California Free Zone: The Clarises (Religious Practicies)
I do not have a complete thing written for the Californias, but I do want to describe one religious phenomenon that emerged within Scientology there, particularly in the southern parts. That is the concept of "Clarises," a term for something described as "Clear Theta Clear" in the Scriptures. The common term today distinguishes it from the very different concept of "Clear," which simply indicates a member of the Church.
Conceptually, a Claris is a thetan who has advanced to the point where it no longer needs a body and is no longer limited by the physical universe. Though they played a minimal role in early Scientology, as the religion spread in the Californias the Clarises gradually became one of the most important focal points for popular religious devotion. Numerous people reported having contact with Clarises, and some apparitions became famous and the objects of informal local cults.
In the days when California formed a united empire, the Church was divided over the phenomenon. The authorities in Ellei, the religion's older center, were more inclined to support it, partly because it was by far more common in that part of California than further north. The official state establishment in San Francisco, being somewhat more purist than the older church bodies, dismissed most popular devotion to Clarises and withheld its official support from most local cults. Disagreement over the recognition of Clarises was the most prominent issue that led the Ellei churches to secede and declare the Free Zone. (There were other issues as well, most of them over highly technical theological points and no small amount of political disagreements. But the Claris controversy is most often cited as the issue that divided the two churches.)
By far the best-known Claris is known as the Blue Maiden. She has been appearing in visions to Californians for centuries and is so well known that even the Republic state church officially recognizes her, though the Free Zone is the center of her cult. The Blue Maiden always appears as a young woman in a celestial aspect, wearing a blue cloak covered in stars, standing atop the moon's crescent, and with the rays of the sun shining behind her. For most peasants of the Free Zone, devotion to the Blue Maiden is the most important aspect of their religious lives, much more important than the rather esoteric doctrines of the official Scriptures. Stories about the Blue Maiden's origins vary, but the Ellei Church's official version is that she was a thetan who inhabited a human body somewhere to the south beyond the desert, but who became enlightened and left her body behind even before her own death. She can travel to other planes but remains on Earth to help people in distress, often intervening in their lives in miraculous ways.
Other towns and villages have their own local Clarises, and the Free Zone church recognizes most of them, seeing them as a way to maintain the peasants' religious zeal. A doctrine that has developed since the Free Zone's independence is that the President of the Free Zone almost automatically reaches Claris status just before death. This doctrine has been expressed through the construction of increasingly elaborate shrines for Presidents, known as Contact Points. The shrines, normally built during the President's life to his own specifications, are said to provide a fixed spot that the Claris can locate, and in which the living clerics can get strength and guidance from the departed, glorified leader. Today, a president's Contact Point is a great work of architecture indeed, requiring years of labor and a tremendous input of resources.
Contact Points for other Clarises are more humble affairs, often no more than a crude shelter, a cultic image, and some candles. The practice of bringing offerings to the Claris has been discouraged in favor of donations directly to the Church, but it continues, as token gifts are said to remind the Claris of the humble state in which humans live, and to warm their hearts as they think back to their own human lives. The cultic images also don't readily fit into Scientological doctrine, but are seen as important for reaching illiterate peasants.