L. Ron Hubbard called it, “The single largest technical gain in eight years.” If he previewed the breakthrough at the London Clearing Congress, the great adventure of application began at the 5th London ACC. It all sprang from 1947 engram running, a technique he employed to make the first Clears, but which had defeated other auditors. But now with training drills in use and other auditors clearing people, Mr. Hubbard returned to those 1947 techniques “smoothed out, demonstrated and proved up in 1958.” Summated in a single embracive word—confronting—Scientology Engram Running shattered whole track occlusions and brought to view in the preclear hidden patterns of experience, the experience necessary to resolve the case. Whereas Mr. Hubbard had found what he called the swift road to Clear, his final lecture tells of its value for training: “You know more now about anatomy of the mind than any other single group in Dianetics or Scientology has ever learned.” And for the crescendo, there was everything this ACC led to in the book, Have You Lived Before This Life? a watershed of planetary enlightenment on former lives and, hence, a spreading beacon of truth that each individual is a spiritual being.
Read MoreThe auditing of engrams requires of the auditor more skill than any other single activity on which he can engage. It requires delicacy, tact, irresistible force, unanswerable determination—at the same time accepting the answers. It requires of a person that he, to be brief, knows his business. —L. Ron Hubbard
It was 27 October 1958. Having traveled to London earlier that month, L. Ron Hubbard delivered the London Clearing Congress, where he announced what he would describe as the single largest technical gain in eight years—Scientology Engram Running. Yet what he had presented to the broad Scientology field was just the beginning of what he would now lay out in terms of technical application. For with broad scale clearing a reality due to breakthroughs in auditor training, Mr. Hubbard had discovered that the crucial component in these accomplishments had not been undercutting cases, but, on the contrary—auditor expertise.
Thus it was that 72 student auditors from nations as far afield as Germany, Greece, Israel, Morocco, Southern Rhodesia and Australia were now enrolled on the 5th London Advanced Clinical Course and assembled in the auditorium at 7 Fitzroy Street, waiting expectantly for his opening lecture. And what they were about to experience—and the skills they were to acquire—would not only advance clearing to an entirely new plateau, but provide a journey of exploration and discovery unlike any they had ever experienced.
For, in the five weeks to follow, L. Ron Hubbard would instruct those auditors in the exact application of Scientology technology to 1947 engram running, a technique he had used in the earliest days of Dianetics to produce Clears. It was a method he had never released publicly, because other auditors had not been able to duplicate his results in its application. Yet, all that had changed.
“The earliest methods required auditing skill which could not be taught at that time but can be taught now.”
With Training Drills now developed and in use and auditors across the world making Clears, Mr. Hubbard had returned to and refined those 1947 techniques and released them “smoothed out, demonstrated and proved up in 1958.” As for what that signified, it all summated to a single embracive word whose ramifications for clearing were immense: Confronting.
“The theory of auditing: The preclear has lost confidence in his ability to face existence and its parts and has difficulty in participation. He is trapped in many of those things he has failed to confront or has been prevented from confronting or has prevented others from confronting or didn’t exist. By gradient scales his confidence in confronting thought, time, life, energy, matter and space are improved. The rule is: ‘Find something the preclear can confront and improve that ability.’”
And therein was written the script for the great adventure that was the 5th London ACC. For as Mr. Hubbard had foreseen, it was an ACC that would prove to be a “hell-roarer.” But notwithstanding the drama, his purpose was to equip those auditors with a comprehensive grasp of every facet of this new clearing technique:
And whereas these new techniques proved so powerful that whole track occlusions shattered—with an entire pattern of hitherto hidden experience, the experience necessary to resolve the case, brought to view in preclears—of greatest importance was that Mr. Hubbard had now built what he called the swift road to Clear.
Yet for all that ACC represented in terms of a new plateau for engram running, it is also legendary for what that auditing revealed. For if a belief in past lives was then regarded by the population at large as the opinion of a mere handful, that is no longer the case today. As for why, one only need look at what L. Ron Hubbard provided in revealing to Man an entire zone of experience previously curtained from his view. In evidence of that, the past life experiences uncovered during those voyages of exploration into the whole track are the book, Have You Lived Before This Life? And while that book inspired headlines upon its publication, history now reflects it marked a turning point towards something infinitely more significant: planetary enlightenment on the reality of former lives and, hence, of the truth that every individual is a spiritual being.