Auditing is the central practice of the Church of Scientology — the activity members spend the most time and money pursuing. Public understanding of it is shaped almost entirely by external commentary, much of it polarized, and by accounts from former members. The actual mechanics, as described in church publications, defectors’ memoirs, and journalistic reporting, are more specific than either side’s caricature. What follows draws on those publicly documented accounts.
The session structure
In a standard auditing session, a trained auditor sits across a small table from a “preclear” — the person being audited. The preclear holds two metal cylinders connected to an E-meter, which sits in front of the auditor. The auditor reads from a scripted set of questions or commands drawn from a specific level of the church’s training program. Sessions can last anywhere from under an hour to several hours and are typically conducted in a quiet, plainly furnished room. The auditor records responses and meter behavior on a worksheet to document what the church calls progress up the “Bridge to Total Freedom.”
The E-meter and what it measures
The E-meter, formally the Hubbard Electropsychometer, is a galvanometer — a device that measures small changes in electrical resistance as a low current passes between the held cans. The church teaches that variations in the needle correspond to the preclear’s mental and emotional state, particularly engagement with “charged” memories or thoughts. The device has no diagnostic medical function, and the FDA required the church decades ago to label it as a religious artifact. Auditors are trained to read needle movements as cues for which questions to pursue further within the session protocol.
What practitioners say they gain
Members and former members have described auditing experiences in varied terms. Common reported gains include feelings of clarity, emotional release, the resolution of long-held memories, and a sense of progress along the church’s structured advancement levels. Some longtime adherents describe peak experiences they consider deeply meaningful. Critics, including former high-ranking members, have described the same process as producing dependence on continued sessions and as generating disclosures the church retains in files. Both kinds of accounts appear in published memoirs and journalistic investigations.
Cost, hours, and the broader path
Auditing is not free. Members purchase sessions in blocks of hours, and the cost of progressing through the published levels — from initial courses to the upper “OT” levels — has been reported in journalistic accounts to run into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over years of practice. The church frames this as voluntary donation in exchange for spiritual training; ex-members and reporters have framed it as a structural feature that creates significant financial and social commitment. Both characterizations are part of the public record.
The bottom line
Auditing is a scripted, meter-assisted counseling-style practice central to Scientology, with documented procedures, devices, costs, and reported experiences ranging from transformative to harmful depending on the source. Anyone evaluating it can read both church-published materials and the substantial body of journalistic and ex-member accounts to form an informed view of what a session involves and what it asks of participants.
Leave a Reply