((My comments in double parentheses - Homer)) CHAPTER 4.1 THE PREPCHECK LKIN - 2 Copyright 1992 (C) L. Kin Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes. THE PROCEDURE The prepcheck could be described as a tool which serves to bring clarity to a confused area of thought, using a rather broad approach. It compares to a scanning searchlight rather than to a surgical laser. "Prepcheck" means "preparatory check" (See Tech Dict). The first prepcheck bulletins appear in 1962. The technique was then used for quite different purposes than today. Today's style was first summarized two years later, in HCOB 14 August 1964, and only fourteen years later brought in its final form (HCOB 7 September 1978). 1. The buttons, the item and the prefix. The prepcheck consists of twenty "buttons", for example "suppressed", "invalidated", "careful of", "suggested". These buttons are used in relation to a charged item found previously, for example during an interview or an earlier session. As the item is called newly with each command, it serves as a "prefix" to the command. 2. Repetitive style auditing Suppose "apples" were the item, you would use "apples" as a prefix and ask the pc: "On apples, has anything been suppressed?" The question reads. The pc answers; that as well reads. You acknowledge the answer and keep asking the identical question until the pc runs out of answers, which is a flat point, or until there is an F/N, which is the EP on this particular series of questions on this button. This is called "repetitive style auditing". Now you take up the next button on the list and proceed in exactly the same way. 3. Flat points and End Phenomena. Some buttons will go flat, others will F/N. The pc will have small cognitions here and there and say things like: "Now I see! That's what it is! I never looked at it this way before!" And so on. He is doing his itsa ((It's a...)) After a while, he will come to a big itsa, a big cognition, something that disconnects and releases him from the subject as a whole. He may say: "Now I get it! Gee! That's the thing on apples - they are FRUIT! That's what they are! Wow!" And so on. That's the EP. That's when you end off. Some notes on certain details. To increase the pc's range of answers, clarify all possible interacts with regard to the question. Have the pc demonstrate his understanding to you by asking him to push paperclips and pens around on the table. There are quite a number of combinations: 1. Did apples suppress him? 2. Did he suppress apples? 3. Did he observe others suppressing others suppressing apples? 4. Did he suppress himself because of apples? 5. Did others suppress him because of apples? 6. Did he suppress others because of apples? 7. Did he observe apples suppressing others? 8. Did apples suppress themselves? 9.Did apples suppress each other? Perhaps there are some more combinations. Of course, you don't ask the pc these questions one by one, but you do want him to have a good and broad understanding of them. When you give the auditing question to the pc, each time you pick up a new button, you don't "check" it or "assess" it on the E-meter. You simply ASK the pc in a friendly and interested manner. If there is no read, you do NOT check for suppress, invalidate, or not-is. You don't check a button on a button. ((Actually there is an early LRH bulletin in the 1960's where he suggests running all buttons on each other. "On suppressed, has anything been invalidated? etc." But this is NOT part of prepchecking, and was only meant to be used in the specialized procedure of the time.)) Instead ((if there is no read)) you ask the pc for an example concerning the question. Have him invent one if needed to demonstrate his understanding. If it reads now, the button is charged, you inform the pc that this is so, (('There a read, we are going to run this, is that ok by you?")) and you run it repetitively to a flat point or F/N. If it goes flat by the pc running out of answers, do not continue questioning him in the desperate effort to get an F/N, as it would force the issue - which is never done. ((As you will see below, LRH disagrees with this.)) There's no need to push the pc anyway! Should there be any further charge left on any of the buttons, he'll get it on the next round through. You use as many buttons as needed to get to the EP. A dozen of them may be enough in one case; in another you may have to go through the whole lot, all twenty of them, three times. And please, don't run your repeater style like a robot. Encourage the pc to elaborate and go in further when one answer or the other is accompanied by a big read. Permit your pc to make itsa! The experts amongst the readers will have noticed that the above procedure does not represent the suggestions ((suggestions?)) of the latest HCOB mentioned above ((HCOB 7 Sept 1978)). This is because these suggestions do not prove successful, if followed to the letter. Taking each button separately to F/N Cog VGI's, as the bulletin demands, simple does not work. It means forcing the pc who has run out of answers, into more answers; it means tight needles and rising TA; it means ignoring that there is such a thing as a flat point in a process. Therefore this HCOB is "OUT TECH" (Technical Dictionary), no matter if it was written by Hubbard himself or by another (which unfortunately happened all too often.) GETTING THE ITEM On the Class VIII course Hubbard says that you can do a prepcheck on any area of charge. It goes without saying that the more defined an area is, the better it will read and the better your prepcheck will run. As an example, let us take a pc who mentions a terminal (person place or thing) or an AESP type item (Attitude, Emotion, Sensation or Pain) in several places of his interview but only has small reads on it. Added up, they amount to a lot of charge, though. Therefore you decide to do a precheck on this terminal or item. The first thing you do in session: ask him what he would call that item just for himself. HIS name for it. This will pull all the dispersed attention units into one and give you a blowdown ((on the TA)). The pc has done an itsa. Now you have a precise target to work on. Example: pc talks about school here and there in the interview. Lots of sF's ((small Falls)). You ask him: "What's YOUR word for "school"? Your personal description of it?" ((Who or what does School represent to you?)) Pc says "That madhouse!", laughs, Blowdown. Now you do your prepcheck on "that madhouse", because THAT is what the big restimulator behind the actual school was. Why the pc calls it a "madhouse", exactly where the charge is coming from, whether it is a past life overwhelm or a present life suppressive teacher, well be discovered in session. Which means: even before you start the action of prepchecking you HAVE an item and you KNOW that it is charged. The prepcheck does not serve to find out IF an item is charged. It is not an assessment to find out which button is charged the most. Not at all. It offers twenty angles (the 20 buttons) to get at a known charge and blow it. It serves as a tool to "crack" a charged subject. Two further solutions concerning the above situation, for the professional and more stylish: pc talks about school, teachers good and bad marks, homework etc. You don't know what out of all this is a real button. When you are good at Listing and Nulling you could ask: "Who or what would represent school to you?" Answer: "The math teacher!" This item blows down and F/N's. Now you can do a prepcheck on it. ((There are two general listing question used to get a more precise item for running. One tries to get a more general item, and the other tries to get a more specific item. "Who or what would school represent to you?" (More general item) "Who or what would represent School to you?" (More specific item) The first question gives "A madhouse", which means that school is a subclass of various madhouses the pc has known. The second question gives "math teacher", which means that a math teacher is a subclass of the various things that the pc found distasteful in school. So you have "Madhouse" ---> "School" ---> "Math Teacher" In R2-12 you list either one of these questions until you find THE Rock Slamming item by various VERY strict rules of Listing and Nulling. A Rock Slamming item is the item that continues to rock slam on the list after all other items have stopped reading, and the R/Sing item continues to R/S every time you call it. If the original item IS the R/Sing item, you do not list either of the "represent" question, because you already have the item you want. Thus "One NEVER represents a R/Sing item!")) And there is yet another L&N approach: "Regarding school, who or what would have these difficulties ((with school))?" Answer: "A dumb boy!" plus Long Fall Blowdown F/N VGI's. That's the valence he is stuck in. Prepcheck that. (See the chapter "Listing and Nulling" for further details) ((Although I approve of his mentioning this technology here at this point, I feel he has not stressed the difficulty of actually getting these items correctly on many pcs, me for one, and the incredible danger of getting one wrong.)) THE END PHENOMENON The EP of a precheck is a release, no matter how many buttons it took. In order to go release it takes a number of key-outs. (See Tech Dict under "Release".) Some buttons will produce a key-out with a realization and an F/N, others will just go flat. Neither the realization nor the F/N have to be particularly spectacular. They are on the particular button you have been working on, not the item as a whole. The FINAL cognition will be big and on the item as such; and the F/N will be wide. That is the EP. So you don't have to F/N each button. You run it till there's no read and no answer left on it. You run it flat. Should it F/N, that's fine. You carry on, run the remaining buttons to flat or F/N, start again with the first button, go through the lot again and again till the EP is reached. You just run each button, whether it has F/Ned on the run before or not ((I am sure LRH would disagree, but each button according to him would have been taken to F/N the first time it was run. I don't know if he claims that you need to run the whole lot again if the big EP is not attained the first time through. I think he assumes it always will EP before the first run is done. He would never run the same button twice after it had F/N'ed the first time, never ever.)) If it has already F/Ned it may read again as it has restimulated another lock connected with the subject. Remember it's a lock action, and there is no end to the number of locks. (See Tech Dict: "Reduce", "flat", "flat by TA", "flat comm lag", "flat point", "flat process") These are the precheck buttons (quoted from HCOB 7 Sept 1978R) "Modern Repetitive Prepchecking", Tech Vol XI, p. 469. Suppressed Decided Evaluated Withdrawn from Invalidated Reached Careful of Ignored Didn't reveal Stated Not-ised Helped Suggested Altered Mistake been made Revealed Protested Asserted Anxious about Agreed with ((I would add "not said" but then we would be running Power :) )) L. Kin ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Homer Wilson Smith This file may be found at homer@rahul.net ftp.rahul.net/pub/homer/act/LKIN2.MEMO Posted to usenet newsgroup: alt.clearing.technology