There are three known grades of Clear.

The first is the Book One Clear. This is called Mest Clear. An adequate description of this is to be found in Book One.

The second is a Theta Clear. This has been known for years but has only recently been obtained through engram running as taught in the 5th London and 21st American ACCs and is done in the Processing Department of the Central Organization.

The third is called OT or Operating Thetan and is a rather esoteric level, hard to reach, hard to describe in full.

Any confusion about the state of clear is a confusion of these three terms: Mest Clear, Theta Clear and OT.

An uninformed public thinks a Mest Clear should act like an OT with magical attributes. It is not enough that the general auditor can now approximate a Book One Clear. The public, striving for unattainable attributes, wants an OT who eats buildings. The two states if on the same scale are not the same states.

A Mest Clear knows he has reached the bottom rung of the ladder on his way up. He also knows the rest of humanity uncleared is below this state but that they don’t know that they are.

A Mest Clear still thinks of himself more or less as a body and is more or less subject to one. All engrams are effectually keyed out without being examined. For practical purposes they are erased. He has excellent recalls. They may or may not be eidetic. Book One Clears are a bit below the Mest Clear standard of today.

If the person making the picture required in eidetic recall makes the picture, he has to know first what is in it. So why make a picture. A picture is memory on a via. So the argument about eidetic recall is a rather dull one at best.

It is not my purpose, thank God, to prove I was right. It is my purpose to blaze a trail into zones and heights Man has not known before. I can tell you only what is as I know it now. And I know that eidetic tests of recall do not prove a Mest Clear. Only freedom from keyed-in engrams proves a Mest Clear.

Theta Clear is another thing — much higher than a Book One or Mest Clear. This is a real triumph and I’m proud of it. The fact of a real Theta Clear is only a few months old.

A Theta Clear has no obsessive engrams whatever. They aren’t. But he can put back at will his reactive bank or any engram in it and blow it off again at a glance. Now that is news. A Theta Clear does not have to depend on the body line for his “survival.” He does not have engrams of any kind unless he creates them. He does not have to be in a head. And the state can be obtained in at least 80% of all cases in about 350 hours of auditing or more depending on the auditor’s skill. Only the Processing Department of the Central Organization or the graduates of the 5th London ACC or the 21st American ACC are doing this one.

Mest Clear, however, is a way station on the road to Theta Clear or OT so it doesn’t much matter what auditor starts you on the way — your HAS co-auditor, a professional HCA, an HCS or BScn or a new ACC graduate. You’ll win with them all toward the same goal. Lately I even developed a co-auditing formula that reaches near Mest Clear.

OT, of course, remains theoretical and is reached through lower clear states.

So here we go. We built a bridge. And built it better than we hoped. It’s time to start if you’ve been hanging back. The best way to see this elephant*“‘Seeing the elephant’ — an old U.S. Army saying to new recruits going into action for the first time. In Scientology, we have this analogy: when the student auditor has seen the WHY of aberration, objectively and subjectively, we say ‘he’s seen the elephant’ — he’ll never again doubt the fact of an engram or the awesome implications of what he, the auditor, is able to confront and do with a preclear. He is now, in short, operational.” — Ability 103 is from inside!

Clearing is wonderful conversational material. It is a better experience.