The emotional Tone Scale, starting from the top, in the human range is:
|
4.0 Enthusiasm
3.0 Conservatism
2.5 Boredom
2.0 Antagonism
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You could draw a line under these and in these ranges a person is more responsible, cause, winning, perceptive, happy and analytical. Now, under this line a person is irresponsible, effect, losing and reactive. The way that scale looks is:
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1.8 Pain
1.5 Anger
1.1 Covert Hostility
1.0 Fear
.9 Sympathy
.5 Grief
.05 Apathy
0.0 Death |
Emotions above 2.0 on the Tone Scale tend to increase and go up tone toward greater survival; those emotions below 2.0 tend to go down tone towards succumbing. Those above 2.0 are creative and further Life; those below are destructive and tend toward Death. So, they are both exponential in nature, or compounding in nature. Anything below this line is going to end up towards Death; anything 2.0 or above the line is going to end up enthusiastic.
Parts of the Tone Scale are characterised by a desire to change and others by a desire to maintain the status quo:
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4.0 Stable
3.5 Unstable
3.0 Stable
2.2 Unstable
1.5 Stable
1.1 Unstable
.05 Stable |
The Tone Scale measures relative degrees of survival.
The Tone Scale measures relative degrees of affinity.
The Tone Scale measures relative degrees of reality.
The Tone Scale measures relative degrees of communication.
The Tone Scale measures relative degrees of responsibility.
Ones general, overall position on the Tone Scale is not always fixed; it varies. Falling in love can put a person at 4.0; a death of someone close can put a person into .05, Apathy.
Ones tone can vary per dynamic or subject, in other words, a person could be at boredom on sex and anger on politics. People do go all over the Tone Scale depending on the subject, and their tone and mood at the time. To communicate effectively with a person and bring him up tone, one can assume a tone that is a tone above his position on the scale. You will be cause over that person. To communicate effectively and bring a person down the Tone Scale, one should assume a tone that is a tone below theirs. You will become effect of that person.
People go down the Tone Scale only because their higher toned communication was unsuccessful. It didn't get through, so they try lower and lower tones until their communications are acknowledged and produce a result. People of different tone levels that communicate at length (husband-wife, brother-sister) generally tend to equalise their differences in tone. An enthusiastic husband and an angry wife, after 20 years of marriage will both assume a tone of boredom.
By associating with higher tone people than oneself, one can raise ones tone; by associating with people of a lower tone than ones, one will bring oneself down the Tone Scale.
People usually have one basic emotion that they most commonly express. This is one way of placing a person on the Tone Scale. Possibly a better way is to put an individual under high stress, then you will find out what their true Tone Scale position is.
In society, the level of social machinery is usually very high on the Tone Scale, 4.0 - 3.0, but the people are actually much lower, usually below 2.0. Individuals above 2.0 on the Tone Scale are very responsible and at the very least, quite rare.
Perhaps a greater problem then position, being low on the Tone Scale, and being low on the Tone Scale is certainly a problem, is the tendency to become fixed at one position on the Tone Scale and becoming inflexible in adaptation to other tone levels when it would be advantageous to change tone. Being stuck at Enthusiasm is just as ineffective as being stuck at Apathy. Through Scientology technology a person can gain the freedom to use whatever the situation calls for, and thus ones overall tone does improve.
By locating a person's position on the Tone Scale, one can predict very accurately how that person will act.
L. Ron Hubbard charted out the emotional tone scale. It is described extensively in his book "Science of Survival". It is also discussed at length in Ruth Minshull's book "How To Choose Your People".
The Emotional Tone Scale is basically a pattern of emotions that people tend to follow, moving up and down in sequence. It is not actually natural to a pure spirit who can, of course, simply feel any emotion without any pattern to it at all. But this scale is pretty deeply seated and we all seem to have been indoctrinated into it long ago in earlier universes prior to this one. So people mostly follow it and they seem to think more clearly and have a higher energy level when they are in the upper parts of the scale.
The following is a highly oversimplified version of the scale. If you are interested, then see the above references and additional writings by Hubbard and others for more information, expanded and more detailed versions of the scale, various practical applications, etc. This, however, should be sufficient for our purposes here.
CHEERFUL
CONSERVATIVE
BORED
ANTAGONISTIC
ANGRY
COVERTLY HOSTILE
AFRAID
GRIEF STRICKEN
APATHETIC
To familiarize yourself with the scale and improve your mastery over your emotions, go to a crowded or interesting place as in step 10.5 above and look around with each of these emotions starting from apathy and working up to cheerfulness. On each emotion, spot things while feeling that emotion until you feel good about it.
In other words, you begin by looking around apathetically and spotting things and feeling apathetic about them and think apathetically concerning them. Then look at them with grief, etc.
If necessary, repeat the entire scale from bottom to top a few times until you can control this comfortably.
USING THE EMOTIONAL TONE SCALE
A valuable technique for getting into communication with somebody is to match their emotional tone. Even more interesting, if you match it and then slowly move upward using each emotion in turn, you can pull them up with you and get somebody who was afraid or depressed (apathetic) into a more cheerful frame of mind.
You could, for example, match somebody in anger, not by being angry at them but by joining them in their anger at an external target. And then gradually shift it upwards into a feeling of antagonism, which would be a flippant and sarcastic attitude rather than feeling enraged, and then gradually move up to being bored with the whole thing, and so on.
But actually matching somebody's emotional state is not as easy as it sounds. People maintain a social veneer. They pretend to be angry when they are really afraid, or they pretend to be cheerful when they are really mad at everybody deep down.
So you talk a little bit at various emotional levels and see where you suddenly find them agreeing with you very profusely. For this you would keep it light but express an attitude that would fit in with each one, saying things like "how dangerous it is to walk the streets at night" (fear) or "how monotonous life is" (bored). And note that most people will agree without enthusiasm if you say something that they think that they are supposed to agree with or that fits their general philosophy even if it doesn't really hit their mood at the moment. But watch for the one where they suddenly get carried away with talking about it. That is where they are sitting right now.
And remember that people do change and do shift around on this scale. They might be unusually depressed or especially uplifted at the moment when you are talking to them. People do often have a chronic emotion that they tend to fall into as a solution to life's troubles, but it is not always manifest.
Now you should try this out in ordinary conversation, trying to spot people's emotional levels and even trying to shift it upwards if you can.
This can be fun and interesting and is a very practical activity for duplicating other's viewpoints, because their emotional attitude is a significant factor in how they look at things.
Put in some real practice on this. It will bring to bear the various things that we have been processing in the last few chapters and develop your communication skills considerably.
