Blown for Good Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology
every question she asked, I could just sit there and stare at her, the wall or the E-Meter itself. Cool. This will be a breeze.
    My sec checking took three full days. It seemed like there were hundreds and hundreds of questions. After the first few hours during the first day, I zoned out and focused on not falling asleep. I thought to myself how unbelievable it was that it took people months to get through this, people must have had “yes” answers to the questions for it to take longer than a few days. Pat was happy, I was happy. As far as I could tell, we were done.
    But after the initial list of questions, there was another list that was about the previous list! I was in shock. A list of questions about the list I was just asked about. This time another guy asked me this new list. His name was Bruce Hines, who also worked in the Senior Case Supervisor International Office. He seemed cool and the list wasn’t as long. Had I lied about an answer? Had I thought about another answer when asked a question? Did I purposely influence the E-Meter to get out of answering a question? All I could think about while he was asking me questions is that I had not answered any questions! I had sat there thinking about nothing or how Pat was kind of hot and even though she was at least 15 years older than me, she seemed like she could be decent in the sack! And if I was not thinking about Pat, I was imagining going a few rounds with Claudia!
    After Bruce was done he told me that the folder would go up and that the completed staff work for my promotion should be completed in the next few days.
    I headed back up to the Clearance Unit and Claudia told me that my promotion proposal was going to Int tonight for review! It was Tuesday and I could potentially be approved and at the International Base by Thursday if we were lucky. The promotion proposal was a Completed Staff Work. If you want to do anything in the Sea Org, you have to have a Completed Staff Work approved in order to get authorization to work. If you wanted to go see your mom who was in town for a day, you had to get a CSW approved in order to do so.
    Most of the people in the clearance unit were amazed that I had zipped through my entire sec check in under a week. Claudia had written so many CSWs for Clearances, she had already written the CSW and just plopped my name in the appropriate places. She asked me to help her pump up how awesome I was and how I should go to the International Base. After all was said and done, we managed to make my unimpressive history look like I was God’s gift to the Sea Org.
    The promotion proposal would now be sent to the headquarters and we would be informed if there were questions. Claudia told me there were always questions and these things could sometimes go back and forth for weeks before being either approved or disapproved.
    The next day I hung out in the clearance office and helped Claudia with her work. I was bringing folders to people in the building and gathering up tests from people and doing busy work while we waited for the results.
    It was after lunch when Claudia got a call from the International Base. They could not figure out how I qualified for promotion while only being in the Sea Org for nine months. There was a qualification that you had to have at least one year of experience in the Sea Org before moving up to the headquarters. Claudia told them that I had worked at Delphi for six months and that between that and ABLE, I was qualified. They bought it. They told her that my promotion proposal was going on to the last approval terminal and that we should hear back later that night.
    At 8  p.m. , Claudia came in to the office where I was grading someone’s tests and told me that I was approved! Holy shit, that was fast! I am really going. This is really happening. She said that I was going to be taken to my apartment to get my stuff and that I was going to be taken to the base tonight. I could only imagine how long it would

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