Numbered R2—17 in The Creation of Human Ability and the mimeo edition of this, The Auditor’s Handbook, available from the HASI in Phoenix, Opening Procedure by Duplication has been doing things to cases hitherto untouched by extensive and intricate auditing.

Because this process is very arduous to run on people below boredom on the tone scale, and because it has very often been used on people on whom it should not be used, it was early called “Dirty 30.” Actually, “Dirty 30” is Procedure 30, which encompassed what is now R2—17 and two other steps.

Ranting and raving has gone on in various locales because of Opening Procedure by Duplication. It has been branded as a hypnotic technique. The fact of the matter is, it runs out hypnosis and in the process of running it the restimulation of hypnotism is sufficiently marked to make an auditor and a preclear believe that hypnotism is taking place. However, Opening Procedure by Duplication continued on past this point runs on out the hypnotism.

Before one does Opening Procedure by Duplication one should have done the earlier steps of the six processes, which are: Two-Way Communication, Elementary Straight Wire, and Opening Procedure of 8-C. Only when these are thoroughly accomplished should one attempt Opening Procedure by Duplication. Furthermore, it is a very good thing for an auditor to have had Opening Procedure by Duplication run on him before he tries to run it on preclears, for the technique is very difficult upon an auditor who, himself, cannot duplicate.

Inability to duplicate is also inability to be cause, and inability to be effect. The reason one has an engram bank is because “it mustn’t happen again,” or “it must happen again.” In order to make sure that something does not happen again, one has a picture of it which he considers necessary to prevent him from duplicating the action. The existence of a picture, of course, will eventually make him follow the action and follow the dictates of the picture. Thus we get the action of an engram and restimulation.

The minimum time to run Opening Procedure by Duplication (R2—17) would be two-and-a-half hours. There is no sense in running the process twenty minutes, for it may well happen that the preclear can bear up for a little while, only to bog thoroughly on the process.

Run on people who are below boredom on the tone scale, the auditor may experience the preclear’s bolting from the session.

When Opening Procedure by Duplication is being run, it is common for the preclear, by comments and reactions, to dramatize the Know to Mystery Scale. The Know to Mystery Scale, of course, is a very long, tall scale, but any section of this scale has in it the various levels of Know to Mystery. Thus, one can see a preclear going up from Mystery through Sex, through Eating, through Effort, through Emotion, through Looking, to Knowing, then going through a different, higher harmonic of Mystery, then Sex, then Eating, and so forth. The auditor may not see him go through all of the grades on the Know to Mystery Scale in order, but will see him spotting one after another of the levels of this scale. The preclear will make such comments as “Looks good enough to eat,” “There’s a lot of work connected with this,” “It’s a mystery to me.” Going up the Mystery to Know Scale, one of course crosses the Emotional Scale, which was described and witnessed in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, but this Emotional Scale is, of course, a part of the Know to Mystery Scale.

In Great Britain, where auditors have used for the two objects required a book and a bottle, the process is called “Book and Bottle.” These two objects are a very good choice for working the process. A book, for instance, is placed in one part of a room, and a bottle is placed in another part of a room, far enough apart so that a preclear will have to walk between them. The auditor then sends him back and forth from one to the other, using for each item a stereotyped series of questions, which actually, themselves, never vary. Because these questions never vary, the auditor is apt to forget that he must maintain a two-way communication with the preclear. The auditor is not doing Opening Procedure by Duplication, the preclear is doing Opening Procedure by Duplication. When the preclear talks and asks questions and when he volunteers information, the auditor, of course, must answer him. There must be a discussion of some sort from time to time, and the auditor who is not content with the fact that the preclear has actually looked at it should, of course, insist that the preclear look at the object, or that he weigh it more carefully. However, one can err very easily in the direction of varying the process. Remember that no matter how much talking goes on, the basic process is the same. And the order of the commands, and the commands themselves, are all exactly the same.

To quote R2—17 from The Creation of Human Ability, which is the printed edition of The Auditor’s Handbook:

R2—17: Opening Procedure by Duplication is begun only after the preclear has some reality on his environment. Until the preclear’s reality on his environment is good, Opening Procedure by Duplication should not be done, for the preclear only turns on an unreality circuit and goes through it mechanically. The first part of Opening Procedure by Duplication is to get the preclear to examine, communicate with and own (somewhat on the order of Opening Procedure of 8-C) two dissimilar objects. These objects are then placed several feet apart and at a level so that the preclear can pick them up without bending over, but so that he has to walk between them. Once the auditor is entirely satisfied that the preclear has reality on these objects and can own them he then begins Opening Procedure by Duplication with the following commands, supposing that one of the objects was a book and the other was an ash tray, “Go over to the book.” “Look at it.” “Pick it up.” “What is its color?” At this point the preclear must give an answer. “What is its temperature?” Here the preclear must answer again. “What is its weight?” Here again the preclear must answer. “Put it down in exactly the same place.” When the preclear has executed, “Go over to the ash tray.” “Look at it.” “Pick it up.” “What is its color?” The preclear says an answer. “What is its temperature?” The preclear says his answer. “What is its weight?” The preclear says his answer. “Put it down exactly in the same place.” When the preclear has executed, “Go over to the book,” and the same words and the same formula are used over and over again until the preclear has had a sufficient number of hours of Opening Procedure by Duplication to enable him to do it without communication lag, without protest, without apathy, but only cheerfulness, each time seeing the items newly. This is a process which is done by the hour. The process is better when done consecutively for so many hours rather than done an hour apiece each day for several days. This procedure is the first step of Procedure 30.