The states of Release differ in that one is more stable than another.

The Reactive Mind (known also as the R6 Bank) can only be audited out by someone who is trained up to Class VI. When the Reactive Mind is fully audited out (erased completely) one has a Clear.

When a Clear has been refamiliarized with his capabilities you have an Operating Thetan (an OT).

A Release then is pulled OUT of his Reactive Mind.

A Clear has fully erased his Reactive Mind.

An Operating Thetan is one who is Cause over Matter Energy Space and Time and is not in a body.

The degree and relative permanence of being pulled out of the Reactive Mind determines the state of Release.

There are numerous things that can pull one back into the Reactive Mind.

These are (1) Locks (2) Secondaries (3) Engrams (4) The Whole Time Track.

By reducing locks as in Levels 0 to IV we then remove the ability of locks to pull the being back into his R6 Bank.

Locks are mental image pictures of non-painful but disturbing experiences the person has experienced. They depend for their force on secondaries and engrams.

Thus one who has had his locks reduced is a First Stage Release.

When a being has had the secondaries and engrams reduced he is far less likely to be pulled into the Reactive Mind than if he has just had their locks reduced.

Secondaries are mental image pictures containing misemotion (grief, anger, apathy, etc.). They contain no pain. They are moments of shock and stress and depend for their force on underlying engrams.

Engrams are mental image pictures of pain and unconsciousness the person has experienced.

When these are reduced one has a Second Stage Release.

Bits and pieces of the whole track remain after the locks, secondaries and engrams are reduced. These bits inhibit the being from recovering knowledge.

The Whole Track is the moment to moment record of a person’s existence in this universe in picture and impression form.

When these bits are cleaned up, a being is a Third Stage Release.

If a being is a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Stage Release and has also become exterior to his body in the process, we simply add”OT” to the state of Release. It is secondary in importance to the fact of being a Release. As soon as the being seeks to exert his ”OT” powers he tends to restimulate his R6 bank and so goes back into his body.

This is all that is meant when a person is called a First Stage Released OT. The person has not only come out of his bank but also out of his body.

Many processes, all below Class V, make 1st Stage Releases. We have been making them for 15 years. When audited on low level grades after being released by them, the person goes into his secondaries and engrams. He can be fished back out again by modem technology and can easily regain the state of First Stage Release.

Power Processes alone can be run on a First Stage Release. These vanquish the secondaries and engrams. This requires very expert Class VII auditors as it is touchy work. These make a Second Stage Release.

In doing the earlier Power Processes the preclear often attains First Stage Release or First Stage Released OT. Only doing all the basic Power Processes (including one called Pr Pr 6) makes a Second Stage Release.

Certain Advanced Power Processes make a Third Stage Release. These mainly recover knowledge and smooth out one’s understanding of the awareness of the environment achieved by Second Stage Release on Power Processing.

When a being has been trained up to Class VI and has been given the materials of the basic Reactive Mind to audit out (they took years to find and are too complex to be tackled without training and the actual patterns), he can then attain the state of Clear.

The Reactive Mind is composed of significance and masses as old as the Universe itself and is the basic cause of the decline of the individual. Each person has his own basic bank but they are all exactly alike. The materials are quite useless and inhibiting.

A Clear is not under the great stress of this bank and so can be free. He uses his own basic purposes and is for the first time wholly himself.

This state of being is attained by drills and familiarity after the state of Clear has been obtained.

A real OT has no Reactive Bank, is cause over Matter, Energy, Space, Time and Thought and is completely free.

This HCOB contains a brief description of each of the States of Being one can recover by processing.

This is the first time they have ever been isolated and crisply defined.

These are all the states there are except for homo sapiens and animal and we know too much about those already.