What does “Going Clear” Mean in Scientology?

In Scientology, “Going Clear” means having attained the State of Clear.

What the State of Clear Is

The State of Clear has been a major goal of Scientology counseling (known as auditing) since the very first texts on the subject when L. Ron Hubbard published the book Dianetics in 1950. In that book, Hubbard describes in vast detail the reactive mind, that agglomeration of all of the pain, upset and unwanted emotion that an individual has accumulated over his many years. The contents of this reactive mind then end up unwittingly affecting the individual in their daily life, making them act and feel irrationally. This video gives an excellent overview of the reactive mind, and by extension, what a “Clear” is – as an individual who no longer has a reactive mind.

As you can see from the video above, the reactive mind is comprised of countless recordings and is a mess of cross-referenced pain, unconciousness, fear, hatred, agony, misery, and every other flavor of undesirable emotion and feeling any given individual has ever recorded. It’s an awful pile of unwanted baggage that all of us carry around with us, with it in varying states of influence over our day to day decisions, actions, likes and dislikes.

Popular culture these days likes to make reference to “post-traumatic stress”, inferring that people who have experienced huge trauma in their lives may thereafter act illogically – have unknowing aversions to action, or chronic depression, or other effects that stem from experiencing said stress. Well, the discovery back in 1950 was that this stress was all recorded in the reactive mind, and it wasn’t just war veterans or accident victims who were affected by it – it’s EVERYONE.

Now, the techniques on how to handle the reactive mind are simple, and can be done by anyone. The technique is called auditing. Please see the video here from the Scientology Network for a brief overview of what auditing is:

Within the principles of auditing the reactive mind, handling its ability to affect you once and for all comes down to being able to confront the reactive mind, and view it in its entirety. To see exactly what comprised the pain and upset that it contains, the events that transpired that caused that pain, and understand how your own decisions and thoughts about life in present time have been affected by such.

The “Bridge” to Clear

In running the first Dianetics Foundations, L. Ron Hubbard quickly discovered that many people were simply not ready to confront the full force of the reactive mind. It became clear that a gradient approach needed to be created, to handle the undercuts to Clear – handling the underlying situations and issues in a person’s life which would prevent them from confronting their reactive, issues which themselves are devastating factors in peoples’ lives.

This is the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, also known as
This is the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, also known as “The Bridge”, as displayed in the Flag Building in Clearwater, Florida.

For the next three decades, these Scientology processes were developed, refined and codified until there was a reliable, repeatable path that anyone could traverse – a “bridge” between one’s current state and the State of Clear (and beyond). This bridge is now known to Scientologist as the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, or simply “The Bridge”.

A common misconception that I’ve heard people have about Scientology is that it’s comprised of “levels” which are somehow status-based and are otherwise arbitrary. However, when you start practically going about decomposing the objective of “confronting & handling the most painful and awful memories you can possibly have” into its component steps, you get the beautifully-sequential progression which is this Bridge.

Examples of the areas taken up on this progression to Clear are:

Drugs and Toxins

A person is going to have precisely no luck vividly recalling his past when their present is clouded by chemicals, toxins, drugs and alcohol that they’ve been exposed to or have consumed.

Not only is this the reason Scientologists are diametrically opposed to street drugs, this is also why many Scientologists I know also choose not to drink. This also is the reason for the Purification Rundown, a first step a person does before receiving auditing, which – using a precisely-administered regimen of vitamins, exercise and the sauna, allows a person to get rid of the drugs and chemicals that have been lodged in their body, and allow them to think more clearly. This page gives more details on the Purification Rundown.

Present time & ability to control your own thoughts

In order to recall one’s past, one first needs to be firmly oriented in the present, with the knowing ability that one can control one’s own thoughts. Taking a look around at our screen and device-obsessed population, and it shouldn’t take much thought to see that too many people are not in present time, or have only a fraction of their attention available to them while the rest is on past upsets, on screens, on work, on places they wish they were, etc. L. Ron Hubbard wrote a vast number of processes to address this in all of its forms, and a precisely-tailored set of those processes is done by all Scientologists on an activity called the Survival Rundown. I wrote an article here explaining such in great detail.

Communication

If there are things in life that you simply don’t want to talk about, it will be impossible to discuss some of the lighter things in life, never mind the most painful and awful things that have ever happened to you. Thus, a step on the bridge is Scientology Grade Zero which addresses communication in ways you’ll never see coming, allowing one the free and easy ability to communicate with anyone about anything on any subject.

Problems

Did you ever meet someone who always seemed to be having problems? And the more you try to solve their problems, the more problems they seem to “invent”? Grade I in Scientology addresses why an individual has problems, and leaves them confident they can see the source of problems and make them vanish.

One’s Own Misdeeds

After one can discuss anything, and is no longer encumbered by his problems, one can move on toward confronting his own misdeeds. Things that you’ve done in the past that you knew were wrong, or ways that you or others around you were wronged and which still sit with you like a burr under your saddle – these in and of themselves can ruin a person’s life, never mind act as a complete obstruction to confronting the reactive mind. On Grade II one gets to confront these, among other things, and come out from it a new person, completely relieved of the burdens of past misdoings.

Upsets & unwanted changes

Sometimes people can remain so unsettled by major upsets and changes in life, that they stick there, never moving on. A divorce, a bad break-up, deaths in the family, being made to move to a new city, these can all cause a person to hang up and can impede one being able to easily confront the past. These are handled on Grade III.

Fixed ideas

In the book Advanced Procedure and Axioms, L. Ron Hubbard first detailed a mechanism called the Service Facsimile – a mechanism employed to explain away failures in life, but which then locks a person into detrimental patterns of behavior and further failure. These can manifest themselves in all manner of ways – decisions a person may have made to fit a situation long ago, like “grown men can’t really be trusted,” or “I can’t because of my backache,” or “I’m no good without my wife” or any number of such things. I would heavily, heavily recommend reading Advanced Procedure & Axioms for a full understanding of this mechanism, as it gives one an idea of how profoundly and obliquely this can affect one’s life and constant, never-ending, unchanging patterns of life that persist without logical end. With the special auditing techniques employed on Grade IV, these service facsimiles are handled completely, leaving one utterly ready to confront and handle the reactive mind.

Once handled, the resulting state – the State of Clear, is a magnificent step up and is appropriately acknowledged in the Scientology community.

For a better idea of what achieving the State of Clear has meant to Scientologist parents, please give a read to the stories below of Scientology parents who have gone Clear.

Going Clear Stories

  • I’m a Scientology Dad and Just Went Clear – What Was That Like?I'm a Scientology Dad and Just Went Clear - What Was That Like?
    I recently attained the State of Clear at my Church of Scientology, and I wanted to tell you a bit about what this was like, and attempt to detail in practical terms what this has meant for me personally, as well as for my family. Before I go into too much detail though, please have a ...
  • Scientology Helped Us Deal with Our Daughter’s Battle with CancerScientology Helped Us Deal with Our Daughter's Battle with Cancer
    Stephanie and Russ are parents to three beautiful girls, and make their home on a farm in Texas.   Adversity struck their family when their eldest daughter was diagnosed with bone cancer.  Their story of dealing with this illness as a family, and coming through the other side shining, is inspiring and beautiful in the ...
  • Was my Life’s Goal to Be a Mother Going to End in Despair?Was my Life's Goal to Be a Mother Going to End in Despair?
    How would you say going Clear has affected you as a parent? I’d like to give you a full answer to this, as you’ll have to know the bad, to appreciate the difference this has made. You see – as far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a mother.     From the age of four, ...
  • My Family and My Life After Going ClearMy Family and My Life After Going Clear
    Felicia is a Scientologist and mother of two from San Francisco.  She recently attained the State of Clear and wanted to share some of the unexpected ways this changed her life. You recently completed some major Scientology counseling services. How would you say this has affected you as a parent? Throughout the course of my auditing I was aware that I ...
  • My Family After Going ClearMy Family After Going Clear
    Kirstie and Jason are Scientologists, and are raising two young children in the San Francisco Bay area.  Both Kirstie and Jason recently completed major Scientology Auditing programs, having both attained the State of Clear.   We asked Kirstie her thoughts on this, and how it’s affected her as a parent, and as a new mother.   You ...
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