions. Friends are required to report on each other if someone talks about an incident from their auditing. So the preclear is left without any way of keeping himself anchored in the real world. There is no way to verify whether or not something is true or imaginary.

Preclears who do not give their auditors incidents prior to this lifetime are required to undergo a Whole Track Remedy before they are allowed to go onto their upper levels. So this belief in a personal history stretching back millions of years is a required part of the preclear's reality in order to progress up the Bridge to Total Freedom.

In my opinion, this insistence on letting go of any boundaries for what is true and what is imaginary, and the requirement that one is not allowed to compare notes with anyone else about what is coming up in the auditing sessions, is all part of a gradual indoctrination that prepares people for what they will be required to accept as reality on the upper levels.

The pre-session patter is rote, and could easily act as an hypnotic, since the same patter is used prior to every session. Also the repetitive commands could act as an hypnotic. I say " could". Not "do".

Songbird: Another distinction that comes to mind: Whereas, in Scn auditing the reactive mind is viewed as a sort of enemy ("it's you and your auditor against the bank") in hypnotherapy, the subconscious is viewed as an ally in the quest for self understanding and self improvement.

Ladayla: That is a big difference, all right.

Ladayla: My own experience has been that I have caused many many people to 'go exterior', especially while doing TR0, by simply intending them to do it. I have caused engrams in others to erase by my intending them to erase. I cam move mental mass off a person by intending it to move off. I have helped lots of PCs blow BTs by simply intending the BT to blow. Dozens of times I have created a floating TA on others by simply expecting the TA to float. I had a bit of a reputation for that at ASHO.

Songbird: Just curious ... how do you know that it was your intending which produced these responses and not the other person's? Or something else going on - such as sounds in the room during TR0?

Songbird wrote: ...Excerpted from the essay “My Perspective on Auditing� by Stacy Brooks.
I recommend reading the entire essay - it’s fascinating. Link here:
http://lisatrust.bogie.nl/scientology/e ... y-tech.htm

Stacy Brooks: "Anyone who is familiar with False Memory Syndrome may be feeling by now that auditing is a classic example of it. That is certainly how I feel about it now. I think all of this telling me what happened to me millions of years ago and then getting me to "remember" these things until I "confirmed" it by the E-meter is nothing more than coercing me into creating memories to further someone else's agenda."

False memory syndrome scam leads to lawsuit and big settlement:

On November 6, 1997 the New York Times reported that while undergoing
psychiatric therapy at a big Chicago hospital from 1986-1992, a woman
says she was convinced
by doctors that she had memories of being part of a satanic cult, being
sexually abused by numerous men and abusing her own two sons.

She says that hypnosis and other treatments caused her to believe she
remembered cannibalizing people, so much so that her husband brought in
a hamburger from a family picnic and therapists agreed to test the meat
to see if it was human.

Lawyers for the woman said that insurance companies for two doctors and
a hospital, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes, had agreed to pay $10.6
million, the biggest settlement in a lawsuit alleging that therapists
had instilled false memories in part of a growing legal
backlash against therapies that try to illicit suppressed recollections.

"The issue for repressed memories is validation -- and validation in
every case when it appears...To treat for repressed memories without
any effort at external validation is malpractice pure and simple;
malpractice on the basis of standards of care that have developed out
of the history of psychiatric service -- as with witches -- and
malpractice because a misdirection of therapy will injure the patient
and the family.
-- Paul McHugh, MD
Chief of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital
Paper presented at Memory and Reality Conference, April 1993