From the earliest days of Dianetics there have always been four grades of auditing FIRST of these was the Book Auditor (bless them), the people with the verve to do or be damned with Dianetic or Scientology written material but without formal training.

SECOND of these was the generally certified auditor — the HDA, the HCA, who had been formally trained at one or another central organization school. Trained over seven years, their skills were varied by the period in which they were trained. These were the “backbone” of the subject, the leaders of groups, the authorities in areas.

THIRD were the specially coached or trained auditors, BScn, HAA, DScn, who by repeated training kept abreast and who had a large span of schooling and training skill.

FOURTH were the Staff Auditors of central organizations. As could be expected these were trained against the necessity of producing sweeping results to uphold the repute of the Foundation or the HASI or the Founding Church. Their skills were above and beyond certification and their degrees were anything from HDA to BScn. They spent, and spend even today, many hours of training in any week just to hold their own with the subject and the repute of the “clinic.”

Now something new has happened. A plateau of training and processing skill has been reached. With Advanced Processes and the ferocity of the Training Drills, we can divide up processes and processing to match these four grades. We are rich in skill now, broadly so.

We have been producing excellent results for a long time. But now we can produce results on lower level and higher level cases than ever before.

Thus a book auditor, using the below described processes, without much training could produce fair results on average homo sapiens, patch up the environment and live better.

Thus a generally certified auditor, without further training, using the processes in which he was trained, could do very well on preclears. Remember, they were and are good processes. And this is true of pre-1957 upper grade auditors. However, the processes, even so, do not go “all the way south” or “all the way north.”

But here enters a new grade and level, more or less equivalent to the upper grade auditor of yesterday. This is the VALIDATED AUDITOR who has been drilled up to the level of this plateau and could go all the way south on cases if not, perhaps, all the way north. As I am so sure of this now, we have stopped looking southward. That’s what makes it a plateau. Such an auditor could audit a person in a coma or a day-old baby or somebody 10 years shocked in a spin-bin. So there’s a positiveness about the grade never before possible.

It is not probable that a staff auditor rating will ever be superseded. This level is what it is and is independent of quality of degree. Just now central organization staff auditors are at grips with fully grasping the fact that they can go all the way south and soon will be happy with that and will then be trying for “all the way north.” (The nearest approach possible to absolute clear is now the research line and will someday soon be the “clinic” auditing line.)

Hence, we get 4 levels of auditors and 4 levels of processes in Scientology.

Book Auditor processes would include:

Engram Running as described in the first edition, Book One, Dianetics. The Modern Science of Mental Health.

The Fifteen Acts of Scientology, the ''Handbook for Preclears.

Self Analysis ''in its entirety.

The Processing Section of Scientology. The Fundamentals of Thought.

The various “assists” which have been listed in many publications.

The Co-Auditors' Manual processes.

All the above books are easily obtained. Their age has nothing to do with their workability on average people and they produce some startling results not otherwise attainable by any other practice on Earth despite the “lack of training” of the book auditor. This was the way the subjects started and this is the way they will continue to be used.

A book auditor requires no more okay than the writings and his own raw courage.

People feel, of late times, that book auditing is “frowned upon.” Only by medicos and head-shrinkers (a technical term for psychiatrist), not by us. Scientologists respect the nerve of the book auditor!

My feeling today is that there isn’t enough book auditing. Any book auditor, reading backwards and half drunk can do more for a man than ten thousand years at Mayo Brothers or Menninger’s Squirrel Cage. If we had a hundred thousand book auditors, the AMA, the APA and the American Society of Brainwashing would fade and die.

The Generally Certified Auditor was trained in good processes and he has always gotten results. His only stumbling block is the case all the way south. These tend to break his heart (which is why I kept my spyglass trained south for seven years!). Unless he runs into one of these unsuspectingly, he’s in clover.

There is no need to list his repertoire. It is tremendous. And in the main successfully so.

The Validated Auditor, having passed through all the TRs (Training Drills ‘57), not being human anymore, can run thorough-going CDCCtH.* Any generally certified auditor can become a Validated Auditor with drills and training.

The Staff Auditor — lord knows what he’ll be doing. He’ll be trying for the Moon and OTs — a neglected subject these last 5 years because of the southward project.

Well, there’s the way it seems to fit together. What do you think of it?

[* C for Control, D for Duplication, C for Communication, Ctfor Control of thought = H for Havingness. See also P.A.B. 122, “The Five Levels of Indoctrination and Procedure CCH.”]