How To Choose Your People Chapter 24

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Chapter 24 — Raising Tone

RAISING TONE

You may have been wondering why people drop down tone in the first place and, even more importantly, what we can do about it.

The following notes will cover the causes for low-tone as well as a few remedies.

There are five major reasons a person goes downscale – temporarily or permanently:

1. His present environment (its tone and volume).
2. His general environmental background.
3. Genetic limitations.
4. His current activities.
5. Experiences of pain and unconsciousness in the past.

THE PRESENT ENVIRONMENT

Turbulent and unhappy surroundings will produce a disturbed individual. You can't punish, beat, drug, shock or command a person into sanity; but you can take him out of a low-tone area and bring him upscale. Environment includes people, places and general health.

A person's marriage partner, family, friends, job and neighborhood are all part of his environment. No matter how high he is basically, when someone associates with insane individuals, he eventually drops tone, at least while in the vicinity of the lower-scale associates. A 3.0 will drop to Anger or act like a 1.1 in a Covert Hostility environment. The 1.1 might improve to a point of Anger in a high-tone environment. In marriage, as we mentioned earlier, one tends match the emotional level of the partner, with the downscale person coming up somewhat, and the hightone one coming down considerably.

When a person is in an atmosphere where he does not receive friendship or love, is not talked to and where no one agrees with his ideas, he will go down tone. Friendship, communication and agreement are essential to man.

If someone is living in squalid rooms or neighborhood, he drops downscale. Clean, light, bright and orderly surroundings will boost an individual somewhat (depending on how boostable he is).

The person's physical condition is another aspect of environment. Proper rest, nutritious food, exercise and good health are all necessary prerequisites to high tone. If someone is trying to subsist on three hours of sleep and black coffee, he will find himself less stable; small incidents can provoke a sharp drop in tone. If he suffers from a physical malfunction, he can go upscale after a visit to the doctor and proper medical treatment. A new pair of glasses can do wonders by restoring a large portion of his communication with the world. It's low-tone to neglect the care of the body.

The use of sedatives or stimulants (including alcohol) also has a tone lowering effect. Hallucinatory drugs may do so slowly or quickly. I have seen LSD users drop into deeply psychotic Apathy for months or years. Even the so-called "harmless" marijuana lowers tone, especially after prolonged use. The individual sinks into a chronic lethargy, suffers from loss of memory and the inability to concentrate.

Three office girls were smoking marijuana on their lunch hour. When asked why they were doing this, one girl replied: "Two or three joints and we feel good. We don't care if it might be our last week on the job. We don't care if the work is stupid. We can stand it then. When we go back, it wears off after a while and we go down again; but we've had it. We've been up."

That's Apathy speaking, of course, which is why it's so hard to talk a person out of pot smoking. He's in an emotion that dictates an indifferent response to danger.

Marijuana is not yet widely recognized as harmful because few people possess the means for measuring the subtle, corroding effects of this drug on emotional behavior. Once you understand the tone scale, however, no one who's high on grass will ever convince you that he's high on the tone scale. Drugged euphoria is as phoney as a carnival Kewpie doll compared to the glow and warmth of a 4.0.

I personally discourage the use of any chemical crutches except where prescribed by a Physician for treatment or relief of a physical condition. The way to get the most pleasant sensations is to raise tone. It's the best "high" of all – and the side effects are wonderful.

BACKGROUND

The tone of a person's family, education and general background environment may strongly affect his outlook for the rest of his life. He may be suppressed down tone, he may copy tones he sees around him, or he may be taught low-scale ideas.

If a child is punished or overwhelmed every time he loses his temper or speaks his mind, he drops to 1.1 or below and he may stay there. A person goes downscale under the influence of an overbearing boss, parent, older sibling or teacher. If his communication is enforced ("Speak up!") or repressed ("Don't say those things"), if viewpoints are forced upon him ("You listen to what I'm telling you") or his ideas are dismissed ("You don't know what you're talking about"), if his natural friendship is inhibited ("Don't play with Alice") or enforced ("Go kiss your Auntie, now") – all these things will lower his tone.

Parents almost automatically teach their children social tone: be polite, nice, kind and generous. Such Boy Scout goodness is fine if the rest of the environment assures high tone. When overlaying a low-scale atmosphere, however, it breeds an ineffectual person who stays below 1.5. A doctor with twenty years' experience treating homosexuals says that as children most of his patients were criticized for rough and tumble behavior with other boys. Furthermore, he says that he has never known a homosexual who came from a family where open communication prevailed.

Mothers could raise the tone of children if they spent less time "taking care of" them and warning of dangers. Better to let their children eat what they want to eat, sleep when ready and even get their feet wet; the youngsters would be healthier and happier.

A person who operates on low-tone attitudes taught to him in his youth can sometimes improve by merely learning the tone scale. I once acted, briefly, as a business consultant for a man whose company was on the edge of financial collapse. It was soon evident that most of his difficulties stemmed from his own emotional attitude of Sympathy. Although his business was floundering, he still supported the many downscale non-producers on his staff because Father taught him to be kind to those less fortunate than himself. I started teaching him the scale to help him spot the assets and liabilities among his personnel. The moment he realized that his own Sympathy was harmful to his staff, his family and his business, he moved upscale. Most of his employees were sales people, so he immediately changed the salary structure to provide a low base pay but extremely generous commissions. This soon separated the producers from the flunkies, because the downscale people couldn't earn enough money to subsist, whereas the high-tone people drew more money than ever before. A natural selection took place: the losers left and he was able to replace them with more upscale people.

Low-scale educational systems and teachers are also part of the background which can destroy a person's confidence for life. Demanding that a student memorize endless amounts of unrelated data, forcing him to study a subject without getting him interested in it first, using low-tone and confusing textbooks, grading on a curve, teaching too much theory without practical experience are only a few of the detrimental practices we see in schools. A person goes downscale to the degree that he cannot solve his problems, so when education fails to provide the student with the ability and confidence he needs to solve the problems of living, we see the foundation for a low-tone life.

Speaking of background environment, a person tends to adopt a social tone from his neighborhood. If he comes from a rough slum where dog-eat-dog means survival, he may develop a tough 1.2 or 1.5 attitude which he wears layered over his natural tone for the rest of his life.

GENETIC LIMITATIONS

A person may acquire a low-tone attitude because he was born into a certain nationality or race, because he's too short, his eyes are crossed, his nose is too long or he considers himself physically unacceptable in some way. Any person drops down tone when he believes that his physical shortcomings will result in no affection or friendship from others. Around upscale people, who do not discriminate in this manner, he'll come up, provided he is able to let go of his own ideas on the subject.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

How a person spends his time strongly influences his emotional tone. If he is idle, without goal or direction, he will go downscale. A person who is "killing time" dies a little himself in the process.

Criminal actions or any activity that is detrimental to his fellow men keeps a person chronically down-tone. Although he may get a lift occasionally, there is no remedy that will bring him up on a permanent basis (unless he ceases such activities, of course). A person engaged in perverted activities stays down as long as he continues them. A prostitute will have to change her profession to come upscale. A businessman who is cheating his customers or taking advantage of his employees will not move up-tone, no matter how many millions he acquires.

Many activities are detrimental without being illegal. If a person is continually critical and unkind to others, he stays in the lower zones. If a man is going out with someone else's wife, there's no chance of raising his tone. If a person is leeching off of friends or taking advantage in some other way, he holds his position at the bottom of the pit.

An individual cannot hang on to a low-tone activity and expect to rise on the scale. By definition this is impossible. High-tone people do not engage in low-tone activities.

To take a person's attention off of some downscale temptation, direct him to other interests. This could be sports, a hobby, or learning a new skill. Anything that captures his interest and curiosity land is not detrimental to anyone) is a potential tone raiser. If he's sitting around in the glums, he'll perk up if he does any physical job – washes the car, cleans out a closet, plays a game of ball or goes to the mail room and licks stamps. On a temporary basis, doing something is all that matters. He improves even more by developing a skill in some area: learns to fix a car, bake a cake, use a typewriter or play a musical instrument. Best of all, the person will come upscale in any activity which embraces a long-term goal.

Anyone moves up when he achieves an enormous success. A happy marriage may raise him chronically. Acquiring a new job, getting promoted, selling that story, recording that song, inventing something – any achievement which is meaningful to the individual – can raise his tone.

If you assign a person command over more space, more objects or more people, he will go up the scale. The more a person can control, the more up-tone he becomes.

I once knew a man who nearly killed his wife by not allowing her to work outside the home. Her family was grown up, the husband frequently was out of town and she was miserable, tearful and complaining. Her husband mentioned this to me one day, wondering what he could for her. She sometimes expressed a wish to go back to work, he said, but he discouraged this because there was no need for her to work.

I suggested that perhaps this wasn't a kindness after all, possibly she needed more to manage. Why not encourage her to get a job and see what happened? I didn't hear how this worked out until several years later when I met the man again at a business meeting. He told me that his wife did find a job, was happily working and getting promotions. She was enthusiastic, more efficient in her housework and a more loving marriage companion as well. Here was a lady who obviously needed more of an area under her control.

It's also possible to give a person so much to deal with that he comes apart at the seams. If promoted to a position outside of his skills (or one he hasn't earned), he'll drop down-tone. If asked to meet impossible standards, a previously upscale person drops down. He may become so overwhelmed that he quits or resorts to lies and cheating in an attempt to cover for his failings.

The greatest stimulation comes from having just enough work that we must stretch a bit to keep getting things done.

Admiration is a great tone raiser. Everyone does something well. Find out what it is, praise him and help him to do it even better. The more you do for a person, the less he will do for himself.

Too much generosity begets Apathy. So always let – no, insist – that a person contribute something. Anything.

EXPERIENCES OF PAIN AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS

Although there are many immediate causes for low tone, all uncontrolled emotions (temporary and chronic) stem from one basic cause: past experiences of physical pain and unconsciousness. Because the content of these experiences is hidden from the person's view, he is unknowingly influenced by them. Even a bump on the head or a skinned knee produces a moment of shock (a great loss such as a death causes a similar emotional shock). Although he isn't passed out cold, a person's awareness is shut down momentarily, at which time all perceptions (sounds, smells, sights, etc.) are unconsciously recorded. These return later, under the stimulus of similar perceptions (or words), and cause low tone and various aberrations.

L. Ron Hubbard spent many years developing processes to help the individual permanently erase the effects of these painful incidents (read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health for a complete explanation of these experiences and how they influence us). His processes are now administered by pastoral counselors in Scientology churches and missions. Their first purpose is to lift the individual's tone permanently, by eliminating the source of downscale emotions.

TONE RAISING IN GENERAL

Anything that raises a person's tone is a valid action. Going to a movie he wants to see can lift a person up. In fact, using aesthetics is the most effective channel of communication for raising a person without tone matching or professional help. He will respond to beauty when nothing else reaches him. This is why visual aids help in teaching and why artistic advertisements sell products. A vase of flowers or a piece of jewelry can lift a woman who's in the dumps. A sleek, new car can change a man's whole outlook.

Primarily what you want to do in raising tone is rehabilitate the person's ability to communicate. You do this by making it safe for him to say anything he wants to say. If he's frightened, he should be able to mention this without someone chastising him for it. He must be permitted to shed his Grief. Most important, he must be in an environment where he is free to get Angry. Since we live in a society that condemns Anger and condones Sympathy, this is the most frequently suppressed emotion. When someone is moving up, Anger is a sign of healthy improvement, not that he is going mad. The best way to help an Angry person is to let him rage. When he stops, ask him if there's anything more he wants to tell you about it. He'll move upscale after he says it all.

An individual stays in any one of the restrained tones as long as he can't communicate the emotion above it.

The person who is thoroughly stuck in a low tone will seldom yield to a "Hello, how are you" level of conversation. This requires professional counseling (and perhaps considerable time).

SUMMARY

There are four valid methods for raising tone:

1. Changing the person's environment to one which is happier and which improves his chances to survive (this includes nutrition, medical care and recreation).
2. Education that more thoroughly acquaints him with the culture or gives him the skills of survival. A person can be taught more easily as he moves up.When a classroom situation is fun the student becomes more confident and relays communication more readily and correctly (in this case relaying refers to the application of material in the lectures and texts).
3. Regulating the numbers and kinds of objects (people or duties) under his control.
4. Scientology processing. All four methods raise a person's tone by giving him better tools for survival, improved conditions in which to survive and some valid reasons for surviving.

A person who's progressing doesn't necessarily jet up to the stars and sit there watching the rest of us inglorious souls flounder around in the muck. He loosens up first. He hits peaks and valleys; but he's moving. Best of all, he no longer takes the whole thing so seriously (even when he wilts a bit). Gradually his highs get higher, steadier and more frequent. That's progress, and it's worth any price.