Clear (Scientology)

In Dianetics and Scientology, Clear is a status afforded to followers by the Scientology organization, or by other Scientologists, after they complete certain activities. It is one of the major ostensible "states" practitioners strive to reach on their way up what the Scientologists call the Bridge to Total Freedom. Scientology followers are given the status of Clear when a person is deemed to be free of the influence of engrams – supposed unwanted emotions or painful traumas that Scientology claims are not readily available to the conscious mind. Scientologists believe that human beings accumulate anxieties, psychosomatic illnesses, and aberrations due to receiving engrams throughout their current or past lives, and that by applying Dianetics, every person can obtain the status of Clear. A Clear is defined by the Church of Scientology as a person who no longer has a "reactive mind" (a pseudoscientific subdivision of the mind), and is therefore free from negative effects purported to be produced by the "reactive mind". A Clear is said to be "at cause over" (that is, in control of) their "mental energy" (their thoughts), and able to think clearly even when faced with the very situations that in earlier times caused them difficulty. The next level of spiritual development is that of an Operating Thetan. A person who has not reached a state of Clear is called a preclear. Dianetics claims that a person's awareness is influenced by the stimulus-response nature of the "reactive mind". Achieving the state of Clear means a person has supposedly overcome the "reactive mind" and is in complete control of their analytical mind. According to Hubbard: "A Clear is a being who no longer has his own reactive mind, and therefore suffers none of the ill effects the reactive mind can cause. The Clear has no engrams which,...