Tone Scale

From End The Cult

Scientology's Tone Scale is a list of attributes and behaviors used to evaluate a person's human worth, something like Christianity's Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues. The tone scale covers attributes like emotion, sexual behavior, intelligence, and physical well-being.

The scale runs from 40 (ideal) to -40 (worst). High-toned, or positive traits include enthusiasm and serenity. Low-toned traits include apathy, depression, grief, and homosexuality.

One of the primary purposes of Scientology practice is to raise one's habitual or chronic place on the Tone Scale. Scientologists believe that an ARC Break can cause a person to be pushed down the tone scale. An experienced Scientologist is supposed to be able to move up and down the Tone Scale at will, but generally has higher tone. The Tone Scale is prominent in a variety of outreach and front programs, such as theater groups and Narconon. It looks like a scientific classification of emotions, which gives it broad appeal.

One immediate problem with the Tone Scale is that it is not a scale at all. On an actual scale Tone 2.0 (antagonism) would be related to Tone 3.0 (conservatism) in the same way that conservatism relates to Tone 4.0 (enthusiasm). Further, there should be some way to combine the "tone" of antagonism (2.0) and enthusiasm (4.0) and get Tone 6.0, "aesthetic," which is baffling even before you realize that it combines two adjectives to get a noun.

The Tone Scale and Society

According to L Ron Hubbard, low-toned individuals are largely responsible for society's imperfections, and the best way to improve society would be to eliminate low-toned individuals. Low-toned individuals who cannot be reformed by Scientology's practices should be removed from society, "quietly and without sorrow".

Two Tones of Note

"Tone 1.1," or covert hostility, is a common insult in Scientology. If a Scientologist is not performing to expectations, or questioning Scientology doctrine, he or she is likely to be accused of "Tone 1.1" behavior. Interestingly, Hubbard classed homosexuality as covert hostility. This claim that all failure is a result of suppressed hostility can have tragic consequences if a Scientologist is ordered to disconnect from a hostile influence, like a skeptical family.

"Tone 40," or serenity of beingness, the highest tone, is also applied to a tone of voice. Supposedly speaking in a Tone 40 voice will so impress lesser humans (such as non-Scientologists) as to compel them to obey your commands. However, practical tests show that Anonymous is immune to Tone 40 voice commands.

The Tone Scale

TONE	KNOWN AS	WHICH MEANS
40.0	Serenity of beingness
30.0	Postulates
22.0	Games
20.0	Action
8.0	Exhilaration
6.0	Aesthetic
4.0	Enthusiasm	Love, happiness and general extroversion. A psychotherapist would enjoy this passage of childhood life according to Hubbard:One commonly finds this in children, who when growing older and receiving rejections and rebuffs, first from one or two people and then from many, will gradually experience the blunting of their affinity.
3.5	Cheerfulness
3.3	Strong interest
3.0	Conservatism
2.9	Mild interest
2.8	Contented
2.6	Disinterested
2.5	Boredom
2.4	Monotony
2.0	Antagonism
1.9	Hostility
1.8	Pain
1.5	Anger
1.4	Hate
1.3	Resentment
1.2	No sympathy
1.15	Unexpressed resentment
1.1	Covert hostility	L. Ron Hubbard said "sexual perverts" and homosexual hang out at this level.
1.02	Anxiety
1.0	Fear
0.98	Despair
0.96	Terror
0.94	Numb
0.9	Sympathy
0.8	Propitiation
0.5	Grief
0.375	Making amends
0.3	Undeserving
0.2	Self-abasement
0.1	Victim
0.07	Hopeless
0.05	Apathy
0.03	Useless
0.01	Dying
0.0	Body death	<-- L. Ron Hubbard is here
-0.01	Pity
-0.02	Shame
-0.07	Accountable
-1.0	Blame
-1.3	Regret
-1.5	Controlling bodies
-2.2	Protecting bodies
-3.0	Owning bodies
-3.5	Approval from bodies
-4.0	Needing bodies
-5.0	Worshipping bodies
-6.0	Sacrifice
-8.0	Hiding
-10.0	Being objects
-20.0	Being nothing
-30.0	Can't hide
-40.0	Total failure