the length of
time intervening between the asking of the question by the
auditor and the reply to that
specific question by the
preclear. The question must be precise; the reply must be precisely to that question. It does not
matter what intervenes in the
time between the asking of the question and the
receipt of the answer. The
preclear may
outflow, jabber, discuss, pause,
hedge,
disperse,
dither or be silent; no
matter what he does or how he does it, between the asking of the question and the giving of the answer, the
time is the communication lag. The near answer, a guessing answer, an undecided answer, are alike imprecise answers, and are not adequate responses to the question. On
receipt of such questionable answers, the
auditor must ask the question again. That he asks the question again does not
reduce the communication lag; he is still
operating from the
moment he asked the question the first
time. And if he has to ask the question 20 or 30
times more in the next hour in
order to get a precise and adequate answer from the
preclear, the length of
time of the lag would be from the asking of the first question to the
final receipt of the answer. Near answers to the question are inadequate, and are, themselves, simply part of the communication lag.
(PAB 43)