Arthur Ronald Conway Hubbard

Scientology 1.0.0 – chapter 3

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“Space, the final frontier…” These are the immortal opening words of a very popular television series. Of course, they are referring to outer space, but as any fan will tell you, all the best action takes place in that other space, a subjective space created by the characters.

In this article, I’d like to talk a bit about the important, vital role space plays in Scientology 1.0.0.

Actually, it starts with Dianetics.

Dianetics means “through mind.” Dia, “through” or “passing through,” and noûs, from nóos, which means “mind.”

The subject of Dianetics first appeared on the scene in 1947 with the book Dianetics: The Original Thesis (originally titled Scientology: A New Science, which was then retitled Abnormal Dianetics when it was offered to the medical and psychiatric professions in early 1948).

Dianetic theory essentially suggests that a person may be experiencing difficulties in the present due to past trauma, such as severe loss, pain, or unconsciousness. These unpleasant buried memories can cause mis-emotions (emotions that don’t fit the situation) and possibly also psychosomatic ills (sickness and disease that don’t have an obvious outside cause or pathogen).

By helping a patient to gradually re-experience these past moments of trauma and by coaxing them to describe the incident or incidents (there are often more than one) as accurately as they can (according to their own reality) and in the correct sequence, you can relieve an individual of their influence, which, in turn, as you get them to contact and relate more of these events, raises an individual’s tone.

That is, it raises them on something known as the Tone Scale.

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The Tone Scale

In Dianetics, “tone” is used to talk about emotion.

The Tone Scale is like a music scale. It is a sequence of emotions that one can go through, from lower emotions to higher emotions. Despite appearing to skip over many emotions as they rise or fall, the sequence never changes. Psychology has yet to discover this fact, to the best of my knowledge.

This scale is the key to Dianetics and Scientology 1.0.0. If one understands this scale, then one can unlock many of the mysteries of life. Being such a powerful tool, and being that it is unavoidably in possession by many people who are below the tone of 2.0, it is also one of the several things in Scientology that can, and has been, easily weaponised at times, either accidentally or on purpose.

I alluded to it previously (Scientology 1.0.0 (1952)), referring to it as a scale going from level 1 to level 4. More accurately, the scale goes a little bit more like this, with each level having basically two parts:
 
Level 1 has two parts, going from death and apathy to grief and then fear; level 2 goes from fear to anger and then from anger to antagonism; level 3 goes from antagonism to boredom, then boredom to conservatism; and level 4 goes from conservatism to cheerfulness and cheerfulness to enthusiasm. It is numerically graded: 0 – 0.5 – 1.0 – 1.5 – 2.0 – 2.5 – 3.0 – 3.5 – 4.0. (This one I’m describing here is the Dianetic emotional scale. The Scientology scale goes higher and lower.)

It’s laid out like this (going from bottom to top):

0.0 is death, the organism is dead.

0.2 is apathy. This is the tone when life and a person have become too separated, which is loosely referred to as depression these days.

0.5 is grief. This is the sadness usually experienced as the result of losses.

1.0 is fear. This is what people call “flight mode.”

1.1 is covert hostility. This is the level of hostility or anger that is hidden, a sort of cloaking emotion so your enemies don’t see you coming. Today it’s referred to as “passive-aggressive,” but “passive-aggressive” is usually detectable; if you can see it then it’s not truly covert. This tone is invisible.

1.5 is anger. This is often called “fight mode.”

2.0 is antagonism. This is the first stage of hostility that you might call “threat mode.” It’s the growl before the bite, the puffing up preceding attack, which posturing, if done well, makes it unnecessary to go into messy fight mode.

2.5 is boredom. This is the emotion of non-interest, a more pleasant cousin of apathy. 2.5 is where you’re not invested, interested, or in any kind of conflict, such as one below 2.0, but you’re not invested in creative emotions either. It’s the level of “ho-hum” or “meh.”

3.0 is named conservatism. Not the political version; here it means “to limit change or cautiously manage novelty” (actually, that’s what the political version used to mean). As the universe is nothing but creation and change, this can be a problem, but it’s a useful emotion because it’s the first emotion on the scale that’s interested and invested in keeping order (unlike 1.5, which can appear interested in order but actually isn’t).

3.5 is cheerfulness. Creativity is becoming a factor. This is where life is getting interesting, where you are becoming invested, involved, and immersed. It’s a strong interest in life, and life is beginning to look sort of bright.

4.0 is enthusiasm. A feeling of eagerness, of creativity is the main quality here. This is where you are truly invested and interested in life. It is sort of an inventive, highly enjoyable, friendly version of attack; you’re throwing yourself into life now because life isn’t something separate from you at this level because life is you. Or, at least, it’s beginning to feel that way.

Note. There is an expanded tone scale, as I mentioned; it has greater breadth and more levels up and down, but this Dianetic version works perfectly well for my tale of space. Also, what’s different about this way of analysing emotions is, again, the specificity of the emotion and the sequence. To repeat, as far as I know, no other therapy or philosophy has previously recognised a scale of emotion in exactly this way or with this degree of detail. Because a person can move so quickly from one emotion to another, as mentioned above, you might not see the steps in between, but if you slow down the process, then all the steps are there and always in that sequence, whether or not you’re going up or down the scale.

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Vibrational frequencies

What could be an analogy for this scale? Some people have referred to emotions as sort of like frequencies, such as what you get through a radio. This is not a bad comparison (emotions actually are frequencies), but only sort of. The difference is this: whereas if you dial into 89.6 FM, you won’t hear or receive FM 104.6, or AM 600, wherever you put the dial, that’s the only frequency you’ll hear to the exclusion of others. On the tone scale, each tone enfolds the tones below it. If you’re at 1.0, you can pick up and receive 0.0 through 1.0 and a little bit more, up to about 1.5, but you’ll probably misidentify everything above anger. At 2.5, say, you’ll be aware of everything from 0.0 to 2.5, not that you’ll be much interested, but with a slight ability to communicate somewhat with 3.0. 4.0, on the other hand, is fully and completely in communication with the whole scale, while beginning to experience the feeling that the scale goes even higher (which it does).

So, although certain tones can “pick up” other tones (apathy can perceive grief, but nothing higher, grief can perceive fear, but nothing higher, and so on), it is only within 0.5 of each other that there can be any actual communication. There is a general blindness to other emotions that starts to become a problem below conservatism.

0.2 apathy can communicate (sort of) with 0.5 grief, but nothing higher.

0.5 can communicate (sort of) with 1.0 fear, but nothing higher. 1.0 cannot communicate with 0.2.

1.0 can communicate with 1.5 anger, but nothing higher. 1.5 cannot communicate with 0.5 or 0.2.

1.5 can communicate with 2.0 antagonism, but no tone higher. (The tone of anger is particularly baffled and angered by all tones above 2.0.) 2.0 can’t communicate with 1.0 or anything lower.

2.0 can communicate with 2.5 boredom, but no tone higher.

And so on.

This blindness factor, which it is extremely important to know, the limited ability of tones below 3.5 to perceive emotions, is one of the leading causes of miscommunication and all the furore and upset that that can entail.

Test this out, see if it’s workable.

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Space

Okay. So. What’s this got to do with space?

In Dianetic therapy, you helped guide a patient “back” into various past moments of upset (pain and unconsciousness), and this gradually allowed the patient, by using careful gradients, to unlock themselves from this “past” and eventually experience the present.

By the way, outside of therapy, time is not exactly a continuum; this falls into the realm of physics, as one might expect. But for the purposes of therapy, there is definitely a past, present, and future, because that’s the way it seems. The goal of the process is to create a present that is possibly completely devoid of upsets, pain, and unconsciousness and therefore, potentially, quite pleasant, maybe even enjoyable.

This, in a nutshell, is the whole point of Dianetics: to help an individual move up this scale, to live permanently at 4.0, which is called “Clear.”

The state of Clear is not a state of constant eagerness or exhilaration. Remember that the tone of 4.0 enfolds, and at 4.0, you can easily experience all the tones below it. The difference between a Clear and a non-Clear is that a non-Clear often experiences lower tones without an obvious cause, which is called “misemotion.” A Clear person is going to experience all the emotions on the scale depending on what they are doing and with whom or what they are communicating with.

This process, getting to the state of Clear, takes time, however, possibly a lot of time.

With WWIII looming, as it definitely was in the early 1950s, my father began thinking about what could be done to streamline the process by which a person could be helped to become unstuck from their past. From 3.0, conservatism, down to 0.2, emotions become increasingly “sticky.” As a result, depending on where the patient is on the scale at the beginning of therapy and the nature (tone) of the incident(s) being processed, progress may be slower. (Above 3.0 tones are fairly fluid, not sticky, so the therapy would go pretty smoothly at that level).

Clearing people, that is, getting a person to the state of being Clear, is the whole point of both Dianetics and Scientology. This is a boon to society because people living life from, or at, the top end of the tone scale won’t support groups or governments lower on the scale. If enough of the members of a group (electorate) are at 4.0, they won’t support or tolerate a state that is lower than 3.5 on the tone scale. An electorate below 3.0 starts to become less interested in good governance and more insistent on authoritative leadership. Good governance is for societies founded on the sovereignty of the individual; leadership is for societies founded on the idea of the “collective” (an euphemism for slavery).

Gosh! Imagine having a government that was at 3.5. My dad’s dream in 1950 was for mankind to get involved in building rockets to start exploring outer space, rather than building rockets to deliver atomic bombs to Russia. What we have now is a government somewhere between 1.1 and 1.5 on this scale, which is a pretty miserable state of affairs, and which is why so many people are upset about it; WWIII, or something else catastrophic, could still happen yet.

So. Space. I’m finally getting to the point. Here’s that scale again, only now it’s a scale of the perception of space:

0.0 is no space.

0.2 space appears to be entirely obstructed. It would feel claustrophobic, like being jammed, stuck in a dark coal bin.

0.5 space feels like a dark closet, filled with wet, musty clothing.

1.0 feels like there is no space behind you and too much space in front of you (“run for your life!”). Stressful!

1.1 is similar to 1.5. Only now, all space really is “all yours” (delusional: all ego). All these “others” (other people) in it are all opponents, or objects (barriers) to be eliminated as completely as possible. A 1.1 doesn’t feel “comfortable” about space until all that space looks like Arlington Cemetery.

1.5. Space feels like whatever limited space you “have” (ego) is constantly being pushed in and down on you. There are just too many barriers, too many obstacles, too many opponents. They must be hit back at and pushed outwards. If others have space, then there’s less for you. You “always have to have and/or control” space. Stressful!

2.0. You’ve got a little space, but here it would feel like all the things within “your” all too limited space might be, or are threatening to become, either obstacles or opponents (like when you’re driving through traffic, grumble, grumble).

(0.2 to 2.0 is the “zero-sum” band of the scale where any space others may have is experienced as less space for you. The following is the plus-sum band.)

2.5 space feels like it’s actually real, that you’ve got some, like the size of a somewhat cramped studio apartment. You’re okay with whatever barriers it has, though, and that’s good. It’s nice, sort of, but there isn’t anything particularly interesting in it or about it, maybe a picture of an apple on the wall or a slightly dusty aspidistra on the windowsill (faint noise of a sun-lazy fly).

3.0 feels like you have enough space. Maybe what you have is adequate, like the size of a two-storey home with a driveway and a yard. Maybe you feel proprietary about your whole street. You like to have frequent guests, just so long as they don’t stay too long. If you manage all this well, if you’re very careful and very cautious, it won’t shrink, change, or go away. It may even grow.

3.5: There appears to be a lot more space now, and you appear to be able to move around freely within it, even moving the barriers around somewhat. Most of those barriers and things in there seem to have a right to be and feel correct to you. It’s a truly interesting place, all this space. What you can see, feel, or even possibly create, is beginning to appear potentially limitless, and you like sharing it with other people.

4.0 is a window to nearly limitless space! This is when you fully get the experience of possibly, actually, creating space, conceivably to whatever size and dimension you desire. You could, maybe, be as small as a proton or as big as a universe. There’s lots of space; it could all be yours, and anyone and everyone else could have it too (no ego). Oh, and here’s the kicker. With space comes time. At 4.0, you can have time be as short as you like or as long as you like. Stuck on a 13-hour trans-Pacific flight next to a snorer? Zip! Dinner with good friends? Sloooow!

Then there’s immersion. Immersion in a meaningful task can lead to a profound sense of timelessness. Immersion begins to happen on the tone scale at 4.0.

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Optimum space

In Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide series, there’s a device called the Total Perspective Vortex (haha! this is great). The victim is placed inside the thing which then goes to work impinging upon them the vast limitlessness of creation and comparing you to it by showing you as a microscopic dot upon a microscopic dot that bears the legend, “you are here” (genius!) proving that you are so small, so infinitely inconsequential, that it renders you irretrievably insane… then you die. Many of us have similar devices within our own homes, or even in our pockets, called Mass Media/Groupthink Portals, or MMGTPs, otherwise known as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, et al.

That, right there, is a perfectly accurate description of what happens when you, as the viewpoint, have no space, either subjective (yours) or objective (its).

On the other hand, how do you feel when you’re up? Like when you’re eager or exhilarated. You might feel like Maria in the opening sequence of The Sound of Music. It’s a really wonderful opening sequence and expresses free and open spaces beautifully. Anyway, I bet you feel a lot like Maria. She’s having a great day.

What this is really all about is, optimum space and barriers: things can have as little space as you’d like (hugging, etc.) or as much as you like (road trip!).

This might be pretty obvious stuff, I know. People reading this will know all about this phenomenon, but these little articles are for those who are curious about Scientology and maybe haven’t thought about it this way.

As I mentioned before, this business about space is one of the several key points in Scientology 1.0.0, but for casual observers, it may not be obvious why this is so, and is thought to be so important.

For those who might like to play around more with this, here are a few processes described in the Scientology 1.0.0 basics library that I’ll describe.

If you don’t do this already, try this next time when you’re feeling a bit low: go to where the horizon is far (roof top, hill top, beach) and feel (or fill) all the distance between you and there; pretend like it actually belongs to you; make all that space your own. Maybe that’ll make you feel a bit better for awhile.

Another process is taking a walk and making a specific point of ignoring as much as you can all those upsetting thoughts and, instead, spotting and looking, actually really looking, at different objects at different distances from you. Do this until you feel calm and relaxed.

A much more advanced trick is to sit, or lie quietly, close your eyes and imagine (create) eight points around yourself, like the corners of a box with you in the centre, then slowly, carefully push those points out as far as you can get them until you are feeling better, or at least a bit more relaxed.

This last, similar to any form of meditation, can be quite difficult for some people, which is why there are custom-designed therapies and exercises in Scientology 1.0.0 to help people get so good at meditation (the ones that help one to live in the present with attention extroverted) that it becomes their whole day, regardless of what they’re doing, rather than 10 minutes here or an hour or so there. (Note: A big difference exists between all Scientology processes and traditional forms of meditation, and that’s the emphasis on space and space creation. Many forms of meditation have the practitioner looking in rather than out. Scientology processes work to get the person’s attention directed outward, which is where it optimally should be, rather than stuck inward.)

So. In Scientology 1.0.0, it’s considered that the creation and management of space is vital to well-being.

Finally, the Clear has the potential to choose to be in any tone/space at any time and to change tone/space at any time. This means you could be feeling cheerful and all smiley when others may be having a rough time, but that would be stupid. Because that would be out of communication (out of sync) with what’s happening, and there’s nothing aloof about a Clear.

By the way, there’s that other trick everyone knows where you take several deep breaths or concentrate on breathing (there are many of these breath exercises). Besides oxygenating the brain, these are often time-based exercises. They usually don’t direct your attention outward, where it should be to feel completely better, but it’s a start. You might do these before you try space-based ones if circumstances call for it.

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Spacation

And there it is, the connexion between space and well-being. Not just objective space, but the space you can create for yourself: subjective space. When you’re tired, or sick, or upset, there seems to be too little of it. When you’re feeling great, you might feel like you’re as big as the world.

Playing around with viewpoints of subjective space is called spacation in Scientology 1.0.0, and all sorts of exercises were designed around this activity, as I mentioned. That was way back in 1952, mind you, when this discussion was almost impossible to have in the West. In the years since then, though, many people have begun discussing this stuff, and it’s been slowly becoming part of the culture. Today, it may seem like an “everybody knows” sort of thing, but the truth is, if this business of space was really understood in our society, then there might be far, far less confusion.

Spacation was developed as just one step in a series of processes called Standard Operating Procedure, and was designed to produce the desired results more rapidly than Dianetic processing, although Dianetic practice continued, and continues, to be used to great effect. It turned out that SOP, though, wasn’t easy for everybody to use and so other procedures were developed that are.

The significance of space for the individual is a key factor in Scientology 1.0.0.

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To sum up

You are a viewpoint, viewing dimension points. You are looking at dimension points either as created by you or, objectively, as already existing. Observing objective space locates you in space and time, which is helpful. Observing subjective space and controlling it produces well-being.

There is a lot more to know about these scales of emotion and space, but I’d like to make one more point before wrapping up: people who “identify” too hard with an idea (ideology) or a thought can lead to conflict and misery. This is a kind of collapse, a loss of distance between you and something that is not you. “I am my mind” can and does lead to mayhem. Some people believe they are their thoughts. But you are not your thoughts. You have thoughts, create thoughts, and think thoughts; you are never your thoughts. The mind is a tool. In just the same way you are not your screwdriver or hammer, you are not your mind.

To remain calm but interested, the viewpoint has to have space under control. It is necessary to establish some distance to enable an objective perspective. When the viewpoint collapses into the dimension point, all reality becomes subjective. In a similar way, the viewpoint can identify with an idea or a thought.

Also, the so-called “ego” is an identity—the identity the viewpoint uses to negotiate reality from 3.5 and lower on the scale. This identity, or ego, is really not much of a problem until the viewpoint collapses and identifies with it. In other words, you should be able to move all the way up and down the tone scale like an artist whenever doing so suits you and fits the situation without losing your actual self, which is not an identity, in the process.

To remain healthy and enjoy life, you, as a viewpoint, should remain in control of the distances from and spaces between all the things, ideas, thoughts, opinions, and considerations that you create or come into contact with.

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