Creation precedes destruction: for to be destroyed, a thing must have been created.

WE STILL SPELL SUCCESS WITH A-R-C.

The initial form of creation is an idea, and from an idea flows the energy and forms necessary to action.

If the old-time Dianeticist feels strange today with the SIX BASICS and all this fantastic STUFF about COMMUNICATION, he still has an anchor point to windward, he still has a comfortable harbor, he still has a sound hull in A-R-C.

Destruction requires action when that destruction embraces nations, towns, and the bodies of man.

Science of Survival is still as modem as tomorrow’s headlines. Science of Survival with its huge chart was written clear back in the unclear days of 1951 but its message is still talking in every today piece of auditing that is done.

Since civilization began on earth, men have been seeking to destroy men in the “glorious cause of ending war.” Force begets force; the spear only seeks the weak point of the shield; the shield itself, offered long enough, will provoke the invention of a spear which will pierce it.

That huge chart of Science of Survival was evolved from the basic principles of A-R-C and now we discover that the only way you can tell if modern auditing is working is whether or not it increases the pc’s A-R-C. Yes, THAT is the best test. That is the only reliable test.

Man has sought to solve his confusion by applying it to the chaos and confusion of force on the level of the material universe. Yet no progress or advancement ever has been made by mankind which did not have as its vanguard an idea. An idea alone is capable of altering man’s circumstance with regard to war. Ideas, their creation and control, alone can defeat an atom bomb. The idea which will defeat the bomb may be as low as the construction of a force stream to render impenetrable the defences of a city, but that idea would end war only for a time. Observably it will require an idea of far greater magnitude to stop the bloodlust of nations.

If today’s auditing session does not raise the pc’s A-R-C then it wasn’t an AUDITING session. It might have been a jam session or a bull session. But it wasn’t an AUDITING session.

Perhaps in Scientology there exist sufficient techniques for the origin of new ideas and the control of ideas to halt the willful suicide of man through the machinery of battle.

If a pc “blows a session” he blew it because there wasn’t enough A-R-C in the auditing itself or because HE didn’t have, wasn’t capable enough of A-R-C to match the session s process.

EVERY one of the Six Basic Processes today is designed and delivered only to increase the pc’s A-R-C. Every one of these processes is successful today ONLY when it improved the pc’s A-R-C, ONLY when it raised him, in other words, on that tone scale detailed in Science of Survival.

Thus today there would be NO excuse not to know whether or not the pc benefited from the session. If his A-R-C improved, he benefited from the session. Thus today there is NO excuse not to know WHAT process to run on the pc. The auditor runs THAT PROCESS which LEADS slightly the preclear’s A-R-C and into the lower rung of which the pc can enter with SOME A-R-C.

The only auditor judgment required today is the ability to estimate the A-R-C of the pc. The best trained auditors at the center in Washington or from the Academy are those who CAN estimate the A-R-C of the pc and who, KNOWING the tone scale chart and where the Six Basics fit, can ADDRESS the right process to the preclear and THEN LEAD the pc upscale by improving his ability to do the process.

Slow boat auditing is auditing done without an ability to estimate the A-R-C of the pc or know where the Basic Processes fit on the tone scale.

When we ask how clear a man is we are asking how ALIVE he is. When we are asking how ALIVE he is we are asking how much UNDERSTANDING he has. When we are asking how much LIFE and UNDERSTANDING he has we are asking how much A-R-C he is capable of performing. And that’s about all there is to it — IF you know your Science of Survival, IF you know your Six Basics and where they belong on the chart.

AFFINITY - REALITY - COMMUNICATION are the corners of the triangle of UNDERSTANDING. They are interdependent points. Without affinity, one cannot have either reality or communication. Without communication one cannot have affinity or reality. And one has as much affinity, reality OR communication as he has communication, affinity or reality. The DEGREE of any one comer brings about the degree of the other two.

By affinity we mean, roughly, the liking or disliking of something.

By reality we mean the similarity or dissimilarity of IDEAS about something. By communication we mean the interchange of ideas about something.

Now let us say that you tried the material in the Ability article “Straight Wire” and you did it all right. You tried it on three pcs or friends. It worked, let us say, with magnificent results on two. It did NOT work at ALL upon the third. WHY?

On the third man it didn’t work because his A-R-C was not UP to confronting his past. It might have been up to a process lower on the scale than Straight Wire. But it WASN’T up to Straight Wire. In other words we started with NO toehold of A-R-C which we could improve by auditing.

And HERE we have the only real auditing DIFFICULTY. There MUST be SOME A-R-C present in order to improve a pc’s case. He must at least quiver slightly when touched. There MUST be some life present in order to upscale a case.

Now it is TRUE that one can, theoretically, animate inanimate matter. IF one lifts a match without manual contact, by “force of will,” he MUST imbue it with some LIFE. If one cannot imbue with life he can’t handle objects or spaces. They DEFY him. Thus the Granting of Beingness. BUT, for our purposes the auditing of this extreme of NO LIFE is not then auditing. It is ANIMATING. Anybody can ANIMATE a pc. He can actually monitor his machinery with words alone. But auditing involves RAISING THE SELF-DETERMINISM (pan-determinism) of the pc. Maybe you could imbue with life and then raise THAT into self-determinism. Maybe you do. But that is NOT auditing as we understand it. It is NECROMANCY. (Though I will admit we all practice it somewhat.) Auditing consists of DISCOVERING a spark of A-R-C and, by processes AND A-R-C fanning it into a proud flame.

A pc may have enough A-R-C to do Locational Processing. If he does, then Locational Processing (having the pc sit still and spot things by glance in the environment) will UP his A-R-C to a point where the pc can do TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION (not mechanical, which belongs with Opening Procedure by Duplication). If a pc has enough A-R-C to simply talk over things THEN this can be fanned up to enough A-R-C to do PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. And if he can do this one (R2—20 in The Creation of Human Ability) he can then, in doing it graduate upscale to THINK A THOUGHT. And if he now has enough A-R-C to do THINK A THOUGHT he will gather force and momentum in thinking thoughts to at length enter the lower A-R-C floor of STRAIGHT WIRE. And so on up the rest of the processes.

HERE you see where we are going. Here you see the LADDER we are climbing. Here you see WHY we are climbing it. And here you see also why Straight Wire on that third pc didn’t make any improvement on his case.

If they don’t improve on the Six Basics in auditing by the code and by the book then the auditor has ASSUMED more A-R-C in the pc than the pc could muster.

When a preclear is run on a process without change, the process is just too high on the A-R-C scale for the extant A-R-C of the pc. And that’s ALL there is to it.

In the game of living (often carelessly called a business by low-toned people) you are as UNDERSTOOD by the people as they have A-R-C to understand you OR you are as understood as you grant them A-R-C to understand you.

You are as ALIVE as you can do a process. There is no shame in being partially dead. There is only shame in WANTING to be dead, for you can change that.

Now maybe, looking at your Science of Survival, you can estimate your pc and lead your pc into greater life. BUT remember, if he DOESN’T QUIVER on a process, he hasn’t entered into its life band and all his doing of it will be SOCIAL RESPONSE or YOUR running of his machinery. You can do it too.

Good hunting.

[The above “Old Cuff” was originally printed on the back of PAB 58, 5 August 1955. The text of this PAB was not written by LRH so it is not included here.]