THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF FRONTLOADING
Frontloading, when done correctly, is a method of telling the viewer where to put his/her efforts without providing any information about the target. It is a tool the viewer can use to focus his/her energies for the best effectiveness. When done incorrectly, it is an unnecessary and often destructive pollutant, to be avoided at all costs.
I have noticed that different people have different ideas of what constitutes frontloading. I would like to hopefully suggest a few rules for proper frontloading; a sort of ten commandments, if you will, in the hopes of bringing some cohesiveness to this subject.
COMMANDMENT 1: Frontloading must NOT impart target information. What is frontloading NOT? If "frontloading" lets the viewer know something about the target, then it isn't frontloading. It is, at the very least, leading, and at the very worst, cheating. It is also very destructive to the viewer's session, and to the viewer's self-confidence. Let's take a couple of examples of frontloading which imparts information:
Example 1.1: "The target is the location of a criminal who abducted a young girl."
This is a total disaster. There is not a viewer anywhere who will not immediately find him/herself battling with personal stereotypes of a criminal, of a child abductor (and probably child molester), and of a location where we would expect such a person to hide in order to do their malevolent deeds. In addition, the viewer is immediately set upon by strong emotions. What if in reality, the child was taken by her very loving mother, who becomes a criminal in the process? While the monitor may think that this kind of information helps the session and the viewer, it doesn't. It only hurts.
Example 1.2: "N.E.A.R. SPACECRAFT LANDING EVENT ON THE ASTEROID EROS, FEBRUARY 12, 2001.
While there is no emotional triggering or even stereotype pollution, the above would actually serve to confuse the viewer's subconscious. First of all, you have tasked the viewer's subconscious with the answer it is supposed to find. What is the question here? What is the unknown to search out information about? Unless the viewer has absolutely no clue about the N.E.A.R. (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) project, the total burden of describing is placed directly on the conscious mind. The little bit of information which is gained through viewing will get lost in the known facts. The viewer may know something about the project, but not know what the craft looks like. In that case, the dimensionals will need to be viewed, but even then, the viewer will have personal doubts about how much is actually coming from memory and previously forgotten knowledge (eidetic memory), as well as their stereotype of what a space probe should look like..
Example 1.3: "The target is the location of my car keys, lost on or about Jan. 20th"
OK. We're getting better, right? Wrong. A viewer, faced with such information will immediately begin to mentally sort out possible locations where the tasker would have been, and all the possible places where car keys would normally have been misplaced or forgotten.
As a last example, let's take one of the most subtle types of unintentional pollution:
Example 1.4: "The target is a manufactured object. Describe it."
You tell the viewer not only the manufactured quality of the object, but you also tell him/her that there is only one. True, you have narrowed the tasking down to about forty quintillion possible targets in space and time, but you have still inadvertently polluted the session, and it will show up as problems for the viewer.
Bottom line: If you impart any information at all about the target site, then you are not frontloading - you are polluting.
COMMANDMENT 2: Frontloading must NOT "task the answer". Simply stated, "tasking the answer is a condition where you task the viewer to find what you want him/her to find. You have generally already decided what the target is, and now you want a viewer to agree with you. You aren't allowed to do that during a session, so you use something like the following for "frontloading":
Example 2.1: "The target is a specific man. Describe him."
In this example, let's say that you are a police detective and you are looking for the perpetrator of a crime. You have already decided that the target is male, and you are asking the viewer to find what you already suspect. What if you are wrong?
COMMANDMENT 3: Frontloading must ONLY tell the viewer where to put his/her best efforts. Let's say that the targeted location is, say, a hotel with a beach, sailboats, volleyball game, refreshments kiosk, kiddy pool, beach umbrellas, parking lot, amusement rides, and people all over the place. Let's further say that I only want you to describe the winner of the volleyball game. If frontloading is designed properly, it will only tell you where to put your viewing efforts, as in Example 3.1.
Example 3.1: "Describe the activity part of the site."
The end result of this frontloading is that the viewer will still, in the early stages of the session, pick up on the buildings, the sailboats, the people, the smell of candy, suntan oil, etc. But as the viewer stops the "winking about the site" which is inherent to the early stages, he/she will begin to get "site contact" and will focus on that part of the site which is of interest to the task. The session goes much faster and the viewer is not worn out by the end of it.
Let's face it. Every site has a lot of things to describe. Not everything at a site needs to be described.
If you are doing a practice target then, sure, go ahead and describe everything you can. But realize the pitfalls of this. Many people ignore the major part of the site and fully describe the background or something attractive to them in it. But hey, it is a practice session. No problem. Many people spend all their energies on inconsequential parts of the site. If they ever do get around to the main part of the target, they are tired and ready to quit, so they don't do their best work on the most important aspects of the site.
But when you have a real-life session, where a tasker wants to know something specific about the site, you can't have a viewer dallying about for hours at the target site. You need the viewer to focus in on the important part of the site and get the necessary information. You don't need the viewer to spend hours describing everything at the site, hoping he/she will get around to the specific targeted part. You need the viewer to go directly to the information and get it as quickly as possible. You will need a tool which will allow the viewer to access that part of the site only. Frontloading MAY be that tool. Many people will respond that frontloading is still not necessary, since the monitor can "guide" the viewer to the desired part of the target, once the viewer is into session. But they should realize that if that happens, then your major pollution is not the frontloading, but the monitor's "middleloading". Monitors should not lead. This is another problem entirely.
COMMANDMENT 4: If you cannot frontload without polluting, then don't frontload. If you don't know how to provide frontloading without pollution, then to be honest, you should probably seek out some training, either professionally or from a trained and experienced viewer. If you don't know the basics of how not to pollute a session, then you would probably be better off watching the session rather than participating in it, since you will almost certainly wind up polluting other parts of the session, too. So we could also have this one read: "If you don't know how to provide frontloading without pollution, excuse yourself from the session."
COMMANDMENT 5: If the viewer wants/needs frontloading, then give it. But make sure it is properly done. There are times when a viewer is feeling insecure and actively wants frontloading. In this respect, frontloading is not used to guide the viewer, or even to tell him/her where to put his/her work. Instead, it is being used simply to give the viewer a mental security blanket. In such a case, frontloading, if it doesn't pollute, actually helps the viewer by putting him/her at ease to work the session better. An excellent example of this is the case where the viewer wants frontloading, but the session is being conducted double-blind. The proper frontloading for this situation is:
Example 5.1: "The target is unknown. Describe the target."
Believe it or not, this frontloading will serve to calm the viewer's "fear or failure" and get him started on better footing. It imparts absolutely no information about the site, yet it helps the viewer, and thereby helps the session.
COMMANDMENT 6: If the viewer does not want frontloading, then don't give it. It doesn't matter whether the monitor or project manager likes frontloading. If the viewer does not want it, then it should not be given. The viewer will know whether frontloading of any kind will be disruptive to his/her session or not. The viewer will also know whether the monitor can be trusted to give frontloading properly or not. If the viewer does not trust the monitor to give proper frontloading, then even if the frontloading is given in squeaky-clean purity, the viewer will still be suspicious of being polluted, and that worry will, by itself, pollute the session.
COMMANDMENT 7: If the viewer wants frontloading, but is totally incapable of receiving it without causing pollution, then give frontloading as though it were a double-blind session.
There are many viewers who want the frontloading either for security, or because they think they can handle it. But in fact, it throws tons of pollution into their session - sometimes without them even knowing it. If that is the case, then follow Rule 5 and give them frontloading, but do it in such a way that 1) absolutely no target information is provided, and 2) absolutely no information is provided as to where they should put their efforts.
Example 7.1: "This is your first target of the day. Describe the target."
Example 7.2: "This is a practice target. Describe the target."
Example 7.3: "I won't tell you anything about this target. Describe it."
You would be amazed at the nondescript frontloading someone who only wants it as a security blanket will take and be happy with.
COMMANDMENT 8: If you are doing a session for research, don't give frontloading. It is totally possible to use the results of real-world operations for research and use the results of research for real-world operations. But to be honest about it, that is rarely done. In actual practice, research and operational applications exist in separate worlds, and probably never will be the best of bosom buddies.
In research, you need pristine controls, pristine environment, no unknown variables, and absolutely no pollution. Frontloading, even at its best and purest, is a type of pollution. Therefore, if you are working a remote viewing session for the lab guys, frontloading is neither recommended nor should it be permitted. The object of a research-oriented session is to test the viewer, a new protocol, or the field of remote viewing, itself.
If you are doing a session for real-world applications, though, the object of the session is usually to get in, get the necessary information, and get out with the greatest possible efficiency. In that respect, frontloading is sometimes a very useful tool to get the job done more efficiently.
In fact, if you look around the remote viewing community, you will see that it is generally the researchers who are adamantly, almost religiously, against frontloading of any kind. You will also notice that it is the applications-oriented people who say that there are times when it is needed and useful. In both cases, you have people seeing only their own aspect of the field, and not being able to see that there is any other.
So, the simple rule stands, "No frontloading for research". The only possible exception to that would be if you are doing research on the effects of frontloading.
COMMANDMENT 9: In all other cases, don't give frontloading unless you need to. There is nothing magical about frontloading, in and of itself. It is a tool for operational, real-world applications, and nothing more. It should be used wisely and only when needed. It isn't the hammer that fixes everything, nor should it be used as the first tool out of the box. Just like the hammer, don't use it unless the job calls for it.
COMMANDMENT 10: If you do give frontloading, make a written record of it.
In CRV, the viewer writes down, word-for-word, any frontloading which is given. Thereafter, there is no question as to the amount of purity or pollution of the frontloading. It is there for all to see.
CONCLUSION
So, is frontloading good or bad? Well, I would say that it is simply one of two evils. The other evil is having a viewer exhaust him/herself because there was no clear direction on where to put his/her efforts. Sometimes, frontloading is the greater of the two evils, sometimes it is the lesser.
So, let's recap:
1. Frontloading must not impart target information.
2. Frontloading must not task the viewer to find any customer-desired answers
3. Frontloading must ONLY tell the viewer where to put his/her best efforts
4. If you cannot frontload without polluting, then don't frontload.
5. If the viewer wants/needs frontloading, then give it. But make sure it is properly done.
6. If the viewer does not want frontloading, then don't give it.
7. If the viewer wants frontloading, but is totally incapable of receiving it without causing pollution, then give frontloading as though it were a double-blind session.
8. If you are doing research, don't use frontloading.
9. In all other cases, don't give frontloading unless you need to. If you are doing a practice or an operational session, use it, but only when needed.
10. If you give frontloading at all, make a record of it.