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"Auditing" is sometimes considered controversial, because auditing sessions are permanently recorded and stored within "preclear folders". Scientologists believe that the practice of auditing helps them overcome the debilitating effects of traumatic experiences, most of which have accumulated over a multitude of lifetimes. The folders are kept in accordance with the Priest/Penitent legal parameters which do not allow these folders to be seen or used for any other purpose or seen by any others who are not directly involved in supervising that person's auditing progress.
Auditors are required to become proficient with the use of their E-meters. The device measures the subject's galvanic skin response like a polygraph (lie detector), but with only one electrode per hand rather than multiple sensors. The E-meter is primarily used in auditing, which "aims to remove (engrams) to produce a state of 'clear.'" Auditors do not receive final certification until they have completed an internship, and have demonstrated a proven ability in the skills they have been trained in. Auditors often practice their auditing with each other, as well as friends or family. Church members sometimes pair up during training, doing the same course simultaneously so that they can audit each other up through the various Scientology levels.
According to scholar Harriet Whitehead, the Church of Scientology "has developed a fine-tooled hierarchically organized system of audit (training) sessions where the technology of these sessions, in fact, is the treatment leading to processes of renunciation and eventually reformulation in the individual," which is similar to psychoanalysis.
==== Traumatic memories and the reactive mind ====
Among Scientology's basic tenets are the belief that human beings are immortal, that a person's life experience transcends a single lifetime, and that human beings possess infinite capabilities. Scientology presents two major divisions of the mind. The "reactive mind" is thought to absorb all pain and emotional trauma, while the "analytical mind" is a rational mechanism which is responsible for consciousness. The reactive mind stores mental images which are not readily available to the analytical (conscious) mind; these are referred to as "engrams". Engrams are painful and debilitating; as they accumulate, people move further away from their true identity. Avoiding this fate is Scientology's basic goal. Dianetic auditing is one way by which the Scientologist may progress toward the 'Clear' state, winning gradual freedom from the reactive mind's engrams, and acquiring certainty of their reality as a thetan. Hubbard's differentiation of the reactive mind and the analytical mind forms one of the basic tenets of Dianetics. The analytical mind is similar to the conscious mind, which processes daily information and events. The reactive mind produces the mind's "aberrations" such as "fear, inhibition, intense love and hate and various psychosomatic ills" which are recorded as "engrams".
Scientology believes people have hidden abilities that have not yet been fully realized. It is believed that increased spiritual awareness and physical benefits are accomplished through counseling sessions referred to as "auditing". Through auditing, it is said that people can solve their problems and free themselves of engrams. This restores them to their natural condition as thetans and enables them to be "at cause" in their daily lives, responding rationally and creatively to life events rather than reacting to them under the direction of stored engrams. Accordingly, those who study Scientology materials and receive auditing sessions advance from a status of "Preclear" to "Clear" and "Operating Thetan". Scientology's utopian aim is to "clear the planet", a world in which everyone has cleared themselves of their engrams.
Auditing is a one-on-one session with a Scientology counselor or "auditor". It bears a superficial similarity to confession or pastoral counseling, but the auditor records and stores all information received and does not dispense forgiveness or advice the way a pastor or priest might do. Instead, the auditor's task is to help people discover and understand engrams and their limiting effects for themselves. Most auditing requires an E-meter, a device that measures minute changes in electrical resistance through the body when a person holds electrodes (metal "cans"), and a small current is passed through them.
Scientology believes that watching for changes in the E-meter's display helps locate engrams. Once an area of concern has been identified, the auditor asks the individual specific questions about it to help them eliminate the engram and uses the E-meter to confirm that the engram's "charge" has been dissipated and the engram has been cleared. As the individual progresses, the focus of auditing moves from simple to increasingly complex engrams. At the more advanced OT auditing levels, Scientologists perform solo auditing sessions, acting as their own auditors.